//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Enter The Maretrix 
// by Chaotic Dreams 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 3

With that, the crystal ball exploded. 
Twilight was thrown back against a bookshelf, the dusty old tomes raining down on her from the force of the impact and causing her to cry out in pain as they shoved the shards of glass from the crystal deeper into her flesh. 
"I guess…Nightmare Moon, if that was really her…Didn’t think I would destroy the crystal ball on my own," Twilight thought through aching tears, picking herself up and telekinetically pulling out the glass shards one by one. When she was sure they were all gone, the purple unicorn sealed the wounds with another spell and sent the bloody shards flying into the waste basket beside her desk. "And who’s to say I would have? How could I know for certain that that was Nightmare Moon? Then again, only a magical force equal to Celestia could have broken the crystal like that from another location, and I didn’t even sense the magic doing it, so it must have been powerful…"
Thus, it had to have been Nightmare Moon who had been contacting her through the crystal, given the evidence. The only other being Twilight knew of who could do such a thing was Celestia, and Twilight had no idea why her mentor would do such a thing.
Going to see Nightmare Moon…by ‘following the white rabbit,’ whatever that meant…was obviously inadvisable. Even if the night goddess had saved her from the feds finding out about the unicorn’s breaking into their classified files, she was still the most dangerous force Equestria had ever known, and even foals knew from the ‘old pony’s tales’ that Nightmare Moon was not to be trusted. Still, though, the cryptic words in Nightmare Moon’s classified file continued to nag at Twilight, and it looked like Nightmare Moon herself was the only one who might even remotely venture to provide answers. She had contacted Twilight, after all. 
"But whether I trust her or not is irrelevant," Twilight thought to herself. "Because she’s right. The feds will do everything they can to hide their conspiracy from Celestia, and the only evidence I knew of that linked them to their treason has already been deleted…If I want to make Celestia sure that Nightmare Moon is free and the conspiracy is true as well, I’ll have to expose Nightmare Moon to the princess myself. And the only way to do that is to actually meet up with her…"
Twilight gulped. This was not going to be easy.
First, she’d have to prepare every defense spell she’d ever learned, and even that might not be enough—
A knock at the door interrupted Twilight’s thoughts. 
Who could it be at this hour?
Twilight hesitantly ventured to the door and called “Who is it?”
“It’s us, sugah- cube!” called a familiar voice that caused Twilight to sigh with relief. It was neither the feds come to arrest her or another of Nightmare Moon’s contacts—just good ol’ Applejack. And, by the sound of it…
Twilight opened her library home’s front door to see that indeed Applejack and all the rest of her closest friends in Ponyville, her adopted town, were there. 
“Hey girls,” Twilight smiled, happy to see some friendly faces after a night full of intense investigation and intrigue. “What’s up?”
Suddenly Twilight had to jump back as Pinkie Pie, by far the liveliest pony the lavender unicorn had ever met, jumped up in front of her and announced that “I’m-having-a-late-night-summer-bonfire-party-near-the-forest-and-we-all-came-to-get-you-so-you-could-come-and-party-all-night-with-us!”
“That sounds great, Pinkie,” Twilight chuckled at her friend’s overt enthusiasm. “I think a little break from studying is just what I need right now.”
“Never thought we’d here you say that, Twi!” laughed Rainbow Dash, hovering overhead. “But we’re glad you finally did! Let’s party!”
Twilight stepped out into the warm air of the summer night and joined her friends on their trot to Pinkie’s bonfire sight, Pinkie talking excitedly the whole time about how many smores she was going to eat. Of course, nopony doubted her.
When the six friends arrived at the edge of the forest, a good bonfire was already roaring and Twilight could smell the rich smoky scent of the Everfree logs burning as other ponies she had met in Ponyville milled happily about the blaze, talking and simply enjoying the nice summer night.
"Just what the doctor ordered," Twilight thought with a smile. "A night off without worries to relax with my best friends. I’ll attend to the whole ‘Nightmare Moon and the conspiracy’ thing as soon as I rest my tired brain a bit."
“Alright girls, let’s party!” Pinkie announced, leaping a little higher than one would expect possible into the air with obvious jubilation.
“All right!” Rainbow Dash agreed, doing a loop in the air and then flying over to the waiting throng of ponies.
