Back at ground level, within an orchard filled with apple trees, Princess Twilight Sparkle laid unconscious after her great fall from Canterlot Castle.

The orchard was silent, save for a few distant birds who hadn’t been scared away after Twilight broke through the branches of an apple tree on her way to the ground. The wind was deathly still and the leaves weren’t even attempting to rustle.

Six magical plinks, each emerging one after the other as if they were the beats to a song, suddenly appeared breaking the silence. Above Twilight now floated a ring of six transparent spirits, one almost exactly resembling herself, while the others resembled her friends.

The spirits resembling Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash quickly flew down to inspect Twilight’s beaten and crumpled body, “Oh, thank harmony! She’s been gravely injured, but I think she’ll be able to recover.” The spirit resembling Fluttershy said. She breathed out a sigh of relief.

If Twilight were still conscious, she might have felt the warmth given off by the spirits, almost as if a unicorn had ignited their horn right next to her.

“But Lord Tirek, Queen Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow have the Bewitching Bell, and have stolen the magical energies of the Tree of Harmony! I really hate to say it—and I mean that. I really, really hate to say it—but they are mightier than Twilight Sparkle and her friends now. Even if she can make a full recovery and gather back her allies, they won’t be able to defeat those villains. All is lost!” The spirit resembling Rainbow Dash was fuming and her words held tone that made it clear she didn't want to believe what she was saying.

“Both of you! Just calm down,” the spirit resembling Twilight suddenly spoke. “This is no time to be losing our heads. Remember, as long as we keep it together, there’s always hope.” She extended her front hoof outwards before urging her comrades to do the same. “Now please, join me in this brief exercise…”

The other spirits extended their front hooves out in front of them as well at her request. They then brought their hooves to their chests with an inhale before extending outwards, exhaling out all their anxieties.

Once successfully calmed down, the spirit resembling Twilight continued. “Our fates are in Twilight Sparkle’s hooves, just like they have been so many times before. We must try to revive her.”

They each flew closer over the unconscious mare. The spirit resembling Twilight pleaded to her friends, “Gather round, everyspirit. Send Twilight Sparkle your power!”

Flashes of light, like tiny soundless fireworks, started to erupt all over the surface of Twilight’s body. Each individual flash resembled the coat color of each respective spirit, and as they sent more of their power to the downed princess, the flashes appeared more rapidly.

Soon, a large pulse of energy radiated off Twilight’s body as the flashes began to appear one after the other in a split second succession. The spirits sighed heavily after sensing the pulse. They had little power left to give, so their attempts to awaken the mare left them exhausted.

“Phew… that’s it. That’s all we can do for her right now,” the spirit resembling Twilight stated in dismay. She flew away from her fellow spirits, closer towards the mare who shared her face. “Twilight Sparkle… it is up to you now. Please get up… Please…”

The spirits vanished. They were no longer able to keep themselves tethered to Twilight’s location without the power they expunged. Twilight now laid alone in the orchard again, with no one but the birds in the trees and overhead aware of her current location.

The sounds of hooves trotting against grass soon broke out near where Twilight laid. “It really sounded like somethin’ fell somewhere around here…” A small filly with a bright red mane and big pink bow stepped into the light near the unconscious mare. She noticed Twilight. “Oh… Who could that be?”

She recognized the pony before her as a mare. “Excuse me, mame, but ma family doesn’t like it when ponies sleep in our orchard. Ah’m gonna have to ask you ta…”

Her eyes widened. “Princess Twilight?!” She rushed over and began looking over the mare. “Okay, she’s got a horn, wings, and a unique mane and tail style… this has got to be Twilight!”

The filly placed her hooves on Twilight’s body and began trying to shake her awake, “Hey! Hey! Wake up! C’mon! Up and at ‘em.” When Twilight fell over onto her side like a cardboard cutout, the filly started to panic. “Oh no! She won’t wake up!”

She began to rush around the area. She paced quickly in a frantic state as she racked her brain for solutions on how to wake the motionless mare, “Oh no! Oh no! What am Ah gonna do?! Oh Celestia! Oh curse word!” She jumped when a sudden thought appeared in her head. She turned on her hooves and began sprinting back in the direction she came from. “Granny! Sugar Belle!! Big Mac-in-tosh!!!”

******

Twilight awoke on her back in a place as dark as the painting her brother told her about. She briefly tried to remember its name, but all she could recall was the words “nights” and “hallway.”

