Twilight groaned and her eyes slowly fluttered open. A faint beam of sunlight filled her vision, causing her to turn her head away with stinging eyes. She closed them and rolled over on her other side trying to get back to sleep. She couldn't. Instead, she laid there unmoving without the strength to actually get up. In her stillness though, she noticed that her pillow and sheets were damp again. She must have had another nightmare that night and sweated, but she could never remember them no matter how hard she tried. After a few moments of laziness, Twilight forced herself to get off her bed and onto her hooves. With a loud clop, she landed on the floor then sluggishly walked to her bathroom.
Entering the bathroom doorway, the wood that Twilight had previously stood on turned to cold porcelain tiles, but in her drowsiness she barely noticed the change. Using whatever focus she had, Twilight cranked the water on hot and a minute or two later, steam began to rise in the air. With that as a signal that the shower was ready, she stepped into the hot streams of water. The scalding heat woke her up just as much as it relaxed her, and Twilight stood motionless as the water plastered her violet coat to her skin and soaked her mane and tail.
Following a bit of shampooing and rinsing, she shut off the water and stepped out into the steamy air. A white towel levitated from a shelf above her and Twilight dried herself, then tossed the wet cloth into the hamper. Smiling, she left the humid bathroom, and Twilight, while humming to herself happily, made her way to her vanity back inside her chambers. She looked over herself in the mirror and quickly fixed her messy mane and her knotty tail with a small brush.
She was fully prepared to take on the day and she certainly showed it. Whether it had been in helping a pony with finding a book, running errands, or simply reading, Twilight almost never lost her smile. By the time the town's clock struck three, she had nearly completed her whole day, or at least the part she had planned out.
Now, the sun had long descended beneath the horizon and the night shrouded Equestria with its cloak of darkness. Houses sat still and dim as tired ponies lied in their warm beds covered with down blankets, and the streets ran bare and barely visible by the light of the moon. With the country's inhabitants resting, the dirt had settled and the air ran its cool breeze through the drooping leaves of the forest's boughs. The same could be said for for Ponyville. The grass in the town square had begun to dew with small clear droplets of water that rolled down their smooth blades, and the crickets chirped rhythmically in the moonlight's shadows, completely unseen.
Everything was calm.
In the local library near the center of town, only one pony still reveled in consciousness. Twilight sat in the floor on one of her favorite pillows while reading a book by candle light. She was a very studious mare, and because of her position as the element of magic, she had quite a reputation in Equestria. She didn't know it, but her name was spoken in nearly every city, town, or village in the entire country, especially Canterlot. She was regarded as a very prestigious unicorn, but she didn't think of herself in that way; nevertheless, she was nearing the popularity of the princesses themselves. Her position as Celestia's personal protegee didn't quell those thoughts either.
What the majority wouldn't guess was that Twilight had a somewhat simple life with terrific friends and a quiet job. The mare that had helped defeating Nightmare Moon, saving the Crystal Kingdom, and reforming Discord was actually a young librarian with a healthy obsession of books. Twilight also played a momentous role in keeping Chrysalis from taking over Canterlot during Shining Armor and Cadence's wedding a few years back. True, she and the other elements had saved Equestria's hide many times over.
Twilight flipped a page.
The book she read was titled Preliminary Knowledge of Advanced Magic and Spell Forms. Celestia had sent it to Twilight in her response to the friendship report a couple days back with explicit instructions to read it and to sent a letter with her comments and questions when she had finished. In the recent weeks, she had studied nearly twenty books that she had received, practiced several spells, and lost a lot of sleep in doing so. Being the slight perfectionist and careful student that she was, Twilight also kept very detailed notes, and the quill that danced across a piece of parchment and the growing stack of papers could confirm it.
