Twilight's Dawn: Future Imperfect

Chapters

Chapter 1: Recollection and Looking Glasses
Chapter 2: The Day Before
Beyond the Mirror

Chapter 1: Recollection and Looking Glasses

The darkness was almost suffocating in its entirety. Aside from the splotches of red that dotted her field of vision, the darkness was everything and all consuming. In a sense it was almost comforting. She had made so many mistakes, so many things had fallen apart, and she couldn’t have brought them back. After that, the darkness and peace felt almost comforting. Most of her regrets fell slowly by the wayside as the darkness closed in tighter until the sole blip of colour was the one spot of red right in front of her.

“Every piece of magic has a price,” The voice boomed all around her. At that volume it was hard to tell any specific characteristics of the voice, it simply just seemed to be. For a second it seemed blatantly obvious this was the voice of her final guide. She’d always wondered what came after death. The scientist in her had refused to believe anything could come after, but here she was listening to a voice at the end of her life.

“The more drastic the spell, the more dangerous the consequences. Do you understand that now, Twilight Sparkle?”

The voice was getting softer now, little bits of inflection could be made out. Was it actually trying to comfort her? She was certain that, for all she had done, she deserved the harshest punishment of all the after life could offer her. Still, the voice was awaiting an answer and she did her best to give it that, “Yes. I did a horrible thing. I used magic selfishly and ruined many lives. I understand that now.”

“Good,” The voice had died down considerably now. It hit a level where many things were painfully obvious. It was a mare’s voice, softer with a touch of tenderness that bordered on some of the nicer teachers she had ever had. It failed to seem angry or hating, instead it sounded confident beyond possibility. Was this really her final judge, “You are starting to understand. You used magic foolishly and attempted to toy with the basic forces of the world. Such a thing should not be done without great experience, but the lesson will be of great use to you.”

“Use?” The confusion hit her like a ton of bricks. Nothing about this voice made sense. It refused to be judgmental and settled just a notch above condescending, “What possible use could it be? I’m dead, aren’t I? All the others are dead too.”

“Silly Twilight Sparkle. This was just your first lesson.”

“Now, it’s time to wake up Twilight.” The voice slowly morphed into the higher pitch associated with younger age. The inflection changed from condescension to annoyance, and it repeated itself several times as the darkness faded from Twilight’s vision.

*********

“Come on Twilight, it’s time to get up.” The words of her little dragon assistant finally broke through the reverie of the dream world. Parts of her memory instantly becoming foggy through the early morning light. There was still the faint feeling, like she hadn’t heard her little friend’s voice in weeks, but she couldn’t entirely remember why.

“I’m up Spike.”

Seconds passed as she blinked the remaining darkness away and her own bed came back into full view. At the same time countless events from her dream world slowly faded into the background. She tried to keep parts of them; the blood remained along with the general feeling of failing somehow, but the exact events of her dream world were starting to blur together. To be honest with herself, Twilight had never had such a disturbing dream, and part of her desperately wanted to figure out exactly what had transpired to cause it. Though, it was one of those events that, the longer you try to grasp it, the more it falls through your hooves. All that can ever be left is that vague feeling.

It was a few more seconds before another knocking fit from her precious dragon assistant distracted her enough for the remainder to slip through her hooves. In a perfectly analytical fashion Twilight finally realized how distorted her vision was. She let her eyes close in several ceremoniously long blinks as tears streamed down her eyes. Honestly, she couldn’t imagine the reason for the tears, but they felt proper somehow. They were quickly chalked up to the dream she could no longer remember and she left it at that as the sombre climb out of bed dried the remainder of her tears.

“Geez, I thought you were going to spend the entire day in bed,” Spike, as wonderful as he was, could be quite a handful when he was hungry, or worried, or tired, or in any kind of emotional state. This time, Twilight was thankful to be reminded she always had a friend she could count on, “That’s totally not like you...Wait, you look horrible. Have you been crying?”

“No. Well, yes. But, it’s not...” Before Twilight could let an explanation loose, the dragon’s fertile young imagination took more than enough root in the concept.

“Did you, did you tell Rainbow Dash about, you know?” Curse Spike for jumping right there. Of course he was going to jump right there, it was where any sane pony, or dragon as it might be, would jump. That didn’t make it any less easy, though, “She turned you down. No, she probably laughed in your face and you spent the entire night crying into your pillow. Well, forget her. You said it once, I can be the new Rainbow Dash, you don’t have to deal with her...”

He never did get to finish that sentence, but was rewarded with both a menacing scowl, and a compassionate hug. Twilight wanted to be angry at him for bringing up that sore topic, but how could she stay angry at the young dragon who cared that much about her, “No Spike, it’s not that. I just had a rather bad dream. I hadn’t actually realized it hit me that hard. Do I really look that bad?”

