"Ungh..." Twilight Sparkle groaned. Every muscle in her body felt horrible, and she could feel a dull pain even as she opened her mouth to speak. "C'mon, Spike, one more minute..." The heat in her bedroom was horrible, and she could feel the sweat in her matted purple mane. She twisted and turned, unable to get confortable in her bed. The usually soft plush surface was now stale and rough and... hard. Now that was unusual, her bed usually wasn't hard. She fought to open her eyelids, and when she finally did, she didn't see anything. It was pitch black in whatever direction she looked.
Starting to get anxious, she lifted her head off of the hard surface that she layed on, only to bump her horn on the celing. Cursing, she lit her horn, letting it spark and then glow a subtle light. Looking around, she found that she was in a wooden box with paint peeling on the edges. It was large enough for even a pony as large as Applejack's brother to fit in. What the hay? She though, Is this some kind of pratical joke or something? She kicked the upside of the box, making a loud thump. Dirt and dust fell down onto her.
After rubbing her eyes, she squinted, noticing some nails holding the roof to the main sides of the odd box. Looking it over she found that the nails were rusty and appeared to be old. She sighed. Ok, she thought. So, right now I know that I am trapped in some sort of box, still with my magic but no idea how the buck I got here. Ugh, what happened last night?
She searched her mind for the details, but couldn't remember much, although she was relieved to remember the basics, her name, who she was, and basically everything up until waiting for something in a field with her friends and Spike.
After going over several more senarios of what had happened after that, she finally stopped to consider her options. Well, I could just teleport out. She thought. That would probably be the easiest way of getting out of here. She lit her horn again, this time extending the glow to all of her body. A bright light erupted as she tried to imagine what the outside of the box looked like. In another flash, outside of the box, she readjusted her eyes and looked around.
"Well, that was easier than I expected," she said, examining the area. A dark cloud loomed over her head. She looked over herself, to make sure nothing was missing. She looked behind her, and saw something that made hey eyes go wide. A grave. Two graves actually, and she was standing right on top of one. She looked at the first headstone that read: R.I.P Twilight Sparkle. She was a great friend, a noble enemy, and a gifted student. Long live her legacy. Underneath were five signatures, whom she recognized as her friends'.
Wha... What? She thought. But, I'm not dead! I'm right here... right? She looked at the next grave, praying that it wasn't who she thought it was, Shining Armor, her brother. She knew that family were usually buried together, so it would be either him, or a parent.
What she saw was not Shining, though, nor a parent. What she saw was, in her oppinion, worse. It read: R.I.P Spike the Dragon. He was a child, and a friend to many. A kind heart, we are sad he had to go. She took a step back, Partially in shock. Why Spike? She thought. What could have happened for him, us, to... To die?
Then it dawned on her. How was she here, then? What was she now, a ghost? Could she be alive, in the flesh? If she was, than why were there grave stones in her and Spike's place? Well, of course she was alive, she had used magic. It was known to almost all magal creatures that once they passed, their magic diminished over a very short period of time, and it was practially impossible to come back from the dead.
Yet here she was, apperently deceased, and yet still here on Equestria. But then why wasn't Spike? She sighed, and became quiet. She wasn't going to cry, or going to just walk away from this to try and find some help. No, she wasn't going to do that yet. She was listening, listening for anything that might point her in the right direction. After waiting for a couple of minutes, she found it. It was coming from somewhere below here, a sound of bumping and a sort of shwooshing sound. She smiled in relief for a moment. So, everything was at least mildly okay. Spike was alive, at least it sounded like he was.
"Spike!" She called out to her number one assistant. "Spike, can you hear me?" The rustling sound stopped for a moment and was replaced by a muffled voice.
"Twilight?" She could hear it, but barely. She quickly used a spell, making her eardrums super sensitive.
"Yes, Spike. It's me. I think we have a bit of a problem. I have a bit of a plan though! Close your eyes, and stay as still as possible, okay?" She heard a clear voice, most definately Spike's, say 'Okay, Twilight I'm ready!' and started the spell. It was a complicated one, but it wasn't the hardest spell she had ever done before. Lighting her horn with her puple magical glow, she imagined Spike getting surrounded by the light instead of her. She consentrated for a moment before- Poof, Spike the Dragon was laying on the ground facing Twilight.
"My head," He complained. "It's aching, just like the rest of me. Thanks for that extra migraine, Twi'", he half-joked.
"Yeah, yeah, I hurt too, at one point. But it will be gone after a while. I have a theory that states that when you dont move your muscles for an extended amount of time, they wear off and hurt to use when you actually do use them. It's just a side effect of apperently being dead for a while"
His eyes widened a little. "Wait, what? What do you mean by 'dead', Twilight? I- Were right here, right?"
She smiled a little, hoping to not worry the little guy too much. "Apperently so. Look at these." She showed him the grave stones, and he too was very surprised at them. She looked up as a drop of liquid hit her on her back.
"Oh look, its raining. How positively delightful, eh?"
Spike looked around, and suck out his tounge to catch some of the falling rain. As one hit it, he smiled in delight, then in confusion. "Spike? Whats wrong?" She looked around and the scenery, and noticed it was raining harder now. Her eyes widened in understanding. She grabbed Spike with her magic and placed him on her back. "C'mon Spike," She said. "We need to find the Princesses!"
