After breakfast, and spending a little time with her friends, Twilight began to feel a little better-- at least more awake.

Pinkie took a huge whiff of the air, “Ahh…! Smell that fresh morning air! Feel that warm sun! What a day to be alive and with friends, huh…?”

“You got it, sugar-cube.” remarked Applejack. “What’cha think, Twilight?” but Twilight was still looking lost in her thoughts, making her friends sigh. “I don’t think she’ll ever snap out of this.” groaned Rainbow.

“Poor Twilight.” added Fluttershy.

As the gang continued to walk forth, they suddenly noticed many royal guards were placed all over; in front of homes, shopping centers, even in the playgrounds.

Twilight finally snapped to her senses. “Why are all the royal guards out here like this?” she asked aloud. “I sincerely hope nothing is wrong.” said Rarity.

The girls approached one of the guards and asked, to which the guard replied by showing them all a document, “Princess Celestia has ordered armed guards to be placed all over every city in Equestria on a constant vigil. We don’t understand why, but our orders are to maintain shifts and keep tabs and every single aspect that occurs.”

Rainbow checked the document, “What?! We’re not allowed to be out after sundown?” she whined. This disturbed the other ponies as well. “That’s what it says…” said Twilight “These orders came from both Princess Celestia and Luna: No pony is allowed out of their homes after dark.”

“But, why?” asked Fluttershy. “I’m sorry, but I cannot say.” replied the guard “We don’t make the orders, we just follow them. Now if you’ll all excuse me…” and he went off on his patrol.

“What in the name of Equestria’s goin’ on here?” Applejack wondered aloud, but Twilight began to have that sickly feeling again and figured Celestia had a nightmare just like hers, which could only confirm that something really big was indeed on its way, and all these guards were getting ready for whatever it would be.

The ponies still had no choice but to comply with the rules that were now set, and tried not to let it bother them for the rest of their day.

A few weeks had past, and Starlight Glimmer had finally come back to the castle. “I’m home…” she called. She was escorted in by guards who helped her with her luggage. “Just put it right there.” she instructed. The guards complied and set her bags down by the door and then left to get back on their patrols.

Twilight and Spike came out to greet her. “Welcome back, Starlight.” said Spike. Starlight smiled, and was about to explain about her vacation, when Twilight approached her and anxiously asked “Did anything unusual happen in Canterlot?”

Starlight was a bit freaked out by Twilight’s unusual reaction and she answered “Um… No; except for all the guards about roaming about; nothing out of the ordinary.”

Twilight flopped down softly.

“What’s wrong?”

Spike motioned her to come closer and whispered into her ear, “She thinks there’s something dangerous on the way. She’s been freaking out at almost every little thing for weeks. I’m really getting worried about her.”

Starlight hadn’t even been home five minutes, and already she, too, was feeling worried for Twilight, and she comforted her friend. “Twilight, nothing’s gone wrong, and if something is going to happen--”

“I know… I know…” Twilight cut in, and she smiled “As long as we and our friends stick together, we can overcome anything. I just really wish I knew what was coming. Then maybe we could stop it before it came and tried anything.”

A moment of silence occurred, until Starlight broke it, “Come on, I want to tell you guys all that I did in Canterlot, and about Sunburst.”

Meanwhile, the Teen Titans were growing very concerned; all these weeks and there was not a trace of Beast Boy anywhere. Robin had even sent word to other Teen Titan outlets and allied teams to help with the search, but even then it was no good. Even with all the computers, psychics and scanners, they just couldn’t locate him, like he had dropped off the face of the Earth!

“Perhaps, he does not wish to be found?” wondered Starfire.

“It’s possible…” said Raven, “We were pretty hard on him, and so was everyone else. I don’t think even I’d come back.”

This only made Starfire feel like crying, and Robin comforted her, “Easy, Star… we have to keep on trying.”

“I wish to believe that, but I do not know how much longer I can hold my faith.” She wasn’t trying to be dramatic, she really meant it. At the moment, she wanted nothing more than for Beast Boy to come home and hopefully she could make it up to him for the way she acted with him.

