It was evening when Twilight had managed to settle down in the Castle of Friendship's main library. Even in the feeble light from her candle, anypony could see that the walls, from the floor to the top of the cathedral ceilings, were filled with books.

Twilight had spent ages trying to fit reading time back into her schedule ever since becoming a princess. With her new royal duties taking up so much of her time, she had so few chances nowadays to just sit down and read.

Just as she opened to page one of the first book, Starswirl the Bearded's Thesis on Temporal Anomalies, a voice seemed to sound from everywhere in the room at once. 

"Welcome and good evening."

Twilight craned her head around to see if she could identify the source of the peculiar voice. All she accomplished was straining her neck and identifying several regions of deep shadow within the library.

"Tonight's episode is special, and requires a different form of introduction."

"Hello?" She called out to the empty library.

"This," the word was punctuated by a sudden unnatural increase in illumination of both Twilight and her immediate surroundings, "is Twilight Sparkle, the newly crowned Princess of Friendship."

"Who's there?" Twilight shouted into the darkness, which was becoming harder to see into due to the spotlights that seemed to be trained exclusively upon her. She stood up and started backing out of the light and toward's the library's exit.

"Tonight we invite you, if you dare, to follow this mare on her current path—"

Twilight continued backing towards the door that led towards the castle's main hall. In her now rising panic, Twilight's alicorn powers were completely forgotten. The fear of not being able to see the speaker was causing her eyes to frantically dart around and her heart rate to quicken.

"—a path that leads directly... into the Twilight Zone"

Her flanks collided with something that was, most certainly, not a library table. She turned to face the towering shadow that was the pony she had bumped into.

His mouth opened, as if to speak, but Twilight was already galloping down the crystal hallways, screaming more than she had during her first attempts at participating in Ponyville's Winter Wrapup activities..

—About 30 Minutes Later—

Twilight slammed and bolted the door behind her. Only a small portion of her brain was worried about accidentally shattering the crystal portal.

Her breathing was heavy and her muscles ached from overexertion. She had been running, terrified in her own castle for neigh on half an hour now.

She pressed an ear to the door and listened. Her guts turned to ice at the possibility of hearing hoofsteps in a trot or gallop down the halls.

She couldn't hear anything.

She heaved a heavy sigh of relief. She'd finally gotten away. She turned to move further into the room but collided with another pony who had been standing there silently Since she'd entered the room.

She screamed.