//------------------------------// // Chapter 24-Dreamweaver-Take 2 // Story: My Little Pony Bizarre Adventures - Part 1: Ponyville Central // by LateBronyWriter //------------------------------// Dreamweaver-Take 2: KA-KROOM!!! Thunder explodes behind the Stardust Crusaders reducing a several hundred year old tree to dust in an instant. In their exhausted state it feels as though the mars have been running for hours, yet whenever the idle thought of coming to a stop, or resting for even a moment to catch their breaths the terror of the storm behind them drives the mares ever onward. They run with a ferocity born of survival as they make haste towards the ancient ruins of the Castle before them, the only structure that could survive a wild storm of such strength as they pray the Goddess that they would be able to arrive before the storm does. “Come on guys!” The resident captain of the Weather patrol, Rainbow Dash, shouts over the din of the storm as she flies overhead. “Keep running! I can see the bridge up ahead!” No one dares question the judgment of the senior weather pony as the entire group breaks out into a gallop towards the small wooden bridge leading across the bottomless crevice in front of them. Each and every mare pumps their legs as their hearts pump more and more oxygen-rich blood into their hooves, putting all their remaining power from a long day’s hiking into one last rush. Twilight looks in terror behind her and sees the storm smash the taller branches of the trees into kindling with the force of wind alone, the lightning setting numerous fires that are instantly extinguished by the torrential rains. “Don’t look behind! Run faster!” Dash shouts in encouragement. Twilight Sparkle had of course heard of wild weather. When chaos magic combined with normal atmospheric magic, or regular storms became overcharged with magical energy, everyday rains would become waterfalls, wind would tear trees out of their foundations, and lightning would strike anything and everything in its radius. It was partially why the weather patrol existed, to control naturally-occurring storms and supercells and insure that naturally-forming weather was safe. However, in a land saturated in as much chaos magic as the Everfree was, such storms could never be controlled, and even her strongest barrier would never survive the constant bombardment, which left only one course of action. “Run! That’s it! You’re almost to the bridge!” Dash shouts encouragement to the rest of the group. “Keep it up!” Seconds later the four non-flying members of their party come safely to a stop at the edge of the canyon and the rickety rope bridge spanning the gap. The four ponies pant heavily as they look at the decrepit bridge before them, thinking about how solid and sturdy it looked before they came face to face with it. “Hurry up, you slowpokes!” Dash yells, “That storm’s not going to wait on us!” Applejack looks between the storm and all its fury and the bridge over a thousand-foot drop. “Are ya sure that there ain’t no other way across?” “We don’t have time to argue this! Just cross it!” “Cross that?” Rarity points her hoof to the falling apart bridge. “Rainbow, just fly us across!” “With all your baggage you’re all too heavy!” “Oh, and I suppose that we’re just the right weight for crossing a bridge that looks ready to collapse any second!” Rarity snaps. Twilight watches as the storm behind them grows even closer, the flashing of lightning and sound of thunder almost simultaneous. “Rainbow’s right, we don’t have time for this!” Twilight yells. “Rarity, use your Stand to reinforce the bridge’s ropes! I’ll strengthen it more with my magic!” Rarity looks at the lavender mare like she has lost her mind. “Me? But….. surely you don’t mean that you expect me to…..” KA-KROOM! “Rarity, there’s no time! Just do it!” Looking between Twilight and the bridge, Rarity takes a deep, calming breath and extends her Stand like a rope, the silver cord intermingling with the rope of the bridge. The silver starts to extend across the gap, its wielder beginning to falter as she struggles to project her Stand across the entire chasm. However, just when she thinks her Stand is about to collapse a gentle horn taps her own, and she feels a familiar but gentle magic coursing through her Stand. Rarity opens her eyes to see Twilight’s Stand, FRIENDS, touching hers at the base of the bridge, the silver from Rarity’s Stand mixing into its arms. Abruptly, Rarity’s power increases three-fold, the silver expanding to form an entire platform for them to cross. Rarity shudders a little as she feels Twilight’s presence in her mind: gentle but firm, and a bit panicked by the situation around them. However, for the most part Twilight only fuses partially with the ivory mare, pouring her magical power into Rarity rather than combining their Stands properly together. “Twilight….” Rarity looks at the unicorn before her. “You….” “Bridge’s up!” Dash