When she awoke, there was nothing.

She blinked, but without eyes, she could not see. She breathed, but without lungs, there was nowhere for the air to go. She shouted until she was hoarse, but without a throat or mouth, there was no way for anypony to hear her.

But it didn't matter. There was nothing to see; no air to breathe; nobody and nothing to hear, see, or help her. Instead, it was blank: an empty, white void.

Who am I?

Where am I?

Twilight looked out over the desolate expanse with a feeling of dread. Her limbs felt cold and numb, her hooves far away and her tail completely separate from her body. She felt nothing—but wait, there was still something there: the slightest hint of an electric potential leaping across her coat. Closing eyes that weren't there, she cleared her thoughts and focused.

For seconds, minutes, an eternity, there was nothing: only a mocking touch that tickled her mind. Finally, though, her mind snagged on something.

Slowly, carefully, she pulled it back. It was a long and arduous process, but time seemed to have no real meaning here. With a satisfying squelch, Twilight blinked and looked around at her surroundings once again. Her left eye, now relinked to her mind, surveyed the landscape. She could just barely make out the naked outlines of objects, blurred into the white and faded until they were almost invisible. At the same time, she felt stronger—more whole, and more complete. Her thoughts, formerly sluggish and clouded, sped up as her synapses began to reform and come back together.

On she went, finding each part of her body, mind, and soul and connecting it to her sense of self. With each new discovery she felt invigorated and complete. Painstakingly, and with the utmost caution and thoroughness, Twilight Sparkle began to put herself back together. It would be some time before she finished.

When she finally did, however, fitting the last piece of her soul into place, the void shifted.

The world flickered into being around her, and there was light.

Twilight sputtered as she awoke, her chest heaving with dry, wracking coughs. She wheezed and gurgled, but no air entered into her lungs. What—my chest—.

Her heart began beating once more.

She doubled over in her bed and sucked in air greedily. It tasted so sweet, even with the tinges of Canterlot smoke, old parchment, and a slight hint of urban trash. It was real.

Canterlot...

A quick glance showed her that she was back in her Canterlot bed, the sun rising outside her window on what was undoubtedly the first day of the loops. She exhaled slowly as a wave of relief washed over her. I'm...I'm alive.

She might not be free, but she was still alive.

Her hooves trembled as she peered down at them, looking as though she'd never seen them before. She turned them over, admiring how they looked in the light. How had she never noticed how perfect they were: never realized how amazing it was to have a full, wonderful body? And to think, I came so close to losing it all...

She shivered. The spell.

How could it have happened? How could Celestia not have known? Maybe she did, a dark voice whispered in the back of her mind. Maybe she's the one who—

No. Twilight shook her head firmly. She wouldn't. Not her.

She bit her lip and stared out of the window, the sun continuing its journey into the sky. But why did it fail?

Do I even want to know?

She closed her eyes and sighed. Is it even worth it? To look for the scroll and try again? To risk it all?

Enough. Enough with all of the rhetorical questions. Her eyes narrowed, and she shoved the covers aside and leapt out of bed. She was done with questions. It was time to get some answers.

She looked around: dull, repetitive monotony. She'd kept her sanity this long, but who was to say that she'd keep it for another fifty loops? A hundred? A thousand? She shuddered. I will make that spell work. Even nonexistence would be better than the alternative.

With a gleam in her eye, she stalked down the hall toward the Royal Archives. Halfway down the hallway, though, she abruptly switched directions and took off down a new corridor. She couldn't do this alone. She would need Celestia behind her again if she wanted to make anything happen.

It was time to try again.

"You what?"

Celestia looked over her with a frown, her eyebrows furrowed. "I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about, Twilight."

Twilight groaned and pawed the ground angrily. "You've got to be kidding! You told me yourself that you kept that spell in a scroll a thousand years ago, after you used it against the Nightmare's magic! How can it be gone?"

"It is not gone," Celestia said. "It merely never existed." She raised an eyebrow in Twilight's direction. "It is true that I used that spell to restart the lunar cycle, but I never kept it. I destroyed that knowledge, and my mages agreed to abandon its study so that no monster might ever abuse the fabric of time and space again."

Twilight gritted her teeth. "That's impossible!"

"Is it?" Celestia surveyed her coolly. "I believed not five minutes ago that time couldn't loop, but here you are before me." She tilted her head and a look of concern crossed her features. "Are you sure that you aren't mistaken, Twilight?"

