Author's Note

Edit notes: Removal of location and time place markers and light edits to dialogue. Major change is that now this chapter is a fusion of both second and third chapter due to their length. Former chapter three will be unpublished until replaced.

Chapter 2: Let it be known

/
Books as far as the eye could see line Twilight’s sight as she walk down the halls of an imaginary library created by her dreams. She was first excited from the sight of all these books, but grew disappointed when she remembered they are not real. Instead they’re illusions created by her mind showing one of her many desires among the pages.

“If only a library like this existed in real life then I would spend most of my free time reading books I have never even read before,” Twilight said, as she continued down the hall, but stopped when she saw a shadow on the floor. She looked up to find a strange bird face being floating above her taking one of the book’s in the library and reading it.

Questions filled her mind wondering why this being appeared in her dream, but the only logical conclusion she came up with is that the being could be a figment caretaker of her dream library; created by her mind.

“I wonder if I can communicate with it?” she questioned, not knowing if it was wise to disturb the mysterious being. “Uh excuse me? Do you take care of the books here?” The being paused for a moment before placing the book it was reading back in the shelf.

The mysterious caretaker then descended to the floor with its back facing her direction. The being then spoke to her in a well-mannered tone, “No I’m not,” then it took another book from the shelf in front of it and started to read again. Twilight became confused, if it wasn’t a caretaker then why is it here? It didn’t make sense one bit to her since this is a dream, so he had to be a figment of her imagination, but if this being is not a caretaker of her dream library then this can only mean one thing; this being invaded her dream and is up to no good.

“I’m guessing by the look on your face. You’ve realized I’m not part of your dream,” the being said, breaking Twilight out of her thoughts.

The being was now looking at her giving her a full view on the being’s appearance, it was humanoid in shape wearing what appears to be a crimson duster coat that is button up showing only the beings legs. The coat is also decorated with a large odd symbol that seems to give off an aura of uneasiness to Twilight as she looked at it. The being’s head was covered by its most defining feature, a black bird mask used by plague doctors and a fedora that matched its outfit color scheme. Twilight judged it is a human male, but at the same time it wasn’t human and the way it dresses shows that it’s well bent on keeping its identity hidden.

“And now you are observing me. What is it about me you find interesting? Haven’t you seen what a human being looks like personally, and more or less become one yourself?” The being asks off-handily. The question surprised Twilight since she didn’t tell anyone about her parallel world encounter so how could he have known she became human once?

“Just who are you?” questioned Twilight, who now begun shaking as started to feel the air turn cold.

The being gave off a small chilling laugh before putting away the book in his hand, “Well isn’t that the question of day,” He replied mockingly, causing Twilight to grow a bit annoyed but before she could say anything the being continued talking, “But if you really want to know I’m a messenger sent to give you a … word of warning so to speak.”

Twilight grew confused, “A warning? But from who?” The being said nothing in response, but instead reach inside the pocket his duster and pulled out a scroll and gave it to her. Twilight opened the scroll and read its contents;

Dear Mane Six,

I’ve been watching you for a while now. All your lessons, triumphs, and somewhat amusing breakdowns I seen them all and because of your exploits I have issued a challenge for all of you. This is how it will go; starting tomorrow somepony you know will be marked and you got till nightfall to figure out who it is because I will be sending one of my messengers to foalnap the marked target. This will also happen for the two days following. Your challenge is to prevent the attempted foalnapping of at least one of the three targets. Succeed and any pony foalnapped will be returned unharmed and you will be rewarded for your troubles. Fail however then those who are foalnapped are mine to keep, but if such circumstances happen, find my humble home and talk to me in person; I’m sure we can work something out. Finally, you are able to use any means necessary to complete the challenge. With this said I wish you good luck on this endeavor, but no doubt you won’t disappoint me; especially you Twilight Sparkle.

Sincerely,

Lord Nightmare

Twilight paled as she finished reading the letter remembering how much trouble Princess Luna’s darkness, simply known as Nightmare caused. It even possessed her friend Rarity just to make sure the elements of harmony couldn’t be used against it. But, it isn’t the same Nightmare she faced. The way the letter was written shown that this Nightmare considers this as a game then an actual threat.

“Excuse me for interrupting your thoughts but I think you should start running now princess,” Twilight was again for the third time broken out of her thoughts by the messenger. She faced the messenger to ask why, but quickly regretted it. The messenger was giving off a murderous vibe as the shadows around him grew, “I’ll give you the count of ten before I start chasing you,” The messenger said in a tone far more sinister then the tone he gave before.

To say Twilight was scared is an understatement; she was terrified. Her mind told her only one thing and one thing only, to get away from him as quickly as possible.

“One…”

Needing no other warning Twilight quickly ran off in the direction she came, “…Ten,” The messenger let out a sinister laugh as the shadows around him headed where Twilight ran.

/

Twilight ran for what seemed like forever in the endless library as it grew more twisted and decayed as her mind raced in panic and fear; she felt if everything was watching her, “Okay Twilight you got to pull yourself together. Remember this is a dream and in a dream you can do anything you just need to calm down,” Twilight stopped running and sat down, taking deep breaths to calm her nerves knowing that the shadows weren’t far behind. As she looked down the path she ran from, the shadows were closing in on her giving her only little time to think of a counter-measure. Thankfully, she thought of one, but it would take some time for her to use it. Just as her horn started glowing the shadows surrounded her giving her nowhere to run, but she didn’t plan on running.

“This is interesting…why are you just sitting there?” Question the messenger, who just walked out of the shadows. Twilight didn’t respond causing the messenger to question her further, “Nice light show with your horn there, but I don’t think it’s going to help you much in this situation princess,” Twilight smirked which surprised the messenger, but his composure did not falter, “Are you going for a light spell? Unfortunately that won’t work in this situation, my shadows have the ability to absorb light so you’re out of options my dear,” He said confidently.

