//------------------------------//
// The Legend of Everfree 
// Story: The Little Pony Legend: Legend of Everfree 
// by MaggiesHeartLove 
//------------------------------//


She tossed and turned in her covers, her hands trembled, feeling cold despite the warmness of her bed sheets. The sound of her friend's mumbling in his sleep went mute in her ears. Her midnight hair wrapped around her upper torso as she turned left and right. 
"No." she muttered in her sleep, her nails digging into the bed. "It can't be. It isn't true."
"Um, Twilight." a soft voice sounded from the outside of her door. While it wasn't enough to wake her, it most certainly woke up her furry friend. He wagged his tail happily and scratched his paws against the door. Only did the much louder voice of her friend did she finally manage to stir away from her visions long enough to wake up.
"Twilight! The buss for Camp Everfree leaves in ten minutes!" 
She rubbed her sleepy eyes before gasping. "Oh, no, no, no, no! I can't believe I overslept!"
"Me neither. That's not like you." Sunset Shimmer said once she opened the door, allowing the rest of her friends to walk into Twilight's room. Twilight herself was already up and up, quickly put on her glasses and frantically pulled her bag from her closet.
"I know!" Twilight replied as she opened her luggage.
"Don't you have like a super annoying alarm clock, Aehr! Aehr! Aerh! Aerh!" Pinkie Pie said, imitating an alarm clock buzzer. Speak of the evil, the very same alarm clock was sounding off right underneath Twilight's pillow, bouncing up and down until Sunset shut it off.
"It's gonna be fine." Sunset said kindly, "We'll help you pack."
One by one, the girls helped place all of the essentials in Twilight's bag. Spike packed in his favorite dog toy, and Rainbow Dash…packed a picture of herself for some reason.
However, it wasn't nearly was out of place as Rarity's choice. Applejack face palmed herself, seeing the pink gown her friend was about to fold and place inside the luggage.
"We're gonna be out in the woods. When's she gonna need that?"
Rarity rolled her eyes, "If we were going to the moon, I'd insist she'd pack an evening gown. One never knows, darling."
Twilight sighed in relief, seeing all of her new friends helping her get ready. None of the other students at her old school would be this generous to her. "Let me just get changed." she said, picking out her camp shirt, looking at herself at the full body mirror. Hard to believe it had been a whole year since she met her friends, she even updated from wearing her bun all the time to a high ponytail, held up by a star-shaped hair clip. She had grown not only more confident in herself and her talents, but also more outgoing, fun-loving and spirited, especially once she discovered her love of music. 
"Oh, that reminds me, could you--"
"Got your laptop." Sunset interrupted, winking confidently as she placed the said object into the case. "Got some new mixes to listen to on the trip?"
"You know it!" Twilight said enthusiastically. She used her knowledge and passion for science and computer knowledge to create her own music mixing program on her computer to compose all sorts of musical combinations. She never would have discovered this talent had it not been for her friend's band…and her boyfriend, of course.
All anxieties she felt during her nightmare faded away as to the point she couldn't even remember what it was she was dreaming in the first place. 
Until…she appeared.
A pair of dark feathered wings emerged from Twilight's back as she gazed at her reflection in the mirror. A horrible winged creature emerged, her eyes glowing an eerie blue, her twisted horn sticking out from her forehead in the most vile manner possible. She turned around, hoping it was all in her head, but the combined screams of terror from her friends proved otherwise.
"Midnight Sparkle?!"
"How is this possible? My friends helped me defeat you at the Friendship Games!"
The demonic apparition only laughed, "You and your friends can never truly defeat me!" she said, followed by a maniacal laughter. 
Twilight felt the ground shake and her entire room started to disappear, particle by particle. Her friends tried to run, but they didn't even get the chance. Their bodies turned white from head to toe and vaporizing away, screaming for her help, reaching their hands out, the desperation in their eyes struck Twilight's heart and there was nothing she could do.
"No!" Twilight screamed, her back pressing against the mirror as the rest of her room faded, bit by bit, leaving nothing but an empty void. Floorless and topless, with no apparent end in sight. She heard her double's voice echo in her ear and rushed away as the creature reached out from the mirror, extending her hand to grab her.
"Midnight Sparkle is a part of you!" she said as the lat bit of the floor disappeared, but instead of falling down for eternity as Twilight had originally feared, she floated in space. Objects from her room, her telescope, her bed, her books even some of her old trophies floated around her, completely out of arms reach. But none of these material possessions could replace the void that was left when her friends disappeared right before her eyes as if they never existed to begin with.
But the worse was yet to come. 
Midnight Sparkle appeared before her, her body increasing in size, laughing maniacally, her gigantic wings spread out that could practically fill up the entire empty void, her flame-like hair dancing upwards.
"I'll always be there waiting in the darkest shadows of your mind. I'll be back, Twilight! And this time, I won't stop until I have all the magic!"
Twilight's body felt cold and hard like stone. She couldn't move, she was completely at the mercy of Midnight Sparkle, who began to merge herself right into Twilight's body. She could feel the stinging pain of the wings on her back, the fire around her eyes returning, attempting so ferociously to blind her to the light again, and the horn on her forehead was only moment away from filling her brain with such vile, heartless thoughts that would chain her once again to the sins of the past.
"No! STOP!!!"


(~)


"Twilight! Twilight, wake up!"
The young woman gasped and nearly fell from her chair, only to be caught by his strong loving arms and met his warm gaze. Unlike her dream, her room was entirely different. From her bed, to her belongings. Her bed was still untouched, indicating she hadn't slept in it. And judging by the time on her nightstand clock, she'd say she fell asleep on her desk…again.
Flash kindly helped he stand back up. She wasn't even in her pajamas, but rather her normal every day clothes.
"You had the dream again, didn't you?" he said. It didn't take a genius for one to figure that out, but since he had been aware of her projects for the past several weeks, he knew better than anyone else on campus. "Did you learn anything else?"
"No. It was the exact same thing. Midnight Sparkle and that camp trip we took during our senior year." Twilight said. "That's one too many times, Flash. It can't be a coincidence." she rushed to a board on her wall, just like the one she had at Crystal Prep, it was filled with pictures. Some were her old ones from Canterlot High. She took a note she had on her desk and placed yet another picture on the wall. 
"So, you really think that the magic's coming back?" Flash asked. "After all this time?"
"I don't think it was ever really gone to begin with." Twilight said, and noticing the questionable expression on his face, she showed him what she had concluded. She theorized it for a long time, and this last dream concluded her hypothesis. 
"From what I gathered, the magic didn't disappear… it relocated." she pointed her finger at the picture on her wall. A place she and Flash had not been to since they were seventeen.
Camp Everfree.



(~)