This is a crossover between My Little Pony and Alan Wake, one of the best horror games ever made. Twilight Sparkle battles evil ponies taken over by a mysterious force while dealing with her own sanity and losing a close friend.
Twilight Sparkle, recently made princess, is now trying to get away from ponyville for a while and have a relaxing vacation. But when things don't go exactly the way she expected, her perception of reality is soon turned "dark". (This is a crossover between My Little Pony and Alan Wake, one of the best horror games ever made.)
Star Swirl the Bearded once said that "Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there’s little fun to be had in explanations; they’re antithetical to the poetry of fear. In a horror story, the victim keeps asking "why?" But there can be no explanation, and there shouldn’t be one. The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest and it's what we’ll remember in the end. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m a Princess.
I've always had a vivid imagination, but this dream unsettled me. It was wild and dark and weird even by my standards. So yes, it began with a dream. Following a typical nightmare pattern, I was late, desperately trying to reach my destination -- a lighthouse -- for some urgent reason, I couldn't remember. I'd been flying too fast down a dirt road to get there. I closed my eyes for a second and didn't notice the stallion in my way, then 'WHACK'. We slammed into a tree, but he had taken most of the impact.
"OH MY GOSH, ARE YOU OKAY?!" I screamed to check on the poor stallion.
He was dead. I was convinced they would throw me in the dungeon and I would never see Spike or any of my friends again. Suddenly, I thought I heard a noise behind me and I turned to check.
"HELLO, SOMEPONY, I NEED SOME HELP!"
I then felt a sharp pain on my left side, my wing was broken. "Ow, that really hurts." I thought. Then I turned back to check on the stallion to find something that made me jump back, his body had vanished.
I was still really injured from the crash, I could hardly stand on my hooves. I just knew I had to reach the lighthouse, by any means necessary. Suddenly, a light shined from a lamp that was near me. That's odd, how did that get there and most importantly, how did it light up with no power source. I didn't worry about it that much, so I found a wooden walkway and started to head towards it. I felt a sharp chill down my spine and a voice that called to me as I was halfway through the walkway. I turn to find that same stallion I crashed into standing at the road, surrounded by a dark mist. I was frozen in fear at this point as all I could do was watch as he teleported towards the beginning of the walkway, which was impossible seeing as how he was an earth pony, and also dead.
"I...I thought I killed you. Thank Celestia that you're alive!" but my words were slowly replaced with shivers as he lifted his head to look into my eyes. His face was pitch black and his eyes were just white dots.
"I wouldn't thank her just yet." His voice suddenly went dark and low as a smile grew on his face and he lifted an axe from out of nowhere. It was levitating, he wasn't holding it, that's impossible.
"H-How are you d-doing that? You're n-not a unicorn." I could hardly keep hold of my voice I was so scared.
"And you're not worthy enough to be a princess. What exactly have you done for us." He said as he started to swing the axe back and forth at me. I immediately turned around and ran in the other direction, but the end of the walkway collapsed. As I fell to the ground, the stallion just stood there and mocked me.
"You're a joke, and you know it. You haven't tried to help ponyville in any kind of way. Even you're pathetic sister in law Cadence has done more than you ever could. Why even bother with what you're doing and remove those damn wings. Better yet, how about I remove them for you." He said as he vanished away. I was not worrying about him as I got up, brushed myself off and tried to move, but he teleported in front of a door that I had to get through.
"I'm gonna end you're career, permanently!" "Oh, Celestia." was all I could get out. He started coming at me and all I could do was back up, until I was interrupted by a rock. I fell on my back and the stallion came at me, I dogged to the left and he slammed the axe into the ground. I managed to give him a kick to the stomach and that made him disappear.
I made my way through the gate when I could hear his voice again. "How does it feel to die by the hooves of a complete stranger!" He then suddenly erupted into a giant, black, misty tornado. All I could think was "DON'T STOP RUNNING" as I turned around and sprinted towards a bridge. At the end of it was a pony that I recognized. It was a stallion that I had a crush on during magic school, Calinate. "Quickly Twilight, get inside the cabin!" I ran into the cabin as he blocked the on the other side. The entire interior was covered in lights and T.V.'s. There was another door to my right that had a poster on it that said "Trixie the great and powerful" I looked outside in horror as the shadow stallion started walking towards Calinate, who had a gun and started shooting at him. The bullets had no effect as the shadowy figure plunged the axe into Calinate's chest. As he collapsed to the ground, the shadow plunged the axe into his head, ending the poor stallions life. The murderer looked into the window to find me crying in fear. He once again disappeared as I was left with the horrible memory. Suddenly, all the T.V.'s turned on and showed the stallions eye. "Die, die, die, die, die, die...!" He began to laugh like a psychopath, when suddenly, the cabin started shaking violently. I was going to die inside the cabin.
