//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: My Tale of Equestria 
// by LolianTriforce 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight walked over to the machine she had built to travel back and forth between Equestria and Earth, as Lolian called it. She used her magic to levitate the journal with the emblem of Celestia’s cutie mark on it onto the holder. The machine sprang to life and started to open the portal.
Lolian smiled. She couldn’t believe that she was finally going home. She watched at the portal swirled open with the glimmer of purple magic. She walked towards it and protruded her hoof into the vortex.
There was a sudden flash of black. She saw a face in the vortex that smirked at her. The portal closed and ceased to be. Lolian jumped back, shaking. What did she just see? What happened to the portal?
Twilight and her friends were in shock. This had never happened before. Twilight walked up to the portal and brought the journal down.
“I can’t believe that happened,” she said quietly.
Lolian looked at her. Tears welled up in her eyes. What she really stuck? No, there had to be a way for her to get back. But what was that face in the vortex? Was that the cause of the vortex shutting?
Lolian stood up, only for her shaky legs to drop her back to the ground. It was then that reality hit her. She was trapped away from the real world against her will. The overwhelming sound of her heart beat rang in her ears.
The tears cascaded down her face in a waterfall of sorrow. It had been too long since she had last cried. The tears she had held back for weeks were now puddles on the ground.
Twilight set the journal down and grabbed a paper and quill. She quickly wrote something in ink and rolled up the paper, handing it to Spike. He took a deep breath and spat out green flames which made the paper disappear in smoke.
Lolian remembered that was how Twilight sent messages to Princess Celestia. What did she write this time? Using her right hoof, she wiped away the tears and stood up.
As fast as Twilight had written the letter was as fast as it took for Princess Celestia to respond. A flash of white light made the ponies cringe as the white alicorn appeared from nowhere.
Celestia looked at Twilight and folded her outstretched wings.
“What exactly happened?” she asked.
“Well,” Twilight began, “We had started up the portal to send Lolian home to her world, when the purple vortex turned black and closed.”
Celestia looked alarmed.
“I saw a face,” Lolian added. “It smirked at me.”
Celestia was quiet for a long time. She was deep in thought. Shaking her head a little, she turned her attention to Lolian.
“This is very strange,” Celestia started. “This has never happened before. I wonder what went wrong…”
“Maybe I’m stuck here forever,” Lolian concluded.
Celestia looked at her with a worried look.
“You’ll go home soon enough,” she said reassuringly. “Don’t worry.”
“You said you had been in another world before coming here, right?” Twilight asked. “Maybe someone is using magic to keep you here.”
Lolian looked at her. There could only be one person with the magic to do that: Herobrine.

***

Lolian sighed quietly. She tried to explain to them who Herobrine was, but Minecraft wasn’t widely known in the pony universe. She glanced at Celestia, who was thinking and looking away.
“That reminds me of an event,” Celestia finally said after some silence. “It was long before any of you were born. There were two other alicorns that lived at the Canterlot palace. The oldest was Silver Dawn and the younger was Midnight Flight. Dawn made the sun rises and sun sets more beautiful than I could have, and Midnight made the moon glimmer silver.
“One day, there were monsters attacking Equestria. Someone had opened a portal from another world and was letting pony zombies and skeletons everywhere. We tried to fight them off, but they got stronger. Dawn knew that a lot of power was going to have to be given up in order to save the world.
“In the end, Dawn gave her life and saved Equestria. She and her sister haven’t been seen since. I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen to me. But that’s the way she always was; she was selfless.”
Lolian’s eyes were wide. If zombies and skeletons were really here, then there was no doubt that they had come from the same world she had been in. But why attack Equestria? This was truly puzzling.
Celestia shook the sad memory away from her and looked at the ponies.
“But enough talk,” she began, “It’s getting late. You all should return home. I’ll be back in the morning.”
And with that, she disappeared.

***

Somewhere in a distant corner of Equestria was a marshland that lay in fog. The gloomy sight was depressing in more than one way. But the 	real secret of the marshland was beneath the green marsh waters. Below the marsh was a dark and eerie castle that stood silently.
A flash of black smoke appeared in front of the castle doors. A yellow pegasus as big as Celestia stood on the paved ground. His black hair shone dimly in the dark atmosphere. He wore a purple crown that covered around his eyes with a red gem adorning it. He wore a matching pendant and hoof covers. His yellow and purple wings folded back into place as he walked inside.
His red eyes darted around, surveying his surroundings. The castle had been unused for years. But now he was back and he had matters to attend to.
A purple pegasus with demon green and grey wings and ghastly florescent green hair with black hoof covers and fake claws landed in front of him. Her crimson eyes looked at him.
“Ah,” he began, “It is nice to see you again, Shadow.”
“It’s been too long, father,” Shadow responded.