Cyborg wished it too. He was really missing his little green buddy, and was just as sorry as Starfire was. “Friend Cyborg, is there any news?” Starfire asked. Cyborg looked at her sadly and shook his head, “It’s all quiet, Star. No one’s heard anything, but they said they’d call as soon as they knew.”

Starfire hung her head low, and then turned to face Raven, wanting ask her to do another psychic-contact, but Raven shook her head, “I’ve already tried a million times. Trying it again will only come up with the same answers.”

Now it was Robin’s turn to sigh as he looked out the window at the city. “How could this happen?” he kept asking himself “How could such a few small arguments and changes cause all this?” but deep down he knew the answer. His guilty conscience continued to eat at him for all the things he said to Beast Boy; for being too hard with him.

Elsewhere, someone else’s guilty conscience was catching up with her.

Ever since the incident at school, Terra hadn’t gone back, and didn’t even return to her home… wherever that was, she just spent her days. Scavenging for whatever she could find, and often sitting alone in the streets so people would drop space change in an old can she had found, but by this point she was really looking dirty and out of shape.

Her school uniform, the only thing she had to wear was all dark and splotched, and covered in filth, but given her past experiences, she managed to hang in there, but it wasn’t doing her any good. “I can’t keep up like this.” she said to herself as she walked through the streets “I’ve been going to school for so long I’ve lost touch with my adventurous ways.”

She stopped, and gazed a way over at Titan’s Tower across the water. All this time she had been having thoughts of going there, and maybe seeking a little help and shelter from the Titans, but then her guilty conscience got to her again, especial considering looking up at the Tower made her think of Beast Boy, and how he was gone, and it was largely her fault for it.

All this time and she still couldn’t get over it. How could she? She didn’t exactly have much now to distract herself with. She had nowhere to go, no one to turn to, and she couldn’t go back to school or her former friends. She even thought about maybe leaving town, going someplace else and trying to start all over again…

…Yeah right! That was how she ended up where she was in the first place, and she swore she didn’t want to venture out like that again.

She stopped and looked at her reflection in a store window, and she really didn’t like what she saw. She even felt her reflection, actually her conscience, guilt tripping her as he balked at her, “I hope you’re finally proud of yourself!”

Terra tried to argue back with herself, “I didn’t mean it to go this way. I just didn’t want to hurt anyone anymore.”

“Well guess what… you did anyway! So much for your changes… how are you going to change things now?”

Her conscience said no more and her reflection went back to normal, making her freak out and run down the street and running past a lot of people. “Somebody, please…!” she said softly, “Send me a sign! Give me help! Show me what I have to do!”

Sadly, nothing happened, and all she could do was endure the endless amounts of inner trauma that weren’t through torturing her.

The next morning in Equestria, the sun rose into the sky, and Twilight was sleeping peacefully. Surprisingly, she didn’t have her warning nightmare and made it through the whole night, but she and Spike were suddenly awoken by the knocking on her bedroom door.

“Ugh! What now…?!” Spike groaned, and he pulled his blanket over his head, while Twilight stepped out of bed and answered the door. “What’s wrong, Starlight?” she groggily asked.

Starlight levitated the magical message book used to contact with Sunset Shimmer in the human world. “It just started glowing and there was urgent message inside.”

Twilight snapped awake almost at once, “Let me see this…” and she looked at the message written on the page. It read:

…That was it. It just stopped and didn’t go any further. “Why did she just stop?” Starlight wondered. Twilight didn’t know either, but she closed the book and decided to go to the human world and investigate.

“Come on, Spike! We’ve got work to do.”

Spike groaned in his basket, “Just give me ten more minutes.” but Twilight wouldn’t hear of it and she levitated his blankets off of him and then floated himself onto her back, “…Come on!”

Soon the Crystal Mirror was all powered up, thanks to her smart magical tinkering with it, and Twilight and Spike were ready to go. “I’ve already sent word to Princess Celestia. You hold down the castle until we get back.” Twilight said to Starlight. She nodded and wished them good look.

The Mirror activated, and off they went...!