Mistaken...

Never existed...

Gone...

Twilight's eyes widened. No.

But there was no other explanation. She could remember the scroll and the spell it contained as clear as day; she had the mental scars to prove it. But what if whatever had happened as a result of using that spell had had further-reaching effects than just scattering her mind and bringing that loop to a halt? What if it had possessed such a destructive effect that the spell had looped in on itself, deleting itself from the timestream?

She gulped, a drop of sweat running down her face. Never forget what you're dealing with. She was messing around with Time, a primal force of the universe. Nothing that she did could be taken lightly when speaking of such a powerful, unfathomable force. Her knees shook, knocking together, and she slowly looked up into Celestia's eyes.

"Yes," she said quietly, her voice a hoarse whisper that was barely audible in the enormous throne room. "I must have been mistaken. Sorry."

"That's quite alright." Celestia looked down at her with a kindly, caring look, and it was so overwhelmingly saccharine and warm and ignorant that Twilight wanted to scream. "Now, do you have any ideas as to what might have caused these...loops to happen?"

"Oh, and you'll make sure that the order is up to my specifications?"

"Of course, Princess."

Twilight watched with narrowed eyes as the stallion bowed and scraped before the imposter, his saddlebags nearly touching the floor from their obvious weight. How she must love that, she thought with a scowl. All of the reverence and adoration that comes with being a princess, but with none of it earned or deserved. She felt a snarl building up in her throat and tore her eyes away. She refused to think of the imposter as "Cadance" in her mind, or even as "Chrysalis." It—not she, never she—was a changeling; a beast that had come into the castle to destroy everything precious or beautiful. It deserved no less than her contempt.

"And get it back here within the hour; I have a hooficure scheduled by two, and I can't have you getting back late." The imposter's eyes flickered over the stallion's prostate body. Twilight easily noticed the green tint to those pupils, now; how could she have been so blind? It had had them all fooled.

"Yes, your majesty."

As the stallion clambered to his feet, Twilight turned away, watching a procession of caterers walk down the other side of the hallway, heaping trays of food balanced on their backs. At any other time, the aroma would have been mouthwatering, but now, the taste would have felt like dust in her mouth. She shook her head and looked back to the imposter.

There it was, standing by the stained glass windows with a haughty look on its face. Twilight felt a flicker of anger in her chest, and growled softly. She was stuck here, in this endless week, with only the imposter and her minions for company. Time after time she'd seen her home be reduced to rubble beneath the hooves of the invaders, and there stood their leader smirking slightly, though ignorant of Twilight's gaze burning holes into its back.

It's sadistic. Twilight scowled and breathed out slowly. Making me live this week over and over again, without any hope of respite or victory. What could I have done to deserve this?

Her eyes widened, her throat suddenly dry. Sadistic...

She watched as the imposter glided across the hall toward one of the catering staff, ensnaring him with its honeyed tongue and stealing a pastry from one of the silver trays. As it lifted the treat to its mouth, Twilight could almost swear that the creature turned to face her, regarding her with a cool, collected gaze, and winked.

Impotent rage flared up in Twilight's stomach, her magical font stirring wildly beneath her horn. It's her fault!

It made too much sense. The changeling queen possessed the ability to enchant and control the minds of ponies, directing them as it wished. It wasn't too much of a leap to suppose that it could manipulate their minds, too, controlling the stimuli that its victim was exposed to. Perhaps it could even create and apply such stimuli directly.

Twilight felt a shiver run down her spine. Maybe Shining Armor was living out a fantasy of his own right now, ignorant of the reality that surrounded him. Instead, he would be barely cognizant, trapped in a realm of dreams and imagination controlled by the hooves of this disgusting puppetmaster.

Or at least, he would be, if any of this was real.

Twilight felt the rage bubble over, and her vision went red. With a snort of hot air from her nostrils, she narrowed her eyes and stomped across the hall to where the imposter stood, waiting.

The changeling stopped in place at the hoof on her shoulder, turning to face Twilight with a single eyebrow raised. "Hello," it said, its voice a perversion of Cadance's normal tones. "Can I help you?"

Twilight smirked and flashed a hint of teeth at the creature. "Oh, I'm sure you can."

The changeling looked unconcerned. "Well, with what? I don't have all day."

This is your doing.

This is your fault.

Your. Fault.

