Quest of Disharmony

Part 1: Chapter 1: Twilight’s Precognition of Despair! The Monster known as Undern!

Twilight awoke to the sounds of the chirping birds and the warmth and light of the blazing sun. She sat up, her bed covers falling slightly, she looked outside to see two blue canaries sitting and nuzzling each over on a branch that was connected to the window.

Twilight smiled at the sweet sight. Two birds in love nuzzling each other on a branch by her window… wait, what?

Twilight remembered that her room was atop the tallest tower in the castle, and she knew that no tree, at least around Canterlot, could grow that tall or that close to the castle. So how was she able to see this?

Taking a closer look at the outside she noticed that most of her view was blocked by tree branches and leaves, which added to more confusion to her mind, until she took a look at her bed and the rest of the room.

Her bed, as well as the rest of the environment and furniture, was made from a light brown shaded oak. She took a look around the room to see very familiar objects and books, categorised and shelved in oak wood book shelves, and she looked up to notice that her room was incredibly tall, and wide. What was going on? Where was she?

She then got out of bed to get a closer look out the window. Her hoofs made a thumb noise as they touched the wooden floor. She swore she heard that sound before, back she lived in…

Her eyes widened in shock and confusion, as she began to remember why everything looked so strange, yet so familiar. She quickly ran to the window and opened it, she then stuck her head out and took a better look at the outside, which made her mouth drop in shock; she was in Ponyville.

She didn’t know how she got there, since she clearly remembered taking a nap in her room in Canterlot, or why she was here, but there was no mistaking that this was Ponyville. The sky was clear and bright blue, the streets were littered with ponies of all genders, and she could see many of the buildings that resembled those in Ponyville. She then remembered where she woke up and took a look at the building she was sleeping in, and her mouth seemed to drop even more than before because what she saw completely lost her.

She was in the Golden Oak Library.

After living in it for so long, she could instantly remember it, not just because it was the only tree home in Ponyville, but because she could easily recognise the balcony where she enjoyed to read outside, the small platform at the top where she would use her telescope to get a good look at the stars and constellations, and she had seen the Golden Oak Library sign so many times, that it was impossible to forget.

“But… how… that’s… I mean, how…” Twilight tried to find the words to describe her reaction, but her mind was just as confused and messed up as the words that left her mouth. She just couldn’t understand it; she saw it, she saw the Library being completely destroyed by Tirek when he came for her magic. So how in the name of Celestia ‘Sorry Celestia’ was it here?

Any other questions Twilight had died down when a voice snapped her out of it.

“Hey Twilight.”

Twilight looked down to see Spike smiling waving at her, with her friends standing behind him; Rainbow Dash was hovering in the air with her wings, Fluttershy was holding a picnic basket in her mouth, Rarity wearing a sun hat and a pair of sun glasses, Pinkie Pie jumping up and down on the spot with a large grin on her face, and Applejack was carrying a cheeked picnic blanket on her back.

“Spike?” Twilight said, confused by her assistant’s smiling form. The Golden Oak Library, their home in Ponyville, was ok, and he was just standing there with a smile on his and waving at her. “What’s going on here?”

The group gave Twilight a confused look.

“Don’tcha remembers, Sugarcube?” Applejack said, “We’re havin’ a picnic today. And it certainly wouldn’t be a picnic without our friend with us.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Picnic?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow said, flying close to the window and Twilight’s face, “we agreed that we come to get you and Spike last after you two finished cleaning all the books or something like that.”

Twilight was getting more confused by the minute. ‘Cleaning books?’

“Don’t worry, Twilight.” Her eyes turned back to her assistant’s voice, “I handled all the cleaning and dusting while you were asleep, so you don’t have to worry too much about it.”

Before she could say anything, despite her mind still trying to process on what was going on, a calm and gentle voice spoke up.

“Well, she is a princess. Maybe all those royal duties are just making her exhausted.” Fluttershy said who had placed the basket on the floor so she could speak.

Twilight was getting more confused by the events by the minute. Was she dreaming?

“Oh yeah, I tend to forget things when I’m busy at work, or making parties, or just having too much time. Like this one time I was busy helping the Cakes at Sugercube Corner, and I was so busy getting the orders and checking the pastries in the oven, I then remembered that I totally forgot that I had promised Ditzy Do to through a whole week without disasters party, but then when I went to help I forgot that Zecora had-” Pinkie blabbered on, until she stopped as she seemed to remember something. She then gasped loudly and her body leapt in the air. “Oh my gosh, I totally forgot that if we don’t hurry, we’ll lose our special spot in the park.”

The others’ eyes, except Twilight who was still confused on what was happening, widened in shock as they knew Pinkie was right.

“Oh horse apples, we better get a move on y’all!” Applejack said as she ran off towards the direction of the park.

The others soon followed, but Rarity slowed down and looked back over at Twilight. “Oh, don’t worry, darling. You can come join us when you’re ready, ok?” She called back, before looking back in the others’ direction and chased after them, leaving a confused Twilight behind.

Twilight looked in the direction her friends had run in with a confused look. She still didn’t know what was going on, why the Golden Oak Library was rebuilt, or why she couldn’t remember anything about a picnic. Her mind still tried to come up with many different conclusions, but she was drawing a blank in every possible direction.

“But… what if… no, that’s not it. How about… no, that won’t work either.” She continued to whisper to herself until she came up with only one outcome; if she was going to find out what was going on, she had to ask her friends.

She brought her head back inside before speeding off down the stairs, trying not to lose her stepping and fall mind you, and then she ran down the other flight of stairs, to the main library hall.

She stopped at the top of the stairs and looked around at all the books, stories, dictionaries and encyclopaedias in their respective shelves as well as the other items she kept down here during her stay. She then remembered all the good times she had since she lived her; finding and adopting Owlowiscious, her many meetings with her friends, and all the information the books had provided in their misadventures.

She quickly shook her head to get rid the thoughts out of her head, yes it was nice to remember them, but she reminded herself of her mission, this was no time to be reminiscing. She then walked down the stairs and to the door. She took a deep breath as she prepared herself to go and confront her friends. She then pushed the door open and walked right out, before she turned around and closed the door behind her.

She then turned back to face Ponyville with her eyes closed, and when she opened them again… well, let’s say what she saw made her mind pray that she didn’t.

Twilight’s eyes and mouth widened and fell at the sight before her; the sky had somehow turned a dark blood red, a few pitch black clouds appeared in the sky, houses had either become old and crumbled, or they had fire emerging from the windows or on the roofs. The street had become cracked and dead, the plant life in the area had withered and died, and all the ponies were lying on the floor; grey and seemingly lifeless.

