Prologue: The Tearing of the Soul
The world awoke in a squall of pain and agony searing through the souls of thousands of ponies across Equestria. Twilight Sparkle rose from her bed as a scream tore from her throat and a fire burned deep into her mind. She fell to the floor, hooves clutched to her head as she tried to focus passed the throbbing torment emanating from her horn as tears streamed from her clenched eyelids. Each time she tried to summon her magic to block out the pain, it would return doubly and drive her harder into the floor. Several minutes passed before she was finally able summon the strength to cast a meager spell that shielded her from the assault on her mind.
Blearily her eyes opened, ears ringing as she slowly began to regain her senses, the lavender alicorn becoming acutely aware of the chorus screams filtering in through her open window as she lay numb upon the bedroom floor. She groaned and weakly tried to raise herself up to her hooves, legs shaking and nearly collapsing underneath her as she felt that burning pressure push at the spell guarding her thoughts.
“What’s happening?” she whined, letting out a yelp as an explosion shook the room and more screams rang out from the city beyond.
At first, Twilight thought that Canterlot was once more under attack, regaining her strength and bursting through her door onto the city streets, ready to help defend the ponies of Equestria from whatever force of evil was causing so much turmoil. However, the sight that lay before her caused the mare’s heart to stop. There were unicorns everywhere, heads clutched between their hooves, howling in pain as their horns glowed bright like hot iron put to the forge. Several of them ground their horns into the walls of building and into the stone paving of the street. The other non-unicorns were left panicking, trying to tend the wailing forms of their friends and neighbors, but their was no sign as to what was ailing them.
In a desperate attempt to relieve the pressure boiling his mind, a beige stallion let loose a bolt of magic from his horn that arched across the street like lightning, exploding across a store front and sending several ponies tumbling across the ground. The stone walls cracked and crumbled from the immense blast most ordinary unicorns would never be able to produce.
Twilight wanted to help them, shield them the way she was shielding herself, but that burning was already pressing down on her and she dared not thin out her magic and let it take her once more. “I have to find, Celestia,” she stated, eyes wrenching from the suffering thralls of unicorns and running down the cobbled street. She ran hard and fast, doing her best to block out the howls of suffering and agony that clawed at her heart as she passed by the hordes of unicorns crying out for someone to save them.
There was nothing that she could do. She was barely hanging onto her own sanity, and she had no way of knowing what it was that was tearing apart the unicorns around her. Celestia would know. She would stop it. If there was any one pony that could tell her what was going on and bring it to an end, it was the Princess of the Sun. Twilight had to hurry, though. Every pounding hoofstep she took as she sprinted across the grounds of Canterlot Castle, made her focus waver and that fire shrouding the barrier of her mind pressed in to consume the alicorn once more.
As she ran, Twilight realized that the only reason she was likely able to stave off the attack was her newly gifted wings and magic, knowing that if she likely had still just been a unicorn she would be under the same torment as those she passed.
Finally, the grand doors leading into the main chamber of the palace came into view, the mare’s heart lifting a bit as she neared her goal. There were a pair of pegasus guards tending to their fallen unicorn brethren at the base of the stairs, holding him down as the stallion screamed and tried to burn them away with his violent outbursts of magic.
One of the guards turned to the lavender alicorn as she approached, the relief that she was there practically bleeding from his face. “Princess Twilight, please. You have to help our friend. He collapsed and we have no idea what is wrong, but he seems like he is in terrible pain.” The pegasus winced as the unicorn let out another wailing howl as the other pinned him the ground.
Twilight gazed down at the unicorn, wanting to do anything she could to help, even attempting to reach out with her magic, but recoiled as she felt a dull throbbing begin to pound inside her skull. It took her a moment to push it back out, eyes shut tight to focus on driving away her unknown attacker until she blinked into the face of a very concerned pegasus.
“I can’t help him, now. My own magic is barely keeping me from the same state, and I have to find Celestia.” The guards heart sank, gazing down at his companion with fear strewn across his face. A pain tore through the Alicorn’s heart, quickly trying to remedy the situation. “Help me find her. Do you have any idea where she is?” The pegasus couldn’t tear his eyes away from the scene of his friends wrestling against one another, one violently thrashing about like a wounded animal. Twilight gripped the sides of his head in her hooves and stared into the pegasus eyes. “Please!”
There was brief pause before the guard began to stammer. “S-She raised the sun not long ago, so it is likely she is still in her chambers.”
“Thank you,” Twilight sighed, “I promise, I’m going to fix this, but I’m going to need Celestia’s help to do it.” Her hooves came off of the pegasus’ head and she began to ascend the stairs, shouting back at him. “Keep him down till it is over or he could hurt himself or you.” she instructed, remembering the damage that she had seen another afflicted unicorn cause not minutes before.
Any thoughts of the castle interior helping to shield her from the suffering and turmoil going on outside were shattered the moment her hooves pushed open the wooden doors and she stepped inside. A chorus of pain, misery, and death rang through the halls of the stone corridors within the palace. The entirety of the castle staff lay broken across the floor in a writhing, howling mass that made Twilight’s blood run cold through her veins. Ponies were clawing at their horns from the burning in their heads, doing anything they could to release them from the grip of agony. Blood was strewn across the walls in some places, a few of them having succeeded in breaking off their horns in their desperation, but the anguish remained.
Twilight willed herself to move, but she was frozen in place, unable to tear her eyes away from the wailing faces of the ponies around her and the sound of their screams burrowing into her skull so that she could feel that fire beginning to close in on her once more. She had to find Celestia, now, but she could not tear away her gaze from the sight.
A hoof suddenly covered her eyes and wrenched her head away from the scene before her, turning so that she was once more staring into the worried face of the pegasus guard. “Please, Princess, you have to keep moving. It’s the only way you can save them.”
For a moment, Twilight’s mind refused to respond, crumpling under the pressure bearing down on her till she clenched her teeth and screamed hoarsely. She turned and ran, running harder than she had ever done in her life through the sea of twisted unicorns, leaping over crumpled bodies still convulsing in their suffering.
She made it out of the main hall, the numbers of writhing ponies dwindling but not disappearing entirely, still sprinting passed more of the castle servants pleading for help as she went. The winding corridors felt as though they would never come to an end, every hoofstep taking her deeper into the palace seeming to build the fire’s attempts at breaking down her soul. In fact, the farther she traversed into the palace, that fire seemed to grow, looming over her as though it were trying to keep her from her goal, only solidifying in her mind that once she found Celestia, this nightmare would come to an end.
At long last she could see the entryway to the Princess’ chambers, tears streaming down her face from joy and the aching in her heart for those suffering around her. She slammed into the door with all of her strength, soaring into the room and screaming out to her friend and mentor. The moment the door swung open, however, Twilight was blinded, light pouring into her eyes till she was forced to screw them shut and she tripped over her hooves to crumple onto the ground. Her whole body ached as she struggled to get her hooves back underneath her, shoulder bruised from the impact with the hard stone floor as she raised herself up.
Eyes open once more, Twilight could feel her heart rip from her chest, tears rolling off her cheeks as she gazed into the bright burning light bearing down upon her.
“Gods above… Save us.”