And with that, she galloped on through the field, leaving it raining chocolate milk.
Twilight Sparkle galloped as fast as her hooves could take her as the field she was in poured chocolate milk rain. She could have gone faster if spike hadn't been on her back, but they were and had always been a team, two birds of a feather per say. At least if she was using that phrase correctly.
As they went farther through the field, she noticed two things. One, a large building was coming into view, which she soon recognized as Canterlot Castle. The second was that the chocolate milk rain was starting to turn into a light drizzle. "Spike, look, the Princess' castle!" Twilight shouted, waking the dragon whom had apparently been sleeping on her back.
"Huh? Oh sweet, finally we can get some grub! I'm positively starving!" Spike retorted as his stomach grumbled. Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled at her friend. He could be so funny sometimes. "I could really go for some gem apple tart!" He said.
Suddenly Twilight's stomach growled too. "Huh, yea I guess your right, Spike, I really could go for some food too. Maybe a daisy sandwich and a sala- Oomph!" She hadn't been paying much attention to where she had been going an had bumped into what looked like was a... Statue?
"What the?" Spike opened a tired eye and saw the statue that they had ran into. He looked in closer and his eyes widened at the look on it's face. It wasn't a happy face, of a joyful one at the least. It was a statue of a fierce looking guard pony pointing his hoof at him accusingly, But to Spike and Twilight, this was no ordinary guard pony. This was a member of the royal guard. The pony was Shining armor, Twilight's brother.
Gilda the gryphon was dreaming. She was not dreaming of daisies or of flying around the sky with friends that she did not have. No, she had stopped dreaming of stupid things like that a long while ago. Tonight she was having her usual nightmare, the kind that makes you wake up in a cold sweat screaming.
But this one was very unusual. It was about one of her first, last, and only friends, Rainbow Dash. The one who she thought was cool enough to hang around her until she chose her new friends over her. But that was over 60 years ago, why would she be dreaming about that loser?
It was as if she was watching a movie. She was seeing what was going on, but she could not do anything about it. It was as if she were a ghost, just floating around the scene. No purpose, no meaning. Just there watching things unfold with no chance of stopping it.
Rainbow was going as fast as she could, almost breaking the sound barrier as a large blast of yellow colored energy sped behind her. Just as she was about to break the sound barrier, a high pitched scream came out of her, the loudest one Gilda had ever heard. She tried to cover her ears, but to no avail. The screaming ended quickly enough, as the cyan Pegasus was engulfed by the blast.
Gilda screamed, afraid of what has happened. She loked down to find everything below a baren wasteland. Almost everything, at least, a she saw a small bubble of obvious magical energy collapse right before she awoke.
As soon as she awoke, she shot up in her bed. A cold sweat again covered her body and she was breathing heavily. As she bega to recover, she noticed something stir in the corner. She stopped for a moment and looked again. All she could see was a heavy outline of something. 'Ugh, blast these darn glasses," she thought, as she reached over to her bedside table and got them with her talons. When she was In Flight school at age 12 she didn't need them at all, but as she got older, even when she saw dash that last time, she had needed contacts. That was age 21, now she was 84 and the gryphon queen. She sighed, wishing things had gotten easier rather than more complicated in her long life, as she put her spectacles on.
She looked back over at the corner and almost had a heart attack and hernia at the same time. Standing there in the corner of her room, who she knew should surely be dead, long gone by now, was her old time friend Rainbow Dash.
And she looked not a day older than the last day she had seen her, over 60 years ago.
"Um, Twilight? Are you seeing the same thing that I'm seeing?" Spike' voice wavered and cracked. "Because I don't think that this is a very good thing." Twilight rubbed her head with a hoof and looked up. She took it in for a few seconds and staggered back. No, that couldn't be! Her brother couldn't be turned to stone, it was unethical, impossible! And yet, here he was, here SHE was, looking at a statue of her brother. And in equestrian, statues weren't built as a tribute for somepony, statues were built as prisons.
"No, this can't be! He can't... He..." She stopped talking after that and started to plain sob.
"Oh, well well well, look what we have here," a familiar voice ringed out from behind them. "My old friend the purple unicorn thing in my new country. Well, I certainly haven't seen you in a long, long while."
Twilight spun around, spike falling off of her back with a grunt. "Discord!" She said, astonished as she looked at the creature hovering above the ground just a few feet away. "But, we reformed you a month ago! What happened to you? What happened to me?! More importantly, what the buck happened to Equestria?!"
"Eque- Oh, you mean Discordia? Well, my dear Twilight, all of that delightful nonsense will be answered in time. For now, though, why don't you and your pesky little dragon friend come With me and I'll reintroduce you to my servant Celestia? Maybe I'll even show you off to my Fiancé. You do remember Nightmare Moon, don't oh dear?"
Twilight reeled back, astonished. "We cleared that witch out of Luna's essence two years ago!"
"Oh well then, this should be interesting," Discord smiled wickedly and snapped his fingers, making him and Twilight vanish into thin air. Spike looked around confused.
"...Twilight?"
Author's Note
Sorry for the long wait guys. Hope this makes up for it. Also dont worry, things will get less confusing soon!