Just as I thought I was alone, the crackling sound of poorly-maintained circuitry echoed above me as a voice spat out from an unseen speaker.

"Hello again, Starnote."

My heart raced. It was Violet's voice.

"Sorry to say it, but you missed daytime, which as you may have guessed, was when I was sane. I recorded this message then. I know you have several questions about what happened while you were out, so I'll do my best to make sure that I answer as many as I can."

I sat down with an anxious feeling in my gut. This could take a while.

"Firstly, about your wings. Sorry I couldn't save them. By the time it was light, it was too late, and Luna was gone. And yes, to avoid suspicion on her part that Celestia was dead, she raised the sun herself. That's when I came out of my writhing state of blind rage and went to go look for her. I did not find her. Secondly, about my wing. I know that you did it because when I become possessed at night, I don't control my actions. I observe everything and do nothing. Don't worry; I don't blame you. I would have done the same in your place. Keep up those kinds of tactics, they will get you through this hellish situation. And although I can temporarily not fly, that does not give you an advantage now. Never let your guard down with the Nightmare. Now, about Boldkey. I have no reason to doubt myself that you already heard this, but he is dead. As you may have guessed, brutally murdered by the very hooves of Luna."

She paused for a second and wept lightly, then continued.

"I am terribly sorry. Next, about Pick. I can guarantee that he is alive. Find him as soon as this message is over. He has either woke up and heard a message like this one, or he is still unconscious in Luna's quarters. He can no longer use magic and he needs your help. I am serious. Find him. Another related note is about why I couldn't save your wings and his horn. To add those kinds of body parts, the area of attachment must be completely healed, and I didn't have the mental energy required for a healing spell."

"DAMNIT!" I said aloud. This would be VERY difficult now without my wings.

"Lastly, about Luna's escape: I have been looking for her. However, since it will be night by the time you hear this, I will be insane again and Luna will be hidden again in a different place. Let me warn you, she does move positions frequently. Your mission is to find Pick, find Luna, and then kill her."

I was shocked. Violet wanted me to kill Luna?

"Sorry if that last statement scared you, but it needs to be done. Killing her will remove my nighttime insanity and prevent her becoming the iron-hooved leader of Equestria. Just to give you an example of how I know this, I used to have a bit of daytime insanity as well. Once you killed Celestia, that went away."

I knew it. Luna was trying to be the sole leader of Equestria...

"That is all. This message will not repeat. Remember your missions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds."

I sat on the ground for a moment in pure disbelief. Kill Luna...? That sounded beyond nuts to me, and I'm sure that Pick felt the same way about it too.

I heard a pop above me, followed by a puff of light grey smoke coming out of an air vent on the ceiling.

For the moment, I was in too much shock to care about finding Pick or Luna. Violet, my friend, was telling me to kill. A good friend.

I couldn't do it. The information she was telling me made too much sense. I almost didn't want it to be true. I collapsed.

Several minutes had passed before I even had an urge to get up. Sunken and now drowsy from the insane thoughts bombarding my head, I tried to remember the other important thing that Violet told me: Find Pick.

'Find Pick.'

The thought of it sounded easy in my head, but the fact that there was now two ridiculously overpowered Alicorns after me made it sound like playing life on the hardest possible difficulty.

'Find Pick.'

I could hear Violet's voice say those two little, four-letter words. My mind almost seemed to shove all thoughts about Boldkey out of my head at this point just to focus on the single thing that may just kill me. As if it felt like the entire country of Equestria wasn't against me already.

'Find Pick.'

I screamed out loud to try and free my mind. "GET OUT OF MY FUCKING HEAD!"

It wasn't even close to getting the thought out. My mindless screaming only managed to pound the thought further into my mind.

'Find Pick.'

On four legs before I could even tell where the hell I was going, I found myself suddenly stammering along the cold, bloody tile towards the door to the rest of the castle. The feeling of my hooves slipping on the puddles of crimson below me haunted me with the thought of Luna's intentions for both Pick and Violet.

'Find Pick.'

The thought continued to intrude my train of thought, almost coming to me as a different voice all of a sudden, rather than Violet's. It was deep, troubled, angry... And scary.

I continued to numbly walk out of the dark library, only to find that the hallway just outside of it was torn up and trashed from what looked like Violet going mad inside the castle. The floor was covered with depressing trash, debris, and several forms of unsalvageable resources. But looking closer at the wall, I found something that would tell me that I might have been too late to make an appearance. The walls were smeared with several gashes of dark red blood. Fearfully, my gaze slowly drifted towards the ground. I swear to the dead fucking Celestia that in that very moment, my heart stopped for at least an entire second as a result of what I saw.

Covering the floor was not just trash and debris. The real content of the dark hallway... Was Luna. Mangled. Bloody. Dead. Rage peaked inside of me as I nearly had a mental breakdown. This changed everything.

"WHAT THE FUCK! AAAGH!" I screamed as I fell to the ground, hitting the floor in a painful kneeling position. I sat there for several seconds, in pure shock, rage, and confusion. And just as I thought the mental pain couldn't get any worse, it did. My confusion started blinding me. Literally. My entire field of vision was suddenly engulfed in a piercingly bright white, completely blinding me until it died down several seconds later.

My eyes revealed to me a mostly black and white dream, like what I imagined a vision to be like. Only this was the real thing. And as I floated by and watched, I was now completely aware of what happened in the last day. And my real mind had no say in it at all. I remembered what Violet said on this. 'You observe everything and do nothing.'

I guess she was right.

