The Cavalry Arrives
"Twilight? Twilight are you injured?" A voice called out to me, I opened my eyes to see Celestia standing over me.
"Princess? What happened and why does my head hurt?" I rubbed my eyes, Celestia held out a hoof to me and helped me up.
"I am just as clueless as you are Twilight, from what I can tell this book over here fell off your bookshelf and hit you in the head," she levitated me the book, it was a history book on Star Swirl the Bearded.
"Alright Princess heres whats been happening, my friends seemed to have returned, not as in they are a physical but as phantoms. They appear for brief moments before leaving, some of them can even touch certain objects, but only two appear during the day and the other two at night, if anything is odd they all show up but Rarity. I can't say I know why, but this is driving me crazy and it needs to stop, none of my spells work, anti-ghost wards, shielding spells... Nothing has been working," I started pacing back and forth again, if I were another pony listening to this I would think I was a lunatic. "I have every book on the paranormals but nothing explains what happening, nothing outside the castle is out of place, just what do I do?"
"Twilight think rationally having a mental breakdown will only make matters worse, now think when did this happen, do you think this may be some sort of curse, did a apprentice turn on you? We need solid facts to conduct the investigation," I stared at Celestia, my expression changed I sat down and started thinking.
"Maybe we could get some of the ponies in 'Everafter' to talk to us about whats happening there, it's not a bad idea but is there a spell for this."
"Twilight, messing with Everafter is series business, you're not only bringing back a dead pony but pulling their soul from another plain of existence. One wrong move and the seal between our world will be broken, that even means those imprisoned in Tartarus will escape, those in Tartarus will not be to happy to see our faces Twilight, if all get loose it may be the end of Equestria."
"The risk is worth it, what if somepony is pulling my friends out of Everafter and using them as slaves to torture me and drive me insane. As time moves on Celestia new spells will form whether we know about it or not," I sat on my chair that faced my podium and leaned on the podium and looked out the window. "Equestria isn't the same loving place as it used to be, look at Ponyville. The city changed into a metropolis, most of the Everfree Forrest is gone, I have seen ponies come and go, both friend and foe. 200 years can change a lot of things you know," I was feeling rather solemn. "I remember going to places that my friends and I used to go and now its either run-down or something was built over it," I sighed and put my head down on the podium.
"Well my faithful student-"
"Don't call me that, its been over 200 years since I was actually your student," I felt bad for cutting her off, Celestia had a interesting way of going about herself speaking in a joking manner and trying to see the best of things. This wasn't one of those times, the sooner the problem can be solved the easier my conscious can rest.
"My apologies Twilight, so from what you wrote to me about that these phantoms come in pairs?" I nodded in reply. "If we have no other option we may have to pull somepony out of Everafter. Lets investigate the castle before doing anything ok," I nodded in reply, my mind was just all over the place, it was hard seeing what could have been a dream turn into a waking nightmare.
"Celestia, we need to wait till night for them to appear, they sometimes appear during the day but not often."
"Alright then we shall wait till night to conduct our search," we spent the next few hours talking about how our daily lives have been, what changed and what we were up to. The day seemed to move rather slowly and the castle felt emptier by the moment, I never had guards like Celestia, Luna or Cadance, I never felt the need but now it would be rather nice to have somepony else in here other then me.
Night started to set in, I check the clock it was around 6:00pm. I saw no sign of them during the day so the night was going to be riddled with problems, Spike still wasn't here, if it wasn't for the fear of these phantoms I would be worried about him.
"These ghost are going down, time to investigate," I rubbed my hooves together in anticipation, at this point it was them or me.
"I... hate... losing..." Rainbow Dashes voice echoed down the hall, my ears dropped, this was going to be a long night.
"Did you hear that?" I rapidly check left and right to try to find the phantom, I didn't see anything other then Celestia trying to hold back laughing. "Come on Celestia, we don't have time for your nonsense," I probably should have asked Luna to come instead.
"Sorry Twilight, this reminds me of how worried you were during the whole Nightmare Moon incident," I rolled my eyes and started walking down the hallway. "Oh, come on Twilight lighten up."
"Look Celestia, I mean no disrespect we need to get this solved, I haven't had a goodnights sleep in three months, if you don't mind focusing on the situation at hoof, that would be great we can reminisce after," I really didn't have time for this, I wanted this to be over as fast as possible.
"Ok, we will have some fun after this situation, alright then, has there been any signs of magic around the castle? They don't seem to act like your friends and Rainbow Dash was just watching us and even replied to us."
"No, I haven't found anything that suggest any type of magical spell, something is pulling their souls from Everafter, maybe we should go to Sweet Apple Acre's and bring back Applebloom, she may have some answers we are looking for."