Twilight bared her teeth and wove a spell at the tip of her horn. "With this." A collective gasp went up from the surrounding ponies as the two vanished behind a wall of bright, purple light, their forms blurring into the air. When the light finally faded, they were gone.

"Princess!"

Princess Celestia looked up, startled, as the doors to her study burst open and a young stallion crashed through. He was sweating, his chest heaving beneath a striped vest. "Terrible—terrible news," he wheezed.

Her eyes flashed, and in an instant she was beside him, one wing held gently around his side. "What is it?"

"Y-your student." The messenger panted and held a hoof to his head as he gazed up into Celestia's eyes. "Y-you need to come and see. Send h-help."

Something ugly flickered in her chest. "What's happened to her?" Celestia whispered, her wings tensing.

"Please...come." The stallion shook his head and gave a terrible, wheezing cough. "The center of the city. You need to s-stop her. Before..." He collapsed under Celestia's grip, and his body thudded heavily onto the floor. She stared down at him, her heart beating in her chest like a drum. She brushed a hoof across his face, but he made no movement—he was out cold.

It was only then that she noticed that scratches and bruises that covered his body, with dirt smudges and dust all over his formerly white coat. Her mouth narrowed into a thin line and she looked out of the window, setting down the papers that she'd been leafing through just moments before.

Paperwork could wait. Now, her faithful student needed her.

The lieutenant looked up from his place on the street, his eyes brightening as they alighted on Celestia's lithe form. "Princess!" he said. "Thank goodness you're here."

Celestia's voice was sharp, cold, and left little room for discussion. "Where is Twilight?" The guard looked up at her, licking his lips, and she took a heavy step forward with something steely glittering in her eyes. "Where is she?" she repeated.

The lieutenant shook his head and looked up, pointing with one hoof. "See for yourself." Celestia's eyes followed the trajectory of his gesture, finally landing on one of the spiraling towers that clustered above Canterlot. She gaped.

At the foot of the tower stood—or formerly had stood—one of the city's many public parks. Once a bastion of floral beauty in a center of urban activity, it was now a mess of chaos and destruction. Trees had been uprooted, bushes scorched and torn to pieces. Some of the fountains scattered among the grass were fractured, with their sides chipped or even entirely ripped away and water dripping out of the cracks. Benches were thrown wildly all over, and the iron gate that led into the park was twisted grotesquely into a messy knot. Celestia swallowed and turned back to the lieutenant.

"What manner of monster did this?" she demanded. "I thought that Canterlot was protected from outside attack."

The lieutenant shook his head slowly and raised his spear, pointing it up to the sky. "No monster did this." He sighed and looked her straight in the eye. "She did." Celestia followed his gesture up to the top of the tower that stood in the center of the park, and froze.

A miniature hurricane whipped around the top of the tower, with leaves and rocks whirling around it in a chaotic dance. Part of the building's roof was damaged, the shingles chipped and charred. Above the rest glimmered a single, pulsating light; Celestia narrowed her eyes to get a better look and felt her heart drop as she noticed the color. Purple.

Her mouth went dry. There, floating in the middle of that cloud of purple, flickering magic, was her student.

Twilight's eyes were glazed over and colored white, her hooves spread out in the air like those of a sacrificial beast. Beside her was Princess Cadance, her slightly larger shape held within a shimmering lavender bubble. As Celestia continued to look up, her eyes met Twilight's, and her student bared her teeth in what could only be a snarl. Her eyes widened, completely unused to seeing such a bestial expression on Twilight's face.

"Twilight!" she called out, magically amplifying her voice. She held herself together with an air of regality and command that had been refined over millenia of practice. Deep down, though, she was greatly disturbed. What could have happened to cause this? How was this possible? "Come down from there."

Twilight looked down at them, the light from her eyes shining upon the ground. "Princess!" Her voice was high-pitched and she swallowed, licking her lips. "How good of you to come." She curled up, still hovering in midair, and began to stroke her mane gently. "I've got something to show you."

"That is enough." From what Celestia had managed to gather from her friends, Twilight had only ever acted like this once before: just before the outbreak of the Want-It-Need-It spell in Ponyville. Petty spellcasting and facial tics were a far cry from this outright vandalism and kidnapping, however. "You need to stop."

"Oh?" Twilight threw back her head and laughed quietly. "But I had a present for you," she sang out, petting the side of the bubble that had entrapped Cadance. "Don't you want to see it?"

