The sun shined on its zenith, shininging brightly over the peak of mountain Canterhorn where the white city of Canterlot was set upon, basking the city with radiance and warmth as it was a day of celebration for all Equestria.
Canterlot currently was in a busy day as trains from all directions passed by to the station and airships from across the land docked in the port to receive the arrival of important dignitaries of every corner of the land and beyond.
It was a day to celebrate, as ponies of all races and regions reunited around the main plaza in front of the castle, all and each one of them filling a space inside to the brim that even Pegasi ponies had to bring cumulus of clouds to serve as benches to sit on in order to make room. Everypony was gathered to hear a message of great importance and revelation.
Ponies were curious and eager to hear what news would the royal diarchs would bestow upon them that had to bring about all of Equestria in one single place. Those who stood closer to the edge of the balcony where the friends and family of the well known Princess of Friendship, smiling warmly directly to the mulberry Alicorn.
Twilight Sparkle glanced around her and saw the many known faces she befriended from all around Equestria. Alongside her in the balcony, close to the edge of the rail were Celestia, her mentor and closest friend, along with her sister Luna, who she had began to admire as much as Celestia herself, and Princess Cadence, standing with their royal robes and official crowns as they showed their pride and joy through smiles. something that Twilight wasn’t sure of was how they seemed, rather it was admiration or devotion, Twilight wasn’t sure of what it was initially.
She too noticed that she was dressed in her own royal dress, the one she had last time for her coronation. She was excited, but she didn’t know why or for what reason she was supposed to be. She tried to recall the reason they were all celebrating, but none came to her mind, along with the fact that she never received any kind of invitation or information that required her presence that afternoon.
“Citizens of Equestria! Heed to our word, for we have great news to deliver for all those present!” Luna’s Canterlot Voice was heard for everypony around, interrupting Twilight’s thoughts, deciding to pay attention to the announcement that both Royal Pony Sisters had to say. Once Luna spoke those words she soon stepped aside to make way for Celestia to stand forward to the huge crowd that was massed below, along with those that were near the balcony from inside the castle.
The white alicorn gave a look around her and addressed to the audience. “My little ponies, we have gathered you all here today so that we can commemorate this day as the beginning of a new golden age for Equestria!” Celestia began, glancing around the multitude of ponies who had cheered in excitement from the moment that Celestia began her speech. Twilight felt amazed by how Celestia could rally the crowd, her words were nothing but awe inspiring to each and everypony, every single one of them paying attention to the words as if they could bring the promise of a better life throughout the entire land. But for the mulberry alicorn there was this strange nagging feeling of not knowing what they were celebrating bothered her in someway. Glancing to her friends, she tried to lean closer to them to ask about it, but once she noticed how attentive they all have been over the speech Celestia was still giving, she was a bit too embarrassed to distract them. ignoring what Celestia was speaking of, she still tried to look around and find somepony to talk to, but none of her relatives or friends took their eyes away from Celestia. None of them seemed to pay attention to Twilight at all, except for one figure from the furthest part of the balcony, near the rails.
The figure was completely dark, and no distinguishable features could be noticed from it that could resemble any other pony present. It was tall enough to tower over any average pony, it seemed that it could easily match Luna’s height.
Twilight could tell that this shadow figure was looking directly at her, even if she wasn’t able to tell where the eyes are or if it has facing where she currently was. She could feel it it was doing just so.
Celestia’s voice soon made Twilight refocus back to the end of the balcony, where the white alicorn had now stepped aside from her current place, as did Luna and Cadence, giving Twilight the signal to walk forward in between them and allow the ponies from around to watch her, “Last time, we had all been gathered to honor the coronation and ascension of Princess Twilight Sparkle. Now, we are here to celebrate her conquest of all ponykind and receive her title of queen of Equestria!” Twilight blinked, utterly surprised as she glanced at Celestia with with an expression of baffled surprise written all over her face. She was at the rail of the balcony as the alicorn of the sun exclaimed with glee, “We celebrate the ascension of Queen Twilight Sparkle, our new ruler and sole sovereign!”
