//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Twain // by Arcict //------------------------------// Twain Chapter: 01 "Welcome to Brumby Junction" Written by: Arcict Gray Once upon a time our story begins, with two pony sisters, the Hope Twins. Together in their town of Hollow Shades, a place where memory into legend quickly fades. Though twins they were called yet not entirely so, one had a horn but the other, alas, no. The older, the unicorn was brash and bold, studying many arcane magics of old. The younger was small and eager to help, so sad, so pitiful, that little whelp. Our tale begins when the older sibling, noticed the younger was imitating; the older sister's habits, likes and manners, and yes even the elder's occasional stammers. Wishing that the younger one could enjoy, even the simplest of any unicorn toy. As her wishes remained yet unfulfilled, the elder was forlorn, Wanting nothing but to give her sister, her own unicorn horn. Until one day, when the younger returned home from an errand, and stumbled upon an unfinished spell, the elder's greatest errant. Penniless Ambition walked slowly along the dirt path as it wound its way along the edge of the southern border of Foal Mountain Forest. As she walked, she barely noticed the striking sunset in the west, partially obscured by the mountains of Canterlot, the ribbons and rays of powerful gold and orange and rosy red light streaming through the thin clouds that were all that remained of what must have been somepony's afternoon rain. The yellow glow of evening striking and reflecting off the closer clouds in the east all but bathing the world in an otherworldly light that resonated and highlighted the natural beauty of the world all around her. She barely saw it, partly because her head was shrouded under a hood that obscured everything except the road immediately before her. But mostly, because she cared not for beauty or light, not anymore. She had a mission, to escape and survive the horrors that had struck her home, Hollow Shades. Penniless was no stranger to the basic wounds and scrapes that a scrappy and eager young earth pony would get themselves into. Even so, to see that much blood, over and over again. It was too much for the young mare and, as such, she had fled. It wasn't just the blood, nor was it that the victims had all been torn apart. It also wasn't just that there had been no less then ten victims. Nor was it that there had been a new victim almost every night since it had began. All of these things had played their part, but to Penniless, the most compelling thing about the murders was the very first victim. The first victim had been her sister, Bountiful Ambition, and that one had been particularly gruesome. Penniless trode on as the sun continued to sink, it's brilliant warm colors fading and shifting into the cooler purples and twilit hues as night began to creep its way into the world. Finally Penniless stopped on a gentle hill, little more then a small rise, giving her a view of what lay before her, the small community of Brumby Junction. - - - - - Brumby Junction rested at the last bend in the Old Forest Road that took it close enough to the railroad tracks so that a short simple trail (later developed into a street) could connect them. That meant that anypony that was walking west along the Old Forest Road had only this one last chance to get onto a train before the two parted ways. The community, though few in population, took up a fairly wide tract of territory as several ponies, though living a few miles away in some cases, still considered themselves residents to the village proper. The town mostly existed along the street that connected the Old Forest Road on its northern end to the train tracks on its southern end. In the rough center of this street lay the inn. The inn boasted of no less then three stories, practically a shining palace to the small community. Besides the inn there was a short but broad (in the back anyway) general store as well as what appeared to be a small restaurant and even a small shack with a large gold star on its outer wall that glinted in the failing light. Penniless finally had eyes for something and she quickened her pace as she went for the inn. - - - - - Though named Penniless, she did in fact have a few bits to her name, some of which she spent renting a room for the night. Seeing the rack of pegs used for hanging keys, she noted the empty pegs that were vacant of their keys. "Is there some event happening that I don’t know about?" Penniless asked. "There are a lot of rooms checked out." "It is a new holiday they are trying to set up in Ponyville." Answered the innkeeper, Bedtime Story. "Just like how most of us now celebrate the defeat of The Mare in the Moon on Nightmare Night. But down in Ponyville they are trying to create a new holiday, 'Harmony Day', to celebrate the defeat of Discord. The prospect of a new holiday has attracted an unseasonable number of guests passing through." "I wish I had something to celebrate." Penniless murmured under her breath as she took the room key and trod tiredly away from the front desk. Though the inn was simple it did maintain a few simple amenities. To the right of the lobby and front desk was a wide and well made stairway, boasting of its deep red rust-wood stairs, simple and boring elsewhere but exciting and almost regal-feeling in the small town. To the left of the front desk was the small cafeteria and guest-lounge, sporting several small rust-wood tables with glass tops surrounded by several smart looking chairs. Though the inn never made the income to justify it having a pool yet, even so there was a pond out back that the owner pined over expanding so as to attract boating tourists and the like. Penniless slowly walked her way up the stairway to her designated floor and then turned into the hallway. As she did so, she passed several other rooms, and even a late night traveler who seemed to have some weird purple lizard as a companion of some kind. The purple unicorn used her magic to open their door and entered. Her companion began picking up a moderate sized luggage case he'd left on the floor as