She took a break to look at the clock on the wall. Eleven forty-two. Twilight yawned involuntarily as sleepiness began to creep up onto her mind when she realized how late it had been. Time had a way of doing that. With a short sigh, she noted her page and closed the book, rolled up the parchment, and placed the quill along with the ink well on the small table next to her wooden podium. Twilight got up on all fours and levitated the tome that she had been reading into a small empty slot in a nearby shelf. Since all things were in their proper places, she sighed and sluggishly walked over to the stairs. Her horn glowed with a quick bit of magic and all the candles were extinguished.
The clip-clop of her hooves resounded throughout the vacancy of her wooden abode as she walked up the stairs, and the closer she got to her bed, the heavier her eyes grew and her head hung lower, but before she could reach the top of the stairs and enter her awaiting bed--
Thump!
The sound almost made Twilight fall down the stairs, and it eradicated every ounce of sleepiness in her and replaced it with adrenalin. Her ears shot up, her eyes opened wide, and she turned her head towards the dark library. Taking a few steps down, she squinted as she searched for the noise's origin. The darkness in the room made it nearly impossible to see, so she slowly walked back into the dim book-filled portion of her house. She cast a spell and a faint violet glow radiated from the tip of her horn, and the light intensified until it lit up the entire room, books and all.
She jumped from one of the last few steps and onto the flat floor below. Her first thought was to go to the door and see if somepony was outside. More than likely, they would have been a bit annoyed having to wait for her to respond to their knocking, and even though it was nearly midnight Twilight hastily walked over to the door and unlatched it. She turned the knob and opened it to reveal the cool outside and indirectly welcomed a wandering breeze that slightly disheveled her mane, but she saw no one. Twilight fully opened the door the rest of the way just to make sure and looked left and right, but found that not a soul was there.
"Anypony out here?" she asked.
With no response, Twilight quietly closed the door and re-locked it; afterwards, she turned to find something awaiting her attention across the floor. There sat the book she had been reading only moments earlier. She knew it was. Its blue cover and white spine had golden golden letters across them. They ware unmistakable. The amber light that shone from the text caught Twilight's eye, and she walked over to where it was and levitated it up to eye level. Twilight quickly examined it for any defects it could have suffered from falling of the shelf, but the expression of relief that she wore was replaced with one of confusion.
"How did you fall off the shelf?" she whispered to the book. Twilight didn't really expect it to answer her.
She levitated the book back into the empty slot and realized that it was impossible for it to have just fallen off by itself. Not only was it sitting completely on the shelf, but it was also pressing against two other books that would have kept it from moving anywhere at all. The only thing she could think of was a bit carelessness on her part; surely she hadn't put it up correctly. With the book back in its place, she ran through a quick mental checklist, and continued doing so until she knew that everything was in order. After she had finished, she nodded and walked back to the stairs with sleepy eyes, but before she could reach them she felt a cold chill run through her body and her withers stuck up from the back of her neck.
"I need to get some extra gems for the heating system." she said lethargically along with a shiver, yet the temperature in the room wasn't the slightest bit below seventy-eight degrees, her preferred temperature.
Twilight took another step.
"Augh!" She was knocked onto the floor and slid a few feet on her back with a sharp pain coursing through her body that emanated from her chest. She could barely breathe. Her breaths came in small, quick gasps, but her lungs refused take in the smallest amount of air. And within moments, everything went black and her body relaxed lifelessly on the ground.
...
Twilight.
Energy buffeted against the white polished marble of the balcony as it pulsed from the horns of the two alicorn sisters. Its hum vibrated the floor and cast heat against the their faces. Their magic was unique and powerful; a magic that only they possessed, the extremities of both light and dark magic. Then, the sky moved. The black that had previously coveted the heavens was chased across the horizon and a light blue slowly took its place. The moon lowered down until it could no longer be seen, and the sky grew brighter until the first rays of sunlight lanced from from behind the distant mountains, cascading the world in the sun's warmth and radiance. It was truly a beautiful sunrise.
The drone died out and the energy receded. Celestia, who was smiling at her newly birthed day, took notice of the audible yawn that came from her sister.
