Twilight raised the cup to her lips, and drank in the delightful taste of herbal tea. Giving out a pleasant sigh, she lowered her cup back down onto its saucer. She then spoke to her former mentor, Princess Celestia, who was sitting in front of her.
“Thank you so much for having me for tea,” said Twilight to her teacher.
“But of course Twilight. Nothing could please me more, than spending time with my most faithful student,” replied Celestia with a loving smile. Twilight raised her cup once more and took another sip. It was then that she noticed that Celestia was giving her an odd look. Twilight raised an eyebrow, which was caught by the solar princess.
“Twilight, as much as I enjoy spending time with you, I must confess, I did just summon you for a social call.”
“Oh, is something wrong?” questioned the lavender Alicorn.
“Perhaps it I best if I show you.” Celestia stood up from her seat, and started making her way towards the door. Curious, Twilight stood up from her seat, and followed after the Princess. The two made their way out the door, and into the halls. The two made their way into the halls, traversing through the castle, on the way to their destination.
As they walked, Twilight noticed that there weren’t any castle staff around. It seemed as though the castle was empty. Twilight considered asking about this, but decided against it, figuring that what the Princess needed to show her was more important.
Soon enough, Celestia had led them back to her throne room, which was deserted, like the rest of the castle. The white mare walked up to her throne, and lit her horn, causing both it and the throne to be enveloped by a golden glow. A dragging sound could be heard as the throne began moving. It traveled form its spot, revealing a large square hole underneath it, with a set of stairs leading down. Twilight was surprised; she had no idea that such a secret existed in the castle. She thought she knew everything there was to know about the castle, but it appeared that she was wrong. Celestia turned to look at Twilight, giving her a serious look.
“Follow me.” Celestia turned back, and started to descend the stairs. After a few seconds of consideration, Twilight followed after her teacher. The way down was pitch black, the only illumination coming from Celestia’s horn, which showed the dark stones lining the walls.
When the two stepped down onto the bottom floor, a set of torches lining the walls became lit, to reveal a long corridor. A silence permeated the air, until the sound of hooves clopping on the floor could be heard. Celestia started walking, heading to the end of the hall, with Twilight slowly following.
“Um, Princess, what’s going on? Why are we…down here?” questioned a nervous Twilight.
“Do not fear my student, soon everything will be revealed,” assured Celestia. The two made their way forward, down the hall, eventually coming to a dark steel door, with a barred window. Celestia used her magic to undo the locks, stepping into the room, and disappearing into the darkness. Twilight followed her into the room, instantly becoming lost in pitch-black darkness.
“Princess? Where are-“ before she could finish, she heard the door slam shut behind her, causing her to let out a startled cry.
“Princess? Princess, what’s going on?” Instead of response, she merely heard the sound of childlike giggling, though it sounded like it was coming from Celestia herself. “C-Celestia?” Before she could utter another word, Twilight felt something slide onto her horn, instantly followed by her being lifted up, and thrown from her spot, slamming her into a wall.
Twilight let out a cry as she fell against the floor. She was lifted back up, and held against the same wall, only this time, her limbs were pressed against four shackle like attachments, which clamped around her hooves, locking her in place. Twilight tried to use her magic to free herself, but found that she could not do so. Her horn was not responding to her instructions, leaving her helpless in the current situation. Once again, the giggling returned, only louder, and distorted, as if it was being played off a scratched record.
“What’s going on?” questioned Twilight. She was answered by a blinding light, causing her to shut her eyes in response. After a few seconds, the lights intensity lessened, allowing Twilight to see her surroundings. An orb of light was suspended in the air, letting her see that she was in what looked like a dungeon room. On the floor was a diagram of some sorts. And in front of her…was her mentor, Celestia.
“C-Celestia? What’s going on?” questioned Twilight, fear in her voice.
“Your destiny Twilight. Your destiny,” replied Celestia.
“M-my destiny? What do you mean?”
“Oh, it’s very simple Twilight,” said Celestia as she merrily trotted off to the side. “You see, you are here to partake in a very important ritual! One that I’ve been performing for centuries.”
“What kind of ritual?” asked Twilight, dreading the answer.
“Well, it’s a simple magical essence transfer. You see, while it is true that Alicorns live longer than normal ponies, the truth is that we only live a couple of centuries at most,” explained Celestia.
“B-but that doesn’t make sense! You and Luna have been alive for at least a thousand years!”