Before she could continue this train of thought any farther, a sudden flash of light caught her attention, and when it subsided she was left with a transparent reflection of herself floating in midair. Then, much to her surprise, the reflection spoke. “Twilight Sparkle… Can you hear me, Twilight Sparkle...?”

Twilight could not believe what she was seeing. Questions began rushing around her brain like the Wonderbolts rushing around a racetrack. “How do you know my name? Who or what are you? What is this place?”

The transparent reflection gave Twilight a smile that reminded her of the smiles Princess Celestia would often give her just before offering advice. “You already know who I am, Twilight Sparkle. After all, we have been working together for quite some time. Though I will admit we have never truly communicated in this way before.”

Twilight blinked at her reflection in confusion. The reflection continued to smile. “For all intents and purposes, you can call me, Magic. I am one of the Elements of Harmony, and I have infiltrated your dreams so I may tell you something of the utmost importance…”

Twilight’s head was spinning. She had heard tales from some of her students at the School of Friendship that they had spoken to a spiritual manifestation of the Tree of Harmony, but never before had she considered their claims to actually be true. She had always assumed the Tree of Harmony was just an incredibly powerful magical object, one of the few she was content with leaving unstudied due to the importance its presence held in keeping Equestria from falling into chaos. Despite her studious nature, she had never even considered the idea that the Tree, let alone its Elements, could be sentient.

All these unknowns were peaking the young alicorn’s ever present curiosity, so she drew a more attentive ear towards Magic as it continued to speak. “This matter concerns the current princesses… as well as all of the rest of the world…”

Magic started to flicker like a lightbulb almost ready to burn out. Magic’s expression quickly turned to that of concern. “It would seem I haven’t the strength to speak with you here…” the element said begrudgingly. “Twilight Sparkle… I am going to need you to come and meet me at the Tree of Harmony, underneath the Castle of the Two Sisters… I wish to tell you more, but sadly, I am fading as it is...”

Magic began to flicker more sporadically, actually vanishing completely before returning a split second later right before Twilight’s eyes. “Please… Twilight Sparkle… The other Elements and I will be waiting for you at the Tree…” Magic started to fade more slowly, more than likely this time out of its own volition, before disappearing completely and leaving Twilight, once again, alone in the dark.

******

Twilight shot up onto her haunches with a start. To her surprise, she found she had been gently tucked into somecreature’s bed. She looked around at her surroundings. She needed to see if she could spot any familiar landmarks that could tell her where she ended up while unconscious.

She noticed a stetson hat and two pairs of coiled rope hanging off of hooks on the walls; several small red apples were decoration the covers to her pillows; a larger red apple was painted on the door; an even larger red apple was painted near the ceiling of the-

Twilight couldn’t believe she was being so meticulous about this. She knew exactly where she was.

“How did I get into Applejack’s room? Last thing I remember, I was in Canterlot Castle when…” Her eyes widened, the memories of her battle with Tirek and Chrysalis suddenly flowed back to the forefront of her mind. She quickly kicked off the blankets covering her before jumping onto the floor. She was in such a hurry to get moving back to the castle that she didn’t even notice somecreature had already opened the door to check up on her.

Twilight turned to leave the room. “Twi...Twilight!” She was not expecting to see her number one assistant blocking the doorway.

He rushed forward and wrapped himself around her front left leg. “I’m so happy to see you awake!” He shouted with no shortage of relief in his voice. Though she was unaware of what had Spike feeling so worried, Twilight couldn’t help but return the hug.

“When Apple Bloom found you out in the middle of the orchard, everycreature was worried sick! You haven’t opened your eyes for days and days! We were beginning to fear the worst! Thank Celestia you're okay!”

Twilight could feel some of the dragon’s tears soaking into her paper body. If he was not asked to back away soon, the soaked area of her leg could potentially become fragile and rip. Twilight was well aware of the damage water could do to paper, but at that moment, her mind was currently elsewhere. “Spike… how long did you say I was unconscious?”

Spike backed away from the princess. “Days, Twilight. I don’t think I had ever been more scared.”

Twilight didn’t reply and instead rushed clear out the door. Spike was left spinning, but once he righted himself, he shot off after the princess. “Twilight! Come back! You just woke up from a coma! You shouldn’t be exerting yourself like this!”

Twilight burst through the front door of the Apple Family’s farmhouse, causing it to swing back and smack against the front wall of their home. Everypony who was out and about in front of the house suddenly drew their attention to the frantic looking mare now standing on their porch.