Penniless passed by them on her way down the hallway. "But Twilight! I wanted to get some souvenirs while we were here." The little dragons complained. "I know we're only here to pick up dates Spike." Twilight said as Penniless passed them in the hallway. "But they won't have them ready to go with us until tomorrow, souvenirs or no souvenirs, we needed to use the bits to pay for the room." "Sure, you say that now." Spike grumbled. "But when you see the prices they'll charge for breakfast tomorrow you'll wonder why you didn't just spend the night under the stars." "You mean the complimentary breakfast, I presume?" The purple unicorn said, poking her head out of the room to confront the grumbling dragon. "Ah, heh heh," Spike laughed weakly, "I guess you noticed that too huh." "And that's why I'm in charge." Twilight said, ducking back into the room. Penniless thought she heard the little dragon mutter something else but she was too far away to hear any more of the conversation as she continued down a turn in the hallway toward her room. Her room was much like the rest of the rooms in the inn. The doorway and much of the trim was a deep red from the rust-wood trees that'd been used to make them. The room itself was actually fairly plain and simple but each small convenience was painfully paid for by the owner and as such, they had each been carefully selected for utility and aesthetics. - - - - - In the darkness at the dead of night, shapes and shadows are impossible to distinguish. There was no temperature, no light, no sound, no wind, nothing. The faintest hint of the shadows of trees, colorless and leafless stood silently all around the mare, sealing in the clearing with no way out. Hearing her own breath with surprising clarity in the silent barren space, the mare looked around, taking in her bleak surroundings. *THUMP* The mare turned, fear and horror rising as she heard the noise. Despite her alarmed and alert state, she failed to discover the source of the sound. Again, the mare turned, this time her gaze settling on a simple dark shape that was settled at the other side of the small clearing. At first it looked like a dark rock but as she gazed at it, its form seemed to gather together in the shadows and gloom, it almost looked like a pony. But for a pony, it was made all wrong. Its edges were almost impossible to detect, it seemed to blend far too well with the gloom and shadows behind and around it, as though it had no actual border or boundary. *THUMP* The mare could only stare at the odd thing as again the sound reverberated, as quiet as a whisper yet as powerful as thunder. Its form was stronger now and easier to see, though its fur and mane whipped and dissolved in the air around it. The mare tried to make out more of its details, it wasn't a pegasus, it wasn't a unicorn, and it was very thin and scrawny. The entire image was eerily wrong somehow. For some reason, the mare could almost feel a desire coming from it, like a yearning of some kind, it was hungry for something. *THUMP* The mare winced, the more the weird sound came, the more and more of the mare's mind seemed to weaken. But the more she wanted to get away from the thing, to pull her attention away from it, the more her eyes and senses were forced to take in every detail of its existence, as though being drawn into whirlpool. It was black, nothing beyond simple blackness, like an ink turned into shadow turned into smoke turned back into ink again. *THUMP* The sound was louder now, shaking her mind and body to the core. The world began swimming and the mare struggled to keep herself from losing her balance and becoming dizzy. The world around her threatened to throw her into a horrible state of vertigo and, for a moment, her feeling of up and down was turned sideways. Trying to maintain her balance, the sensation of up and down continued to turn until they were exactly opposite what they should be, she was standing upside down on the underside of the ground that was above her, the sky somewhere below. With no mental power to stop it from doing otherwise, the world continued to "turn" until the ground was once again "down" to her. *THUMP* Reality actually blurred and washed away somewhat, everything, anything, any thought and concept was gone, there was no "up" anymore, just like there was no "down" either. The trees, the darkness, the very attempt at thought, all were washed away as the world became a smeared vortex of shades and darkness. Only the things at either end of the vortex were not wiped away and smeared with the rest of reality, the mare herself and the weird dark shadow pony that stared at her. *THUMP* The maelstrom of washed out thoughts and half ideas continued but didn't get worse. Even so, a change occurred, the distance between the mare and the shadow pony seemed to shorten, the storm now swirled around them rather then between them, barely any distance between them now. What was worse, the dark pony stared at her with its black empty eyes and began to open its mouth, revealing its teeth, a slight moan escaping its mouth as it did so. They were not the teeth of any equine. They were sharp, vicious and horribly jagged. Teeth made for one thing, to kill. *THUMP* The mouth widened into a kind of emotionless grin, much wider then any pony mouth could have opened. The world was still spinning and washing away into empty nothingness, draining her thoughts of all consistency and coherence. She was left sitting impotently in the middle of the storm staring at this jagged toothed dark pony thing. A low, guttural sound began issuing from the dark void behind those jagged teeth. As she stared, the dark pony seemed much closer now, just a few inches before her in fact, giving her a very good view of those jaws, the teeth they held, and the empty sucking void of darkness behind them. *THUMP* With a start, Nutty Pine bolted upright in her bed, panicked breathing and a thundering heartbeat reminding her she was alive. 