“Ah, correct again my faithful student. You see, a long time ago, my sister and I discovered a spell of sorts that could extend our lives, as well as increasing our magical power. By draining the life force and the magic from another pony, we can generate a great boon to our power!”
“And you…you’re going to sacrifice me?” questioned Twilight. Celestia nodded in response. “But-but, I-I’m your student! Your most faithful Student!”
“Oh, silly Twilight. I’ve had hundreds of ‘Faithful Students’. You didn’t think you were my first, did you?”
“N-no, but…but, you made me an Alicorn! Surely that meant something!”
“Twilight, every student I’ve sacrificed over the past 800 years has been an Alicorn. I’ve turned countless students into Alicorns so they’d have more life, and magical energy to draw into my self. Don’t tell me you actually thought you were special?”
Twilight couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Here was the pony she’d looked up to her entire life, and she was telling her that she was nothing but a pawn to be sacrificed. Her mentor was going to kill her, without a second thought!
“I…I thought you cared about me,” said Twilight, tears of fear and betrayal seeping out of her eyes. Celestia’s expression seemed to soften, as she trotted up to Twilight, and stroked the side of her face with the soft feathers of her wings.
“Oh, Twilight…you were supposed to.” It was then that Twilight got a good look at Celestia. The princess’s eyes were slanted, and predatory like a snakes. Her teeth were sharper, they looked ready to cut and tear through meat like a warm knife through butter.
“This…this can’t be happening…” muttered Twilight.
“Oh, but it is Twilight.” Celestia looked into Twilights eyes, before she retracted her wing. “Well, let’s get started!” exclaimed Celestia with joy, as she trotted back, to the diagram on the floor. Celestia used her magic to light the candles surrounding the symbol, which Twilight could have sworn were not there before.
Celestia levitated a strange red gem into the center of the symbol, where it floated in the air, on its own. Celestia closed her eyes, and lit her horn. The candle flames grew larger, the smoke seemingly being sucked into the gem. After a few seconds, the gem started glowing. Then, coming from it came the smoke it had absorbed. Shaped like a claw, the smoke reached for Twilight, where it passed though her fur and flesh, reaching inside.
Twilight gasped as she felt the smoke grab onto something inside of her. A second later, it retracted pulling Twilights very essence from her body. It felt as if her entire being was being crushed into a very small volume. Her body was growing weak, as the satanic ritual was being performed. Twilight’s eyes rolled to the back of her head, as she screamed in pain.
“GET AWAY FROM HER!” Without warning, Twilight heard a voice that echoed through the room. Twilight’s eyes rolled back to normal and she looked around, searching for the source of the voice. Celestia didn’t seem to notice, at least not until a shape, slammed into her. Whatever it was, it was too fast for Twilight to see. It slammed directly into Celestia, knocking her off balance, and extinguishing the candles.
As the room went dark, Twilight felt the shackles holding her to the wall, release, allowing her to fall to the floor. Wobbly, and weakened, Twilight slowly got to her hooves. Shaking her head, and looking around, all she could see was darkness.
“Run!” It was the voice again; sounding like it came from an old radio. Wasting no time, Twilight sprinted forward, doing everything she could to get away. In the darkness, she couldn’t see anything, yet she still ran, desperate to get away. She ran for what could have been years, or maybe seconds, she couldn’t tell. But then she saw a rectangular light ahead. Seeing her way out, Twilight increased her speed, and ran for the light.
Twilight skidded to a stop in front of the light. Cautiously, she Alicorn reached forward, towards the light, testing to see just what it was. Before her hoof could reach it, she was startled, as something shot out of the light. Startling back, Twilight looked to see that it was an appendage reaching out of the light. It was a claw, much like Spikes, only larger. Twilight looked at it, confused.
“Take my hand,” said the voice. Twilight looked at the creature’s hand, but didn’t take it. She was confused, and didn’t know what to believe or who to trust.
“Who are you?” questioned Twilight.
“Hurry! Before she finds us!” came the voice again. Twilight looked hesitantly at the creature’s hand. She looked around, and heard the voice of Celestia calling out to her. Shivering, she looked back to the hand.
“I can save you from her!” Twilight took a moment to think about this, before slowly reaching her hoof for the creatures hand.
“Twiiiiilllliiight!” called Celestia. It sounded like she was getting closer. She reached for the hand, intent on taking it. As she did, she could hear her former mentors voice calling out to her.
“Twilight!”
“Twilight!”
“TWILIGHT!”
