Prologue: Not quite right… not quite left.
There were shadows all around. Well, they couldn't really be called shadows, since they were most definitely living creatures… except, they weren't really alive, since it was just a dream.
Indeed, simply a dream, Lady Celestia thought as she stood in the dark forest. But perhaps a dream with meaning?
Shortly after she had fallen asleep, the dream had begun… and had slowly gotten worse and worse. It had started out with her standing in Falconreach, speaking to Twilly about the weather, when suddenly Twilly lost all color and faded into nothingness: she was unable to stop this. Then she had been in the Sand Sea, searching for something, but she didn't know what: only that it was important. She had seen the last Sand Elf, Zhoom, but when she attempted to speak to him it was as though he was purposely ignoring her as best as he could: every time she spoke he would turn away stiffly: this she could not stop either.
She had then turned around and found herself in Oaklore. She had seen Sir Prize and had gone to talk to him, but when she came closer to him, she found he was only armor—with no person inside, yet still standing at attention. Rather desperate, she had gone to talk to Captain Rolith, who also had his helmet on, but as she peered into it, gloomy skeleton eyes met hers, and she found she could not even whisper when looking at him.
After turning away from the scene, she was greeted with Doomswood, a dreary sight. She found herself in the middle of a section of dark forest she had never seen before. That brought her to her present location in the dream: Quite lost, and sensing more and more evil about her.
She sighed and considered waking up. "I'm too old for this kind of dream," she said to the wind. "Only young, energetic heroes should be experiencing such things!"
Of course, she knew that only she or a powerful mage such as Warlic [the Blue Mage] would be able to interpret such dreams if they meant anything. Still, the evil grew closer, and the shadows became like mist, making it hard to breathe as well as see.
Lady Celestia ventured onwards, knowing that if she simply went one direction for long enough, the climax of the dream would be revealed: it always happened that way, and hadn't changed in 100 years.
It seemed like hours that she traveled, seeing the same forest and feeling a deeper and thicker darkness surround her. Finally she stopped and sighed. She had but one choice.
"If you won't reveal yourself," she said politely to the darkness, "then I will force you to."
She heard a distant hiss as a reply, but ignored it and shouted, "Reveal yourself, darkness, so that the Light may destroy you, or forever hold your peace! I command you in the name of the One who gives me my power over you! Reveal your message, or perish into the empty hole of which you came from!"
It was a planned speech, which she had spoken many times through the ages. To her surprise, nothing happened for a whole three seconds. Then suddenly, the ground rumbled with dark laughter.
That's more like it," she said, sipping a cup of hot tea that appeared out of nowhere.
The dark laughter grew louder, and something began emerging from the forest ahead of her. She waited patiently until the giant figure had risen to full height.
Unfortunately, once she woke up she could not remember what it was, but she could remember being utterly shocked and somewhat concerned when she saw it. She remembered it speaking, telling her something that was quite upsetting, and she remembered answering it, then banishing it… or attempting to. She knew she was able to banish a part of it, and because of that, something was saved, something extremely vital, but she couldn't remember what.
What she did know, as she woke up sweating and shaking Monday morning, was that the thing in her dream was real, and something very, very intolerable was about to occur… something that could alter the existence of Lore forever.