The sky was stained with blood, not a sun, moon, or even a star in sight. Nothing but blood red skies and black, shadowy clouds.
Next to the sea of darkness, upon the desert of bones, they fought. Two sides, locked in conflict.
The Crystal Knights who hailed from the frozen wasteland were outnumbered ten to one by the strange, robed Ponies who had emerged from the forest of corpses. However, they were slaughtering them. Every swing of their crystal blades parted another one of the robed ponies, who did not bleed or even cry out, but instead were reduced to dust that added onto the desert of bones.
However, slowly, the sheer numbers of them was beginning to overwhelm the Crystal Knights. Commanding the army was twelve unicorns were dressed in more ceremonial robes, their faces hidden behind stone masks. They released barrages of strange magic that killed everything that it touched, slaughtering the Crystal Knights by the dozens.
There was a sound behind her, she turned. From the frozen wasteland, another Crystal Knight emerged, blade raised...
... and swung down, parting her head from her neck.
Rarity's eyes shot open and she sat up in her bed, gasping for breath. Her entire body and her bed was drenched in perpetration.
She put a hoof to the side of her head, then to her heart, trying to slow her pulse down as she gasped for breath.
"What is with these dreams?" Rarity whispered as she slowly calmed down. They were just getting worse!
Rarity looked to the window and saw the moon was still high in the night sky. It looked be somewhere between eleven and midnight. She sighed as she got up from the bed, feeling icky from her sweat and planning on changing the sheets and taking a long shower.
However, when she tried to get up, she just end up falling flat on her own face with a loud thud.
"What the?" Rarity muttered as she tried to stand, but couldn't. It took several tries before she finally realized what was wrong.
"I... I can't feel my hooves!" She realized. The lack of feeling had become a complete numbness to the sense of touch. She kept falling, because she expected to feel the floor and kept trying to adjust instinctually, which was causing her to fail over and over again.
It took several tries before she was able to figure out how to stand properly, and a dozen more before she could actually walk. She wondered if this was what it was like to walk on stilts?
She got the hang of it... eventually. Doing things like changing the sheets was a bit of chore, and since she couldn't feel the damp sheets, she wondered if she really need to?
"Of course you do, silly." Rarity muttered to herself as she struggled through it.
She then took a shower, and found that even if she turned it on maximum heat or cold, she couldn't feel anything. So, seeing no reason to raise the hot water bill if she couldn't actually enjoy the hot water, she turned it to ice cold, and washed up with out much issue. It was actually quite boring, to take a shower when you couldn't even feel the water running through your mane and down your coat.
She then made her way back to her bed, but found herself restless, unable to sleep. She must of laid there for almost thirty minutes, and eventually she realized she wouldn't be falling asleep.
So, instead, she made her way downstairs, and finally pulled the gemstone from her pack, setting it on a table after brushing some sewing stuff off and setting it on the center.
"What are you?" She mumbled, reaching out and rubbing a hoof down its beautiful surface. She heard the crackle of electrical shocks, and quickly pulled her hoof back. Just because she couldn't feel anything at the moment didn't mean she wasn't being hurt by it.
Rarity pulled out a magnifying glass, and stared into the gemstone, ito the swirling red and blue light within it. As she did, her head began to pound slightly, and her vision warped and contorted...
She stood before a grand altar of darkness. In front of her was a large stone table, and resting on a small pillow on the table was a dark purple gemstone.
All around her countless cages, suspended by strong black chains, and within each cage was four or five Crystal Ponies. Some were soldiers, others were clearly not.
She felt the air grow cold as the air grew thick with the sickly stench of decayed flesh and embalming fluid. A sense of dread and melancholy descended upon the room, yet she wasn't afraid, for she knew there wasn't any reason for her to be afraid, at least.
In front of her, the shadows seems to grow and contort, and a being suddenly towered over her. A massive goat with glowing blue eyes that had trails of green fire erupting from them, dressed in dark robes made of decaying skin and a large black bell attached to a color around his neck. The Crystal Ponies all screamed horsely and tried to back away as far as they could in their cages from the monsterous goat, who grinned at the stench of their fear, revealing countless fangs.
"I Bless You, Oh Speaker Of My Will. I Bless You, So You May Now Go Out And Carry Out My Will.
I Grant You Power Of The Cold And Over The Afflictions Of The Flesh...
I Grant You Fellowship Within The Dark...
I Grant You Dominion Over The Dead!!!"
The Crystal Ponies all screams for a second, letting out what became little more that chocked cries of pain. Then, they all began to glow red and were seemingly liquified into blood red light. The light shot up, and into the gemstone before her, which greedily sucked up the life and agony of everyone of them.
"I Grant You Ascension! I Remake You In Death's Image! Rise, Lich! Rise, Priestess Of Allure!"
A wave of searing agony washed over her, and a blue light was pulled from within her, and into the gemstone before her. She felt her body changing, transforming as the dark power filled her. Felt her bones breaking and remaking themselves, felt her blood chill as it became something else entirely...
Rarity shook her head, trying to make sense of what happened as she took a step back from the gemstone.
"What was that?" Rarity whispered. "It felt... It felt so real."
She shuddered as she remembered the expressions in the Crystal Ponies faces, the fear, the sounds they made when they were liquified in what ever horrid spell that strange goat monster had cast.
She looked at the gemstone again, slowly crept towards it. She held it up to her face once more, staring this time at the red light.
At first, there was nothing. However, for just a moment, she could of sworn she saw a face form within the swirling light.
The face of a pony, screaming in agony and fear.