“Sorry to tell you this, but I wasn’t preparing a spell,” No she was forcing herself to wake up with a strong magic pulse that would course through her body. She was going to feel like someone zapped her, but it was worth it to hear the messenger’s last words before she woke up.

“Inconceivable…”

/

The morning dawn breaks through the windows as Twilight woke up with a start, a bit shaken from her experience with the messenger, “That was close it was a good thing he underestimated me or else that would have ended differently. But, that message still worries me I have to tell my friends and Princess Celestia and Luna what happened,” As she got out of bed she heard the sounds of her friends pounding and screaming at her front door.

The purple mare quickly dashed her way down the stairs to open the door, but quickly regretted doing so as her friends were in such a rush to get inside her home they unintentionally ran her over as they went in.

“Twilight! Where are you? We have big trouble on our hooves here!” Rainbow Dash said in panic.

“Yeah big trouble! Somebody wrecked the Sugar Cube Corner!” added Pinkie Pie.

“Hey! The same darn thing happened to the apple farm. Did they leave a message as well?” asked Applejack

“Yeah they did, it was carved into the wall of Sugar Cube Corner,” Pinkie Pie responded suddenly taking a calm tone.

“Hey what’s going on guys?” asked Spike, as he sleepily walked down the stairs.

“Oh Spike have you seen Twilight? We need to talk to her it’s of upmost importance,” Rarity asked rather calmly, hiding that she was actually quite shaken.

Spike looked at the doorway, “Uhh… have you checked the new doormat you just stepped on?” he said somewhat confused.

The others looked to the door noticing a slightly bruised lump which happens to be their friend Twilight.

“Oww…” Twilight said pained as she got up from the floor.

“Eh… sorry ‘bout that Twi”

“Yeah my bad”

“S-Sorry…”

“Sorry darling easy mistake”

“Oooh… sorry Twilight I would get you an Apology Cupcake but the pony who wrecked The Sugar Cube Corner also ate all the Cupcakes!”

“It’s alright, wait…Somepony wrecked the Sugar Cube Corner!?” Twilight said in surprise.

“Not just that somepony also wrecked Applejacks farm!” Pinkie added. Twilight shook off her surprise and began to wonder if the messenger who attacked her in her dream had something to do with this.

“Hey! What about me? I got attacked by some masked weirdo when I was reading Daring Do,” said a neglected Rainbow Dash

“S-Same h-here…” added Fluttershy.

“Masked weirdo? Was it a black bird mask?” questioned Twilight.

Rainbow Dash took second to think, “Uh…no actually it didn’t look like anything, it only covered half the guy’s face.”

While they were talking Rarity visibly shook when Twilight mentioned the bird mask and Spike was quick to notice this, “What wrong Rarity? You shook when Twilight mentioned a bird mask.”

Rarity bit her hoof before answering, “Unfortunately I did indeed have an encounter with a stranger who wore a black bird mask. He invaded my dream and after a brief conversation he handed me a scroll with a message on it,” Rarity was close to breaking out in tears but continued anyway,

“Once I read it, he attacked me with shadows. I ran away as far as I could but no matter how far I ran he was always behind me. Eventually I ran into a dead end and he had me cornered. The shadows then started to cover me until only my head was left. He then got down on one knee so we were looking eye to eye and said that it was enough fun for one night. He then snapped his fingers and before I knew it I woke up.”

Spike feeling pained that the mare of his dreams is suffering walked up to her and gave her a comforting hug around her neck, “Just let all out Rarity you’re not alone here.”

Rarity was no longer able to hold back the tears and started to cry, “It was absolutely terrifying! It felt like history was going to repeat itself again!”

This outburst took both Twilight and the rest of their friends by surprise; they didn’t expect this kind of emotional turmoil from her encounter, but gathering the information she heard, Twilight came to conclusion, “Rarity just helped confirm my suspicions they are definitely related. They were sent to deliver a message, but in their own way. However, one question still bothers me, why us?”

“Hey Twi you still with us?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Huh? Oh sorry girls I was just thinking about all your encounters, including my own, and by the sound of it this isn’t something we cannot ignore.”

Rainbow Dash furrowed her brows, annoyed, “Of course not. Whoever these guys are, have no business messing with my friends!”

“Course you feel that way Dash but we need to focus on figuring out who’s the marked pony, but how in tarnation are we going to find him or her. I mean it’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” added Applejack.

Twilight smiled, remembering what the message said, “Well the message they gave us did say we can use any means necessary to complete the challenge which means…” Her friends then started to smile even Rarity who just recently stop crying knew what she was implying.

“Spike, ready a letter to Princess Celestia and Luna,” Spike nodded and released his arms from Rarity to go get a scroll a quill. Twilight then faced her friends, “Girls, go back to your homes search for any clues you think might be useful while I arrange a meeting with the Princesses okay?” They said nothing but nodded to her with acknowledgement before leaving, “Whoever you are Lord Nightmare, Challenge accepted!”

/

Running back to the farm, Applejack quickly made her way to her home seeing it under repairs due to the incident last night, but before she could check the damage herself, the familiar voice of her sister gained her attention, “Hey big sis where did yah go? I wanted to show yah something!” shouted Applebloom.

Applejack sighed not wanting to deal with her right now, “Not now Applebloom I need to check the farm. You can show whatever it is to me later,” with that said she left to help with repairs, leaving Applebloom rather disappointed.

“Aww… shucks and I thought she would be real excited to know I got my cutie mark…”