Several bodies were in a large room. There were 8 of them, to be exact. They all wore different emotions on their faces. Some were of triumph, some of sadness, and some of relief.

One of them was smaller than the rest, the one that appeared to be soothing her being taller than the others in the room. The small one had fur that was light purple and cyan hair and a tail. She was leaning back as if scared of a monster she thought she saw. Her wings were at her side, her horn pointing up at the taller one's face, and her eyes closed.

The tall one was sitting down, her four legs under her body. Her long wings were unfolded behind her large body. Her deep purple eyes were locked onto the closed eyes of the small, blue figure. The white pony's flowing, multicolored mane wrapped around the body of her little sister as she gently smiled at her and asked if they could rule side by side.

The other six ponies in the room had various reactions. While a cyan-furred, rainbow-maned pegasus tried to deduce what was happening, a lavender unicorn and an orange-coated pony without horn or wings looked pleased by the sister's reunion. A white unicorn sighed with relief. A yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail just looked at the pair with a faint smile, but it was hard to tell what she was really thinking as she hardly ever frowned. A curly-maned pony, who was pink all the way through, bounced in circles around the other seven, incessantly screaming, "Yay! Woohoo!"

The party that commenced later that evening did not only happen in Ponyville, but was thrown by the entirety of Equestria. The amount of happiness in the country had not happened since the first defeat of Discord.

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The six ponies that watched the sisters' reunion were walking on a red carpet, in the middle of a crowd of hundreds of ponies, towards a stage that the white princess was standing on. The smaller princess was not at the event. No pony asked where she was.

The princess spoke, although no noise came out of her mouth. Every pony in the crowd cheered while the six on the red carpet smiled contently. The princess continued to speak slowly and happily.

The princess' horn started to glow. Large, red curtains at the side of the room glew the same shade of purple. The curtains seperated, revealing a large mural of six different ponies blasting purple and pink beams at a horrible-looking monster. It looked like it was made from parts of several different animals, including ponies, goats, snakes, and dragons.

All of the ponies in the room cheered louder as confetti was dropped on the heads of the six heroic ponies.

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Over time, the six have learned much. However, most of what they've learned has been on the subject of friendship. Inside of Princess Celestia's vault, there are several letters telling her of the discoveries that were made about the magic of friendship.

Most of the letters were from Twilight Sparkle, a lavender pony that was the princess' personal student. When Nightmare Moon was coming back from her exile, Celestia had sent her student to Ponyville to make some friends. Twilight didn't know that these friends would be the ones to help her defeat Luna's alter ego. Ever since, Twilight has stayed in Ponyville to study the magic of friendship.

Only one of the letters would of been interesting to an average pony. It was quite humorous and came from the orange-coated, blonde-maned earth pony by the name of Applejack. It started with, "I didn't learn anything!" Even Princess Celestia, who always keeps a straight face, laughed at this.

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But the time for laughter is now over, thought, well, no one. No one was there to think it, but it was still thought. She didn't know what exactly she existed as, but it wasn't as a pony or as any other animal. She was not made of matter at all. Although she didn't completely even exist, she could still think.

She has always looked down through the highest clouds in the sky to watch the adventures of several ponies. She saw several ponies come and go throughout several million years. Her heart was broken thousands of times, as she saw ponies die or, worse, go insane, or even be tortured. She knew it would never stop, that she would never pass on, but it still haunted her every time that any pony did.

She was preparing herself as she was preparing others. Down on the ground, several ponies thought they were safe, thought they would live for a while longer, that the world was a good place. They did not see every death that occured, every pony that went bad, that went insane. They did not know of all of the wars raging in other countries.

They don't know. They don't expect...

What passed as a voice came to her hears, sinister and snakelike. "I'm on my way back." A pause. "And I'm coming for you and your daughters."

...What will soon happen. None of their lessons have trained them for this.

