//------------------------------// // Awakening // Story: Road to Twilight // by ShadowBrony //------------------------------// Spike stood over a skillet as the eggs began to simmer. Most of Twilight’s friends sat at the table while they waited for Spike to finish making them breakfast. Fluttershy was the only one not amongst them but she had told them she would be running late earlier on. The reason they were all there was because Twilight had invited them the day before, but their reasons for being there were for much bigger reasons then a simple get together. Twilight had been having some pretty bad nightmares lately and due to it, had been very stressed out lately with lack of sleep added in as well. It seemed that the best way to help her was to be there for her. Pinkie Pie wiggled in her seat in anticipation for the food to come and Twilight as well. “Oooh I wish Twilight was awake right now; I want to talk to her about her don’t-worry-about-those-crazy-nightmares party! I know something like that would cheer her right up.” Apple Jack leaned back against her chair, “I don’t think a party is all it is gonna to take to help her sleep at night nor help her with dem crazy dreams of hers. I think right now the best we can do fer her is let er know that we are here for her if she is a needing us.” Rainbow Dash nodded along with Rarity. Spike was just about to turn around and voice his opinion when a loud thump upstairs could be heard followed by an even louder yell, “YAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Spike nearly fell over as the scream reverberated off the walls. Within seconds everypony was up and heading towards Twilights room. Spike stayed where he was in shock as her scream continued to echo in his head. Everypony raced up the stairs with Rainbow Dash in the lead. She didn’t bother to stop when she reached the door and instead bucked it open. Twilight’s friends were already in the room before the door could even slam against the wall. Twilight lay on the floor in a fetal position still wrapped in her blanket, eyes wide open as she continued to mutter something over and over about drowning in darkness. Apple Jack was quick on her hooves as she ran over and bent down to check on Twilight. She slowly began rubbing Twilight's back as Twilight began to calm down. Her friends all gathered around her with a look of concern all playing across their faces. Apple Jack cradled Twilight as she continued to try to calm her down, “It’s alright sugar cube, it was just a nasty dream, dats all. Twilight shook her head, “It felt so real. It wasn’t like before where it was just crazy images of these dark creatures. I saw those creatures and fought them. But the weirdest thing of all was that weapon. I have never seen anything like it.” Everypony stared at her in confusion. Pinkie Pie laughed, “Silly Twilight, why would you need some weapon when you can just use your magic?” Twilight shook her head, “Because in my dream, aside from my telekinesis, I couldn’t use my magic.” Apple Jack stood up and helped Twilight onto her hooves. Rarity walked over and put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Listen darling, I think it might be best we give Luna a visit soon. She is the princess of dreams after all.” Twilight thought for a moment before shaking her head, “I don’t want to bother Luna with something as stupid as some really crazy dreams. And I really don’t want Celestia to worry either.” Rainbow Dash took a few steps forward toward Twilight before grinning at her, “Hey, let’s forget about it for now and go grab something to eat. Spike is making eggs and toast and the smell is really starting to get to me.” Twilight nodded in agreement. Better to handle a situation like this with a full stomach. Everypony, including Twilight, left the room and headed downstairs where Spike had just finished placing the food on the table. He appeared to be a bit shaken but was OK none the less. As Twilight sat down and everypony began to eat, she couldn’t help but smile as she was thankful to having such caring friends. Everypony was here for her, except…”Hey where’s Fluttershy?” No sooner had Twilight asked this that a surprisingly loud shriek rang out across Ponyville. Everypony was on their hooves as Rainbow Dash yelled, Fluttershy?!” Everypony was immediately out the door within seconds. Spike could only stand there with his face full of shock as he realized that yet again, he had been left behind. Twilight and her friends ran as fast a possible, though Rainbow Dash had already taken flight. As soon as they made their way through Ponyville and out towards the edge of the Everfree Forest, they were surprised and glad to see Fluttershy sitting alone out in