"If we have no other option, Applebloom may be our only answer to this, she is connected to Applejack, I hate to disturb the dead but if there is a pony behind this who knows what that pony can do when they are done with you Twilight," Celestia sighed and she looked a little depressed, I understood where she was coming from. The dead head to Everafter a place where a pony lives for eternity, or whatever else comes after, not many fully understand how it works and those who are summoned don't talk about it for some reason.
"We should head out to Sweet Apple in the after noon, the Apple family should be out of the area from where Applebloom is buried", Applejack, Big Mac and Granny Smith are also buried close by. Oddly enough Applejack and Applebloom's grave markers are statues of themselves. Then I heard a knock on the castle door, I headed into the castle's main hallway that leads to the entrance, I arrived at the door and opened it, it was Spike, "Spike! You're here!" I hugged him, I was glad to see him, other then Celestia, Luna and Cadance, he was the only one left from what history calls the Age of Harmony, the name is misleading, I spent more time fighting random monsters and evil ponies then living in harmony.
"Hi Twilight, good to see you haven't changed," He looked over me and I turned my head, Celestia was standing behind me. "Hello Princess Celestia."
"Hello Spike, my you've grown, you're about as tall as me." Celestia approached him and hugged him.
"Even my wings have grown, I can now fly across Equestria and back if I wanted, if Rainbow Dash thought she was fast before she should see me... now," his face went blank as he peered over me.
"Uh, Spike, you ok?" I waved my hoof in front of his eyes, he pointed behind me, Celestia and I turned around to see a shadowed mare that had the likeness of Rainbow Dash was standing at the end of the grand hallway.
"Nopony is faster then me, not even you Spike," Rainbow Dash's voice came out of nowhere, it sounded like she was right next to us. I took another look at the shadowy mare, I started to approach her and she disappeared.
"Well, seems like the Shadow Dash, is just like Rainbow Dash, and that they seem to be made of shadows, well at least this one was," I walked deeper into the hall and started looking around for something that would trigger her coming. "Maybe she showed up just because Spike mentioned her, hang on let me try something... Its too bad Pinkie Pie isn't here to join in on all the fun we are having its a real shame we haven't seen her yet."
"Yeah and only Pinkie Pie knew the true key to having fun," Spike added on, I nudged him trying to urge him to stop. Then laughter started echoing through the hallway and the doors swing open.
"Oh... Twilight, you're going to have to try harder then that to get my Pinkie Pony self out, or is it black now since I am shadowy? Shadowess? Maybe just a dark party pony, no wait that doesn't sound right," She started laughing again and I felt the whole castle shaking. "Oooo, hi Spike! Hi Princess Celestia, its been a while since I have seen you princess, its been approximately 200 years, 4 months, 19 days, 14 hours and 11 minutes since I have seen you last," yup that as Pinkie alright, as annoying as she can get it was glad to know it was her, without a doubt, no imposter can live up to her level of silliness or randomness. "Oh it looks like its time for me to go, by everypony and Spike," the room went silent.
"Pinkie?! Pinkie, you still there," I got no response, she actually left.
"I don't even know how to respond to what just happened?" Spike was scratching his head, "First RD and now Pinkie, Twilight what spell did you cast and why did it go wrong?"
"I didn't cast any spells they just showed up one day and never left," Spike stared at me in disbelief.
"Are you absolutely sure?" I rolled my eyes and nodded. "Do you at least have a plan?"
"As a matter of fact we do, we plan to pull Applebloom soul out of Everafter and ask her whats been happening."
"Anything we need to prepare for or do before casting the spell?"
"We have to be at her grave to pull her soul from Everafter," Spike nodded and yawned.
"Twilight we should try to sleep, its late, even if its only a few hours we should sleep," Celestia yawned, "I think I will show myself to one of your guest rooms. Celestia wandered off down one of the hallways.
"I think I should head head into one of the guest rooms as well."
"No Spike I adjusted your sleeping quarters accordingly, come on," we walked to my room and I opened the door. "Twilight this is your room, I don't think I can still sleep in that small bed I used to sleep in."
"No Spike, it will be like old times kinda but not in that bed," I opened the double doors and walked in, I pointed to the right side of the wall that was covered by a curtain. "Go on, open the curtain," Spike grabbed the curtain and pulled it, behind it revealed a giant bed big enough for Spike to sleep in, "See just like old times, just with bigger gems and now I can actually get you diamonds like you wanted," I laughed and Spike along with me.
"It is just like old times, lets get to bed we got a long day ahead of us tomorrow."
"You're right Spike goodnight," I yawned and got into bed, "You can close the curtain if you like," I saw spike lay down and grab a bunch of diamonds and eat them.
"Nah I think I will keep them open, thanks for the diamonds by the way."
"You welcome goodnight Spike see in the morning," I used my magic to turn off the lights and fell asleep.