Clang!

He brought the hammer down in a large arc, swinging it high over his head.

Clang!

The metal he was hammering lit up in a shower of sparks, illuminating his face and surroundings briefly, before dying out.

Clang!

He was in a room made of stone, standing over a furnace that was holding the dying embers of a forgotten fire.

Clang!

All his focus was on shaping the red hot metal he held in his hands.

Clang!

It was slowly taking shape, flat edged, and ending in a point.

Clang!

It had finally taken the form suitable to his needs. He picked the former lump of metal and dunked it in a small bucket of water next to him. Steam hissed out, clouding his face and causing him to cough violently. When the smoke cleared, and he finished his bout of coughing, he pulled out the now cool piece of metal. He smiled, for the athame had come out in perfect shape. He set it down on a wooden table next to him, and pulled out a leather bag full of tools for fine carving.

He set to work, grabbing the smallest carving tool he could see in the bag, and etched an impossibly thin spiral into the hilt of the dagger he had just created. It was a slow but painstaking process. The smallest mistake, and he could render the whole thing useless. Sure, it could still be a hunting dagger, or even a cooking knife, but what he was going for was a lot more... complicated.

After hours of working, he was approaching the final few lines to etch into the soft metal. Adding symbols along the length of the blade, and digging out holes in the quillions to hold gems . Just a few more strokes and he would be done, the project that had taken him weeks to prepare for. He finished another line with a flourish, just one to go.

He took it slowly, making sure he had the angle and pressure right. He pressed the tip of his tool to the center of the hilt, and began to move it forward. The blade allowed his hand to guide the tool without incident, and just as he was about to connect the final two lines...

BAM!

He jumped in surprise in hearing a door slam, his hand jerking across the blade with a loud screech! He sat there in horror, not wanting to look down, for fear of what he would see. He decided to risk it, and slowly lowered his eyes toward the blade.

It was beautiful. The entire blade was done in intricate spirals and lines, the base covered with numerous symbols. Then he saw the center of the hilt. A long, jagged line split off where two lines should have touched, that would have completed what should have been the symbol for water, that should have finished his work on the blade. He just sat there, stunned that he spent all those weeks preparing for this exact moment, for absolutely nothing.

He looked behind him, and saw what had caused the door at the back of the room to slam shut so suddenly. Sitting there, with what appeared to be a smug grin on her face was none other than...

His cat, Bella.

"GODDAMMIT!"

Having calmed down a bit after being interrupted, he got up and walked over to the door, and his cat. He picked her up, a black tabby with a few tan spots, and carried her through the heavy white wooden door. He entered into a modernized living room. It was not very large, and most of the space was occupied by a purple-colored couch. The couch sat on a similarly colored carpet, and both sat next to a small TV. There were speakers mounted on the wall next to the TV, copper wires coming from the back haphazardly.

He walked over to the back of the room, heading toward the back door, cat tucked under his arm. Just as he reached his hand out to turn the doorknob, she wiggled out of his grip and jumped onto the couch. He groaned, already making the decision to give up on getting her outside. He walked over to the right, into a kitchen-like area. There was a small refrigerator in the corner, giving off a low hum. He opened it up, and grabbed a Dr. Pepper from the middle shelf. Popping it open, he walked back over to the couch and sat down on it, turning on the TV.

He flicked through programs quietly, sipping his soda all the while. Eventually he finished his soda, and decided that nothing good was on. He walked back into the kitchen and threw out the empty soda can, and then flopped back down on the couch. The last thoughts drifting through his mind as he fell asleep were about the beautiful creation that his hand had just so cruelly marred.

He ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Dodging through trees in a whited-out forest. His breath visible as he exhaled in short breaths. He continued to run, watching out for high roots and low branches.

He had gone out there with one purpose in mind, to find a tree that had been living for twice his age. He spent days wandering, believing that said tree would be just through the next thicket, or around the bend. But, he was wrong every time; every time besides this one.

He had mistakenly woken up a frost giant, a great creature made entirely out of ice. It was vaguely shaped like a human being, with larger blocks where his chest would be, along with arms and legs. But his head was just one big square, with cracks in it that could reform to express emotion, just like a face.

So he kept running through the trees, knowing that he could never outrun it. It seemed like the frost giant would be slow, because, naturally, things that are very large would not have the ability to move very fast. But, instead, it had a way of tumbling through the trees, gaining speed much like an avalanche would.

He glanced ahead again, taking his focus off of finding his footing. He saw that there was a bend just up ahead, a turn that was marked by a clump of frosted trees.

