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// "Just a Nightmare" Prelude// Story: The Alchemist// by Eight Star//------------------------------//

	The purple unicorn trotted down the dark path.  She wasn't sure how she got there... but she knew that home was down this route.

	All was not entirely dark, at least.  The moon was shining down upon her, and she could clearly see the mark of the mare, Luna, upon the moon's bright surface.

	Or... perhaps she was mistaken.  The moon held instead a strange and less distinct pattern upon it.  It reminded her vaguely of a rabbit, and in staring at it she began to feel very out of place.  Trotting further along the path, she came into Ponyville.  The houses of the town loomed ominously over her, seeming to gather around her as she continued.

	The town was filling with the blackest of shadows, as not even the light of the moon could comfort her.  It made her head sink low as she felt fear run along her spine.  Home is just beyond the park, Twilight... she reassured herself.

	Then, she saw a pair of golden eyes shine from the alley beside her.  A feeling of dread over-whelmed her, and she took off in a gallop.  Her hooves beat upon the ground as she continued through Ponyville, but the row of homes only continued on.

	She made a sudden stop as she found herself in a dead end!  Three houses cornered her... but she didn't remember this spot ever being in town!  She whipped around, ready to run out, when another unicorn stood at the entrance of the alley way, silhouetted in blackness.  Golden eyes glowed from the dark unicorn, and a deep voice spoke her name.  "Twilight Sparkle..."

	She huffed and chanced a response.  "Who are you?  What have you done to me?"

	The sky suddenly grew dark, as black clouds sprawled across, blanketing the light of the moon.  Those haunting eyes were all that was left.  "I am your new study partner."  He chuckled with a sinister tone she hadn't heard before.

	Feeling endangered, she closed her eyes, and her horn glowed brightly with reddish purple energy, and her body was enveloped with similar power.  She flashed from where she was... and she imagined herself home.

	Because home is where she wanted to teleport to.

	Instead, she was in darkness, complete and total darkness.  She could hardly breathe, and listened quietly for any other sounds.  Moments passed of complete silence before a series of whispers could be heard.  They were incoherent, and more numerous than her ears could count.  Four candles on brass poles lit up the room she was standing it.  It was colored of sandstone, but as flat and perfect as concrete.  There was only one opening leading from the room, and in a collective voice, Twilight suddenly heard the whispers say; "Go on."

	She was pensive at first, standing in the room and staring at the opening.  Eventually she decided to heed the eerie whispers and trot through the opening.  No sooner did she do so, when the candles blew out.  Then, she found herself standing at the entrance to a much larger room.  Strange arcane devices were laid out in an organized chaos, and her five friends were seen floating quietly near the end of the room in a semi-circle.  They appeared to be asleep.  She trotted further into the room, and then she heard the unicorn's voice again.  "Now Twilight, why would you try to run?  I only wish to study with you."

	She turned in the direction of the voice, and saw the black silhouette of the unicorn at the side of the room, staring back at her with golden eyes.  She shouted her response.  "What have you done to my friends?!"

	"I've done nothing to them!"  He stomped a hoof angrily, and as his hoof impacted the floor, the walls and ceiling broke away.  She could feel the cold wind, and thunder lit up the night, as golden streaks of lightning arced through the sky.

	Still, she couldn't see his face, or his color, only his eyes.  "Well..." she started, searching for words, "what are we studying?"

	A white grin showed up in contrast to the black silhouette of the unicorn.  "Why... magic, of course.  I could show you things Celestia wouldn't dare to leave with anypony else."

	Twilight shook her head, the winds blowing her mane into her face.  "Princess Celestia is my Mentor, and I'll not change that."

	The unicorn's horn began to burn with a dark purple fire.  "Pity... you would make a good apprentice of mine."  His hooves also lit with the fire, as the ground beneath her hooves began to shake.

	Twilight began to back up in fear, when parts of the soil exploded open.  Skeletal ponies crawled out, grabbing at her legs, and staring at her with dark purple glows within hollow bleached skulls.  She screamed as she tried to pull free, her horn lighting up again to teleport away.  Suddenly, the other unicorn blasted her with a curling grey beam of light, and she felt a wave of incompetence wash over herself as her spell failed.  He let out a deep sinister laugh that grew in power and volume, as skeletal ponies sprang up from the ground all around her.
	


	Twilight shot out of bed screaming.  It took her quite a few minutes to get over it.  She put her hoof to her head and groaned as she mulled over the dream.  "What a wicked nightmare," she thought out-loud.  "It doesn't make sense though.  I've never seen or read about half of the things that happened."

	She turned towards Spike's bed, but remembered that her faithful assistant was, again, in Canterlot on business.  With a huff, she reassured herself "There's no reason to be scared.  It was just a dream after all."  With a nervous chuckle, she rolled over and went back to sleep.