Twilight was horrified at what she was seeing, her heart seemed to break at the sight and her stomach turned. She instinctively turned to get back inside the Library, run upstairs, hide under the covers and pray it was all a bad dream. However, when she turned around, she found the door gone; in fact the whole library was missing. Instead, were it stood, was a large deep crater.

She looked up to see if the library was floating or taken by the sky, but something else caught her attention; in the distance she could see Canterlot, or what looked like it, hanging of the side of the mountain by a thread; literally, the whole city had seemed to have slide down the mountain was brutally damaged and falling apart; even the castle was missing its tall and graceful towers.

Horrified, scared, and confused, she quickly turned back to the streets of Ponyville and ran up to one of the fallen pony to see if he or she was alive and had answers. She quickly ran up to grey unicorn stallion and lifted his head of the ground.

“Hey!” She yelled and shook him slightly in hopes of waking him up, “Hey! Do you know what happened here?” No answer. “What Happened?!”  Still no reply.

Twilight looked over the stallion’s body to see what was wrong. When she couldn’t find anything she figured he must be low on magic and lowered her head and her horn glowed to cast a magic healing spell.

Her eyes widened and she gasped slightly when she discovered something; this stallion wasn’t just low on magic, he had no magic; in fact, he had no pulse!

Twilight looked back at all the grey and lifeless bodies and realised that it had happened to all of them. It was as if their very souls were stripped from them, leaving the cold, dead shells behind.

Twilight knew that she wasn’t going to get anything out of anyone, seeing as that they all had the symptoms, but she still didn’t understand how it was possible; to pull a soul out of somepony or any living creature would require a dark spell of incredible power, who in the whole of Equastria could pull off something so evil? She lowered the stallion gently to the floor, and stood up to look at else had fallen.

She felt hot tears coming to her eyes as she saw many of the ponies she knew; Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, the Cakes, who were holding the grey and lifeless bodies of their children, the Mayor, Ditzy Do, Zecroa, the Cutiemark Crusaders; Applebloom, Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo, and many others.

Her eyes then widen and her pupils diluted as she remembered that her friends had gone to the park. She felt a familiar feeling in her chest at the thought of her friends and Spike falling to this catastrophe, fear.

Her body seemed to be running on auto-piolet today, as she took to the dark red sky and quickly zoomed towards the park, where her friends were hopefully ok.

While in the air she looked and nearly lost balance in the air and throw up whatever food she recently had for below her was the same scene from where she was; houses burning or crumbling, the street dead and cracked, and countless of grey and lifeless bodies littering the floor. Tears began to fall from her eyes as she felt a wave of worthlessness come over her; she could of done something to save them, but it was already too late. She just hoped, no prayed, that her friends were alright.

When she was finally over the park, she gently but quickly lowered herself until she landed on the grassy ground, just outside the entrance. Twilight looked around the area and could see many grey pony bodies littering the ground, which nearly made her throw up again, but she ignored the feeling and focused on finding and saving her friends.

She then began to run through the park towards their ‘special spot’, which was basically an area under a tree not too far from the entrance. As she ran she past many bodies of pony bodies; unicorns, pegasi and earth pony, all lifeless and grey. She felt the fear in her stomach come back as she feared that the next lifeless bodies she finds would be those of her friends and Spike.

She shook her head a couple of times to get the thoughts and images out of her head. They weren’t gone yet, she was sure of it, they were alive and well. There was Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who were the toughest fighters she’s known, they had Rarity who was capable of using magic, and Pinkie Pie was Pinkie Pie, she can be completely unpredictable. Plus Fluttershy could always send a letter to Celestia through Spike if things got hairy. Yes, she had faith, faith in their abilities, faith in their friendship, faith in-

Whatever faith or words of hope Twilight had left vanished in an instant, her gallop slowing down step by step, and her fear and despair grew as she approached the site of the ‘special spot’; where 5 grey and lifeless figures lay motionless.

Cold tears of sadness and despair filled her eyes as she stared at the sight before; Rarity was laid up against a tree with scrapes and brushes decorating her now dark grey body. Pinkie Pie was lying in a small crater in the ground on the picnic blanket, just as grey and lifeless with an equal amount of bruises and cuts. Applejack’s beaten body was also grey and motionless a few yards away from Pinkie Pie, however tears began to fall from Twilight’s eyes as she realized that there was a dark crimson liquid falling from the side of her mouth and her front hoof was twisted to 45 degree angle. Rainbow Dash was lying on her side at the base of a broken tree trunk; the rest of the tree was rest by it like it was snapped like a twig, her body also beaten, grey and lifeless, with twisted wings and a deep gash in her side. Twilight’s eyes then turned to Fluttershy, and the dam of tears she was holding began to crack as she saw the frightened yet lifeless look on her grey face, her eyes were scrunched shut, with dried up tears rolling down her face, and her hoofs were laying quite close to her face, which probably meant she had tried to cover her eyes in fear, and her body had the least scrapes and bruises than the others, meaning that she probably didn’t do much of the fighting, lying on her side.

Twilight, whose eyes were still raining with tears, slowly walked towards her friends to see if what she was seeing was all a hallucination. As she got close to her first target, being Rarity, she soon realized that it wasn’t a hallucination and it confirmed her worst fears, she wasn’t breathing.

“Rarity?” Twilight asked weakly in a desperate voice, while she pocked her lightly with her hoof, hoping to get some form of reaction out of her. Rarity didn’t budge.

“Rarity?” Twilight said, a little louder than last time and used more force with her shove; still no answer.

Twilight breathing began to become shallow and increased in speed, as her eyes began to leak more tears and her fear began to double. She quickly turned to the next pony close to her, which happened to be Pinkie Pie. She then dashed over to her direction, and then began to shove her shoulder a little.

“Pinkie Pie?” Twilight asked franticly, as she shook the grey, motionless party pony, hoping she would jump up and surprise her like always. She didn’t. She didn’t even budge.

Twilight shook her head slightly as she tried to deny what was in front of her. She then turned to Applejack and galloped towards the apple farmer in desperate speed.

“Applejack?” Twilight said loudly as she reached her friend and shook quite harder than she did with the other two. She didn’t mean too, but right now, her mind was too indulged in fear to realize it. Applejack gave no reaction, as her breathless and lifeless grey body lay still.

“No…” Was all Twilight was able to get out, as she again shook her head, trying hard to deny what was happening. Her fear filled eyes then turned to the once blue and rainbow coloured mane of Rainbow Dash, before her body charged in her direction.