"Go and rest, Luna," Celestia said. Indeed, Luna was a bit burned out; she was out of practice and had been fatigued after lowering the moon since she had returned nearly six years ago. To Luna, the changing of the sky was like a connection that, when lost, resulted in the amplification of emotions or, in this case, tiredness. Using that much magic in a short period of time would drain anypony of their strength, but because of their nature it just made the princesses tired. Luna nodded in agreement.
Celestia followed Luna through the big wooden doors that led back inside the castle. The foyer, which previously had Luna's night guards, now housed Celestia's.
"I will see you tonight, sister" Luna turned to Celestia and smiled, and the sun princess smiled back. At that moment, she realized just how much she had missed Luna and dearly wanted her to be happy. And for six years, she had tried... Tried.
When Luna had only taken a few steps inside, a flash of blue light shot in every direction, making the walls turn a hue that resembled her magical aura. She had teleported to her room, -- on top of her bed most likely -- leaving Celestia with only one other pony.
“Good morning, Your Highness,” Sapphire said warmly, smiling up at Celestia with eyes of anticipation. Her expression was a bright one, but it also contained a hint of anxiousness. She was nervous. Sapphire was Celestia's aide during the day and attended to her needs and assisted with events that required her attention. She had gotten the position a few days back and gladly took on its undertakings, but being by the side of a princess was no small occasion under any circumstance, especially for her.
“Good morning.” Celestia returned Sapphire's grin with one of her own. "How are you?"
“I'm wonderful princess, and I'm ready when you are.” She glanced over at the small clipboard that hovered along beside her, glowing with a faint turquoise color. Celestia nodded and Sapphire began reading. “There are several trading documents that you need to sign. One of them is for the new trading line from Saddle Arabia, two are for the trading of gems with two mining villages in the Gryphon Territories, and the last is for the new flora that will be imported from the Crystal Kingdom later on this week. The zebra ambassador’s been delayed, and the groundskeeper of your personal garden has requested an audience with you.”
A normal day.
She looked over to Celestia after finishing and the clipboard moved down below her eyes. Sapphire walked in lockstep with Celestia as they continued down the stained-glass window lined hall. Their multicolored light shone onto both mares, and several chandeliers that hung overhead added to the castles beauty and magnificence. Most of it, however, was slightly modeled after the old castle that still resided in the depths of the Everfree Forest, rotting and falling apart. Even so, an abundance of ponies had their hoof in the design of both.
Many memories had been made inside those stone walls. Ponies had cried and laughed in the palace's ethereal atmosphere, and the princesses were no exemption to that fact. Celestia had shed centuries worth her own tears during the time that her sister, or rather Nightmare Moon, was imprisoned in the silver orb that hung above Equestria. She had refused to believe that her dear Lulu would ever wish harm to anypony in Equestria, let alone her own kin. Luna vented her own frustrations and emotions around that same time, and any that were around both princesses during that period would tell you of how thick the air had been when they were even in the same room.
"We'd better be getting to it then," Celestia said enthusiastically. She slightly increased her pace, but Sapphire was quick to notice and match her own with the princess's. Celestia's giggle went unheard. She had always liked having fun with her subjects, and she did so many times; several ponies could attest to that. If there was one thing that Celestia didn't want, it was to be remembered as the princess that was always uptight.
Their first destination was the Canterlot Trading Order. Celestia knew exactly where it was and could have easily teleported there in no time at all, but her assistant was more than unaware of its location. After all, she only just started her job and had probably never been in the castle before, let alone that particular section of it. The way it was constructed was simple enough, a few main corridors connected to even smaller ones that reached out to every point of the palace, and several courtyards broke up the castle even more. But it was difficult to keep your sense of direction and some would find themselves wandering in circles.
They went past many other ponies on their trek to the business wing, and they all bowed to the princess as she walked and then resumed their work. Celestia, although she posed as a figure of power and authority, didn't quite like always having to act stately around ponies she saw and conversed with on a nearly daily basis. She had once asked those that worked around the castle to not be so formal with her, but they politely refused all the same.