the middle of her front yard. That is, until her crying reached their ears. Rainbow Dash took the lead and landed next to her friend who upon closer examination appeared to be cradling something. Fluttershy looked up as RD approached her. She whispered something to Rainbow Dash whose face went from a surprised look, to one of sorrow. “What happened?” Twilight asked. RD glanced back at Fluttershy before answering, “She was out feeding breakfast to her animals when a strange creature she had never seen before attacked her. She tried her best to calm it but not even the Stare would work on it. Just as Fluttershy was about to run back into her house, Angel appeared and attacked the creature. But the creature did something to him. Now he appears cold and lifeless.” Rainbow lowered her voice and motioned for everypony to come closer, “She says she actually saw it take something from Angel before he fell down and completely stopped moving. She seems to think that it stole his heart.” Twilight was the only pony who didn’t have a look of horror on her face. “But in all my books I have never heard or read of such a creature doing something like that. That can’t be right.” RD glared at Twilight, “If Fluttershy thinks that is what happened then I believe her.” Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, “Look, I’ll take care of Fluttershy. The rest of you should head on back and keep an eye out for this creature. Let everypony else know if you see a creature stealing hearts.” Twilight was already on her way back before Rainbow even finished talking. Twilight needed to do some research on this strange creature. Then an realization sprung from her mind. She stopped and quickly ran back to Rainbow, “Did Fluttershy say what this creature looked like?” RD thought for a moment, “I think she mentioned it being black with two antennas and having pure yellow eyes... Twilight are you ok?” Twilight’s jaw had just hit the floor as soon as she mentioned the pure yellow eyes. “Impossible,” she whispered. She then turned around and galloped in a full sprint back to her Library. She needed to look up everything she could on these strange black creatures. *** “No, no, no, no, NO!” Twilight continued ranting as she searched through every book she could find on those mysterious dark creatures. Every book she read, she came up empty. Spike, who was on the floor picking up discarded books, only rolled his eyes as Twilight continued to grow more impatient by the moment. “Twilight, don’t you think that perhaps the princesses might know? Perhaps you should consider sending a letter.” Immediately Twilight ran up to him with a big grin on her face and hugged him, “Of course! Spike, take a letter.” She let him go and Spike went to desk to retrieve some paper. “Um Twilight?” Spike said as he started to open drawers, “I think we might be all out of paper.” Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes, “Check in the storage room downstairs, we should have some more down there.” Spike nodded and headed off to the basement, closing the door behind him. Twilight looked out her window and was surprised to see that it had quickly turned to night time. Even more strange was the fact that a storm seemed to be brewing in the distance. “Um, Twilight?” Spike called form downstairs, “How long has this weird door been down here?” Twilight got closer to the window. There wasn’t supposed to be a storm for another week or so. “Twilight, I think we have a problem!” Spike yelled, this time sounding a lot more urgent. But Twilight was too curious about the strange storm to notice. She opened her window a little bit and was surprised to find the wind to be blowing harder than normal and why did it seem like it was getting darker somehow? “Twilight…” Spike whispered as he slowly opened the basement door. Twilight glanced back toward the basement door and saw that Spike had grown pale. His eyes almost appeared colorless. “Spike, are you alright?” Twilight whispered. Spike fell face first onto the floor as a flood of dark creatures came pouring from the basement. Spike was quickly engulfed by the creatures and soon half of Twilight’s library was covered in dark creatures as well. Twilight lit up her horn. She knew she couldn’t get to Spike now. While she wanted to jump in and get him, something in her heart told her it would have been in vain. Tears feel from her face. It would do her no good to die here as well. Instead she lit up her horn ready to teleport outside. She waited for a few seconds, but nothing happened. Twilight concentrated as she tried again and again but nothing was happening. Her magic wasn’t working. Panicking, she lit up her horn again and grabbed the window. She relieved to find