Then, the shaking stopped, and the door erupted into a bright, blinding light and a voice started to speak to me. "Follow the light, you are only safe there." I heard that voice before. "Trixie?" I said as I followed the light towards a broken stairway. The light began to shine on me as I started to heal from my wounds in mere seconds. The voice began to speak again. "Thank goodness you're safe. I have something important to tell you. It goes like this: For she did not know, that beyond the lake she called home, lies a deeper, darker ocean green, where waves are wilder and more serene. Its strange ports, I've seen. To its ports I've been. Do you understand?" "No?" I was completely scared and confused at what was happening.
"Follow my light." The light then pointed towards the destroyed staircase and fixed it in seconds. I was absolutely speechless. "I entered your dream to teach you. The darkness is dangerous. It's sleeping now. When it feels you coming, it will wake up. There's no time, I can only show you the most important things." I followed the light into a small garden area. There was a tree stump and dead flowers everywhere. The dark stallion appeared again, but he was just standing there, staring at me. "This poor stallion has been taken over by the Dark Presence. You can't hurt him now. The darkness protects him from all harm. Only light can drive the darkness away and make him vulnerable again. Here Twilight, take the light." Suddenly, a small flashlight floated towards the tree stump. I picked up the flashlight and began shinning it at the stallion. I could hear what sounded like a shrieking sound as smoke was coming off of him. He then erupted into a tiny flash of light as he flew back, trying to find his footing. "You did it! Now the darkness no longer protects him. But it's still inside, controlling him. He can't be saved. He is still a threat, he is still your enemy. Here take the gun." Then a tinny revolver began to float towards the same stump. I didn't want it to come to this, I'd never killed anypony. But I had no choice. I aimed the pistol towards the stallion and began to fire until he erupted into a ball of light and disappeared for good. I was relieved, but someone saddened. I turned back towards the light before it left. "Good, you've done well, remember what I've taught you. That is all, I will give you back you're dream." The light then disappeared and I was left alone in the dark again.
I finally remembered why I was going to the light house. Equestria was taken over by a dark presence and the lighthouse was the last safe place. I began to make my way to the lighthouse while running into more of the dark stallion trying to kill me. I was thankful to escape with my life. Now the only thing between me and the lighthouse was a bridge.
The tornado had returned and I began to run as fast as I could, while the tornado was lobbing carriages and barrels at me. I burst through the door and hide behind the wall as the door was literally banging on the door. But it was soon scared away by the light of the light house. "Thank Celestia, I'm finally safe." I began to inspect the lighthouse, but the light, somehow shut off and I was left in the darkness. I looked up and a dark shadow was rushing at me. Then...everything went black.
"AH" Spike was caught off guard as he put his hand on my shoulder. "Wow, Twilight, calm down. It was just a nightmare, you're fine." I began to calm down as I looked at my #1 assistant. "Spike...at times, I, myself question my mental stability." I said giving him a small smile. "Cheer up Brainiac, were here." As he got up and waited at the train doors for me, I looked through the window to remind myself where we were. "Bright Foals"
As I began to get up and stretch my legs, I accidentally tripped somepony with my right back leg.
"Oh my gosh, are you ok?! I didn't notice you there." I said with slight panic in my voice.
"No no no, it's fine," he remarked as he got back on his hooves. "I was just telling this young gentlecolt over here about our annual summer sun celebration coming up. I hear even princess Celestia herself is going to show up."
Then, another pony came up to us. "You just can't wait for the celebration so you have to spread it around to everypony, don't you hon?" Hon? That must be his wife.
"Yeah, and I'll make sure to share it with everypony who listens to the radio. This is a very important event." He said with great excitement.
I began to walk away when they called out to me. "I'm sorry, but we couldn't help but notice the wings with you're horn, are you a princess." Darn, I thought this would be a secret vacation.