Backing away from the hug Twilight was met with a concerned nod from her precious assistant. Perhaps the dream had hit her harder than she, herself, was even aware. But, there was little point in obsessing over something she couldn’t even properly remember. Instead, she simply smiled and walked back inside her room towards the mirror.

Celestia, Spike was right about how bad she looked. Her eyes were bloodshot, like she had been crying for hours, her mane was a frizzy mess befitting of Pinkie, and there were darkened streaks of fur under her eyes from where the tears had streamed down her muzzle. All in all, it was a pretty horrible sight first thing in the morning, but nothing Twilight couldn’t fix.

She let her concentration engulf her mind, the uneasiness from the dream slowly faded until Spike wasn’t even in the room any more. With the distractions gone, Twilight was able to feel the magic flowing more freely and easily. It was a trick Celestia had taught her to control spells as a filly and she had never broken the tradition even to this day, despite the fact that she was easily skilled enough to handle such simple spells without it.

The lavender glow quickly engulfed her horn as the flow of magic was manipulated within her. The tingling sensation was first, her mane easily straightening itself with no care as to how stuck in place a bed mane like that should have been and then slowly being massaged into the fuller look she decidedly wanted. Twilight had never been one for the finer magic of manedressing, but when it came to magical power and finesse there were few unicorns who could hold a candle to her. Second came the eyes, this one was more delicate and most wouldn’t bother doing it this way, opting for a cheap illusion to last till the look faded. For Twilight, though, who refused to do anything half way, it was a matter of pride to actually remove the redness all together.

Slowly, as the flow and form of magic shifted, the blood was slowly coaxed from the membranes of her eyes back into their proper home and the vessels themselves mended with tremendous care. Had this effort been even the slightest bit off, of course, it was entirely possible that Twilight would have rendered herself unable to see ever again. A testament to the studious unicorn’s concentration, if nothing else.

Having cleared up the more delicate bits of her appearance, only one task remained. Drying out the darkened streaks of her fur. In truth, this would right itself rather quickly as the day wore on, but Twilight was hardly in the mood to face the possible questions should anypony notice the obvious tear streaks. She was barely in the mood to deal with her own questions regarding them. What exactly had transpired in the fog of her dream world that had made her appearance seem so...fitting was the only word that seemed, well fitting.

She was partially through the last darkened area of her fur, exposing it to a bit of magic induced heat to evaporate the moisture, when a loud knock finally cut through her slightly waning concentration and ignited her little heat spell into a full on fire singing a small area of her side. Okay, maybe contemplating the finer aspects of the dream plane had weakened her mental barrier to paper thin levels, but that knock was still herculean to have caused such a loud noise.

“Don’t worry, I got it Twilight,” Spike, bless his little heart. Twilight had certainly missed him. Wait, how could she have possibly missed him when she had tucked him into bed just last night? The feeling quickly added to the growing sense of discontent this morning was giving her. Twilight was earnestly beginning to contemplate crawling back into bed and sleeping till tomorrow. It seemed like today was in no mood to play fair with her, anyway.

“Hey, Twilight, it’s a package for you. She says she can’t hand it over without a signature, though,” Nope, today was certainly not going to play fair. The curiosity over the early morning...correction, early afternoon, package dwarfed her mounting uneasiness and general plethora of out of sort feelings, if only for a few fleeting moments. Those moments, though, were just enough to allow her to feel awkward in front of a very, very familiar beige pegasus standing in the doorway with the package.

Okay, Twilight was very sure they had never actually met before, but there was something about her visage that was two steps beyond familiar and just shy of an acquaintance. A brief image of a hoofstand and bright crimson mane flying around danced into Twilight’s mind momentarily before she could banish it away with the equally disconcerting thought that she had been staring for going on twenty seconds.

Focus, Twilight. It was another couple seconds and, to the new mare’s credit, the held out clipboard before she was actually able to spark up conversation, “Are you new to the postal service? I can’t say I’ve ever actually seen anypony but Derpy delivering the mail before.”

Confident in the signature Twilight presented the strange mare happily presented her with the small brown package she had, no more than two hooves across and less than half deep, “This is actually my first day on the job, Ms. Sparkle. I just moved to Ponyville yesterday. My name is Scarlet Blast.”

“Scar...” Twilight muttered, almost in a daze, repeating words she didn’t even understand or care to explain.

“Funny, most of my friends like to call me that. Maybe it’s a sign. I hope we can be great friends Ms. Sparkle.”

The pegasus waved and took off before Twilight could regain enough facilities to chide her over the use of her name. Honestly, she hated being called Ms. Sparkle, almost as much as she hated the public image that she was some sort of perfect pony that could solve any problem. Right now, she couldn’t even solve the weird feeling in the back of her mind, let alone anypony’s problem.

Still, the contents of the mysterious package offered at least a small respite from those worries. So much so that even her preciously little assistant was practically salivating over it, “What do you think is in it Twilight? Could it be gems?”