He stuck his hand out as he was taking the turn, feet sliding across the frozen ground as he swung himself around the turn. After that sharp turn he quickly dove behind a small group of trees, obscuring himself from outside view, but he could still see out onto the path.

The frost giant wasn't so lucky. It missed the turn completely, instead slamming into a thicket of trees at full force. It was completely destroyed on impact, chunks of ice and snow flying every which way. Seemingly as an insult to injury, a large glob of snow fell off the tree, falling right onto where the giant was.

He peeked his head around the trees that he was hiding behind, cautiously. When he saw that the snow pile didn't move, he jumped out of his hiding spot to gloat at his unexpected victory.

"Aww, yeah! Eat that, blockhead!" he shouted at the pile of snow. He then did a little dance, spinning around once or twice before calming down and realizing that he was still in the middle of the forest. He sighed, and thought, I'm just glad I got what I came for. He reached inside his pants' pocket, and pulled out a small chunk of wood. He turned it over once in his hand, admiring the texture, before pocketing it again.

He looked at the snow covered path in front of him, leading toward where he came from.

"Looks like I'm taking the long way back home."

He walked in through the front door, shaking some of the snow off his boots. He ran his hand through his short hair, clearing it of any snow that may have clung on. He walked further into his modest home, removing his boots and shrugging off his jacket to leave by a closet.

He walked over to his couch, and flopped down on it hard, completely spent for the day. But he knew that he couldn't rest yet. He still had one more thing to do.

He rolled off of the couch, and stood back up, stretching and cracking his back. Then he slowly walked over to the refrigerator, taking the piece of wood out of his pocket and putting it on the counter next to the sink. He opened the refrigerator, taking out various jars and test tubes containing many colors of liquids in each one. He gathered them all up and put them next to the piece of wood.

He surveyed over all the ingredients, why does it always have to be so complicated? Why can't it just be something simple, like a phone number, or an e-mail address? Even a burnt offering would be easier than this. He grabbed each item in his arms, and began to carry them all over to the door that led to his laboratory and forge.

He was attempting to summon a demon.

He backed into the door, opening it. He was glad right there that he didn't put the handle and lock back on ever since his last experiment blew up in his face, literally. He walked over to a different part of that stone room, one filled with beakers and flasks, all holding various liquids. He examined one such beaker with interest, lingering on it for a few moments before letting out a silent, "yay!" at what had happened inside.

He walked quickly over to a dark corner, set all his ingredients on the ground before him, then ran back to the beaker he examined. It contained an amber colored liquid, with a tube sticking out of the top. He grabbed the whole thing, then spun the tube around so that the end of it faced him. He then put his mouth to it and took a sip, savoring the rich flavor that had just entered his mouth. It had a slight fizz to it, due to carbonation left over from it being made.

"I knew I could get the Coca-Cola secret recipe right!"

As delighted as he was, he had more pressing matters to take care of. He grabbed his journal off of a nearby desk, jotted down a few notes in it, alongside the rest of his experimental results. He then put the book down, back where it was before. He ran over to the forge section of the room, and stopped by a wall-mounted weapon rack. There were only knives on it, athames, to be more exact.

The wizard's knife, used most commonly in rituals, just like the one he was preparing for. Actually, he used the athame for other purposes too; while most wizards, warlocks, and mages preferred a wand or staff for spell casting, he preferred one of his home-smithed knives. In his opinion, wands became too cliché after the Harry Potter movie series came out, and staves seemed to be used by people trying to compensate for something.

He selected one athame that had a large, green trapezoidal shape carved into the hilt, with small, slightly glowing emeralds on the quillions; an all-purpose Earth dagger. It was one of his favorites, seeing how he connected with that element the most, it seemed fit that that was the one he used for the ritual about to take place.

He grabbed a sheath that was hanging on the rack, and buckled it firmly around his waist, he then grabbed a hiking backpack that was hanging from a nail on the wall. He shrugged it onto his shoulders, barely noticing any weight difference once it was on.

The backpack was not really necessary for the ritual, he liked the familiar feel of it on his back, a feeling of reassurance. It was a gift he had received a long time ago, back when he was still in training. It carries many magical properties with it, just like his athame does.

With all his gear ready, he walked back to the dimly lit corner he was going to perform the ritual in. In a split decision, he picked up his experiment journal sitting on the desk, and slipped it into his backpack. Even though the journal was in there now, he still didn't feel any extra weight added onto his back.