"Yes I am actually, my name is Twilight Sparkle." I said trying to look collective.
"We're pleased to make your acquaintance, your highness." The stallion said as he lowered his head to kiss my hooves. I saw his wife gave him an annoyed look and pulled him back by his mane. "Heh, sorry dear." He then turned back to me. "Miss Twilight, do you think I could try to get an interview with you. If you didn't hear, I host a radio show in Bright Foals."
I began to look a little worried, "Look, I'm flattered, but me and my friend came here to get away from the big princess thing. Do you think we could keep my being here just between the three of us, please?" I said with a nervous grin on my face.
"He'd be perfectly fine with it. We respect you're opinion and we won't say a word, trust us." she assured with a warm smile and a nudge to her husband.
Thank goodness, now onto getting off the train. I turned around and began to head back to Spike when my horn began to vibrate. I activated it and a visual of Pinkie Pie and Rarity showed up.
"Hi there Twilight, when are you coming home?" Pinkie said with a sad face.
"Pinkie darling, she just got there. Give her some time to settle in."
"I'm just making sure my best princess friend is doing well on her vacation. Listen, Twilight, just say the word and I will get over there as soon as possible and have some stern words with somepony. After all, I wouldn't want you to get completely harassed by anypony."
"I'll be fine Pinkie, you don't need to worry about it."
"You know Pinkie Pie, Twilight, she's can be too curious and protective. Are you settling in well, how is the environment around it?" I'm guessing Rarity wants to come visit too if the description is nice.
I gave Rarity a confused look "We literally just got here, can't say anything about it yet, sorry Rarity. Well, I gotta go, Spike and I need to get our cabin key. Talk to you later girls, bye." I then ended the transmission and walked over to Spike who was giving me a weird look. "What's wrong Spike?"
"How are we suppose to have a vacation when you keep waving your hoof to everyone and yelling 'LOOK, THERE'S A PRINCESS OVER HERE, PAY ATTENTION TO HER'!" Then the whole train went quiet. We looked back and saw a few other ponies looking at us and smiling. "Run."
We both bolted out of the train and ran for a taxi carriage. We told the owner to just move as fast as he could. We were chased for about 10 minutes before we came across a diner. I got off and told them to just keep going to distract them. I ran inside and looked out the window to find about 10-14 ponies chasing the carriage. I turned around and released all my joints to get out some stress to find there were a few ponies that I actually recognized. There was a grey Pegasus with her left eye facing the opposing way of her right eye and a yellow mane. She had 7 bubbles as her cutie mark and she was wearing a name tag that read Ditsy Hooves and a red hat with a white stripe.
"Welcome to the O'Dairy Dinner Ms. Alicorn, what can I get you?"
"Ditsy, don't you know who that is?" Dr. Whooves is here too? "That's princess Twilight Sparkle, I'm pleased to make you're acquaintance."
"Doctor, you don't need to be that formal, we have get togethers. What are you doing here anyway?"
"I came here because I was trying to find a certain flower for a brew that I've been working on. Ditsy came with me because she wanted to help me." He looked back at Ditsy and saw her jaw was wide open, staring at me.
"Did you say she's a...a...PRINCESS!" Ditsy's face suddenly light up and she started freaking out. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I am pleased to make your acquaintance, anything you want, it's free."
I began to give Dr. Whooves an annoyed look as I turned back to the grey Pegasus. "Actually, all I'm looking for is a stallion named Caramel, he's supposed to have a key for me."
"Oh, Caramel, yeah, he's in the bathroom." She said turning around and pointing her hoof towards a dimly lite hallway.
"Ok, thank you mam." I began to walk to it when a familiar voice caught my ear.
"Hello there princess Twilight" I turned to my left to find the Flim Flam brothers sitting at a table. "Can you help me and my brother with the jukebox. It keeps making a noise that sounds like it's stuck, can you fix it."
"Hello to you too Flim, what are you two doing here? Things not going we'll with you're con parade?" I said in a slight mocking tone.
"Hey, the only reason we're here is you and you're dumb friends can't leave well enough alone! Now we're broke and don't have anywhere to go." I began to take pity on them and decided to help them out.
"I'm really sorry, I'll help you with the jukebox, what do you think I should do?"
"Try giving it a good solid whack! That should do it." Flam said while swinging his hoof in the air. I looked at the old jukebox and began to trot over to it. I leaned back with my hoof ready to go and pushed forward, smacking the windowed area and ending the malfunctioning noise.
