"Nope, nope, too wrinkly, has a worm, nope, another worm..." Spike mumbled as he tossed apples from the bucket on Twilight's back, much to her displeasure. While it was nice of him to throw the bad ones out, he didn't really care about the ones he was throwing out, due to the fact that there were quite a few good ones on the ground where he threw them. "Ugh, are we done yet? I'm getting hungry!" He whined.

Twilight rolled her eyes, and replied, "Please, Spike! All you did was lounge on my back, while we did all the work!"

Spike scoffed, and replied, "Yeah, but you both took so long, that I missed my snack time!" Then, a grumbling noise could be heard, but when Twilight looked down, she noticed that it was her stomach that was grumbling.

With a light giggle, she said, "I... guess we were out here for a while, huh?" Applejack nodded her head in agreement.

"I reckon' we could've used Justin's help, after all! What with them hangs on the tips of his forelegs, an' all that!"

"Uh, actually, they're called 'hands'... but yes, I agree." Twilight corrected.

Applejack gave a light chuckle. "Eh, well they do hang around his forelegs, though, so I reckon' I was close enough!"

Suddenly Spike's cheeks puffed out, and before anypony could say anything else, he belched out a green flame, which materialized into a scroll with a red ribbon tying it closed. Twilight quickly looked at it, and floated it towards Spike, who grabbed it, and opened it. "A letter from the princess? What's it say, Spike?" Twilight asked. After clearing his throat, Spike read through the scroll.

"Hear-ye, Hear ye! From Princess Celestia of the Kingdom of Equestria! To celebrate the return of King Solaris, the Father of Princess Luna and I, we are hereby giving you a personal invitation from your three rulers themselves, with tickets to the 'Grand Galloping Gala'! Sincerely, Princess Celestia." Then, he looked at the lower half of the scroll, after skipping through the center. "Enclosed within this envelope is two tickets; one for Justin, and one for any of your friends, Twilight Sparkle. Of course, you have special permissions, and have already been placed in the VIP section, so a ticket will not be necessary. -Princess Celestia."

At first, there was silence. Then, after ten seconds of it, both Twilight and Applejack looked at each other, and yelled, "The Grand Galloping Gala!"

"Okay, then... let' try this again..." Justin said, while sitting in the center of the open fields. So far, he managed to lift himself a foot off of the ground through levitation, but only after twenty failed attempts. Finally, after he started losing his patience, he found himself one meter in the air. The sudden change caused his eyes to widen, while he looked around, shocked at the progress. Once he did so, however, he fell down again.

"Well, at least I know how my powers are operated!" He said, as a smile formed on his face. "It would seem that I run by anger!" With that, he looked at a small bag of dirt that he made out of one of the old flour bags that Twilight busted a while back. Then he looked at his right hand, and closed his eyes, trying to think of something that could infuriate him.

Soon, thoughts of the Figment that he faced earlier popped into his mind, laughing at him, as he stood over him. Soon, Justin felt a hint of heat build up over his hand. Opening his eyes, he saw that a small black fire was hovering over his right hand, not making direct contact, but definitely intimidating enough for him to refuse to feel it, even though he was Undead.

But then, another thought crossed his mind. The thought was of the Figment standing over both, Applejack and Twilight, and laughing at them, while Justin felt helpless inside. Once that thought crossed his mind, the fire began to rapidly grow well over a meter long, until Justin's eyes widened in panic. Soon, he was holding a fireball the size of a boulder over his head, before he began thinking of happy thoughts. Nothing seemed to be working.

Suddenly, a thought of his family popped into his mind, which caught him by surprise. His two brothers were sitting next to him, while his dad took a picture of the three of them sitting on the center of a towel. They were all smiling at the camera, which was on a stand. Before they knew it, their dad began running next to them, and managed to reach the area in time, right as the camera flashed.

Just the thought caused a tear to fall from his eyes, as the fire quickly vanished. Even though he was happy that he figured out how to control his magic now, he still felt a slight emotional pain in his heart. "I'm sorry... I shouldn't cry like this, Daddy... but I can't help it, y'know?" With that, he sat back down Indian-Style, and tried recovering his spent energy though a Meditative Trance again.

"Don't worry! I'll figure it out!" Twilight said, as her friends departed from her, after she recently made an outburst for them to be quiet. "... Somehow." She glumly mumbled, as she lowered her head downward, and began to pout.

The next thing she knew, she was sitting at a table for a fancy restaurant that recently opened up. She was about to grumble about who to give the ticket to, until she spotted a mysterious stallion wearing a black cloak trot past them, looking around. Twilight hummed to herself, before thinking. "There's something fishy about him..." Silently, she slipped off of the haystack she was sitting on, and passed Spike a few bits. "Here you go, Spike. Feel free to order something affordable, and head back to the Library. I need to check something out, right quick." With a nod, Spike started counting the bits, while Twilight silently snuck behind the mysterious figure, who began trotting unusually close to the buildings.