The arrived in the human world outside of the broken stature, Twilight had turned into a human and Spike changed into his cute little dog form, but what they saw made them gasp and nearly forget how to blink…!

Canterlot High; it was completely totaled! The entire building was collapsed into a mountain of rubble, and the area around it was no better looking. The roads were all cracked and torn up, the grass and trees were all burned into black piles of ash, small fires were spread about, and worse than that… there were corpses! Everywhere they looked there were dead bodies of humans all over the place. Somebodies lay on the ground; others had been sliced in half so only half their bodies were seen, exposing the ugly, goriness of their insides.

Spike felt sick to his stomach, so did Twilight, but she looked all around the area. “What in the world happened here?” she asked quietly and fearfully. So many dead bodies of all the students at Canterlot High, even Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna were among the pile, and very dead!

Suddenly Spike yelled out to her, “Twilight… over here! Quick!!” Twilight dashed over, and skidded to a halt. There, right before her and Spike was another load of dead bodies… the bodies of her friends! The human counterparts of her friends in Equestria…

Rarity… Pinkie Pie… Rainbow Dash… Fluttershy… Applejack, even Flash Sentry and her own human counterpart, they all looked as if they had put through a meat-grinder; drenched in blood, dislocated arms and legs with bones sticking out.

Finally, they saw her; Sunset Shimmer, at least it was her head… just the head, no body!

Spike jumped into Twilight’s arms in fright, and Twilight began to feel her own fear catching up with her, only for them to fade off into shock and extreme sadness. “No…” she cried softly “Sunset… my friends… they’re all dead!”

Tears started falling from her face, and she was so upset and shocked she could hardly bring herself to sob. “I don’t get it. What happened here? What did all this?!”

Spike looked up at the sky and stared in shock at something, “Um… Twilight…”

Through her tears, Twilight looked up; “Huh…?” she couldn’t believe what she saw.

There, in the skies, there was a strange phenomenon; a small little speck of gathering darkness. It looked like a miniature black hole.

Hundreds of miles away in Jump City, they Titans could see it too. “What is it?” asked Robin. Cyborg tried to scan it with every computer program he had, “Whatever it is, it’s unknown.”

“Perhaps it is merely a tiny storm cloud?” suggested Starfire. “I don’t think so…” said Robin “We’d be able to tell if it’s cloud. It looks more like… a hole in the sky.”

Raven took a long look at the object, and though she had never seen such a thing, she suddenly shivered. “Raven…?” asked Robin. “I’m okay…” replied Raven “I’m just getting a really weird feeling.”

Before she could go on, the alarms sounded. There was trouble in the city! “Titans, Go!” shouted Robin. “But wait…!” cried Starfire “Beast Boy, he is not with us.”

“We can’t worry about that now.” retorted Cyborg. With that, even Starfire complied and dashed off with her team.

Deep in town, the people were running and screaming in panic as powerful explosions ruptured in the city, blowing up building, rupturing the ground and harming people in the way.

The cause of this was three sinister beings!

Kamica: A humanoid woman whom had tan colored skin, and long fluffy brown hair that ran down past her back, with a blue ribbon dangling from the side. She wore a red silky blouse that had only one sleeve on her left arm, a black windbreaker skirt, a long tall black boot on her left leg, and a simple red sandal shoe on her right. In her right hand she wielded a long dao sword, which not only could cut through even some of the solid materials like rock and metal, it could also unleash waves of burning plasmatic energy.

She snickered sinisterly at the terrified humans, “Run, it only makes it more exciting for me.” Then she gave her sword a single slash at the air, sending out a wave of energy that blew holes in several buildings, damaged the streets, and brutally killed anyone who was in the way.

Next there was…

Sir. Elik: He was a knight type figure, covered from head to toe in silvery armor, and a red cape to top it off. Not a single feature of him could be seen, as it was all hidden behind his armor. Not only was he physically strong, but he had the power to create static discharges and fired power lightning bolts, hence his knight name, “Elik” like “Electricity!”

“Have I got a shock for you puny creatures.” he hissed and he fire loads of lightning strikes blasting everything in his path and frying anyone who got hit into ashes, while all he could do was laugh maliciously.