Flim looked at me and gave me a reassuring look "Thank you, really." I blushed a little as I turned around to head over to the hallway towards the bathrooms. I noticed there was a suspicious looking mare that was standing outside the hall and shaking, like she was scared out of her mind.
"Ma'm, are you ok? Is something in there?" I trotted next to her and began to look inside the hallway.
"I wouldn't go in there young lady, you can hurt yourself in the dark." She said those words in a very nervous and worried tone, but she didn't keep her eyes off the hallway. She also had what looked like a lantern next to her.
"Thank you, but I think I'll be fine." I began to slowly trot into the hallway, examining the entire hallway. It looked so decrepit compared to the rest of the dinner. I finally reached the colts restroom door and began knocking on it. "Hello...Mr. Caramel?" I heard nothing. Then a old mare in a dark widow's outfit appeared behind me.
"Mr. Caramel has become ill unfortunately. But I have the key for you and instructions on how to get to the lake." She said while slowly raising a key and an envelope towards me with her magic.
"Okay...uh, thank you miss." I said confused as I took the items in my own magic aura.
"I hope you settle in well. I'll come by to check on you and see how you've settled in. And to meet your friend. "I gave her a confused and slightly shocked look. "I insist."
I began to trot out of the hallway and I could see the mare was still standing there at the end. "You got lucky this time young lady, you could hurt yourself in the dark." I began to walk out of the dinner as the grey Pegasus waved and said goodbye to me. I could see that Spike's carriage finally arrived and I entered it.
"I finally lost all those crazy ponies." Then, Spike looked at the items I was holding. "I see you got the things we need to get to our spot. I also found some flashlights that we can use."
"Spike, you know I can generate light with my magic right?"
"I just want to give you're magic life a break. After all, your levitation spell takes less than you're light spell, right?"
"Okay, thank you Spike." I said while giving him a hug. I pulled out the instructions and asked the carriage puller to take us there. He complied and we arrived there in a few minutes and Spike and I began to head inside. The power was out, so we had to light some candles (which is something I'm used to doing by now). As Spike began to take his test nap to see how the place was, I trotted outside and began to watch the sunset. I thought this was going to be a nice vacation.
A few hours later
I heard Spike call me from inside the cabin. I went inside and he wasn't around. So I guessed he was upstairs. As I went into our room he told me he had a surprise in the other room. I went in there to find a pile of paper, a quill and a parchment of ink.
"Spike, what's this?" I said with a confused look on my face.
"I thought you could teach new things here, tell Princess Celestia about--"
"Seriously Spike, I thought I told you I wanted to--"
"Hey, hey, hey, just hear me out. I heard there was a psychologist here, Dr. Hartcolt. He specializes in helping people out of depression, I thought maybe he could--"
"So now you think I have depression. Why, because I'm a princess!?"
"No, it's not like that! That's not--" Then suddenly, the lights shut off for a few seconds and he started calling my name.
"Don't! Just don't. I don't wanna hear it. God damn it, Spike." I began to storm out of the cabin and trotted to the bridge that separated the cabin and Bright Foals. I leaned on the rope and began to rub my hooves on my head. "God damn it!" I said to myself. I sat out there for five seconds before the lights in the cabin shut off and I could here Spike screaming for me in terror. "Spike?! Spike, I'm coming!" I began to run back towards the cabin when a flock of darkly colored birds flew right at me. I activated my light spell and the birds flew away. "What in the world?" I ignored it and busted through the door to find it was pitch black. "Spike! Spike?" I noticed the back door also open and the wooden rimming broken. I ran over to it to find Spike in the water drowning. "Oh no." I dove in after him.
Suddenly, I awoke to find I was on the ground in the forest with blood on my head. There was also blood on a tree I was in front of, so I had assumed I had smacked on the tree somehow. Waking up like this felt like I had awoken from one nightmare and entered another. I tried to use my calling spell, but I was to unfocused from what had happened for it to work. I had to find help on hoof.
As I struggled to regain my hoofing I noticed there was a sharp pain in my left side. I looked and my wing was twisted and slightly bleeding. I tried to tuck it back into my side, but it only hurt more. I managed to get it in though.
