Several months had passed since Xenia had been forcefully dropped into Equestria. Months full of many disappointments, but also the occasional good day. No real progress was made in discovering how to get Discord's power back, but everyone seemed fine with this, despite Xenia sometimes losing control. At least it wasn't as calculated as Discord when he used it.

However, a whole new time was about to begin, and it all started on Xenia's eighteenth birthday.

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"Surprise!"

Xenia took in her rather quickly decorated room, eyebrow raised at the pink mare no doubt behind it all.

"You really are the fastest thing I have ever met. I only went to the bathroom for a minute."

Pinkie Pie hopped up to her, a grin splitting her face. "Yepparoo! Now come on, birthday girl, it's time to get your biggest, most ubber super duper important birthday party started!"

Chuckling and shaking her head, Xenia stepped inside, closing the door behind her.

The bedroom she had been given by Twilight was stuffed to the brim with decorations, streamers, banners, confetti, balloons, and a very large dining table filled with delectable birthday treats.

How the hell did she manage all this?

Shaking her head again, Xenia joined the ponies gathered in her overly-festive bedroom. The party guests consisted of Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Twilight, Applejack, and of course, Pinkie, as well as Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and even Zecora had grudgingly made an appearence. There were several more ponies she barely recognized, like Derpy, Ditzy, Carrot Top, Bon Bon, and.... Xenia shuddered. Lyra.

The aquamarine mare was out on the door floor, eyes closed, grooving to the beat provided by Vinyl. The first meeting with the human-obsessed mare had gone a little, oh what was the word... Fucking crazy! Xenia had no idea what was wrong with that pony, but she didn't really want to know. At least Lyra had cooled down quickly after Bon Bon's intervention.

As Xenia reached for a cupcake, she paused, realizing there was one party guest missing.

Where is Discord?

It's true that the two still didn't get along all that great, but they managed to tolerate each other's presence. You'd think Twilight would have made him come, to at least show a little bit of manners and support her.

Oh well.

Shrugging, Xenia went to take a bite of her chocolate with vanilla icing cupcake, but then then the door opened, and the whole party froze, Vinyl stopping her disks with a very cliche screeching sound.

Standing at the door was Discord, and two ponies stood next to him. Two ponies Xenia had only heard others talk about in reverent whispers. Two ponies she had never hoped to meet, for they had only two equals, and one of them was the lavender alicorn standing next to her.

Striding into the room, Celestia glanced around the party. Her eyes stopped when they landed on Xenia, and she beckoned her sister into the room. Together, Celestia and Luna walked gracefully over, their manes flowing calmly in an invisible wind.

Stopping in front of the human, who still had her mouth open to eat the cupcake, Celestia cleared her throat.

"You are Xenia Mersla, I presume?"

Snapping her mouth shut, Xenia set the cupcake back on the table before giving back Celestia her whole and undivided attention. "Yes. Princess Celestia, isn't it? And Princess Luna?"

The two sisters nodded, then exchanged a look. Celestia spoke up again, saying, "I know this is probably an inconvenient time, since, judging from the banners, it is your eighteenth birthday party, but we feel we need to speak with you. In Canterlot. We were hoping you might accompany us."

Pinkie now spoke, a slightly aghast look on her face. "But what about her birthday? You can't not have somep-"

The pink earth pony was quieted by a wing in her mouth as Rainbow shut her up, a sheepish, awkward grin on her face. "Ehehehe...continue," invited the rainbow-maned pegasus.

Xenia's eyes found that of the raiser of the sun. She knew the suggestion wasn't really a suggestion. These alicorns had probably wanted speak to her since she got here, but had held off, probably because of Twilight. Now, there was no more time. It was time to talk to the ones in charge.

Slowly, everypony began to realize what was really going on, and the room began to empty out, ponies shuffling awkwardly though the door. By the time it was all said and done, only the Mane 6, Discord, Xenia, and the royal sisters were left. Even the old CMC and Zecora were gone.

As soon as it was just them, Xenia answered the Princess.

"Alright. Let's get this over with."

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The city of Canterlot was a majestic sight, perched on the side of a mountain, a large marble castle towering over the city and its citizens.

It was in this castle where Xenia now sat with the three alicorns, silence stretching between them as a servant pony poured them some tea then left.

Blinking, Xenia picked up the cup and inspected it, sloshing the contents inside as she looked at the dark green liquid, cleary uninterested.

Celestia was the first to speak. "So, I have heard of the predicament between you and Discord. I wish I could help you, but even I have no spells to help. I presume my sister doesn't either."

Luna shook her head as she took a sip from her cup of steaming green tea. Xenia sighed, shrugging as she looked at the sisters. "It is alright. I just wish I knew how it even happened. I'm not really certain since I can't look into other's head, but I don't believe the way my mind reacted was normal for humans. I know power draining isn't. I just wish the future didn't look so uncertain right now."

The three princesses exchanged a look, then Celestia said, "I will further discuss that with you in a minute. Right now, I want to show you something."

Standing, Celestia headed towards a set of stairs. Shrugging, Xenia got up and followed the solar princess. At the top of the stairs were a set of glass doors, which lead out onto the second highest balcony of the castle. It offered a beautiful, unobstructed view of Equestria, all the way to the distant cloud city of Cloudsdale to the shining lights of Applewood. Even Xenia could not resist letting out an awed wow as she looked across the country.

Standing besides her, Celestia smiled. "Many things are unclear when it comes to the future, Xenia. We have no real hope of knowing what is coming. All we can do is prepare. Are you ready for the challenges you will face?"

Shifting her gaze back to Celestia, Xenia nodded. "Of course, Celestia, I'm not about to let- URK!"

As she spoke, Xenia had glanced back at Equestria, but instead of the beautiful twilight-washed scene from before, there now stood an empty, black, desolate landscape. Blinking and rubbing her eyes, Xenia opened them to find it back to normal, until she blinked again. For each confused and horrified blink, the landscape flickered, turning from awe-inspiring to an empty husk.

It was then the familiar migraine sensation began. Unprepared after all her semi-peaceful months, Xenia gripped her head, exclaiming, "Fuck!"

Celestia, concerned, raised a hoof to place on her shoulder, but the human girl shied away, her breathing starting to come in irregular gasps. "No...don't...," she panted out, a war raging on in her head as she tried to contain her pain.

As her migraine pushed harder, Xenia could no longer take it, and she let a scream fill the calm Equestrian skies. The sound of running hoofsteps was heard as Twilight and Luna rushed up the stairs to find out what was wrong. The sight they found, and what happened just after their arrival, horrified them.

Xenia, still clutching her head, her face contorted in pain, was stumbling away from the princesses, a voice at the back of her head telling her not to let them near her. Unfortunately, she did not watch where she was going, nor where her feet landed, and before anyone could do anything, the teenager had tripped over her own feet and plunged over the edge of the balcony, three terrified yells following her as she fell towards the mountainside.

The last thing Xenia remembered seeing was a dark grey blur rushing towards her, then nothing.