New World, New Life

Lightning had found his way around the castle, still getting odd looks from the guards.
But, finally, he had found the Throne Room.

His heart was pounding.

Sweat drenched his fore-head.

He slowly pushes open the throne room door.

“Who is it?” says a voice.

Lightning voice disappears for a moment.
“It’s Lighting Storm, a friend of Twilights.” He says.

Silence.

“Ah yes! I’ve been expecting you, please, do come in.” Says the voice.

Keith enters the throne room, it was a big room, covered in paintings and murals and stained glass art of the Elements of Harmony.

Princess Celestia trots up to Lightning.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Lightning. Twilight has told me so much about you” she says, giving him an odd look, sort of like she was inspecting him.

Lightning felt nervous, he didn’t know if he should bow, or speak in a formal manner.
The princess could see this in his eyes.

“Keith, There’s no need to be nervous. I may be a princess, but it doesn’t mean I’m nothing but classy ALL the time. The “Internet” seems to portray me like that, anyway.”

Keith giggled.

“To the moooooooooooooon?”

The Princess laughed.

“Faust, that really made my day.” She said.

Keith felt much more comfortable now.
“So, I’m guessing Twilight told you a lot about me, right?” he says.

The Princess nods.
“She really likes you, Keith”.

This made Keith blush.
“Y-Yeah... She’s Really nice.” He says, his facing glowing like hot embers.

The princess feels this discomfort, and changes the subject.
“Twi said that you think I enchanted your Satchel?”

“Uh, Yeah.” Keith says.

“Well, I’m sorry to say, but, I’m not the pony you’re looking for.” She says.

Keith sighs.
“Twilight told you why I’m here? That sort of ruined the whole dramatic vibe I was going for.” He says, disappointed.

The princess laughs.
“I may not be the pony you’re looking for, but I’ll still be able to help you in your adventure in a few ways.” She says.

Lightning was over-whelmed with joy with this proposal.
Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, was helping him find out who sent him here and why?

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet.

The Princess grabs Lightning’s satchel from his shoulder.
“I can use my royal magic to pin-point a stronger location than Twilight’s magic.” She says.

She places her horn against the bag, small spark emitting from the tip, seeping down into the satchel.

She pulls her horn back.

“...It’s... not working.” She says.

She tried again.
But, nothing.

Lightning flopped back on his rump.
“Dammit, now I’m back to where I started.”

The Princess started thinking. It must be very powerful magic if she couldn’t detect it...
But, why could Twilight detect it?
She stared at Lightning, sitting on his back-side.

She was doing it for him...

Suddenly, the throne room door is pushed open.

A guard trots in, with a lance on his back.

Keith noticed something odd about him, He didn’t look like the other guards.

There were a few red speckles on his armour, his coat wasn’t white like the other guards, it was black like obsidian.

He walked to the middle of the throne room, and stopped.

Lightning and the Princess just stared at him.

“Why are you here? I told you all that I’m in the middle of something important.” Says the Princess.

The guard removes his helmet.

He had a mane as red as blood, and a coat as dark as night and eyes the most intense shade of sage, they seemed to stare into your very soul.

He stared straight at Lightning, his muzzle twisted into a snarl.

“Here we are, face to face.” He says.

Lightning just stares at him.
“Uh... Do I know you?” He says.

The Stallion closes his eyes.
“No.”

The stallion pulls the lance from his back, The Princess shields Lightning with her wing.
“I suggest you leave, you are dealing with a formidable force” She says.

The stallion stares at the lance for a minute.

He throws it to Lightning, he catches it.

Lightning was lost for words, why was he giving him this weapon?

“You have great power sealed within you, Power my master and I can use... To fulfil our destiny. Make the choice:

Seal the Power deep inside you and many will die.

Let it flourish...

Well, we’ll have to wait and see.”

The Stallion vanishes into thin air.

Lightning held the lance in his hooves, it was slippery, hard to keep his grasp.
This was the kind of weapon he’d need magical power to use.

He lets the lance drop.

“I... What just happened?” says Lightning
He was so confused.
Who was that Stallion?

Who was his master?

What was their destiny?

Lightning just fell back, overwhelmed with all these questions.

The Princess just stood there.
She had a feeling that something catastrophic was around the corner.

Rainbow Dash sat in a comfy hoof-chair, a cup of coffee in her hooves.
She looked around; the coffee shop was hustling and bustling.

Rainbow and the rest of the gang had come here after a day of shopping.

Rainbow set down her cup and shuffled deep into the comfy chair.
She hadn’t gotten much sleep on the carriage ride here, in-fact, neither had the rest of the group.