Twilight then stopped, dropped to her knees and began to shake her grey friend’s body just as hard as Applejack’s.

“Rainbow…” No reaction. “Rainbow Dash…” Still no reaction. “Come on, Rainbow… this is no time for a nap…” Once again, no reaction, not even a snort or a snore to show she was sleeping.

Twilight’s tears began to fall even more now, the dam in her eyes close to bursting. She then turned to the last friend she had yet to check; Fluttershy. With what little hope she had left, Twilight dashed towards the now grey pegasus, and galloped to her as quick as she could.

Despite her mind filled with fear, when Twilight dropped and used both her front hoofs to lift Fluttershy’s frail body off the ground, she only shook her body lightly, so not to harm of startle her.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, while a few of her tears landed on the motionless pegasus, hoping that her friend was still alive. However, Fluttershy gave no reaction; no breathing, no groan, not even a whimper of fear.

“Fluttershy, wake up!” Twilight shook her friend’s body even more roughly in hopes of waking her up. Yet the lifeless still gave no reaction.

Twilight’s tears fell even more as she embraced her friends grey and cold motionless body, the reality of what was happening around her sunk in, everyone was dead and lifeless and there was nothing she could do to save them. Not the mayor, not her friends, not even-

Twilight’s eyes widened in shock and fear as she remembered that was one other she had not seen yet.

“Spike…” She whispered slightly to herself. She saw Spike walk off with the others, yet she hadn’t seen his body among the others, meaning that he could have survived… what ever happened here. A slight ray of hope shined in her heart as she believed that there was one left she could save.

And she would, she swore her life on it.

She lowered Fluttershy’s body gently to the ground, as she stood up and began to scan the area for any signs or clues to her dragon’s whereabouts.

“Spike.” She yelled, hoping that her voice might reach the young dragon’s ears, if he was close by.

Silence followed the shout. She then quickly darting to corner to corner of the area, hoping to find some trace of her dragon.

“Spike!” She screamed, her mind becoming frantic and her ray of hope shrinking quickly. She had to find him, she kept telling herself. He had to be ok, he just had-

Time seemed to stop for her, as her eyes stopped and narrowed in on a small shadowy figure on top of the park hill. She couldn’t make out the whole figure, as it was too far, dark and small to get a clear image, but she could clearly see the spines that seemed to be on the figure’s back. And she knew only one small figure in Ponyville that had spines on his back.

“SPIKE!” Twilight screamed, in either happiness or relief, she didn’t care. Her body and legs immediately charged in the direction of the small dragon figure.

She pushed her way past the bushes, twigs, leaves, anything that got in her way, ignoring the pain of the scratches and scrapes that were given to her by the obstacles. She didn’t care how much pain she was in, or how bad her body was, all she knew was that she had to get to Spike, no matter what.

As Twilight got closer, her desperate smile appeared on her face as she was happy that Spike may be still alive. A few warm tears of happiness soon fell back behind her. She had lost so much; she just couldn’t bear to loss her last friend.

As she began to gallop up the hill, Twilight’s mind began to relay on what she would do once she got to Spike.

‘First I as Spike what happened, afterwards we search all of Equestria to find any survivors, then we-’

Whatever Twilight was thinking vanished, along with her smile and her warm tears, as a look of despair, fear and pain crossed her face, with shrunken pupils and agape mouth, and the cold tears of hopelessness ran down her face once again. Right before, atop the hill, lay Spike’s body; grey and lifeless.

Twilight just stared at the small frame in front of her. Her mind had crashed, her heart had shattered and whatever hope she had left vanished in the dark.

Her body began to move slowly and weakly, like her joints had many cramps slowing her movements, as she inched closer to the small lifeless baby dragon.

“Spike…?” Twilight said weakly as she got closer to small still frame.

She then dropped to her knees and slowly used her front hooves to lift the young dragon up from the ground and close to her. Like the others, he was cold, no breath left his lips and his whole body didn’t make the slightest reaction. On his face, his eyes were closed and his mouth was opened slightly.

Spike?” Twilight asked weakly as the tears in her eyes began to fall, hoping that he was just sleeping like always and that he would wake up any minute now. He didn’t, after a few seconds passed.

Twilight was going to call again, but her mind knew the truth; everyone, even her young dragon was gone, as she couldn’t save any of them. Twilight held Spike’s body close to her own, as the urge to hold him close like a child was too great.

Her grief, pain and fear finally got hold of her, as she let out an ear-piercing scream to the sky, which seemed to echo across the world of Equestria. Tears raining down her eyes like waterfalls as she held Spike’s body close, not wanting to part with it. Spike was her closest friend, her top assistant, he was like a son to her, and now he was gone, and he couldn’t save him. This was no longer Twilight Sparkle, the princess of friendship and magic, this was simply a poor, broken alicorn that had lost everything she held dear.

As Twilight cried and screamed her heart out, darkness began to creep across the land, covering everything in a pitch black blanket, leaving only Twilight and Spike’s grey lifeless body the only things in the sea of darkness.

Through her grief, Twilight could see the darkness cover the sky, and jolted her head back down to the world around her to the see that all of Equestria was gone, replaced by darkness that rivalled the night.

She looked all around her, in hopes of finding some form of light or trace of Equestria, but everywhere she looked, the dark blanket was there, shredding her hopes of escape.

“Princess Celestia? Princess Luna? Discord? Anypony?”

Twilight frantically tried to search and call out to the darkness for a reply, but all she heard was silence and saw only black.

For a while she sat in the darkness, until a bubbling sound snapped her head in the direction of the source, which happened to be dark bubbles rising and popping from the darkness, like it was on a body of water. Twilight, still clutching the baby dragon’s lifeless body, crept away as the bubbles began to increase in number and size, and sped up in rising and popping.

The bubbles continued to rising and pop, before a large bugle began to emerge and rise from the darkness.

Twilight stared as the bulge soon became a ginormous pointy, arrow headed object, which rose higher and higher into the air, with sharp long curved spikes emerging from behind the head, three on each side, like a terrible and frightening crown. A lumpy yet hard looking mid-section followed after, which soon turned into long snake-like appendages forming underneath, tangled and twisted in different ways but soon flared out.

Twilight just stared at the pitch black creature in fear and awe. Never before had she seen anything like it; it made even the largest of dragons look like foal toys, but with has already happened she no longer had the courage or strength to stand up to… whatever this thing was.