Twilight leapt over the stairs and onto the ground in a sprint, leaving Granny Smith, Sugar Belle, and Apple Bloom no time to ask how she was feeling as she ran past them. Spike soon ran out onto the porch when Twilight was about half way across the yard. He noticed Big Macintosh was standing in front of the gate leading to the road that led back to Ponyville. Figuring the large stallion had a better chance of intercepting Twilight then he did, Spike called out to his friend. “Big Mac, we’ve got a runner! Don’t let Twilight get past that gate!”

Big Mac turned to see Twilight rushing straight towards him. He knew that she hadn’t been awake for the last few days, so running about as she was would probably slow down or even halt her recovery. He decided to follow Spike’s orders without question. “E’yup!”

Twilight saw Big Mac step in between her and the gate. Her brows furrowed in annoyance, “Big Mac, get out of my way! I don’t have time to waste fooling around with you!”

Big Mac shook his head. “Nope.”

“I don’t want to hurt you, Big Mac! This is your final warning!”

The stallion stood strong and unmoving. Twilight couldn’t help but growl at his stubbornness. “Fine! But don’t say I didn’t warn you!” Twilight ignited her horn with the full intention of tossing Big Mac aside with her telekinesis. His landing following the tossing would probably give him a few krinkles and maybe some tiny cuts, but she was certain Big Mac was hardy enough to be able to walk off the damage. She got ready to cast the spell, only to gasp in surprise when her horn sputtered and sparked out. So surprised was she in fact, that she completely forgot to stop running and ended up crashing into the large stallion’s broad chest.

Big Mac wrapped his front legs around the confused mare before she had a chance to flee. Twilight struggled to break free of his grasp. “Let me go, Big Mac! I need to go to the Castle of the Two Sisters right now! The fate of the world depends on it!”

“Nope.” Big Mac replied.

Spike soon caught up to the captured mare with Sugar Belle and Apple Bloom following right behind him. “Twilight, please calm down!” Spike pleaded. “Whatever’s got you so riled up, I’m sure it can wait until after you get some more bed rest.”

“No, Spike!” Twilight argued back. “You don’t understand! The Element of Magic came to me in a dream! It said that it had something important to tell me, and I can only speak to it at the Tree of Harmony!” She began to kick her legs back into Big Macintosh’s stomach. “So! Let! Me! Go!” The stallion continued to stand strong, but was unable to hide his pained expressions following each blow he received to the gut.

“Princess, stop!” Sugar Belle shouted. “You’re hurting Big Macintosh!”

Twilight didn’t listen. She only continued to thrash within the stallion’s front legs, her panic addled mind preventing her from regaining any sense of clarity.

“Now what in the sam hay is goin’ on over here?!” Everycreature paused and turned when they heard the Apple Family’s oldest member shout at them.

Granny Smith hobbled over to the group with a clear look of annoyance etched firmly on her face. “Big Macintosh!” she continued to shout. “What do ya think your doin’?” Once reaching the group, she pointed her hoof at the stallion accusatively. “Now Ah know yer Ma, Pa, and Ah didn’t raise you to be treatin’ no mares like that! You put the princess down this instant!”

Big Mac gulped. He really didn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of Granny Smith’s famous punishments, especially not in front of his new wife. He placed Twilight back on the ground as gently as he could manage. “You’re right, Granny. Ah’m sorry.”

“Ah ain’t the one you should be apologizin’ to…” He shot her eyes over towards Twilight to give him a hint.

Big Mac nodded and turned to look at Twilight. “Ah am very sorry, Princess. Please forgive me.”

Now that Twilight wasn’t fighting to break free of Big Macintosh’s grasp anymore, she couldn’t help but feel a tad guilty for her actions a moment ago. Granny Smith soon turned her disappointed gaze towards Twilight. The princess suddenly felt like she had been caught with her hoof in the cookie jar.

“As for you, what do you think you’re doin’?” Twilight physically sunk lower to the ground in response to Granny Smith’s question. “We find you knocked out colder than Berry Punch on cider season, and lug you all the way from the southern orchard to the farmhouse so you can rest… and this is how you repay us? Runnin’ away without so much as a “thank you” and “good bye”.” Granny raised a brow at Twilight, causing a heavy feeling to form in the pit of her stomach.

“Now that’s just bad manners, your majesty. Ah would have expected better from the next ruler of Equestria.”

Twilight hung her head in shame. “I’m sorry, Granny Smith.” She turned towards Spike and the rest of the Apple Family, “I’m sorry, everycreature. It was rude of me to try and leave without at least giving you a full explanation. I'll tell you everything.”