“Probably not Spike,” He noticeably deflated when the possibility of gems was taken away, but a moderate degree of curiosity still remained for both parties. The package itself was nothing special, generic brown wrapping paper covered every nook and cranny marred only by the writing of Twilight’s name and address. Perhaps a book or piece of equipment she had ordered? Wait, something was very off about the package. At first glance, missing it was easy, but on the second inspection it was quite obvious. There was no return address, nor was there any form of postage. There was honestly no hint or clue as to how this package had made its journey or where it had come from. Curiosity mounted alongside a trepidatious worry.

The worry was enough for Twilight to levitate the package several feet in the air as she removed the brown paper. As the paper was hastily discarded it revealed...a plain white box. Because removing the wrapping paper was going to reveal something magnificent. Twilight mentally chastised herself for not realizing the possibility of the box and jumping to conclusions. The thought was still there, that the box could still contain something dangerous inside it. Curse top lidded boxes, though, as holding it that high in the air meant she would simply be staring at the bottom of the box should she open it like that.

A short round of mental chiding later, mostly over a completely unfounded worry, she was letting Spike open the box on their large work table. Really, she still wanted to be careful, but his begging had been so cute. He still honestly held out hope the box was full of delicious gems that Rarity had secretly chosen for him. The obvious flaw in his argument, that the box was actually addressed to Twilight, would never be brought up. Of course, there were no gems inside the box.

There were actually two lone occupants to the average package. One, a letter to be dealt with later, and the second, a rather ornate mirror. The mirror itself was not very large, maybe a hoof and a quarter in diameter, but it was surrounded with beautiful metal work that seemed almost like a living night sky. It was a gorgeous mirror, but still just a mirror. After a few minutes of admiring the intricate detailing it was set aside in favour of looking at the letter that had accompanied it.

The letter too had an envelope to encase it. On the envelope a few words were elegantly scrawled out:

For a strong lesson, some perspective is needed.

~LtW

That was it, that was all Twilight needed. Whatever little worries had been piling up in Twilight’s mind were now screaming at her in full force. You do not open this letter! No matter what, you do not! This is one mystery you don’t need to solve.

For once in her life, Twilight was inclined to agree with the voices, too. She was far too out of sorts this morning to try and understand any of this. Maybe later, but certainly not now, “I think I need to go for a walk, Spike. Clean up the library for me and then you can have the rest of the day off to visit Rarity if you want.”

“Please tell me you are not going to see her. You don’t need...”

Sploink! Twilight was entirely aware that the door shouldn’t have made that kind of a sound as she telekinetically slammed it closed, but she hardly cared enough to check if she had actually closed it in the dragon’s face. She really didn’t need him worrying about something that was further from the truth. Okay, it was really more like diagonal and slightly down from the truth.

A/N:Honestly, I was a bit apprehensive to build a continuation for Wish Upon a Card. First and foremost, that story remains a one shot. Without anything of what I'm writing now, I still remain happy with how it turned out. I'm doing this because I wanted to delve more into the why's. Answering all the questions that might have built up during the first story is one of the best goals I can think of. Aside from that, I wanted to write something with a bit more over arch. I hope you enjoy this one, even if it does end up a bit of a departure from the last one.

Chapter 2: The Day Before

Paranoia. Suspicion and mistrust of people or their actions without evidence or justification. Paranoid. Adjective. Of, characterized by, or suffering from the mental condition of paranoia.

No, I am not paranoid.

For all intents and purposes it was just another day in Ponyville. Nothing was actually different than it had been yesterday. Then, why did it feel like the sky was just waiting to crumble right on top of Twilight’s head? Okay, maybe that might have been a little bit of an understatement, but everything still felt, well, off somehow. This wasn’t the cotton candy clouds kind of off that was easy to figure out. Instead, it was the kind of off that you see in the corner of your eye and then disappears as you try to focus on it. Like everypony was wearing a funny hat and took it off the second Twilight tried to look directly at them. Except Applejack, she was always wearing a hat.

“Everything all right Twi? Ya look like Pinkie just popped out of your tea cup,” No, everything is not all right. Actually, Pinkie had done that particular trick on enough occasions for it to no longer affect the lavender mare, but that wasn’t the point. What was the point, again? Oh yes, hats.

“It’s just. Actually, I don’t really know Applejack,” No, not hats. Twilight mentally kicked herself for getting off track again, “First there was that weird dream last night, then the weird package this morning, now everything just feels wrong.”

“Whoa nelly. Ya want ta take that one step at a time sugar cube?”

“Well, no, not really.” Twilight grinned sheepishly, two things she never did one right after the other. She never turned down the opportunity to explain something, and she certainly never seemed embarrassed. But, what was she supposed to say, ‘I don’t remember anything about it, but it’s got me terrified’?