Celestia's eyes hardened and a shadow passed over her face. The only other time she had seen a pony act like this had been when Luna—

No. Don't think about that. Never again.

Without a second's hesitation, she unfurled her wings and gave them a mighty flap, thrusting herself into the air and away from the ground below. The streets of Canterlot diminished into ant trails beneath her, and the wind blew across through Celestia's ears as she narrowed her eyes, rising higher into the sky. She finally reached the top of the building and spread her wings wide in a calculatedly intimidating pose. "Twilight," she said quietly. "I don't know what's come over you, but you need to stop this. You need to fix the park, get down from here, and let Cadance go." There wasn't a hint of a waver in her voice. "Now."

Twilight shrank back from her teacher's shadow, and for a second Celestia thought that she had gotten through. Not a moment later, however, Twilight shook her head and offered a jagged grin, the bubble still floating beside her. "I'm afraid not, Princess," she said as she spread her hooves wide in a half-hearted shrug. "You see, I'd do that normally, but given the fact that none of this is real, I don't see any reason to listen."

Celestia's eyelids fluttered: for her, that was the equivalent of a gasp. "None of this is real?"

"Yes." Twilight scowled and leaned against the bubble. Inside, Cadance stared at her with wide eyes and, although Celestia nearly missed it, a flicker of sheer rage. "It's a dream—a lie—and I'm going to escape."

Celestia blinked. "A dream? Twilight, I'm afraid I don't understand what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't. You never did." Twilight's glare was ugly and heavily-lidded, her gaze stabbing at her like knives. "Oh, you thought you understood, but in the end, you were as powerless and confused as the rest. It's up to me, now, and nopony else."

"This is ridiculous." Celestia frowned at her student and flapped her wings once, coming a few feet closer in the air. "I refuse to allow it."

"But you can't," Twilight said, the lopsided grin returning to her face. "Because as far as I'm concerned, you're just a part of her, sent here to trick and confuse me." She jabbed a hoof toward the bubble and Celestia's eyes widened.

"Cadance?" she asked. She shook her head. "She has done nothing to you, Twilight."

Twilight growled and swiped a hoof through the air as if she had claws. "Not Cadance, you idiotic illusion. The imposter! The one behind the mask!" She licked her lips, and Celestia noticed a flicker of something dark in Cadance's eyes. "The changeling."

She threw back her head and laughed, rubbing at one eye with her hoof. "But why am I telling you this? You already know."

"I'm afraid I do not," Celestia replied dryly. She glanced down below: a few dozen yards down, a team of pegasi guards had gathered, awaiting her command. She shook her head, wanting them to stand down. I can handle her. "Enlighten me."

Twilight's face reddened and she ground her teeth at her teacher's apparent serenity. "Fine, then," she spat. "I'll play your little game, Chrysalis." She turned and crossed her hooves over her chest.

Celestia waited patiently.

"She—and by she, I mean you—is responsible for trapping me in this mess." Twilight peered back over her shoulder and glared at Cadance, her eyes flashing dangerously in the light. "It wasn't enough to defeat me and my friends, was it, changeling?" She snarled. "You had to humiliate me by trapping me in a memory, repeated over and over again."

Celestia's eyes widened. "Twilight, you—"

"I'm. Not. Done." She bit out the words, chewing on each one like a stalk of hay. She shuddered lightly and ran a hoof through her mane. Her chest slowly rose and fell, and eventually, she looked up at Celestia with a dark gloom in her eyes.

"She's the one keeping this going," Twilight said quietly. "Without her, none of this would have happened. None of this would be happening." She took a deep breath and stared into the bubble unblinkingly. "So what do you do with a constant problem that won't go away?"

"I'm afraid I—"

"You eliminate it." Twilight's voice was barely above a whisper now, and she gazed at Cadance's prone form hungrily. "Don't worry, Celestia. I'll escape from her, and you'll finally be free. All of Canterlot will be." Her shoulders shook, and she slowly reached forward as a purple glow sprung up around her hoof, the white light returning to her eyes. "Everything will be okay.

"And I'll see my friends again."

Her hoof was stopped in place. Twilight looked up at Celestia with a snarl emerging on her face. "What are you doing?"

"I can't allow you to do this." Celestia's voice was cold and hard, but inside of her chest, her heart was beating. I will not lose somepony else. Never again. "You won't come peacefully?"

