One thousand years ago...
Midnight rushed into her room, her dark purple mane was in a mess and her white coat and horn had spots that were caked in fresh and dried blood. Her tail was cut short due to her struggle to get away from IT. Her rosey eyes were as small as pinpricks in fear and despair of these recent horrifiying events.
She slammed the door behind her and slid down its old Everfree oak as fresh tears streamed down her cheeks as she choked in a breath. "Everypony is dead, the ritual failed and the Master has gone insane because of the flowing Stigma and I am about to die..." She thought to herself as she heard slow hoofsteps from the other side of the door; big and heavy hoofsteps.
She shuddered at the sound of metal being dragged across the wooden floor outside her room, meaning her meeting with Death is imminent. She could almost see the inviting cloak of him around her in the darkness. The young mare trotted her way over to her desk where she pulled out a camera from her cupboard and held it up with her magic. She saw what took the Master's mind and she heard ITs voice. She saw what other ponies didn't see around the manor, she saw the Benevolent and the Demonic, the Remember and Forgotten. She could always see their ethereal forms whenever she went to local cemeteries or the shrine out back. She had put them to eternal peace and helped them move on but that wouldn't help her now. She had to purify this manor before it will remain in eternal fixation of despair. "I must do it, I must do it!"
Midnight placed the camera in her hooves as the door opened with such a force that it came out of its hinges. At the ruined doorway was an old stallion unicorn that wore white robes that was covered in fresh and dried blood. A giant cleaver floated next to him, soaked in blood of his victims. His face was concealed by a dark demonic mask that hid his features and some of his horn. The stallion began to move towards Midnight as she began to raise the camera to him to take a snapshot.
Midnight saw the demonic spirit behind him, taking a hold of his mind. The form was horrifying that she didn't want to describe its demonic characteristics, only that it seemed to come from the seat of the Underworld itself. She began to move in for the purification, only to see that the stallion had raised the cleaver and swung it to meet her neck. She closed her eyes and felt the swift death meet her, only to hear the click of the camera in the last moments of her living life.
Twilight awoke with a start, beads of sweat rolling down her face as she put a hoof to wipe it off. She looked up, expecting to see that monster of a pony in front of her, only to see a rather concerned scaly assistant, who stood at the foot of her bed.
"Is it that dream again?" Spike asked, looking at her with those big worried eyes and worried tone.
"Yeah," Twilight replied as she got out bed, letting her hooves clop on the hardwood floor. Luna's light shined dimly on her face and horn as she began to trot over to Spike. She placed a hoof on her assistant's shoulder and pulled him in for a hug. Her eyes showed fear and distress, having to go through the nightmare over and over again.
"You haven't been reading any scary stories before bed have you?" Spike pushed as he hugged her back. "If you lay off the books, maybe the dreams..."
"No Spike, its not the books," Twilight defended as she sighed. "The dreams feel more like a memory, though I never had that kind of memory before in my life. Not even my imagination can think of such horrid things."
"Well if it is a memory, what if you just repressed it?" Spike sat down on the bed, ready to listen to whatever Twilight may have to say.
"If it was repressed, I'm doing a poor job at it. The dream, it's so vivid, like it happened an hour before. Everything from the masked stallion in bloodstained clothes to the dark manor surrounded by trees. Even the diary and the details of that black camera are just as vivid. The smells and sensations as well." Twilight shut her eyes as she began to think. "But that camera, it stood out the most from the dreams, like that thing was the main point of the dream. it was much like Photo Finish's camera but more mobile so one could hold it in their hooves. It had strange carvings on the lenses and ancient runes on the box of it."
Spike took it all in and began to piece it together one by one. "You said trees around the manor, right?"
"Yes and it was surrounded by strange statues of ponies, all of them mares and had ropes around their neck and limbs." Twilight replied as she opened her eyes to see Spike suddenly scared of his conclusion.
