The New Age

Charity Heart yawned as she finished reading her book. Ever since Midnight Centurion had taken his position as Captain of the Friendship Guard(her mother's royal guard), it felt as though she'd taken on every last one of the royal duties they both had. She understood that he had a busy schedule and couldn't always do his duties, but she did everything nowadays. She just wished there was a way that she could take a break and let her brother have a turn; make him see how she felt.

She took off her usual royal garb and yawned again, climbing into bed.

Midnight Centurion

        Midnight Centurion yawned as he finished his patrol of the castle, coming to a stop at his sister’s room. Captain of his mother’s ‘Friendship Guard’ wasn’t what he’d always wanted, but he was just happy being able to pursue his dream while still being close to his family. As always, he opened the door, gasping when he saw his sister writhing and whimpering in bed. He took off his armor and looked to a pegasus guard named Wind Glider. "Get one of the other princesses, or Prince Flash Sentry, and bring them here immediately." He instructed firmly.

The white pegasus stallion nodded, flying as quickly as he could to get to one of the Princesses, or to Prince Flash.

Meanwhile, Cent darted over to his sister's bed, crawling in with her. He sighed and gently wrapped a wing around her. Just as her nightmare seemed to subside, they came back far stronger, her horn lighting up with dark blue magic and pinning him to a wall. This went on until Twilight and Luna entered the room, gasping as they saw the blue magic aura around Charity's horn turn a deep, dark, blood red color. When Princess Luna fixed the pony's dream, her magic turned to its normal color before it faded all together.

The two princesses shared a look as Charity slowly sat up, blowing stray bits of a frizzy mane away.

She looked at her mother, who had a morbid, worried look on her face, and said, "Mom? What's wrong?"

Once again, the Princess of Friendship and the Princess of the Night shared a look before sighing. Twilight helped her youngest out of bed, telling her to come to the dining room, Midnight Centurion following because he was sure he should be there.

The doors closed behind them, and Charity sat on a cushion across the table from her mother, who sat by Luna, while her brother sat beside her.

"You all know the story of how my jealousy turned me into Nightmare Moon so many years ago," Princess Luna started, "But what you don't know is of the forces that aided in my transformation; a dark creature known simply as the Miasma."

"The Miasma is a very, very terrible thing." Twilight informed, taking over. "It'll occasionally play around with somepony, but every once in a while, it'll find somepony that it considers a well-matched host and latch onto it, like with Luna becoming Nightmare Moon."

"But there is more to the Miasma than there seems." everypony turned to the door, seeing Celestia join their conversation. "It's very rare, but once in a while the Miasma will find a perfect host. Whenever this occurs, the Miasma will latch on and not let go, creating uncontrollable nightmares for the pony it's attempting to inhabit. That is only the beginning though. If time goes on long enough, the Miasma will not only change the pony's body to its liking, but it will also destroy their mind; obliterate them from the equation."

"Charity Heart," The blue unicorn's head darted in Princess Luna's direction, "We believe that the Miasma has chosen you as its perfect host for the first time in over three thousand years."

The half-blind pony looked down, not sure what to make of all this.

"Is there anything we can do to stop this?" Midnight Centurion spoke up. "Some kind of spell?"

"We may have one chance, but it's slim." Twilight informed, standing up. "For now, all that Charity can do is fight; hold onto her ponydom and not give in to the Miasma. Cent, I need you to come with me."

Cent nodded, following his mother out of the Castle, and then into the Everfree Forest while Luna went with Charity, locking the mare into her room and staging Guards of her choice at her door to make sure nopony went in or out.

Twilight came to a stop in front of Chest at the base of the Tree of Harmony. "You remember the stories I told you about the Elements of Harmony, right?"

Cent simply nodded, not understanding what the Elements of Harmony had to do with the chest, or what the chest had to do with his sister.

"Well... inside this chest is a different set of Elements; the Elements of Friendship. When I decided I wanted another foal, this chest appeared at the tree.  I want you to take these Elements, and find their proper bearers. Once you've done that, train them on how how to use the Elements. After that, we'll need Charity to give in to the Miasma so that these Elements can destroy it, and save her." his mother explained, loading the gemstones into a saddle bag and giving it to him.

He sighed. "H-How will I know if I find the right for each element?"

"The gemstones will glow in that pony's presence."