Twilight recounted her story in full, starting from when Tirek and Chrysalis attacked Canterlot Castle up to the dream she had of the Element of Magic. Suffice it to say, everycreature in her audience was stunned.

“Canterlot has been captured again?!” Apple Bloom shouted in disbelief. “What is this, the fourth or fifth time now?”

Sugar Belle huddled up close to Big Macintosh, both of them were using each other for comfort after hearing the story. “To think, we could have been swept in all that madness if we hadn’t been here. We could have been prisoners right now!” Sugar Belle stated in shock. “We really are lucky. Even still, all those poor captured creatures.”

Big Mac nodded in agreement. “E’yup.”

Granny Smith looked the most worried. “And your tellin’ me, Applejack was thrown out the window alongside you and the rest of your friends?”

Twilight solemnly nodded her head. “I believe so. At least, I think I saw Applejack and others fly out with me just before I blacked out.”

Spike noticed how depressed the current conversation was making his friends, so he decided to raise their hopes a little bit with some words of encouragement. “I’m sure Applejack’s alright, Granny Smith. She’s tough, just like the rest of you Apples. No fall from dizzying heights is going to keep her down for long!” The small smiles he noticed appearing on their faces encouraged him to say even more. “Plus, Twilight is going to be venturing out any minute now. I’m sure she’ll find Applejack in no time, and once the Bearers are back together and they’ve gathered all the Elements, Twilight, Applejack, and everypony else is going head up there and kick Tirek and Queen Chrysalis’s sorry tails all the way back to the ground!”

Much like ponies at a pep rally, the Apple Family couldn’t help but feel invigorated by Spike’s rousing speech. Granny Smith turned to Big Mac and pointed towards the gate. “Well then, what are ya waitin’ for, Big Mac? Open up that there gate and let the princess get on her way. She’s got a world to save!”

Apple Bloom and Spike cheered as Big Mac trotted towards the gate. He put his hoof on the latch to unlock it, before slowly moving to push the gate open.

“Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!”

The ponies and dragon suddenly looked to the sky, where they saw a large creature zoom overhead before whipping back to hover over the gate Big Mac had yet to open.

“Ha Ha Ha… So, my instincts were right… you did survive the fall from Canterlot Castle. I should have expected as much after allowing Tirek to deal with you.”

“Queen Chrysalis?!” Spike shouted in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I was just in the neighborhood, so I thought I’d stop by and see how my second most hated pony is feeling.” A wicked smile parted her lips. “I see that you're doing well, so I’m going to have to do something about that.”

Granny Smith cocked a brow at the Changeling Queen. “Now Ah’m plenty old, so my memory ain’t what it used ta be, but could somecreature remind me who this big ugly bug is who’s floatin’ over our gate? Mean Crystal, er somethin’?”

“Ugly…” Chrysalis was taken aback by that comment. “You rude little… I am the beautiful Queen Chrysalis, you old hag! The once great ruler of the Changeling species, before those traitors decided to desert me!” She turned her head to the side and folded her forelegs. “Hmmmph! Mean Crystal indeed.” She shot Granny Smith a venomous glare. “You lucky I don’t have time to teach you a lesson, old mare.”

She turned her gaze back towards Twilight. “Princess Twilight! Hear this! It is useless for you to try and save your fellow princesses. It is also ridiculous and furthermore laughable! As you have seen, Tirek and I are more powerful than even you or the Tree of Harmony can deal with this time. But just in case you were thinking of playing the hero… here’s a gift for you!”

Chrysalis’s horn glowed an eerie green light, causing an object to appear high above the gate within an transparent sphere of magic of the same color. A large stone block soon materialized before dropping straight down and destroying the gate.

Big Mac jumped back before the block could crush him, Sugar Belle quickly rushing to his side. “Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! You’ll never get past this barricade, Twilight. That block is enchanted and is made out of solid changeling stone, so even if you did have your magic, it would do you no good.”

The changeling queen cackled in triumph. “I hope you enjoy your time stuck here on the farm, because the rest of your world is ours now! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

Chrysalis turned and shot off into the sky until she was too far away for the ponies and dragon to see. They all turned their eyes towards the barricade. The first creature to react was Big Macintosh, who huffed in annoyance. Sugar Belle looked up at her husband with deep sympathetic eyes. “I’m sorry this happened to you, Big Mac. Fixing that gate took you all morning too.”

Big Mac grumbled. “Ummmmmm… E’yup.” The large stallion looked about ready to uproot a tree in response to his anger.

Sugar Belle turned to look and silently whispered, “No creature say “gate” to him for a little while… okay?” The others nodded in agreement.

