Slowly, Twilight's eyes crept open in the darkness. Groaning out in slight discomfort, her distorted voice lightly echoed around the walls of the chamber, causing her to wince at the noise, her head hurting something fierce.

"Ooooh, anypony get the number of that train?" She whispered to herself as she tried to raise up, only to find that she was firmly attached to the ground.

"Wha?" Groggily looking down, her eyes widened in surprise as her vision focused and she found her fore-hooves chained to the floor, she could feel a large metal band wrapped around her barrel, attached to more chains that linked to hooks scattered on the floor and even more restraints on her back hooves. She didn't need to try and feel for a magic suppression ring as it's weight more than made itself known. Blinking slowly, her surprise turned to understanding as her eyes took on an apathetic and cold glare.

"So... This is what it's come to..." The sound of iron groaning and the creaking of old hinges had her ears flicker towards the only door to the chamber, soft torchlight flooding the room from the narrow hall outside.

"I'm so, so sorry..." Straining to look up, Twilight's eyes met with Celestia's. The great alicorn stood just outside a metal door connected to a thick stone wall. She looked worse for wear as her fur was still matted and sticking out in places. Bandages trailed her body, taking the place of her normally pristine golden regalia, varying in size with the most notable injury being her left-wing, which was held tightly to her side in a sling. Her eyes glinted with tears as her lips quivered with repressed sorrow. Twilight blinked slowly at her, before calmly laying her head back down on her now crossed fore-hooves.

Silence reigned between the two mares, Celestia almost taking a step forward as though to say something, but biting her lower lip and halting herself. Twilight merely stared at the floor in front of her as Celestia pleaded for the mare to say something, anything. A guard stepped up beside Celestia, his horn lit with a blue aura as he held a key aloft.

"Princess, they are causing a scene... again." Celestia sighed and nodded her head. Casting one last look to her former protege, she felt her heart drop to her hooves as she watched her stare lifelessly into the cold floor. Turning, she began to walk away, the guard stepping forward to close the heavy door.

"Dimmed Star." Celestia's ears perked at the sound of her voice, quickly turning back. Pushing the guard away from the door, she entered the room halfway.

"Princess, don't get to close!" The guard admonished, but she ignored him as she looked to the mare before her, neither meeting the other's gaze.

"What?" Celestia's voice was almost a whisper as she could feel her heart throbbing in her chest. With a slow and careful movement, the chained mare angled her head to look the princess in the eyes once more.

"My name... is Dimmed Star." With that, she laid her head back down and closed her eyes, not giving the shocked princess a chance to respond. Celestia stood in the doorway, her frame trembling as the tears she fought so hard to contain, slipped free and trailed down her face. Blood leaked from the corner of her mouth as she bit hard on her lip. With a simple nod, she backed out of the dungeon once more, turning and sprinting down the hall. A faded, but powerful memory thrusting itself to the forefront of her mind.

'Luna? Luna? No, I am NIGHTMARE MOON!' The haunting laughter of her corrupted sister, and now the echoing voice of her demonic student, chased her back to the upper levels of the castle.

The guard watched as the princess ran down the torch-lit hallway with sympathy. Turning back to the doorway, he stepped forward and the iron door once more became engulfed in his blue aura. As he began to slide it to a grinding close, he glanced into the room and felt a shiver run down his spine as Dimmed Star watched him with one black eye, the three teal dots that acted as her iris glowing brightly in the darkness. With a shudder, he slammed the door shut and quickly locked it.

"M-monster..." He whispered as he gulped, breathing heavily as he fought to bring himself back under control. After a few deep breaths, he looked back to the heavy iron door and his horn lit up once more, an arcane circle appearing on the frame and lines of arcane script beginning to spread out across it.

'A little extra protection won't hurt.' He thought as he cast a few extra warding spells on the walls surrounding the door for good measure.

In the dark of the chamber, Dimmed Star closed her eyes and breathed quietly, delving into her own memory. She searched for anything that could tell her how she ended up in the dungeons of Canterlot, but her memory was choppy at best after her confrontation with Celestia. She remembered crying, then screams, the sounds of fighting and a coppery, sweet taste in her mouth that caused her stomach to rumble a bit. Sighing, she looked down at her hooves, stained black by the dried pool of liquid that kept itself firmly attached. She turned it over as best she could with the chain brace holding it so close to the ground and scoffed.

