It has been two weeks since our small group's annual gathering at the castle, it's still hard, knowing that I played a part in killing those buried there, and probably more that I don't know of, so it's probably for the better that I'm not ruling Equestria anymore. Thankfully I don't have much to worry about anymore, no royal duties, no raising the sun every morning, just cooking for me and my sister and enjoying the days go by, or at least that was the plan today, but an old… acquaintance of mine just had to pop in.

"K.K.!" A voice called out just as I started relaxing on the porch swing.

"Hello Discord...'" I said with a sigh knowing my day is in for a wild ride.

"I've got neeeewwwws~" he said, popping into existence next to me.

"What kind of news?" I asked, knowing I was going to talk for a while.

"Well, I was spreading a little chaos here and there today when I noticed something interesting, how this slipped under my radar until now, I will have NO idea, but there was somepony gathering magic, and a lot of in the Everfree forest." he started explaining, and while that was interesting he wasn't getting to the point.

"What's the point of this Discord?" I asked, making him sigh.

"I was getting there Tia, if you had just waited another line or two I would've told you already, anyways, my point is that all of that magic that was being gathered in the Everfree suddenly erupted last week, and the source was from within the castle." he said making me roll my eyes.

"Discord, the only beings that know the castle still exists are me, you, Luna, Artimus, Scootaloo, Twilight and Storm, so unless they were there last week, which I know they weren't except for the annual meeting, then it was just the Everfree's magical area." I explained shaking my head at his point.

"Now I thought that too KK, but it was the type of magic, and how much of it there was that got me to look into it." He said snapping a glass of chocolate milk into existence. "What I found was both surprising and slightly worrying, even for me." he said before taking a long gulp.

"And what would that be?" I asked him, now more interested in what he was talking about.

"Well, it was natural magic, as in the magic little Scootaloo has kind of nature." he explained as the glass filled back up on it's own.

"Okay… go on…" I said letting him know to continue.

"I'm going to be completely honest here Celestia… someone has been gathering nature magic for nearly two hundred and fifty years in the Everfree forest, and released it all in one giant burst, the amount of magic that was stored had the same amount of force behind it that i would compare it to you setting off a fully powered 'Sunlight's Wrath' in the center of Canterlot." he explained in what I knew as his serious voice, and what he said scared me.

"Are… are you sure it had that much magical force behind it?" I asked him as a precaution.

"I'm positive, someone very powerful that we don't know just let loose something very magical inside of the castle." he replied nodding his head only once, I sighed.

"And here I was hoping for today to be peaceful… go inform Scootaloo, I will talk to Twilight about this." I said as I prepared a teleport to Canterlot.

"Got it K.K.." He said puffing into a cloud form of himself, which dissipated just as I teleported into the throne room.

"Ah, hello Celestia, what are you doing here?" I hear just after the teleport spell ends, I saw Spike looking at me.

"Hello Spike, I need to speak to Twilight, I was just told some very concerning news." I said before seeing Twilight open the doors to the throne room.

"Spike, where are, oh, hello Celestia, what brings you here?" she asked, looking at me in surprise.

"Twilight, you're here, good, I was just told by Discord that we have a problem." I said, making her sigh.

"What kind of problem is it this time?" she asked with her head slightly drooping.

"A very big magical problem that concerns Ms. Hurricane as well." I replied, making her look at me in shock before preparing a teleport spell.

"I'll talk to you later Spike." she said before we're teleported to the Everfree castle. "Where are they?" she asked only for us to see Discord and Scootaloo teleport in a flash of light.

"Right here princess." Discord said before he shivered. "Either the Everfree is getting colder or that was from the magical residue of the explosion." he commented once he stopped shivering.

"Just being near the castle is alerting your senses… this could be bad." I said before looking at the castle.

"You're right, I can feel the natural magic already, there's a lot of it… someone has been here without us knowing, but the question remains… who was it?" Scootaloo says shivering a bit as well.

"Will the two of you be able to find the source of the explosion?" Twilight asks while she started walking towards the castle.

"I will, but I don't know about Discord." Scootaloo replied as we followed.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I won't be much help, there's too much magic here for me to get a good read on the location." he said, making me sigh.

"Then it's up to you Scootaloo." I said looking at the mare, she just nods as we enter the castle.

"Here goes nothing." she remarked as she closed her eyes.

I noticed that the air around her began to shift, as if it was encircling her before she took a step forwards, deeper into the castle, we followed, looking for anything out of place, anything to show that someone was here after us, but there was nothing, no chipped walls, no doors open, not even any torn fabric or a piece of mane or tail to be found. We eventually followed Scootaloo into the burial room, which surprised me, as why would anyone be here of all places?

"It's near… almost…" Scootaloo said as she traversed the graves slowly.

It wasn't until she came near the back of the room that she stopped and took two steps back.

"It's right next to me… on my left." she said looking at the statue of Emerald and Daybreaker.

"But that's impossible… it's a statue." Twilight said before Discord walked up to it.

He poofed a stethoscope into existence and placed it against the statue before tapping it, he did this five more times before looking back at us. "I can confirm that this statue is hollow." he said before taking a chisel and a small hammer and tapping it.

The statue split perfectly in half, letting us see that the inside was indeed hollow, meaning something was inside of it… or someone. "Discord does this mean what I think it means?" Scootaloo asked, I could hear the desperation in her voice.