Twilight struggled under the grip of her wing, trying in vain to reach the bubble, and Cadance within. "Never."

"Then I am sorry." As Twilight turned to face her, a white glow springing up around her eyes, a frown came over Celestia's face and she let her magic flow into the horn. It became surrounded by a warm, golden glow and the air was filled with a hum of power, tinged with the smell of burning ozone. "You leave me no choice."

Twilight opened her mouth in a wordless scream, but before she could act, Celestia's horn flashed and she crumpled. The purple glow faded along with the bubble that had held Cadance, and Celestia managed to catch them both with a telekinetic grip before the two hit the roof.

"Princess!" She heard the flapping of many wings, and before she knew it, she was surrounded by the squadron of guardsponies. "Are you okay?"

She turned and nodded. "I'm fine. Please, take Twilight and return her to her rooms." She floated her student's prone form over to one of the guards who caught her and saluted. "Keep a sharp eye on her, and ensure that at least two unicorns are nearby to seal her magic."

The guard nodded and began to fly away, flanked by the rest of his squad. Soon, the only one remaining was the lieutenant, his eyes hard and his mouth a thin line.

"What happened, Princess?" he asked in a gruff voice, hovering beside her. Celestia shook her head.

With a sigh, she looked out at Twilight's disappearing form and then up at the sky, the sun flickering on the edge of her vision. "I wish I knew, lieutenant." Her voice lowered to a whisper, and she turned her head. "I wish I knew."

The week proceeded uneventfully, but when the changelings came, Twilight was trapped in her room, unable to defend herself. She laughed as they tore down the city, and cried herself to sleep beneath the ashes of the Palace.

Twilight wheezed softly and leaned forward over the table. Papers, crumpled or drowned in ink, were scattered along its surface. She swallowed and dragged a hoof down the side of her face, absentmindedly twirling her mane around it. Her eyes twitched: they were red and bloodshot.

She didn't have time to sleep. She would have all the time that she would need, but not now. A shiver crept down her spine, and she shook her head.

An illusion. She gave a short bark of laughter and immediately winced, holding her head in her hands. Perhaps. But which was more likely: that her mind was held prisoner by a changeling using magic that she didn't even know existed, or that she  was caught in a time spell gone wrong? She honestly didn't know.

But would she really be that strong, or subtle? Twilight sighed and slumped down in her chair. Chrysalis did seem the type to revel in her enemies' misery, rather than gloating from afar. When she'd done battle with Celestia, too, there had been no telepathic fight—none that she could see, at least—no war of mind and spirit. It had been a simple contest of sheer power, and looking around the library room that she'd holed up in, she found it doubtful that anything this complex could be the creation of a single mind.

So it looked like she'd be sticking with the time loops hypothesis, then. She took a moment to move her disheveled mane from her field of vision and rubbed at the dark circles under her eyes. It might not be a perfect explanation—she had no idea why this was happening, or how—but it was the best that she'd come up with. She bit her lip and settled into a more comfortable position.

The world was twisted, then; bound into a bizarre mockery of the normal laws of physics. Even a unicorn's magic couldn't do this: the most powerful application of chronomancy she'd ever seen had been Starswirl's spell, and that itself was magnitudes above the "bullet-time" magic that some of the Academy's more athletic students had taken a liking to. These loops weren't the creation of some esoteric unicorn mage, then, unless she had wildly miscalculated the energy levels required. Twilight shook her head and ran a hoof through her mane, unconsciously chewing on the end of a quill. The ultimate question was rather simple, really: How can I restore a universe that's been twisted with a perversion of physics and chaos? How can I change things from being the way they're not supposed to be?

Twilight went silent.

Chaos...

Not the way they're supposed to be...

So, in other words…disharmony.

A wild, uncontrollable grin broke out on her face and she smashed a hoof onto the table, spilling the small pot of ink she'd left there. It was seeming more and more like the Elements were becoming a crutch for her every problem, but Twilight didn't care. They were tools, powerful ones at that, and she would use them as she see fit. Their power was right in the name: Elements of Harmony. If restoring time to its normal flow wasn't an application of Harmony, she didn't know what was.

Her smile abruptly vanished, and she scowled. How was she to use the Elements, then, in a manner so alien from their original purpose? How was she to use them alone, and without the magic of friendship to activate them? Her hoof trembled on the surface of the table as her victory began to crumble before her eyes.