'I wonder...' With another glance at the door, she turned to the chain and her teal eyes glowed a bit brighter, the small sound of liquid dripping to the ground met her ears.

Her face split into a sharp-toothed grin.

"LET US OUT!" Rainbow Dash rushed the door once more, slamming bodily into it as her friends and their sisters all watched with anxiety and frustration. Rainbow bounced back to the floor, a yelp of pain escaping her lips as she grasped at her bandaged side. Applejack snorted at her as she rolled her eyes.

"Now see, tha' right ther' is jus' gonna make it worse. Y'all need to calm it down, Dash." Rainbow grimaced and turned on her friend as she stood up, her feathers ruffling.

"How can you say that!? How can you all be so calm about all of this!? The Princess just locked up one of our friends!" Applejack stood up shakily, stepping up to the angry mare and glaring hard into her eyes.

"She had no choice Dash! She KILLED over a dozen guards, dang near killed her own brother, left dozens more injured an' tried to kill the Princess herself! Heck, ah'd be surprised if even half o' the injured guards make it through the night!" Rainbow flinched back, her ears folding as she wilted, only to push forward and stand her ground with her snout almost touching the irate farmer.

"She only did those things because she got possessed by something! What about Princess Luna!? When she was Nightmare Moon, she tried to kill us! She even managed to imprison the Princess! And there's no telling what she did back before she was trapped in the Moon! Yet she still walks free!" Applejack pushed forward, both mare's headbutting each other and pushing, neither one willing to give in.

"WILL YOU TWO KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!" The two mares found themselves suddenly separated and pushed to the opposite sides of the room by a blue aura. Rarity stepping in between them, her normally perfect mane a frazzled mess and her mascara staining her cheeks. Turning to Rainbow Dash, she gave the mare a harsh glare.

"You are scaring the foals!" She pointed a hoof to the side where the two mares saw Fluttershy and Pinkie, both in varying forms of distress, holding the fillies as the three of them looked between the two, shivering heavily and crying. Rainbow Dash and Applejack both winced and bowed their heads in shame. Rarity closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before looking to Rainbow once more.

"What happened with Princess Luna is a bit different here Rainbow Dash." The prismatic mare looked up and before she could say anything, Rarity raised her hoof and silenced her.

"I understand where you are coming from, but what happened with her was over a thousand years ago and she served her sentence on the Moon if you recall. Yes, she was still Nightmare Moon upon her return, but we managed to turn her back to Princess Luna before the day was over. This is different because Twilight was not sealed away and she did not return to her normal self. She stayed the way she was, or rather, the form she was in before she changed into that... uh, more dreadful one." Rarity's ears were now folded back as she looked to her hooves. The mares were all silent as they contemplated her words, but the sound of a hiccup caught their attention and they looked for the source, only to feel their hearts jump to their throats.

Spike sat in the furthest corner of the room from the mares, his head bowed and his tail curled around to his front where they could not see. The poor drake had not taken the news of what had happened to Twilight very well. At first, they had tried not to tell him, dodging his questions about where she was and what happened in the ballroom. It hadn't been too hard, that was until a guard came into the room and began to question them about the events in the ballroom. Even though they spoke to the guard in hushed whispers as far from the drake as they could, none of them took into account that as a dragon, his hearing was impeccable. His outburst at hearing that Twilight was in the dungeons was loud enough to make everypony in the room flinch, even worse was when he began to hyperventilate, causing him to exhale bouts of green flame. The carpet had to be put out several times.

Upon sitting him down and finally explaining to him in the easiest way possible that Twilight had, as Rainbow bluntly put it, ' pulled a Nightmare Moon' he passed out. When he awoke, he secluded himself in the corner and hadn't moved or made a sound until now. Despite their worry, the mares decided it was likely best to leave him to his thoughts, for now, clearly this was not as grand an idea as they had thought. Rarity turned away from the two formerly arguing mares and walked cautiously up behind the drake.

"Spiky?" She whispered as she approached him, she could hear his soft voice mumbling quietly and she strained to hear what he was saying.

" It's all my fault, I never should have left her. I'm a bad friend, I'm a bad friend, I'm a bad friend...' His little mantra continued and Rarity rose a hoof to her mouth, her eyes wide with tears.