“Okay then, Ah’ll just ask the questions,” Of course Applejack wasn’t going to be that easy, “What weird dream?”

Twilight didn’t really want to answer that question. She even contemplated complete silence until her friend dropped it. But, this was her friend asking her. A friend whose eyes only spoke of the compassion of wanting to help these problems, “I don’t really remember much about it. I just remember the feeling that it was something horrible and like I had failed somehow.”

“Well, that’s ah tall order sugar cube, but it was still just ah dream,” Twilight hadn’t asked for it, but she definitely needed what came next. Her stalwart friend wrapped those orange hooves around her and comforted her, “Ah know you would never fail us sugar cube. Ya would do everything ya could, and that’s all we could ever ask.”

Twilight wanted to say something. She wanted desperately to thank Applejack for the reassurance, but nothing would come out. The only sounds that dared escape were a contented sigh and a few tears threatening to once again mat her fur. Somehow those words only served to drive home the silliness of her fear.

“So, what about yer weird package?”

“It’s, it’s nothing,” The unicorn flustered herself through the excuse. What else was she going to say? Not that her stalwart friend was going to accept that kind of an excuse.

“Twi, ya’ll lie almost as well as ah do,” Her stetson clad friend let out a loud chuckle, momentarily lifting her spirits. That was, before she crushed them again, “Now, does this have somethin ta do with Rainbow?”

“No!” The exasperated unicorn practically exploded from the rage, ponies for a block in all directions staring at the scene, “Why does everypony always assume it has something to do with Rainbow Dash?”

The stares were bad enough, but a crowd was slowly starting to gather now. Whispers such as, “I bet it’s a lovers spat,” and, “No, didn’t you hear? Rainbow isn’t like that,” were starting to dominate the silence in the square. As if Twilight didn’t feel bad enough, she really didn’t want to think about Rainbow right now. Not, not after that dream.

Applejack tried her best to redirect the conversation sheepishly, “Well, shoot Twilight. Ah just figured, with how you get around Rainbow and all. It tain't nothin to be ashamed of.”

“No, I’m sorry Applejack,” It was true, over the past few weeks Twilight had gone from normal to near blushing just at the mention of the name. No matter how she had tried to hide it, many of her friends had become more or less aware of her infatuation with a certain cyan pony. Just, now everything was different, “It’s just, I realize now it was just a silly idea I had. It’s not like it will ever be returned. I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

Twilight started her way out leaving Applejack amidst even more whispers like, “That Rainbow, she must have really let her down hard,”, “Nah, Twilight isn’t like that. I bet it was just a phase,” and, “Is this the line for ice cream?” Not many, if any, of the ponies she walked past noticed the few uncontained tears that had managed to slip past the unicorn’s anger. Couldn’t she get past one conversation without being reminded of her mounting number of personal problems?

“Shoot. Consarn it Rainbow Dash,”

******

An hour, seven brownies, and four more near explosions later, Twilight found herself in Carousel Boutique. In all fairness, she wasn’t entirely sure how she had gotten there. She remembered having a conversation about how muffins were actually from outer space; Pinkie Pie being the instigator of course, where she came to the conclusion that muffins would not, even if they were sentient, ever care about the state of her relationships. She also remembered thinking about sending a letter to Princess Celestia requesting Pinkie be banished, not a serious banish just something to let her have some better sleep for a few weeks.

Still, the fact remained, she was now laying on Rarity’s couch, with that familiar white monster of a cat attempting to make her into a pincushion. It was nice, Twilight had been here almost half an hour already and Rarity had spent the entire time designing her newest creation, some strange suit made of pegasus feathers. Rainbow Dash had not made an appearance in their conversation at all and neither had intelligent muffins for that matter.

“Opal,” Rarity scolded, picking up the cat in her deep violet glow, “We don’t scratch Twilight. I’m so sorry Twilight, Opal can have such bad manners sometimes.”

“Oh, it’s alright Rarity, really,” Twilight hadn’t noticed until Rarity had brought it up, but Opalescence had actually scratched her pretty decently. Several large crimson lines now dotted her normally perfect lavender fur. They still didn’t hurt, she was too preoccupied, “Opal wasn’t bothering me.”

“Nonsense. Look at all these horrible wounds. I can’t possibly let you go out like this,” The unicorn was in the process of making her way over, Opal already scooped up in the dark blue magic and ushered off to the other side of the room.

“Honestly, you just don’t seem like yourself today Twilight,” Before Rarity could finish her trek to the studious purple mare something else seemed to catch her eye, “Don’t tell me...”

“NO,” Twilight began to scream, bolting up from the couch before Rarity could even properly react. Four, four times today her peace had been destroyed by a pony who assumed they knew just what was bothering her. This time she was going to cut all this nonsense off at the source, “Rainbow Dash did not do something stupid, I most certainly didn’t propose to her out of the blue, and the space muffins did not threaten to blow up Ponyville if Rainbow didn’t leave! I am just having a bad day, okay?”

