It was a cool summer night; everything was still, only the creatures of the night were singing as the stars glimmered and twinkled. The tranquility of the night had its silence broken as a flash appeared near the castle of the two sisters. A mysterious unicorn appeared in a cloak as black as night and went towards the Tree of Harmony. The unicorn approached the tree and looked it over, she smirked and said, softly
“I see you gave the chest to the heir of your power. Well then, you know I must destroy this pony.”
She let out a little laugh into the night sky.
Twilight was so happy Starlight had decided to throw a party for the friends she made since becoming Twilight’s student. She had invited Trixie, Sunburst, some of the ponies from the village she ran, and Twilight’s friends plus Spike and of course Twilight. They were having the party at Twilight’s castle and Starlight spent all day getting the castle ready with help from Spike and Twilight. Sweeping, mopping and dusting the halls and rooms to make it sparkle. After the cleaning they decorated the castle with crepe-paper, swirl decorations, different colored balloons, fluffy decorations, bows and confetti of all colors. The food they had prepared looked amazing; it was set up on a long table, they had apple cider in a clear punch bowl for everypony and cakes and other pastries from Sugarcube Corner. Everything was set; after all the work they had done to get the party ready, they could finally say the preparations were done. Starlight let out a jovial sigh, before turning to Twilight with a grin on her face;
“Thanks for helping me Twilight, it looks awesome. I hope everypony has fun and enjoys the party.”
Twilight looked at Starlight, a smile on her face;
“You’re welcome, and besides, I’m proud that you decided to go through with this party, and that you planned it all on our own.”
Starlight blushed a bit, looking down at the ground.
“Yeah... I I was a bit against it at first, but Pinkie Pie really convinced me to throw my own party. I just hope she thinks I did well”
~~~~~~~~~~~~A few hours later~~~~~~~~~
The party was in full swing, Starlight and Sunburst were catching up and Double Diamond was really having fun meeting Sunburst. Trixie was chatting with Rarity and Rainbow while Fluttershy, Twilight and Applejack were all chatting away about the week they had. Pinkie was eating cake with Sugar belle and Party Favor, while Spike was jumping from group to group involving himself in every conversion he could. The party was going so well, everypony was happy.
The mysterious unicorn had walked into Ponyville around four o’clock that afternoon. Still undetected, the unicorn sat and looked up at Twilight’s castle, easily see able as it oversees the town. She shed a tear and then smirked; fire burning deep in her eyes. She was upset to see the castle that Twilight had called home but she just walked back to the Everfree forest. Right back to the Tree of Harmony, she sat down beside it and said
“The show will begin shortly, I already know how to get rid of Twilight Sparkle. Her friends won’t be able to help her... you know that right?”
She talked to the Tree like it could hear her and respond to her. She looked over the tree and said in a smug voice
“Everything will begin at sunset. Only a few hours till then.”
The party was coming to an end around four thirty; Sunburst had to catch the next train back to the Crystal Empire and the others had to get back to the Village. Trixie had to move on to Manehattan, she had a show to do in a few days. The friends Starlight had were leaving. They admitted to having a fun time, and after one long winded goodbye later they all were gone. The mane five all went home too because it was starting to get late and they had so much to do tomorrow, they all bid Twilight and Starlight goodnight and went home. Twilight and Starlight looked at the castle where the party was and it was messy; popped balloons on the floor, and decorations once hanging regally fell to the ground in clumps. The table had a large icing stain on it from where Pinkie smashed her face into one of the cakes; in all, there was a lot to clean. They dived into cleaning, and had cleaned for about three hours when Twilight’s cutie mark started to glow, and a little version of the mark lifted off her and went to the map. Twilight squealed in delight and followed it. It had been a while since the map summoned her and Starlight just followed behind her. When they got to the map they saw that everyone’s cutie marks where around Twilight’s, circling it like a fly does to it’s meal. Twilight and Starlight looked at the map confused though, because according to the map the friendship problem was at Twilight’s castle. Twilight spoke with a tone of confusion in her voice;
“Why would the map say I have a friendship problem? I know you don’t have a problem right Starlight?”
Starlight looked at her and said in surprise;
“No! I don’t have a friendship problem, does Spike?”
Twilight thought about that for a minute but she knew it couldn’t be Spike; he never had a problem, well... not a friendship problem at least. At that moment Rainbow came crashing into the throne room announcing her presence;
“I’m here where's the problem at?”
In a smug yet confident tone. Twilight looked at her, but before she could answer Pinkie appeared from nowhere, yelling at the top of her lungs;
“THE PROBLEM SOLVER PINKIE PIE IS ON THE CASE! So where is the problem. Oh am I teaming up with Rainbow Dash again I hope so. When we went to GriffonStone together we had a lot of fun. Or I’m I going somewhere else with Rainbow, me and you Twilight. Maybe it’s to go fight a monster or maybe--”
Then Rarity walked in, cutting Pinkie off and exclaimed in a much calmer tone;
“Pinkie Pie calm down, the map also summoned me here too, and at such a late hour of the day I might add. How rude of the map, but then again I guess this can’t wait till tomorrow.”
Applejack entered next and said;
“Rarity’s right Pinkie, besides I’m here too - it’s not just Rainbow from the looks of things, we're all going on an adventure.”
Fluttershy flew in quickly, slightly out of breath.
“I’m here! I’m sorry if I’m late, I was reading Angel a story. He really got mad I had to stop and---”
Rainbow cut off Fluttershy, her tone annoyed.
“So Twilight, where is this problem and why is the map calling us so late at night? Well sunset, but you get the point.”
Twilight looked at her friends, confusion on her face;
“I don’t know, but the map is saying the problem is here in my castle. I don’t know why though, there isn’t a problem here.”
Her friends looked at her oddly, but then Applejack interjected;
“Well that don’t make a lick of sense why would the map call us here if there ain’t a problem to fix?”
She sounded confused yet angry . The mane six started to argue amongest themselves, but before the argument could get to heated Starlight interrupted them and shouted with concern in her voice;
“Look; your cutie marks are moving away from each other and to different ends of Equestria! Is that normal?”
The mane six stopped arguing and looked over at the map. She was right - Rarity’s was now over Canterlot, Rainbows in Cloudsdale, Pinkies over her family’s rock farm, Applejack’s in Appleloosa and Fluttershy’s was way off in the village Starlight ran. Twilight’s remained in her castle, they all looked puzzled as to why the map would suddenly do that. The friends all looked at each other and before any one of them could speak they started vanishing one by one, in what looked like a teleportation spell. Twilight yelled in surprise;
“No! Wait, where are you all going!? Come back… Who’s doing this? Is it you Discord? Bring them back! This isn’t funny!”
But she got no response; only Starlight and Spike where in the castle with Twilight. Then Twilight heard the creaking of her front door opening; she ran towards the door.