“All hail Queen Twilight Sparkle! May her rule over the land last forever!” Luna shouted as well,soon the voices of thousands of ponies shouted in unison from below as they all cheered for their newest monarch and undoubtedly new queen.
Twilight didn’t know what was happening around her, but she soon felt a shift of weight on her body, soon finding out that her royal garments had changed into something more elaborate and bigger. Even her modest crown had become bigger, with more gems encrusted, and several ornaments adorned it. Twilight began panicking, turning around and could notice that all her friends and family had soon bowed low on the floor in submission before her, as if they acknowledged her as their superior and unquestionable ruler. The whole scene made Twilight soon realize what was happening. She now remembered what they were celebrating and why they acted like this before her.
She had conquered the hearts and minds of all the world.
The shadow that was standing from behind everything soon walked towards Twilight, passing by the ponies around her, and she stopped closer to the mulberry alicorn as she bowed her head, “My debt is now paid, Queen Twilight. Please enjoy what I have given to you,” the voice was soft like a mare and composed and regal as a noble, but Twilight couldn’t recognized from who it belonged to. Twilight was scared to make a reply. She felt overwhelmed as she closed her eyes tightly to vanish the scenery that was happening around her..
Twilight soon woke up.
Jumping from the bed and breathing heavily, the mulberry unicorn looked around her room, and soon enough confirmed it was as dark and empty as before she went to sleep. “That dream again,” she mumbled before rising up from the bed and turning on the light of her lamp. She approached her personal desk and pulled out a small purple journal that had on the cover a thought cloud connected to a sleeping pony: Twilight’s journal of dreams.
She opened it to a clean page and picked up the quill with her magic. With a single dip into the inkpot, Twilight began to write, “Fourth day of the week, the dream has changed once more from the last time I began this journal. This particular dream changed from me becoming the ruler of all the land of ponyville to the sole sovereign of the entire kingdom of Equestria. I haven’t found out why the dream is growing more ambitious every night I get to dream, and yet, I still fail to change it to a different way I desire,” she said out loud, writing everything on the pages of the journal, before stopping to dab her quill on the inkpot once more and resuming her writing.
“The dream itself has me being in charge of ponies that have no sense of will or free thinking as they all looked at me with expecting eyes of total submission towards me, and I usually end up lost in what to do, which prompts the dark figure to speak to me. The entity ends up saying the same line before I wake up,” she wrote it all down and took a deep breath to ease her mind as she read what she had written and mulled over the content once more before deciding to write more.
”I also came to the conclusion that the dream stays the same, no matter how I try to change the course of it. If I try to imagine some other kind of event happening, it drives back to the original, or I end up waking up,” she stopped, an idea having crossed her mind as she wrote down the thought, “Would the reason behind these scenes be my own fault? The dreams had somewhat bewitched me with an unknown desire that I have never experienced, and it is strange, since I have never had such thoughts before.” She wrote down the part with a worry as she consider that the sole idea would corrupt her mind in a possible future if she continued dreaming.
Twilight shook her head and closed her dream journal and got off her chair, still shaken from the dream she decided to head to the kitchen to ease her heart with a cup of jasmine tea. She walk down the halls of her castle and reached the stairs to turn around to her objective once near the kitchen the noise of rattling of pots from inside the room and decided to peak inside, finding Spike struggling to reach the upper shelves with a stack of stools and a broom to reach it.
“Spike, what are you doing?” the alicorn asked, causing the little drake shout in surprise and to almost lose his balance before turning around and watch Twilight by the door.
“Uhm, hey Twilight… I was just going for a midnight snack, yeah something simple before going back to sleep.” He explained, climbing down the stools, his hands were fidgeting as he tried to not look that much nervous about being caught.
Twilight raised an eyebrow and smiled, “more like a night raid to the jade chips cookies,“ she joked, levitating the cookie jar from the shelve and giving Spike two cookies for him and walks to the stove to lighten it up, in order to prepare her tea.