yells, “Go! Go! Go!” Twilight and Rarity look at each other as they realize there is no time to waste. All four mares dash across the new silver bridge at full speed, trusting completely in the strength of their friends as the storm behind them grows ever closer. In less than seven seconds they reach the other side, Rarity retrieving her Stand as they make a mad dash for the palace ahead of them. The wind picks up behind the mares who only put more and more of their energy into outrunning the storm. The party runs with reckless haste as Dash races ahead to the door of the keep. Putting her entire back into it, the rainbow pegasus struggles to haul open the giant rusted over door. The door barely budges at first, however inch by inch the pegasus pulls the large brass handle, the door slowly creaking open as the storm grows ever closer. The earthbound ponies put more power into their hooves as the smallest of raindrops begin to assault their flanks, the wind and rain howling like the wendigos of old, as if the weather itself was hunting them. Fluttershy lands next to Rainbow and begins to tug on the handle with her mouth, the door slowly creaking open. Finally, the large twenty-hoof-high door swings open, allowing just enough space for the party to squeeze into the foyer. Dash breathes a deep sigh of relief as she turns to spur the others on for the last sprint. “Come on, guys! The door’s open! Hurry up!” Every mare’s lungs are burning from every breath, their panting growing ever more labored, from the run. Yet the sound of the collapsing ruins and screaming thunder behind them spurs them on even more than the voice from a friend possibly could. Finally, after what seems like an eternity of sprinting, the mares reach the door, streaming through the small crack with the urgency of survivors looking for cover. First, Applejack squeezes her many packs through the doorway, then Pinkie bounces over and through, her normal enthusiasm returning now that she is out of danger. Then Rarity and Fluttershy gallop through the door, unwilling to spend another second out in a storm of this magnitude. This leaves Rainbow Dash holding the door as Twilight Sparkle takes one last look at the storm behind her. Twilight watches the fury of a true supercell as thousands of gallons of water fall in seconds, the force of the wind turning rain into projectiles as it beats against the ruins. The thunder claps and the entire sky is lit up as all that can be seen of the once-majestic sunset is immersed in black. “Twilight! Stop staring at the storm an get in here!” Dash cris ou. Snapped out of her stupor Twilight turns on a hoof, running through the doorway just as the full force of the wind impacts the door, slamming it shut with the force of a thunderclap. Sudden darkness overtakes the party, the sound of the rain outside and loud panting of the ponies all that can be heard in the dark. Carefully and cautiously Twilight ignites her horn, illuminating the room in a bright purple light. Applejack quickly follows suit, pulling various lanterns out of her pack and lighting them, filling the entire room with a bright glow as the ponies get a first glance of the room that they have dashed into. The entire entryway seems to be in relatively good condition despite the age of the building around them, the roof lined with various calligraphic examples of stonework. Simple grey pillars with blocky wave patterns surround the room, scraggly vines crawling up every third pillar. The windows, though made of solid glass, appear enchanted and clear and - despite a few fractures - the majority of them appear to be in amazing condition, with only a small broken window sitting in the corner. “Wow, they said that storms in the Everfree were fierce…..” Rainbow Dash looks out the partially-shattered window, watching as jagged raindrops bombard the windows with the intensity of gunfire. “…..but not this fierce! How’s this castle even standing? I think any building would have been kaput after a storm like this.” “Yes... Twilight?” Rarity looks at walls suspiciously. “Are these ruins safe? This whole place isn’t going to come down on us any time soon now, is it?” “This castle is old, Rarity, and its magic is even older.” Twilight looks around at the moth-eaten tapestries and rugged practical stonework, marveling that the roof and walls are still in one piece. “Given the late gothic architecture and the old magic runes woven into the floor, I’d say that this palace has been around since the founding of modern Equestria, at least one hundred fifty to two hundred years before the Nightmare Wars!” Applejack feels the stones beneath her hoof with a new appreciation. “So if it’s so old, how is it still standin?” “If I had to guess…..” Twilight touches the dark stone with her hoof, rubbing it almost reverently. Suddenly she lets loose a powerful bolt of magic at the stone before her, the bolt dispersing into aether before it even