Still with mostly grayed-out vision, I found myself back in Celestia's quarters, strapped to the metal slab once again. Little splotches of color every so often appeared and informed me that I was in a room filled with blood. My head was slumped down, giving me an odd point of perspective of her room. An unconscious Pick was in front of me once again, horn still severed.

Luna started to speak up.

"There we are. Me... Going inside you! How about that? Just like Violet. But this time I'll be rid of you." Although I knew I was unconscious, it seemed as though she was directly talking to me. Her? Inside me?

A chill poured down my spine.

"There we are. Your wings are gone, but you're far from weak. I'll have to knock you out until tomorrow night, though."

I had no idea what she was talking about until a sound unwillingly came out of my own mouth. It was deep and raspy, but it didn't say anything. It just growled. I panicked.

"Good. It looks as though you understand... Good... Well, enough jibber-jabber, here we go... Good night."

With those words, I felt a needle being driven into my neck with hideous force. I cringed inside. Everything went white again.

When I awoke, I noticed two things:

One: My vision was still nearly blind from color.

Two: It was night, and I was still in Celestia's room. At least I wasn't strapped to that metal bed again... However, I was slumped over on the ground instead.

I struggled to get up and walk, but frustratingly enough, I still couldn't control my body. Instead, I felt my own form be taken over by an unrelentingly scary force, forcing me to watch what my own body was doing.

My body got up on all fours and started walking out of Celestia's room and into the hallway, stumbling like a klutz the entire way. I suppose that whatever was possessing me was still trying to get used to me. As I rounded the corner and into the hallway to the right, I saw another heart-stopper. Luna was standing there, waiting at the other side of the hall. Her face showed immeasurable fear as she stared at me, and she was sweating all over. On top of it all, she could barely stand from how shaky her legs were. Turned out her voice was just as shaky.

"Th-there's b-been a change in p-plans, Nightmare. Day hasn't p-passed yet."

I was shocked. Did she just call me 'Nightmare'?

Unwillingly, I responded. "What is it?" My new voice was incredibly deep and dark, and sounded way older than me.

"Well, it was ab-bout t-taking you out of me. The shock was too much for me. I think I may be in danger of dying."

"Why would that interfere with our plan?"

"Which p-plan d-do you speak of?"

"The one where you become leader of Equestria, of course."

"Well, it means that the b-best option would be for you to k-kill me instead of... well, whatever exactly is killing me." She made a gesture towards her own body.

There was a long pause. "Are you suggesting I murder you?"

"B-brutally. Make it look like Violet d-did it. And afterwards, kill her and t-take rule over Canterlot. At this p-point, it's the only option."

There was another pause. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Very well."

Without warning, my back legs heaved me forward, completely taking Luna by surprise as I pounced towards her. Flying forward, I barely had time to see the look of pure terror before I barreled into her and started mauling her. Endless strikes came from my own hooves, slashing and goring her face beyond recognition in seconds. The entire hallway was quickly filled with carnage and blood. Eventually, Luna's hopeless struggling stopped, and I climbed off of her, shaking and bloody. I could feel the intense strain in my leg muscles and the blood seeping down my coat.

I came to a nearly unbelievable conclusion that very minute.

I was the one that killed her.

I was the Nightmare.

Wait... No. Even worse. I was the Nightmare's host.

Not to mention that Violet was the only one who could save Equestria, and I was the only one who could free her of the Nightmare.

And I could only do that by killing myself, or by extracting the Nightmare like Luna did.

Holy shit.

Bloody hooves and everything, I once again started walking, this time back towards Celestia's room. My body was incredibly shaky, which meant that I could barely keep myself up as I slowly stumbled into her room. Before I could perceive what was going on, I spotted a shiny metal cabinet and flung open the door with a limp hoof. In the bit of time that the door lined up with my face, I happened to get a bit of color there too, letting me barely catch sight of my own face.

My head wasn't just a deep green, but now a sickening blend of dark red and green. Nearly my entire face was covered in blood. I also managed to snag a glimpse of my eyes. Instead of being mostly black with a bright purple cornea, my entire eye socket was filled with a reptile-like pattern. The vertically elliptical pupil sparkled in the dim moonlight, striking an insanely high amount of fear in me, knowing that whatever the hell I was looking at...

Was me.

With the other hoof, I unwillingly grabbed a seemingly random bottle and a syringe. I jammed the two together and pulled up on the handle, letting the device's small cylindrical tube fill up with a clear liquid. I couldn't help but think that at this point any intentions the Nightmare had were not good ones. Syringe still in hoof, my nearly mindless body started stumbling back down the hallway, past Luna's disturbing body, and finally back into the library. My body rammed the sharp needle into my leg, instantly making me drowsy. My hoof flung outwards, sending the syringe on top of a far away bookcase with a light clatter.

Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Both Luna's and the Nightmare's plans came together in sync, confusing the crap out of me at first, but eventually revealing itself in the most insane way possible. If the Nightmare or Luna was listening, I'd like to give them a round of applause. Whatever their plan was, it certainly worked.

I passed out again, feeling my body smack down on the tile below with a sickening 'CRUNCH'. Everything went white once again.

That got me thinking, though...

Luna's already dead. Getting the information needed to perform the Nightmare transplant would be nearly impossible now.

And I don't know somepony who can use magic who isn't insane.

Damnit.

I'm possessed by the Nightmare, Luna is dead, Violet is still insane, and the only way I can save Equestria is by killing myself.

What the fuck.

The voice in my head bugged me for a final time.

'Find Pick.'