Following a few minutes of walking through the castle's corridors, muffled hoofsteps could soon be heard outside of the Trading Order's doors. The handles glowed with a golden aura and they were pushed open in company with a bit of creaking. Sapphire trailed behind Celestia as they both stepped inside to a group of talking ponies, who promptly ceased their conversations that were accompanied by a few sudden gasps and bowed to the royalty before them. All except for one.
"Princess! How wonderful to see you again." A light-brown pegasus with a shaggy mane and short tail stepped through the crowd of bowing ponies. He wore a high-end blue suit and tie which became more detailed the closer he got. As the stallion approached Celestia, all the others in the group rose and shared a quick look with one another; no one other than Luna had spoken to the princess without showing some sort of respect or veneration. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"It's nice to see you too, Crux . We just came to take a look at the trading documents I need to sign," Celestia said with a very genuine smile. She and Crux had been fairly close friends ever since he had become the Head of Trades nearly three and a half years ago, and there was rarely a time where they would not act as such. If a certain situation did require him to be ceremonious, he would oblige; he was a business pony.
"Ah, yes." Crux turned to the mass behind him with a smirk that he was know for and extended his hoof to the open door behind Celestia. "If you all would excuse us."
At his word, they all stepped past Celestia and out into the hallway, then walked away. While leaving, they all gave one final acknowledgement to the princess, and she did as she always did. Smiled and nodded. She had come to understand that it was the best way of ridding herself from the need to say anything at all. Failure to do so would normally cause her to repeat the same word a few times which sounded somewhat unprofessional and annoying, at least to her.
Crux shut the doors with a sigh and flew back over behind his desk. "Damn ponies always bothering me. I can never get any peace and quiet in here, no matter what time it is..."
The walls of the room were made of a dark-brown stained wood that rose to the ceiling and three tall, pointed windows let in beams of sunlight that illuminated the entire room. The centerpiece of the office was the mahogany desk which Crux currently stood behind. Celestia remembered when that room was built; she had wanted it to be lively and warm, reflecting part of her day.
Celestia strode up to the front Crux's desk and took a seat on a pillow that laid by the workspace. Sapphire, however, still stood in the princess's shadow with her clipboard between her foreleg and chest while the pegasus went about searching through a stack of papers in a drawer.
"Ah ha. Here they are." Crux removed four slips of paper from under a stack of files and slid them across the polished wood of his desk to Celestia. "So, who's your new friend?"
Without looking up from the documents that were set in front of her, she chuckled in her throat. Sapphire, who had not really been paying much attention, was suddenly the center of the conversation between the three of them. With her presence in question, she felt obligated to remove herself from behind Celestia and show herself. She took a few steps from the spot where she had been hiding -- though she would never say she was -- and walked up to the side of the princess.
"Her name's Sapphire, my new aide." Celestia looked up from the papers and smiled at the unicorn beside her. But her grin was short lived, and Celestia quickly turned back to the papers, leaving her assistant to acquaint herself.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Sapphire said with a nod. Her gaze met with Crux's and she noticed his facial features. His eyes were commanding but they were accompanied by an inviting smile, a combination that was a necessity in his line of work. Negotiating trades needed compassion and understanding just as much as it required force, a rare coalescence.
"The pleasure is all mine. It is not everyday that I get to see beauty such as yours." The look that Crux gave Sapphire made her blush and turn away from him.
"Now Crux, don't go trying to make a move on her. It's only her third day," Celestia said jokingly as she penned her signature across a dotted line at the bottom of the last document. She then rolled up the parchment and slid a blue ribbon over the trade agreement, sealing it.
"I'm just having a little fun is all." Crux made a seductive look at Sapphire; in turn, she blushed again.
Sapphire cleared her throat and took a step back while looking at the ground, trying to avoid eye contact. She had never been one for meeting new ponies, or in this case being flirted with. Shyness was a virtue of hers that seemed to always get in the way of normal interactions with others, and even though she tried to overcome it, it always came creeping back. She had once tried to remove herself from situations that required such synergy, but she later found that doing so only made herself feel worse. Now, it was just a part that defined her and she didn't hide it.
