Twilight found herself floating in the middle of nowhere. There was only darkness as far as the eyes could reach. Twilight tried to look as far as possible, hoping to find somepony, but it was useless.
As time passed Twilight tried to understand where she was, while calling for help, but it never came.
"Hello? Anypony here?" She asked many times, but all without any kind of answer.
Twilight started to feel something. Something from deep inside her heart. She felt fear, and as time passed the fear grow stronger, until a blind, black light appeared and involved Twilight, making her close her eyes.
When she oppened them, she saw herself in what seemed to be a throne room, but one that she had never been before. The walls were black, with shades of deep red and deep blue, next to several stained glass windows, all showing different moments in equestria's history.
None about the light moments, when harmony had won against darkness, but about the most darkness and hopeless moments, the rise of Nightmare Moon, Tirek's strike against the two sisters, discord's kingdom of chaos, and right above the throne was the image of king Sombra. After seeing that, Twilight felt a shiver ran down her spine, she turned back but saw nothing.
When she turned again to face the throne she saw a black shadow sitting in the throne. It had the form of a unicorn, but it looked like it was made of fire, as small black flames floated from different parts of the shadow.
"Kin-King Sombra?! But how? We defeated you. How can you still be alive?!" Twilight said, confusion and fear in her voice. The shadow stayed in the throne, without any kind of reaction, his green eyes staring at Twilight.
Seeing that she wouldn't get any response from the shadow, Twilight started to walk towards it, but when she started to walk she felt something beneath her hooves. She ducked her head to see what it was, but when she saw it, her eyes were filled with horror. She flinched back, her face with an expression of horror.
Right there, in the groud, lied the lifeless body of princess Celestia. Her body had uncountable scars, her wings were without any feather, her mane and tail were no more in her body. Twilight turned back, trying to avoid the sight of the dead body of her mentor, but what she saw was even worst. Her family, her friends, everypony that she cared of were there, their bodies just like Celestia, horrible scars all over their bodies.
Once again Twilight felt fear inside her heart, but this time it was stronger, like it was trying to take control of Twilight. In that moment she heard a laugh coming from behind her.
She then turned slowly.
The shadow in the throne was laughing, his eyes were burning with a green fire, his body like a big ball of dark flames, and the more he laughed the bigger were the flames.
Twilight flinched back, fear spreading all over her body. The shadow moved it's hoof and stared at Twilight, his eyes looking directly at Twilight's soul. He smirked as he saw the fear spreeding inside her.
With a move of his hoof he hit the ground, making the earth shake. Immediately shadows from all the corners of the room gathered above him. The shadows fused with it other and took the form of a monster. One that Twilight never saw, and wished never to saw again.
The beast was 5 meters tall, with blood red eyes and a pair of twisted horns in it's head. It stared at Twilight, who was pretrified with fear. He laughed once again, and ordered in a muffed voice, "Kill her".
The beast jumped in Twilight's direction, it's mouth wide open showing millions of sharp teeths, while Twilight screamed, "AAAAHHHHH!!!!"
Twilight waked up in her bed. She was sweating and breathing heavily. As she looked around she found herself back at her bedroom.
"A nightmare," Twilight said to herself, "but it felt so real. Maybe I should talk to princess Luna about it." Twilight hopped out of her bed, after another look on her bedroom to have certain that it wasn't a dream, she went out and walked to the stairs. When she reached it she saw all her friends in the library.
"Good morning every-" Twilight started but stopped as she saw that her friends were all staring at something. With a flap of her wings she went down the stairs. When she landed she turned her face to where her friends were staring, and froze at what she saw.
A black unicorn was sitting in front of one of the bookshelves with an opened book floating in the grasp of a black aura. Suddenly he closed the book, rose and walked to an empty space on the shelf. The book then floated and slid into the empty space, where once it was. With a sigh the unicorn started to search for more books when he got sight of 7 ponies and a baby dragon, all staring at him.
Suddenly he found his face nose-to-nose with a pink pony.
"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie. Who are you? What are you doing here? Where are you from? Are you knew in town? That means I need to throw a part of welcome to you! Do you like cakes? Of course you -", Pinkie stopped as she was pulled back to where a white unicorn was standing, a blue aura around her tail.
"Pinkie, dear," Rarity started, "you can't run in the face of other ponies without warning, this is not polite", she said as Pinkie crossed her hooves.
"Sorry for my friend," Rarity said as she trotted towards the unicorn, "she can get a little excited when she meets somepony new. My name is Rarity and-"
"I know" He interjected, while all the others frozen in place.
"You know what, dear?" Rarity asked raising an eyebrow.
"I know you. You are Rarity the element of generosity" He said, then turned his head to Pinkie.
