Control of The Self

Twilight Sparkle was currently reading in her library, something about ponies in power. Perhaps researching Sombra and what information she could get. Regardless, it was awfully late. Spike was taking a bubble bath, making sure he got every scale accounted for. It was a rather quiet and mundane night. The grasshoppers were hopping, the owl was hooing and the door was getting knocked on.

Twilight turned her head away from her current book she was reading to the door and was confused, there are rarely any visitors this late unless it was her friends. Either way, she got up and answered the door. On the other side was a Mail Pony.

“Package for Twilight Sparkle,” He said, a package sitting right in his saddle bag.

“That’d be me! Real late for a package,” Twilight said with confusion.

“Express delivery ma’am!” The earth pony said, pulling out the package and handing it to Twilight.

“Huh…” Twilight said, taking the package in her magic and moving towards the table in her oak tree house.

“Now I’m going to need a signa-” The mail pony was unable to finish his sentence as twilight slammed the door on him.

“Wonder what this package is for…” Twilight said, undoing the packaging and seeing a note atop a book. Twilight put the book aside and decided to read the note aloud.

“Dear Twilight Sparkle, the spell contained on the last page of this book is Starswirl the Bearded’s secret unfinished masterpiece…”

“OooooOOoooH! -” Twilight exclaimed with giddeness before continuing with the letter

“- He was never able to get it right, and thus abandoned it. I believe you are the only pony who can understand and rewrite it.
~Princess Celestia”

Twilight then put the letter down and opens up the book, flipping through all the pages until she gets to the last written page. She re-reads the words over and over again in her head, not understanding what she is reading at first. Then she decides to read it outloud.

“From one to another, another to one, a mark of one destiny singled out alone fufi-” But before she could cast the spell out fully there was suddenly a loud and dangerous ripping noise outside of her house. Twilight looked at her newly acquired book and back outside before letting out a sight and putting the book down.

“Twilight!” Came a shout from upstairs, Spike’s echo coming down.

“Yes spike!” Twilight yelled back.

“What was that noise?!”

“I don’t know! I’ll go check it out! Just stay up there!” Twilight said, trotting her way towards the front door. She was rather curious herself to see what could cause such a commotion. When she opened her front door, she did not expect to see what she found…

High above the sky was a tear in the fabric of reality itself. A giant black hole has opened up right in the middle of Ponyville, causing ponies to stop and stare at it or look through their windows at the giant hole that has adorned their small little town.

The first thought that crossed Twilights mind was Discord having his shenanigans but something was off. The magic in the air didn’t feel chaotic it felt… evil. Like something of pure hatred and anguish caused this rift in reality to appear.

Twilight couldn’t speculate on it further for after the first few seconds of gazing up at the portal there was screaming. A scream that reverberated inside of the portal, one of true and utter pain. The ponies looked at the portal with fear in their eyes at what might come though, unsure of what they might see.

They didn’t have to wait long to catch a glimpse. A couple seconds later, a bright orange flame appears out of the portal and lands on the ground with a thud. The portal overhead closing rapidly, leaving the fire in its wake. There was little time to question what the ponies were seeing, as all they could hear was the wails and cries for help as whatever was burning in front of them continued to do so.

The ponies that surrounded the area could only stare, not knowing what to do, they’ve never been in a situation like this before. Before long, an earth pony with brown fur and a brown man grabbed a piece of cloth and jumped right on top of the burning pile.

“SOMEPONY GET SOME WATER!” He screamed out, as ponies then started to move as fast as possible. Twilight was taken out of her daze and galloped over to the burning thing, whos screams were only muffled out by the pony on top of him.

“MOVE!” Twilight yelled out, the earth pony hoped off of the man, taking the blanket with him. Twilight, within less than a second, casted an ice spell on the thing. By the time Twilight was done casting the spell, the fire had seceded. What remind was a deformed pile of flesh, its skin turned black and exposed to the open elements.

“Dear Celestia…” Twilight said, barley able to contain her vomit as she stared at the charred remains of this thing in front of her. His screams might have come to a pause but it was clearly still in pain. Twilight could only stare.

“Don’t just stand there!” Twilight snapped her head to the brown earth pony from before.

“Do something!” He said.

“...I-I… Right!” Twilight used her magic and gripped the thing with care, hoping to not cause any more pain than what must be going through its systems already. Once she had fully lifted the thing into the air and had a firm grip on it, she teleported directly inside of Ponyville general.

Right in front of her was a concerned nurse with a pink mane and white fur who just so happened to be looking up from a crossword puzzle.

“What in the world-” The nurse said.

“No time! We need a doctor now!” The nurse, after a brief hiccup, got up and galloped to the nearest doctor and then the hospital was fully operational. Ponies from different practices and backgrounds came crawling out of their offices and took away the subject from Twilights magic further into the hospital.

It was so quick that Twilight wasn’t even able to fully process what had happened. In the matter of two minutes. There was a black hole that dropped off a being on fire, screaming and begging for help, in which after being snuffed out, was then taken to the hospital to be further examined by doctors for its injuries.

It was a lot for Twilight to process.

Twilight, now alone in the hospital, casted one last spell and teleported right back home.

Twilight stood in her main hall, for the first time in a long time she did not know what to do.

“Twilight! Is that you?!” Spike yelled from upstairs.

“...Yeah, it’s… me... “ Twilight said, her voice coming out in hushed whispers.

“Hey, are you okay?” Spike said, walking out of their shared room to the top of the stairs.

“I’m… I’m fine…” Twilights voice started to shake as tears started to well up in her eyes.

“Twilight… What happened?” Spike said, concern entering his voice as he started to descend down the steps towards Twilight.

“There was this… this thing that…” Twilight said as she started to catch her voice in her throat.

