Knightmares

Prologue

The bright light of the equestrian morning woke Spike from his restful slumber. He hopped up and looked outside. It wasn't morning at all, the sun was setting, not rising. Although he would have preferred to be woken up in the morning, he wasn't surprised that he slept this long. After all, he had spent the previous day rounding up a herd of wild Pinkies. A sudden growl emitted from his stomach. He. Was. Hungry.

As he walked down the stairs, he saw Twilight. What was she doing? She was reading a book... But she looked different, her face was contorted into a confused and worried expression. She looked up at Spike with a concerned face.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

Completely ignoring the fact that they hadn't exchanged morning, or rather evening greetings, Twilight answered "The spell I used yesterday to send the copies of Pinkie away... I'm not so sure where they went."

"You sounded pretty sure yesterday."

"Yesterday I was rushed, and I needed a quick answer. I picked up the book this morning to make sure I performed the right spell, and now I realize that I don't fully understand it."

"Maybe you could ask the Princess for help." Spike suggested.

"That might be a good idea, Spike, take a letter."

Spike ran to get a piece of parchment, a quill, and some ink. Twilight began as soon as he was ready.

"Dear Princess Celestia,

I am writing you to ask for your advice and help. Yesterday, Pinkie Pie used the Mirror Pool in the Everfree Forest to make clones of herself. Her clones ended up ravaging the town, and I had to use a certain spell to send them back. However, now I'm not sure that it was the right spell. What should I do?

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle"

At almost the same moment as Spike sent the letter, he burped out a response. Twilight was nervous to read it, any response that quick was bound to be bad news.

'Twilight,

Come to Canterlot immediately, and bring the spell book you used.

Princess Celestia'

Twilight looked up from the note.

With a curious look, Spike asked "What does it say?"

"Spike, we're going to Canterlot"

~~~~~~

Luna stood on the guard tower that night, looking through her telescope for signs of trouble as she always did. She set her sights on Ponyville. Twilight would be arriving soon, her sister had sent for her earlier that evening. She was in such a rush that she hadn't even told Luna why she had sent for Twilight, she just ran to the library and locked herself in. Luna ignored this, Celestia was always doing peculiar things when she was alone.

She looked at Ponyville, and a strange feeling overcame her, foreboding feeling of despair and trouble in the world. She had never experienced such a thing. It grew and grew until she couldn't handle it, and just as she turned to go find Celestia, it vanished, leaving a bittersweet after-taste.
She ran to the library, but she didn't make it, Celestia ran into her halfway there.

Celestia looked down at her sister and simply stated "I felt it too."

Neither of them had any idea what had happened, but they both knew it was bad. Together they rushed to prepare for the potential danger. They locked down the city, no pony could come in, no pony could go out, which the exception of Twilight. They sent a messenge to every village in Equestria, to all the guard posts along the border, and to Cadence and Shining Armor in the Crystal Empire. Something was amiss in Equestria, and they were going to face it head on

~~~~~~

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Dr. Whoves jumped out of his bed so high that he nearly hit the ceiling. A jumbled mess of beeps, flashing lights and smoke emanated from the TARDIS. The Doctor ran to it as fast as he could, the TARDIS had never caused such a ruckus, and it couldn't be good. As soon as he opened the door, everything stopped.

"I guess it was just trying to get my attention." He muttered to himself sleepily.

He walked over to the monitor and his jaw dropped. The screen was showing massive amounts of rift energy... In Ponyville... He was amazed. That shouldn't be possible, there isn't a rift in this village. There isn't even a rift on this planet!

Just as quick as it arrived, it was gone. Such is the way of rift energy. With the TARDIS not bogged down by the overload of energy, he was able to triangulate two points where the rift energy was concentrated. One was near the forest, and one was several thousand feet above Ponyville, near Cloudsdale.

He had no idea what had happened, the TARDIS only told him that the energy had been there, not what it had done. He looked out of his window. All appeared well, not a single lantern was lit. It looked as if the energy had not disturbed the ponies. Assuming the same went for Cloudsdale, he went to bed, resolving to look into it in the morning. Worried as he was, he decided he would rather sleep.

~~~~~~

The mind of a bunny is a strange thing. It's not very complicated. Eat, sleep, repeat, with a little personality thrown in there. But being an animal, bunnies have that sixth animal sense that tells them when something is wrong. Now this particular bunny was freaking out, because his sixth sense was going nuts. He hopped around his small home, waking a sick porcupine. After panicking for a few moments, he went to see the pony, she would know what to do, she always did. He went up to her room, and she was gone.

~~~~~~

The turtle slept like a rock. He spent every night cuddled up in his pony's legs. The pony that chose him, the pony that was his best friend, the pony that loved him. So one can imagine the alarm he felt when he suddenly fell. He looked up curiously to find out why his pony had dropped him, she never had before. But... She wasn't there. His pony was gone.