that her telekinesis still worked. She fully opened it and jumped out. As soon as her hooves hit the ground she immediately glanced around and saw that a lot of the Ponyville inhabitants were running around in a panic. The strange dark creatures appeared everywhere around them. Ponies left and right screamed as they did their best to get away. A lot of them seemed to be heading as far out of town as they could. Twilight turned around and ducked just in time to see Derpy flying overhead with Dinky in her arms aiming for the sky. The wind seemed to be getting stronger but that didn’t seem to faze Derpy as she continued to try to fly her daughter to safety. They appeared to be on their way to the train station. Twilight watched in horror as another pony got attacked by those creatures. Derpy stopped, set Dinky down and hugged her tightly before running over to help. Twilight soon lost sight of Dinky as she ran off by herself. Twilight thought for a moment unsure where to go. Then she noticed some of her friends running up towards her. It seemed like everypony was amongst them except Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash sped up ahead of the rest of them. “Twilight, I managed to get everypony together but we still need to grab Fluttershy. Mind telling us what’s going on?” Twilight grimaced, “Remember those strange creatures I keep seeing in my dreams? Well it looks like they didn’t stay in my dreams.” Everypony looked around in shock. Rainbow Dash shook her head, “I don’t care where they came from or how they got out of Twilight's dreams, we need to get to Fluttershy fast.” Twilight nodded, “Once we get her, we need to go to the princess, she might have a better idea of what it going on.” Everypony nodded and raced towards Fluttershy’s cottage. Upon reaching it, the storm had only gotten worst and RD had to land just to keep from getting blown away. Fluttershy was outside her front door looking up at the sky. “Fluttershy!” Twilight called out to her as they neared her. Just as they reached her, a low rumbling came from the ground. Everypony turned and saw a large crack appearing around Fluttershy’s home. The cracks soon opened and the dark creatures began to appear. It looked like a river of darkness flowing from a broken dam. Rainbow Dash smacked her hooves together, “It looks like the only way out of here is to fight our way out.” She then ran forward as everypony else, except Twilight and Fluttershy, followed her. Twilight remained where she was, unsure what to do without her magic, while Fluttershy dove back into her home. Then things went from bad, to worse. Huge hands suddenly appeared from the cracks. A large creature similar to the one Twilight had fought in her dream, brought its head out of the giant crack. It then crawled out before standing up and staring down at her and her friends. It was then joined by two more as they crawled their way out as well. Twilight’s friends yelled out in horror as the creatures reached down and grabbed at all of them. One managed to get Pinkie and Rarity. The other grasped Rainbow kicking and biting. Before bending down with his other hand and taking Apple Jack who started to do the same. The creature seemed to not even notice as they continued to struggle in his grasp. Then the third one walked over to Fluttershy’s cottage and literally tore the roof off. Fluttershy screamed as it reached down and tore her from her home. Twilight stared in horror as the Shadow turned toward her. It stared down at her in silence. Twilight glanced over at her friends as they appeared to be glowing in a dark aura. She watched as all her friends’ went limp in the creature's hands. Twilight shook her head and tried with all her might to do something; any kind of magic at all. But none came. Tears formed in her eyes as she saw the creature bend down ready to take her as well. Twilight looked back at her friends, wishing she had her magic. She knew if she had her magic she could have done something. “I’m sorry everypony,” she yelled out, the creature’s hand getting closer, “I know that just because I don’t have my magic, doesn’t mean I can just sit back while these creatures take you. I feel so helpless without it. I just wish I could protect my friends! I promise if I could, I would protect you all!” Twilight then gasped as a bright light appeared in front of her. The Shadow’s hand shot away. Twilight stared in awe as the weapon in her dream appeared in front of her. She wiped her eyes with her hooves before she grasped it with her telekinesis and swung it a few times." Alright, I may not have magic, but at least now I can fight." She stared up at the three Shadows with a look of determination, “Now give me back my friends!”