After what felt like a few hours of meditation, Justin stood up, and sighed, before turning towards Ponyville. "Well, I'd better get going, before this storm gets worse..." As he said that, the rain was already pouring over him, but what surprised him was the fact that the clothing he wore wasn't getting affected by the water... almost like he was protected from what he didn't want to happen by a shield of thick air. "Looks like I've got my Wind Magic under control, at least!" As he said that, he felt a strange tingling in the back of his ears, which caused time itself to slow down to a snail's pace again. Looking around, he saw something from far in the distance. The sight caused his eyes to widen, as the hooded stallion that Twilight was following began to stand on two hooves. "No... not here!" He thought, before he burst into a full-speed marathon-like sprint, even though the world around him was still moving at a snail's pace.

As soon as Twilight's eyes caught the sight of the hooded stallion standing on two hooves, she instantly backed up, until it spoke in an unnervingly familiar vampire-like voice. "Ah... long time no see, Twilight Sparkle!" The Figment said, before turning to face her.

"Y-YOU?!" She asked, before nervously backing away slowly, only to bump into something metal behind her. Turning around, her eyes widened as the Figment stood over her, giving her his demented smile, while his right eye's orange lava-like color pierced her with fear.

"I don't have any more patience with you, Twilight Sparkle... I know how much he means to you..." Then, he spoke from behind her ear, which made her jump forward and turn back around at him. "...And I know how much you mean to him!" Finally, she found herself in a neck-grip by the Figment's right metallic claws, which still had a lava-burnt red tint to it. "I shall make sure all of your friends see you like this! Yes, it was me who had this town not accept that puny little human! You know why? Because I planned for him to be alone out there!" Slowly, blood started to fall from Twilight's neck, as the grip of the sharp clawed gauntlet pierced into her skin slowly.

Finally, when she was able to get a good enough breath, she screamed at the top of her lungs in pain, which caused the entirety of the town to look her way, and gasp in horror at the sight that beheld them.

As soon as her screaming ended, the Figment smiled slyly once it heard the sound of thunder building up from the distance. In the blink of an eye, Rainbow Dash bolted towards them, yelling, "TWILIGHT!" Once she was twenty meters away from them, however, she bounced back violently, thanks to a red bubble that was invisible until the second she made contact with it. "LEAVE HER ALONE!" Rainbow shouted at the top of her lungs, not even bothering to fight the tears she was shedding out of both, pain and her friend's safety. Beside her, the other Elements of Harmony gasped at the sight, and galloped towards the bubble, only to be pushed back like Rainbow Dash. Regardless, they all tried even more times to get through the bubble, each time yielding the same results.

Finally, Twilight's eyes filled with tears, and slowly started to close, while the Figment began to chuckle. "As I said before... you are a resilient one... but you won't be able to resist forever..." As soon as he finished saying that, her eyes closed completely, and her breathing made a complete stop. Then, when the Figment looked to it's left, it grinned when it saw Justin rushing head-on towards it, now at the border of Ponyville, but gaining speed quickly.

Finally, when Justin was close enough to see the events that took place, his eyes shot open at Twilight. "T-Twi..." He began, before his hands started to shake.

The Figment gave a short sigh, before replying, "Eh, I'll just give her back to her friends, now... they might need her now, more than ever!" With that, he looked behind his back, and tossed Twilight's body out of the bubble, and into the crowd of five mares, each of which quickly galloped to her, and began crying her name, while trying their best to bring her back.

Then, Spike ran up to her, and gasped loudly. "Twilight?! TWILIGHT?! TWILIGHT! WAKE UP!" He began shouting her name, but to no avail. He quickly threw his head down, and cried audibly over her fore-hooves, which were wrapped over her chest by her friends. The others cried over her as well.

Justin was at the outskirts of the bubble, while the Figment stood there, giving a light chuckle at the sight. Justin, however, was on his knees at this time, with his black hood over his head, and his black sweater within the jacket was zipped over his mouth. He did this beforehand, due to him trying to hide his appearance from the ponies, even though he was the only biped around to his knowledge... besides Spike, that is.

"You..." Justin began quietly, as his hands balled up from his sides. "You... killed... my FRIEND?!" Suddenly, a black and red aura started to flow from Justin, which caused the crowd of ponies that was closest to him to back away quickly. Then, Justin's voice began to get deeper, and from the sound of it, a dark, deeper voice sounded like it was echoing what Justin said next.

"I'm not just going to kill you..." He began, while slowly standing up. Then, his brown Hiking Boots began to turn black, while a black tar-like substance appeared to rise from the boots, and over his jeans, turning it black as well. Once it reached his jacket, the jacket slimmed down to his waistline, which was about one foot wide, and one foot thick. His shoulders broadened out, as his black jacket stretched downward, and took on the shape of a long trench-coat, with a hood added to the top. When the tar-like materials reached his skin, it faded into his eyes, which blackened at the contact, while his skin paled into a pure white color.

Stretching his arms out, his balled-up fists soon materialized two claw-shaped swords that were five feet in length, curved up, and had blades that lowered over the handles, and stretched one foot behind his hands. He pointed the right one at the Figment, and shouted in an even darker-sounding, demon-like voice, which caught the Figment by surprise, as each word caused the ground around them to shake.

Author's Notes:

:SNEAK PEEK:

Sneak-Peek Unavailable...

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To Be Continued...

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