"You are Pinkie Pie, the element of laughter", and then he turned to the others standing behind.
"You are Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Princess Twilight, the elements of honesty, loyalty, kindness and magic" He said shortly before he turned to Spike and Starlight
"You are Spike the number 1 assistant of Twilight, and the one who beat King Sombra, and you must be Starlight the student of princess Twilight", after saying that he turned to face Twilight and bowed in respect.
"Your highness"
Twilight blushed, but caught herself, "please, you don't have to bow, I don't like formalities."
"I'm sorry, your hig- "
"You can call me Twilight" She interjected. He rose his head and nodded.
"Alright mister... What is your name?" Twilight said, looking at the unicorn, who blinked.
"Oh, right, I forgot to introduce myself", he said. "My name is Nightmare Lock", he said while stepping a little back and putting his right hoof in front of his body, then bowing his head.
The girls looked at each other with the mention of the name Nightmare, but Twilight looked at them and shook her had, telling them not to do anything, specially Dash.
"Well, mister Nightmare, what are you doing here?" Twilight asked.
"On truth, I don't know" Twilight frowned as she heard that, "I don't remenber of much thing. The last thing I remenber is wakin up in the middle of the night right here. I got sight of those bookshelves and I couldn't resist not to read one of them, and so I started to ready one after the other until I ended all of them and saw you staring at me."
Twilight and her friends were looking at him in disbelief.
"Alright," Starlight chuckled and started to trot in his direction, "we like jokes, but we want to know the truth."
"I'm telling you the truth", he replied.
"Well, that is impossible. No one can read all those books in one day, not even Twilight. And you are saying that you read everyone in one night?" she asked, criticism in her voice.
"Look, I am not lying, and I can prove," he said, "second shelf, fifth shelf starting from the floor, third book, The elements of Harmony and the Magic of Equestria - by Star Swill the Bearded. You can check it if you want." Nightmare said.
Starlight got close to where Nightmare had said and with her magic she pulled the book that was pointed. When she read the tittle she gasped.
"You are right!" She said, shortly before turning to face him. "How did you know?"
"I said it already. I read all the books", Nightmare replied.
"This is amazing" Twilight said, almost like a whisper.
"Uhm, Twilight" Fluttershy said, getting tha atention of all the ponies, what made she flinch.
"What is it Fluttershy?" Twilight asked
"Where is that black bubble of yesterday?"
"I was going to ask that." Spike said, as all the others nodded.
"What are you talking about, the bubble is right th-", Twilight started but froze, as she didn't found the bubble. She looked frantically to all the sides of the room trying to find it, but the bubble was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is it?!" Twilight screamed as she runned from side to side of the room.
"Hold on sugarcube," Applejack said as she stopped Twilight, "it must be somewhere here."
"Twilight?" Raimbow said, as everyone turned to her.
"What is it Rainbow?" Twilight asked
"I don't want to be the one telling the obvious, but, wasn't there a pony inside that bubble?"
Everyone is eyes oppened wide as they caught what Rainbow was trying to say, then turned to Nightmare.
"There is only one way to know" Twilight stated as she got closer to Nightmare.
"What?" He asked confused.
"Uhm, could I take a look at your left side, please?" Twilight asked, the most politely ever possible.
"Uhm, of course?" He answered, a little unsure about that.
He turned slowly to the right, showing his left side. As he stopped, Twilight got close and started to search something. As she ducked her head, she got sight of what she was searching for.
"Guys, come here" she said. Shortly after, all the others gathered around Nightmare. Twilight then gestured to a spot at Nightmare is side, right under his left armpit. When they turned to face it they saw a wound, like a big slash. But it didn't look as a recent one, but as an old one. On truth the mark was more a scar than a wound.
Suddenly the room was filled by a blinding light. As the light faded away, it revealed the image of 4 ponies.
"My sincere apologies for our delay Twilight" Celestia said as she, Luna, Cadance and Shining Armor trotted in the direction of the group.
"Twilight, I know that now isn't a good moment but we couldn't let Flurry back in the Crystal Empire alone, so we needed to bring-" Shining started, but stopped as he cought sight of the black unicorn in the middle of the group.
"Who is your friend Twilight?" Cadance asked, as she walked to the unicorn.
"Hello, my name is Prince-" she started, but was cutted by Nightmare.
"You are princess Mi Amore Cadance, wife of Shining Armor, the older brother of prince-, Twilight. And the former ruler of the Crystal empire." He said as he bowed in signal of respect.
Cadance froze from the sudden discharge of knowledge. She blinked a few times and stepped back due to the shock. Nightmare quickly raised his head and tried to apologise but found a pink filly on top of his head.
