Okay, it's dark in here. I can see that... well, there's nothing to ever see in the dark!

Edd hoped to be able to see, but what he found in there was pitch blackness. If Princess Twilight was in here, where was she?

Almost instantly, light flashed in front of him. There was green, then white, then purple. There stood Princess Twilight. She was moaning and grunting in stress and pain. Specks of black and green with lightning shot from her horn, creating noises like thunderclaps and hissing and roaring. The strange aura then traveled to a tiny pink crystal, turning it black and making it grow and spike into obsidian impaling machines. The light from the magic faded, and Edd could hear Twilight panting in exhaustion after the empty room grew darker. A few moments pass, and color begins to fill the room. Princess Twilight was performing another kind of magic. The colorful magic revolved above the spike of obsidian, then engulfed it. The obsidian shrunk in size until it was a tiny pink crystal again. Then it was dark again. Wow, Edd thought, feeling a little bit nervous but amazed, that was pretty swell. In fact, more than pretty swell! Could I try it if I'm a unicorn?

He strained his eyes to try and adjust to the dark, but it was still pitch black. Until magenta light from magic suddenly flashed in front of his face. Under the light was Princess Twilight. Sweat rolled down her face, and a hint of fear clouded the spark in her eyes. "What are you doing?" Twilight asked. Edd flinched, not expecting something to appear out of nowhere just like that (like that one time Tom did when they were trying to find a pair of keys).

Edd was shocked to speechlessness for a few seconds before asking, "...how did you do that thing?"

Princess Twilight glanced around before whispering, "that thing I did? It's called...

"Dark Magic."

"Dark Magic?" Edd repeated.

"SHH! I don't want anypony to suffer as soon as they find out and try it for themselves and then be too scared not to help us and I mean why would we want that we need FRIENDSHIP to fix the problem!!" Twilight rambled.

"What are you talking about?" Edd asked, taken aback by such quick talking and confused by Friendship Horse's concern.

"Why would... uh, anypony suffer?"

Twilight flashed a look before grunting and throwing her head back in exasperation. "ARGH! Celestia, dangit! I've gotten you involved in it too! Why do I ALWAYS have to get everyone involved!?" She yelled, the noise echoing. There was a flicker of black and green on her horn, and she looked upset. Edd frowned. 'She's gonna do it again!'

A small beam of the aura shot from Twilight's horn. It bounced off of the ceiling, then floor, then walls, then floor, then ceiling, then all over again. Edd panicked, whipping around to see where to go. The problem was, standing in a dark room made it hard to even focus. Not daring to slow down, he began galloping in random directions to find the door.

Where am I going where am I going where am I going!? He thought, mind racing.

Before he could blink, he felt something strike him in the head with enough force to send him crumpling down. His eyes were closed before the impact. When he opened them again, he was somewhere back outside Ponyville, feeling nothing but pain and confusion. "Ow..." he moaned. Had he been knocked out? How come everything hurt? He sat up, finding that his shoulder had a gash in it, and was sticky with fresh blood. He felt sick. One of his legs was broken with bone showing through even more blood. His ribs and head were on fire.

What happened!? He almost yelled into the empty atmosphere. Looking ahead of him, he no longer saw houses. He saw only rubble. Acres of land were scarred and torn and crushed by broken wood and stone and glass. Bits of destroyed furniture were strewn around the place. "Holy crap!" He breathed. For some reason, he felt scared to death. Normally his reaction would just be horrified or astonished, but no.

Sighing and ignoring his shock, Edd stood up. He winced as another wave of pain made his head swim. He urged himself to walk, since there was nothing else to do. He looked around him. There weren't any other ponies around. It was too silent and too cold for it to be bustling with colorful equines. Edd began to feel lonely. Is everyone dead? He thought.

Before looking back ahead, he bumped into something. It felt ice cold like stone, but scaly like a snake. He heard a loud growl above him. Edd looked up. And he immediately shrunk low to the ground. "Oh, my God!" He gasped. It appeared to be a dragon he was looking at. It had scales of green, blue, and purple, and it was gigantic. It took a few seconds for Edd to notice three heads on that dragon. They glared at him, eyes narrowed, teeth bared, nostrils flared. Edd felt panic rise from him.

What could he do? He didn't know anything about magic. He couldn't run with his injuries weighing him down. Giving up, Edd allowed himself to be trampled on by the giant talons of the horrific beast.

Instead of suffocating under high amounts of force, he felt something hit him in the head again. It wasn't as much impact as he expected, but he still stumbled back.

Wait... he stumbled?

He wasn't pancaked?

He couldn't see. But he heard rushed hoofsteps echoing in a large space. Was he back at the castle again? Where someone was messing around with crazy incantations? He heard Princess Twilight again, relieved that the horror was over.

"Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry!" Twilight frantically wailed. Edd still felt the shock of what he saw. He shuddered. Twilight shone more light into the room. Edd backed away.

"Q-questions," he said, "what the H-Hell was that, and..." Edd found himself trembling in fear at the idea, "is it even... LEGAL to do Dark Magic!?" He backed away some more, then jumped as let out a startled yelp as a door opened right next to him. Blinded by the light that shone from the hall, he backed away from the door. He wanted to get out of here, though. He wanted to see his friends again. But he also needed to think. Such a happy place would have secrets that dark like the magic itself?!

"Twilight?" Edd recognized Applejack's country accent. "We heard panicking. Everything okay?"

Twilight sighed, "probably, for now. I... accidentally went into a craze and... shocked Edd with Dark Magic." Applejack gasped, "what?! Why!? Ya know how dangerous that can get, right!?"

Twilight sighed, "I know, but from the research I did in Canterlot Archives, normal magic can't penetrate Dark Magic, so I need to use Dark Magic to fend off the monster." She then half joked, "and Edd was the lab rat."

Edd chuckled, but then stopped abruptly. 'How is that supposed to be funny?' He thought. Sighing in frustration, he trotted past Applejack and into the hallway.