Twilight grumbled and hugged her 'treasure' close to her as she hid under the thick comforter with Spike keeping watch over her. She didn't want to go to sleep. She wanted to keep theorizing and to eventually put her knowledge into application. What was the point of doing everything if she couldn't test her ideas and concepts out? That was the best part of research! She let the ideas continue to flow through her mind, hoping she wouldn't forget them as she gently started to drift away into a deep sleep.
Once more Twilight found herself with Princess Celestia as a young filly, happy and joyous that the princess was reviewing another project of hers and finding it grand. The little filly couldn't quite remember what it was she had done for the school project, but at least Celestia was reviewing it in the classroom. The young unicorn waved to her parents standing amid a black wall of other adults that she couldn't quite make the details of, but they weren't important. Her mom and dad looked so proud!
Something caught Twilight's eye briefly, darkening the sky outside the window for just the briefest moments. She looked but saw nothing and continued waiting to hear what else Celestia had to say. Another shade passed by the windows, and when Twilight made to smile at her parents, she realized that they were emaciated things collapsed in piles on the floor. She could see broken casts, crystals, leaky pouches, and broken surgical utensils spread around them. Twilight started to panic and wanted to run to them, but she couldn't. She was being held back by the mob of adult ponies that her parents were standing with just mere moments prior.
The unicorn begged and pleaded for them to let her go, but the adults would not relent. They held her in place as her parents slowly wasted away until they were just dried out husks like the mummies. Crying uncontrollably, Twilight turned to Celestia, tears drowning her vision, hoping that the alicorn would help her parents, but the white pony had no head with which to respond. Her body, it turned out, was held out by spikes going through the legs and linking up with a black iron frame above it. The windows outside turned dark again as the adults started moving Twilight to the door and opened it to reveal a crowd of ponies cheering angrily at a guillotine comprised of two blades enchanted to fuse together in a head-spinning amount of magic. They crackled and glowed with the magic made to keep them charged and sparkled with flecks of burning red Twilight knew the origins of.
Try as she might, the little filly couldn't get out of the grip of the adult ponies nor was her magic potent enough to escape the monsters the closer she got to the guillotine, the deeper and greater the feeling of despair became. Her little hooves ground against the wooden flooring leading up to the magical guillotines glimmering in the dim light shining through a black miasma of a sky. She could see that several non-ponies were in the crowd trying to reach her, but the mob was far too large and imposing for them to get through in time. The unicorn started screaming when the crowd did the same. A strange figure had emerged from the sky and descended upon them. Twilight could only watch in baited breath as it ripped and tore through every pony there. Its very presence obliterated the indistinct city around the execution plaza of Canterlot. The ponies holding Twilight down were themselves pulled away one by one, screaming and flailing their legs until they disappeared within the black smog that served as a sky.
Little by little the dream started to break apart and lucidity started returning to Twilight Sparkle until she remembered who she was, where she was, and what she was. She found herself standing on a platform, floating in a dark space filled with eclipsed suns of varying size. The mare jumped in surprise when she saw a giant hand reaching for her and stopping just short of her face. The entity standing before her seemed to only be made of a tapered lozenge for a body that widened the higher one went. It sported four 'arms' made of three different lozenges that possessed wide lozenge hands that ended in lozenges for fingers. Through its body flowed multiple strips of cloth that looked similar to black lace she could see the strange space through. The mare couldn't quite make out the shapes they represented. All she knew is that it hurt to look at them.
The figure pointed at Twilight, and attempted to grab something, but couldn't quite seem to reach her despite floating just a few feet away.
"What are you looking for?" the mare asked. She reached down and pulled out the strand of Celestia's mane. "This? It's mine! You can't have it!" she protested.
The creature seemed upset and started looking around angrily, searching for something beyond Twilight's understanding. It tried to reach for her again, but a pink light popped up when the entity made contact with whatever was 'protecting' the mare. It grew brighter and brighter until Twilight saw something blue spark off the strange lozenges. It briefly looked like a deep blue ink stain with white specs within it, but they dissolved fairly quickly.