lands, leaving not even a scotch mark. Twilight then nods. “Yep, it’s null stone. It’s a rare stone that disperses magical energy with ninety seven percent uniformity. It blocks almost any form of magic so that it doesn’t pass through; we should be perfectly safe from the storm.” As if having a lingering thought Twilight reaches into her bag, grabbing a small fragment of the Strange Stone from a pouch. Holding the Stone in her hoof, Twilight and the rest of the group watch as the Stone remains completely motionless. “I thought so; because of all the null stone I’m not getting a good reading on the abnormality. So much for all our progress.” “Well, were safe here, right?” Pinkie asks. “That, and we were looking for a place to spend the night. So…….. Can we have our slumber party in a castle? Please please pretty please!?” “Well I certainly don’t see the problem with it.” Rarity looks at the room around them. “We’re safe from the storm, and though the castle may be a bit... rustic, I think it’s a fine place to ‘rough it’, as it were.” Fluttershy shuffles on her hooves. “I don’t mind either. That is, as long as none of you mind.” “Yeah, we’re all exhausted here, Twi!” Dash throws out her sleeping bag without even giving Twilight a chance to speak. “Let’s just crash here for the night.” Twilight thinks back to what she learned from ‘The Legacy of Camping’ and all the dangers of just laying down someplace you haven’t thoroughly checked. “Well normally old ruins are populated by wild animals and the like, and I don’t like just leaving the trail to grow cold.” Twilight takes a second look around the room. Though the castle is dark and murky, there is a certain charm to it, and they probably aren’t going anywhere in this storm. Yet there was something in Twilight that made her want to stay, the mystery of the palace that intrigued her beyond words and logic. “But we’re not going to be able to leave in this storm, and we have had a rough day, so why not! Everypony set up camp. We’re making this our base of operations.” Everypony sighs an immense sigh of relief and throws their heavy saddle bags to the floor with a din that would frighten a dragon. Twilight sets about making a small magical fire in the center of the room by inscribing a magical circle, content that the room’s large ceiling is big enough to disperse any smoke. Applejack breaks out the night’s rations, handing out a small satchel of dried fruits and bread to everypony. Rarity quickly moves the rain catcher to a nearby broken window, filtering water from the storm to pour into each and every pony’s canteens Everypony eats their meals quickly with a minimal amount of conversation, even Pinkie cutting back a bit on her normal rambling in favor of shoveling more food into her mouth. The ponies spend their meal time talking baseless small talk and finish uneventfully, none willing to cut into their own sleep time. All begin to yawn as they each break out their own respective bags for the night. Applejack opens her baggage, searching for something as the rest of the group begins to set out their supplies for the night. “Give me a break……” Applejack groans. Rarity turns away from her task of setting up her own sleeping area to look at the orange mare. “Yes, Applejack? What seems to be the problem?” Applejack looks through her supplies once again, confirming that something is missing. “Mah sleeping bag, it’s gone! Urgh, I knew that I lost somethin in that forest, Ah was just too stubborn to go around an look for it.” Rarity looks over Applejack’s supplies again: food, water, rope, magical locator, journal, but no sleeping bag to be found. “Goodness, you’re right; it looks as though you have neglected to pack a sleeping bag.” Rarity’s face suddenly brightens as a brilliant idea enters her mind. “It is most fortunate that I had the amazingly fabulous foresight to pack a sleeping bag with enough room for two. You shall bunk with me tonight. “ Applejack shakes her head. “Nah, no thanks, Rarity. I’m used to the cold, a little brush and a solid floor is enough for me to have a good night’s rest.” “…But…. But….” the fashionista stutters, unwilling to let this go. “But it’s so cold! Why not bunk with me where our body heat… I mean, my sleeping bag is heated. Surely you would prefer a warm cozy bed to snuggle in?” “Well that’s a mighty fine offer there, Rari….” The orange mare says, “An Ah admit sharin a heated…. Wait, what was that last part there?” “…..Uhhhhhh ‘My sleeping bag is magically heated’?” “No, the part after that.” “Ummmm, it’s going to be cold?” “No not…. “ “You can bunk with me, Applejack!” Twilight interrupts. “…..What?” Applejack asks. “What?!” Rarity screams. “Well, yes!” Twilight paws her hoof. “That is, if you really needed a sleeping bag I could use my magic to enlarge mine so we could both fit in it. It’ll be so much more practical than trying to squeeze in two ponies into one bag.” Twilight sags her head. “I mean I can’t