"Oh Spiky..." Embracing him from behind, she pulled him into her as the others looked on. Pinkie's mane was completely deflated as she held tightly to a whimpering Sweetie Belle. Fluttershy tried to keep her face dry as she held onto both a disheveled Scootaloo and an anxious Applebloom who watched the scene from within the mare's wings. Rainbow Dash clenched her eyes and turned her head away while Applejack brought her hat down to cover the top of her face. It was deathly quiet within the room as Spike's mantra continued, fresh tears falling from Rarity's face and onto his stiffened back.

"It's not your fault Spiky... we all share the blame, but never you. She loves you, she would never blame you..." Rarity whispered as she kissed the top of his head. Glancing to the window, she saw that the sun was low on the horizon, the sky turning to a burning orange. Looking back down, she found that Spike now looked up at her, his eyes red and swollen and his lips still as he finally stopped his mantra. She smiled softly at him and lit up her horn, placing her hoof to his forehead as it was enveloped in the blue aura.

"It's been a long day, why not go on to sleep dear? I promise a better one will await you on the morrow." Spike looked to her as his eyes slowly drifted closed, just before they shut entirely, his lips moved with no sound, but she could tell what he was trying to say, and it made her heartache.

'Oh Twilight, please be ok... if not for us, then for Spike...' She thought with a sigh, she pulled her hoof from his head and the light of her magic faded, only to brighten again as she lifted him up and levitated him towards his basket next to the sixth bed in the room, Twilight's bed. After a moment of thought, however, she changed direction and placed him on the mattress, covering him up and watching him snuggle into the pillow, breathing in Twilight's scent. Rarity sighed and turned back to her friends, only to stop and blush as she noticed them all staring.

"Wh-what?" Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked to one another, then back to her.

"I thought you were kidding when you said you knew a sleep spell. Didn't think you could do magic like that." Rainbow muttered out as she sat down finally. Applejack nodded in agreement and walked back to her bed, jumping in and sitting on the mattress. Rarity huffed as she made her way towards Pinkie and gave the mare a hug before collecting Sweetie Belle into her own forelegs.

"It's not that hard, plus it's not so much a, ' go to sleep now' spell as it is a, ' you should go to sleep now.' It's more of a spell of suggestion that only works if the mind is already tired. Mother used it on me when I was a foal and was struggling to sleep and she taught it to me for when Sweetie Belle was having trouble." A sudden knock at the door caught the mare's attention. The fillies sinking more into the mares who held them as they looked to the door with worry.

"It's not gonna be more news about the scary stuff is it?" Sweetie Belle asked with no small amount of trepidation. The girls looked to one another and grimaced.

"Sorry Sweetie, but this is something that needs to be taken care of." Rarity said as she nodded towards the door. Rainbow Dash was nearest, but that didn't mean she was willing to get up.

"Come in!" She nearly shouted, venom on her tongue. A quick shush from the other mares however quickly reminded her of their sleeping drake and she instantly felt sheepish, rubbing the back of her head.

"Oops?" Looking to the drake, they sighed with relief at seeing he was still sound asleep, clutching tightly to the pillow on the mattress. The sound of the doorknob clicking caught their attention and they looked towards the door to see a disheveled Princess walk in. Rainbow Dash almost immediately opened her mouth to say something, but before Rarity could try and stop her, she froze at seeing the Princess' face.

Celestia looked to the ground as the door closed behind her. She slowly lowered herself to a sitting position and continued to look at the ground, the signs of freshly spilled tears having dried on her face. She dared not to look up at the mares around her.

'They have every right to hate me. I hate myself for much the same reason. I can't believe I let this happen. I can't believe I let this happen again... To a sister... and now to a dear friend... Oh Starswirl, what would you have done...' She closed her eyes as she waited for the yelling, for the harsh words and the insults.

Silence.

She slowly opened her eyes and raised her head, cautiously looking to the mares around her. Each looked to her with some anger, some understanding, some sympathy, and some even a bit hopeful. Blinking, she straightened herself and took a deep breath.

"... She is awake..." This caused all ears in the room that were not asleep to perk up immediately. Pinkie stepped forward before any of them, her eyes pleading.

