//------------------------------//
// Power Overload 
// Story: Rifts of Power and Darkness 
// by BoltAshera 
//------------------------------//

Twilight and her friends gathered in the council room of the Palace of Friendship, ready to head off to Canterlot for the yearly Summer Sun Celebration. Rainbow Dash hovered in the air right above Twilight, her forehooves crossed in annoyance at how long their other friends were taking. “Ugh, please tell me Rarity and Pinkie are going to be here soon, I’m missing out on my morning nap.”

Applejack rolled her eyes at her friend’s irritation. “They’re gonna be ‘ere when they git ‘ere Dash, and there’s nuthin wrong with bein’ up this early.” 

Fluttershy gave a soft smile herself and nodded in agreement. “Oh yes, I get up early every day to take care of all my little critters”

Rainbow groaned and was about to retort when the door opened and two ponies come walking in—or in Pinkie’s case—bouncing in. “Finally! Where were you two?” Rainbow exclaimed, throwing her hooves up in exasperation. 

Rarity looked up to her flying friend with a frown. “I’m sorry for making you wait, darling. I just couldn’t figure out what to wear for this year’s Summer Sun Celebration. And I can assure you, Pinkie’s… distractions didn’t make it any easier.” 

The pink Pony gives a gigglesnort with a nod at that, smiling with her typical endless cheer "I was just trying to help speed things up. But! We got here in time anyways!"

Just then, Twilight looked up from the book she was reading with a warm smile “Hey Rarity, hey Pinkie, it’s alright. I figured someponies would be later than the rest, which is why I asked everypony to be here fifteen minutes early. You're not late. In fact, I had just finished going over my spell for the final time. So if you girls are all ready, we can teleport over to Canterlot.”

“Why are we teleporting again?” Rarity asked.

“Because I found this book from the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters and wanted to try out this master-level teleportation that was in it. I’ve tested it a thousand times on other objects, making sure I got it perfect, but this would help me tremendously in my research, ” Twilight stated. 

“Book from the castle?” Rarity asked, a little horrified, a shiver running down her spine as she recalls her own experience with a book from the old castle. 

“Come on Rares, what could possibly go wrong,” Rainbow stated with a role of her eyes.

Pinkie lets out a horrified gasp when she hears the dreaded phrase. "what have you done, Dashie?! You never say those words!”

"What? 'What could poss...mmph.'" Pinkie's hoof plug's Rainbow's mouth, cutting her off with a glare. Rainbow just rolls her eyes as Pinkie removes her hoof, giving a 'blech' and spitting out a couple pink hairs. "Okay, okay, I wont go saying that line again. Sheesh."

"So, do you want to give this a try, or not?" Twilight asks of her friends, one of her ears folding to the side with worry that they might still reject it.

“Ahh, why not, it could be fun,” Rainbow said with a confident smirk. 

“Yeah! We most definitely won't get trapped in another world and are unable to get home for a really, really, really long time!” Pinkie asked with a grin and a bounce to her step as she poked her head between Twilight and the book. Her declaration earns her a completely befuddled look from her friends, before they each shrug it off as 'Pinkie being Pinkie.'

“Yeah, like that’s likely,” Rarity said sarcastically.

All five friends gathered around the purple Alicorn. “Ok everypony, this will take all of my concentration, so I’ll need you all to stand perfectly still while I cast the teleport spell, that means no hovering or bouncing!” Twilight looked pointedly to Rainbow and Pinkie when she said that, Rainbow landed in a huff, but the pink party pony could not sit still to save her life. Expecting this, Twilight levitated a roll of duct tape over to Rainbow, who took it with a smile. 

After doing what needed to be done, Twilight shot Rainbow a grateful smile then closed her eyes and flared her horn with magic power. 

The lavender glow spreaded from Twilight’s horn to each of her friends as she weaved the mass-teleportation spell together. She concentrated on the book laid out in front of her and the chapter it was open to. It called for use of a magical ley lines nexus point, the Palace of Friendship being situated right on top of a nexus point of nine different lines converging on a single area. Twilight tapped into that power now. 

Unfortunately, the power of the World Nexus proved far more than she anticipated. The lavender Alicorn’s eyes turned pure white as her body was flooded with excess magical power. Her jaw fell open in shock at just how much energy she was channeling as a surge of magical power washes into each of them, the energy making their fur stand on end.

Twilight’s friends each looked at each other worriedly, but were afraid of what would happen if they tried to get Twilight’s attention right then, so they kept silent. The silence was only broken when Twilight's eyes returned to their normal purple hue and they breathed a sigh of relief. 

Their relief was short lived. Seconds after they let out a collective breath a second, stronger pressure wave of magic slammed into them, once more overloading the spell while driving the six to their knees. Twilight screamed out as she tossed her head against the incredible magical pressure and worked to safely bleed off the excess magic while trying to maintain control of the spell

The Alicorn begin to panic as she felt the spell slip from her grasp. Applejack—being the first to recover from the pressure wave—got to her hooves shakily and called out, “Twahlight! Yah need teh stop teh spell!” She tried to take a step forward, but the magical pressure pounding down on all of them prevented her from achieving even that simple feat. 

“I-I can’t! It’s out of control!” Twilight’s panicked voice cut through the maelstrom of power. Her friends looked to each other in panic just before another wave of power slammed into them, stronger than the last. 

This one tore open a rift in the air above the six. Before anypony could even scream their horror, Twilight completely lost control and the spell latched onto the nearest outlet—namely the rift that had just been torn open by a power unlike anything seen in Equestria before. A blinding flash of magenta light lit up the room like the sunrise, and, when it cleared, there was nothing left but six scorch marks in the shape of six-pointed stars on the ground, five surrounding one big on in the center, in an exact parody of the lavender Alicorn’s cutie mark.