“...Fluttershy forgot her hat here when she left,” The boutique went deadly silent except for the nervous chuckling from the two ponies. Neither could effectively broker this silence, especially after Twilight had all but stomped on Rarity trying to avoid the questions.

“I’m, I’m so sorry Rarity,” Twilight backed off of her friend, the elegant fashionista doing her best to look like the outbreak had been an everyday occurrence. It hadn’t been, they both knew that, but appearances needed to be maintained, “It’s just been a really...”

“Bad day,” Rarity questioned the poor unicorn. From their previous positions it was amazing how fast she bounced back and how much she really did care about her friends, “Sweetie, that much has been clear since you came here. Rainbow Dash caused or not, if you want to tell me about it you will. Until then, it’s none of my business.”

The two sat in a blissful silence as Rarity began to tend to a few of the cat scratches. They weren’t bad and Rarity was far from a doctor, but she was a miracle with makeup. By the time she was done, the elegant unicorn had completely covered any of the damage done by the pernicious feline. Twilight looked like Twilight again. Well, a worried and deeply troubled Twilight.

“Are you sure you’re going to be all right dear,” Rarity embraced her friend as Twilight readied herself to leave the boutique. Would she be all right?

“I don’t really know Rarity,” Honesty felt good, Twilight could see how Applejack was hooked on that type of thing. But, she couldn’t be completely honest here yet. Just, she really didn’t know if she was going to be all right, “But, I think I need a good night’s sleep before I even think about talking about it.”

“Well, everything will look better in the morning, Twilight. I’m sure it will.”

********

Twilight had originally intended to go to be as soon as she got home. After her day she was more than tired enough to head directly to those wonderful sheets. Unfortunately, that mirror had caught her attention, sitting on the table all innocently, first. So, curiosity piqued, she had sat at that little work table and inspected the mirror for the better part of three hours. Half an hour had been allotted to when Spike had brought in dinner, but no larger breaks had been taken since.

In all fairness, this entire inspection had just been so the poor unicorn could gather the courage to do the one thing that scared her. She was desperately trying to work up the courage to open that little letter. Only hours before the greeting on that letter had instilled such fear that Twilight had completely thrown off her duties for the day. Now, now she couldn’t even go to sleep without opening this terrifying container.

She gulped, louder than she would have liked, and finally tore into the letter. Seconds later the single sheet of parchment extracted itself with practiced ease and floated up only to be grabbed by the eager claws of the world’s best assistant. Spike, bless his soul, was right there to eternally help her with something like this. Even if he should have been in bed an hour ago.

“Twilight Sparkle,

The most important lesson when dealing with magic is that all magic comes with a price. You already knew this, but what you must learn is to weigh the price of magic with the price of not using it. It would be all too easy for you right now for you to give up magic altogether, but I can’t allow you that luxury right now.”

“Twilight, what does that mean,” Twilight had been absorbed between the letter and the mirror ever since Spike started speaking. The unicorn gave no indication of responding to the question of her dear assistant aside from a half hearted shrug.

“Whatever, continuing on...

To understand what I mean you need to experience the price of not using magic. Up until now you have not had to understand that price, now you must gain the perspective of real magic. Perhaps,”

Twilight had become completely entranced by the mirror now. The scrolling of the letter seemed to dance across the reflective surface until Twilight found herself staring a pony that was no longer entirely herself. The mare that stared back looked distraught and demoralized a completely defeated mare.

“In time you will become something more. Or, be broken by this lesson.”

Time no longer seemed to flow normally. Twilight could no longer remember even moving from the table, but the next thing she could remember, she was asleep.

A/N: This chapter undoubtedly feels slow to anypony who reads it. Honestly, it is slow, but I felt it important to allow a bit of everyday life in. Everything is going to start changing rapidly and I like this chapter to allow a contrast of what is going to happen. Don't worry the plot picks up considerably from here on out.

Just as a final aside, I am still looking for a wonderful editor. I like to think I don't need much work, but I still want this to be as good as possible. Hopefully somepony feels like helping me out in that regard.

Beyond the Mirror

Normally waking up is accompanied by the refreshed feeling of being able to look at the world through brand new eyes. Everything that seemed wrong the previous night gets shed in favour of answers that you couldn’t see before. Even if it is just your body, that can be enough to bring about the kind of wonderful elation that lets you get out of bed and face the day. Unfortunately for Twilight, this kind of feeling was reserved for those whose waking moments made even the slightest lick of sense.

Twilight may not have remembered much of the few minutes before she apparently fell asleep, but she did, at that moment, remember that she had been in her wonderful library home with Spike. She was not there now, not by a long shot.