Twilight felt a light weight on her shoulder, and realized that it was a bundle of papers that had fallen from an upper shelf. Growling, she reached up to brush it off, and froze.

There on the front page was the unmistakeable look of a student's untidy scrawl, scribbling across the cream-colored parchment in smudged ink. What interested her, however, was the picture in the center of the paper: a strange symbol, highlighted in a bright green and surrounded by a circle. Her eyes widened as she recognized the picture, and the paper crackled beneath her hoof. A lightbulb went off in her head, and slowly but surely, the grin re-emerged on her face.

This is it.

This is how I'll do it.

With a pop, Twilight vanished from the room, leaving behind a flickering candle and a small cloud of papers that slowly fluttered to the ground. If she wanted to make this happen, she had work to do.

Gale Runner hummed quietly to himself as his hoofsteps echoed across the marble floor of the Hall of Harmony. His golden armor glinted beneath the pale moonlight that drifted through the stained-glass windows above. He paused for a moment to look up at one of the murals. It showed Discord, frozen in agony, and his defeat by the Bearers of Harmony. He shuddered as he looked up into the yellow eyes of the so-called Lord of Chaos. If there was one thing that Gale never wanted to see, it was that monster returned to life once more. Thank goodness for the Bearers.

Hearing hoofsteps behind him, he whirled with his spear at the ready, held between his teeth. "Who goes there?" he demanded, speaking around the wooden handle of the weapon as his white wings flared out behind him. "The Hall is closed." Behind him, the great crystal doors that held the Elements in their gem-encrusted chest sparkled faintly, their surface shimmering with a golden glow.

The hoofsteps became louder, and from the shadows stepped a unicorn, her coat a deep purple and her mane a dark blue. Gale blinked, taking a moment to recognize the intruder. "Miss Sparkle!" he said. "What brings you to the Hall?"

Twilight Sparkle cocked her head, an odd little smile on her face. "I only wanted to visit the Elements, Sir Guard," she said in a small voice. "Is that allowed?"

He nodded quickly. "Well, by usual standards, I'm not supposed to let anypony in, but I suppose I can make an exception for you." Gale paused before throwing back his head with a sharp bark of laughter. "Oh, Celestia, you're my boss’s sister, not to mention the owner of one of the Elements themselves. Come and let me open the door for you." He turned and trotted toward the door, fiddling with a ring of keys that rested on a string around his neck. Twilight followed behind him, her own steps light on the hard floor.

"Here we go," Gale mumbled, trying to fit the largest key into the lock on the door. "The Princess originally wanted her horn to be the only access key, but she changed her mind and decided that it'd be best if they were accessible by trusted guards as well." He flushed lightly and gave Twilight a wide grin. "Of course, the Elements are enchanted to return to their place if worn by anypony besides their Bearers, so..."

Twilight's eyebrows shot up in her forehead. "Oh, really?" She frowned and gave him and odd look. "I wonder why she didn't do that before."

"Beats me." Gale grit his teeth and turned his head, the key held delicately in his mouth. The lock clicked, and the doors hissed open. "Ah, there we go." The chest containing the Elements glimmered in the cavity behind the doors, and he took a moment to admire the way it shone in the dim moonlight.

As such, he failed to notice the faint purple glow of magic that sprung up around Twilight's horn. With a muffled grunt and a flash of light, Gale fell to the ground, unconscious. Shaking her head slightly, Twilight stepped over his prone form and peered over the chest.

"I'm sorry, Sir Guard," she said quietly, a frown on her face. The chest clicked open, and the light of the Elements burst forth, the gemstone atop the tiara of Magic shimmering as its Bearer's presence drew nearer. "But I needed these to escape, and I can't let you get in my way. There'd be too many..."

She lifted the tiara up to her face, inspecting it for any flaws and imperfections, and then set it on her head with a soft sigh.

"...Awkward questions."

With a flash of light and a poof of smoke, she was gone, and the Elements along with her.

The ground shook, and Rarity's eyes snapped open.

Having been interrupted from a particularly fine dream involving a handsome stallion, a crown, and a tea party, it took her a few seconds to register that the floor was indeed moving beneath her bed. She shook her head rapidly to clear her thoughts and threw aside the covers, letting herself drop over the side. She swallowed as her vision blurred, paintings moving on their nails and debris falling from the ceiling.

"Rarity!"

She whirled. "Rainbow Dash!"

