A flash of steel…

A terror-filled scream…

A flare of purple…

A resounding crash…

Horror, pain, confusion, sadness…

Guilt…

The eyes…

Celestia burst into Twilight’s room, rushing faster than any normal pony could after hearing her blood-curdling scream. The sight that greeted her was one that she had unfortunately seen before. Twilight lay on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably and hugging both Spike and Flash Sentry so tightly that both were a bit blue in the face. Flash was without his suit, having hurried to Twilight the second he heard her scream.

The room looked like a tornado had torn through it, with all the furniture toppled and broken and the sheets and walls scorched by magic. Celestia took in the damage with a saddened sigh, knowing just how bad this dream must have been.

“The eyes, the eyes, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I-I-I didn’t m-m-mean t-to,” Twilight muttered over and over, squeezing her eyes shut as she clutched her friends. Approaching quickly, Celestia used a quick telekinetic spell to free Flash and Spike, pulled Twilight to her chest, and wrapped her wings around the sobbing mare. Twilight latched on to the alicorn and kept crying even as Celestia slowly rocked her and whispered soft words of encouragement.

Soon Luna, Cadence, Shining Armor, and Golden Heart arrived. Luna immediately approached Twilight and her sister while Golden Heart let her magic fill the room, fixing the damage and replacing the furniture. Cadence and Shining Armor stood back despite wishing to immediately comfort the sobbing mare, knowing better than to interfere with what Luna was about to do. This was not the first time this had occurred.

Slowly, Luna lowered her horn to Twilight’s head, causing the mare to immediately fall to sleep. A few seconds later she was thrashing and whimpering again, so Luna took a minute to create a peaceful meadow dream, softly placed Twilight’s consciousness inside, and sealed it off to prevent more nightmares.

As the purple mare stilled and Luna backed off, Cadence and Shining Armor quickly approached. Spike and Flash, now free from the soreness and bruises from Twilight’s crushing hug thanks to Golden Heart, hurried to help move Twilight back to bed.

After returning her to bed, Spike climbed up onto the mattress and laid down next to Twilight, providing what little comfort he could. Flash slipped to his room and returned with a sleeping mat that he dropped at the foot of the mare’s bed. He had learned long ago that after a night terror, Twilight woke pained and exhausted and would likely need help getting up.

Shining and Cadence grabbed sleeping mats as well. After what happened a few months into Twilight’s stay at House Shining Star, they hadn’t left Twilight’s side, helping her recover her strength and peace of mind. To help Twilight, the group as a whole would normally refrain from talking about the nightmares unless absolutely necessary. They hadn’t been with her during a night terror in four years, but hoped that they could give her the same help now.

After the four ponies and dragon were situated, Celestia, Luna and Golden Heart quietly left the room, stepping awkwardly over the cramped sleeping mats. Once outside, they informed their head Butlers to post extra guards to watch over the sleeping ponies before returning to Celestia’s room together. Twilight and the others weren’t in danger, but with so many important ponies in the room, it never hurt to be careful.

“Sister, I have some concerns,” Luna said once the room had been sealed with a sound proof spell.

“As do I,” Golden Heart said. “You have told me of these night terrors Twilight suffers from, but I don’t recall you ever mentioning that the damage she wrought was this bad.”

“This was the worse one we have seen in years,” Celestia said. “And yes, Luna, I know Twilight is still getting stronger and could cause more damage the next time she has a night terror. ”

“Then I believe it best that she stays behind,” Luna said. “The rest of the alicorns are still edgy around her after her magic flare in Canterlot, and I fear that they may try and do something drastic if she loses control again. Not to mention that we still don’t even know why we are being called to Canterlot in the first place.”

“I believe Luna is correct,” Golden Heart said. “It would be much better for Twilight to remain behind. She will most certainly be out of sorts tomorrow morning, so I don’t think putting more stress on her will do her any good.”

“She’s coming,” Celestia said resolutely. “I will have Moondancer come to Canterlot as well to take over the work Twilight would normally be responsible for on the journey, but she will still be coming.”