A war that started at the beginning of the Discordian Era was still going on. Not a single pony on the ground or in the lower skies knew of it. Discord, Nightmare Moon, Discord again, it was all the same battle. Celestia and Luna, however, knew what was coming, what would happen soon. They took part at the end of the beginning, and will now have to suffer through the beginning of the end.

A war has not been started in Equestria for over a thousand years, not since Nightmare Moon was banished. That is just started. A war has been raging within for an eternity, since before Princess Celestia was born. Now, it will finally draw to a close, but with a huge bang. Equestria will never be the same.

The lavender mare was walking up to a building that looked like several different types of pastries stacked on top of one another. A purple dragon was laying on her back, his light green scales poking into her fur.

"What's this party even for?" the dragon asked, hiding any emotion he was feeling towards it.

The pony replied, "Spike, how could you have forgotten? It's to celebrate. It's been exactly one year since we defeated Discord!"

Spike didn't know how he could of forgotten such a thing either. He frowned as he remembered the ton of letters that Princess Celestia sent back. They all had to go through him to get to Twilight Sparkle. That was the worst pain that he remembered ever feeling.

Twilight opened the door and walked into Sugarcube Corner. Her five best friends were waiting for her inside. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were planning pranks for other residents of Ponyville while Fluttershy was talking about fashion with Rarity. Applejack walked up to the new arrivals and proclaimed, "Howdy, Twi! Glad to see ya finally made it, but I gotta go. The apple trees ain't gonna buck themselves!"

"Hello and goodbye then, I guess," Twilight responded. She looked at the other ponies in the room before exclaming, "Hello, everypony!"

The pink earth pony jumped up and screamed, "Twilight! You're here!"

The white unicorn slowly stood from her seat next to the yellow pegasus and said, "Oh, wonderful, we can finally start."

The dragon jumped off of the purple pony's back and yelled, "Great! I could use some food."

Twilight Sparkle looked down at Spike before looking around at the four other ponies in the room. She bit her lip and squinted her eyes, obviously going into deep thought.

"Oh, no, Twilight! What's the matter?" asked a quiet voice that Twilight recognized to be Fluttershy's.

The unicorn groaned before answering. "It's just... Why was Applejack in such a rush to leave? She could buck the apples off of the trees any time that she wants."

Now all of them were curious.

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Applejack was running as fast she could. She had to get there in time. She knew that her friends would figure out her lie; she wasn't very good at lying. She might have been the Spirit of the Element of Honesty, but she couldn't let her friends know what she was doing.

She turned a corner and stopped. "'Ello, Flim. 'Ello, Flam," she greeted the twins with distaste.

"Oh, you made it," said one of the twins, although Applejack couldn't tell which was which.

"Splendid," said the other twin evilly.

"Now let's see if you're hooves can outrun our latest contraption!" the first twin that spoke challenged.

Applejack accepted with, "You're on."

The twins turned to each other. The one on Applejack's left said to the one on her right, "Alright, Flam, put them on, then." Flam pulled out what looked like four hunks of metal reforged to fit hooves in. Applejack looked at them in confusion.

Flam slipped his hooves into the four metal shoes. He patted the ground with his right forehoove. Fire bursted out from the bottom of the boots, lifting Flam into the air. Applejack understood now.

Flim started counting down. "3.. 2.. 1.. GO!"

Applejack ran. Flam flew.

Three minutes into the race, Flam was still ahead. Gah darnit, thought Applejack, I won' be able tah outrun that! She closed her eyes, tilted her head, and ran faster.

Applejack couldn't see it through her closed eyelids. She couldn't of stopped it from happening. Just seconds after her burst of energy, a black smoke came from between two houses. It engulfed Flam before leaving. It left, and took Flam with it.

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"Applejack!" the five ponies and one dragon were yelling across Ponyville. "AAAPLEJAAACK!"

The only place that they didn't yet look for her was at the place where she was most likely to be: her own home and farm, Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack wasn't exactly the smartest pony, but she was smart enough to know how to hide.

Maybe that was exactly it. Maybe Applejack actually was hiding at Sweet Apple Acres because she knew that her friends wouldn't look there. Fluttershy didn't know how that didn't hit her sooner. She explained it to her friends, putting a look of revelation on all of their faces.

