What Lies Within

It was the beginning of a wonderful day in Ponyville. The birds chirped overhead, the sun shone warmly, and the ponies couldn't help but feel relaxed. Applejack's hooves sank into the soft soil outside of the library as she lifted a hoof to knock on the door. Suddenly a loud crash from inside of the library startled her, and she heard Twilight Sparkle scream from inside.

"Twilight!" Applejack yelled and pushed at the door. To her dismay the door didn't budge. "Hold on Twi!" Applejack turned around, preparing her famous buck for the door. Suddenly the door swung forwards and knocked her to the ground.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry Applejack!" Spike gasped from the doorway as Applejack picked herself up.

"Is Twilight alright? Ah heard her scream, and there was a loud crash..."

"Oh, that?" Spike chuckled. "Twilight's just reorganizing the shelves in the library again."

"Oh," Applejack sighed in relief. "Thank goodness. Does she have a moment to talk? Or maybe ah should come back later."

"No." A muffled voice sounded from inside of the library. "Come on in."

The inside of the library, usually clean and tidy, was littered with books of all kinds. Dictionaries and bedtime stories alike covered the floor and a veritable mountain of books sat in the center of the room.

"Twilight? Where are yah?" Applejack scanned the loft above but found nopony there.

"Under here." Twilight groaned from under the mountain of books.Twilight's horn protruded from the bottom of the pile.

"Twilight, what in the hay are yah doing under all those books?" Applejack sighed.

"It's not on purpose, trust me." Twilight said as she directed her magic into moving the pile of books off of her body. "There were just more books on that shelf than I expected." She sat up, brushing a stray tome off of her head. "Now, what can I do for you, Applejack? Are you looking for a book of some kind? It's a little messy but I'm sure we can find what you need."

"No, sugar cube." Applejack said, pulling out a slip of paper from her saddlebag." Pinkie's gonna throw a picnic party palooza at the park and she wanted me tah invite ya'll. Ya'll should come, it'll be heaps of fun!"

"Oh, but we are already having heaps of fun." Spike replied, rolling his eyes.

"Sure we'll come. It'll be a nice break from sorting. Just let me finish this section..." Twilight channeled her magic to float the books and put them into seemingly random shelves. Applejack just sighed.

"You be sure she remembers to come, Spike." She said. "That girl could sit there for a week 'nd not notice any time'd gone by. It'll be good for her to take a break anyway."

"Will do!" Spike said, and led Applejack out of the door. Twilight, consumed in her sorting, didn't even notice them leave. Just as she was inspecting a particularly old book to determine the shelf it belonged to her horn flared with a bright burst of magic, sending the many tomes she was levitating flying in every direction.

"Ow!" Twilight exclaimed as the old book crashed into her face and impaled itself on her horn. Sighing in frustration, Twilight worked to remove the book with her hooves as her magic fizzled out with an audible pop. As soon as the book was out of her vision, she groaned at the mess the flying books had made. Spike walked in on the mess and giggled.

"Wow Twilight, did the books insult you or something?" He picked up a book and held it like a mouth, speaking in an overly gruff voice. "Twilight can't sort books at all without you, Mister Spike! She's being mean to us!" Twilight merely rolled her eyes.

"No Spike. My magic has been acting very weirdly today." She put a hoof on her head as a strong migraine hit her. "First, I go to remove some books from the shelf, and I accidentally pull the whole shelf down on me! Now I just randomly threw all the books against the walls!" Her eyes widened in panic as she whipped around to face Spike head on. "Spike, do you know what this means?"

Spike, slightly concerned for Twilight's mental well-being, shook his head. "No, what does this mean?"

Twilight pulled her mane and collapsed on the floor. "It means that my magic is leaving me!" Springing up, she rushed to the books around her while frantically searching for a certain writing on the nature of unicorn magic. "I wonder if any cases have been documented of this before? I wonder if I am the only one this has ever happened to! Spike, what if I lose my magic altogether!"

Spiraling into a panic, Twilight ran around the library aimlessly. "What if Celestia won't want me as her student anymore? What if she sends me all the way back to magic kindergarten?" The thought itself stopped her in her tracks. "I'm going to lose EVERYTHING!" Twilight bawled.

Spike, who had been silently witnessing Twilight's descent into panic, grabbed Twilight by the shoulders and shook her hard. "Get a hold of yourself Twi!" He yelled at the now dizzy unicorn. "You aren't losing your magic!"