“Why?” Luna asked in annoyance. “Ever since we received the summons, you’ve insisted on bringing her. What possible purpose could it serve?”

“The Seekers found something related to the Element of Magic,” Celestia said, causing the other alicorns’ eyes to go wide. “A spy of ours could confirm that much, but was unable to find out what. Ever since then, I can’t escape the feeling that it’s important.” She turned to face her sister and Golden Heart. “As you both know, I have inherited a small bit of my mother’s ability to see into the future, though only in my dreams. For the last month, I have been having the same dream, a dream where Twilight comes with us to Canterlot and… something happens. I don’t know what, but I know it’s important. I need both of you to help me keep things under control. Twilight needs to come to Canterlot. I just know it.”

“Are you sure it is even the same day?” Luna asked. “How do you know it isn’t referring to a future date or meeting?”

“I know it’s the same day,” Celestia said. “I’m just lucky the vision included a brief glimpse of the calendar in my room.”

“And you didn’t mention it earlier because…?” Golden Heart asked, raising her eyebrow.

“Because unlike my other visions, this dream is continually shifting. No two outcomes I dream are the same. In truth, for so long I couldn’t tell if they were really visions or not. It was only tonight that I was able to confirm it.”

“You mean…” Luna whispered, awed, and Celestia nodded.

“Yes. I saw Mother. And we all know that since her death seeing her is nearly a guarantee that what I will see will be important, some way, somehow. I don’t know why, but if Mother came to show me Twilight going to Canterlot, then that’s where she needs to go, even if I don’t know exactly why.”

“Could you see what the meeting is about in your dream?” Golden Heart asked.

“No,” Celestia said. “The only thing I could see was Twilight, and in some of the dreams, she was in pain for reasons I do not know. I can only hope that will not be true.”

The next morning…

The next morning was rather uneventful. Twilight was one of the first ones awake, but instead of getting up and dressed, she curled in her bed, cuddling Spike. No matter how strong and pleasant Luna’s magic dreams were, they could not erase the memory of the nightmare from her mind. Reaching up, she slowly rubbed the small scar on her neck before shivering. You couldn’t see the scar through her fur, but she could still feel it. Spike woke next, gave her a puppy-dog-eyes look, and returned the hug. Twilight managed to smile. She was still sore from the magical expenditure, a bit confused, and above all sad, but having her assistant so close helped immensely.

Once the others began to wake, they quickly moved to distract her and prevent her from traveling down the trail of memories of the night terror event. She eventually relinquished her hold on the dragon and began to prepare for the day with help from Shining and Cadence. No one spoke too much, but Twilight was just glad for their presence. Everyone provided what emotional support they could, which was all that Twilight could ask for.

Though a few funny stories from Cadence did help keep her mind off it too.

After a good breakfast, the group left Twilight’s room and met up with Celestia, Luna, Golden Heart, Moondancer, and the Butlers that would be accompanying them to Canterlot. Their method of travel, flying chariots pulled by pegasi Butlers, were all ready right outside the mansion. Celestia, Luna, Golden Heart, and a handful of non-pegasus Butlers took the larger chariot while Twilight, Spike, Shining, Cadence, and some more Butlers took the smaller one. Normally, Cadence and Shining Armor would have ridden with Golden Heart, but it was unanimously and silently agreed that they would join Twilight today. Shining pulled his sister into a hug as the doors closed, and Flash shot a smile at her as he fastened his harness to their chariot.

The journey was not too long, and soon Twilight could see the elegant city of Canterlot coming into view. Despite what happened twelve years ago, Canterlot still gave her a sense of wonder to see the majestic waterfalls and white marble buildings as the chariots flew into the city limits. She had returned to the city a few times to assist Celestia and Luna, and despite the bad memories she had come to like the city, so long as she avoided the central square. As they passed into the city’s territory, the pegasus guards rose out of the city to greet them and direct them to the landing field near Canterlot Castle. In the meantime, Twilight gazed out the window at the city passing below them.

