Chapter 1

Twilight Sparkle returned to the library after a long day helping Rarity design a new dress for her next fashion show. The other unicorn had her running all over Ponyville for material and gems and other items. By the time they were finished with the dress, Rarity was satisfied and Twilight's hooves hurt and she felt like she'd run a marathon.

As the purple unicorn trotted home all she could think about was lying down on her soft bed and sleeping until noon.

"Rarity sure is picky when it comes to her designs," she said to herself as she walked down the street. She yawned tiredly. "I mean what's the difference between purple and violet anyway? They look the same to me.."

Something moved behind her. She froze in her steps and glanced over her shoulder, only to see nothing but a peaceful town. She shrugged it off and kept moving, thinking to herself that it had probably just been another pony on its way home. What else would it be?

She looked up at the sky as she walked, studying the constellations. It was such a nice, clear, moonless night. She smiled, enjoying the view. Maybe she'd take out her telescope and climb onto the roof to get a better look before she went down to sleep...

Suddenly she felt a tug on her tail.

Gasping, she nearly jumped ten feet into the air. She spun around quickly but there was nothing there.

"Hello?" she called a bit nervously. "Is anyone there?"

Silence, except for the trees blowing in the night wind.

Maybe it was just a bush, she thought, turning back around and trolling off, a bit faster than before this time.

"Twilight..."

Hearing her name being called she looked sharply over her shoulder and discovered a large, very familiar mis-matched creature standing right behind her. It grinned, a toothy grin at her. "Good evening, Twilight."

"You!" she gasped, walking backwards. "Where did you... How did you?"

"You can't get rid of me that easily, Twilight, my dear." he said, slithering toward her.

"Stay back!" she shouted at him.

"Oh, Twilight," he said silkily. "You know getting rid of me isn't that easily."

Her horn lit up. He saw that and chuckled.

What do you think you're going to do with that? Blast me out of the village?" he taunted. "Go ahead. I dare you."

She would too. She shot a bolt of magic at him but it seemed to go right through him. Her eyes widened in shock. "It's not possible!" she gasped.

"I told you, Twilight, your magic can't hurt me," he told her, grinning. "I'm the master at impossibilities!"

He lunged at her. She yelped and galloped away, dashing toward the library. His laugh rang in her ears as she ran, making her run faster.

When she reached the library she slammed the door shut and locked it, waking spike who'd been sleeping. He looked up at the pony leaning against the door, sleepily. "Twilight? Are you okay?"

She squeaked, startled but calmed down when she saw it had only been spike talking. "Oh, it's just you, Spike."

"Yeah it's me," he said, raising an eyebrow. "Who do you think it is?"

"Oh no one." she told him, glancing at the door.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "You're acting weird."

'It's nothing!" she exclaimed, slinking away from him, grinning. "I'm just fine. I'm just a little umm… tired." a shadow looked like it moved outside. She gasped and galloped up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door.

Spike looked after her then climbed out of bed and opened the window to let the owl into the library. "I wonder what's got Twilight so jumpy?" he asked it.

"Who?" the owl asked.

"Twilight." he said. "She's acting real weird."

"Who?"

He gave the owl a look. "Nevermind." he walked away from the owl. "I'm going back to bed.

Meanwhile in her room, Twilight was on the floor, breathing heavily.

It can't have been him," she said to herself. "We defeated him. It was probably just my imagination." she took a deep breath to calm down. "That's it, twilight. It was your imagination. You've been working too hard." She got up and trotted over to her bed. "Yeah, it's just stress. It has to be. It's not like he escaped. I mean Ponyville isn't acting weird or anything."

She climbed into bed, deciding to just forget about it. It had to be her imagination, after all her magic had gone right through him. That had to mean he wasn't real, right?

"There's no way he could come back," she said, using her horns magic to pull the curtains over the windows and pull the blanket over herself. "My friends and I defeated him." She yawned tiredly. "I must be more tired than I thought..."

Even so it took her awhile to fall asleep.

When she finally got to sleep she started dreaming about Discord. He'd broken free from his stone prison and was causing utter chaos all over Equestrian. What made it worse was that the elements of harmony had been destroyed and her friends had all turned against her and she could not fix it this time.

And just when she thought things couldn't get any worse the ground below her opened and she was sent plummeting into a bottomless pit, waking up screaming.

She gasped, opening her eyes and looking around frantically. She was in her nice safe bedroom and nothing was in utter chaos. She looked in the mirror. Her horn was still there.

"Just a dream," she said, relieved. "It was just a dream."

"Is it?" a voice spoke behind her.

She gasped, looking over her shoulder. Nothing.

The room was dark and full of shadows. It didn't look like her room anymore, lacking any light. She shuddered, dreading what she might see. Was one of those shadows moving? No, it had to be her imagination.

She nodded to herself. Yes, it had to be it. She laid her head back onto the pillow and tried to get back to sleep. She was just beginning to doze off when she felt a tug on her tail, making her jump up and looked around, wide awake. "Who's there?"

"Twilight..."

She froze. That voice...

"Twilight..."

Slowly she turned around. Behind her loomed discord, grinning at her.

The next segment of events flashed by quickly: She jumped off the bed only to be tackled by him and grabbed. She struggled and tried to scream only to have a gag tried around her muzzle. As she squealed and kicked he grabbed her up and threw her into a sack, tying the top.

He chuckled and threw the sack over his shoulder before opening the window and climbing out. Then, without another look back, he slunk out of Ponyville, taking his struggling captive with him.