Ancient Awakening

by Mr Tinkertrain

In the end

Twilight turned her head to look for Pinkie. She walked quite slowly, probably as an aftermath of the attack, but they finally arrived at the library. The unicorn opened the door and waited for her friend to enter. She looked over the night sky for any signs of Rainbow. As she couldn’t spot her in the dark sky, she closed the door behind her. She hoped that Rainbow would return soon.

She checked for Spike, who was asleep in the upper Room, and as she came back, Pinkie rolled up in a pillow and slept. Twilight looked on the shelves labeled ‘Ancient Myths’. She knew what she would do while waiting for Rainbow to come back.

Twilight took a pile of books with her to the window, lightened a candle and started to read. Somewhere in those books must be an answer.

Rainbow Dash just entered the town and lowered her altitude until she flew shot a few hooves above the ground, but she didn’t slow down till she saw something moving at the edge of her field of view, in a dark road. She slowed down and stared down into the dark, but she couldn’t see anything, as suddenly something ran away from her. “Hey!” She yelled, but whoever this was, he ignored her.

She took the pursuit through the streets, and whoever this was – he was fast. But not fast enough to escape the best flyer in Equestria. Soon, she could see the silhouette of her victim. It was a young filly, a Pegasus. She grabbed the hind legs of the silhouette and brought it to trip and to fall on the ground face first.

Rainbow turned her opponent on his back and realized who were almost crying under her hooves. “Scootaloo? What are you doing out here?” asked Rainbow the young filly didn’t answer and looked to the side, tears were filling her eyes. “Nothing. I did nothing … I mean I was on the way home, yeah, on the way home!” Scootaloo tried to wind herself out of Rainbows grip, as she knew that the cyan colored Pegasus won’t believe her, but she couldn’t get away.

“Stop lying to me. Anyway, I won’t let you run around alone in the night. You will come with me to Twilight into the library.” She let the filly get on hooves again. “Now let’s go or we’ll be even later than now.” The young Pegasus had some problems to follow Rainbow, as she took off and flew in the direction of the library. She was just flying too fast for Scootaloo.

Rainbow didn’t think twice about the little filly behind her until she heard her scream. Rainbow turned around inflight, but couldn’t see Scootaloo anywhere. She just heard the screams of the filly, as she was speeding through the dark city and relied on them to catch up to her and her captor.

Slowly the screams faded until they stopped entirely. Rainbow moved into the direction the last scream came from and just hoped that she wouldn’t end up at another puddle of blood like that she found Mr. Cakes hat in. She flew over the city, but without success. She stopped at the border of the city and looked at the forest. She made a decision.

The decision to get Twilight and, if necessary, also Pinkie and go back to the shrine with them. She wouldn’t leave the little filly out there to die.

Twilight read the fifth book about ancient myths and lore and already felt tired. She looked over to Pinkie, who still was sleeping on the pillow since they arrived at the library. A knocking at the window caused Twilight to turn her head to it. A Pegasus was hovering outside of the window and knocked furiously against the glass.

Twilight opened the window to let Rainbow in and ask her about what she found, she got knocked over as Rainbow charged inside.. “Woah, Rainbow! What happened?” Twilight asked, as she regained her balance. “On my way back to the library, I stumbled over Scootaloo. I wanted to bring her back here with me, but she couldn’t keep up with me and this … thing got her! We need to rescue her! Now!”

Twilight watched her friend as she explained what happened, but shook her head. “We can’t. We need to find a way how we can stop it before we encounter it ourselves.” She turned her back to the Pegasus and carried on reading the book as she did before Rainbows arrival at the library. “Somewhere in here must be an answer to all this …” Twilight muttered, more to herself than to her friend.

“And … I found this in a puddle of blood in the forest.” Rainbow said as she held up the bloodstained hat. Twilight turned around again, her eyes locked onto the hat. She lowered her voice, as she spoke to Rainbow. “Don’t let Pinkie see this. At least don’t show it to her yet.” Twilight went back to her book. “She is sleeping downstairs. You shouldn’t wake her up.” Rainbow nodded, even if Twilight couldn’t see her and sat down on the ground.

“So … what are we doing now? We can’t just sit around while Scootaloo is out there alone.” Rainbows question remained unanswered, as Twilight focused on the book. The Pegasus almost couldn’t hear her whispering. “This is it.” She whispered, more to herself than to her friend, who got a puzzled look on her face. “What are you talking about, Twi?” The unicorn turned around to her friend.

“The solution, I found the solution to all of this, Rainbow! This book describes a spell they used long time ago to capture an evil being in the same shrine we discovered!” Rainbow stared at Twilight, as she jumped around the Pegasus. “But it is really difficult to cast. You’ll need to distract this thing while I cast it.” Rainbow still just was sitting around.

“Let me get this straight. You found the spell they used to seal this thing, right?” Twilight nodded as an answer to the question of her friend. “And now you want me to distract something that kills without a second thought about it, while you cast the spell?” The unicorn nodded again. “It’s not like we have much of a choice.” Rainbow nodded. “I know. Well, what are we waiting for? We got to rescue a filly!” Rainbow yelled almost enthusiastically.