Spike was beaming in delight, enjoying the cookies with every bite, “so… Why are you up this late?” He was now curios, using the stool to reach to her level. “It’s that dream you had last night, right?” He guessed, licking his claws clean from the sugary taste of the gems.
Twilight mulled over the idea of telling him about and decided to let him know, “tonight was even worse though…” she admitted, keeping an eye on the teapot as it slowly began to boil.
“Woah, really?” the surprise in his face was evident as he decided to eat his second cookie to keep himself from overreacting. “I thought it was already bad that you told me how everypony in the town began to treat you like a total princess Princess Platinum and how you described how all your friends had to wear uniforms that displayed your cutiemark to show their undeniable loyalty towards you.”
“Well, this one was far much worse, that is for sure,” Twilight complained, levitating a teacup towards her. “Tonight’s dream was me becoming the sole unquestinable ruler of all of Equestria and every single pony bowing to my power.”
“The way you phrase it makes it sound awesome though,” Spike pointed out, giving the last bite on his cookie and swallowing it. “I mean, not that you could be that power hungry but it sounds like you could do that in a whim.” He wiped the crumbs of his mouth sighed in satisfaction.
Twilight groaned rather loud, pouring the tea to her cup with her magic and gave a stern glare at his protege, “I don’t find that amusing in any way, Spike, taking control of a pony’s free will isn’t an amusing idea, no matter what.” She scolded looking rather upset at the comment Spike made.
Spike cringed as she looked away in shame as he scratches the back of his head, “Yeah, sorry about that, it’s just that I’ve been reading the recent Power Ponies comic and they have this new villain that has taken control of almost all the ponies of Maretropolis for hr personal army to defeat the Power Ponies,” smiling weakly he turned up to see Twilight once more.
The glare on Twilight’s eyes soften somewhat as she lifted her cup to her muzzle and allowing the smell to ease her mind from getting angry, “That’s the difference Spike, the character is a villain, somepony to that takes advantage of her powers for evil purposes, or immoral acts, you know that I would never dare myself to do that to anypony at all,” She gave a sip of the tea and let the warm liquid pass down her throat to bring her comfort. “it’s just crazy to think that would happen.”
Spike smiled, knowing well that Twilight spoke of a valid point, “yeah, you are way more goody, goody horseshoes to do anything that a mere villain could do.”
Twilight gave a flat stare but decided not to voice her opinion about his comment, thus deciding to drink her tea and remain quiet for the moment.
Spike was in thought and walked next to Twilight with curiosity, “isn’t it strange though?” He asked, receiving a curious glance from his caretaker. “That you have been dreaming the same dream for almost a week by now.”
That gave Twilight his words a thought, “well, according to Dreamwalkers by Nap Time, some dreams are an extension of our fantasies and visions of what we enjoy to do, others are more of a resemblance of our conscious when we feel guilt of what we did during the day,” Twilight began reciting the book by memory taking another sip of her tea. “But my dreams had something unusual on them. It is quite hard to tell but there was this mysterious figure that is in each of them that I have never seen before.” She began to contemplate on what possible way that the apparition happened to be.
Spike was now interested to hear more of the mysterious pony and leaned closer to Twilight, “Wouldn’t it be the Tantabus acting up again? Or maybe the pony of shadows!?” he guessed wildly, feeling concerned of what possible threat haunted Twilight.
The mulberry alicorn shook her head and calmed her little ward, “I can hardly think that any of those could be responsible since the tantabus was a creation from Princess Luna’s guilt and it was dissolved and the pony of shadows is something that Rainbow and Applejack invented just for their little bet they made for each other,” Twilight deduced as she was trying to think. “From my investigations on the matter, I can only have one theory that is solid enough to be close to a fact.”
“and that theory could be?” The little drake motioned with his hand to invite Twilight to share her ideas with him.
“Well, according to Nap Time, when we dream our consciousness takes form of places and ponies that we have met during our day time so basically we dream about ponies that we have met in our past but this dark pony is nothing that I have ever met or seen, so my theory is that my dream is perhaps a premonition of a possible future.” She ended with an elevation of her tone to make it sound ominous.