He crouched down in front of the ingredients he had dumped on the floor earlier. He took care setting each one up on the floor, in specific positions. He pulled a compass off the side of his backpack, and set it on the ground. Some ingredients had to be put on certain cardinal directions on the wax circle that he had drawn in days before. Various symbols drawn in a black, ashy substance decorated it all the way around.

He left all liquids in their containers, and dumped all powders out on the floor. He did a double check to make sure everything was in the right place, then, with a nod, he drew his athame. He held it up and began to chant words from an old, forgotten language. He was so absorbed in the ritual, that he did not notice the door at the far end of the room open just a crack, and close again.

He continued, uninterrupted. The markings on the floor began to glow a dark green, pulsing gently. The markings on the athame's hilt were glowing the same color, and beating in time to the ones on the floor. As the process went on, the beat sped up, and the symbols steadily grew brighter.

A shadow, low to the ground, crept up behind him. It stalked forward slowly, watching its glowing prey with unblinking eyes. It came closer, eyes unmoving lest the lights escape. One it was close enough, it lowered down further, then sprang through the air..

Everything was going fine with the process of the ritual. He felt the familiar tug in the back of his mind, the kind that only happened when he began to use his mana reservoir. He thought to himself while chanting, nothing's gonna go wrong now; I'm almost done.

It happened just after he thought that. He looked out the left corner of his eye, and saw a black blur falling towards the markings that formed the outer circle on the ground.

His cat pounced right on her target, blocking out the light for just a second, then moving her paw backwards to see what she just caught. As she did that, the symbol smudged, blocking out the power that it offered for the ritual.

He had no time to react. An extremely bright green-tinted flash lit up the dark room, accompanied by a loud poping noise.

All that was left over was a confused looking black cat sitting on a large scorch mark on the ground.

Twilight Sparkle was not having a good day.

It was fine in the morning though, which began simply, with her strict routine of getting up, brushing her teeth, showering, and making sure that she took off her violet knee-socks. Don't want to go through another episode of that... she thought to herself, remembering back some weeks ago.

She took out the checklist she had made the night before, and went through the day's activities. Mostly just errands, picking up groceries for the next few days, visiting Pinkie at Sugarcube Corner, and helping Rarity out at the Boutique. Same as usual, she thought, I'm just happy that all the excitement around here has died down for the first time in a while.

She trotted down the staircase happily, and she was greeted by an amazing smell halfway down. "What're you making this fine morning, Spike?" she called down to the kitchen.

A young voice called back from inside the kitchen. "Hay pancakes!"

"Well, it smells fantastic!" Twilight said as she walked into the library's kitchen. The small drake was standing in front of the stove, frying pan held in one claw, spatula in the other. He was wearing that ridiculous frilly pink apron that Pinkie had given to him when she found out he was interested in cooking. He looks so adorable in that. Twilight thought idly.

"It's almost done! I put a lot of work into these, so enjoy!" Spike enthusiastically replied. He flipped the pancake over in the pan, then tipped it over onto a plate sitting next to him, joining the freshly cooked pancake with the ones he had made a few minutes ago. He then put down the cooking utensils, and took off his apron. He set the apron in a drawer, and picked up the plate of steaming pancakes, along with a bottle of syrup.

"Oh, those do look really good!" Exclaimed Twilight, just as she does with most of Spike's home-cooked meals. She couldn't wait to take a big bite out of the freshest one on top. She snagged it with her magic, along with the syrup and a fork, and levitated it over to her plate. She took the syrup and put a generous amount on her pancake, drenching it completely. She glanced up and saw that Spike had done the same thing.

Just as they were about to take their first bites, Spike suddenly dropped his fork and put a claw to his mouth. Twilight noticed immediately and looked over to him in concern. "Spike, are you okay?"

He belched out a cloud of green fire, which condensed into a scroll that was marked with Princess Celestia's royal insignia.

Twilight gasped and grabbed it with her magic, then looked it over quickly, her face betraying the shock she felt at the words written on the paper. She dropped it on the floor and ran out, calling over her shoulder at Spike, "I need to go get the girls!"

Spike rubbed his head. "What was all that about?" He picked the paper off the floor and began to read.

My Dearest and Most Faithful Student,

I'm terribly sorry for having to contact you like this on such short notification. I'll get to the point quickly; there was an extremely large disturbance in the magic field surrounding Equestria. The way it shot up only means one thing, that an unknown entity has just landed on Eqqus. I wasn't able to discern much, but was able to determine that it has great magical capabilities, and influence on the world around it. I was also able to pinpoint its location of arrival, it landed a few yards into the Everfree Forest, in the middle of a clearing. I hate that I have to do this, but you and your friends need to make contact with this entity, and purify it if it's hostile. Luna and I shall be arriving on the outskirts of Ponyville in about 10 minutes. Go collect the rest of the elements and meet us by the path into the forest. We shall try to aid you in any way that we can.