Twilight stared at him, and sniffled. "How do you know?"

Spike just sighed. "So your magic is kinda off today. Have you stopped to consider that maybe, just maybe, you are just tired?"

Twilight looked at Spike, confused. "But this has never happened before when I was just tired, Spike! This is an emergen-"

Spike glared at Twilight, cutting her off. "Your magic is acting up because you have been overworking yourself! There is no way that your magic could just disappear. You are the most talented unicorn in Ponyville, that isn't going to change. Maybe it's like..." Spike wracked his mind for a good example. "Oh! Like a muscle! If you overwork a muscle, it will be sore and could tear and stuff. Maybe your magic is just sore?"

Twilight was silent as she pondered this option. She had studied the nature of magic intensively, and could absolutely refute Spike's explanation. It had been enough to calm her back down into thinking clearly though, and her headache was subsiding. For Spike's sake, she stopped, then began to smile. "I think you might just be right Spike."

"Really!" He exclaimed, thrilled that Twilight had admitted that he was correct.

"But I am going to keep a close eye on this." Twilight bolted downstairs, Spike following closely behind, and hooked herself up to a strange machine that looked almost like a seismograph. "I will have to monitor my magical state at all times, to see if I am going to flare up again." Saying this, she stared at the results pouring out from the machine while nodding and gasping occasionally. Spike sighed and grabbed Twilight by the hoof.

"Wait! I have to monitor my magic levels!" She protested as Spike pulled her out of the door.

"Come on, Twi. We're going to a picnic."

Far away in Canterlot, a worried Princess rose from her throne. Celestia frowned towards the direction of Ponyville and the Everfree forest, her thoughts racing despite her calm appearance. Her usually regal manner was broken by the waves of pain radiating from her head. She had tried all manner of spells, but no magic could heal the strange headache she suffered under. The guards outside of the throne room doors began to speak with someone, then the great doors swung wide. Princess Luna strode up to her sister as the door boomed shut.

"Sister, have you felt it?" Celestia asked, unable to keep a worried tone out of her voice.

"I have." Was Luna's only reply. Sighing, Celestia turned to face her. Both ponies remained silent for a short while, gathering their thoughts.

"Magic; a new, unknown, and powerful magic, no less." Luna spoke, breaking the silence. "Even before my... absence... I had never experienced a power quite so unique."

"What should I do sister?" Celestia asked, rubbing her head as if she hoped that action could somehow clear it, "This force could be dangerous, but neither of us has the time to go stomping around in the Everfree, searching for the source of this magic."

Luna was silent in thought for a moment. "Twilight Sparkle." She smiled. "You always have said that you could trust her with anything. Send her and her friends on a quest to find this magic. She would probably be enchanted at the prospect of documenting this abnormality."

"What if she is hurt?" Celestia worried.

"You can send a detachment of guards to help her with the monsters. I do not  believe that anything in that forest could stand up to both the Elements of Harmony and the Guard."

Celestia nodded. "Very well. I shall send Twilight a note with her instructions, along with a patrol of guards." Celestia walked back to her throne, levitating a paper and quill with her magic. Before she got to it, she stopped. "Thank you for your advice, Luna."

Luna simply smiled.

Many years before...

The caverns echoed forlornly with the wails of a mare in the midst of a hard childbirth, and the cries of nurses around her. Two unicorns, a stallion and a little filly, sat complacently in the cavern outside of the room where the mother languished.

"Stone Teller?" The midnight-black filly spoke softly and nervously, "Is Sapphire Weaver going to be okay?"

The stallion smiled reassuringly, his clear grey eyes staring blindly at her, "Yes Midnight Aria. It sounds like the birth is troubled, but I feel that the baby will be just fine." The foal sighed in relief at her mentor's assurance. The Shaman had never been wrong before, and Midnight Aria was not about to start doubting him.

"I am troubled about the filly itself though." Stone Teller confessed, "I can feel the waves of its being, but they are confused. I do not think that this young one's fate will be easy to determine."

"Oh." Midnight Aria scuffed her hoof against the stone floor. It seemed that her hopes of finally being able to try to read a fate were dashed. Well, she thought to herself, there will be other births to supervise... someday.

Stone Teller smiled knowingly at the far wall. "It would seem that I am becoming old."

Midnight Aria tilted her head, confused. "Huh?"

"It would seem that at my older age, I might just need a certain younger, more energetic filly to read this fate for me."

