Celestia, Luna and Twilight sat at the dining table eating their evening meal. A magnificent fire crackled and popped to the left of them, radiating its warmth and light outwards into the room. Winter was approaching and as usual, preparations were to be made, food to be stored and such. The three finished their meals in silence before speaking.

“Twilight.. This is powerful magic. You’ve outdone yourself as usual.” Celestia spoke as she reviewed a piece of parchment. Luna used her magic to levitate the scroll over to herself.

“Quite. This is indeed powerful magic, surprising even for yourself I must say, Twilight. You truly believe this can work as intended?” She asked while reading over it.

“Yes! I tested it on a smaller scale and it worked perfectly! I believe if we channel our magic into this, we’ll be able to move vast amounts of resources in just minutes, when it would take normal ponies days or even a week to do so normally.” Twilight was beaming with pride. This winter would be different, colder and harsher than the last and with the tension between Equestria and Griffonstone on the rise, the need to stockpile was higher than ever.

“Twilight.” Celestia spoke. “I’m proud of you for bringing this to our attention, I would like to see a demonstration. I want you back to Ponyville tomorrow, we’ll see just how much this spell can move.” She said.

The three rose from the table and parted each other goodnight.

“Go on Twilight, get some sleep and be ready for tomorrow, Luna and I are going to talk for a little longer.” Celestia spoke to Twilight as she left the room. The two sisters made themselves comfortable in front of the fire, the warmth and subtle dance of the flames were mesmerising.

“Tia, I must inquire, as to how practical this is. Surely such a teleportation spell could prove undeniably useful in many regards but, I cannot help but to wonder what implications this could lend aid to in, certain, situations.” Luna spoke discreetly, as to gauge Celestia’s response.

“Yes, Lulu. I was thinking the same. I have to commend Twilight, she is trying her best to help in her new position of power, and I must admit, such a spell would be very helpful for preparing our stockpiles for the winter, why, we could do in an afternoon what it takes normal ponies days to do. No doubt the logistical capabilities of it are sound but, I fear it may be more useful in other regards.” Celestia responded while she watched the flames dance and like the brick of the fireplace.

“Indeed, dear sister, I see you are thinking along the same lines as I. Such a teleportation spell could be used to move-” Luna was interrupted before she could finish.

“Armies.” Celestia said, her gaze never breaking the fire. “Luna, not a word of this to Twilight. I doubt things will ever become that heated between Equestria and Griffonstone, but we would be careless rulers to ignore the possibility. We’ll discuss this more tomorrow, until then I am tired, and going to retire for the night. I assume you will be up a while longer?” She said before finally leaving her seat and making way for the exit. Luna stared at the fire a moment longer before arising.

“You are correct, Tia, you know me quite well. I will be stargazing. If you require my council you know where to find me. Goodnight dear sister.”

Luna and Celestia departed each other and went their separate ways. Celestia pondered for a moment before finally getting into bed and drifting off asleep.

***********************

Celestia awoke at the crack of dawn, the sound of birds singing their morning melodies reaching her ears as she prepared for the day. Luna was already waiting in the dining room with breakfast served. She ate slowly while going down a mental checklist of things to do.

“Twilight is in Ponyville already I assume?” Celestia asked.

“Indeed. I sent her off this morning, not before dawn, I trust she is ready and waiting for our experiment.” Luna said, finishing the rest of her meal.

The two made their way to an empty courtyard outside that they had designated as their testing grounds the day before. The clouds hung high above as the cool air chilled their coats. Celestia was, for lack of better words, cold. She looked to Luna who seemed to enjoy the weather. Never one for the sun she assumed. She couldn’t help but crack a smile thinking about the irony of that thought.

“Let’s begin.” Celestia spoke. She used her magic to convey a scroll to Twilight who was eagerly awaiting them in Ponyville, to signal her that they were ready.

***********************

Twilight, Spike and Applejack waited outside in the orchard of Sweet Apple Acres, several bushels of apples before them.

“Now, ya’ll mind tellin’ me again what this here spell is supposed to do, Twilight?” Applejack asked.

“Not at all. How long does it usually take you and Big McIntosh to move an entire orchard worth of apples?” She turned to face Applejack as she spoke.

“Well, it really depends but, I reckon’ most of the day is a good estimate.” Applejack replied.

