It had to be today of all days...

Celestia sighed as she made her way through the rather crowded halls of the Canterlot Medical Center. Several doctors, nurses, and patients made way, their eyes widening at the unexpected visit from royalty.

The Princess herself, for the most part, ignored the stares—giving only a few nods of acknowledgement and a few gentle, reassuring smiles here and there.

Normally she'd be far more genial towards her subjects, but now wasn't the time for pleasantries. On top of the oncoming Summer Sun Celebration and her other major worry, Celestia now had this odd... disturbance to worry about.

Normal ponies couldn't sense magic, but Celestia was an alicorn, and as such, she had a much deeper connection to the thaumatic field that surrounded Equus.

It was only a few hours earlier that she felt something momentarily disrupt the field... but she couldn't tell whether it was a malevolent force or not. This was worrying, but she had more important matters to worry about at that moment.

Namely the Summer Sun Celebration, and the endeavors of a certain Faithful Student on the night before the event.

Everything had to be perfect, else all Celestia had planned since finding out who the next Bearers would be rendered pointless. Decades of work, which—while the blink of an eye in her long, long life—would nevertheless be wasted.

Equestria would fall to eternal darkness, and ultimately it would've been due to her negligence... and she would never forgive herself for failing her kingdom... and her sister, so badly.

That was why it was important that Twilight Sparkle accomplish her task in Ponyville. Everypony had their role to play, and Twilight's was perhaps the most important of all.

But then Celestia had received a message only a few hours ago that changed... not everything, but quite a bit.

A unicorn mare by the name of Lyra Heartstrings had been out on a trot while talking with a friend visiting from Ponyville, when both the mares had heard a commotion from further up ahead.

Upon investigating, the two had discovered three unconscious mares splayed out on the path to the Castle Courtyard. They searched, but there had been nopony else around the area.

Who, or whatever had been the cause of each of the mare's states had vanished by the time Lyra and her friend had reached the scene.

They had decided to tell the nearest guard on duty, and the unconscious mares were taken to the Canterlot Medical Center for treatment.

Now, as worried as Celestia was, and as much as she hoped nothing but the best for the mares, this in and of itself didn't warrant the Sun Princess' attention.

It was what her personal aide, Raven Inkwell, had nervously informed her of that caught her attention. This new information, coupled with Celestia's own worries about what she had sensed earlier, was why she now followed the doctor and nurse down the hallway and to a specific patient's room in the hospital.

With what she had been told, she had a hunch the two events were related in some way.

As Doctor Steady Beat, Nurse Fair Weather, and Celestia trotted closer to the room, the Sun Princess began to notice a change in the demeanor of the hospital staff on duty.

Other doctors and nurses trotting the opposite way would occasionally glance back the way they came with uneasy, or downright unnerved expressions.

One particular mare practically bowled the Princess over in an effort to put as much distance between herself and whatever it was she had clearly been afraid of.

Celestia didn't fault the mare of course, after all, if what she had heard was true, then this was something to be disturbed about.

Celestia frowned slightly as they approached the door to Room 495.

The sensation she had felt before had steadily been rising the closer they got. Now that she was this close, she could very clearly sense that strange disturbance coming from the room in waves.

It was an altogether alien feeling... and while she couldn't quite place a hoof on it... the aura she felt about the room also felt... caustic in a way—repulsive, and an offense to everything harmonic in nature.

It was as though the very aura about the room rejected life and everything it stood for.

"Er... Princess?"

Celestia blinked and looked down at both the doctor and nurse, who in turn were looking back at her with worried, nervous expressions.

Apparently she had stopped trotting at some point while she was lost in her thoughts.

"Are you okay?" Doctor Steady Beat asked with a concerned frown, "you seem a bit... rattled—n-not that I blame you of course. It's just..."

The mocha brown stallion trailed off, biting his lip and turning a tentative gaze towards the room just up ahead. The nurse looked from the doctor, to the door, and back to the Princess, her own look one of trepidation.

"T-The patients are just... r-right in here, Princess," the shivering mare explained rather unnecessarily, "t-they're not hostile or anything!" she added quickly, "just... something isn't... isn't right about them. Their eyes—"

"Why don't we let the Princess see for herself, Nurse Fair Weather," the doctor chided, giving the mare a stern frown, "I'm sure she'd like to get to the bottom of this... unprecedented malady as soon as possible."

"Quite right you are, doctor," Celestia replied with a nod before turning to the nervous maroon mare with a reassuring smile, "You've been a great help in leading me here, Nurse Fair Weather. If you don't feel comfortable proceeding further, you have my leave."

"R-Really?" the nurse asked incredulously before turning to the doctor. The doctor sighed and nodded once, causing the mare to look back to Celestia and smile shakily, "t-thank you, Princess!"

Without another word, she turned on her heel and quickly trotted in the other direction.

"I'm terribly sorry about Miss Fair Weather, Princess," the doctor said with an apologetic frown, "she's normally a lot more professional than this... it's just—"

"No need to apologize, doctor," Celestia interjected, narrowing her eyes slightly as she stared at the door, "I think the poor mare has seen enough. Now then... I believe it's past time I saw this... affliction for myself."

