I shall do my best!



Twilight stood in the rubble that was once the basement of her home. All around her she could feel the memories flooding out, dancing around the burnt wood and the few leaking rays of sunlight in an almost sickeningly sweet waltz. She had only spent a short portion of her life here, but the memories made could have spanned decades.

She was hoping to salvage portions of those memories. Every now and then she would lift up some charred bauble with her magic, only to frown and set it down again. The book pages that hadn't been blown away by the winds crunched beneath her feet. Every now and then she would lift one, praying that it was from one of her more cherished books. Could it be a snippet from her adventurous Daring Do novels? Could it be a text on the proper way to run a Goof Off contest? Could it be a picture from the Elements of Harmony book?

A particularly loud crunch came from underneath her hoof, and she looked down to see a very solid object beneath it. As she lifted up her foot her brows drew together in confusion. She didn't remember what this object was. It was soon floating before her in her purple magic.

"What in Equestria are you?" she asked the object. As if in response it began to glow a soft red. Twilight gasped. The flames from the fiery blast had died out long ago, there was no way any embers would be left. As the light continued to spread through the object, she began to study the shape more closely. It was conically shaped, but with a slight curve to it. The base looked like it had been forcefully removed from whatever it was attached to, but the top was still sharpened into a near perfect point.

A twinge in her memory made Twilight pause in her examination. Images of the Crystal Empire floated into her consciousness. Not images of the more recent kingdom, however, but images of how it was when she had first arrived to fight...

Her eyes shot open wide, but before she could react the object shone intensely. Twilight tried to shield her eyes and drop the object at the same time, but she was horrified to feel her magic being sucked into the remains of what she now realized was a horn. She couldn't shut off her magic! She shook her head violently and banged the horn up against a burnt piece of wood, which crumbled at the touch. The sucking feeling continued and began to physically hurt Twilight. She fell to a knee in pain, her breath coming quickly and sharply. Tears began to form in her eyes.

As quickly as the feeling has come, it left. Twilight sat on the ground silently for a moment, watching the horn float in the air in her own purple magic. The purple began to fade to darker shade after darker shade until it was completely black. Then, with a sudden surge of energy, the magic turned red and shot out to enclose her horn. The pain was instant. She wanted to scream but found she could not make any noise. She could feel the tears running down her cheeks, but they felt more like liquid lava. Fire consumed her insides while an all too familiar green aura began to cloud her vision. After a moment everything went dark.

In her mind's eye she saw a figure standing before her atop a ledge, his wicked grin shining with an unnatural white light that was only matched by the green and purple glow of his eyes. The red irises looked at her with a hunger that made her entire body shake.

She couldn't move. She couldn't scream. She couldn't breathe. It was worse than any nightmare she could ever imagine. And even with all her magic and knowledge there was nothing she could do to stop it.