Signed, Princess Celestia

"Uh oh."

Twilight galloped through the center of town, most ponies were still asleep at this hour, so the streets were clear, besides the ponies going to set up carts in the marketplace. She knew that she would be able to find Applejack setting up with Big Mac at this time. She ran straight through the center of the marketplace, and ponies that saw her, full out galloping, knew immediately that something was wrong. They quickly packed back in whatever objects they had back into their carts, turned tail, and headed back home.

She eventually spotted Applejack, facing the other way while setting up her apple cart. She stopped right in front of her, out of breath from her brief run. "Apple...jack...get...others..." She gasped, between breaths.

Applejack understood at once that something was wrong, and she ran off in the direction of Sugarcube Corner. Twilight, this time, opted to teleport instead of running all the way to Fluttershy's Cottage. She disappeared with a flash and a pop, then reappeared a few seconds later in front of Fluttershy's.

She crossed the little bridge quickly, and slowed to a trot when she came near the door. She knocked on it fast, with her right hoof, and heard a little squeak come from somewhere inside the house.

"H-hello?" Fluttershy squeaked out, opening the door by a fraction, peering her head out the crack. She opened it fully when she saw who it was. "Oh, Twilight, it's just you. I thought that you were going to be somepony that I didn't know."

"Fluttershy, listen, I need you to go get Rainbow Dash from her house and then meet me by the entrance to the Everfree. It's an emergency!" Twilight said urgently, still a little out of breath from her run through town.

Fluttershy gave an adorable little gasp, putting her hooves up to her mouth to cover it up. "I'll go right away!" She replied with a firm nod of her head. She knew that Twilight meant business, and now was not the time to dilly-dally.

Twilight took a step back from the door, then lit up her horn and teleported, this time aiming for Rarity's Boutique.

She arrived out front with a flash and an ear-splitting pop! She ran to the door quickly, and banged her hoof against it rapidly. She heard a sing-song voice call from inside. "Coming!"

Rarity opened the door to a frantic looking Twilight. "Twilight, are you alr-"

"No time to explain, Rarity, just listen." Twilight interrupted her. "I need you to come with me. Now."

Rarity looked at her skeptically. "Is this just another one of your 'episodes'?"

To this, Twilight simply replied. "Princess' orders."

Rarity stared for a moment, then nodded. "Lead the way."

Twilight and Rarity ran in from town to the treeline, quickly followed by a nervous looking Fluttershy and an angry Rainbow Dash. "What the hay is all this about, Twilight!?" Her facial expression changed. "This isn't another one of your 'episodes,' is it?"

Twilight responded only with a glare. "Just had to check..." Dash trailed off.

Just then, Applejack galloped to the group, followed by a bouncing Pinkie Pie. "How could she be so bouncy at this early in the morning?" Twilight thought just before Applejack spoke. "Twi, Ah don't mean to be rude, but why in the name of Sam's hill are we out here?"

"Yeah! I was trying to sleep!" Rainbow echoed.

"Well," Twilight began. "I received a letter this morning just before breakfast with the Princess' seal on it." Twilight ignored the "shocked" expressions on some of her friends' faces and continued. "The letter didn't say much, but I was able to see that something new has arrived in Equestria." Now she had to ignore the actual shocked faces of her friends. "The Princess wanted us to meet her and Luna out here in what she said was to be 10 minutes. That should be right about now."

As always with Twilight, her calculations were impeccable. The Princesses arrived not one moment after Twilight finished her sentence. Celestia looked down on the Elements, regarding them with what she hoped to be a look of determination. However, Luna just looked plain angry, ready to slip into the Royal Canterlot Voice if necessary.

"Element bearers, I've gathered you here this morning because we are facing a threat never seen before on our world. We must be prepared for anything, for it surely does not come seeking peace. I ask for your aid in overcoming potentially the most difficult challenge of our lives."

The six collectively gulped, taking note of how Celestia just admitted that she has never fought against something so powerful.

Applejack chose this time to speak. "Uh, Princess, what exactly are we goin' up against?"

At this Celestia only shook her head and said. "I'm not exactly sure, but I do know that this being has an enormous amount of power at its disposal." She gazed off into the forest. "Its magical signature betrays belligerence and animosity, and it seems to be drenched in the blood of others. Whatever it is, we must be ready to put it down immediately.

"While I stand, it shall not harm my little ponies."