Fluttershy was right. Applejack was hiding at Sweet Apple Acres.

"Ah'm mighty sorry, girls, but ah really don' wanna talk right now," Applejack cried through her bedroom door.

"Oh, come on, Applejack. It's us, your friends," soothed Twilight. "You can tell us anything. Now, what happened?"

"Ah really don' wanna.. Oh, fine. Come on in. This is gonna be a long story."

Pinkie Pie opened the door and bounced in with her eyes closed and a grin on her face. The smile died when she saw Applejack's frown and eyes studying the floor. The others followed Pinkie into the room, more aware that Applejack wouldn't be smiling.

"Alrighty, then. You girls remember Flim and Flam?"

"Those brutes who tried to run Sweet Apple Acres out of business?" Rarity questioned.

"Yeah, them. Well, every now and then, they come back to Ponyville."

"Really? How come I've never seen them around?" It was Twilight's turn to ask a question.

"Well, y'see, they hide. They hide in bushes, trees, and alleys."

"Well, um, what do they do here?" asked Fluttershy.

"They talk to me. They get me tah help 'em test their fancy machines by testin' my physical abilities against the abilities of the machine."

"And you agreed to do that?" Rainbow Dash was surprised.

"Well, they paid me a fine amount."

"You lied to your friends and snuck around our backs for money?" Rarity inquired, shocked that her friend would do such a thing.

"Ah wasn' thinkin' right when we made the deal. It was only suppos' tah happen a few times, but they kept comin' back. Ah bit off more than ah could chew."

Pinkie was about to ask a question, but Applejack burst out, "Gah darnit! Just, please let me finish." She then continued her story. "Today, they were testin' some flyin' shoes. Ah had tah race.." Applejack closed her eyes as a tear came from each. "...Flam."

Pinkie galloped to Applejack and asked, "Applejack? Why are you crying? What happened with the race?"

Applejack tilted her head to the side. She then continued, "Do yah see how ah look right now? Mah eyes closed, mah head tilted, mah mouth quiverin'? This is what ah did. Ah closed mah eyes. Flam disappeared. Ah didn' see how."

Everypony gasped.

"Flim blamed me. Ah can understan' you girls not knowin' why ah care all that much. Flim thinks that ah'm a murderer, and if he thinks ah'm a murderer, he might tell others that ah'm a murderer."

"Oh no..," was all that Fluttershy could muster.

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The black fog came out of the hut's doors through the cracks. The zebra wouldn't notice anything. Well, she might of noticed that she had a bit less Heart's Desire.

The mist went under the trees before taking shape. It had the figure of a unicorn stallion with both black fur and black mane.

Finally, a horn, he thought. He then thought aloud in a snakelike voice, "Now I am in possession of magic. This well help me greatly."

The shadow pony's horn glew a light black, as did a blob of air in front of him. Inside of the glowing bubble appeared a tall, yellow, unicorn stallion.

"You will prove useful to me," hissed the dark figure, "with your mechanical skills."

"What do you mean? What do you want from me?" questioned the scared pony.

"You will help me. If needed, you will build or destroy machines for me."

"And what if I disagree?"

The shadow pony snickered and grinned slightly before answering with a glow of his horn.

Flam screamed.

Five ponies and a dragon were standing in front of a fence. All of them had a look on their faces that showed that they were both confused and worried. They're most honest friend had lied to them, but that same friend was accused of something that she did not do. None of them knew how to react.

"Maybe Flim can tell us more about what happened," Rainbow Dash interrupted the silence.

"Yeah, and we can explain to him that Applejack didn't do anything wrong!" proclaimed an excited Spike.

They agreed to split up and search for their friend's accuser. Spike pulled out a map that showed both the town and the Everfree Forest. Twilight divided the map into six equal fragments and gave everyone there a piece.

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Flam groaned. The dark figure that was walking beside him complained, "Quit whining. It was only a few bones. I could have done much worse."