Finally, there was…

Pyrus: A seemingly middle aged humanoid woman dressed in a blue monk’s robe, with a hood and red sash. She truly lived up to her name, “Pyrus” as she had the power to breath immense flames form her mouth and shoot fire blasts from her hands.

The police and swat teams rammed straight for her in their cars, but she only shook her head in dismay and hissed “Time to turn up the heat.” And she took a huge breath in and unleashed a massive flame-wall, blowing up the cars and roasting the men to a pile of burning corpses.

Pyrus snickered, “Too hot to handle.”

She then met up with her colleagues. “This is place is even whimper than that school we just trashed.” said Kamica. “Perhaps…” agreed Elik “But I am enjoying this destruction, the scrimmage of the humans as we wipe them out.”

“So, who or what should we destroy next?” asked Pyrus.

“How about us…?” Robin snapped as he and the Titans stood firm staring them down. “I don’t know who you three are, but you’re going to pay dearly for what you just did!”

“Mindless destruction… Murder of innocent being…?!” cried Starfire “Who do you think you are?!”

The three villains chuckled. “Who are we?” Kamica asked playfully, “…Your worst nightmares!”

Robin had heard enough, “Get them!” and he and the Titans sprung forth.

Robin drew out his metal-staff and took one swing at Kamica, but she swerved and countered with her sword actually slicing the staff in two. “Is that all you’ve got?” she taunted!

Robin angrily began to punch and kick at her, but she skillfully swerved and evaded every single one before kick tripping him. Robin retaliated by flinging his disc bombs at her, but blasted the all with a single energy wave unleashed from her sword.

“Pathetic!” Kamica groaned, and she leapt up high to come down and cut him in two, but Starfire shot at her with her eye-rays. “You will not harm my boyfriend!” she thundered.

Kamica, surprising unharmed by the blast smirked wickedly at her, “Bring it on, skank. I’m not scared. Not as much as you’ll be!”

Starfire took great offense to that and rushed forth.

Cyborg lunged at Elik and aimed a huge punch at him, but Elik caught his fist in his hand with ease. “Impressive!” he said before socking him hard in the gut with his other fist and sending Cyborg skidding along the ground and hitting a lamppost.

“Now I’m mad!” Cyborg thundered as he bolted up right and fired his sonic-canon at full-power at the knight, but he simply shielded himself with his cape and deflected the blast off to crash into a building, blowing a huge chunk out of it, much to Cyborg shock, “Shit!” he thundered, and then Elik lunged at him, and the two met in a strength struggle.

“Give it up, you metallic moron!” Elik growled.

“(Bleep) you, Tin-man!” cussed Cyborg, but Elik began to shock him with small jolts of electricity, forcing him to let go. He was then kicked hard and knocked down. “You don’t stand a chance against The Dark Prognosticus!”

Raven froze in midair, “…The Dark Prognosticus?!”

“That’s right!” hissed Pyrus, and she fired a few fireballs at her, which Raven dodged, and the fire hit the building instead. Pyrus then unleashed a strong flaming breath, forcing Raven to shield herself with a magical dark wall, but even still, the flames were so powerful they actually shattered through the magic and knocked Raven to the ground hard.

Kamica then punched Starfire hard, and send her crashing into Robin, and Elik threw a huge bolt of lightning that Cyborg barely dodged, but the explosion was strong enough to send him sailing hard into a brick wall.

A little ways away, Terra was horrified to see such destruction in the streets and on the buildings, not to mention hundreds of corpses of people who had been bloody gored or roasted to death lying in the streets. “What in the Hell…?!” she said to herself, and then she heard a loud crash.

She dashed up the street follow the sound, and turned a corner to see the Titans getting thrashed about by the villains.

The titans were all looking beat up and were badly bruised. “They’re so strong!” said Robin “Our attacks can hardly get at them!”

“I think… they are… the toying with us.” groaned Starfire.

The three villains snickered and Kamica admitted, “We are… and it was fun while it lasted.” Elkid stepped forth, “But we’ve wasted enough time here. We can’t destroy all worlds if we’re always playing with wimps like you.”