As they passed over the central square, Twilight couldn’t help but shudder slightly. The memories from that day were still as vivid as though it had been yesterday. Some alicorns didn’t believe her, but she remembered everything that happened before Celestia had lulled her to sleep. The fear, the pain, the rage, the rush of power as all her magic was released at once...

She shuddered again. The release of power was what had scared her the most that day. The flare weeks later had only cemented her association of her magic flares with chaos. Hatching Spike did nothing to help. She couldn’t help fearing losing control.

As they landed, Twilight could see Lady Thorn landing as well a fair distance away. She was one of the few alicorns who still shot venomous looks at Twilight after her original magic flare. She had a feeling that most alicorns simply didn’t like a unicorn being so close to such powerful beings like Celestia and Luna, but Twilight knew Thorn was angry about that and her magic flare. But before she could shrink away, Twilight felt the hoof of her big brother on her back, and turned to see him giving Thorn an equally vicious glare. Thorn scoffed, before turning away and making her way to the castle, pushing aside anypony that got in her way.

After unloading the chariots, the group made their way to the castle’s main audience chamber while some of the Butlers went to go unpack the Lady’s belongings as well as their own. The Butlers had separate rooms in the castle that were close to those of their Ladies in case of an emergency. The chamber was divided into small sections for the Houses, decorated with the House’s colors. Each seating block had about thirty seats for the members of the House and their households, and were separated by chest-high walls that did not restrict the view of the central floor down below. As Lady Golden Heart’s House Crystal Heart was not near House Shining Star, Golden Heart, Shining Armor, and Cadence had to say a quick farewell before moving to their own block.

As House Shining Star sat down, Twilight took a look around. She could see all the different Houses arriving and slowly filling the auditorium. Most of the alicorns were simply chatting with one another or directing their ponies to unload their belongings. A few were whispering and throwing glances at Twilight, but she tried not to focus on that.

As the room continued to fill however, Twilight began to feel a slight pressure in her horn. It wasn’t very painful, but it wasn’t ignorable either. Being as strong as she was, it wasn’t too uncommon for her to get headaches after expending a large amount of her magic. Given her recent nightmare, Twilight figured it wasn’t important. It didn’t stop if from hurting, though.

“Twilight? You ok?” Spike asked as she rubbed her horn a bit.

“Yeah, I’m ok, Spike. Just a little headache,” she replied, wincing slightly as a small spike of pain entered her horn. Thankfully, the Queen chose this moment to enter the room, providing an ample distraction for the unicorn mare. Immediately, the chatter in the room died down and all eyes shifted to the Queen as she entered her royal box, larger, lavisher, and more centered than the rest. As she walked, the guard captain Sunset Shimmer followed quickly behind her with a few guards of all species.

“Alicorns of Equestria,” the Queen began, her voice loud and strong. “I have called you here on a manner of great importance. Recently, thanks to an upgrade on the Miasma resistance spell…” her eyes drifted over to Twilight, but for no more than a second, “we have made a significant discovery.”

The alicorns around the room began to murmur until the Queen raised her hoof for silence. “First and foremost, we believe we have finally managed to locate the center of the miasma, and the final resting place of the cloud.” This news sparked even more excited murmuring from the crowd. If the center of the Miasma had been found, then there was a chance that they might have also found the remains of Tree of Harmony as well, since that had been inside the Miasma somewhere.

As the queen raised her hoof again, Twilight winced again. Her headache was getting stronger. But at the same time, she felt her magic beginning to stir. She swallowed, trying to relax. Normally her headaches were because she had used too much magic, not because she had too much. She didn’t know what was happening, and didn’t want to find out here in front of the Queen and all the alicorns.

“Twilight?” Moondancer whispered, looking worriedly at the unicorn. Twilight tried to respond, only to grit her teeth and clench her eyes shut as another wave of pain washed over her horn. She didn’t hear what the Queen had just said, but when she opened her eyes she could see four earth ponies pulling a cart onto the center of the auditorium. Whatever was on it was covered in a black cloth. Just looking at the cart caused her horn to hurt even more.