"What is your goal?" the mechanic changed the subject.

"Why is my goal of your concern?" the shadow of a pony replied, suprised at the question and the hatred in the unicorn's tone.

"It became my concern when you kidnapped me," Flam replied harshly.

"Kidnapping you was a necessity to complete my goal. You being away from your brother will help me more than you will by my side."

"What?" Flam looked at the dark unicorn with surprise.

"I said-"

"I know what you said," Flam interrupted, "but how do you know?"

"How do I know about what?" inquired the shadow pony.

"How do you know about my brother?"

"My dear Flam, I know more about you than you know about yourself. If I were to tell you all of it, we would be here all day," stated the dark stallion while grinning.

Flam still didn't know how his kidnapper knew about his sibling, nor did he know how the other pony knew his name. Flam decided not to ask any more questions that would be answered with riddles. "And exactly how much time do we have?"

"None to waste."

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I'll never find him, thought the baby dragon as he walked in between two buildings. He's probably not even in Ponyville anymore.

Just as Spike finished thinking his depressing thought, he bumped into a white-and-blue striped shirt. He fell backward and looked straight up at a pair of lime green eyes staring at him from a yellow face.

"Flim!" Spike proclaimed. "Finally, I've found you! My friends want to-"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOUR FRIENDS WANT TO DO!" Flim interrupted. "Your friend," he started saying angrily, but paused, "killed my brother."

"No! She didn't kill anypo-"

"SHUT UP! You will not trick me." It seemed to Spike that Flim had a hard time getting those words to come out of his mouth. Flim stared at Spike with hatred for a few more seconds before a single tear grazed his cheek.

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The shadow pony was in the lead. His new "assistant" didn't know where they were going. He stopped suddenly, Flam walking into his flank and bouncing back. The black unicorn left his pony shape, turning into a dark fog again. The fog engulfed Flam and went into a bush.

"Hm Hm, Hm Hm, Hmmm," hummed a yellow pegasus as she slowly stepped into the forest.

A tree's leaves rustled. The mare was frightened by the small sound. She swung her head around, looking for the source of the sound as she slowly backed away. Her bright pink mane was ruffled by the amount of shaking her head did.

The tree rustled again. The pegasus shrieked and ran out of the forest. A cylindrical white head popped out of the tree leaves.

The shadow came out of the bush. It took a unicorn's shape once more. "Well, that was a minor annoyance," he muttered to himself. With a glow of his horn, he summoned Flam.

"Can you please not do that?" Flam requested.

"No. It's the only way to hide you."

"What do I need to be hidden from?"

"Everypony but me."

Flam was not surprised at this reply. "So I won't be able to talk to anypony ever again?"

"Maybe one day."

Flam couldn't think of anything to say, so he changed the subject. "What was that pony afraid of, anyway?"

The shadow unicorn nodded in the general direction of the tree that was rustling.

Flam looked at the feather-covered head that was in the tree. "Uh. She was afraid of a chicken?"

"That is no chicken. Don't look it in the eye."

Flam glared at his kidnapper for a minute before clenching his eyes shut. He doubted that the other stallion was lying because there was no reason to get rid of him.

The other pony turned back into a shadow. The dark fog that he now was flew up to the tree and engulfed the chicken-like creature. He then flew back down, returning to pony form. The chicken imposter fell out of the tree, revealing a long, green body and wings that looked like they belonged to a dragon.

"What was that thing?" Flam questioned in what could be interpreted as either shock or awe.

"A cockatrice. Half chicken, half dragon. If you look it in the eye, you turn to stone."

"And what exactly did you do to it?"

"I didn't kill it."

"That isn't what I asked."

"But it is all I care to tell you. You do not need to know the answer to your question."

Flam didn't reply. He didn't want his bones broken again.

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The princess could feel it. She knew that there was a sad pony crying in her home. She could sense that she had five friends searching for the person that caused her despair. She knew that there was a brother in despair and a dragon in trouble. Worst of all, she felt the presence of an evil being, a presence stronger than that of anything that she had felt before.