just have you sleep on the cold floor completely alone, what kind of friend would I be then?” “What? I….. now look, Twi……” Applejack clears her mind as she tries to tackle the craziness surrounding her with solid logic. “Now I know that ya mean well an everythin, but the sleepin bag’s more of a formality an all. Ah really don’t need much an… well…..” Applejack blushes slightly. “……It’s just sharin a sleeping bag, with you, well Ah’d think it’s get a little awkward, doncha think?” At Applejack’s blushing Rarity’s face becomes completely downfallen, as though her hopes and dreams were shattered in the space of a single instant. Rarity lowers her head in defeat, all her years of friendship and work seeming to vanish down a black hole. “Oh….. I see how it is….. I just didn’t know that you and Twilight were…..oh, I just can’t believe that you were…..” Applejack turns to face her ivory friend, instantly catching her depressed mood. “Rarity? What’s wrong with ya, filly?” “Oh I can’t believe I didn’t see it before!” Rarity raises her hoof to her face. “The Royal and the Brave Knight! The bookworm and the farmer! Two ponies so different and yet so alike!” Rarity swoons to the ground in genuine sorrow. “Oh why didn’t I act sooner? Now it is forever beyond my reach! Oh what a fool I am!” “Uh, Rarity? What are you talking about?” Twilight asks with no small amount of confusion. “Oh spare not my shattered heart!” Rarity cries, “For it is gone to the grave in sorrow!” “Uragh!” Applejack raises her hooves to the heavens in a dramatic cry. “What’s up with everypony an sleepin bags?! Is it one of those fads er somthin!?! Cause I don’t get it!!” Applejack’s scream causes everypony in the group to stare at the orange mare like she has finally lost her mind; even Twilight and Rarity put aside their own grievances and wonder what Applejack is going on about. Thankfully the soap opera drama is interrupted by a mare whose very talent is being surprising: Pinkie Pie. “Hey guys! Check it out, I found a sleeping bag!” The party pony grns as she pulls a full sized color coded sleeping bag from out of nowhere. “And this little beautie adds plus ten to resting without being disturbed! Pretty good find hunh!?” Twilight looks over to see that Pinkie has indeed found a spare sleeping bag. “Oh! Thank you, Pinkie!” Picking up the bag in her telekinesis Twilight brings it over to Applejack. “Well, problem solved! Thanks to Pinkie you have your own sleeping bag! Now you won’t have to share one with me! Pretty convenient hunh?” Twilight smiles optimistically, glad that the problem is resolved. Applejack looks back between the purple librarian and her sleeping bag. “….I…. Twi….. I….. Thanks an all that…..” “That’s great!” Twilight places her hoof on her orange friend’s shoulder. “Now, you two get some rest. I’m going to take a quick look around before I hit the hay. This castle hasn’t been disturbed in hundreds of years! Who knows what secrets it holds?” And with that Twlight walks off deeper into the abandoned castle, a look of adventurous spirit on her face, leaving two very flustered and confused mares in her wake. Rarity mulls over the recent events in her mind as she looks at Applejack. ‘Humh…. For a moment there I thought that Applejack already had…… but it’s obvious that, like always, Twilight is completely oblivious to social matters…. But I never thought that Twilight of all ponies would try and get between Applejack and myself. Nevertheless, I shall not lose to a new upstart, much less Twilight, in either love or war…..’ Rarity turns to Applejack. “Well that’s one problem solved, dear Applejack! Now let’s tarry off to bed; we can talk for a bit until we fall asleep, just the two of us….” “…..What….?” The orange mare is still staring at her sleeping bag with a mixture of regret, relief and confusion. Rarity nudges Applejack slightly, snapping her out of her daze. “OH, right! Thanks, Rares! An Ah’m real glad ta have mah own sleeping bag like this. Ta tell ya the truth…… I know that you and Twi are real good friends of mine. But sharing a sleeping bag would have made me real uncomfortable-like.” Applejack blushes furiously as a long forgotten dream enters the forefront of her mind. “It was almost like the two of you wanted ta…… I mean sharing a sleeping bag seemed like it was really…….” Rarity turns her head back towards the farm mare. “Humh? What was that, darling?” “……..Nothin, nothing at all, and Ah’d love ta spend some time with yawl Rarity, just the two of us…….TALKIN! Ah’d love ta spend some time TALKIN tagether a-a-as friends!” The orange mare stutters as the dark crimson blush consuming her face returns with a vengeance. Laughing at the orange mare’s slip up, Rarity disarms Applejack with her charm, and they both laugh at the comic scene of romance that just occurred. Their embarrassment all but forgotten, the two mares and best friends walk off towards the main hall where they plan to bunk down for