Twilight woke. She couldn't sleep. Her eyes still shimmering from bright lights at last night's party at the library. Spike was still sleeping (Snoring Noises). She looked to her side at the window and gazed at the night sky. She turned to her other side and looked at her bedside. There lay three books. 'Dragons Through the Ages', 'What Would Celestia Do?' and 'Portal' which was the one Ms. Sparkle was particularly interested in.
She looked at the cover. The cover was thick and dusty with shiny rubies encrusted around the border. In the centre there were two words - Author Unknown. She had just remembered she had found this tucked in under all sorts of books in one of the highest shelves in her place of comfort. That seemed suspicious enough. But now, the author was unknown. The excitement of all this made Twilight leap for the book (well, you know, quietly...not to wake Spike or anything). She thought to herself - "I must science this at once". The Princess opened the front cover. Wait. OK. She TRIED to open it. It didn't budge, move or anything. As if it was stuck or something.
All at once the rubies on the front cover started to glow a bright shade of pink. The book opened itself. The first page had an illustration of the Crystal Empire with a dark cloud of magic oozing from the top tower. Twilight stared at the illustration. And then, it appeared as though the cloud was moving. She blinked. She blinked again. The moving action was still there. She couldn't believe what she was seeing (or holding for that matter). The cloud was getting bigger. Twilight got a strong gut feeling that something was not going quite well. The whole page was now black and glittery. You could not see the palace any more. Twilight waited for something to happen.
BOOM
The book levetated itself into the air and the black cloudy smoke started to ooze from the front page. Twilight's gut feeling was beginning to feel extremely intense. The black magic was oozing and didn't stop. She turned to Spike's bed. Still sleeping. The cloud started to swivel round the room and shelves, blocking it all out. The doors and windows were now off limits. She looked back. She couldn't see the book any more. It had vanished. The magic swivelled round the princess. Round and round it went enclosing Twilight in a big dark cloud. Twilight was now trapped. She felt the gut feeling go away. Her sense of touch, smell. Everything went. including her sight. She passed.
Twilight woke. Again. She had just been swallowed by a smoky cloud of dark magic which has emerged from a picture book illustration. She felt dizzy in the head. But wait. She wasn't in her library any more. In fact, she wasn't in Ponyville either. She looked around the room. It was a Crystal Empire dorm room. Why was she here? Did the magic transport her? She got up, barely being able to walk. Twilight walked up to the balcony. She looked across at the village. Nobody was in sight. The cottages, huts and houses were burnt down and everything was grey, shrivelled and lifeless. She looked down in to the main square. No. The Crystal Heart.
It was shattered.
She raced to the door and opened it. Outside the doorway lay two guards. Frozen. They were very much alive. But frozen, for sure. She ran down the many flights of stairs. She realized that she had woken up in the highest tower. The same tower in the illustration in her book back in Ponyville. Something wasn't right. Something was, in fact, very very wrong. She raced to the palace leaping over the shattered crystal heart. She ran through the village. It was all in ruins. Every last building was in the least, damaged. Severely. Where were the people? Why is the Heart shattered? So many questions. Twilight felt that she hadn't much time to answer them either.
The Princess arrived at the Crystal Palace. It too was in ruins. Everything was damaged, the garden shrivelled, the fences chipped and the bricks fallen. She ran round the "palace" and suddenly froze. It was a terrible sight. Probably the highlight of what she had been through and seen today. It was Princess Cadence. She was stone. Literally a rock. Like a statue. Her crown had been taken off her head and was nowhere to be seen. Twilight walked round the statue. She took everything in. And on her last long, calming breath heard a voice.
"Hey you!" said the voice. Twilight turned round. There was nobody there.
"Yeah you!" the voice continued. "You're the Princess arn't you?"
She looked the other way. Still nobody in sight.
"Oh for Celestia's sake! Down here!" said the voice. Twilight looked down. She was flabberghasted.
It was a filly. A small red haired filly with a yellow streak going down her mane and tail.
"Sunset?" Twilight asked.
"Oh well this is a surprise!" the filly said. "The Princess knows my name! But yes, your highness, Sunset Shimmer at your service"
Twilight took a good look at her. Why was she a filly? Where in Equestria did she come from? Last time she saw Sunset, she was a mare with high hopes of changing her ways, gaining trust from her newly found friends. This made no sense. None of it did.
"You need to come with me, Princess" Sunset said. "They ordered me to fetch you"
Who was they? What did "they" want with Twilight?
"Come on, your highness. Surely, you're not afraid of a filly like yours truly!"
Twilight didn't know how she got here, what was going on or who "they" were. But she did know Sunset. She trusted Sunset many a time before. Why not now? Even though Sunset was somehow a filly now.
"Alright then, Sunset. Take me to them" Twilight said.
"Oh no, we're not going to them yet" Sunset replied. "We need to make a few stops first, your highness! Follow me please" said Sunset running down the dusty, ruin-filled lane.
"I should've never opened that book" muttered Twilight, slowing stepping behind filly Sunset.