"Guess I'm walking," I said to myself as I looked around my surroundings. "Looks like I'm in some kind of forest, great." I had no idea how I'd gotten there, all I knew was that something terrible had happened to Spike. I saw a billboard and noticed a pony smiling on there. I began to read it out loud. "Got some problems with you're psyche? Contact Dr. Hartcolt for help." Seeing the billboard brought back my snapping at Spike. I didn't like it, neither did I like the colts smug face.
I trotted for a little bit before I noticed an abandoned library, that was my best bet. I could get there and try to calm down, get some magic back and call the local guards for help. As I thought that I looked to the right, I noticed that the tree I smacked into was starting to fall over. It collapsed into the canyon and wasn't quiet on its way down.
"Dang, sorry Fluttershy." I said with a slight giggle.
I was trotting for about a minute or two before a big light flashed in my face. It looks like it came from out of nowhere. I began to run towards it as two small pages began to float to the ground. I looked at the pages trying to make them out. It was a journal containing all of my lessons on friendship. It was called 'Friendship is Magic By Twilight Sparkle" I didn't remember ever making this journal. The next page contained the lesson I learned from my friends fighting over the Grand Galloping Gala tickets.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I've learned that one of the joys of friendship is sharing your blessings. But when there's not enough blessings to go around, having more than your friends can make you feel pretty awful. So, though I appreciate the invitation, I will be returning both tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala.
This was getting really weird, there were so many questions buzzing in my head. Why was this important? What does this have to do with anything? Where did these even come from? I began to walk some more as I noticed a tiny abandoned lumber mill. The lights were on and the place looked organized and tidy. Maybe I didn't need to go all the way to the library to concentrate. There was a slumped over log that made a dent in the fence blocking my way. I climbed over it and as soon I got in there, things got creepy. There was a visible black-like wind or mist surrounding area. I could hear the rustling of wood and logs in the distance, so I assumed somepony was here.
"Anypony there? Please, I've been in an accident!" I began to move in the direction of the noises and turned to the right of a pile of logs to find what looked like a orange stallion with a blackness around him talking to himself.
"Fail to arrive, you lose the deposit!"
"Hey! Hey, you!" I began to walk towards him, I didn't think he noticed me. "There's been an accident. I need help. I need... to..." but as I got closer, I noticed that there was another colt lying on the ground with what looked like an axe in his chest. The orange stallion began to speak again.
"Premium cabins for rent in Bright Foals!" he said as he pulled the axe violently out of the deceased stallion, moving the body a little in the process. I backed up a little and looked at the stallion in fear and confusion.
"Oh, hell." The stallion suddenly turned his head towards me, he probably heard me, but he just continued to talk about random gibberish.
"Caramel. Pleased to meet you. Non-refundable reservation deposit required. Fair and square." He then bolted off to the right at an alarming speed. I jumped back a little and gasped at that. " Fair and... square." I began to feel like I was in another dream as I began to walk to the building as Caramel started to taunt me some more. "Caramel. Pleased to meet you. Premium cabins. Fair and square." I noticed another manuscript and began to read it but was cut off by caramel jumping from one stack of logs to another above me. I thought it was best to keep moving, so I picked up the manuscript and began to head to the building. "In Bright Foals area. You fail to arrive." I looked to my right to see Caramel standing on a pile of logs with a smirk on his face. "You LOOOOOSE the deposit!" He jumped off the pile and began to run at me with his axe. "It's the latest thing," I immediately turned around and bolted for the building. I jumped up the stairs and slammed the door behind me. "in Bright Foals!" He slammed the axe on the door and I could see the blade come through the door.
I backed away from the door and pulled out the manuscript page and began reading.
Dear Princess Celestia,
My friend Applejack is the best friend a pony could ever have, and she's always there to help anypony. The only trouble is, when she needs help she finds it hard to accept it. So while friendship is about giving of ourselves to friends, it's also about accepting what our friends have to offer.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
"This was from when Applejack was trying to get all the apples from the apple season by herself. This was the second lesson I ever wrote. I still don't get the significance of-" I was suddenly knocked back on my flank as I heard a giant engine starting up. I got up and looked out the window to see a bulldozer driving by itself towards the building. I then noticed a gun and flashlight on the table next to me. I picked them up with my magic and began to check on them. They both seemed to work, but I heard the bulldozer get closer. I thought I was trapped, until I noticed the door to my right. "Stupid, Stupid, Stupid." I began to run towards the door and jumped out and landed on the ground as I turned in to see the bulldozer take the building down the cliff behind it. "Sweet Celestia, what is happening to everypony around here?" I got up and began to run away from the area, before I was ambushed by two more stallions carrying weapons towards me.