the night, talking and reminiscing about times gone by. All the while, Twilight Sparkle walks further and further into the darkness of the castle before her, oblivious to the dangers the darkness contains. ……………. The darkness pervades the castle around her as Twilight Sparkle drifts further and further from her friends. Yet in all honesty the mare feels more peaceful than she should in an ancient abandoned castle. Twilight walks the dark halls with only her horn for illumination, observing with curiosity the various degraded fixtures of the palace around her: rusted suits of armor, tapestries of the sun and moon, and slim dark grey pillars. Soon the grey stone of the outer walls gives way to the dark tan of the interior hallways as Twilight ventures deeper into the castle. As a librarian and bibliophile, the quiet darkness of the castle as well as its proper insulation and warm rooms appealed greatly to the lavender mare, who began skipping down the hallways, the light of her horn illuminating the rooms she was peeking into with great clarity. “You know this place isn’t so bad after all. Sure, it’s in the middle of the Everfree, but for a thousand-year-old castle it’s……… peaceful.” Twilight looks down another hallway, the doorways lined with various protruding ridges and rusted metal hinges. Though the doors themselves have long given themselves over to the ravages of age, the stone remains in flawless condition, devoid of mold or rot. “You know, teleporting is difficult with the Everfree’s ambient chaotic magics, but with a level five teleportation circle I might be able to bypass the static. Then I could come here whenever! Make this a little getaway from home, or a summer house, that kind of thing.” Looking over at a nearby wall Twilight extends her hoof getting a feel for the ancient stonework that stands thousands of years later seemingly as pristine as the day it was carved. “It’s really top notch stonework.” Twilight rubs the castle walls. “Those ponies of the past certainly knew what they were doing. Really, the only thing that could make this better would be…..” Twilight’s cranes her neck, looking around the hallway absentmindedly, her eyes suddenly bugging out of their sockets at the sight before her. In front of her very eyes, something the lavender mare never truly expected to find in the middle of a dark and dangerous forest, or a ruined castle to say the least: a perfectly organized and well-lit library, stocked to the brim with tomes from a forgotten age. “…….would be a fully stocked library.” Twilight stands in awe of the magnificent sight before her, the candles on the pillars illuminating walls upon walls of perfectly organized (According to the LCC of course) bookshelves, each one filled to the breaking point with valuable, nay priceless, books. The genuine look of surprise and unbridled joy on Twilight’s face might be the kind a pony would have if they opened a box of cereal and a genuine diamond ring fell out of the packaging. Needless to say, Twilight didn’t stay surprised for long and within ten seconds the lavender mare was bouncing through the halls of the library with reckless abandon. “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” the filly squeals in excitement. “Oh my gosh I’ve never seen this many books! Well, except in the library of Canterlot but still, this is the greatest collection of books outside of Canterlot and it’s all mine! MINE! MINE to read! No more return dates or ‘oh Twilight I really need this book for a school project,’ a whole library all to myself! Wait, did I light these candles? Never mind BOOKS!!” Twilight hops on her tiphooves like a little filly in a candy store, all the while taking in the amazing piles of magically-preserved literature. “BOOKS! BOOKS! Books everywhere! Books as far as the eye can…… Oof!” In her enthusiasm Twilight neglected to notice the ledge of a table, and with a monumental thump the lavender mare lands flat on her face. Realizing her snaffu, Twilight quickly snaps out of her foolish behavior as she quickly gets back up on her hooves. “Ahem. Well, it looks like this building has a fully-stocked library. Scratch what I said before, I am totally making this place into a summer home………. Just as soon as I’m done with paging through all these books.” Reaching to a nearby shelf the mare begins to run her hooves down the spines of the books, inspecting their titles and dates of publishing, adding the name of each book into a mental vault of names and titles. Indeed, there are so many books it would take an eternity to catalog them all. “Wait a minute, what am I thinking? A library of this size has got to have a library catalog already. I don’t have to page through every book, at least not yet. Now where could that catalog be?” Twilight looks at the tables in the library, looking for a long list of books when her eye falls on a certain black book lying open on the table in front of her. The librarian