“My ladies, I think something is wrong,” Moondancer whispered, catching the attention of Celestia and Luna’s attention. However, before they could move, the Queens voice rang out one final time.

“Alicorns, Defenders of Equestria, may I present to you, the worlds most powerful artifact, that which has been lost to us for thousands of years! THE ELEMENT OF MAGIC!”

The Queen pulled off the black cover with a flourish to reveal a gem stone in the shape of what would have been a six-pointed star if two of the points were not broken and missing their ends. The gem was littered with cracks and pulsed weakly as it sat on the pedestal inside a glass anti-magic chamber designed to protect it from outside influences such as the cloud. The pain in Twilight’s horn grew and grew, until everything but the gem was blurring before her eyes. She recognized it.

“My cutie mark,” she muttered, and then her horn exploded.

Twilight screamed as magic poured out of her. Celestia and Luna had barely enough time to grab every pony (and dragon) in their box (roughly 12 ponies and a dragon in total) and pull them out of danger before their section was obliterated. Nearby alicorns screamed and fled as the walls of their blocks cracked and crumbled. Those further away tried to leap into action, but the pure magnitude of power emitting from Twilight’s horn was actually interfering with their own magic.

Twilight felt like someone was driving a red-hot spike into her horn. The pain was immeasurable, and she could only scream and pray for the pain to end.

Suddenly, the Element of Magic flashed, catching the attention of the Queen and more than a few alicorns. Slowly, its pink light began to grow brighter and brighter. The anti-magic symbols on the case began to glow, but the Element of Magic’s light just continued to grow.

Crack, Crack, Crack.

“GET BACK!” the Queen yelled as she saw the case containing the element begin to fracture. The ponies that had brought the element in quickly scattered, just in time for the case to shatter in a brilliant pink explosion. A single beam lanced out from the puffs of dust and connected with Twilights horn. Her screams stopped and she fell limp, panting. Her magic was still out of her control, but it was now being forced down the pink beam.

From the cloud of dust, the Element of Magic emerged, the pink beam leading directly into its center. As Twilight’s magic continued to feed into the gem, the cracks on the gem began to heal. The alicorns gasped. The broken points began to regrow, and soon six more lines of energy were shooting out of the tips of the gem. Instead of focusing on her horn, these energy bands gently wrapped around Twilight’s limp body and drew her to the Element of Magic. The lights became blinding.

The pain was still burning through Twilight, the worst pain she’d ever felt in her life. And then, it was suddenly gone. She felt…well, wonderful. It was like all the burdens in her life had just been erased. She felt like she was floating of a soft cloud, gently drifting in a place as warm as the library. A part of her mind told her she was dead, but there was something that just didn’t feel right about that.

“My dear sweet child…”

What…?

Twilight could swear she did not know that voice, but something inside of her told her she had heard it from…somewhere…where…?

“I have been waiting so many years to meet you Twilight. And now, you are here, ready to fulfill your destiny…”

Her destiny?

“Who…” Twilight tried to ask, only she coughed before she could finish.

“Shhh… Don’t speak. You have been through so much on my behalf already. I am sorry that it was so painful, and I am sorry that even more pain will need to come before your journey is complete, but I know you will prevail. It’s why I chose you. You are far stronger than you know, and soon you shall bring hope to those who have never known it. Now go, and remember, I will always be with you, no matter what…”

With that, the light suddenly cut off, and everypony in the auditorium gasped in pure shock. As Twilight was gently lowered to the floor as though by an invisible force, they all could see the dark purple torc that now clung to her neck. The Element of Magic pulsed brightly inside the central gem slot.

But what shocked them even more was the pair of large purple wings that now adorned Twilight’s back.

Author's Note

Big prolog to hook the readers? Check. A normal chapter to calm down? Check. New conflict to completely throw the story in a new direction? Double check

I actually had a lot of trouble with this chapter. I won't say why though, as it involves spoilers. And spoilers are evil

Anyway, expect a new chapter tomorrow and again, please let me know what you think