Soon a pair of dark orange glowing eyes snapped open from the centre of the rocky mid-section, staring straight through the young alicorn, piercing her soul and shattering whatever bravery she had left, leaving her shaking, small, and shrinking form present before the behemoth.

The creature stared at the young alicorn and she stared right back at it, a silence stuck between the two. Soon a deep, dark and equally terrifying chuckle boomed from the colossus creature, before it finally spoke.

“Is it friend or is it foe, the young pony wonders.”

Twilight shrunk and cowered even more at the power yet wise words of the voice. With that, along with its giant size, it truly made Twilight seem small and insignificant.

“After witnessing what I had done to your precious home and your friends, I think we can both conclude that I am no friend to your kind.” The voice boomed again.

Twilight’s fear filled eyes widened at the statement, her mind flashing with images of what she had seen; the sky a deep red, the ruined and destroyed houses, the lifeless grey corpses of the ponies she saw and her friends. Her eyes took a quick downward glance at Spike’s grey form.

“It… was you?” Twilight weakly said. She wanted to be angry, heck, she wanted to be downright furious, but after seeing what she just saw, and with all the grief, pain and sadness she had, she just couldn’t; not to mention the giant creature had shattered whatever strength or bravery she had left to fight.

“Yes,” The creature simply said. “For one to conquer, examples must be made to show those who would defy a higher power the consequences for their actions.”

Twilight held Spike closer to her as she felt a small spark of rage come and go at the declaration.

“I have heard you call to your princesses and those whom you may believe that could help you,” the creature said, “yet you shall find no help from those that have already fallen to my power.”

Twilight’s eyes widened even further. This creature had defeated both princesses and Discord, without the elements of Harmony?! How was that even possible?

As Twilight pondered on how someone could defeat the two sisters and the spirit of chaos, six dark yet shining lights appeared on the creatures arrow shaped head, causing Twilight to look up at the shining lights to see them originating from six different gems embedded in the creature’s head; three down on one side: dark blue, blood red, and dark green, and three on the other: dark yellow, venom green, and pitch black.

“I have returned, and now,” the creature boomed, “you, and all of Equestria, shall know my power!”

“The power of Undern Slate!”

A sudden burst of dark magic erupted from the shining lights, unleashing a dark rainbow beam, which shot down towards the young princess. Twilight was too scared, shocked and powerless to move of dodge the beam, and only held Spike closer to her as the beam struck them both.

Twilight screamed as the searing pain of the beam consumed her, yet she refused to let Spike go. Despite the pain that was flowing through her, she felt a numb stiffness in her rear hoofs, which then began to travel up her legs.

She looked down and, despite the flashing dark colours that surrounded her, her eyes widened in shock as she saw the reason for the stiffness; she was turning to stone. She also heard the dark and deep laugh of the creature in the background, which seemed to take pleasure in the alicorn’s fear.

“No.” She yelled, as the stone began to creep up her legs, completely trapping them, before traveling up the rest of her body and her wings.

“No!” She yelled a second time, before her body and wings were encased in stone. She then felt the stone slither up her neck and down her front hooves as it began to encase the last of her.

She tried to block it all out; the images of her home and friends destroyed and dead, the laughter of the creature in the back ground, the searing pain of the stone encasing her, and the pain in her heart at having everything taken away from her. She felt the stone finally encase her front hooves and her head and horn, leaving only her muzzle and eyes left.

“NO!” she screamed with all her might, as the last thing she saw was Spike’s lifeless form laying in her stone hooves, before her eyes became encased in cold, hard darkness.

“NO!” Twilight screamed as she threw off her bed covers and shot straight up.

Twilight took very deep breathes, her heart still pounding in her chest from the fear and torment she had endured.

“Twilight?!”

Twilight looked up to the other end of her bed to see Spike standing there on one leg, while the other was in the air, looking like he was getting ready to kick something, while he held a silver hair brush in one hand, and a knitting needle in the other in a defence/fighting stance.

Twilight saw the look of worry, concern and surprise on his face. It took Twilight a while to figure out that she must have startled him out of his sleep due to her scream. By the looks of it, he also must have thought she was in trouble and grabbed the nearest things he could find to use as weapons. She then looked around to see she was back in her room in Canterlot, and by the look out the window, Celestia had lowered the sun slightly to make way for night time, as an orange and yellow glow filled the sky.

Twilight took a few more deep breathes, before her mind was finally able to make sense of the whole ordeal she had just experienced; it was all a dream, or more accurately, a nightmare.

Twilight smiled to herself and a few tears of happiness feel from her eyes. ‘Thank Celestia it was all a dream.’

“Twilight?” Spike asked, lowering his ‘weapons’ and placing his other foot on the bed stand as he was confused by Twilight’s sudden scream and her tears.

Twilight quickly wiped her tears away, so not to worry Spike any further. She then looked up at her assistant and steadied her breathing.

“It’s ok Spike.” Twilight reassured, “It was just a nightmare.”

Spike stared at Twilight for a second, letting what she just said.

“Oh.” He just said, as he got down from the bed stand, slightly embarrassed by the way he acted, before walking back to the stand where he got the needle and brush and putting them down.

He then looked back at Twilight and took a closer look at her; her eyes wet and blood shot from crying, and her body covered in sweat, probably in fear, and a normal ‘nightmare’ did that to her.

“Wellllll… that… must have been one hay of a nightmare.” Spike finally said, breaking the silence that had filled the room for a while. “When you screamed, I practically jumped out of my scales; I thought you were in trouble.”

Twilight gave a sweet smile to her young dragon assistant, happy that he took great concern for her as always.

“That’s very thoughtful and sweet of you Spike. Thank you.” Twilight said, as said dragon walked up to her.

“Well, that’s why I’m here Twilight; to look out for you.” Spike said with a smile and a feeling some pride in his chest.

Then his face turned to a quite concerned and serious one as he looked at Twilight.

“Seriously though Twilight, you really had me worried. I mean normal nightmares don’t do that to a regular pony; let alone a princess. What exactly was your nightmare about?” Spike asked. He knew that twilight probably wouldn’t want to talk about it, but he was worried that she may have more of these nightmares and that would bring problems for both of them. He figured it would be best to tackle now than later.

Twilight’s face fell as he asked that question. She knew it was going to come sooner or later, but she really wished it didn’t, she didn’t want to worry anypony with her problems, but she knew that Spike was going to keep pestering her until she told somepony about it. Spike had been there for her when she needed help the most, and that nightmare showed her just how much she cared for him as a friend, no, as a son. She knew he was right; a princess shouldn’t be afraid to speak her mind or concerns with her closest friends.