instantly thinks it strange that a book would just be left open in the middle of a well-lit table while nopony else was here to read it. “Come to think of it…… these candles didn’t light themselves, did they?” Twilight watches the flame in front of her as she flows a small amount of magic into it, watching as the red flame turns bright blue then back to its normal red shade. “Ha, I knew it. These candles are magically enchanted to light up when a pony enters the library. Hee, and I thought that somepony else was here. Alright, let’s get this book….. Hunh?” Twilight is in the process of attempting to pick up the larger book in front of her when she takes a closer look at the hoof-written words within, the light blue ink and beautiful scrawling calligraphy a sign that this book was personally written. “This is no library book…..” Her curiosity piqued, the librarian places her rump on the cushion behind her and starts to read to herself. “Year ten AD, Day two hundred and forty five, Dear journal……” ‘The pony known as Firecracker, our chef pyro-technician, has finally managed to control the strange power of Stand. She calls her ghostly companion ‘Burning down the House,’ an apt name for a Stand if a bit catchy. This confirms what I have been telling Celly the entire time: the Red Stone of Aja forcibly draws out powers from living creatures by strengthening their spirits. This spirit then gains the ability to take physical form. It is not a spirit summoned by the Stones like Celly and I first believed, or a curse to be feared as many ponies have thought, but a psychological manifestation of our very essence. Somehow, should a pony of sound mind, body and soul overcome the sickness that comes when the Stone is introduced into the blood, they gain not death but power. The Stone is not limited to simply bending reality and amplifying magic as we have thought. Before, our knowledge of the Stone was limited by what the great surviving saint, Spike the First, told us: that the Stone tapped into the mysterious power of harmony. Spike the First explained that, when we passed the seven great trials of the saint: Honesty, Generosity, Laughter, Kindness, Loyalty, Forgiveness and Love, we could use it to counter Discord’s brand of magic which turned this force of harmony upon itself, corrupting reality and making the impossible possible. Yet these Stands, what are they truly? I hypothesize that the Stone’s ability to rewrite the rules of our dimension gives its wielder the alter reality in a way that is strikingly similar to Discord, but to an infinitesimally lesser degree. The Stone may increase a pony’s power, but the abilities the Stands manifest require far more testing in order to properly understand. Ever since my sister and I have found the small fragment of the Red Stone in Discord’s floating palace and gained our own powers, I knew the Stone was capable of great things. It is why we pursued the legend of the Sacred Stone of the Saint, the Red Stone, so single mindedly, to stop Discord. And indeed, with a single use of its power we sundered Discord, a foe we could never have beaten succeeding where even the Tyrant, King Platinum of the Crystal North and all his powerful magics failed. Celly is cautious as always but she has agreed that the prospects of the Stone are too tempting to ignore, and she has agreed that we will both research the Stone and its effects together. I do not throw caution to the wind in this; I know all magic has a price, I have seen what the Stone is capable of when we employed it against Discord……… but the filly, Appendix…… what happened to her cannot be denied, it was a miracle. She was crippled from birth, dying from an incurable illness, and upon a single touch from the Stone’s power, she was made well instantly! If such magic could be harnessed then there is truly no limit to what can be done! Proper experiments will begin tomorrow after we have moved the Stone to a safer location beneath Canterlot castle. Then Celly and I alone will perform the first rounds of intensive research into the Stone’s inner workings, starting by finding out what the Stone itself is made of. Perhaps drilling a small hole to sample a fragment from the core? As a final thought, I can’t help the feeling that Celly is hiding something from me, as if something is troubling her weighing on her mind…… Nay, sister would never hide the truth from me unless she thought it irrelevant. She is probably just too engrossed in her new popularity and diplomatic success in securing our kingdom of Equestria’s sovereignty. I must admit I am…. jealous….. of Celestia’s newfound popularity. She is adored by all yet I am ignored and pushed to the sidelines. Simply because Celestia was the one to harness the Stone’s full power while I supported her from the sidelines they hail her as the Empresses of the Cosmos, as if the sun AND the moon revolve around her. How can they not see that it is I who move the