Though he could not see the great smile that spread across the filly's face, Stone Teller could feel her happiness just as well. He groaned slightly as his ribs contracted under the little filly's fierce hug.

"Thank you." she whispered, just as the cries of a newborn resounded from the chamber.

"It seems... That we are needed..." Stone Teller gasped over the hug crushing his diaphragm.

"Oh! Sorry." Midnight Aria squeaked, letting him go as he breathed a huge gasp. She then put her flank up against his and began to lead Stone Teller into the small cavern where Sapphire Weaver and her new child were waiting. Midnight Aria gasped slightly when she saw the little pony. It's eyes were wide open, their dark red irises gleaming with tears as the young pony cried. Stone Teller gasped also, but for a much different reason.

Ever since he could remember, he had 'seen' by feeling the flow of magic around him, a special talent that had led him to become a Shaman. Never, though, in all of his long years, had he felt so much magic in a single pony before, and he stepped forward in the direction of the tangling magic he felt.

The filly stopped crying at the sound of the ponies entering. Midnight Aria stepped next to him and gazed down at the little filly wrapped in blankets in her mother's lap. As she looked into the filly's eyes she thought that she could feel something strange emanating from the child. She looked over to see Stone Teller smiling expectantly in her general direction.

"Well? Go head."

Midnight Aria stifled an anxious sigh and looked up at Sapphire Weaver, who turned her nervous gaze to the older stallion. Sensing her maternal anxiety to give this young mare her child, who was not much bigger than her, he smiled reassuringly.

Cautiously, Midnight Aria took the little filly in her bundle in her arms. Focusing her magic, she closed her eyes. Slowly, she began to 'see' magic flowing around her. She had to stop herself from flinching back from the child, and instead simply stood awestruck at the raw magical power vested inside its body.

"Stone Teller?" She asked nervously, "Can you-"

"Go ahead and do your job Aria." He answered sternly, his tone voicing no way of opposition to his words.

Taking a deep breath, Midnight Aria began to reach out to the magic of the filly.

It was midday, she knew, but the world was tinted a deep red, as if a strange light was shining from above. She looked down from her place above the ground, and quickly put her hooves over her mouth to prevent herself from screaming. Ponies of every kind littered to ground below her, their anguished and dying moans sounding as a horrible song in her ears. Among the corpses, sat two glittering crowns, one golden and one silver. It was all too much to bear.

"Aria! MIDNIGHT ARIA!"

Strange dark shapes began to swirl around her, and she had to beat her wings ever harder to remain aloft. They began to form into the shape of a gigantic black alicorn stallion, with teeth like razors and eyes that reflected no light from their dark depths. Darkness flowed freely from its mane and fetlocks, with red light flashing intermittently within. Upon its flank, its cutie mark bore the symbol of a blood-red eclipse. Upon his head, to the side of his horn, two other small horns grew on each side, with dark energy frequently surging between them.

"What is wrong? What is she seeing?"

"Snap out of it girl!"

The monstrosity began to laugh, slowly at first, then rising in tone and speed until it was nearly hysterical. It spoke without it's mouth moving, and it's voice ripped through her mind as great blasts of pure fear and rage.

"Oh, my apprentice! Do you not like the new Equestria that you have made? I am of the mind to enjoy it. In fact I love it so much I think I'll keep it this way."

A horrible smile split its face from ear to ear, its bloodied fangs gleaming horribly. Midnight Aria tried to move, to escape, to do anything, but she could only cower beneath the gruesome grin of the great monster. It lunged forward, it's mouth opening in a terrifying laugh, as it screamed out at her.

"WELCOME TO YOUR DESTINY!"

Midnight Aria jolted upright, her lungs spasming as she attempted to calm down. Tears flowed freely from her face, and she buried her muzzle into the light brown fur of her mentor. When she had calmed down enough to where she merely hiccuped infrequently, she turned to Sapphire Weaver and her husband, Steel Horn, who were looking at her in horror. The little filly rested in her bundle upon the ground, seeming perfectly content.

What, what was that? Midnight Aria thought, Could that... Could that really have been that little filly's future?

"Did you discover this little filly's name?" Stone Teller queried softly. Midnight Aria nodded, then remembering that he couldn't see, softly whispered.

"Yes." She stood shakily, and turned to face the parents on trembling hooves.

"Your daughter... Her name is Fear Sower."