“Woah woah woah! Calm down! Let’s just breathe! I’ll go make some tea!”

“No! Tea’s not going to fix this! I… I saw…” Twilight started before the stark realization hit.

“... Twilight?”

“Spike, write this down… I need to send a letter to the princess.”

Princess Celestia was walking out of the library room, secretary in tow as they made their way towards Princess Celestia’s living quarters.

“Please write down that we sent the book today, would you?” Celestia said in an angelic voice.

“Yes your grace!” Her secretary said back.

“Thank you, remind me is there anything else I’m missing for today?”

“Well, there was going to be the meeting with the head guards about improving the security around the palace, but you decided to push that back about a week because you wanted to see what Twilight would do with the book of Starswirl.”

“Good, and is there-”

“For tomorrow, depending on how fast your student is, there will be a short meeting with some of the dignitaries in the Griffin lands.”

“What-”

“I believe it’s about land, but knowing the Griffins I’m never too sure.

“Wh-”

“At about 2:30 PM,” Celestia stopped moving and stared at her secretary for a quick second. Not at all concerned about the meeting with the Griffins but more impressed by her.

“How do you know-”

“You have a pattern to your questions,” The secretary said with a smile.

“Well… Good to know how predictable I am,” Celestia said with a smile in kind.

“Oh you’re not that predictable!”

“Well, I’m going to sleep be sure to-

“Tell Princess Luna that it’s her duties now, gotcha,” And with a trot the secretary was on her way to get Luna.

“... I am very happy with the ponies I hire,” Celestia said, going into her private chamber and closing the doors behind her. As soon as she heard the click of the door, Celestia slumped to the floor, releasing her royal facade and just taking a minute to finally breathe.

After a while of just existing, Celestia got up and did her usual nightly routine. She had taken off her regalia, wiped off her makeup and had set her bed for a good long night of rest. After having to deal with long and strenuous meetings all day, it’s nice to get at least the night completely off.

“Finally… Luna thinks no one appreciates her nights… Well I personally am her biggest fan. It’s so peaceful tonight,” Just as she was about to plop down into her bed there was a green fire bal of magic that maneuvered its way in front of her before plopping a letter down in front of her.

“... I know my student is good with magic… but there’s no way that she’s that good with magic. She just got the book… did she solve it already? Why didn’t it trigger it yet?” Celestia magicked the letter in front of her and opened it up to see what her student had sent her.

And the more she read, the more her smile dropped off her face. Celestia, put the letter down, let out a sight, and picked up her regalia.

“This is going to be a long night.”

Twilight was pacing back and forth, still not sure if sending the message to Celestia was a good idea. What if it was just a bad mishap? A spell casted poorly and- No. That wouldn’t make sense, the magic she sensed was of pure anger… And that thing was in pain.

“Wait, so its skin was black and there was no fur?”

“Yes Spike, whatever it is, it’s burns would have to be second to third degree. And I didn’t see any fur besides whatever was on its head… and I’m not sure I’d classify it as fur, looked more like a mane…”

“... Wow… That sucks.”

“Sucks?! SUCKS?! That thing, whatever it is, is suffering in massive amounts of pain, I can’t even begin to think what’s happening over at the hospital! I just… I just saw it and now its gone! What if… what if it’s dead and… I… And I…” Twilight said, tears starting to well up in her eyes again.

“Woah, woah, woah! Twilight, I’m pretty sure that Pony General is doing whatever they can to make sure that… whatever it is, is going to be fine! What’s there to worry about?”

“Just everything Spike! Everything! What if it happens again?! What if it’s some sort of invasion?! Some sort of trick from another entity! What if it’s like Discord… BUT WORSE?!”

“Twilight! Stop! You’re panicking super badly right now, there’s no reason to panic unless we have definite reason to panic! Even then, you’re not even sure if it’ll happen again!”

“I… I know… I just… After everything, I’d rather not take chances,” Twilight said, her head turning downwards.

“And I get that Twi. Just… let’s not jump the shark,” As soon as Spike was finished saying that, there was a knock at the door.

“Hey, I got this, don’t worry about it,” Spike said, hopping off a seat and heading towards the door. Upon opening it, he sees Celestia with two random guard ponies standing just outside of the door.

“P-P-Princess Celestia!” Spike exclaimed, in total shock at seeing the princess here at this time of night.

“Hello Spike, is Twilight here?” Celestia said, her calm expression gazing down at the small dragon.

“Wait, Celestia!?” Twilight said from across the room.

“Well, I’ll take that as a yes then. Would you mind if I come in?”

“Of-of course!” Spike said, moving out of her majesty's way and allowing her to stride on in, her guards remaining at the entrance of the door.

“I-I-I didn’t think you’d be here so soon! If I’d known, I’d-”

“Breath Twilight. Just breathe. I know the situation is one of great concern right now. I believe, until we figure out what has happened, that you can put Starswirl’s spell on hold,” Celestia said, trying her best to calm down her student.

“I… You’re right… Yes… Right…”

“Now Twilight, I know this is hard for you right now, considering how fast things are going, but can you please take me to this creature that fell out of the portal?”

“Of course! Right away!” Twilight said, walking right past Celestia and through the door. Just as Celestia is about to go follow her, she felt a small pull on her tail and turns around to see none other than Spike.

“Hey, I uh… I know it’s important, the creature thingy, but can you keep an eye out on Twilight, she’s hasn’t been the best right now,” Spike said, genuine concern in his eyes.

“I promise that, if anything happens to Twilight, you can count on me to make sure she’ll be just fine,” Celestia said back.

“Princess?” Celestia heard from outside. And with that Celestia marched out the door and her two bodyguards following suit.

“Auuuuugghhhhhh, this is going to be a long night…” Spike said to himself.