“Gaaaaah!”
Sunny shot up in her bed, a cold sweat running down her body as she breathed at a frantic pace. Her vision was blurred, her hearing was muffled, and a raging headache wracked her mind. She gripped onto her covers, trying to gather herself as she frantically looked around the room.
Around her, each of her friends began to stir, each shooting up out of their resting places in a similar fashion. They each looked bewildered, wholly confused and discombobulated, taking time to try and gather themselves as well. They all took a minute to calm themselves, not a word uttered between the sextet of ponies for the time being.
Heaving air into her lungs, Sunny croaked. “Huff… S-Sorry! Did I wake you guys up?” She sighed. “I just had the craziest dream…”
“Huh, I can promise you whatever I just had is crazier,” Pipp mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
Hitch shook himself off, fidgeting with his blanket. “You
didn’t wake us up, Sunny. Well, at least not me. I had an…interesting dream too.”
“Yaaawn…” Izzy cooed, blinking slowly. “Same here! Did we all have wacky dreams?”
Misty sheepishly joined in, nervously covering the amulet around her neck. “S-so did I! I’ve never had one that felt so real!”
The group chattered amongst themselves, exchanging good mornings, complaints about their poor rest, and the like, but isolated alone in her own bed, Zipp remained quiet and observant. She tapped her chin with a hoof, piecing together something in her mind, before finally speaking up.
“Somethings wrong,” she started, gathering the group’s attention.
“Wrong? What’s wrong?” Pipp inquired.
Zipp moved her attention between her friends one by one. “You all had strange, realistic dreams. I had one too. Don’t you think it’s a bit weird we all had something like that?”
“Well, my dream had this weird ghostly figure in it!” Izzy chirped.
“So did mine!” the rest of the group suddenly exclaimed.
Hitch crossed his forelegs, glancing over at Zipp. “What did…what did your dream have?”
“I can remember it vividly, maybe too vividly.” Zipp looked down at herself, rubbing her hooves together. “There was this blue figure. She was super fast. But there was also this big, purple monster that showed up for a bit.”
“I saw that too!” Hitch exclaimed.
Misty nodded in agreement. “So did I. It was like a phantom or something.”
“Oh! Oh! I saw it too, but it was just a drawing of the thing!” Izzy chimed in.
Pipp shrugged. “I got a feeling of an entity similar to that, but it just happened to be a dress instead…”
Zipp eyed each of her friends as they spoke, pausing at Sunny as the earth pony remained silent. “Sunny? You okay?”
“Magic…” Sunny mumbled.
“Huh?” Zipp replied. “What’re you saying?”
“Magic,” Sunny clarified, perking up. “You all saw Magic. As in the Element of Magic—the spirit of it.”
Misty raised a brow. “But I thought magic was missing? Why would it be in our dreams?”
“Because something is wrong. Zecora made it seem that way,” Sunny furthered.
Zipp tilted her head. “Zehe-ko-ra? Who the hay is that?”
“I’ll get to that later,” Sunny replied, eyeing Zipp. “You had a blue figure in your dream right?”
“Well it was more of a cyan, but yes,” Zipp answered.
“Rainbow Dash…okay,” Sunny muttered. “You ended up with loyalty, so that adds up.”
Zipp didn’t question her, curious as to where Sunny was going with all of this.
“Hitch, what color was the figure in yours?” Sunny inquired.
Hitch tapped his chin, recalling his dream. “Orange.”
“Applejack, okay…” Sunny turned to Izzy. “Izzy?”
“Pink!”
“Pinkie Pie, check.” Sunny then glanced at Pipp. “And you?”
“White.”
“Rarity.” Sunny finally focused on Misty. “And…?”
“Yellow,” Misty hesitantly replied, before smiling. “She was really nice!”
“Fluttershy,” Sunny stated, rubbing her chin. “You each had a dream with one of the Elements of Harmony.”
Zipp shook her head. “What? Haven’t they been, well, to put it lightly, dead for years?”
“I mean the spirits of the Elements. Loyalty itself, generosity itself, etcetera, etcetera,” Sunny countered.
“Well that’s neat and all, but what was in your dream?” Izzy asked.