Hooves slowly stretched out over the polished stone, casting aside ample amounts of ridiculous dust which promptly invaded the sinuses of the confused mare. In a coughing fit the lavender unicorn brought her hooves under her and stood, somewhat reluctantly, to examine the surroundings fully.

She had been sleeping in the middle of an aisle, all around her ornate, polished, and dusty pews sat in perfectly ordered rows leading up to the single podium at the far end of the room. Windows comprised of stained glass prevented Twilight’s view from leaving the room, but still illuminated the room well enough for her to concern herself. Layers of dust were scattered across everything from the pews, to the podium, to the doors at the far end of the room. This room, this church for lack of a better word, had not been disturbed in a very long time. Even worse was the lack of any disturbance coming from the door. Not a single speck of dust was out of place to indicate how the unicorn might have come to reside in her aisle resting place.

Calm down, Twilight. Her internal voice was usually comforting and logical. Right now, it was just barking an order and seemed almost as frantic as her body did. She twisted around, taking in the entire small room again. Nothing new, just the same four walls and suspiciously church-like interior. Only, there were no churches in Ponyville.

She paced. Pacing was good. She paced up the entire length of the aisle, around the podium, and back down. She paced around the outside, glancing at the stained glass windows. They were nice to look at, similar in design to some of the ones in Canterlot Castle, but the designs were different. A few depicted some of the victories she had had in the past. Then, continuing forward, they began to depict things she had never seen before. Most notable in these forward moving panes was a distinct lack of herself. As the panes continued, fewer and fewer of her friends graced the images, it felt almost like she was watching a story that hadn’t been written yet unfold.

Twilight couldn’t take it anymore. The dust, yes the dust must have been the reason, was far too much for the mare. She had kicked up years worth of the stuff in an enclosed space. She needed to open the doors, she needed to open them fast. Sure, they were big and wooden and on the other end of the room, but they were no match for a slightly panicked magic spell.

The doors themselves didn’t so much open as they did explode outwards as the unicorned galloped out of them. This, amongst the things she had done so far this morning, would be widely viewed as the biggest mistake she had made to date. Outside was not nearly as calming as the mare had hoped it to be. It was quite the opposite actually.

The outside world had obviously gone completely crazy at this point. This wasn’t Discord crazy, either, this was too well detailed for Discord. She was standing on a hill she knew all too well, looking down at what should have been Ponyville. Only, in this case, Ponyville was completely wrong. Yes, wrong is about the only word that made any sense in this case.

The entire eastern quarter of the town was completely missing, as if the buildings had never existed. Familiar landmarks like Sugarcube Corner and Carousel Boutique had been replaced by new businesses. All of the homes looked slightly different, updated or completely changed. Her library was still there, same as ever, but the town hall was the biggest surprise of all. What had originally been a quaint and wonderful center of politics had been replaced with a metal monstrosity. Actually, when one conjures an image of a metal monstrosity they may not even do this spiked four-story tower justice. It was an eyesore of epic proportions, like an invading force had just plopped it down where the town hall had been and laughed.

Twilight, by this time, was about ready to run back into the pseudo-church, slam the doors shut, and scream until the world deigned fit to stop being crazy, but she wasn’t going to be allowed that option either. As Twilight was desperately searching for a logical explanation for the world going completely crazy she was treated to the procession of hooves approaching her from behind.

The unicorn whipped around to see one of the few things that could give her true happiness. A procession of royal guards, pegasus decorated with elaborate, shining, white armor. At least they remained exactly the same as they were supposed to be. She was sure they had the answers to what was happening, “You have no idea how happ...”

The lead guard raised a hoof, immediately silencing Twilight in her tracks as he began to speak, “Unregistered unicorn. You will submit yourself for registration or face punishment for breaking the laws.”

“Registration,” The unicorn questioned, trying desperately to wrap her mind around what the guard was saying. And, for that matter, why hadn’t they recognized her? She was Princess Celestia’s personal student. Maybe they just had poor eyesight, “Look, something is very wrong here. My name is Twilight Sparkle and I need to talk with Princess Celestia right away.”

“All unicorns must be registered and have their magic restrained,” This guard seriously wasn’t getting it. Another two began to advance on Twilight, a strange metallic band held aloft in one of their hooves, “That is the decree of Princess Celestia. All who refuse are to be labelled rebels and summarily punished as such.”

“No, you aren’t listening to me,” Twilight was beginning to feel more fear than anger over these misunderstandings. Registration, restraint, these didn’t sound like enjoyable options. It didn’t sound like something the Princess Celestia she knew would think about ordering. She began to shrink away from the two approaching guards, trying to gain whatever seconds she could to formulate a plan. Run away and be labelled a rebel, stay and be registered.