Twilight jolted awake, sitting up from her bed, her body-soaking wet. Confused and dazed, she looked around her, trying to get her bearings and figure out where she was. Light was seeping in from her window, showing it to be early morning. Twilights breathing was erratic, and heavy, as she looked frantically around her.
“Twilight!” The purple mare looked to the source of the voice, and found her faithful assistant, Spike, standing there, with a worried look and an empty bucket.
“S-Spike?” questioned the Alicorn. Twilight looked around the room, before returning to meet her assistant’s eyes. She saw he had a worried look on his face. Her eyes then traveled down to see he was holding an empty bucket. “Did…did you pour water on me?”
“I’m really sorry Twilight! It’s just, I heard you moaning in your sleep, you were tossing and turning, and it looked like you were crying! I tried to wake you up but nothing I did worked. So, I tried this,” explained Spike, worried that he was in trouble. Twilight took a few deep breaths, while wiping the water off her face.
“It’s ok Spike…thank you, I, I was having a pretty bad dream.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No, I…I think I’m just going to take a walk, and clear my head.”
“Oh…ok,” said Spike as he backed up, as Twilight hoisted herself out of bed. Once her hooves touched down on the floor, she made her way down the stairs. She opened the door, stepping out into the town. Shutting the door behind her, she stated her walk through town, thinking to herself. That dream she had felt so…real, so lucid, more than any other dream she’d ever had. She had vivid memories of the shackles around her hooves, the feeling of having her essence drain, and the emotional pain of having her mentor and role model betray her.
But Celestia would never do that to her, right? This was Celestia, she and Twilight were practically family! She would never try to hurt her! But then, there was that part of Twilight that was prone to irrational fear. What if it wasn’t just a dream? What if it was a warning? No, that was silly. Right?
Twilight had never had a dream as realistic as the one she had just had. There had to be something special about it right? But if Celestia would actually do such a thing, then Twilight’s entire life was just a charade. She couldn’t believe that. She’d known Celestia her whole life. She was a kind and generous ruler. She cared about Twilight, and Twilight cared about her.
“So then…why did I have that dream?” muttered Twilight to herself. It didn’t just come from nowhere. And where was Luna? Wasn’t she supposed to protect ponies from these sort of dreams?
It was then, that Twilight recalled the ending of her dream. She recalled some sort of…thing. It had knocked the nightmare Celestia aside, and freed her. It sounded like a stallion, but didn’t have the body of one. It looked more like…a dragon? Perhaps, she wasn’t sure. But it had told her to take its ‘hand’ and that it would save her.
Twilight knew that dreams were a projection of one’s thoughts, memories and fears, but Twilight had never worried about such things, nor had she experienced anything remotely similar to her nightmare. Twilight couldn’t figure out if this was just a bad dream or something more.
Deciding she’d been away from the library for long enough, and feeling an ache in her stomach, she started making her way towards her home. She returned, and opened the door, and made her way inside. Shutting the door behind her, she made here way to the kitchen, where she saw Spike working on making breakfast, frying up pancakes. As he heard the clopping of hooves, he turned to face his caretaker.
“Hey Twilight. How was your walk?”
“It was fine,” responded Twilight, taking a seat. Spike turned back to face his work, and soon finished preparing the food. He made his way towards the table, and set the pancakes on two plates, one for him, and one for Twilight. The two then began eating their breakfast in content silence.
Twilight was nearly finished eating, when she heard spike burp. A scroll materialized in the air in front of him. Dropping his fork, he grabbed the letter before it landed in the syrup.
“Hey, it looks like you got a letter from Princess Celestia,” said Spike, handing the scroll over to the Alicorn. Twilight’s eyes widened, as she took the scroll. Nervousness returning to her, Twilight hesitantly unrolled the scroll, and began reading its contents.
Dear Twilight,
My faithful student, I am writing to you, because Equestria is once again threatened. I request that you come to Canterlot castle as soon as
possible, so I may explain the situation in person. I hope to see you soon.
-Sincerely, Princess Celestia
Twilight lowered the letter, her heart beating a little bit faster.
“What’s it say Twilight?” questioned Spike.
“The princess…she needs me in Canterlot. Apparently a new threat has
arisen, and she needs to see me immediately.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“No, it doesn’t. I better go get ready,” said Twilight, standing up from her seat. She left the kitchen, and made her way back to her room, to get ready for her trip to Canterlot. As she did this, she thought of what was threatening Equestria this time. An old threat? A new one? She’d find out soon. But a thought scared her more than the idea of a new villain threatening Equestria. And that was that there was no threat. After all, her nightmare had started with the Princess sending her a letter.