Taking a deep breath before exhaling, Twilight ready herself to recall all the fear and pain she felt just moments ago.

“Well Spike,” She said, choosing to start from the beginning.  “I dreamt that-”

Before she could continue, the whole tower began to shake as a loud stream of hooves and whizzing of wind came from outside Twilight’s room. Before Spike or Twilight could wonder what was going on, the doors to the room were flown open as a rainbow streak came crashing into the floor, followed the forms of many familiar figures.

“Twilight?!”

Twilight and Spike were startled by the sudden door burst, but were more surprised to see her friends, the princesses and Discord making their way into the room, with concerned and worried looks on their faces. The blur had revealed to be Rainbow Dash, who picked herself off the ground with a dazed look on her face, one eye in the sky the other focused on her, before she shook her head and eyes back into place and turning back to Twilight.

“Twilight?!” Rainbow said, before she tackled Twilight, who yelled in surprise buy the sudden attack, back down on the bed. “Are you ok? Are you hurt? Did someone try to hurt you? Where’s the slime ball? I’ll pulverize him.”

Before Rainbow could say any more, she was yanked off the bed by the tail by Applejack, who had the pegasus’ tail in her mouth, with an annoyed look on her face. “Now Rainbow, stop harassin’ Twilight and let ‘er speak.”

Rarity walked past the apple farmer and speedster and looked at Twilight with concern. “Oh Twilight, are you ok? We were busy repairing the garden with everypony-”

“Then we heard a loud “NO!” coming from your room in the tippy top of the tower, and we were all like “’GASP’ Twilight sounds like she’s in trouble! Is ok? Did she hurt herself? Is somepony trying to kidnap her? What’s going on?” Pinkie Pie cut in, waving her hoofs in the air to exaggerate the point.

Fluttershy then stepped forward to talk. “We were really worried about you, so we put what we were doing on hold and came up as quickly as we could.”

“You certainly gave everyone a fright, Twilight.” Discord said, floating beside young alicorn in a doctor’s costume, complete with clipboard and magnifying glass, as he began to examine the young alicorn’s eyes, ears, and the rest of her body.  He then placed a finger under his chin with a thankful hum, before poofing a pen out of nowhere and writing down a few things on it. “And by my observation… you seemed to have had quite of bit of a fright yourself.”

He then poofed his pen away and showed everypony what he wrote on his clipboard. What was on it was instead a drawing of Twilight in bed with a scrunched face look, with a thought bubble overhead with many freighting images in it (well frightening to Fluttershy anyway).

The ponies stared at the picture for a few seconds with confused/disturbed looks.

“And… what are we supposed to be looking at?” Rainbow Dash, who had flown up into the air, asked, not getting what Discord was getting at, much to his annoyance.

“I think what Discord is trying to say is that Twilight may have had a nightmare during her period of rest, and what we heard was her reaction to it.” Princess Celestia explained.

“Thank you Celestia, for clearing that up.” Discord said, as he snapped his fingers, sending his doctor’s costume and clipboard away in a poof.

“But ah thought Princess Luna was supposed to be preventin’ nightmares from gettin’ to folks. How can Twilight have a nightmare and Princess Luna didn’t know a thin’ ‘bout it?” Applejack asked, quite confused about the whole thing.

“That’s quite true.” Celestia said as she turned to her sister for answers.

“Well… I’m, uh… I… am sorry sister, but I was busy helping all of you with the repairing of the Canterlot gardens, so… I couldn’t stop with my task and…” Luna began with an uneasy look, but noticed that the others and her sister weren’t, as the kids of this age say ‘buying it’. Sighing in defeat, she decided to tell the truth. “I’m sorry sister, but I couldn’t help Twilight with her nightmare because… I didn’t know she was having one.”

This caused everyone to raise their eyebrows in confusion at the Princess of the Night.

“You didn’t know that Twilight was having a nightmare?” Fluttershy said, voicing everyone’s thoughts.

“But… you’re the princess of the night and dreams! Surely you could tell if Twilight was having a nightmare if she was asleep.” Rarity asked, quite surprised as everyone else.

“Normally yes, even when I am occupied with another matter, I can still sense any nightmare regardless of who has them or where they are.” Luna said, before continuing with her explanation, “However, I was completely oblivious to Twilight Sparkles’ nightmare, I do not know why.”

Celestia and the other were slightly unnerved by this information, mostly Twilight as she feared that she may suffer the same nightmare again. Celestia then turned to her former pupil and decided to ask on what had happened.

“Before we investigate further into these matters, we must first focus on the current problem.” Celestia then walked up to Twilight’s bed and stopped just by the stand. “Twilight Sparkle, can you remember what happened in your dream?”

Twilight’s ears fell and she shrunk down into her covers. Telling Spike or one pony was one thing, but she was hoping she wouldn’t have to explain it to the others; she didn’t know if they could handle it. She looked at everypony’s faces and saw that they were all ears and that they weren’t planning on letting her lie or walk her way out of it.

Twilight sighed in defeat and decided to start from the beginning.

“Well, it started with me waking up in the Golden Oak Library.”

Twilight spent the next half hour or so explaining her dream; how she woke up in the library and her friends going on a picnic to which Pinkie and Fluttershy didn’t mind, what she saw when she left the library and the number of lifeless pony corpses which disturbed just about everyone, even Discord, how she ran to their ‘special spot’ and nearly had a mental breakdown upon seeing her friends lifeless and cold, scaring all of them including Applejack and Rainbow Dash when Twilight mentioned their twisted limbs, how she found Spike’s grey body atop the hill which caused her to snap, scaring and saddening Spike upon hearing how devastated he made her feel.

“-and then when I felt that everypony was gone, the world began to be covered in darkness, leaving only me and Spike’s grey body left.” Twilight explained, nearly breaking into tears at remembering it.

“Stop! Stop! I don’t think I can take it anymore!” Fluttershy cried, as she fell to the floor and cover her ears, with tears in her eyes.

“I must agree with Fluttershy, dear.” Rarity said, as her own eyes were about to break out in tears. “I don’t believe I can handle any more of the horror and tragedy you had to suffer. I think I’m very close to fainting.”

“Now, now, simmer down y’all.” Applejack said, trying to reassure the scared ponies, “If this darkness covered the whole dream, than that means that it’s over, right?” Applejack gave Twilight a smile that said ‘please let it be it’. Truthfully, she couldn’t handle it any more than the others and was about to wrap a rope around Twilight’s mouth to stop her, but refrained from doing so.