“Indeed,” Rarity said, looking like she too was ready for a night off after working hard—she claimed she had been busy all week long designing the new summer fashion line, and nopony doubted that either.
“All right, Angel,” whispered a timid voice behind Twilight, who turned to see Fluttershy, the most timid yet kindhearted pony Twilight knew, letting her pet down from her back to play with any pets the other ponies may have brought with them to the party, and Angel happily complied by bounding off into the night.
Fluttershy’s pet, Angel, the white rabbit…
Oh, no!
That must have been what Nightmare Moon meant! That was the signal!
“Oh, why now?” Twilight moaned. “I thought I was going to get a night off! I’m not ready to unveil a conspiracy without proper preparation and more research!” 
“Huh?” inquired Applejack, giving Twilight a quizzical look.
“Oh, nothing!” Twilight said quickly. The last thing she wanted to do was get her friends involved in this—her own life was probably already at risk for knowing too much about the conspiracy; she didn’t want to endanger her friends too. “Just, uh… I’ll be right back!”
With that, Twilight sped off after Angel, weaving her way through the crowd of other ponies, who were understandably surprised to see her in such a rush at such a relaxed function.
“Sometimes Ah worry about that pony,” Applejack sighed with a smile.
“Angel, where are you going?” Twilight sighed in frustration as she struggled the keep up with the erratic bouncing of Fluttershy’s pride and joy. The other ponies didn’t seem to be enjoying Twilight’s chase any more than she was, several giving her annoyed looks as the violet unicorn attempted, unsuccessfully, to navigate the sea of ponies without bumping into too many of them.
At last, Angel rounded a sharp turn and Twilight dashed after her—only to run smack into a brown earth pony with an hourglass cutie mark, sending them both back on their haunches.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Twilight quickly apologized. “You see, I was chasing after this white rabbit, and then—"
Twilight stopped her hurried explanation when she realized two things: the first, that her explanation would probably only make things more confusing for the earth pony, and second, that he was actually holding Angel lovingly and feeding him a carrot.
“Wait, did you…did you lure Angel to you with that carrot?” Twilight inquired, her brow furrowing as it seemed increasingly likely that this encounter was not by chance. “Were you sent here to meet me? Were you sent her by…”
Twilight looked around conspiratorially, before whispering “Nightmare Moon?”
“Astute as always, I see,” said the brown earth pony. “Your files didn’t lie.”
“My files?” 
“Indeed,” responded the earth pony with a grin. He let Angel down with the carrot, and the white bunny happily hopped away to leave the two ponies to their cryptic conversation. “For obvious reasons, it was too dangerous for her majesty herself to come here tonight—but I can bring you to her, should you so desire.”
Twilight looked uncertain for a moment.
“She can tell you the secrets you so crave,” the earth pony said, seeing her doubt. “Who you are…why you exist…among other things.”
“Other things?” Twilight wondered. “Like what?”
“Like how to avoid that sinister-looking pony over there.”
“Huh?” Twilight asked, turning in the direction the earth pony was looking. “What pony…” 
And then she saw him, and it sent a shiver down her spine. He was a tall unicorn stallion, his coat black and his suit blacker, but his sunglasses were blackest of all…and it was night. As if that weren’t enough, there was something just off about the pony, as if he didn’t belong in what she thought of as reality. Despite Twilight’s love of organization, this pony was too ordered. He was perfectly symmetrical, stood stock still, staring at her. The black pony was so motionless that Twilight couldn’t even tell if he was breathing.
And when he did move, Twilight wished he hadn’t.
“Ms. Sparkle,” the pony called out over the crowd, and despite the gentle roar of the partygoer’s conversations Twilight heard him loud and clear. “Don’t try running away. That would be…unadvisable.”
“Trust me now?” the brown earth pony behind Twilight whispered in her ear. “Because they don’t take prisoners.”
Before Twilight could ask the earth pony what he meant, the black unicorn shot a blast of magic at Twilight, who just barely had time to duck, the top of her mane singing in the mystic heat. The magic of that blast was more powerful than any Twilight had ever experienced save that of Celestia's raising of the sun and moon or Nightmare Moon’s impromptu destruction of her crystal ball, and she knew that if the black unicorn fired again and actually hit his mark this time, getting turned into a pile of ashes would be the least unpleasant thing that would happen.
. . .