Zecora shuddered as she felt her coat bristle. A sudden gust of icy cold wind passed over her, carrying with it wild chaotic magics most foul. Instinctually She scanned her surroundings, the quiet and calm of the Everfree remained absolute. As She was about to return to the east and to her home, some part of her whispered of incoming danger and dark magic. However, just as suddenly as the sensation came, it faded. The Zebra found herself unable to stop herself from shuddering in dread. In all her years living in the dark and chaotic everfree forest, she had never felt anything like that.
Barely a half-hour walk from the lone zebra lay the castle of the two sisters. The vast ruin practically hidden in the heart of the Everfree forest. The former bastion of Equestrian royalty's great walls long since crumbled to rubble. Despite that, in some twist of fate, all that remained standing was the first section to face annihilation. The central palace of Equestria, former home to Princess Celestia and her long-forgotten sister Princess Luna. The once-grand throne room had long since been abandoned, the battle between the sisters resulting in great holes punched through its lavishly decorated arched ceiling. At the room's peak, partially built into the wall, lay the remains of two thrones. One of the purest marble, scorched and blacked. The entire upper portion of the throne and the wall behind it were destroyed during the great battle that had unfolded. Beside it, carved of granite as dark as the night sky, lay another throne of equal size and grandeur. It had not suffered the violent fate of its sibling. Instead, it remained intact, defiant against the passage of time.
This throne room had been untouched for decades since the last intrepid explorer braved the Everfree to gaze upon the site of one of Equestria's darkest moments. However, it was not to be unoccupied for long. The air inside the room shivered and rippled, as magic gathered in the air before two swirling vortexes burst to life. The twin maelstrom of wild magic grew in size and severity until out of them burst two shapes. With simultaneous cries of pain, the shapes impacted the hard stone, bouncing and hurtling in opposite directions.
One shape, light blue in colour, crashed into the rotted remains of a once beautiful tapestry, both collapsing to the floor in a heap. Meanwhile, the black shape impacted a wall with a sickening snap before coming to rest on the floor. With its chest rising and falling rapidly as it inhaled. For the first time in one thousand years, the Royal Canterlot Voice had been used within the castle of the two sisters. As a pained wail echoed throughout the Everfree forest, sending flocks of birds fleeing from their tree branches.
Having now returned to her cabin, Zecora's ears pressed to her head in pain as the glass of her windows rattled. The wail stopped almost as soon as it had started, leaving the crushing silence of the forest to settle in once more. In the sudden quiet, Zecora rose to her hooves. Her eyes were drawn out of the window, towards the centre of the forest.