“I wish it was, AJ, but there’s more.” Twilight said, sad that she had to do this, but she had already done most of it, might as well finish it as she was nearing the end.

Pinkie Pie was cowering on the floor like Fluttershy, with her hooves covering her eyes. She found the beginning not too bad and thought it was going to be a silly nightmare like they forgot to bring the cupcakes, but when Twilight got to the really scary parts, her humour and happiness began to die down until it hit the zero when Twilight mention their beaten and lifeless bodies.

Rainbow Dash had tried to cover her ears with her hooves while her wings covered her eyes as she couldn’t handle the nightmare, swearing that she was going to have something similar if Twilight continued. She began to get freaked out and scared when Twilight mention the sky being blood red and everypony’s lifeless bodies, and finally had enough when she mention their bodies and her twisted wings.

While Spike tried to be brave by Twilight’s side, he was beginning to sweat, shake and regret asking Twilight about her nightmare; he felt like this story was going to keep him up all night.

Only Celestia, Luna and Discord seemed calm, but inside they were surprised to hear such a nightmare and pitied that Twilight had to suffer it alone. Luna was the worst of the three, as she cursed herself for not knowing of Twilight’s nightmare and doing nothing about it. Discord was sitting on the windowsill with a cup of tea in his eagle claw, enjoying/scared of the tale that Twilight was telling; he enjoyed the drama and the tragedy in it, but was becoming more disturbed as she continued. Celestia had mixed feelings; she was interested by the way Twilight’s nightmare was structured, but was also equally disturbed by what was going on in it.

Steadying her breathing and readying herself, Twilight continued. “As we sat alone in the darkness, I called out to Celestia, Luna, Discord or any pony that could hear me, but there was only silence. Then I heard a bubbling noise from behind me and noticed that a part of the darkness was beginning to bubble and rise, like something was lurking underneath it. I didn’t know what to expect so I backed away from it. Then something began to emerge.”

“Was it a dragon?” Fluttershy asked, fearfully.

“No.” Twilight answered.

“Was it a swarm of vampire fruit bats?” Applejack asked shakenly, as she pulled her hat over her eyes to brace for the worst.

“No.” Twilight said, starting to shake a little as she remembered the power and fear that the creature possessed.

“Was it a vampire dragon?!” Pinkie Pie asked quite loudly.

Everyone turned to the party pony with raised eyebrows of confusion, while Rainbow and Rarity glared at her with annoyed looks.

Pinkie just gave everypony confused looks.

“What? They’re real.” Pinkie said in defence.

“No,” Twilight simply said, as she continued with her explanation, the fear of her encounter coming back to her. “It first came out as a large arrow headed creature, before I began to rise out of the darkness further, revealing a sort of rocky mid-section and giant snake like tentacles that looked like it could snap a stone tower in two like a twig.”

By this time, everypony was beginning to shake and quiver in fear, even Celestia, Luna and Discord began to sweat and turn slightly pale as the description of the creature unsurfaced some old memories.

“Then it opened its eyes.” Twilight shivered in fear as she still felt the piercing gaze of those eyes. “Those eyes… They felt like he was staring straight through me and my soul, shattering whatever resistance to fear I had left. He spoke in a deep, dark and booming voice that seemed to echo across the whole void. He seemed to know what I was thinking as he claimed to be an enemy to ponies.”

The mane 5 and Spike swallowed a lump in their throats at the description and cowered even more. Celestia, Luna and Discord also felt a lump in their throats, but steadied themselves, not wanting to cause alarm. After all, it was probably just a coincidence; there’s no way this creature of been… him.

“He then said that he was one responsible for what I saw, and that it was a demonstration as to what he would do to anyone who defied him.” Twilight paused for a while, swallowing the large lump that had been in her throat during the whole retelling of the nightmare. “Then there were these six lights glowing on top of his head. As they shone brighter and brighter he said that he had returned and that all of Equestria would know of his power…”

“The power of Undern Slate…”

SMASH

The young ponies and dragon were snapped out of there scared thoughts at the sound of the smashing of a tea cup and turned to the only one who had a hold of one during the whole story, but became more surprised and shocked by the look on his face; a look they didn’t think they see on the spirit’s face.

Discord was still sitting on the windowsill, but his eyes were wide, his pupils were diluted, his mouth was agape slightly, and the entire colour on his face was drained to a pale look. He didn’t move or speak a word; he just stared at Twilight like she was a demon.

The ponies looked at each other in confusion, before looking back at the spirit in confusion.

“Hey, Discord.” Rainbow dash said, getting a close look at the spirit’s face. “You ok there? You look like somepony just went and said you were going to hit the bucket early.”

Discord didn’t reach to the comment, but a one word did leave his still agape mouth. “Celestia…”

The others were confused by this and turned to said sun princess and Princess Luna, but were startled to what they saw.

Like Discord, the two sisters had their eyes were wide open, their pupils had shrunk and narrowed, their mouths were agape slightly, and all the colour on their faces had fled leaving behind a pale yet terrified look.

“Celestia?” Twilight asked, terrified about the princess’ sudden reaction. Had she said something she wasn’t supposed to?

“No… It can’t be…” Her frightened and equally paled voice seemed to scare everypony more than Twilight’s nightmare.

The three remained frozen in fear, until Celestia took a deep breath, forced a serious face on her muzzle, and said “Luna, Discord, Come!”

She then turned to the door and trotted towards it, just as Discord and Luna snapped out of their paralyzed trances and turned to the princess of the sun.

Discord snapped himself to Celestia’s side, a still fearful look on his face. “Celestia! You don’t suppose Twilight’s nightmare was actually…”

The fear in the draconequus’ voice and the seriousness on Celestia’s face seemed to scare and confuse everypony even more. What were they talking about, and what did this have to with Twilight’s nightmare?

“We won’t know for certain until we’ve seen for ourselves.”  Celestia said seriously, without turning attention to the spirit that floated beside her.

Luna looked back at Celestia as she was nearing the door.

“He… He can’t be free!” Luna yelled in fear and shock.

Celestia stooped just outside the door, looked back at her sister and calmly said “Hopefully, the seal is still intact and Twilight’s nightmare was just that; a nightmare, nothing more, nothing less.”

Luna just nodded and trotted over to the other side of her sister.

The two sisters looked at each other with a serious and knowing look and nodded in some silent understanding, before Celestia turned to face Discord, who had the same serious and knowing look on his face, and both nodded in the same silent understanding.

Celestia then faced forward and said “Twilight, you, Spike and your friends are to stay in your room until further notice, understood?”

