A/N: MUHAHAHA! I have officially tortured you all with an unbelievably short chapter! This one is long to make up for everything lost. Sorry people reading this story if I disappointed you in the previous chapters. I promise it will all come back!
Big Macintosh woke up to Applejack panicking loudly. Blinking his eyes so he could see better, he noticed that Twilight had gone; vanished without a trace that she had been in the cave. This made him angry, very angry. He trusted Twilight enough to fall asleep peacefully so she could guard them if anyone would come she would alert him or Applejack. Apparently that didn't happen and she had left.
"What the hay happened?" Big Macintosh asked loudly.
Applejack looked at him and said so panic-stricken it sounded surreal, "Twilight left. Look, she left us a note explaining she had gone to finish the journey by herself."
"Lemme see the note," Big Macintosh asked now looking at the white paper on the ground beside Applejack's hooves.
He got up and walked over to stand beside Applejack to read over the note.
Dear Apple Family,
I want to apologize for my current absence. You might think that this is shocking, but I don't want to be friends anymore. It would be inflicting too much of my troubled mind on you and send you all into a depression much worse than mine….
Big Macintosh stopped reading the note and looked at his sister furious. He glared at her before saying, "You believe this?"
"Y-yes..."
"Well this is nothing but dirt! Twilight is in no depression, she's just tryin' to find where she stands! This is not her!"
"W-well who do you think it is then, if it isn't Twilight?"
"Dunno, but let's get out of the woods and check in with the Princess first," the Red Stallion suggested.
Applejack shrugged and started to walk out of the cave; Big Macintosh followed her.
Twilight noticed that not only was she in the Palace, but she was held captured in the Palace in one of the dungeons. With Claire keeping her guarded. So as soon as Claire checked up on her again, Twilight pretended that she was still knocked unconscious.
Giggling, Claire kicked her again hard on the flank causing Twilight to yelp.
"So I see that you are finally awake," the murderous pony exclaimed. "Our process will be complete now."
Twilight jumped up from the hard stone floor full of hate and exclaimed through clenched teeth, "What process?"
Laughing Claire replied, "For Ashton and my dominance over Equestria of course!"
"Where are the Princesses?"
"Ha! In another chamber awaiting trial! But you can't get them now, it is too late! All three of you shall watch as the first step is reinforced, and there's nothing. You. Can. Do. Ha-ha!"
"What's the first step?" Twilight asked curious.
Claire smirked, "It is to execute the Elements of Harmony. Oh don't worry dear Twilight; you'll die last, after you will witness your entire friends die, including your lover."
Twilight's eyes widened and she took a step backward from Claire. She shook her head gently side to side, not believing any of it. She didn't want to understand it, so she did the only thing that came to mind and fired a spell at Claire. The other Unicorn deflected it with ease and a swish of her ivory hair and fired a foreign spell back.
Twilight was suddenly encased in a white, floating sphere filled with mirrors with only one view window to the right side. What the…? She thought to herself growing angrier with each second. Claire just laughed and made her way out of the dank dungeon saying something Twilight could not hear.
Frustrated, Twilight sat down and looked up, saw that the ceiling was a mirror then looked down; she saw that the floor of the sphere was also a mirror. So she looked to the side and saw that that side was also a mirror; Twilight turned her head to the other side and noticed that instead of a mirror, there was glass window looking out to the entrance of the dungeon. Sighing, a thank-you, Twilight walked to look out into an open space instead of her. She closed her eyes and imagined a field of flowers and rolling hills and a clear, blue lake.
She imagined that she was sitting on top of one of the hills and that Big Macintosh was the only one with her that day. They would share a picnic and look at the clouds to see what shapes they would be. The image was all so lovely to Twilight, that when she opened her eyes, instead of seeing the dungeon she saw the scene.
At first, Twilight thought that that could not be, the dungeon door had been there only a minute ago! So she rubbed her eyes and looked at her surroundings, at the sphere, and saw that she wasn't in the collection of mirrors, but on the hilltop. Puzzled and excited, she reached out a hoof to touch a flower when the whole sphere rippled and changed back to mirrors and the dungeon.
Twilight jumped back alarmed. This wasn't what she wanted, not what she expected. She had seen it all, Big Macintosh included, with her own eyes that were open. She didn't want the picture to fade away when it did.
So she closed her eyes and imagined it all again, and when she opened her eyes it was as if it had never gone away. "Thank you Claire for giving me something to think of and hold onto so I can be strong," Twilight said peacefully to the air.