Blackheart

"She's quite the interesting one, don't you say?"

"Who?"

"This Twilight girl. She possesses a knowledge of magic we can only hope to grasp."

"That's saying quite a bit. Just look at me!"

"Oh, shut up. It's your turn to start, anyways. You're doing the short one."

"Curse you."

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It was a decent early morning -- very early morning, Celestia hadn't even raised the sun! -- in Ponyville, with a scheduled storm meaning that plenty of ponies had the day off of work. Rain pattered windows; lightning reached down into the landscape below; thunder, well, thundered above. And a certain purple alicorn princess was scurrying among her library, trying to read a hundred books at once. Her horn glowed with a dim purple light, shifting the hundreds of books in her library around so she could read every last one of them. Her amethyst eyes darted here and there, taking in every word she could and storing them inside her brain. Bags had formed under her eyes, showing how long it had been since her last rest.

Ever since her battle against Tirek, and her becoming the official Princess of Friendship, she had found herself under the ever increasing pressure of stress. Politicians came by, demanding something, anything, or simply to rant to her. Ponyville citizens complained about her castle and how it was too big, too shiny, too... much. Just something to complain about. But, most importantly, Twilight was trying to learn about the ponies of Equestria. She had been given the task of spreading the magic of friendship, and to do that, she had to learn about Equestria's people.

She paused for a moment, letting it sink in. She was going to explore Equestria... as an ambassador of friendship, with her friends! She imagined exploring the city of Las Pegasus, roaming the mountains of the Griffon Empire, trekking through the Saddle Arabian deserts. While it sent a chill down her spine, it also filled her with glee; she'd always wondered what these places were like. And now....

A massive clap of thunder startled her, shaking the castle, and she lost the grip on the hundreds of books in her levitation spell. They fell to the ground as one, but she didn't care.

What she did care about was why the sky was flashing orange and blue. This didn't look like something the weather ponies scheduled....

She stared out the window in bewilderment at the display before her. The clouds were illuminated with flashes of blue and orange in quick succession, the two colors mixing with one another in swirls of color. She felt a distant feeling, a very distant feeling, of magic....

Then, something fell out of the maelstrom of colors. It was a ship, a wooden ship, falling to the world below.

A certain adolescent dragon skidded to a halt next to her, nearly stumbling over his own tale. Spike looked through the large window before him in awe at the ship descending to the earth. It appeared to be on fire, its wooden hull engulfed in the hazard. Anyone on board would surely die in a burning heap if Twilight, or anyone for that matter, didn't act.

Twilight felt a slight tugging at her left leg, and looked down to see her faithful dragon assistant, Spike, staring up at her with something in his eyes: fear. Normally, the young dragon wouldn't have that look in his eyes, but a flaming ship descending from the heavens was coming dangerously close to them. Nodding, Twilight activated her magic. Immediately, she both gripped the ship, and simultaneously reached out to magically extinguish the fires on deck.

She felt two other signals of magic, however; two very powerful signals. The princesses. The princesses had also taken action.

With all three alicorns using their magic upon the vessel, it stopped midair, just... hanging there. Twilight, although it took an incredible strain on her eyes, noticed a few figures falling off of the ship, then disappear in a flash of orange and blue light.

As one, all three members of royalty retracted their magical signals, startled at the unanticipated, almost comical, halt of the ship due to Twilight's commitment and, for Twilight, the princess's commitment.

Before any of them could do anything, however, the ship fell once again into the Everfree Forest, splintering trees, knocking up dirt, setting fire to the surrounding woods.

Twilight blinked the sleep from her eyes as she tried to contemplate what just happened.

First, a ship fell from the sky.

Second, she tried stopping it.

Third, so did the princesses.

Fourth, they were startled, and accidentally let the ship fall into the Everfree, of all the gods-forsaken places on Equis.

Fifth, Twilight was now teleporting outside of her castle, making her way towards the crash site, leaving a confused Spike to wonder the same thing.

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"Ever wondered why we're dictating what's happening?"

"Because there's no other way to tell our audience what's going on?...."

"Right. Forgot about him."

"You always do, it seems.