This confused and surprised Twilight and the others as the princess gave them the order.

“What?” Rainbow Dash yelled in shock and confusion. “Why the hay should we?”

“Because I order it.” Celestia stated calmly yet seriously, making Rainbow flinch and lower herself to the floor.

“Whoa nelly.” Applejack said to herself. Sure, she seen the princess get angry and serious, but she’s never seen her this serious before, and by the sound of her voice, she sounded… scared. She didn’t know why, but it appeared that Twilight’s nightmare wasn’t just a regular old nightmare.

“But princess, what is this about?” Twilight asked, as she got off her bed and walked up to the princess, completely confused by the princesses and spirit’s sudden change in behaviour. “Does my nightmare mean something?”

Celestia tensed up and remained silent for a second, before answering. “We’re not sure yet. But until we do, you and your friends will remain confined to your room until further notice.”

“But why? Why can’t I help?” Twilight asked. She wasn’t angry, just confused. What did they know that she didn’t?

“Because we do not need you at the minute...” Celestia was trying hard to keep her calm voice in check, but it was obvious that she was beginning to lose her composure.

“But me and my friends have help Equestria many times before, why can’t we help-” Twilight was also beginning to lose her patience for an explanation for her nightmare, but before she could ask why-

“Because I have said so, and you shall follow that command is THAT UNDERSTOOD, TWILIGHT SPARKLE?!” Celestia yelled in the royal Canterlot voice as she loomed over her former pupil, anger and impatience in her eyes, startling and scaring Twilight and the other ponies.

Twilight was terrified at the minute, perhaps she had taken her princess persona too far or she was too pushy in her curiosity. She shrank back down until her belly was touching the floor, her terrified eyes never leaving the princess’.

“Y… yes… princess…” Twilight whimpered, as she slowly back away from the sun princess, whose eyes followed her until she bumped into the end of the bed rest.

Celestia then turned back to the door and walked out of it before saying one last thing to the ponies and her former pupil. “I’m sorry Twilight, but this is something we have to confirm for ourselves first.”

She then closed the room’s doors behind her and her sister and Discord, leaving the six mares and the young dragon locked in a room of silence.

Nopony said anything for a while, still trying to take in what had been heard and said, until Applejack tried to lighten the mood, seeing as they going anywhere anytime soon.

“So… Twilight?” the orange earth pony asked her lavender alicorn friend, who had gotten up from the floor just stared at the door her mentor just left out of. “How exactly did that nightmare of yours end?”

Twilight said nothing for a few minutes, as she was too ashamed at the way she acted and scared the way Celestia was a moment ago, before deciding to answer her friend’s question.

“I was turned to stone.”

“Have any 3s?” Pinkie Pie asked, holding a set of cards in her hooves.

“Nope, go graze.” Spike replied as he held his own set of cards in his claws.

It had been a few hours since Princess Celestia had left with Luna and Discord and ordered Twilight and her friends to stay in her room until they got back, as evidenced by the moon high in the sky and the dark night covering it in a blanket of stars, and the group had decided to occupy themselves for the time being.

Rarity was sitting by the nearby table with a pen in her mouth and some paper in front of her with new fashion ideas, Rainbow and Applejack were both struggling and turning red in the face as they tried to force the others hoof down their side,  having a hoof-wrestling competition to see who was the strongest, and so far it 9-8 to Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Spike were having a game of ‘go graze’, with Pinkie wining the first three rounds, leaving Twilight looking through many of the books in her room.

Ever since the Princesses and Discord had a change of attitude when she mentioned her nightmare and the creature, who she deduced as this ‘Undern Slate’ character, she began to wonder who exactly Undern Slate was, so she dived into her books, hoping to find some information or at least a clue as to who or what he was and why his name seemed to scare Celestia witless. Unfortunately, all her searches proved fruitless as the stacks of books beside reach quite high up to the celling and at least 2 to 3 books remained on the books shelf.

Applejack and Rainbow had finally dropped from the lack of energy or strength to continue their match and turned to see the mountain of books Twilight had just through. They then saw Twilight groan and toss another useless book onto the pile, before using her magic to levitate another book with a blue cover to her face.

Sharing a glance with each, Rainbow Dash and Applejack silently agreed to find some way to get Twilight to stop her reading before she hurt her eyes. They both looked back at the alicorn princess with worried looks.

“Ya know Twilight; you could try giving those books a break and do something more… I don’t, fun.” Rainbow Dash said, deciding to speak first.

“Well, this is my idea of fun; studying.” Twilight simply said, without turning to look back at the two athletic ponies.

“Twi, we know that yer pretty upset with the way you acted, and we understand that you were just curious as always, but maybe ya should listen to Rainbow and give yer eyes a rest.” Applejack said with concern in her voice. She also had a feeling that there was something else to that nightmare and the Princesses and spirit weren’t telling them the whole story, but after seeing Celestia blow her lid with Twilight, she was more concerned as to how Twilight was dealing with it.

“I thank you for concern, Applejack.” Twilight said, her eyes still glued to the book she was reading. “But I know that my nightmare wasn’t just a nightmare and Celestia is hiding something from us. If I can find out something about this ‘Undern Slate’ I can get a better understanding as to what’s going on, or what’s about to happen.”

“Trust us darling, we all feel the same, but if Celestia has told us to stay out of the way, then it means that this is something that we just aren’t ready for.” Rarity said, overhearing the whole conversation and turned to look at them, the pen she was using was floating by her head with her magic.

Twilight then stood up, dropping the book she was reading turned to face the others, and began to walk towards Rarity with an unhappy look.

“But I’m the one who got the nightmare!” She said loudly with annoyance. “I’m the one who saw that thing and what he had done! If Celestia doesn’t want me to help or get involved with whatever’s happening, how come I’m the one who got the nightmare?” Rarity leaned back, her hoofs rested on the table behind her and supporting her, as Twilight got really close to her face, their horns touching each other.

“Well, maybe… I, uh…” Rarity tried to say, quite scared by the look Twilight was giving her and the invasion of personal space.

Before she could think of something to calm her friend down or before Twilight could argue again, the lavender alicorn was yanked away from the designer by the tail, which was pulled by Applejack.

“Now hold on their Twilight.” Applejack said through grit teeth, before spitting out Twilight’s tail, with an irritated look on her face. “Listen, we all know you’re upset and confused by what’s happened recently, heck, even ah’m confused by what’s goin’ on and annoyed that nopony’s tellin’ us what’s happenin’. But it doesn’t mean ya can just go and take ya frustration on ya friends; it means you should try and listen to ya friends who are just tryin’ to help ya.”

