Power lies deep within

It was a summer's morning. The sun had not yet given the fullness of it's warmth. A soothing breeze came through the opened window. It carried the smell of the bakery a couple of streets away. Soon, as the sun would rise, it would become very warm. Most of the working ponies wanted to do their work before then, no one liked to work in the heat of the day.

There were a few pegasi moving some stubborn clouds that had formed during the coolness of the night. A few birds sang a song to welcome another beautiful day. Life was as it had always been in Equestria. No need to rush, everything went, as most of the times, according to plan.

Twilight Sparkle woke up from the smell of the bakery. Her stomach growled as she smelled the delicious scent of fresh baked bread. Spike was, as he did every morning, already up making her breakfast. As always, it was a few slices of bread, some flower petals and a nice glass of apple juice.

"Nothing better than to start the morning then with a good breakfast", she thought to herself.

After her breakfast, Twilight went to the main room in her library to retrieve the books she was studying. She still had a lot of work to do before she would be able to take her next magic test. She decided to do some practice with spells she had already mastered before she would dive into the books, . "It's important to keep refining your skills, even after you are fully capable of performing them", Celestia had once said to her. So she did.

A few weeks ago, she had studied transportation magic. There were a few spells she wanted to try again, like the portal spell and the teleportation of objects on short distances.

"Spike!", Twilight said.

"Could you fill a few crates with something so that I can practice teleportation of objects again?".

"Sure!", Spike yelled from the other room.

"Good", Twilight thought, "Now I can open a few portals while Spike prepares the teleportation practice"

It had cost her more than a month to get it right, but she was now fully capable to open up portals for short to medium distances.

"For this practice, I'll simply open a portal to my bedroom, and then to the main room", she spoke to herself.

Her horn glowed while she concentrated on opening the portal. After a few seconds, the air in front of her began to glow as well. Then, it was like someone pulled open an invisible curtain. The opening revealed a passage to her room.

Twilight stepped through the portal into her room.

"Phew", she sighed,  "Now to the main library room".

Again, the air was pulled open and she stepped through the portal into the main library room.

"Perfect!", she said while showing a smile, "I'm starting to get really good at conjuring portals now".

She closed the portals with another spell.

She was about to go out to the kitchen to meet Spike, but he came running into the room before she was able to.

"Twilight", he looked worried. "I just received this letter from the princess, it wasn't sealed like it normally is... you might want to take a look at it".

Twilight used her levitation magic to open the letter. It looked like the princess didn't have much time to write it, the characters were messy and it only contained a few words:

"Twilight, gather your friends and come as quick as you can. Very important. Equestria might be in danger".

Twilights expression went from slightly glad to very worried.

"Equestria in danger?", she said with a low voice.

It took her a moment to make sense of what the princess had written.

"Come spike, we must hurry. Go get Pinkie Pie and Rarity while I get Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy".

"You got it!", Spike replied as he ran outside.

About fifteen minutes later, all six friends had joined in front of the library. Twilight had already told them what she had heard from Celestia. All of them looked worried.

"Celestia isn't normally as brief as this", Applejack said.

"We must hurry, this might get real ugly real fast"

"Spike, please stay here and keep an eye on the library, i’ll let you know what’s happening as soon as I can". Twilight said.

Spike clearly didn’t agree, but he nodded anyway.

"I'll open a portal to Canterlot", Twilight said.

"It's further than I have ever tried, but it's the fastest way to get there. Make sure you step through it as fast as possible, because I don't know how long I can keep it open".

"Do we have to?" Fluttershy asked.

She looked scared. Her wings were clenched to her body and her ears hang down. Her eyes were large, but her pupils had constricted to tiny circles.

"If Equestria is in danger, we have to do everything we can!" Rainbow Dash said firmly.

"Come on darling", Rarity spoke.

"The throne room is the safest place we could be right now. It's filled with royal guard, and don't forget that the princess Celestia and Luna are there too!"

This set Fluttershy somewhat at ease.

Twilight had a lot of trouble opening a portal on this range. Her horn sparkled, she was heavily sweating, but she did it, the portal opened.

As quick as they could, the six friends jumped through it. Twilight could only keep the portal opened for a few seconds, but they all made it through before it closed.

What they saw then took them a few moments to grasp. This was not what they had in mind.

The room was indeed filled with royal guard. They were all standing in a large circle formation, weapons drawn. The pegasi guards were flying above the circle, making it more of a half sphere. They too had drawn their weapons. The unicorn guards had split up. Half of them were at the throne, casting a protective barrier around the two princesses, Celestia and Luna. The others were part of the sphere formation, horns glowing, ready to attack.

Right in front of the protective barrier, facing the middle of the sphere formation was Shining Armour. He also had his horn glowing, but looked much calmer than the other guards. He analyzed the situation carefully. However, clearly not knowing what to expect, he had his guard up.

Celestia and Luna both looked as if what they were seeing was the last thing they had expected, but not as if they had not expected it at all. They both stood upright, as the royalties they were, ready to face anything that came their way. Only slightly letting their fear shine through the almost impeccable expressions on their faces.

The atmosphere of the room was heavy. Not only from the high tension from the situation, but also literally. It was if there was a lightning storm going on, only without thunder. Electricity flashed through the air all around the room. Twilight knew that this was some sort of powerful magic. And it all seemed to radiate from the middle of the sphere formation that the guards had formed.

In the middle of the sphere formation there was another creature. Something Twilight had never seen before. It was standing upright, on two legs. It's head was on top of it's body. In fact, anatomy wise it wasn't very different from a pony. it's arms hung from down it's shoulders. It was very masculine. It’s arms were as thick as two of her hoofs put together. It did not seem to have a coat. It seemed like the only hair it had was on it's head and it's chest. On it's back where a pair of majestic wings. They rose above it's head and went down to just below it's waist. They were closed, but Twilight imagined they had a span of about three meters across. It had a red cloth belt tied around a cloth sort of pants that dropped down to just below it's knees. It had relatively large feet, instead of hooves. It's head was bowed down, it's chin rested on it's bare chest. It's eyes were closed, as if it did not need to see what was happening, as if it could feel what was happening all around it. It seemed as if it was fully at rest. It did not seem to have it's guard up, even though it was surrounded by over one hundred guards, all with drawn weapons.