This was very similar to the dream I had. Dark shadow like figures trying to kill me. What did the dream teach me. Think, think.
(Flashback) "The darkness protects him from all harm. Only light can drive the darkness away and make him vulnerable again." (Present) Ok, here goes, I began to shine the flashlight at the stallions and I heard that exact same noise from the dream. Both stallions jumped back and a light erupted from them. I also shot the stallion in the dream, but that was it, just a dream, I couldn't murder another pony, even in self defense. I realized I had no other choice, so I aimed the pistol at them and fired a bullet at each one. I looked back and they were still there, so I fired another bullet, and another.
My head pounded with the concussion. I'd never fired a gun before, and now I'd just killed somepony, or something. There were no bodies though -- they'd just disappeared. If I was dreaming, it felt real enough to make me sick.
I shined my flashlight at a wall and suddenly, a yellow arrow appeared. I followed it and found a box with a big candle painted on the wall behind it. I trotted over, opened it and inside was a flare gun. I went back to find another fence with a log on it. I hopped over it and made my way to the gas station, when suddenly, another dark colt appeared from behind another machine and threw a small axe at me. I dodged it, but it still cut my face a little. I dealt with him and noticed another page to my left. It said:
Dearest Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that it's hard to accept when somepony you like wants to spend time with somepony who's not so nice. Though it's impossible to control who your friends hang out with, it is possible to control your own behavior. Just continue to be a good friend. In the end, the difference between a false friend and one who's true will surely come to light.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle
I still had a long way to go 'til I got to the library.
*31 Minutes later*
I happen to come across another part of the old lumber mill. I had dealt with many taken (that's what I'm calling them now) and I climbed over a gate. I was so close to the library, I could feel it. I also started to hear a disturbingly familiar voice. Caramel was back and he was taunting me again. I saw him climbing onto another pile of logs and he was joined by three more taken. The three jumped down to come after me, but I pulled out my flare gun and aimed it at the middle of them. It exploded and took all of the taken with it. Caramel then climbed off and started bolting at me. I shinned the light at him and he covered his face, not looking were he's going and slamming into a pile of chopped wood. I continued to shine the light at him and he erupted into the light. He began running at me and swung the axe towards my neck. I jumped to the side and began firing at him like crazy. I emptied a full clip and he still wasn't down. He pulled the axe out and hit me in the side of the face. I lost control of my balance and fell over. He jumped on me and plunged the axe into the ground (guess he thought he would hit me). I grabbed the pistol, put in a bullet and put the gun in Caramel's mouth.
"Sorry" I said as I pulled the trigger and turned my head away, closing my eyes. He disappeared and I got up, and started running towards the library.
I finally made it, the whole place was covered in lights. I felt like a safe haven from Celestia. I then saw a picture of her with the words 'Annual Summer Sun Celebration In 7 Days.' It had been two weeks away when we arrived. If the day count on the banner was right, I was missing a whole week from between the night we got here and now. I turned to the left to see another journal page.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I have learned a very valuable lesson about friendship: I was so afraid of being thought of as a showoff that I was hiding a part of who I am. My friends helped me realize that it's okay to be proud of your talents, and there are times when it's appropriate to show them off... Especially when you're standing up for your friends.
I turned around and entered the Library. Thankfully, there were working lights, but the place was trashed. Looks like there was some kind of fight here. Suddenly, a light erupted from a projector and started playing on a white board, what looked like... me. I was talking frantically and moving back and forth.
"I'll write. I'll keep writing. Outside there's only darkness, outside the cabin, outside the story, there's only darkness. I can feel his presence in the dark. I'll reach her, I'll fix it. I'll bring him back. The story will come true. If I stop, she's lost." The Projector turned off and started smoking up. I don't believe this. Was I losing my mind? I didn't worry about it though, as I picked up and started to calm down. After a few minutes, I finally called the guards office.
After about seven minutes of waiting, a carriage with two Pegasus pulled up and I saw an orange unicorn with an orange and red mane riding in it. She stepped off and I got out of the library ad I couldn't believe my eyes.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle, you need my help, I'm flattered."