'she was alive', she started realizing, 'she had a body, she had hooves, she had legs, a torso, a chest, a neck, she had a face'. She started trying to force her heart-rate from down Olympic speeds to a more manageable one, breathing more slowly and deeply. Her awareness and consciousness, like a tiny bubble wandering up from deep under water, began surfacing and coming to her again. The world gradually came back into focus, her head was still swimming a bit, as though she'd been casting horribly strong and cruelly complicated spells all day long. Even so, she calmed herself, she was in a familiar place, her room at the inn of Brumby Junction. Slowly, she tried to remember more about herself. She was a fairly plain brown mare with a golden mane and tail with a walnut and an acorn as her cutie mark. She was still young enough to be considered a young adult but, as her mother was often swift to point out, "time waits for no mare". She remembered herself and where she was, it was safe here. She had friends there, she reminded herself of how safe the place was and had been throughout the years she'd been there. She was there when Sheriff Moss Topper had been elected even though at the time he had only lived there for two years. She was there when the place had attempted to get itself declared as an official village for the 18th time. She was also there when the rejection notice came too and the town was in such a state of not caring (it was the 18th rejection after all) that they had decided to celebrate anyway. She was there when that storm had nearly swept everything away last year. If she was any more involved in Brumby Junction she'd have to actually live there. She knew these ponies and none of them were dangerous or scary, even the local prankster was limited to merely setting off the occasional fire-cracker when you were least expecting it. She reminded herself of the present, she wasn't in danger, she wasn't in the wild or anywhere unsafe. She was on her way back home from visiting her family up north, again. She was friends with the innkeeper Bedtime Story who, though he denied it constantly, she was convinced that he kept her favorite room open for her as a means of flirting with her. That was this very room, a room so familiar that merely being here could drive away nightmares and fears, cares and worries, even if only for one night. Room 302, that was her safe place in this town, the safest place in Equestria, in the whole world. These thoughts gave her comfort as she came to herself; more and more, bit by bit, piece by piece she calmed herself in her simple, safe, comfortable room. *THUMP* The chill that ran down her back could have stopped her heart, and probably would have too if her heart hadn't suddenly decided to start running another marathon. Involuntarily, her breathing too began going faster and more shallowly. For a moment, there was nothing but silence and the sound of her scared breathing. *THUMP* She gave a small start, trying to track down where the noise had come from. Maybe, maybe somepony was knocking on her door her door. Yeah, that was it, the noise could have simply leaked into her dreams and maybe woken her up too. Slowly, she glanced towards the doorway, only slightly silhouetted by the dim light outside. *THUMP* With a slight cringe she realized that the sound was not coming from the direction of the door. Could it be that somepony was making noise from one of the other rooms. Fear started getting replaced with slight disgust as she thought of the kinds of noises that somepony could or would be making to go through the walls like that. *THUMP* With grim resignation and a fresh wave of fear she realized that the sound wasn't muffled enough to have come through the walls, it was fresh and present and, therefore, the sound was coming from inside the room with her. The only saving grace was that the sound wasn't making reality swim, in fact, it wasn't all that loud either. Of course, the downer of this was that the sound hadn't been very strong until near the end of the dream, it had started out much quieter though still very strong. *THUMP* Almost jumping slightly, she tried regaining control of herself and slowly looked around, taking in every detail of the room around her. She tried lighting her horn to get more light, it refused to work. Panic threatened to take over as a new piercing wave of icy cold crept like an infection down her spine. Again she tried to light her horn, only to have it give off the faintest of a glimmering sparkle that instantly faded to nothing, swallowed up by the lingering darkness and stifling shadows. *THUMP* She gave a little squeak. Now she really was starting to panic. Slowly, she crept out of the bed, the need for action driving her more then any tenable thought. Her hoof contacted the floor with the gentlest touch that she had ever made, daring not to make the merest hint of a sound. Gingerly, she copied this as one by one her hooves touched the ground. Her hair was standing on end and the chill down her back threatened creeping outward to infect the rest of her body. Her horn, despite her magical efforts and experience, felt cold and dead, draining like an open wound. Slowly and cautiously she crept, fearing to disrupt the momentary silence as she tried making her way to the door, she had to get out, to escape, to get help, get away, get safe. *THUMP* Nutty Pine froze, a foreleg suspended in mid step and half a tear forming in one eye. Unmistakably now, she recognized the sound's source, right next to her. Almost crying from fear, she averted her gaze from the door, her heart almost stopping at what she saw no more then a foot from her. A single dark featureless pony, thin, gaunt and unhealthy looking, stood there, looking at her. Its head, body, even the eyes were completely black, no glimmer or reflection of any light at all, nothing but an empty blackness, sucking in her very being and presence of mind. It opened its jaw, revealing its many jagged teeth, grinning at her from inside of an impossibly large emotionless maw. For the first time since the dream began, she heard the thing breathe, a guttural, otherworldly sound as it opened its jaws wider and wider, revealing the impossibly deep void within. *THUMP* A scream rent the air from room 302, cut short by a silence like an impassable wall.