"Is she okay Princess? Is she back to normal? Can we see her?" As much as she hated having to break their hearts, she shook her head, causing the normally jubilant mare to back up a step, her eyes clenching shut.

"O-oh..." Turning away from the princess, she walked back towards Fluttershy and sat next to her. Fluttershy opened her wings and, taking a moment to adjust, made enough room as Pinkie leaned into her.

"Then why are you here?" Celestia flinched as she turned to the most irate of the group. Rainbow Dash kept her back to the princess, glaring at the wall.

"I came because the guard told me you were causing trouble again... I know you don't like it, but I did what I had to do..." Silence was her only answer, so she chose to continue.

"The council convenes tomorrow morning. There, Twilight's sentence is to be decided." All of the mares turned to look at her with sharp gasps.

"So soon? But I thought that every trial had a three week grace period!" Rarity spoke in shock, her hoof to her mouth, Celestia simply shook her head.

"That is normal for most cases, but this one is a more pressing matter. The charges that have been placed on her are far too severe, so she has been placed to the top of the list in the courts." A snort caught her attention and she looked to see Applejack now glaring at her.

"What're the charges." It was not a question and Celestia knew that she wouldn't back down. The apple farmer was a stubborn one.

"Multiple homicides, multiple attempted homicides, attempted regicide, and multiple counts of assault, property damage, a-and... cannibalism..." The mares all looked to her, but none of them showed much surprise.

"Wh-what do you think her chances are?" The soft voice caught everypony off guard as they looked to Fluttershy, who had not looked up from huddling with the fillies and Pinkie. Celestia thought for a moment of all the possible outcomes of the trial, none of them particularly pleasing.

"I don't know." Applejack scoffed at this and turned on the bed, her back now facing the princess. Celestia flinched as the other mares gave her a sharp glare at having caught her in a lie.

"I just... I can't be certain. But it's best that you all get some rest. If you want to help her, then you need to be well-rested for tomorrow morning." This made the mares look to her with confusion as she gave a small smile.

"After all, you'll be needed as character witnesses." Each of the mares brightened at this.

"Awe yeah!" Rainbow Dash nearly shouted, shooting a hoof into the air, only to wince in pain as she gripped her side. The others chuckled lightly and a small groan caught their attention. Looking to Twilight's bed, they all held their breath as Spike shuffled a bit, before lying still. With a sigh, the mares all stood up and began to move towards their beds, Applebloom and Scootaloo joining their sister and idol respectively.

Celestia nodded quietly as she watched the mares all head them before she stood up herself, turning towards the door.

"Goodnight girls." Silence once again was their only response, causing her to lay her ears back once more.

'Still mad...' She opened the door with the golden glow of her horn and stepped out of the room, closing it behind her. As she walked away from the room, a few guards stepping into place on either side of her, she silently contemplated if she should have told them.

'... Dimmed Star...'

The sound of another stack of books and scrolls being deposited on a desk echoed around the massive common area. The light of several candles keeping the table and it's contents illuminated as Cadence pulled another volume of, ' Canterlot Laws and Ethics: Volume XIV' alongside a small tome that was titled, ' Crystal Caves of Canterlot: Facts Versus Fiction.' Her eyes were bloodshot and dark bags showed her exhaustion as she read both books, swapping from one to the other in quick succession on top of glancing to a glowing mirror that showed her an image of a sleeping Shining Armor in a medical bed.

'Don't worry Shining, I'll get her back.' She resolved as she turned another page, her light blue magic bringing forth more tomes on both law and ancient legends.

Author's Notes:

Shaded: lays in a hospital bed while covered in bandages "Mmmf mmnn mf mmmmn."

Twilight: "He says that he is glad that despite his numerous injuries, he is still able to somehow write for you all."

Shaded: Whimpers in indescribable pain

Twilight: "He also promises to have the next chapter out soon or he's offered to have his fur shaved off."

Shaded: Eyes wide in shock as I shake my head no "NNNFFF!"

Dimmed Star: "Who's doing the thing this time? Or do we even still care?"

Twilight: Ignores Shaded's futile attempts to complain "I did it last time, you do it."

Dimmed Star: "Ugh, fine. Shaded Blood does not own MLP: FIM or the Equinox Ponies. I get to shave him."

Twilight: "Fine by me, just remember to use the rusty clippers."

Shaded: Cries profusely