In a conclusion of that yell, Pinkie came trotted up the stairs and as soon as Rainbow and Twilight heard her steps on the stairs, they both charged for the bloodstained hat and almost collided over it, but Rainbow managed to grab it an hide it behind her back, just a second before Pinkie came up the stairs.

“Hey, you woke me up. What’s the matter?” She asked. The Pegasus was the first of them to answer. “Twilight found out how to defeat this thing that attacked you in Sugarcube Corner, and now we’re going to beat it up.” She looked to the side. “And I’ll have to be the bait.” Even Twilight noticed that her smile looked somehow stiff. “Oh, may I come with you? Please?” asked Pinkie Twilight and Pinkie looked at each other. While Rainbow shrugged, Twilight shook her head.

“Well, Pinkie …” Twilight started. “We don’t want you to get in anymore danger than you’ve been in already.” Rainbow supported her friend as she nodded. “You should go back to sleep again.” Pinkie looked sad as she heard this. “But I want to come with you!” Twilight shook her head. “You still have injuries from that attack on Sugarcube Corner. You should stay here. Wake up Spike if you should need help.” Pinkie nodded and let her head hang down as she went downstairs again.

Twilight looked after her friend as she went downstairs again, while Rainbow put the hat on Twilights desk. Twilight looked at Rainbow. “Is it a good idea to leave her here?” She asked. Rainbow just shrugged as answer. “I don’t know, it probably was the better decision to leave her here with Spike. If you’re ready we’ll leave now.” Twilight nodded and grabbed the book in which she found the spell in. Just in case she forgot something.

Scootaloo could feel how she was dragged over the ground in the forest by her hind legs. Whoever caught here and brought her here wasn’t caring about her at all. It was dark around her, she couldn’t see anything. Sometimes she could recognize a tree, but that was all she could see. She heard branches break and snap as her captor rushed through the forest, not caring about them hitting him. Scootaloo lost the track of time as she got dragged through the forest.

Until they reached a glade, the pale moonlight provided just a little light, but enough to see the silhouette of her captor. It was a tall, dark creature, covered in shadow. It dragged her into the middle of the glade, to a stone plate. It was already covered in blood while bones were lying around it. The look of that scenery left the little filly with a bad feeling about her near future. But a small, moving spot at the dark night sky gave her a little hope.

Rainbow gave her best, but with Twilights additional weight in her hooves, it got hard to fly at full speed, despite knowing that every second could save Scootaloos life. But they should be faster at the aerial way than this thing was walking through the forest. Both, Twilight and Rainbow, hoped they wouldn’t be too late to save her. They knew that all this was their fault, and they would do everything to stop it again.

“Rainbow, stop!” Twilight yelled from below. “We’re already there. Fly down!” Rainbow did as her friend said and lowered her altitude. The pale moonlight shone upon the glade, and indeed – there was something in the glade. The stone plate they found that tunnel underneath got turned into some kind of creepy altar, covered in blood and bones. Twilight could feel an cold shower running down her back as she thought whose bones were lying there.

Then she could see a little, orange spot on the altar. “There she is! Rainbow, let me down at the border of the glade, I’ll cast the spell. Distract it, so it won’t notice it until it is too late.” Rainbow let her friend down where she told her to. Twilight looked up to the Pegasus one last time, before she prepared herself to cast the spell. “You know what to do. Good luck.” She could see Rainbow nodding in the dark, even if it was more a feeling than visible. The Pegasus then turned away and flew into the direction of the creature and its victim.

Rainbow hoped that Twilight would hurry up with her spell, as she started to circle around the creature, which didn’t seem to pay much attention to the Pegasus. It was completely focused on the filly which the creature held down with one claw-tipped hand, while the other hand was about to strike down. Rainbow knew what she had to do.

She flew up close and kicked the creature with her hind legs where she guessed it face were. It staggered a few steps backwards and put one of its hands over the place where the Pegasus hit it, while it tried to catch Rainbow with the other hand. Scootaloo, who knew that this was probably her only chance, jumped back on her hooves and ran up to Twilight, who managed to cast the spell successfully.

The creature ignored Rainbow as soon as it noticed the effects of the spell, its shape flickered and began to disintegrate into shadows. As it moved onto Twilight, it sacked together and disappeared into nothingness. Letting out one last, deep growl, it fell over and disappeared entirely.

Finally, it was over. Scootaloo stood next to Twilight and looked at the cyan Pegasus flying near. As Rainbow was close enough, Scootaloo almost jumped her in the face. Rainbow held her back for a moment and turned her head to Twilight. “Is it over now?” Twilight nodded. “I did everything right, according to that book. I just hope, nopony will ever stumble upon this place anymore, not now and not in the future.”

Rainbow looked back to the bloodstained altar. “Yes, I hope so too. Let’s go back. We still have to tell Pinkie about Mr. and Mrs. Cakes fate.” Twilight gulped. “Yes, I almost forgot … We left the hat in the library. I just hope, she didn’t find the hat.” Rainbow looked up into the sky. “I hope she will get over this.” Twilight nodded, and turned around to leave the glade. “For now, it is over.” She said, before she left the glade. Rainbow took the little filly on her back and followed her friend.

She was right. It was over. Until the next ones stumble upon the shrine and break the seal.