The Titans’ stomach’s churned, “Destroy… all worlds?” asked Cyborg.

“Yes: Destroy… All… Worlds!” sneered Pyrus “You know; obliterate! Kill! Wipe out of existence …All gone!”

The Titans all exchanged extreme looks of concern, and Raven felt more upset than ever, worrying if this was truly the work of The Dark Prognosticus, even though she swore it was locked up in her room at the tower!

“Now then…” Kamica hissed as her blade powered up, Elik’s gloves began to spark, and Pyrus’ eyes blazed with flames, ready for the kill. The Titans knew they couldn’t get away in time, and Raven couldn’t shield them with her powers, but just as the villains were about to fire…

Terra leapt out from around the corner and used her powers to lift the villains high up, up, up on a rock, and then she flung them far, far out to sea.

“Terra!” Robin cried in shock, and all the other Titans were astonished, “It really is you!” cried Starfire. Cyborg and Raven could hardly believe it, and Terra looked at them all, but with a strange expression on her face.

However, the three villains suddenly appeared-- Kamicia in a Flash of Light… Elik in an electrical zap… and Pyrus in a flash of flames-- right back again, much to Terra’s fright.

The three villains glared at her, rather sternly. “Pretty clever; catching us by surprise.” hissed Kamica, “Too bad for you it wasn’t good enough.” added Elik, “Now you shall pay! Get ready to die!” sneered Pyrus.

“Leave her alone!” Robin thundered as he got up and charged at them, but Elik turned round and fired a bolt at him, just barely missing him but grazing him badly.

“Robin!!” shrieked Starfire.

“You wait for your turn!” snapped Elik, and he turned back ready to face the frightened Terra. “Let’s get her!” yelled Kamicia, but just as they were about to fire…

“Stop…!! …Minions!!” shouted a deep and booming voice. The villains stopped dead in their tracks, and looked up at the sky.

“Who said that?” Terra asked. The Titans wondered the same thing, but they could see no one around, nor did they recognize the voice at all.

“Master…?” Elik called out, and the disembodied voice called out to his minions, “That is enough! All of you report back to me, now!”

The minions felt disappointed, but complied with their master’s orders. “You may consider yourselves fortunate…” said Pyrus “But don’t think we won’t be back.” and with that, the Titans and Terra watched as the three villains disappeared and were gone.

Terra never felt so scared before, but she was at least relieved to still be alive, but when the Titans struggled to their feet and attempted to approach her, she ran for it. “Terra…!” Robin called. “Come back!” Starfire called, but she was already out of sight, and the Titans were too sore from their injuries to run after her.

“I can’t believe it.” Cyborg said “She really is back, just like Beast Boy said.” He suddenly groaned feeling all sore and banged up.

Raven first healed herself, and it was painful to move her arms to do so, and then she healed the rest of her friends. “Oh, thank you, Raven!” Starfire said reaching to hug her, but she stopped when Raven gave her a look telling her no hugs!

Still, Terra got away, but that was the least of their problems. A good part of the city was in ruin, and a great number of innocent people had been murdered by those creeps.

“I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do about them now.” said Robin “We better get back to the tower.”

The others reluctantly agreed. “And what of Terra?” asked Starfire “Surely we cannot leave her alone out here should those creatures return.”

The others thought about that, but given Terra and the way she just ran off, they figured it best to just let her be as well.

Meanwhile, Terra was panting heavily, “What did I just do?” she asked herself in shock. She actually tried to help the Titans out, and in a way she saved them all by stalling those three creeps, even though she nearly got killed. Yet she still couldn’t bring herself to actually face them and just ran off.

She didn’t know if what she did was brave, or stupid, or both! “Ugh! What’s wrong with me?!” she yelled up at the sky, “Why can’t I make a proper decision?!”

She had no idea what to act on now, especially with all the danger she had just witnessed-- all the buildings damaged, and people killed… not to mention that mysterious black hole in the sky...!

Elsewhere, there was a lot more going on than the Titans or even the Ponies themselves realized!