workings of the magical world around the scenes, that if not for me and my understanding of the Stone Celly would have never succeeded in bringing Discord to heel? How can they not see that without me there would be no Equestria? But listen to me complaining like a spoiled foal. This is Celestia, my sister I am talking about, not some usurper. These dark thoughts circling through my mind are the results of sitting hunched over a book for so long. For once, Celly is right, I really have to find some new hobbies. Perhaps I will join her in court for a time, or better yet have my own court; then ponies might actually see me and what I do in a better light. Until my next entry………’ “……Princess Luna?!” Twilight finishes with a gasp. “This….. This is Princess Luna’s private diary! Before she even became Nightmare Moon! But why would something so personal and secret be lying around here?” “……..you should not have done that.” The hairs on Twilight’s neck stand on end as all the lights are extinguished, the comforting glow of candlelight erased to make room for soul chilling darkness. The sound of another voice, and the instant extinguishing of all light, instantly turns the librarian into all out panic mode as Twilight ignites her horn in a beam of light, scanning the library. “What?! Who’s there? Show yourself!” Twilight jumps from her chair as she searches around her, the silence of the room unnerving her even more as she begins to break out into a cold sweat. “I-I’ll have you know that I’m Princess Celestia’s Private student! S-so whoever you are you had better show yourself.” The lavender mare falls to her rump. “This can’t be good….” “Celestia’s student? Has she found me already……” Twilight turns to try and locate the voice, but the acoustics of the library make it seem like the sound is coming from everywhere. “No, if Celestia were here she would announce her presence, she would come with her guards and best Stand users, not such a small party. Perhaps you are scouts searching for me.” “Celestia doesn’t know we’re here!” Twilight blurts out just before covering her mouth. “I should not have said that.” The voice stops abruptly at this, “Then you are either very foolish or very ignorant to come to this place. Now tell me why are you here.” Twilight listens to the voice, noticing the sudden change of demeanor and speech, from demanding and suspicious to inquisitive. “Well, I’ve come this far…..” Twilight raises her voice. “I’m here following the abnormality from the Strange Stones, it lead me to somewhere in the Everfree, that’s why I’m here.” “Strange Stones? That’s a foolish name, what is this Strange Stone you speak of?” Ignoring the slight, Twilight reaches into her pack and pulls out one of the Stones with her telekinesis, the Stone growing brightly from the magic Twilight is pouring into it. “It’s these, they seem to have strange….” The lavender mare groans at having to admit it. “….Wish-granting properties, and they’re different from the Red Stones Celestia has had me gathering. That’s why we, my friends and I, hoped that by following the abnormality we might find out what they are.” “You’re gathering those things?!” The voice booms, causing Twilight to shrink lower to the floor. “Then you are my enemy! You’re gathering them for Celestia!” “I’m not your enemy!” Twilight yells as she rises to her hooves. “At least I don’t think that I’m your enemy. Now, my turn,” Twilight demands, “Who are you? Where are you hiding? What do you want with Princess Celestia? If you mean to hurt her…..” The voice scoffs as the shadows seem to dance at the displeasure of the mysterious voice. “Am I not royal enough for her? Does she not know who I am? Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years?” Twilight’s ears perk up as the sound of soft hoof steps clop on the floor, in the exact way they do right before the main character dies in a horror movie. Twilight freezes, her every rational thought telling her not to look behind her; however, eventually the curiosity wins out as Twilight turns her head to look, the figure’s name catching in her throat. With dark precision the figure manifests her Stand. Twilight’s eyes widen at the Stand before her, its coat covered in all the blues and dark purples of the night sky, its gleaming silver scale armor giving it the impression of the aurora borealis, the northern lights. The Stand’s outspread wings covered in shooting stars and its braided mane the silvery white of the milky way. Its armored helm covers the eyes of the Stand, as if it is blind to all and it's black horn filed to a razor point. Twilight raises her voice to scream. “Nightmare…..” The blow falls, and Twilight Sparkle’s senses falter, her mind falling into a dark sleep as the figure over her stares into her very soul. The mare tries to resist, to struggle against the coming darkness, however against such a foe eventually her strength gives out completely and the mare knows no more.