"If you think it means that Emerald is still alive and well, then yes it does mean what you think it does, but it also means Daybreaker is still alive too." he said snapping the two pieces of the statue back together.

"This could be a problem, as Daybreaker could've taken Emerald over and used his magic to escape." Twilight said pacing back and forth on the floor.

"No, it's not that Twilight." Scootaloo said looking around the area, we looked towards her.

"What do you mean Daybreaker didn't take over Emerald?" I asked as I looked around too, searching for what she saw.

"Easy, Daybreaker wouldn't have left the statue standing, it would've been completely destroyed, but instead we found it as if it never broke apart. Emerald broke the statue then put it back, but that then begs the question: If Emerald and Daybreaker are alive and free, where did they go?" she explains placing her hand on the statue.

"It's possible that Daybreaker tried to take over Emerald's body, but was defeated by him while she was weakened and he used his magic to burst out." Twilight said as she looked to the hollow statue in curiosity.

"Possible, but if they were broken out, why didn't he come to us? We could've easily dealt with Daybreaker." Scootaloo asked, giving a counterpoint.

"Ah, but that's the thing, we don't know if they broke out… or if they were let out, now do we." Discord said as I walked closer to the statue, I noticed something along the back wall.

"He broke out, I know he did, cause there's no one outside me and my kid that has nature magic, so unless you're saying there's another druid out there somewhere, then the statue was broken from the inside." Scootaloo argued as I saw what seemed to be shrapnel puncture holes in the wall.

"Ms. Hurricane is correct Discord, otherwise these markings wouldn't be here." I say moving my hands over the wall.

"What markings?" Twilight asked coming up to me.

"Shrapnel puncture markings, they're all over the wall, and they're all angled towards the statue." I say going over the entire wall with my magic, the holes being highlighted.

"I see, so he did break out… but why did he use so much magic?" Twilight asked looking back at the statue in curiosity.

"Well, even with his magical power, he had to overload the magic containing him, which considering that the girl's last wish was to seal Daybreaker away for good, wouldn't have been easy, so he must have been gathering magic, but because he was petrified, it was a slower process." Discord explained popping a small analysis chart into existence next to him, he even had a small lab coat with goggles.

"Okay, but where did he go? We would've been notified if anyone new had taken residence in Ponyville, especially since everyone knows everyone." Twilight said bringing up a good point.

"Hold up, there's something here." Scootaloo said, kneeling at the statue's base.

We came over and saw a small black cube with a dent in the middle on top, it had two buttons, a green one and a red one, Scootaloo instantly pressed the green one and a small image of Emerald came into existence from the indent.

"Hello to whoever activated this holo-projector, I am Emerald Summereyes, and yes, I mean that Emerald Summereyes." The image said as we all looked at each other perplexed. "I suppose I should start by saying that I am quite alive and well, if just getting out of Harmony's petrification is considered 'well' nowadays." he said before coughing into his elbow.

"Master…" Scootaloo said in a worried but hopeful voice.

"Did he just say harmony as in a name?" Twilight asked out loud but was ignored.

"Anyways, enough rambling, I have gone a long time in stone, therefore I will be leaving this here, in the hopes that my former apprentice finds it. If you are listening to this Scootaloo, I hope that you're doing well, I've heard your prayers, every year when you and the others came to pay their respects, I know that you want to see me, but I have been directing you down a path I created for you… and I knew that you wouldn't need my guidance after the last battle, that you had grown into your power and I had nothing left to teach you…" he continued making Scootaloo tear up just a bit.

"Emerald… I will always need you, even if you aren't my teacher anymore." she whispered, I just barely heard her next to me.

"Now I know that others will want to know my current location, and it's with some reluctance that I placed my location in this device, all you have to do is hit the red button." he said pointing towards said button, Scootaloo pushed it immediately.

"Self destruction protocol initiated, ten… nine..." a robotic female voice announced as the projection went red.

"Shit!" Scootaloo said before the holo-projected Emerald chuckled.

"That's just like you to be impatient my old apprentice, goodbye, for now at least." he said before he disappeared and a red five showed.

"Five… four… three… two… one… self destruct activated." the machine said before glowing white and melting before our eyes.

"Damn, that would've been useful in finding him too." Scootaloo commented as she stood up.

"Perhaps, but I get the feeling that he will reveal himself when he wants to." I say, making her nod in agreement.

"If there's one thing that he'll always have, it's the element of surprise." Twilight chuckled before getting ready to teleport. "I guess all we can do is wait for now… until next time everyone." she commented before disappearing in a flash of violet light.

"I guess we can only wait… but I'm going to keep my eyes out, just in case." Scootaloo said before she and Discord teleported away in a puff of multicolored smoke.

"I wonder what you're doing right now Emerald… I do hope that you are able to survive." I think to myself before teleporting back to my home.

"I was beginning to worry Tia, where were you?" I hear as I appear in my living room.

"Something important came up Luna, I'll tell you about it later at dinner." I said before heading to my room and falling into my bed, ready to relax for the rest of the day.

Author's Notes:

Chapter 5, hooobooy, was this difficult to write, but still i hope y'all enjoy this and remember.
Stay Terrifying my little Nightmares
-Night Quill