As she continued shrinking back towards the doors of her only refuge the world decided to make even a little less sense. From behind Twilight, a bright blue orb erupted forth slamming first into one of the guards, then the second, and finally tracing its path back from whence it came. All attention was immediately drawn to the source of this ethereal intruder, a white unicorn standing in the doors Twilight had slammed open not long ago.

The yellow mane and white body did nothing for the unicorn, but the face spoke everything. Framed in the incandescent blue of his mysterious hoof and a half diameter orb, his eyes spoke of a determination that would have made even Nightmare Moon back away in hesitation. Even the guards seemed to hesitate for a second as their companions picked themselves up from the impacts.

“Unregistered unicorns. You have assaulted members of the royal guard. You will submit for registration and restraint of magic or we will execute you in the name of Princess Celestia,” Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy. Actually, Twilight almost cursed herself for believing she was saved for a moment. The guards numbered almost a dozen, far more than one impressive and strange orb could tend to.

“Actually, I’m dreadfully sorry,” The unicorn laughed a bit. He seemed so perfectly calm, Twilight seriously considered trying to help him. Maybe if she combined her magic with his they actually could get away. But, she couldn’t bring herself to consider the possibility of going against Princess Celestia, even if it was for her own good, “But, I don’t think we’ll be doing anything of the sort. Registration just wouldn’t look good on me.”

Twilight was literally stuck in between a crazy unicorn, plus his ridiculous blue magic, and a dozen over zealous royal guards. Without so much as a second thought on the matter, she dashed to the less crazy side. Okay, the unicorn being less crazy was debatable, but he at least seemed to admit this whole registration thing was insane. On the other side, she had just pitted herself against twelve very irate guards with only a single ghostly blue orb between the two.

“Now would be a good time for a mass break spell Miss Twilight,” The unicorn was spouting nonsensical words and looking as if he expected her to properly understand. Let alone the fact that he knew her name.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Right, wrong you,” He seemed rather annoyed by this time, like he was expecting a completely different pony to be standing in front of him. Still, he got over it rather quickly as a pair of saddlebags levitated up, caught in his eerily warm magic, “Three stored spells. Should be fine for this lot.”

As he finished inspecting the contents the bags dropped to the ground, his magic now only holding three round stones aloft. Each stone looked fairly similar with strange characters drawn on them. The only differences were in the colours of each stone. Then, they began to glow of their own accord as if drawing from the slight magic used to hold them aloft.

“Ignite,” The unicorn spoke as the three stones suddenly burst to life. Each was, in a fraction of a second, engulfed by an ethereal orb of similar shape to the one he already had beside him. Now he seemingly commanded four, one blue, one purple, one red, and one green, each beginning to pulse almost in anticipation of what was to come.

The next few seconds were something unlike anything Twilight had ever dreamed of. A dozen of Celestia’s pride were completely overwhelmed by these four strange spells. Whatever power Twilight had originally thought the orb had was proven far inferior to reality. These things could be material and immaterial seemingly according to the will of the mysterious unicorn. They would dart through guards, trees, even the ground itself as they flew around. Whenever they chose to contact an enemy, though, the sounds of impact were perfectly real and the pony was sent flying meters by whatever sheer force they controlled.

One dozen, two dozen, three dozen, honestly the number of guards no longer seemed like it would have mattered. At the same time Twilight had never imagined a spell of this level. It was grand and terrible, it was the fire and the ice, and this pony was the master in the ebb of the storm. That was, until the guards had all been rendered unconscious and the orbs seemed to be used up. Every last one of them faded completely, leaving only the four mysterious stones and a pony surveying the damage he had just done.

“What, how , who,” Focus, one question at a time Twilight. The strange unicorn was picking up his stones now, having deemed it safe enough to do so. He honestly didn’t even seem to be paying attention to the pony whose life he had just saved. What kind of a pony was this, “How do you even know who I am? Have we even met before?”

“Of course we have, or we will,” He was not making a good case for sanity. He wasn’t even looking at Twilight as he responded. Instead his attention was perfectly focused on the forests in the distance, “I know you quite well Miss Twilight. Or, I will know you. Tenses. You’ve got quite a journey ahead of you.”

“Okay then,” Skeptical Twilight refused to completely trust a pony who spoke of the future like it already happened. Of course, saved Twilight was more than happy that this pony had saved her from something she was sure she didn’t want, “Why don’t we just go with, who are you?”

“Sine Wave, my dear,” The pony turned and bowed ceremoniously, cascading the ridiculously long golden mane down and displaying several menacing scars he held across his back. This pony seemed completely off, but he was the only one not trying to harm her in any way right now. Was that enough for trust, “Warrant pony for the Shadow Proclamation, Lieutenant in General Pinkie’s third regimen, Trottiman for the seventh Reich, and Knight of Queen Tralsia’s court. At your service.”

