Prologue: Night Mares

“Hello? Anypony there?”

Twilight ran down a dark hallway. She had no idea where she was or why she was here. She wasn’t even sure why she was running!

“Hello?”

No response.

As Twilight ran, she saw a faint glow not too far down the hallway. As she rounded a corner she found herself in what seemed to be a temple chamber of some sorts. A circle of candles surrounded a stone altar in the middle of the room.

As Twilight’s eyes adjusted to the glow of the candles, she saw a young unicorn filly chained to the altar. A hooded unicorn stood over the altar, a knife floating by its side.

The knife floated into the air and stopped right over the filly’s chest.

“No, Stop!” Twilight screamed.

The knife plummeted down and stabbed deep into the filly’s chest.

The filly jerked in pain as the knife cut deep into her chest, ripping a gash so deep, Twilight could see the filly’s heart. The robed unicorn started to chant in a harsh, raspy voice in a language so old, Twilight had a hard time understanding what was being spoken.

The robed unicorn continued to cut until the poor filly’s heart was exposed. Twilight was rooted to the ground, unable to look away as she watched the hooded unicorn cut out the filly’s heart. To Twilight’s horror and fascination, the filly was still alive as her heart was cut from her chest.

The hooded unicorn placed the sill beating heart onto the filly’s chest and started to laugh. The filly’s heart burst into flame as a cold chill swept across the room. Soon the fire spread from the heart all over the filly’s body. An unearthly wail came from the filly as her whole body was consumed by the flames. Twilight collapsed to the ground and put her hooves over her ears to block out the terrible sound and shut her eyes.

A few minutes later, Twilight uncovered her head and opened her eyes. All the candles were blown out and the room was very, very dark. Twilight saw a candle being lit and the hooded pony flickered into view. The stone altar was empty. No traces of the little filly were to be seen.

The hooded unicorn turned around and faced Twilight.

“Why?” Twilight said, tears running down her face. “Why did you kill her?”

The unicorn pulled off her robe and smiled at Twilight. The unicorn was all black, but there seemed to be color starting to appear on her body. Twilight stared in horror as the black faded and the mare’s true colors appeared.

“Oh hello, Princess.” Bon-Bon said.

Twilight screamed.

Twilight sat up in bed. She was dreaming, well not exactly a dream. In her book, dreams are happy, not creepy.

“Must have been a nightmare.” Twilight said to herself.

She got out of bed and saw her coat was covered in sweat. She walked quietly past Spike and down the stairs. She clicked on the light in the kitchen and got herself a glass of water from the fridge. She sat down at the table and sipped her water, thinking deeply.

She tried to make sense of her dream. Why did she remember it so vividly? In all the times she ever had a nightmare, or even a dream for that matter, she never could remember what happened. Why suddenly now did she start remembering her dreams?

She thought over what the dream Bon-Bon had been chanting. It was very old from what she could tell, it sounded like ancient Equestrian from what she could tell. Twilight pulled out a piece of paper and a quill with ink. She wrote down everything the dream Bon-Bon said and started to translate.

“Oh come Pony of Death and feast upon the soul I place before you. Take my sacrifice and spread your evil across the land and wipe out all those who oppose your will. Rise from the flames and destroy Equestria and corrupt all who live in this accursed land. May your darkness destroy the Three Princesses and wipe them from this planet with your unholy flames. Rise King of Death and take back what was rightfully yours!”

The kitchen light suddenly went out and a chill swept across the room. Twilight cast a light spell and a faint glow filled the room. Just out the range of the light Twilight’s spell a dark mass formed.

“Hello?” Twilight said. “Who’s there?”

A pony with glowing eyes stepped out of the darkness.

“Who are you?” Twilight shouted.

“Go to the graveyard.” the pony said. Its voice was distorted and ghost-like.  Twilight could feel a wave of evil wash over her.

“Who are you” Twilight repeated. A wave of nausea covered her like a death shroud.

The pony spread its wings and charged her and Twilight fell back wards and hit her head on the floor and the world went black.