Apple Bloom trotted over towards the changeling stone and gave it an experimental kick. As expected, it was a big hunk of rock so it didn’t move. She looked back towards her family and friends with a look of dismay. “Well what are gonna do now? No creature can get to Ponyville from here with this block in the way.”

Spike scratched his head in confusion, “Can’t we just climb over the fence?” Spike wandered towards the fence next to the block and tried to pull himself over. He soon stopped an invisible barrier however, an effect likely caused by the enchantment Chrysalis mentioned, at the point where he should have been able to vault the top railing of the fence.

Spike rubbed his nose as he walked back over towards Twilight, “We can scratch that idea.” He complained. “You have any solutions in mind, Twilight?”

Spike looked up at Twilight, hoping that once again she’d have the answer to all their problems. Twilight however was drawing a blank. Without her magic, she couldn’t lift the stone. She experimentally flapped her wings to see if they could provide her any lift. She only succeeded in tiring herself out, so her flying was gone as well.

She turned towards the others. “I’m willing to hear your ideas if you all have any more of them, because my usual methods are currently lost to me.”

Twilight explained that her magic and her ability to fly had likely been stolen during her battle with Tirek. The others looked disheartened, but they refused to look defeated. They didn’t want to squash what little confidence Twilight had left in saving the world now that the odds had been stacked so much against her.

Granny Smith scratched her chin as she began to think. Soon an idea hit her and her smile quickly returned. “Here’s an idea!” Granny Smith exclaimed excitedly. “Ah just recently had Big Macintosh build a veranda behind the farmhouse.”

Big Mac sighed. “With my luck today, that’s probably been destroyed too.”

“He’s always leavin’ his tools lyin’ around after big projects like that.”

Big Mac furrowed his brows. “Granny, please stop kickin’ me while Ah’m down.” Sugar Belle nestled up closer to Big Macintosh and gave her special stallion a supportive hug.

“Ah reckon there’s gotta be somethin’ there you can use to smash this rock to pieces.”

Twilight nodded her head. Granny Smith’s idea was a little far fetched, but right now it was the only solution they had at the moment. “Alright. Attacking it with a tool is better than nothing.” Twilight stepped out of Granny Smith’s path, allowing her a straight shot towards the farmhouse. “Please lead the way, Granny Smith.”

She happily did so, but before she got too far, Granny Smith turned back around and called out to her family and Spike. “You four work on seein’ if you can move the block yourselves. There’s no sense in any of us wastin’ time doing nothin’ while the world is at stake.”

Spike and Apple Bloom saluted like little soldiers before rushing over to start pushing the rock out of the way. Big Mac and Sugar Belle both nodded and headed over at a more leisurely pace, more than likely to enjoy each other’s company before they had to start working.

Twilight spent a minute watching the group walk over towards the stone block. She couldn’t help but feel extremely flattered that they would drop everything they were doing prior just to help her. She knew that they were her friends and that the safety of the free world was at stake, but even still, the sentiment was very much present and appreciated.

She turned back around and noticed Granny Smith had already entered the house without her. Realizing she had been distracted, Twilight rushed back towards the farmhouse in order to catch up with the elderly mare.

She quickly trotted through the house after gently opening the front door. She didn’t want to damage the front wall of the farmhouse, or the door for that matter, any further just because she was in a hurry. She opened the back door and stepped out onto the veranda...

...except, there was no veranda.

Twilight found herself standing in midair just above a steep incline that rested right behind the farmhouse. Granny Smith was nowhere in sight, and it quickly became clear to Twilight that the veranda must have been built on stilts.

The princess quickly turned around and tried to run back through the farmhouse’s back door, but with no ground under her hooves, she soon realized she was getting nowhere fast. She fell and bounced off the surface of the incline, and continued to do so all the way down as her body crumpled and compacted into a ball of wadded paper.

What waited for her at the bottom of the incline, she was not sure. But one thing was definitely for certain, this was turning out to be one tartarus of a morning.

Author's Note

So in the last chapter, when I said the new stuff starts now, I was kind of fibbing. This is a new chapter definitely (I wrote it from scratch and everything), but it takes a lot of elements from the previous version of the prologue in the previous version of this story. Hopefully I made this version different enough that it feels newish, just in case any of you remember the pervious version of this chapter from the old story.

I hope you guys enjoy~

Here are the paper mario designs for Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh. Sorry, but I couldn't find any paper versions of Granny Smith or Sugar Belle.

Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom images belong to FinePrint-MLP