“Precisely. With Winter so close around the corner and this year looking to be bad, I figured, what if we could just teleport the entire harvest straight to where it needs to go? I mean, we use teleportation for sending scrolls and sometimes, if you’re adept, even yourself places. But we’ve never tried sending something of this size or amount someplace. I figured, if we could move all this quickly we’d save more time for other preparations.” She said proudly. As she finished speaking a scroll appeared and she eagerly unravelled it.

“Twilight, we are prepared and ready for the tests. Please begin channelling your magic, just like we showed you the other night. I have full confidence in you.

•Celestia”

Twilight gleefully motioned for Spike and Applejack to step back while she concentrated on the bushels of apples, fifteen of them to be precise. She strained as she poured her magic into the spell, small beads of sweat starting to form on her brow.

***********************

Luna and Celestia closed their eyes as they both began to channel their magic. A simple teleportation spell itself was nothing to either of them, but it’s the object, or objects, being teleported that required great concentration. When teleporting one’s self or something as small as a scroll the margin for error was much smaller, but teleporting larger items, and multiple of them, the room for error was exponentially higher.

The two silently concentrated as their magic started to form a circle in the middle of the courtyard, an almost mirage-like image of Sweet Apple Acres could just barely be made out in the middle of the magic image. It continued to grow in size until the other side was clearer.

***********************

“My word..” Applejack said as she looked at the growing portal.

“Woah..” Spike muttered.

The pair watched as they could barely make out the images of Luna, Celestia and the courtyard, the image grew larger and larger and started to encircle the bushels, stretching and distorting until the image was no longer clear.

With a sudden clap like lightning, the apples were gone and the group was sent flying back. Twilight lied still for a moment before groaning, her head throbbing and the world around her spinning.

“Eughhh… what happened? Did it work..?” She said, slightly dazed.

“Boy did it! Ya’ll just saved me a long days of work Twilight!” Applejack exclaimed excitedly.

“That’s great… I wonder, how the apples are. Hopefully, all of them made it.” Twilight spoke as she pulled herself up, Applejack and Spike moving to help her.

***********************

“Tia!? Tia where have you gone!?” Luna said shockingly, darting her head around the courtyard. She winced in pain as she finally noticed a splitting headache taking over. Several guards came running to her aid as she collapsed onto the ground.

“Find… Twilight. You are to bring.. Bring her here immediately, at once. Is that not understood?” She managed to get out between gritted teeth as the guards helped her up and moved her towards the castle.

“Yes, Princess.” The guards said as they helped her up the cobble steps and towards the infirmary.

***********************

Cold. That was all Celestia felt. She was bitterly cold. Wherever she was it was dark and very damp. Her head ached and throbbed as she shook herself awake. She sat in the cold dark for a moment as her eyes adjusted only slightly.

“Where.. Where am I?” She wondered to herself. Celestia tried to pull herself up but winced in pain as her hind leg gave way and she fell back to the cold wet floor. She stayed for a moment, silent and listening, shivering in the dark. It wasn’t until she strained that she noticed an odd sound, one she didn’t hear before. Harder and harder she pushed her hearing until it became clearer. The hairs on her neck rose and her heart dropped. The very distinct sound of gnawing and chewing was now very prominent in, wherever she was. Slowly, fear crept up on her, as she continued to listen to what sounded like sloshing and slopping coming from somewhere in the room.

“H-Hello?” She said weakly. The sound stopped, and the silence sent a surge of pure, primal fear deep inside of her.

Celestia steeled her breathing as she thought to herself. “Calm yourself, Celestia, you’ve been in bad situations before, you’ll be ok.”

“Is.. is anypony there?” She spoke again, more loudly and confident.

“I’m hurt.. I may need help. There’s been a terrible accident.” She continued to talk out to the room, her vision had barely adjusted to the darkness and her muscles shook from the mix of adrenaline and very cold, musty air that enveloped her. She sat in silence for what felt like an eternity. After several moments she finally heard something, and the dread she was fighting off so bravely had returned, only, this time, she wasn’t so confident in her situation. From somewhere off in the room, she heard a low, guttural snarl and what sounded like chains being drug across cobble stone. What started as guttural sounds slowly turned into raspy growls as someone, or something, was clearly shambling towards her in the darkness. Her heart raced as fear and instinct took over.

“Who is there!? I demand to know!” She said, trying very hard to not give away the fact she was panicked. Again the only response was a low, guttural growl, only this time, it was much closer, and sounded much more sinister. Panic had fully taken over as Celestia pushed her body to work, she pulled herself up and onto all fours and wildly looked around, she judged what direction the sound was coming from and tried to move in the opposite way behind her, pushing herself against the wall she groaned as her hind leg burned in pain.