Sunny paused, a fearful shiver running down her spine as she recalled the most potent figure in her dream. Each time it showed up, it chased her, and it threatened her. All she knew was she saw it nonstop, and it terrified her to her core.
“Magic,” Sunny breathed, shuddering. “Magic was in mine.”
“So that’d be Twilight Sparkle, right?” Pipp asked. “Isn’t that amazing for you? I thought she was your hero!”
Sunny shook her head. “But it also wasn’t her. It was Magic, like I said. The Element itself. It was…angry.”
Zipp had since pulled out her notebook, already having jotted down an abundance of notes. “Angry? How so?”
“It said we made a mistake. It was mad at us, especially at me. It said we weren’t meant to reunite ponies, that we didn’t deserve to,” Sunny answered, watching as Zipp noted everything down. “It wanted to hurt me, but Zecora saved me.”
Hitch leaned forward, his curiosity taking over. “Zecora? You mentioned her before. Who is she?”
“She was a zebra that lived in ancient Equestria. Helped Twilight and her friends countless times. Though, in my dream she was a spirit.” Sunny hesitated, tapping her hoof against her thigh. “But she didn’t call it a dream. She said it was a vision, and that we were all chosen.”
“Chosen…” Zipp repeated, jotting down further notes. “So this has to do with the Elements then. If we all had a similar dream, and you said Zecora stated it wasn’t a dream, then there’s more to this.”
Pipp lifted the Element of Generosity up, tapping it. “These things are missing their spark, aren’t they? Do you think it relates to that?”
“Maybe…” Sunny started, turning her attention to Zipp. “I think we’ve got a lot to discuss. There may be something bigger than we ever thought going on here.”
Zipp nodded in agreement. “How about we make breakfast and all take note of our dreams? There’s a chance we can piece together some kind of lead or even an answer.”
“I’m all for breakfast! Dunno what was going on in that dre - er - vision, but it somehow left me absolutely famished!” Pipp exclaimed, rubbing her belly. “Do we still have that pancake mix, Sunny?”
“Yup, though there may not be enough for all of us,” Sunny replied, chuckling. “Still, oats and cereal are great too!”
Izzy scrambled out of bed, immediately bee-lining for the stairs. “Well if there’s only so much pancake mix left, then I’m getting first dibs!”
“Hey!” Hitch exclaimed, shooting out of his bed and chasing after the unicorn. “I want some too!”
Zipp rolled her eyes, rolling out of her bed and trotting towards the stairs. “I guess oats it is for me. C'mon guys, let’s wake up and get to researching over breakfast.”
Pipp gracefully left her mattress, cantering over towards her sister and heading down the stairs with her. Watching the two leave, Sunny slipped out of bed herself. Trotting towards the stairs, she paused, glancing back to see Misty still resting, clutching the amulet around her neck closely.
“Uh, Misty? You coming?” Sunny asked.
Misty blinked wildly, eyes going wide as she was snapped from some kind of deep thought. “O-oh! Yeah! J-just need a bit more time to wake up is all! My social battery is super weird in the morning! I’ll catch up!”
“Well, alright,” Sunny replied, making her way down the stairs. Calling out from below, she finished. “I’ll see if I can pry a pancake out of Izzy for you!”
“Thanks!” Misty yelled in response. She waited a few moments, making sure the rest of the ponies with her were out of earshot, before sighing. “Phew…”
She stood up, trotting over towards the furthest end of the room, as far away from anypony else as possible to ensure she could speak in secret. Hesitating for a moment, she tapped the amulet around her neck, tensing up as a cloud of purple mist bellowed out of it. Taking the form of a cloud before her, the mist revealed a familiar, menacing figure to Misty.
“And what took you so long to answer, Misty?” Opaline mumbled, glowering at her through the projection. “If you seriously want your cutie mark, then I’d suggest you be more punctual.”
Misty took a step back. “S-sorry, Opaline! They were all still around, so I just had to wait!”
“I don’t care for any of your typical excuses,” Opaline muttered, raising a brow. “You updated me yesterday about gaining Sunny’s trust further with the book. Do tell me something of value has come from it so far.”