Twilight was awoken by the increasing brightness of the pink light in a cold sweat. She dragged her hooves across her face, groaning miserably. She had that dream with the guillotine so many times by now that it had become ingrained in her memories, but the lozenge creature was new.
Grumbling, the mare had gone to the bathroom to splash some cold water on her face and approached the door with the guards. She had asked her 'keepers' if Cadance had brought her back her writing supplies, but after asking several times and being ignored, the guards told her to shut up. Annoyed, Twilight waited impatiently for a few minutes until she went back and they threatened her, calling her a 'vile necromancer' or some such name that she couldn't register very well. Although she knew she was supposed to wait in the room, Twilight had Spike pull the door open, ripping off pieces of crystal the door lock had inserted itself into and causing the guards to panic when they saw the undead monstrosity duck through the doorway and look around.
Her searching and calling out to her sister-in-law brought her face-to-face with a familiar orange pony she didn't have good memories of.
"Oh no," Twilight squeaked.
"Y'all're harborin' a thief, ya know that?" Applejack shouted accusingly. "She's the one what escaped when Ah caught her stealin' food from a stall when everypony was distracted!"
"You stole food?" Shining said in disbelief. "Oh, Twilight," he said with disappointment.
"I was keeping my rations up!" the mare said. "I couldn't eat them all by the time I reached the desert!"
"Then why didn't ya just buy 'em?!" the orange mare protested. " It's hard work ta grow that food, ya know!"
"Well, it's harder to live on the run and have to keep hidden from everypony!" Twilight snapped back.
The orange mare paused. "On the run? What's that meant ta mean?"
"Applejack, can you please not harass my sister?" Shining asked. "We only just got her back after several years," he said.
The mare's eyes widened in shock. "Yer what?!"
"What's wrong with Flurry?" Twilight panicked.
She rushed forward, accompanied by Spike. Still working on reflexes, Applejack made to catch Twilight when she got too close, but Spike spread his arm out, covering Twilight from above Twilight like a shield.
"Applejack!" Shining yelled.
"Ah'm sorry! It was a reflex!" the orange pony apologized.
Twilight checked Flurry and examined her as best as she could without the use of her magic. "Looks like you've been constantly jumping all over the place and teleporting," the mare said. "She's still too small for all of that so her body is suffering from adverse reactions."
"Th-then what do I do?!" Cadance panicked.
"I-Ugh." Twilight patted at the ring around her horn and snorted. "You need to help recirculate the magic she had through her body. That should take care of the teleportation sickness. As for her stomach, well, she's likely to vomit if you give her anything, if she hasn't vomited already. I'd also just place her in a bed to rest under somepony's watchful eye and keep her from drinking too much milk or eating any food paste for a few hours. She should recover soon after."
"Are you sure?" Cadance asked.
The unicorn shrugged. "Ask a real doctor if you don't trust me. Her life isn't in danger."
Cadance placed her horn against Flurry's and started forcing her magic to begin flowing through her body again. The alicorn found herself becoming increasingly aware of the 'knots' of magic that had formed inside of her daughter's body, and as they slowly came apart and the magic resumed its free flow, the green on her daughter's face slowly faded away, returning the pale-pink of her coat.
"We're here!" Pinkie wheezed. "I...hoo. That's good exercise," she wheezed. She pulled Fluttershy up by her tail and chucked her across the floor to slowly come to a halt on her back. "I don't know how you do it, Applejack."
Fluttershy responded with a 'bluh' and her tongue dangling on the side of her mouth.
"You said it. Uh-Woah!" the pink pony exclaimed. "Careful, Applejack," she whispered loudly. "There's a giant, undead skeleton next to you."
Applejack rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Ah know, Pinkie."
"Oh, good,. Ha ha. I thought you might've missed it," Pinkie mused.
Fluttershy lifted her head up and saw the gigantic creature staring down at her. It shifted about, apparently blocking her friend from moving, and she couldn't have that. "H-hey!" she called out to the undead. "Please leave Applejack alone." When she realized the creature was not responding, she took in a deep breath and stood up taller. "I'm...demanding you leave my friend alone," she said firmly.
