Twilight decided to tell her friends about her vision the next time she sees them. Luckily, the Council of Friendship was set to convene tomorrow at noon. Thus, with that handled, she enjoyed the rest of the festival without worry. The next day, after her morning briefings and dealing with minor noble complaints, her friends arrived as they always did every moon.
"Hey, Twilight! Hey, Spike!" said Pinkie as she hopped in, "I managed to get Pound and Pumpkin to babysit Little Cheese for me today."
"Afternoon, darlings," Rarity said as she trotted in, "The festival yesterday was oh, so fun, Pinkie Pie. You really outdid yourself there."
"Wish we could've been there," Rainbow says as she flies in, with her wife, Applejack, walking alongside her.
"Yeah, but you know how busy it can get down on the farm," continues Applejack.
Then, a portal appears, where Fluttershy and Discord exit as it closes behind them. "How's everypony doing?" asks Fluttershy. Everyone responds positively to the question, except Twilight.
"What's wrong, Princess? Have a bad dream or something?" asks Discord. Twilight sighs and begins explaining the vision she had to the Council. All of them become clearly disturbed at the insinuations of the vision.
"Oh my, that sounds terrifying," says Fluttershy, "It makes me shudder to think how many creatures it would take to cover the castle like that."
"Why didn't you tell me this yesterday, Twilight?" asks Spike.
"I didn't want to worry you and ruin the festival for you, Spike," responds Twilight, "And honestly, I didn't know what to think of it myself and I'm still struggling to figure out what it means."
"Well if it's evil, we'll just take it out like we always do," boasted Rainbow Dash.
"Quite," said Rarity, "if we nip this in the bud, we won't have to worry about it later."
"Yup!" responded Applejack, "I may be getting old, but I can still hogtie a baddie as well as I used to."
"Oh!" exclaimed Pinkie, "And if the Castle is still restored, we can celebrate its own return!"
"Looks like we're all in agreement," said Twilight, "Spike, stay here in case anything happens."
"Yes, ma'am!" Spike saluted.
"And I'll man the fort back at the animal sanctuary," Discord said, donning a military uniform, making Fluttershy giggle.
"Okay, dear," responded Fluttershy, "keep the animals safe and fed while I'm gone." With that, Discord portals out.
"Alright, let's go, girls," Twilight said as she charged her teleportation spell.
...
"Darling, is everything alright?" asked Rarity.
Twilight looked shocked at the fact her spell failed. "I can't teleport to the castle," she said.
"Why not?!" yelled Rainbow.
"I don't know," responded Twilight, "Hang on, let me try..,"
*POP*
"Here we are!" Twilight exclaimed, teleporting them to the rope bridge right before the castle.
Crossing the bridge, they came upon a restored castle. "Whoa," said Rainbow in awe of the structure, "So, this is where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna lived a thousand years ago?"
"Yes," responded Twilight, currently searching the area with her magic, "I saw this version of the castle back when the Plunderseeds were becoming a problem."
"What are you doing, Twilight?" asked Applejack.
"Searching for- AH HA!" exclaimed Twilight, blasting magic at a spot, where two runic rings, one green and one yellow, that surround the castle rise up for inspection, "-these."
"What are they?" asks Fluttershy.
"These are magic circles meant to bind spells to locations. The green one holds powerful temporal magic, which is why the castle is back. That yellow one is what was preventing me from teleporting here. It seems like nopony can teleport into or out of the ring, but..." she continues as she teleports to the front double doors, "it doesn't seem like it'll restrict us that much."
Everypony walked into the foyer, where they see that the Treehouse of Harmony still stands, somewhat crumbling the surrounding walls with its foliage. "Well, it doesn't look like the castle will be 100% back, not if the Treehouse has anything to say about it," said Rainbow as she flies ahead and goes behind the tree, "Uhh, girls. You might want to come see this."
The girls quickly catch up, seeing what Rainbow has spotted. Behind the Treehouse is a strange symbol. It consisted of seven right triangles with notches in the right angle corners set in such a way that it looked like a star with a heptagon center. A broken circle surrounded the notches, but not the points, and strange runes were drawn within the circle between the points. The symbol was obviously drawn in blood. Twilight tried to identify what this symbol meant or what magic it held, but to no avail. Each time, she would get mixed signals, ranging from a harmless parlor trick to a world ending cataclysm. Something didn't want the truth of this symbol to be found out.
"Alright girls," Twilight said, "Split up and search for clues."
Most of the search came up fruitless. Team AppleDash noticed that a suit of armor had gone missing, while Twilight and Rarity found a bed in the room of the tallest tower was recently slept in and messy. "Ugh," Rarity scoffs as she makes the bed, "whoever this human is, they should at least make their bed in the morning."
"NOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Pinkie?!" Twilight shouted, teleporting her and Rarity to Pinkie and Fluttershy, "What's wrong?!"
"What monster would do this to a poor, defenseless organ!" Pinkie wailed.
The organ room was where the most disturbances were. The organ had been dismantled and rebuilt into crude worktables. One of them having the missing armor on it, but with noticeable pieces missing. Two circles, a long strip, and a stubby strip had been cut out of the armor.
After calming Pinkie Pie down. The search parties convened in the throne room.
"Something's definitely living here, girls," concluded Twilight.
"But where is it?" asked Fluttershy.
"I don't know. Guess we'll just have to wait for-" Twilight started, but was then interrupted by a deafening roar that shook the castle.
"What in Equestria was that?!" yelled Rarity.
Twilight, looking worried just says, "Reginald..."
"Who?" asks Rainbow.
"The only dragon that lives in the Everfree Forest, and he sounds angry..." responded Twilight.
"Should we go help him?" asks Fluttershy.
"Reginald is a difficult case. He's an independent dragon who doesn't even acknowledge Ember as the Dragon Lord. I tried to show him the Magic of Friendship before, but he only seems concerned with sleeping with his hoard. He might attack us if we approach" laments Twilight.
"So, what do you suggest we do, Twilight? Just leave him to have his temper tantrum?" asked Applejack.
Twilight ponders the options set before her...