Chapter 1: Beginnings
As Celestia's sun began its descent to the horizon, Twilight idly sat on her bed, mentally excavating the Old Castle for the three hundred-and-thirty-sixth time. After filling out reams of forms--in triplicate, no less--Twilight had finally obtained approval to conduct a large-scale study in the ruins where the Elements of Harmony had freed Princess Luna.
Of course, she could have simply used her association with Princess Celestia to bypass all of those infuriatingly bureaucratic regulations, but she was supposed to obey the same bylaws as most of Equestria's population. That was all theory, seeing as she'd exploited several "loopholes" before, but Twilight knew that there was a limit to which laws could be continually suspended.
Spike had, unfortunately, been a little miffed when confonted by the stacks of paper, but a little help from her magic later, and all things had been well. Now, the forms were completed, addressed, return-addressed, mailed, lost, found, debated by commitee, rejected as per guidelines, re-completed, re-mailed, and finally accepted with just a little use of such wonderful prepositions as "in the interest" and "of Equestrian security" and all those nice little bright red "Top Secret" watermarks.
Thus, Twilight found herself in a rather odd position--she had nothing planned.
"Well, I do need to obtain some supplies from Zecora, so I should head over there soon," she mused, pensively. "Spike, what do you think I'll find?" she queried, raising her voice just above musing-volume to let Spike know that she was, in fact, asking a question.
"I dunno, Twilight, probably just a bunch of old books and cobwebs. It's probably not worth the hassle," the dragon retorted, pointedly, while tucking himself into his small bed.
"Spike, you can't just assume things! For all we know, there could be lots of valuable stuff in there, like priceless treasures, historical artifacts, and even magical objects," Twilight exclaimed, shocked.
"Yeah, or just a few piles of dust and broken furniture. I'm going to sleep," Spike murmured, instantly drifting off. That was one of the benefits of his species--dragons could fall asleep with little impetus, almost at will.
Twilight sat for a while, gazing through her window at the stars, until her eyes eventually blinked shut.
***
Instead of dreamland, however, Twilight found herself lying supine on a bench. Jumping up, she whipped about with a start. She was in Ponyville, that much was obvious, but it was different from the happy, colorful place that she inhabited--it looked eerily similar to the grayscale, twisted version it'd been when Discord's brief stint of power had touched it.
The bench was the same one in front of her Library, frequented by Lyra and Bon-bon, but this Ponyville was deserted. A blue mark, fading quickly and indecipherable even to Twilight's practiced cryptographer's eyes, was embedded in the wood, but before Twilight could get a good look at it, it vanished.
Well, the Ponyville she was now in wasn't exactly the same as the Ponyville she knew, even taking into account the grayscale. Her Library was missing, replaced by an onyx pillar of its height, ringed by stairs. What's more, Twilight heard voices--unfamiliar voices--coming from the top of the onyx statue.
Trotting up the stairs--really notches cut into the pillar itself--Twilight cautiously approached the top. The voices were clearer now, and one voice suddenly faded into nothingness. So there was only one, then. Easier to take on if it was a foe, but Twilight pushed the thought away. Diplomacy would prevail, whatever the creature was.
When she reached the top, she realized in shock that the pillar's top was empty. Where was the voice?
"H-hello?" Twilight asked, her voice betraying her fear of what would reply.
"Hello," came the response, echoing out of seemingly nowhere as Twilight suddenly jumped from the voice's proximity.
"W-who--" she began, but the voice cut her off.
"All shall be revealed in due time. You seek the Old Castle, do you not?" the voice stated, its question rhetorical.
"How do you... know about that? You don't sound... sound like anypony I know," Twilight questioned, fear creeping into her voice like hoarfrost on an autumn slope. But the voice never answered. "Wait! what's your name?" she called in desperation, but never received a response.
Twilight stood on the top of the onyx pillar for a while longer, and then felt life calling her awake.
***
Twilight awoke with a small gasp, then anxiously ruminated about the strangeness of her dream.
"Whoa... my head feels like I just utterly exhausted my magic three times in a row," she murmured, holding her head in her hooves. "What time is it?" she pondered, inquiring to nopony in particular.
