Twilight's vision spun like she had drank too much cider. Despite this, she noticed that something wasn't right about her surroundings. She was in an old-style house, like a barn or something. Twilight slowly stepped out of the bed and walked over to the mirror on the nearby desk. She gasped at the sight of herself. She had a bandage tightly wrapped around her head- this made her mane a mess. But the state of her mane was the least of her concerns... where was she? The answer to her question came to her in the form of a orange earth pony with an old rodeo hat. Applejack gasped when she saw Twilight awake, let alone up and about.
"You're awake! What a relief!" Applejack said with a sigh of relief.
"How'd I get here? Wasn't I in Canterlot?" Twilight asked, but as soon as she asked, she remembered. The mysterious stallion that attacked Celestia! She tried to remember more, and then gasped suddenly.
"The crown?! Where is it?!" Twilight shouted. AJ pointed a hoof over to a box on the desk. Twilight slowly turned around and looked at the box. Her horn lit up and a slight purple aura engulfed the box, slowly opening its top. Inside lay the crown of the sun goddess, Princess Celestia. Twilight picked it up and gave it a long look. It was as if the crown was trying to tell her something, but she couldn't figure it out. Applejack slowly approached Twilight and lay a hoof on her shoulder.
"Shining told us all he knew, I'm sorry about Celestia," Applejack said, looking down at the floor. Twilight turned back to Applejack.
"She's not gone. Not yet," Twilight stated. Applejack looked at Twilight in confusion. "Celestia isn't dead... she's just..." It was hard for Twilight to explain the state of her teacher, not because it was an emotional topic for her, but because it was hard to put into words. It was as if Celestia was under Discord's spell. All of her teacher's color had flushed away to a dull black and white. But that was the only similarity between those two states.
"It's a bit hard to explain, AJ, but... Celestia... isn't in the state to do anything right now," Twilight said. Applejack still had questions that needed to be answered, but now wasn't the time.
"What do we do about this stallion? The one that did this?" AJ asked. "He has to pay for what he did!"
"No, attacking him won't do anything, I've learned that already," Twilight countered. She turned to the window and looked out at the clear blue sky. "How long have I been asleep?"
"Through the night, why?" Applejack asked. Twilight didn't answer and continued to look out the window trying to remember everything that the stallion told her before their battle. Something about a prophecy... about how it states destiny. Whatever this "prophecy" was, that unicorn followed it. But why didn't he kill her then? She couldn't think of that right now. Much more important things were happening, and the situation at Canterlot was one of them.
"Applejack, gather the others and bring them here." Applejack nodded and trotted out of the room.
Canterlot had a dark force field around it. Its citizens were surged with fear, as it was impossible to enter or leave the city. The gate had been turned a nightmarish black and the force field prevented pegasi from leaving by air. The only ponies who could leave the city were the mail ponies. The unicorn had instructed all the mail ponies to deliver a message from Canterlot to all the major cities in the surrounding area. It said that Celestia was no longer in charge and he was the new ruler of Canterlot. Finally, it demanded that all the other cities were to surrender to him or be destroyed. His prophecy told him that Canterlot and Celestia was only the beginning. As time went on, all of Equestria would fall under his hooves and nothing would prevent him from carrying out the prophecy's master plan.
The unicorn sat atop his new throne as a mail pony approached. This grey, cross-eyed pegasus shook with every step. Normally, she was carefree and playful, but today... she was afraid. She had made many mistakes in her line of work, from delivering the mail to the wrong address to straight up forgetting to do her job. But today wasn't the day to mess up and she had messed up.
"Y-y-yes... sir?" she asked in a frightened voice. The unicorn looked her in the eyes and began.
"Your track record isn't the best, Ms. Hooves," he began.
"I-I know, but I'm working on it and it'll get better. I won't make anymore mistakes, I promise!" she said. Sweat began to trickle down her forehead. Why had she been so stupid!? Why'd she have to forget to deliver a paper, on today of all days?! The unicorn leaped from his throne and landed in front of the grey pegasus. She backed up and tripped on something, making her land on her back. She closed her eyes and covered her face with both hooves. After ten seconds of silence, she moved her hooves and looked at the unicorn. He was holding out his hoof to help her up.
"I understand," he stated with a smile, which was rare for him to do. She took his hoof and he helped her up. "Come take a walk with me, we'll work this out." Derpy gave a nervous laugh and nodded, not wanting to take her chances disagreeing with him. The two ponies walked to a door and entered it, leaving the grand-hall empty. Except for one pony... Princess Luna.
Luna hadn't made her presence known to the unicorn yet. When she found out about Celestia, she tried to escape the city, but the force field prevented that plan. And when she figured out that only the mail ponies could get through, she asked Derpy to help her, but now that plan was garbage too. She would need somepony else. Only Celestia and Luna knew what everypony else didn't, the truth about this mysterious unicorn of unmatchable power.
Suddenly, the door that Derpy and the unicorn went through opened. The unicorn walked through, but there was no sign of Derpy. What did this mean? Luna didn't want to stick around to find out. Whatever happened to her ditzy counterpart, it couldn't be good.