She knew what was coming. She knew what happened. She knew what would happen, what would happen to Twilight, to Twilight's friends, to her own sister, and to herself. She knew it, and she feared it.

They were gathred in the Ponyville Library, Twilight Sparkle's home. A white body was laying in the middle of the room. Rainbow Dash could see every one of the poor pony's bones through her fur. Her pink mane was wet from tears that fell from the eyes of the unicorn standing over her.

Twilight Sparkle was the one that was mourning. Tears fell from her eyes like rain falls in a thunderstorm. Her fur was matted with blood. She was wearing a golden tiara with a purple six-sided star attached to the top. The crown slipped off of her head when she tilted it down further. It hit the floor and shattered. The unicorn then looked up and stared angrily at a pony that was pitch black in both fur and mane.

The dark figure's eyes were calm while he stared back at Twilight Sparkle, but his mouth was smirking and an occasional giggle escaped his throat. Two ponies, a yellow stallion and a blue mare, bit their lips while glancing back and forth between the staring contest's contestants.

Rainbow Dash didn't want to see anymore. She turned her head away to see how the others in the room were doing. She didn't like what she saw.s

She couldn't tell if they were unconcious or if they were dead.

Rainbow shut her eyes as tight as she could. A tear escaped one. She realized that she didn't remember what happened. She didn't know who the dead pony was. She had no recollection of the attachment between the deceased and herself. For some reason, she still wanted to cry for her.

I can't cry, Dash thought to herself, I never cry.

"It doesn't have to come to this," a soothing, very feminine voice came to Rainbow's ears.

"What can I do to stop it?" the pegasus muttered.

"You must talk to Applejack. Learn about what happened and warn your friends."

"I'll do my best." Rainbow was still mumbling.

A more sinister voice then hit Rainbow Dash's ears. If snakes could talk, that voice is what Rainbow would imagine them to sound like. "Silly pony, you cannot change the future. Everything is already in motion."

Rainbow Dash jolted awake. She couldn't think straight. What just happened? Where have I seen that white mare before, and why am I attached to her so much? Rainbow knew that the answers to her questions wouldn't be answered for awhile.

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"Are you sure about this, Tia?"

Princess Celestia looked down at her sister sadly. "It is the only way to keep us safe."

They were in the hallway of the Archives, a library in Canterlot dedicated to protecting old scrolls, books, stories, and spells. Several doors were on each side of them, all labeled with a name or date.

"Philomena!" Celestia called for her pet phoenix. The bird flew onto Celestia's shoulder from behind Luna. "Hide in the StarSwirl the Bearded room. If you hear anyone come in, play dead."

Philomena flew ahead and turned at an intersection between hallways. The princesses went the opposite direction.

"So are you going to tell me about your dream, Luna?" Celestia asked.

Luna looked at the floor with watering eyes and whispered, "'What shall happen will give all tears, as it will be worse than our worst fears.'"

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Twilight Sparkle opened the door to the tree that she called home. "Spiiiiike?" she called out. "Where could he have gone?"

The unicorn walked into the middle of the room. She felt something under her hooves. She grabbed whatever it was with magic and pulled it up by her face. It was an envelope. It tore open with a purple flash of her horn, and a letter fell out.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

You're dragon seems to have gotten loose. I found him wandering the streets of Ponyville all by himself. He stayed with me last night in Manehatten. You should probably come and get him. Oh, and don't forget to bring your friend, Applejack. I'd really like to see her again.

Sincerely,

Flim

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"I'm hungry," Flam told his captor.

Oh, great. He's complaining again. "Stop whining or I'll feed you to the Ursa Minor."

Flam kept quiet for awhile after that. Good. He has enough sense to know that I have the ability to force him to the monster's cave. He should have enough sense not to betray me.

"So, where are we headed?" Flam asked.

They stopped walking on the edge of the Everfree Forest. "We are going to the library to..." The black pony paused for a few seconds before continuing, "...collect something."