Gazing at the clock, she realized that only two hours had passed. With a tired shrug, Twilight settled back to sleep, slowly drifting into another dream. But this time it was more like a nightmare, as she woke up in a room that was lit by a bunch of strange, blue torches.
"Where am I?" she whispered, barely audible, yet apparently still heard by another pony, walking towards her, as evidenced by its hoofsteps on the tiled floor upon which she lay.
Struggling, Twilight attempted to move, but found that a mysterious set of vermillion chains kept her solidly held to the floor.
"What the...." she started, but the other pony, whoever it was, was standing over her, apparently talking to another pony.
"Hey, she's awake, do you want to perform the ritual now or wait until she get's sedated again?" it asked, ponderously. Struggling even more frantically now, Twilight attempted once more to move, with the same lack of result. What did they need her for? What was this... this "ritual?"
The other pony piped up, its voice eerily similar to the previous speaker's.
"No, we can't risk another accident like last time. As you well know, the last... subject... just... disentegrated into a pile of... anyways, we must proceed as soon as possible with the ritual."
Now thoroughly out of her wits, Twilight responded with a desperate inquiry born from pure terror.
"W-what are you going to do to me?" she screamed, as afraid to know their answer as to not know it.
"Oh, don't worry, we're not going to hurt you, just make you better," the first pony replied, in a very noncommittal manner.
"B-but what is this "ritual?" And what do you need me for?" Twilight pressed, desperately craving information.
"It's called runing: it enhances the magic capabilities of a Unicorn or Alicorn but it hurts... a lot," the second pony answered, with a horror-inducing emphasis on the last word.
Twilight didn't think it was possible to enhance magic capabilities but she noticed that they were wearing black robes that had rune markings on the back.
"W-what's under the robes you're wearing? They look n-nice," she tried, attempting to glean a smidgen of knowledge from the strange ponies' answer.
"Naughty little filly, trying to get a better look at our body? I suppose I could show you..." the first pony chuckled, suggestively. Twilight groaned, imagining the probable eye-wiggle and head-cock that was occurring above her.
With that, however, the first pony took her robes off--for Twilight was able to crane her head up enough to see that it was, in fact, a mare.
Twilight's jaw dropped at what she saw, the pony was so slim and had a black glossy coat. Her cutie mark seemed to be a white rune of some sort.
"Like what you see, eh? You'll be like this soon..."
***
Twilight awoke once again, but this time it was morning.
"Finally... morning. At least my headache is gone, but I have to wonder what she meant about me... becoming like her? It's probably nothing," she mused, mentally discarding the incident as an overactive imagination born from overtiredness. "Spike!.... Spike? Where are you?" Twilight called, just a tad worried at the noticeable absence of Spike's typical response. Though, perhaps she had asked three times in the space of one second. It wasn't exactly likely that Spike could've responded since then...
"I'm down here!" came the response, after a few more seconds' pause.
Twilight proceeded downstairs, blearily rubbing her eyes. As she entered the kitchen, a shocking menagerie of splendor greeted her: Spike had made her pancakes with butter and toffee just the way she liked them.
"Aww Spike, you didn't have to go through all this you know--"
"True, but I wanted to make you the perfect breakfast in case you were gone for a while, what with your expedition and all," Spike responded, glowing with pride.
"Spike, I'm only going to be gone for a few hours. A few days at most. I appreciate it, though," Twilight replied, pleased that Spike cared a lot for her, but feeling that she had to return the favor somehow.
"Tell you what, while I'm out why don't you go and spend some time with Rarity? I'm sure she'll need help with something--"
"Really? Thanks, Twilight!" he exclaimed, obviously excited to see his current love-interest... though what an unrequited, one-sided love it had been. Twilight couldn't help but giggle at his reaction. Shaking her head, she scarfed down Spike's--admittedly well-made, especially taking into account his relative lack of cooking experience--creations, gathered her saddlebags, and set out toward Zecora's to gather a few... ingredients. As she left the Library, her head filled with wonderful fantasies of the things she might find in the Old Castle...