A sad looked appeared on Twilight’s face as she took in what her country friend was saying. She then looked at the others and saw Rainbow’s, Pinkie’s and Spike’s worried looks and Rarity’s and Fluttershy’s scared looks. She then looked at the floor with a shamed look as she realized that Applejack was right; she may be annoyed about not knowing what was going on, but that didn’t mean she had to take it out on her friends.

She stood up from the floor, although her eyes stayed lowered at it, and then turned to Applejack before addressing to her friends.

“You’re right Applejack.” Twilight said, her eyes and head still pointed towards the floor. “I’m sorry everypony, I let my emotions and worries get the best of me. I shouldn’t have taken that frustration out on all of you. I’m sorry.”

The other ponies smiled at their friend’s honesty, happy that she decided to tell them what had been bugging her. Applejack placed her hoof under her friend’s chin and lifted it up so their eyes met, before the farmer wrapped her arms around the lavender alicorn in a warm and friendly hug.

Twilight smiled at her friend’s forgiveness and kindness and returned the hug by wrapping her hoofs around the farmer.

“GROUP HUG!” Yelled Pinkie, as she wrapped her own hooves around Twilight and Applejack, before the others walked over and wrapped their own hoofs/claws around the others, before they were all part of one big group hug.

“Princess Twilight and friends.” A male voice from the direction of the door.

The group opened and turned their eyes towards the door to see two royal stallion guards in their gold armour standing in the opened doorway; one was a dark greyish-brown pegasus, while the other was a caramel brown unicorn, with serious looks on their faces.

After the awkward moment and when the group broke apart, the unicorn stallion cleared his throat before speaking.

“The Princess would like to see you in the throne room, now.”

The large golden doors to the throne room in Canterlot opened to the Mane 6 and Spike, revealing Princess Celestia sitting on her throne facing the door with a serious look on her face, with Luna sitting next to her with the same expression.

Twilight swallowed a lump that had been in her throat on the way down to the throne room, as she and her friends slowly made their way in with their heads and eyes downcast. Twilight began to fear that the way she behaved had made Celestia deem her unworthy of being her presence and was summoning her to the throne room to banish her from Equestria.

The others were not as dramatic or as worried as that, but they were scared that Celestia was still mad at Twilight for speaking out against her and brought her down to punish her. They agreed that if things were as bad, or worse, as they thought, they would step in to defend their friend if they needed to.

As the 6 mares and baby dragon passed by the glass stained windows of past event, the most recent being related to them, they stopped at the base of the throne and bowed to the Princesses, who looked down at them with their stern eyes.

After a brief silence, Twilight decided to see if she could still make amends by apologizing for her actions.

“P...Princess, about what I said before… I’m-”

“I’m sorry.”

Twilight’s eyes widened in confusion and looked up at Celestia to see sad look on her face. The others were also confused by the look on the sun princess’ face, while Luna had an understanding look on her face as she glanced at her sister.

“Ex…cuse me?” Twilight asked, puzzled as to what the princess was apologising for. Hadn’t she been the one that spoke out against her?

“I’m sorry for getting angry with you a while back Twilight.” Celestia said. She had already discussed this with Luna a while ago; Twilight was already wrapped up in this, might as well tell her everything. Taking in a breath, she calmed her nerves and kept her mood as cool as possible. “After hearing of your nightmare and the creature you encountered, it brought back terrible and sad memories from a time long ago. I was scared and feared that your nightmare was only just a nightmare.”

“Only ‘just’ a nightmare?” Rainbow asked, confused as to what the princess was sating. After what Twilight had told them, how can it be anything but a nightmare? “I don’t see how something like what Twilight had could be anything else but a bad dream.”

“A very bad dream.” Rarity added. She also didn’t see how Twilight’s nightmare could be special; apart from the fact that Princess Luna couldn’t sense and that just from being told of it will leave her having similar nightmares for weeks.

Celestia and Luna exchanged a look and nodded in agreement, deciding that Luna should explain what they knew.

“As you all know, now that Twilight Sparkle has become a princess, she has been given a lot of duties and abilities that come from it.” Luna said.

“Like getting wings.” Applejack said.

“Being able to fly.” Rainbow Dash said.

“Having to attend royal meetings.” Fluttershy added.

“Getting her very own castle.” Rarity said.

“Getting to eat as many treats as she wants.” Said Pinkie Pie, with a goofy smile. Her smile fell when she noticed that everypony was giving her weird looks. “What? She’s allowed to, isn’t she?”

“Anyway…” Luna said, deciding to get back on topic before they fell off track. “One of the many gifts that Twilight is granted is the ability to receive visions of future events; be they ones of prosperity and good, or those of catastrophe and darkness.”

“And y’all think that that nightmare Twilight was one of those visions?” Applejack said, starting to get on where the princesses were going with this.

“Yes, although we hoped her first vision would be less dire than the one she just witnessed.” Luna explained, wearing a face of sadness and uncomforting.

“But… but I don’t get it?” Twilight said, still not understanding what her nightmare meant or why the princesses were so scared of it. “What does it mean? Is Equestria in trouble? Does that creature have something to do with it?”

Celestia stayed silent, as did her sister, for brief second to gather the words needed to explain what she was going to discuss with them.

“If your nightmare turns out to be true, then yes; I fear all of Equestria may be in grave danger.” Celestia said, unnerving the young ponies and dragon. She then looked down at Twilight. “You remember the creature you encountered, yes?”

Twilight nodded, taking in what Celestia was saying and preparing herself for what she was going to say.

“His name was and still is Undern Slate.” Celestia said.

Next Time: Chapter 2: Unden, the Monster of Disharmony! Discord’s futile Struggle!

“Out of all the threats to Equestria, Undern is by far the greatest threat in existence.” Celestia said, her face turning dark as she remembered the strength and power he had possessed in the days of old.

“DISCORD!” Everyone yelled in shock, surprise and fear, his still form remained still and continued to bleed.

“What form of trickery is this?” Roared Tirek, pointing to the creatures before, demanding an answer.

“You forget…boy. I taught you… how to master your magic… as I did with Celestia… Luna… Starswirl… and many others in the days of old…” The cloaked figure weakly breathed out, the cold air turning his breath into a steamy mist.

“Still… as strong as… ever I see.” Discord groaned as he struggled to get up on his feet, as the pain in his chest grew with every struggle.

“What… WHAT THE HAY WAS THAT THING?” Rainbow said, as he brain struggled to register what she had just witnessed.