"S-S-Sunset Shimmer?" my jaw dropped and I began to rub my head. "I thought you were still in the other world."
"Nice to see you too. I thought I'd visit Equestria again, to see how things are. My guess is, not good with you."
"I was in an accident and Spike's missing!"
"Calm down Princess." she said with a calm tone.
"We were staying at a cabin, on Coltron Lake."
"What are you talking about, there's no cabin there. At least not since the big eruption ten years ago." She said with a confused and amused look on her face.
"I can take you there, ok." she began to examine me.
"You look like you've gotten attacked." I began to slump to the ground. "Are you ok?"
"Listen -- "
"Well figure this out. Please get in the carriage. We'll swing by the lake, and then we'll go to the station. Okay?" she began to help me up as she looked at me. "Twilight, have you seen Caramel? The colt who owns this place?" I realized I couldn't tell her what had happened in the forest. She wouldn't have believed me, and then she wouldn't have helped me with Spike.
We finally arrived and I began to look at the lake. My jaw dropped and my eyes widened. I looked back at Sunset and she nodded her head and gave me an assuring look. I looked back to the location to confirm what I saw. The cabin was gone.
I walked back inside the treehouse after getting some books from Fluttershy about dragon history. I put the books on a table and placed my scarf on the hook near the door. A pretty big snow storm was happening outside.
"Spike, I'm home!" I knew he was still here, I just didn't know where. I then heard a familiar voice.
"Up in the bedroom, Twilight. How was it?"
"Worst, but best weather I've ever seen." I began to head upstairs and I saw Spike, on his belly, writing on a paper. "Hey there, what are you doing?" He looked at me and gave a confident look.
"I'm writing a poem for Rarity. I know she's gonna love it!" The entire room was dimly lite from the window, so I could barely see all of him.
"Don't you want some light?" I questioned how he has written so much with barely any light.
"You don't need to see when you're blinded by love." he said as he sat up and cupped his hands together and tilted his head.
Suddenly, a large snow pile covered the window and the window slightly opened. A cold breeze went through the entire room and Spike started to shiver and curled up in a little scaly ball. I got a cold shiver soon after and decided on something.
"You want to light some candles and cuddle in bed with me?" I gave him a warm smile. He looked up, gave a slight smile and nodded. Soon after, we had a few candles around the bed and we were both sitting on the bed.
"Wanna hear a story to let the time go by faster?" He answered my question with another nod. "Okay, when I was around your age I used to have really bed nightmares. The darkness really used to spook me. When it got really bad, my dad gave me this old candlestick. He called it "The Shiner"."
He looked at me with an amused look. "The Shiner, huh?"
"Yeah. If I ever got scared of the dark, I could just blow on it and the magic light would scare the monsters away."
"Oh, sure. Wasn't Smarty Pants there to help you?"
"No, he was my study buddy. The Shiner however, helped me during the dark. In fact." I began to activate my magic and brought a tiny and slightly rusted candlestick over to us. "Here it is. I want you to have it."
"Twilight, you can't be serious, I can't take this. This was your childhood friend." he said with a surprised, but unsure look on his face.
"I want you too have it. It will help you, as it helped me." He took it from my magic and inspected it. He smiled and began to blow on it.
"There, now we're safe from the monsters." He had a confident look on his face. I slightly chuckled and began to pet his head.
"My hero." He smiled and started to give me a hug. I gave it back to him and we sat there for a few minutes. He was more than an assistant or a friend. He was part of my family.
*Bright Foals The Present Day*
I was sitting in a room with an older stallion shining a light in my eye.
"Hmmh. How do you feel, Ms. Sparkle? Any nausea, disorientation, anything like that? Ms. Sparkle? How are you feeling?" I suddenly started to get flashes of vague memories from last night. My eyes started twitching and the doctor me a concerned look.
"I'm okay, my head's fine." I had to lie about my headache and memory loss. He'd send me to a hospital for tests. I couldn't leave without Spike.
"Mm. Very well. I don't think you have a concussion, but you've obviously been through quite a shock. You should take it easy for a couple of days." He then turned to his bag and started to look inside for something. Well then, Ms. Sparkle, we're done here. If the pain gets any worse or you experience any other symptoms, you should come see me. I'll let you get on with it then. Sunset -- ah, Sheriff Shimmer is waiting for you. She's very good at her job. I'm sure she can locate your friend in no time."