"C'mon!" Dash crashed through the doorway and into Rarity, swooping her off of the ground and into the air.

"This is no way to treat a lady—" Rarity stopped midrant as the pair swooped out of the window and into the night air. She looked down toward the shrinking city of Canterlot that lay below them, and her pupils shrunk to tiny pinpricks. "Agh! Get us down this instant!"

"It's too dangerous!" Dash whirled in midair with Rarity still in her grasp as she swooped down over the city like a giant bird of prey. "We need to find somewhere else to land!" She bit her tongue and Rarity felt her heart beating madly beneath her nightgown as they cut through the chill night air, the moonlight lightly caressing her cheek.

What in Equestria is going on?

"There!" Dash froze in midair, looking down at one particular roof. Rarity felt her heart stop.

She barely had time to scream before Dash tucked her wings in and dove. They barreled through the atmosphere, with Rarity's lungs feeling like they were about to burst from sheer terror. They cut through clouds, tiny crystals of ice building up on her eyelashes. She squeezed her eyes shut, preparing for the end.

Finally, Rarity felt the wind stop, and let out a most unladylike squeal as she was dropped to the ground in an undignified manner. "Rainbow Dash!" she demanded, and took a moment to push back her mane and dust off her nightgown. "What is the meaning of this?" A fire burned in her eyes; oh, how she wished to get back to sleep, out here in the chill, dark night...

"Look."

Rarity paused and lowered her hoof before she erupted into a fiery tirade. She turned and her eyes widened, her jaw slowly falling open. "Ah."

Canterlot Castle was shaking, the building's foundations creaking loudly and the towers waving madly in the air. Frozen in place, Rarity watched in awe and terror as one spiraling tower cracked down the side and split, tumbling down the walls of the castle until it finally landed with a huge crash.

"Now do you see why I had to get you out?" Rainbow Dash asked, slowly walking up to  her side. She put a hoof on Rarity's shoulder and sighed, a solemn look in her eyes. "You were the last one—the Princess called for the evacuation as soon as she felt the castle start to move."

Rarity nodded, but Dash's words barely echoed in her ears. She felt her mouth go dry as she raised a hoof, pointing to a bright, flickering light perched atop the highest spire of the Palace. "Rainbow Dash."

"Yeah?" Dash's ears twitched, and she turned to look over Rarity's shoulder in the direction that she was pointed.

"What is that?" Rarity swallowed, her eyes seemingly drawn toward the sphere of light. Her chest felt warm, her heart thudding in her chest, but somehow the sight of that light seemed...wrong, for some reason. Twisted, even.

"I don't know." Dash shook her head, her own pupils dilated as she stared into the light. She shook her head to break the spell and coughed under her breath. "It's been there since the start of the quakes, though. Every time I try to get near it, I get pushed away by these huge gusts of wind, so I have no idea what it actually is."

Rarity's hooves trembled as she reached for her nightgown's pocket, and pulled out a small purse that she opened with a click.

Dash quirked an eyebrow. "What're you doing with that? Do you actually sleep with that thing?"

"A lady," Rarity said, snapping it shut as she levitated a small object from the purse, "Is never without her essentials." The object settled before her eyes and unfolded itself, enclosed in a shimmering blue aura. "Aside from makeup, a hoof-clipper, and various other items," she murmured, squinting to get a better look. "A pair of opera glasses is always most necessary."

"It's a telescope." Dash shook her head. "How's that going to help?"

Rarity swallowed as she directed the glasses toward the Palace, waiting for the image to refocus. She took a sharp breath.

"What?"

"Rainbow Dash," she began, her hoof trembling once more. "Did you retrieve Twilight from her chambers?"

Dash shrugged, the corners of her mouth tugging down in a confused frown. "Nope. I was thinking maybe Fluttershy, or one of the guards had gotten her. I just got you, and I guess Applejack and Pinkie." She put a hoof to her chin. "Why do you ask?"

Rarity's mouth became a thin line, and she pushed the glasses toward Dash's eyes. "See for yourself."

Dash looked through the glasses and froze, her mane standing on end. "You can't be serious," she muttered.

Rarity nodded slowly. "I'm afraid I am."

"But how—?"

"It doesn't matter." She exhaled slowly, and felt her heart sink in her chest. Hovering over the highest spire of Canterlot Castle, Twilight Sparkle gazed out over the city enclosed in a shimmering purple bubble, the crown of Magic perched upon her head and the other Elements surrounding her in the shape of a five-pointed star. Her eyes glowed a milky white.