"I believe that's it." Celestia remarked. His attention was moved from Sapphire to the papers which Celestia had signed. On the desk, four scrolls sat rolled up and sealed, waiting to be sent. Crux took them and put them to the side. Celestia stood and shared one last friendly smile with the pegasus, and he smiled back. The two mares then took leave from the Trading Order, leaving Crux to his work.
"Come and see me again." He winked at Sapphire, making her blush yet again. The doors closed behind them and blocked the sight of the stallion that sill stood behind his desk, waving. Sapphire's cheeks burnt red passion from the effects of her continuous blush. Slowly but steadily, she composed herself.
"He was... nice," Sapphire said. Though, the truth was that she didn't really like the way her had talked to her. She didn't know what to say to him, but that something that didn't happen rarely. Her life never had anypony else in it. It was just her, by herself. So, she never knew what to do in many social situations.
"Yes, he is fun isn't he?" Celestia added before sauntering away. "What else is there?"
Sapphire took a second to register the question and quickly reached for her clipboard, eager to get that pegasus out of her mind. Flipping a few pages back, she found hat she was looking for.
"The groundskeeper wishes to ask you a few questions about your garden."
"Yes. Did he--"
"Princess Celestia!" The princess abruptly halted and turned to look around at her name's call. Near the end of the hallway, a white guard in golden regalia flew towards the pair. Fast. When he reached them, he was huffing from his apparently long journey to find the princess, but he soon caught his breath and spoke.
"Princess, the Canterlot Archives has been ransacked!"
Her mind was empty.
T--ight...
She opened her eyes, but she could only see black.
Twi--ht...
She could hear someone, something female.
Twil--t...
And she felt something. Something was coming. Up from her throat.
Wake up!
She bolted up from the floor, her head pounding in tune with her heart. But instead of being able to stand, Twilight fell on her stomach in agonizing pain, and was only able to prop herself up on her two front hooves before thick blood came gushing from her mouth, spattering across the floor and pooling on the ground. She gasped, only to again sense the same warm feeling in her throat before she hacked up more of her own plasma. It was excruciating, but she couldn't yell. She couldn't scream. Her ability to speak was completely extirpated as she fell into the puddle of blood below her, coughing convulsively. Over and over.
She didn't know what was happening, but Twilight, in the heat of the moment, tried to understand or at least make up a logical reason. Tried. Her thoughts were interrupted as the pain paused just long enough for her to get up. She felt woozy and lightheaded; her vision became blurry and objects seemed too shift across the room, which only added to her current nausea. Clutching her side, she took a step toward the stairs, but only fell against the wall tensed as another wave of pain spread throughout her body, nearly making her collapse again. But she muscled through it. She had to.
Twilight pushed herself from the wall and limped to the stairs with tears leaking from her eyes the entire way. Finally, she reached them. It was a small victory, but Twilight cherished it nonetheless. One step, then two. From there, she gradually climbed each stair, one by one, with blood that dripped from her mouth and nose onto the wood. Every second longer that she walked, the weaker and dizzier she became. And almost every few seconds, another torrent of misery washed over her like the blood that had washed over her tongue, making her seize up.
Seven... eight... nine... there!
She turned the knob -- more like fell on it -- and pushed the door open with her side, leaving a red stain behind. Taking in raspy breaths, she ran to her bathroom as quick as her feeble legs would move. By the time she entered her bathroom doorway, her breathing had worsened, sounding like she was choking. Which she was, on herself. Every breath she took brought more of the red liquid into her lungs; the more she breathed, the more she was killing herself. Twilight pulled up in front of the sink and looked at the mirror above it. She was terrified at what reflected back at her, a bloody and teary eyed mare, and she thought, just for a moment, that she saw something behind her. Something.