He chuckled and said, "and you must be Flurry Heart."
Flurry Heart hopped from his head and started to fly around him, but was caught in a white bubble that floated towards Shining and Cadance.
"Sorry for this. My daughter can be a little hyperactive sometimes" Shining said as he put Flurry on his back.
"It's alright" Nightmare replied.
"So, will you introduce your new friend to us?" Luna asked as she got close to the group.
"Of course!" Twilight said as she trotted to the royal sisters. "Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Cadance, Shinning, this is Nightmare Lock" she said.
An awkward silence started as the name Nightmare was said. Twilight chuckled nervously while she waited for a reaction of the royal ponies.
"I know what you are thinking," Nightmare interjected while walking to the royal sisters, making them snap from their shock state, "but I am not related to Nightmare Moon."
"My apologies Nightmare, it's only that I didn't expect to find another pony with this name." Celestia said
"It's alright your highness", he said.
Princess Celestia nodded and turned to Twilight, "I think we have some work to do, don't we?" She asked.
"About that" Twilight started as Celestia rose an eyebrow, "I think you should see something." She said while turning to Nightmare.
"Could you please show your left side, again, Nightmare?" She asked
"Alright, but I still don't get it" He said while turning to show his left side.
Twilight gestured for the princess to get close and look to where she was pointing. She pointed to a spot under Nightmare's left armpit, where the scar was.
"What is it sister?" Luna asked as she got close to Celestia and Twilight. When she saw the scar she jumped back, as she remenbered the pool of blood on the ruins.
"Princess Luna," Nightmare asked while turning to Luna and getting close to her "are you alright?"
"Yes, I am. It is only that I remenbered of something." She answered
"Well, I think that this part of the mystery is solved, but we still need to know what happened in the castle, and how he got there in the first place." Celestia said shortly after turning to Nightmare.
"Nightmare, could you please tell us what happened last night?"
"I am sorry your highness, but I don't remenber of much thing. Only that I waked up here in the middle of the night." He said, his ears drooping.
"It's alright, but yet we need to find out what happened last night" she said.
Suddenly a little growl caught everyone is attention. They turned to Twilight whose face was bright red.
"What?" She asked a little ashamed, "I didn't eat anything since I woke".
Most of the ponies laughed hearing it. Celestia chuckled, and Shinning tsked because of his sister, while Nightmare stayed calm and stopped the hilarious moment saying "It was my fault that you couldn't have your breakfast, so I will fix it. I am going to cook the best breakfast that you ever had Twilight" He proudly stated.
This time only Dash laughed of what was said, but quickly received a sharp gaze from Applejack. Nightmare frowned from the laugh, but stopped as Twilight got close to him.
"This isn't your fault Nightmare, and I know you want to help, but," Twilight stoopped while putting a hoof on her neck.
"But?" Nightmare asked raising an eyebrow.
"Not wanting to be rude, but, I don't think you know how to cook. You have got amnesia, and I don't think there was some kind of recipe on those books." She stated.
"Twilight, I may not have all my memories, but I still remember some things about myself, that I can guarantee. And I know I'm a good cook. Now, if you could gently show me where is the kitchen, I will make you your breakfast. I insist." He replied.
Twilight sighed, but nodded, "Spike could you show the kitchen to Nightmare?"
"Alright" Spike said. As he walked to the door he gestured for Nightmare to follow him.
"If you all want, I could make breakfast for everypony" Nightmare said.
"This sounds as a good ideia for me." Cadance stated as she, Shinning and Flurry started to walk towards the door, following Spike and Nightmare.
"Well, I don't intend to decline an offer made by a gentlecolt" Rarity stated.
"Ah think this is a good idea, too" Applejack said.
"If it isn't any trouble for him" Fluttershy said most like a whisper.
Rainbow and Pinkie didn't said anything, in place of it they departed as fast as a bullet train in the direction of the kitchen to see who would pick the first place.
The others started to walk to the door with Twilight and Luna right behind them.
"Princess Luna, may I ask you a question?" Twilight asked
"Of course Twilight" Luna replied
"Well, last night I had a dream, and King Sombra appeared in it." She started
"King Sombra? What would he be doing in your dream?" Luna asked in confusion
"It was most like a nightmare. He was there, and we were in a throne room that I never saw, and you were all dead, and I tried to fight him, but a monster appeared and tried to kill me, I shouted and waked up." Twilight said as fast as Pinkie, maybe even faster.
"Wow, wait Twilight" Luna started, "I can't help you if you don't calm down and tell me exactly what happened." She stopped and waited Twilight to nod.
"Now, could you start from the commence?"
"Alright," she took a big breth and started, "I was floating in the middle of nowhere, when...."