Luster's Knee Deep in the Dead

It was a long peaceful night. As usual, Queen Twilight Sparkle uses her magic to raise the moon and lower the sun in order to keep her daily schedule in check. After finishing her royal duties for the day, Twilight ordered her night guards to patrol the palace for any suspicious activity that needs to be reported before she and Spike decided to go to sleep. All was calm, all was peaceful. Twilight thought for sure that all of Equestria will be just as peaceful as the night, or so it seems. When Spike went to bed, Twilight went to her royal bed and as soon as she had all four of her hooves on top of soft mattress, she used her magic to pull out the book of memories from the bookshelf next to her bed. After looking at the pictures inside her book for a few minutes, Twilight felt a bit relieved for a moment that her friends will always be by her side even when they all disappear. No matter what happens to them, her friends will always guide Twilight throughout the years to come. After going through her pictures inside the book of memories, Twilight finally falls asleep laying on her back on top of her bed, with the book held on top of her chest, slowly closing her eyes while being at peace.

Unfortunately, after 6 hours of sleep, Twilight's eyes opened as she was suddenly awoken by a loud ear-piercing bloodcurdling scream coming from the hallways outside of her throne room. Feeling a cold chill crawling up her spine, Twilight couldn't help but feel a bit scared and concerned over what just happened in the Canterlot Palace. The moment Twilight got out of her bed, Spike woke up too feeling startled by the scream as well.

"W-WHAT?? What was that noise???" Spike gasped in an alarming tone.

"That's what I want to know too, Spike!!!" Twilight shrieked in fear.

Wasting no time for anymore questions, Twilight puts on her royal armor regalia and her crown before heading out of her private chambers with Spike following from behind. The moment Queen Twilight and Spike burst from their private chamber and appeared behind Twilight's throne, a Royal Guard appeared before them.

In the midst of their horror, the grand purple alicorn and the teenage dragon saw bloodstains on that Guard pony's armor, his face had fresh claw marks on his left cheek with blood spewing out of it, his right leg got bitten, with a small chuck of his flesh missing, and a broken spear was lodged into his lower abdomen, with blood spewing out his stab wound. Overall, the Royal Guard is critically wounded before he came limping all the way into the throne room, leaving behind a trail of his own blood. Before Twilight or Spike could say anything, the wounded guard makes his speech immediately before passing out.

"Y-Your majesty!! W-We have a situation in the palace foyer!!~! The guard spoke before he coughed up blood and collapsed right in front of the purple alicorn.

In an instant, the guard suddenly dropped dead, bleeding all over the palace floors, much to Twilight's excruciating fright.

"GALLUS!!! WHERE ARE YOU???" Twilight shouted in a royal canterlot voice.

"I'm here, your majesty!!!" Gallus acknowledged as he is seen flying 15 feet above the floors.

"What's the situation, Captain?!" Twilight asked trying to spare herself from her fears.

"A huge chasm erupted from inside the palace foyer. When we got closer to the chasm, a swarm of dangerous creatures came out of gap and started slaughtering the royal guards stationed there. Several of our men were being possessed and started attacking each other without warning. It was a horrible mess!!!"

"Spike, send word to Luster Dawn!!" Twilight ordered her royal advisor before turning her attention towards the Griffon Captain of the guard. "Gallus get out of the palace and have the rest of the guards stationed outside seal off the entire palace. Don't let any creature in here until the situation is over!!!"

"Yes, your majesty!!" Gallus bowed before flying out the palace windows.

"Twilight, please be careful!!" Spike said, feeling worried over the concern of his elder sister.

"I'll be fine, Spike!!" Twilight acknowledged as she hugged the purple dragon. "Just head down to Ponyville and warn Luster about what's happening here!! And don't forget to take that ancient tome that I stashed away inside the safe back in my room with you. It might have something to do with what is happening right now; so hand it over Luster as soon as you see her."

"I will!!" The purple dragon replied.

After returning the hug back to Twilight, Spike flew off, leaving the Alicorn Queen all alone in the palace. In hopes of regaining her courage to fight back, Twilight's horn lit up in full fury, hoping to face whatever is causing the mayhem in the palace foyer. As she entered the palace hallways, Twilight saw large amounts of blood stains on the floors and severed body parts all over the corridors. There were many decapitated hooves, severed heads, and headless, mutilated corpses of the defeated Royal Guards. After seeing all of blood and gore in the hallways, Twilight started to vomit. However, she held her hoof up to her mouth just to avoid throwing up before she moved forward cautiously to the palace foyer, not wanting to trip over any body parts.

If only Twilight's friends are here with her, they might be able to stop the horrors in Canterlot before it even happened. Unfortunately, since most of her friends are living in Ponyville and that Twilight and Spike are living in Canterlot once again, she knew that she can't always rely on her friends to do anything for her sometimes, whether or not she is the Princess of Friendship; her royal duties are no exception. The loud crunching and screeching noises snapped the Princess out of her own thoughts, making her even more worried about what would happen if any of these hostile creatures leave the palace. While cautiously heading closer and closer to the palace foyer, Twilight is starting to suspect that something must've happened earlier before the chasm that Gallus mentioned occurred. Usually, it's not everyday that an rift or an earthquake would start shaking all of Equestria; there has to be a scientific reason why this is happening right now. She was thinking about conducting an investigation on the details surrounding the chasm. For now, Twilight has to keep the hostile creatures at bay first.

As soon as she entered the palace foyer, Twilight saw a horde of scary-looking monsters down below the grand stairwell from the right wing. From off-screen, Twilight's eyes widened with horror as she bear witness to a bloody massacre. There were monsters feasting on the dead ponies that they just killed recently while others were fighting over their ill-gotten gains, shouting at each other in language that Twilight couldn't understand at all. She also saw several of her guard ponies standing around next to the monsters. Just like what Gallus said, Twilight's Royal Guard somehow got possessed by something evil that came from the chasm. The moment Twilight went down the stairwell, all of the monsters and possessed guard ponies started staring straight at the alicorn Queen with hostility in their eyes. Just when Twilight is about to engage the monstrous horde while charging up her magic and posing a battling stance, she heard an evil cackle echoing throughout the palace walls.

"Hello, your majesty!! Did you like what I've done with the place?!" The mysterious evil voice spoke, surprising the purple grand alicorn.

"WHO ARE YOU??" Twilight shouted in a Royal Canterlot voice. "What did you do to my guards?!!? SHOW YOURSELF!!!"

"Sorry for the intrusion and the mess your highness, but I'm hear to send in my regards to Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow!! You'll see very soon on who I am. In the meantime, let's have some fun, shall we?! Go get her my little pets!!!"

As the monstrous horde started charging towards Twilight Sparkle, she powered up her magic to the fullest before facing the hostile creatures head on.