Then it hit her. The gut-wrenching, teeth-gritting, breath-swindling pain nailed her again. A loud scream escaped from her lungs which, instead of helping her through the pain, made it hurt even worse. Twilight hit the floor, writhing and coughing up.
"Ahh! Fuck!" was all she managed to get out before another pulse of agony shut her up and made her squeal.
I have to get up.
It hurt so much.
I have to get up.
She was going to die here, alone on the floor.
I need to get up!
With closed eyes, she felt for something to grab onto, and after finding nothing but air, her hoof hit something solid. The sink. Ripping herself from the cold ground, her muscles ached with the strain that Twilight was putting on them, little as it was.
It stopped.
Everything stopped. The pain, the blood, the dizziness. It all ceased at once, and Twilight was left dumbfounded as to what had just happened. She pulled herself the rest of the way up. What had happened? She turned on the sink with her magic and splashed water on her face until it ran as clear as from the faucet. Still breathing heavily, she took the towel from the hamper and dried her face with it, leaving a bit of blood stains on the edges. She looked back up at the mirror and dropped the towel on the floor. It was there; she was sure this time. Something was behind her, something dark. She spun around.
Nothing... There was nothing.
She turned back to the mirror, thinking that she was just imagining things. It was still there but closer now. Fear was struck into her eyes as she turned back around, and just like before, nothing was there. Only her bedroom. One more look was all it took for her to be overcome with internal panic. It was real, and It was right behind her, only a few steps away. She could only think of one thing to do: shut her eyes and wait. Twilight's breaths came in short and quick, increasing her heart rate and further unnerving her; darkness was all that she saw, all that she wanted to see, but she still could hear. She heard it and felt it as she had before.
A cold chill made her withers stick up from the back of her neck.
Stupidly, she cracked one eye. Too blurry. She opened it just a bit more and looked into the mirror. It was right beside her. The thing was completely black, and its body seemed to be swirl and move like smoke in a light breeze. It looked like a... pony, she thought. Its eyes gleamed a dark purple that was not unlike Twilight's coat. But it was unnatural. She opened the other eye, slowly gaining the confidence that she had once commanded. It didn't move. Her heart was pounding harder as adrenalin shot through her system, but she didn't dare move. She blinked, just blinked and it disappeared. Gone.
It was eerie. She knew it was somewhere. She knew it had to be. Twilight backed out of the bathroom while staring at the mirror. When her hooves connected with wood, she dashed downstairs, noticing the blood trail on the stairs and the drying pool of blood that still sat in the floor. She flew towards the door, utterly frightened, but it didn't open. She pulled even harder, but it didn't even move a single inch, like it was a solid block of stone. She even used her magic, but the door would not allowed her to leave. Twilight had no other choice; she tried to teleport, but her magic fizzled out right before the spell had completed. She tried it again, nothing. She felt helpless; she was helpless.
Then, she heard something coming from upstairs. Hoofsteps. And she heard a door slam shut. Her bedroom door. Nothing else but silence remained, and it was deafening. The whole situation seemed like a horror story that little fillies would read while their parents were asleep, and then become scarred for life. Ironic. The stillness of the air was broken by the sound of breathing. Ice cold breaths, right by her ear.
"Hello Twilight."
"Leave me alone!" she yelled and darted in the opposite direction, but her legs froze in place. She hit the ground.
"But I want to talk with you, Twilight."
"No, I don't talk with things that try to kill me," she said, grunting while struggling to get free of the invisible chains around her hooves. Strangely after she said that, her legs were set free and able to move freely. She hopped up, horn blazing with magic.
“Where are you?” she said angrily. She was ready, ready to protect herself. Ready to destroy this... thing.
“I am here, ” the voice came again. Shortly after, Twilight felt something brush against her tail. She jerked around to see it, not in a reflection, but physically in front of her. Black and misty.
“Who are you?” she said, now with rage spilling over and authority in her tone. There was still a sliver of fear in her voice.
“I am you."