"Right," the doctor said after a moment, before giving a discreet sigh and trotting forward, "if you'll follow me, Princess..."

Doctor Steady Beat reached out and turned the handle of the door, pushing it open and stepping inside. Celestia soon trotted in right behind him and nearly reeled back in disgust as that caustic sensation practically overwhelmed her.

She stared in wide eyed horror at the three unicorn mares atop their respective hospital beds. Physically, they looked the same as any pony with their colorful coats, manes, and overall healthy complexion.

But that was only at a glance.

Each mare sat up in their beds, bodies completely rigid as if carved from stone. They all stared at the far wall as though they were all waiting for something to happen.

Their expressions were blank and their eyes were filled with an inky blackness that seemed to swirl and froth as though something were swimming within them.

And that was to say nothing of the constant ripples their very presence cast in the thaumatic field directly surrounding them.

Though Celestia couldn't see it, she could feel the ambient magic tearing itself apart and pulling itself back together rapidly around the mares.

"Minuette, Lemon Hearts, and Twinkleshine."

The doctor's voice snapped Celestia out of her daze and she turned to the stallion. He appeared to be reciting information from some documents he had obtained while she was distracted.

"These three mares were found unconscious near the castle grounds roughly three and a half hours ago," he continued, "one Lyra Heartstrings and one Sparkler brought them here to be treated for any potential problems they may have had."

He flipped the document over the edge of the clipboard he was holding and moved on to the next page of information. Celestia herself turned to stare at the statue-like mares in the beds as the stallion spoke.

"Each mare remained unconscious as they were placed in their beds," the doctor said before frowning, "the nurse—Nurse Fair Weather to be exact—left to check on another patient on my behalf, and when she returned around half an hour later..."

He looked up from his notes and cast a significant glance in the direction of the three mares. Celestia was barely paying any attention to the doctor's words as her mind raced to find an answer to what she was seeing.

She had never seen anything like this.

The closest thing she could compared this affliction to was a curse born of Dark Magic... but that wasn't it. Celestia knew what Dark Magic felt like, she had fought against users of it in the past and this...

...this wasn't Dark Magic.

It felt similar, yet wholly different at the same time. There was something necrotic about the aura she felt, but not in the same way a Necromancer's spell would feel.

It felt different... otherworldly.

Celestia grimaced in frustration as she tried, and failed, to make sense of what she was feeling from these mares.

"They've been like this ever since Nurse Fair Weather came back into the room," the doctor said, distracting Celestia from her thoughts once again, "they haven't moved an inch and refuse to respond to any external stimuli whatsoever."

"What—"

All three mares snapped their empty gazes towards the Solar Princess.

Celestia's heart skipped a beat and her next words all but died in her throat as they stared at her silently. Next to her, she heard the clipboard fall to the floor as Doctor Steady Beat flinched back in surprise.

For several moments, nopony moved.

Celestia stood there, staring at the mares as they stared back—her wide, bright magenta eyes meeting their soulless, inky black orbs.

The doctor held his chest, trying to calm his beating heart as he looked between the Princess and the mares. He opened his mouth to speak and froze, his eyes slowly widening as he looked at the three mares.

Their own mouths moved as though they spoke, but nothing could be heard—nothing aloud at least. Words were still spoken however, words unlike any the doctor had ever heard before.

Words not meant to be heard by any mortal, words that tore at the mind and twisted the soul, words that rent one's very sanity asunder at their merest utterance.

The doctor screamed.

He screamed and screamed and didn't stop screaming even as the Princess threw open the door and shoved him outside with her magic, rushing out immediately after the mentally broken stallion, and slamming the door shut.

Once outside, Celestia's horn lit up as she cast every ward, barrier, and detection spell she knew upon the door. That done, she slowly backed away, never taking her eyes away from that door.

She could still feel their gaze.

The Solar Princess stumbled back another step before turning around and quickly trotting down the hall. She vaguely made mention of the stallion to several surprised and worried hospital staff as she passed, but her words were distant in her own ears.

She didn't stop until she had made her way outside the building, and even then she hadn't noticed she had already left until one of her guards called out her name.

Celestia stopped and turned towards the two pegasus guards standing near her personal carriage. She blinked at the two owlishly as they spoke, their words not reaching her ears at first.

She gradually became aware that she was shivering violently. Raising a shaky hoof, she stared at it for a long moment, ignoring the guards completely as they approached.

She gave no explanation as to what had happened in that room, or what she had seen. She would have to go back and properly warn the other patients and staff to stay as far away from that room as possible—at least until she could find out just what they were all dealing with.

Whatever it was, Celestia was absolutely certain it wasn't of this world.

Taking several minutes to calm herself to a reasonable state, the Princess trotted back into the Canterlot Medical Center and address the worried staff of the situation at hoof before returning to her carriage and making her way back to the castle.

All thoughts of the Summer Sun Celebration, as well as those of her inevitable return, were swept aside by the words those three mares had spoken.

Hearing those mares 'speak' was akin to having thousands of needles shoved into her mind, but she had somehow been able to make out four 'words' from that eldritch 'language'... four simple, terrible, foreboding 'words' that chilled the alicorn to her very bones...

The Dead Goddess Rises.