Spike could no longer hide his surprise and leapt closer, “That sound awesome!” he shouted jumping closer to Twilight’s muzzle. “So this dark being will help you become the ruler of Equestria… or perhaps take control over it, which I think is not cool.” he said as he noticed the mindful glare that his surrogate mother gave at him.
“I think we should go back to sleep,” She finally said, levitating Spike on her back and leaving to their respective bedrooms. “I won’t have more of this take over Equestria talk in the morning and, perhaps, afterwards I will visit Zecora to see if she has a potion for dreamless sleep just to avoid any of these bothersome visions.”
“Why not ask for Princess Luna to help you with this dream, perhaps she has a thing or two on how to deal with it?” Spike suggested.
“I guess we can make a letter in the morning too, if anything we might as well ask her to help un change the dream to a more pleasant one,” Twilight agreed on his idea as she walked up the stairs. “Because I would hate to know that you are right on that idea of yours and the Power Ponies.” Twilight joked, as she headed to the stairs and dropped Spike in front of his bedroom.
“Fine, fine,” Spike relented, holding his hands up his chest in surrender. “But you gotta admit it was a good idea.” He quipped before going inside his room.
Twilight rolled her eyes in a playful manner, “rest well, Spike, see you in the morning,” she wished before walking back to her bedroom.
~~***~~
Elsewhere.
A young unicorn stallion trotted down the streets of Canterlot under the same moonlight. His coat was in a pristine ivory color and his mane was in a golden tone, he also wore a blue tie that decorated his neck.
He was alone which was something unusual for him due to how he would never walk around without his escort of guards around him.
It wasn't something the stallion was accustomed to do but due to an invitation that caught his attention he dared himself to make a rendezvous alone in the lower districts of Canterlot under the covers of the moonlight.
He walks with an unsteady pace, gawking at every corner, not because it was unwelcome to the eye but because it represented, by his standards, a place beneath him in any way.
His eyes wander at every direction of the alleyway, he was no doubt nervous, to even jump in fright when a stray cat jumped out from a dumpster, hissing at the stallion, and running away. He shivered in disgust, deciding to ignore the minor incident and venture on.
“Ugh, the nerve to make me come here…” groaned the white stallion as he kicked a can aside before resuming his pacing through the darkness of the night. “why couldn't the letter say to meet at the finest restaurant or at least at the back of a theater.” He groaned as he continued forward.
It was until he saw the dark figure of a cloaked pony below a street lamp, from what the stallion was able to see was a horn protruding from the cloak that was his only indication that the stranger was definitely a unicorn. “You there, reveal yourself to me!” he demanded, stomping lightly on to the ground,
the mysterious figure remained immobile, ignoring the words of the white stallion before him, standing there and waiting.
The white stallion snarled as he marched directly to the figure before him, “you dare to ignore the words of your prince!?” he almost shouted, trying to avoid any onlookers to spot him. “I can have you incarcerated for this, you know?” The hope of a threat was to make the white stallion to take control of the situation more easier but the cloaked figure still remained in its place as if it did not have any care in the world.
The mysterious pony leaned its head up and from it spoke a few words, ”I must deliver the key…” the voice was soft and quite feminine from what could be heard. From the inside of the cloak an object floated, a wooden box of mahogany and encrusted sapphires and landed close to the feet of the white stallion. “the key has been delivered.” The cloaked pony began to move, turning around and walks away from the alleyway.
“Hey wait! what is this, what is this about a key!?” The stallion shouted, ignoring the box as he focused only at the leaving figure, that was ignoring the words of the stallion.
The stallion didn’t even bother to follow the unknown pony as he watched it leave into the darkness of the night, “the nerve of someponies,” he muttered, huffing in annoyance and returning to the box on the floor. He smiled widely as he eyed the box as if it was the most valuable thing in the world and soon enough had to levitate it to his side and soon bgen to trot back to his manor giggling like a schoolfilly all the way back. “Oh the things I have planned for you, my little Obsidian.”