Somewhere, in a really dark foreboding place, within the sanctum of an eerie dark fortress, the three minions appeared, and at the back of the sanctum, their master appeared in a flash of dark light. “Count Logan.” Kamica said as she and her colleagues bowed to him.

Their master stepped out from the darkness.

He was a tall and muscular humanoid being, dressed from head-to-toe in a black and shiny outfit, complete with matching gloves, big boots with grey cuffs, and a balaclava hood. Atop his head he wore a tall white top hat with a big blue ribbon across the crown. He had on a pair of thick green armored pads on his shoulders which connected to a tall armored high-collar behind him, supporting a long grey cape with red lining, and over his face he word a full dark grey mask that covered him entirely, leaving only his dark and cold eyes showing. His eyebrows also seemed to magically show through the mask to show his mood.

In his hand he held a tall cane with a blue rhombus jewel at the tip, and floating in mid-air beside him was none other than The Dark Prognosticus itself.

Count Logan looked very displeased as he tapped his cane softly while glaring at his minions. He spoke in a deep dark voice, “I am displeased. I sent you to Earth to have a little practice with your powers, and you seem to have gotten a little carried away.”

He waved his cane in a circle which then showed an image of Terra, “And worse than that, I told you, specifically, not to harm this girl among all others.”

Elik bowed and groveled softly, “Our apologies, My Lord. I suppose we did get carried away. We shan’t let it happen again.”

Logan nodded, “Very good, because I needn’t remind you how vital is we follow instructions closely if our conquest is to succeed.”

The minions all agreed, and that’s when the fifth and final member of their group joined them, appearing in a pixelated wave. He seemed to resemble an old enemy of the Titans-- Gizmo. He was half man, half machine. Short, stumpy with metal platings over half his face, and purple crystal spikes over one half of his head, and he wore a white lab coat too.

“Dr. Nekard… What have you to report?” Logan asked. “Success, My Count...” replied Nekard, “The dimensional rift has already appeared. All is going according to plan.”

Logan nodded and checked the passages in The Dark Prognosticus, reading aloud to everyone: “And as the power of darkness grows, the great void shall appear to annihilate all.” Logan closed the book and snickered, “All is as foretold, but this is only the first step.”

Nekard nodded, “True, but as you have also read, my lord; we can accelerate or progress with the more worlds that we destroy and by other means as well.”

Logan fell silent for a moment and shut his eyes. “Yes…” he hissed, “Slowly but surely, we will erase all worlds from existence, and all lifeforms will fall as well.”

His minions all sighed at the pleasant thought of erasing all worlds. “And then…” said Pyrus, “We can all live happily in our new world; a world made just for us, and never have to suffer from the problems and wickedness of others again.”

“Yes!” said Logan “You all do as you’re told, and I shall make all your dreams come true. Ultimate happiness shall be ours. Now, on your way all of you… we have much to do.”

The three villains bowed to him. “Consider it done, Count!” said Kamica.

“We shall not fail you.” added Elik.

“Off we go then…” said Pyrus, and the three of them vanished.

Before heading off, Nekard spoke to his master, “Parodn me, Count… it might interest you to know that I’ve also detected some interdimensional activity upon the planet Earth. It seems to be a hidden gateway into another realm.”

Logan turned to face him, “We will deal with that later. Right now, we have more pressing matters to attend to.”

Heeding his master’s words, Nekard bowed and vanished leaving the Count by himself. He clutched the book in his hands, “The prophecy of destruction is in motion. All worlds will end.” he said “And there’s not a thing anyone can do to stop it.” He then laughed manically with his voice echoing through the darkness, as he vanished himself.

While somewhere on Earth, a figure hid within the shadows, and gazed up at the blackness with an angry scowl. “Count Logan…!” he grumbled softly, “I swear on my very soul, you will pay dearly for all you have done and what you are doing!”

In his hands, he clutched a book similar to The Dark Prognosticus, only it was light beige, with green linings on the cover forming the shape of a rhombus, with a blue gem in the center.

Without warning, the creature just headed off to await his next move.

Next Chapter: The Awful Truth Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 16 Minutes