So, he was a little crazy. Not a single one of those titles sounded even the slightest bit true, but he said them all with such conviction. Twilight generally contemplated accepting them at face value, but she had already been threatened with registration and witnessed a Ponyville that looked like somepony had run out of standard house blocks and delved into the ‘space alien’ set. Acceptance was something she was running preciously short on at current, “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that last part then. I think I’ve had enough crazy for today.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it,” He was damn well smiling by now. This unicorn was in the middle of a dozen unconscious ponies and he was smiling about Twilight getting worked up, “But, we should be moving. My stored spells won’t have recharged for a couple of hours and you seem to be a rather magically lacking version of, well, you.”

Magically lacking? That was the first time Twilight had ever been insulted like that, considering she was the personal student of the Princess. The Princess who had apparently ordered for unicorn registration. Right, the more she picked apart this world the less she liked it.

Sine, or whatever he wanted to be called, led the two down the opposite side of the hill and away from Ponyville. It was all for the best as far as the poor lavender mare was concerned. She really didn’t want to hear the explanation for the giant tower where the town hall had been, not right now. On the other hoof they were trotting almost directly into the Everfree Forest, which was curiously missing. Well, missing wasn’t the correct word. It was more like somepony had taken a pair of scissors and cut out large chunks of the forest, leaving only small outcroppings of trees here and there.

“Okay, I can’t take it anymore,” To Twilight’s credit, she had managed to last well past the third clumping of trees before speaking up. She was truly hoping answers would have been more forthcoming, but the more she thought about everything, the less it made sense, “What exactly is going on here? Why has all of Equestria gone insane?”

“The short answer, I’m afraid, is that it hasn’t,” The fact that Sine never seemed to face Twilight when he addressed her was starting to irk the unicorn. These half answers were also starting to get annoying, “The long answer is that it is crazy to you, but, to everypony else, this is the culmination of every event that has led up to this moment.”

“What kind of events could lead to this? This is not the Equestria I went to sleep in last night!”

“No, it isn’t Miss Twilight,” He slowly started to sombre up, the pace of the two ponies slowing considerably. By now they should have been nearly a quarter of the way into the dreaded forest. However, it had been no less than a stroll through grassy fields in the waning daylight. Every few minutes Twilight would catch a glimpse of one of the forest’s residents hiding timidly in one of the tree outcroppings. None of them dared to exit their small refuges as if terrified by the simple grassy plain. Even the normally dangerous predators of the forest seemed exactly the same.

“And you, how can you be so calm about all this,” Twilight’s voice was raising in decibel with every passing word, yet Sine seemed no more bothered than he might have been by a squirrel, “Like you have this kind of conversation every day?”

“Because we have had this conversation before. Or, will have it,” The unicorn stopped for a second, scratching the top of his head with a forehoof before turning to face Twilight for the first time since they started walking, “Or, you told me about this conversation. Err, will tell me about it. Honestly, I never have as much trouble with tenses as I do with you. Now, why don’t you ask the question that is really bothering you?”

There was something in his eyes, just like the first time Twilight had looked into them. Something in her screamed to run away and never looked back, while the rest of her was enthralled by whatever glint that convinced a pony of everything they said, “What am I missing?”

“That is a very good question,” The pony turned around, leading twilight to the edge of what used to be the forest cliff. Once upon a time, this cliff had signalled the end of the edge of the forest and the deadly descent into the depths of the true Everfree. Now, however, it was little more than an exceptionally large rolling hill giving a view of the world below it.

Under this ruling view Twilight and Sine watched something the likes of which she had never imagined. Rows of pristine white tents sat in perfect uniform, the occasional pony dashing between them. Small meeting like areas were cleared between groupings of tents where large groups of ponies seemed to be gathered. At the back and front of the huge camp makeshift walls had been erected. It was a testament to something that Twilight did not understand, but would stand in awe of anyway. Even more so once she saw the flag flying from the flagpoles placed in the middle of the camp. This undertaking was flying under flags bearing her own cutie mark, that perfect six pointed star encircled by five other stars. She was damn near speechless.

“That’s, that’s impossible,” The events of the day were starting to catch up to the mare. Now, it even seemed that she was inextricably tied to a camp that she had never seen before in her life. It was unfortunate that life was not going to allow her the time to rest from it.

“No, that is a very bad thing,” Sine, the normally calm and completely crazy unicorn, seemed to be overcome with dread. He wasn’t looking at the camp anymore, but instead at something on the other end of the gigantic clearing. He almost sounded like the world was about to come crashing down, “A very, very, bad thing....”

A/N: This is one of those chapters where you realize it either makes or breaks the world. Up until now just about anything could have happened. Honestly, I don't know what you might have been expecting, but this is what it ended up coming down to. I hope you aren't disappointed with the direction this is taking.

There's a lot else I could bring up as well. However, I kind of want to leave a lot of explanation till the notes on the next chapter. I promise, I'll explain a bit more then.