“Well…yes! Actually!” Misty chirped. “They’re letting me stay here for however long I need! We actually all had these weird dreams last night that were super real and freaky!”
Opaline seemed unamused, her stern gaze remained fixed on Misty. “And why would I care for your infantile dreams? I care about information regarding Sunny. That knock-off alicorn needs to be ruined, and you giving me any information possible will do the trick.”
“I haven’t gotten much out of her yet, but that’s just because she’s been so obsessed with the Elements of Harmony coming back.”
Opaline went silent, eyes wide. She stared at Misty, cycling her words through her mind over and over. Her eye twitched, a subtle smirk split her jaw, and her eyes burned with malevolent intent. “Elements of Harmony you say…”
“Yeah! I’m not too sure what it’s all about but - “
Opaline shut her connection off, whisking away the image of Misty in an instant. Slowly placing her own amulet down, she gazed around her castle. It was extravagant, but also restrictive. She loathed the place, loathed her containment, and loathed the ponies that put her here in the first place. She yearned to amend it, to find an escape, and it seemed there may be an opportunity to do so for the first time since the day she was banished. Wheeling around, her smirk from before slowly warped into a malice-filled grin. Her sundered magic sputtered in her horn, her wings ruffled at her sides, and she slowly strutted her way to the deepest depths of her castle.
She passed by room after empty room, so many chambers in her extravagant prison cell unused over the decades she had been contained, but there was one that had some use. She treated it like a closet, a den for trash, a place to store all the useless trinkets and tools she had been given in attempts to further her ‘reformation’, as Twilight and her friends coined.
Though, within that sole room, amongst the useless friendship letters, carefully written books, still unwrapped century old presents from Pinkie Pie, and more—there was one item she now had her fixation set upon. A key, a path, and a method to allow her conquest to begin.
She burst open the door to the room, tossing aside the boxes and shelves that had centuries worth of dust upon them. Cobwebs dangled from the corners, and Opaline grumbled to herself as she ignited a torch, one that was likely set onto its very perch by one of her despised foes. Still, unlike them, it had some use, and it at least would be a factor to assist her in what matters.
Moving through more unwanted, forgotten trash she despised the mere presence of, tossing aside one of the unwrapped presents Pinkie Pie had left for her hundreds of moons ago, she paused, coming upon an intricately designed chest. She blew her breath over it, sweeping away mountains of dust and dirt. She coughed, finding the sheer volume covering the chest far more than she expected, but she couldn’t be too surprised. This chest had been here since the start, since they planned to seal her away, and it was meant to be the ultimate attempt of Twilight and her friends’ hopeless effort to one day see the alicorn reformed.
She cracked it open, a harrowing, echoing screeching sound as the ancient joints of the chest were finally made to move, howling in agony upon the despicable mare’s touch. She slammed it upwards, wrenching the chest open fully, and finally, gazed upon what she had seen countless times before. It was dormant in her time, left inactive and unusable, even when Twilight herself had restored it with the sole intention of leading her astray from the path of evil she had eagerly headed down.
Now it was full of life, full of an arcane force of which she had only seen several lifetimes ago. It was foreign now too, not due for how long it had been, but because there was only darkness flowing within. An arcane force that spoke of sorrow, anger, and loneliness. But for Opaline, it had power, and with it, she had a method to leave, a method to escape her prison, and a method to finally unleash her wrath upon the land of Equestria proper.
“When Misty said the Elements had returned, I figured there was a chance,” she cooed, slowly raising the contents of the box up. “Though…I had thought my hopes were simply up.”
She slowly put the object on, carefully fixating it upon her head. An intense surge of power flowed through her, dark magic funneling into her eyes as her horn ignited with power for the first time in what felt like eternity itself.
“But…it seems you’ve come back to me~”
She turned, wiping a forgotten mirror off. Clearing her vision, she gazed upon her own visage, basking in her own self-created glory and indulging herself in the moment. Her powers were back, and they looked absolutely stunning on her, but even in her own arrogance, her gaze fixated on what she now wore atop her head.
Meeting her eyes, surging dark power through her every passing moment, was the Element of Magic.