"Your dreams sound like the Legend of the Everfree Manor. I remember Pinkie was us the story when we had the sleepover down at Canterlot after the wedding." Spike stated as he bit his claws in fear.
"Oh Spike, come on. That's just an old pony's tale, legends are not real. That manor just has been abandoned for two hundred years." Twilight replied as she sighed. "At least, that's what my grandmother told me."
Spike went over to the bookshelf to pull out a book filled with urban myths and legends surrounded Equestria. "Don't you remember what Pinkie said about the Mare of White in the Everfree Manor?" He set down the book and opened it up to a page with a young unicorn with a dazzling white coat and purple eyes. She seemed to glow in the light and there was a description of her next to the picture. "She haunts the Everfree Forest and Manor, leading anyone who dares follow her to their doom."
"Spike, ghosts don't exist. It's just a hallucination that ponies experience when in contact with high EMF levels in an area." Twilight defended as she put a hoof on her forehead, wiping the sweat that was still present on her face.
"What about the ponies with a sixth sense, like the Pinkie Sense?" Spike countered as he shut the book and put it behind him, not wanting to look at the Mare, fearing that it would appear in front of them anytime soon.
Twilight fell silent, remember that day with the hydra and Pinkie's mysterious sense. She sighed then said "I suppose your right, maybe I'll just have to see it to believe it. Now try and get to sleep Spike, we have a busy day tomorrow."
Spike nodded and said "Okay Twilight, good night." He clamored into his bed and in quick moments, fell into a deep sleep.
Twilight looked out her window to gaze at Luna's moon, thinking and focusing on her nightmares. She couldn't get the images out of her mind; the bloodied walls, the sound of the cleaver being dragged across the floor, the horrifying mask on that old stallion, but the black camera stood out the most out of all them. Wishing to get these focused thoughts out of her head, she headed downstairs for a midnight snack.
As she began to fish out oats from her cupboard above the sink, the air in the room got colder, despite the warm summer breeze moments ago. Twilight saw her breath appear before her as she felt a chill down her psine. She turned to see a misty unicorn mare about the same height as herself. This ghastly mare had a pearly white coat that seemed to shine in the darkness of the room and her flank was barren of a cutie mark, at least, not a really visible one, since Twilight could only see half her body. Her mane was a ghostly purple and a pale pink, fashioned in an old loose style, as if she just let her hair down.
This apparition looked at Twilight with her shineless pale eyes of a dark blue and gazed deep into her eyes. Twilight shuddered at the sight, seeing this ghost in front of her along with the chill that she seemed to give. The ghost began to approach her as Twilight took a step back, yet frozen in fear and disbelief. The white mare took another step as her horn began to glow and she bent her head forward to meet her horn with Twilight's.
Twilight blinked a moment as images began to flow into her head. Images of seperation from her parents, the dark manor, ropes drenched in blood being hung in front of a stone gate and finally, the black camera she saw in her dreams. Twilight stumbled back and landed on her flank as she began to process these vivid images.
"You now know your role, act on it before its too late." The ghostly mare whispered in a hush tone as she closed her eyes and disappeared into the night. That tone was much like her mother's and her grandmother's when she was just a foal. Twilight shook her head as she came to her conclusion. The images that the ghost gave her were practically the exact copies she saw in her dream. Every vivid detail and every sense and sound from it were exactly from the dream.
She looked up to see where the ghost had gone, only to see an old picture laying on the ground. She picked it up to see a young mare of white, standing in front of a shrine with a masked stallion and a roped mare. Twilight gasped as her eyes fell on the masked stallion, recognizing him from her nightmares.
"This Mare of White must be from that manor but why did she come to me." Twilight said to herself as she began to quietly pace the floor, considering what happened last time with the entire time traveling incident. The Doctor was probably furious with her but that's besides her point.
"I must find answers," Twilight said as she took out a piece of paper, a quill and some ink and began to write down a quick note to her friends. She would have to leave tonight in order to find her answers elsewhere.