"But how is it possible?" Dash gaped, seemingly unable to  think of anything to say. "What is she trying to do?"

Rarity's voice was small, weak, and drained. "I don't know," she said quietly, gazing into the distance. "I don't know."

The winds whipped into a frenzy by Twilight's hooves, razorlike blades of air twirling in a lethal dance. Each of the Elements glimmered in an otherworldly gold, and the air around them seemed to bend, as though the objects themselves were not quite real. Inside of the bubble created by her ritual, Twilight felt her skin burning, air molecules bonding and clashing, separating, and then reversing the process altogether. Time was now trapped at an atomic scale, and the effects of her spell reverberated throughout the foundations of the castle as parts of the stone crumbled and decayed, while other sections were simply un-built. They weren't gone; they simple never had been.

She grit her teeth, lifted her hooves to the skies, and pushed.

The bubble of twisted spacetime flickered a blinding white, and began to expand. It soon picked up speed, rushing over the roof of the Palace and quickly passing over several buildings of Upper Canterlot. It pushed forward, enveloping the refuges from the castle. There were several screams, but it had no physical effect. Instead, the Elements merely glowed brighter, their centers throbbing with power and energy as the bubble grew. It was not only growing in volume; it was moving in time as well. Twilight grunted and felt a harsh growl build up in her throat as the boundaries of her mind and magical font, linked to the spell as they were, encountered resistance upon the edges of the bubble. Its surface was rough, boiling with the directed magic of Harmony itself, and clashing against the jagged edges of Time.

Twilight felt her breath catch in her throat as the bubble hit a snag in its expansion, running against an obstacle in its path. This has to be it! Slowly, carefully, she probed outward with the spell to feel for the extent of the snag. With the strangest sensation, she soon found herself looking at her own spell, as though her search had led her in a circle right back to her point of origin.

Gotcha.

With a smirk on her face. Twilight gathered in all of the energy of both her font and of the Elements. She let it fill her, burning and humming with incredible power and electricity. Never before had she used her own magic with this sheer volume. Never before had she brought the power of the Elements inside of herself. Doing so now, she realized one thing: magic sang.

With those twin harmonies directing her thoughts, she molded the spell into a more condensed form, strengthening it and giving it extra support. The power surged forward and crackled from her horn into every dimension. Her eyes glowed with all of the colors of the rainbow, the blinding white splitting into uncountable shades and hues, as if seen through a prism.

Gathering her strength and will, she took a deep breath. The bubble shrank, imperceptibly, and rippled ever so slightly.

And then she flexed.

The bubble burst outward with the force of Harmony itself. It crashed against the boundaries of the loop, refusing to be misdirected or cast aside as before. The twin lights of Honesty and Loyalty burst into greater color, their lights flashing deep, imperceptible hues of orange and red, and Twilight felt the spell push even harder.

It strained, and for an instant, she felt every bone, muscle, and organ in her body explode with fatigue. What was she doing? This was madness—a pony's body couldn't hold this amount of energy. No! I have to keep going. She threw back her head and let out a primal roar; her mane flew back in the hurricane of wind that had sprung up around her. Lightning crackled and hissed, ozone burning in the air.

Finally, she felt something give. Something cracked; something broke. Her heart skipped a beat, and, for an instant, she dared to hope. Could it be...?

The bubble pushed and grew, expanding further to break through the loop in spacetime. She felt it rippling under her grip, and held her breath. Something beyond the bubble gave, splintering beneath her touch—

And then the sky broke.

She screamed, the bubble bursting with a pop, and all of the gathered energy of the Elements turning back on her. It rushed into her unprotected font and burned her; without a proper medium to channel it, the immense power charred her mind, spirit, and body. The universe screamed in return, the sky fracturing as she fell through the air. The pieces shattered into infinitesimally small shards, each one glimmering with the shades of a broken reality. She kept screaming; her blood was filled with fire, and ichor, and life, and death—

When she hit the ground, the earth swallowed her up and once more, Twilight Sparkle died.

She woke in fetal position, clinging to her pillow and thrashing beneath the sheets. Tears of rage, pain, and despair clouded her vision. She wanted to escape; she wanted to stop; why wouldn’t it stop—

She curled up, and cried herself to sleep.