She stumbled in the dark for a moment before collapsing over something and crashing to the ground. She scrambled to turn the other direction, the sound now closer than before.

“I’m warning you! Don’t make me use my magic!” She commanded, but to no avail. Whatever was so eager to meet her had clearly continued to pursue her. With her pursuer showing no signs of stopping she had no choice. She pointed her horn towards where she judged the sound to be coming from and concentrated.

“W-What’s happening?” She said out loud as her magic failed to produce the desired effect. Instead, only a faint spark shot out and fell towards the ground. Frustrated and growing more and more panicked she concentrated again and managed to fire off a very weak blast of magic towards the direction of the sound. She wished she hadn’t.

Shambling towards her was a bipedal creature, it was frail and looked almost like a skeleton. From the brief glimpse she had seen of the monster, it looked like a corpse, covered in rotten flesh and dripping with a red substance she assumed was blood, only now it finally clicked in her head what the sound was. It was eating something, or someone. She tried to concentrate again but to no avail, her head throbbed as she teetered on the verge of passing out. Her final thoughts of Luna, and Twilight. Equestria. Her loyal subjects. She closed her eyes and prepared for whatever may come.

Something kicked the wooden door in, splinters flying everywhere as the flimsy door was busted off its hinges, a small amount of light flooding in the room. Celestia looked up as another bipedal figure stood in the newly discovered doorway. In the light, she was able to make out a few features and noticed this creature, unlike the other, was very different. Adorned in some sort of armour it held a shield with intricate designs in one hand while wielding a sword in the other.

The monster that had pursued Celestia turned to face the new creature and shrieked, it quickly shambled over towards the armored guest and swung violently at it. The armored creature brought its shield up blocked the blow, and with its other hand it brought the sword up and shoved it straight through the monster. It howled with pain as it fell to the ground, the armored one pulling the sword from the monster and finishing it with a clean blow to the head.

“Henry! In here!” Celestia heard the creature yell, nay not a creature, a female. The voice was distinctly feminine but, most of all, Celestia understood her. The woman charged into the room with shield up and ready, she turned away from Celestia seemingly not noticing that she was pushed in against the corner. Moments later another armored combatant came forward through the door. The two of them moved away from Celestia and she strained her hearing as she heard more howls and shrieking.

It was quiet again for a moment before footsteps could be heard approaching from down the hallway, Celestia strained her eyes and saw it was the same armored female from before, now covered in blood. The bipedal female knelt down and inspected the monster, it rummaged around the area before slowly turning its head and meeting Celestia’s gaze. They both froze and stared at each other.

“Henry.. Come here.” Celestia heard the female said. Her heart raced as the other armored figured appeared, it had a body slung over its shoulder and let it drop to the ground, a sword still impaled through the monster's chest.

“Henry.. Do you see this too, or have I gone hollow?” The female said. The other figure, Henry, turned to look and met Celestia’s gaze. It turned to look towards the female then back to her, doing a quick double take.

“Do you.. Suppose it can understand us?” The female said. At that Celestia pushed herself further into the corner, her eyes not leaving the two armored figures.

Henry looked towards the female then towards Celestia.

“Right right, well there’s no need to worry love, we’re good people, honest!” Henry said as he pulled his short sword out of the decrepit, decaying monster that now lie on the floor dead.

“Brother.. You’re scaring it. Stop speaking like an idiot! And put your damn sword away, it’s uncouth to introduce yourself to someone while brandishing a weapon.” The female said. She sheathed her sword and stepped over the dead body, coming closer to Celestia, who was pushed into the corner as far as she could go.

“Come on then. Don’t be afraid, we’re not crazy like the ones before, see? They can’t hurt you now. What’s your name? Can you speak?” She said, nearing closer slightly.

“Auusha be careful, I really don’t want to have to find you again, you know I bloody hate it when you go off and get yourself killed.” Henry spoke while pillaging the undead that lie limp around the room.

Auusha knelt down now only several feet away, she waited for what felt like ages before turning to look towards Henry, an almost defeated sense about her. She began to stand up and walk away when Celestia let a frail sound escape from her throat.

“C-Celestia.. My name, is Celestia.”

Author's Note

The formatting seems to have gone wonkey, not sure why. This probably sucks, so feel free to downvote and tell me to kill myself.