"Fluttershy, it ain't gonna move," Applejack said. "Thing's an ornery skeleton. Ain't gon' do nothin' 'til that unicorn tells it what ta do." She grunted when she tried to move and the dragon's giant arms continued to block her path. She tried to buck it in the skull but only succeeded in hurting herself. The mare expected the undead to attack back, but it did no such thing.
Furious, Fluttershy flew in front of the undead's face and started glaring at it with her eyes.
"Oh, she's doing the stare!" Pinkie wheezed in amusement.
"Now, you're going to let my friend go and sit in the corner and think about what you've done, mister!" She looked the undead up and down and became confused. "Or miss. Whatever you are!"
Her loud voice attracted the attention of Twilight and Shining as well as the guards still around. Pinkie seemed to enjoy the face-off, but the three Elements deflated when Spike grabbed Fluttershy's head, squeezed it gently a few times, then underhand threw her away onto Pinkie.
"Spike isn't going to listen to what you have to say," Twilight explained. "He's my assistant and does what I need his help with," she stated proudly. "Isn't that right, Spike?" the mare asked.
Spike didn't respond.
Exasperated, Applejack called out to Twilight. "Well, could ya tell it ta leave me alone, then? Ah ain't gonna attack you none," the farm pony asked.
"You can let her go," the unicorn told her dragon.
Spike backed away, letting the farm pony stretch her limbs and crack her neck. "That's much better," she said. "But...Ah still don't know why we're here."
"I don't care," Twilight spat. "Cadance, can I have my writing supplies now?" the mare grumbled.
Cadance was taken out of her reverie of rubbing her face against her sickly foal, horrified of her parental negligence. "Oh! Yes. Of course. Shining," she called. "Can you accompany Twilight to the office supplies? I don't trust your guards anymore."
Shining growled. "Neither do I at the moment." He gestured to Twilight. "You stay here. I'll bring everything up."
"Thank you, Shining," Twilight said with a smile.
She moved away from the crowd and stayed with her undead dragon with whom she spoke in hushed tones, ignoring everypony around.
Fluttershy used her wings to try and straighten her mane back in place when she rejoined the farm pony. "Applejack, you think we were brought here because of her?" she asked. She looked at Cadance and frowned. "You said you met her before, right?" Applejack nodded. "Well, I don't know her connection with the emperor and empress of the Crystal Empire, but she must be important to them if they're leaving her here."
"She's the sister of Emperor Shining Armor," Applejack explained. "Told me she'd gone missin' fer years 'n she just got back."
Pinkie gasped. "Really?!" She waved to Twilight. "Hey, creepy undead summoning lady!" she called out. Twilight glared at her from around Spike's legs. "You want to throw a party for your return with your family? Or just any party at all?!"
"No!" Twilight shouted back. "I hate parties! Leave me alone!"
Pinkie almost deflated, but she took on a stern expression. "A tough cookie, huh? Well, some milk always softens even the hardest of that tasty pastry." She stared Applejack in her eyes. "She's the reason we're here," Pinkie proclaimed. "Let's get her happy again. No pony hates parties, so she must be suppressing something. We should try and get through that."
The farm pony rubbed the back of her head. "Ah dunno. If she's really the Emperor's sister, then Ah think we might just have ta leave this fer the family ta deal with."
"Ooooooor, we ask them to help us," Pinkie said with a smile. "The quickest way to a pony's heart is through their family!"
Fluttershy cleared her throat. "Provided the family is good, of course."
Pinkie nodded. "Right." She narrowed her eyes and looked around, suspicious of everything. "I wonder why they're keeping a necromancer here, though. They aren't exactly the nicest ponies."
"Well, guess we're gon' find out on account-a the map not wantin' ta let us go unless somethin' awful happens, Ah guess." She took her hat off and used it to fan herself briefly. "It'd be best that nothin'-a the sort happens, Ah hope."