Rarity was drinking heavily from her own mug of coffee, trying to stave off the drowsiness.

They all had the same look on their face; Uncertainty, with a hint of fear.

The only one who seemed to notice this was Pinkie Pie, who then spoke up.

“Am I the only one who just can’t shake the feeling that something super-duper bad is about to happen?” she says.

Rarity sets her mug down.
“Pinkie, I fear you may be right, I feel that Lightning may be in trouble, and Twilight, Shining and Cadance too.”

Applejack rises from her seat.
“Guys, Ah think we should check out the castle. I have the feeling Lightning might really need our help on this one.”

The gang rises and leaves the coffee shop.

The castle loomed in the distance.
The gang all had that feeling of impending doom.

They sure as hell hoped they were wrong.

Twilight sat on the couch in Shinings living room.

She was sipping lightly from a cup of tea, chattering away with Cadance.

It had been years since Twilight had really been able to talk with Cadance.

The last time she had seen her was at the wedding, and we all remember how that turned out.

She kept on wondering about that power she had showed at the wedding.

“Love”.

That was one hell of a parlour trick.

Ever since that fateful day, Twilight had always wanted to show such power.
The only problem was; she didn’t have a special some-pony.

But, neither did any of her friends, so... She wasn’t missing out on anything, right?
Yeah, had to be.
But... then again, all her friends had tried at one point or another, and all of them failed.

She vaguely remembers Fluttershy getting together with Applejack’s brother for a while.

It seemed like it’d work out.

I guess not.

Oh, and it was obvious that Rainbow had some sort of feelings for AJ.
You’d have to be blind not to notice it.

She was getting depressed thinking about failed relationships, and feeling gone untold, so she decided to drop the subject.

She quickly downs the rest of her tea and rises from her seat.

“I’m sorry brother, but I must be getting back to my friend” she says.

Shining looked disappointed.
“Aw, sis!” he whines.

She trots to the door.
“I’m sorry, brother. I’ll visit soon, okay?” She says.

She trots out the door and heads back for the main castle, oblivious to the danger that was just around the corner.

Lightning stood on the throne room balcony, the lance propped against the wall.
He had the feeling that... He was doing something absolutely wrong.

He got this feeling that he should be running.

The Princess trots up behind him.
“I’m sorry I cannot offer an explanation for those recent events, Lightning” She says.

Lightning just stared away into the sky.
“I’d be lying if I said anything made sense since I got here.” He said.

Lightning stared down into the court-yard, where a familiar purple unicorn was making her way towards the castle.

“Twilight!” Lightning shouts down to her.

Twilight looks up at Lightning and gives him a warm smile.
She continues trotting slowly towards the castle.

Meanwhile, near the castle gate, the egg had nearly hatched.
This egg was nothing but a simple dragon egg, not able to do much damage.

But that dragon hatchling was already being manipulated by darkness, given insane power and robbed of all free will.

Slowly but surely, the egg-shell begins to crack.

And the living horror inside, released....

Back in the castle, Lightning had told Twilight about the events that just occurred, the Stallion and his “Master”.

She was lost for words.

He didn’t blame her.

Today’s events had blanked his mind at this point.
He didn’t know where he should go, what he should do.

Part of him wanted to go back to the library and cuddle up in bed.

Another part of him wanted to get to the bottom of this.

Lightning spotted his bag in the corner.

Coming here hadn’t really gotten him any answers.

But at least he knew he could stop with this lead.

Where did he continue on from here?

Twilight was out in the court-yard, a bit on edge over what she had heard from Lightning.

Maybe it was just some wannabe punks trying to scare them.

Maybe they did have a real problem on their hands.

She was a bit scared. She hated being scared.

She wanted nothing more for than someone to hug her and say “everything’s going to be alright.”

She felt sick to her stomach.

She barely knew why.

Why was she so scared?

She had some of the most powerful magic in all of Equestria, and was one of The Elements Of Harmony...

She shouldn’t have to feel fear.

She feels a familiar hoof on her shoulder.

Twilight turns her head, and sees Lightning.

The second she saw his face, her pain melted away.
He had the goofiest grin, she couldn’t help but smile.

She giggles a bit, then catches herself, then proceeds to burst out laughing.
Lightning didn’t know why she’d been sad, he only felt good that he’d made her feel better

Suddenly, out of the blue, Twilight squeezes Lightning in a great big hug.
“Thanks, Lightning” she says, giving a grin of such goofiness it proved a worthy rival of his own.

Even though he was pretty sure the lives of the entire country of continent or universe or whatever Equestria was, rested on his shoulders,

all that mattered is that she was happy.