"Okay, thank you sir." I trotted out of the room and saw the entryway of the building. There was a mare in a uniform, standing behind the front desk. There was also the mare from the diner, messing with the lights.
"Thank you for testing the lights, Ms. Weaver. Everything seems to be fine." The mare behind the counter sounded thankful, yet somewhat annoyed.
"I don't have the luxury of being complacent, Deputy Grant. The bulbs need will need changing soon. You can't change them in the dark." she said as she turned with a focused look on her face. The deputy slightly rolled her eyes.
"*sigh* I'll be sure to take care of it, Ms. Weaver. Have a nice day now." She began to wave her hoof at her.
"Very good. I'll come back later to remind you, just in case." She then trotted out the door, still carrying the lantern with her. The deputy noticed me and put a smile on her face.
"Oh, Ms. Sparkle, sorry about that, the sheriff is waiting for you in her office. I looked at the door with a confused face.
"Who was that old mare?"
"That was Cynthia Weaver. I guess you can call her the town eccentric. She used to be the editor of the local newspaper, but she's focused on, oh, other things these days."
I began to trot over to the sheriffs office and began to slightly open the door.
"Yes?" I heard Sunsets voice and soon saw her, standing away from the door. she soon turned and noticed me. "Ah, Twilight. Please, come in."
"Have you started looking for Spike yet?" I didn't want to sound rude, but I couldn't imagine where Spike was. I wanted him back so badly.
"A group of my best guards are already on it. Now, can you tell me what happened?"
"I'm not sure. I can't remember. I snapped at Spike about something. I walked out of the cabin."
"The cabin on Coltron Lake?" She wasn't convinced there was a cabin there. "How did you end up at Caramel's snack station?" I wanted to tell her what had happened last night, but I couldn't. She'd think I was insane, making it all up. She wouldn't help me if she thought I was joking. Suddenly, a scroll appeared from a tiny flash and dropped on the floor. I picked it up with my magic and began to read it. It said:
Stop talking to the guards. You'll do exactly what I say if you ever want to see your dragon friend again. Go to the back lot. There's a hole in the fence on the left. Look inside the cart. I left a little something there to convince you we're all on the same page here. After you ditch the cops, you're gonna met me I Elderwood National Park. There's a spot called Lovers' Peak. Midnight. And don't do anything stupid, princess. We're watching you.
I lowered the paper from my face and the look of horror was on my face. Sunset looked concerned and tried to get my attention.
"Twilight, are you okay?" I quickly shook my head to get back into reality. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I just need to get some air. How do you get to the back part of the building?" She looked at me, still concerned, but she trusted me.
"Once you get to the main room, go to the right, through the prison cell hall. Don't worry, there's only one stallion in there, and he's harmless." She pointed slightly towards her left. I smiled and gave her a quick nod.
I trotted out and the deputy was talking to the doctor.
"Ms. Sparkle, can I help you with anything?"
"I need to get some air, the sheriff said I could go out back." I proceeded through the door to the right and it was very dark in there. There was also only one stallion in a cell.
"Hey! Hey, mam! Hey, can you turn on the light -- the lights on? The deputies, they won't -- they don't understand, they wont listen to me. I, I need it to be bright in here!" He's just like Ms. Weaver. I decided to comply and flipped the switch to turn on the light. "Ah, thank you, you're a good pony."
I walked out the door and the early morning light hurt my eyes and made my head ache. The letter had said "go through the fence on the left." I looked to my left and found the fence, and behind it, the old cart. I walked to it and saw there was a hole with some wood covering it. I tried to push it, but the board still stood strong. I decided to break it open. I turned around, readied myself and released my back legs, bucking the wood and making it crumble.
"Yes!" I walked through and looked inside the cart. There was an emerald that had a chunk bitten from it. Only Spike eats gems like this. Now I was sure this mysterious pony had Spike. Suddenly, my horn started to vibrate like crazy and I activated it. An image of Pinkie Pie and a random unicorn mare appeared. Pinkie looked really happy to see me.
"Pinkie?"
"Twi! Twi, thank Celestia! Where the heck have you been? I've been trying to reach you for a week, you and Spike. I've been worried sick. I took a super speedy train here yesterday! I'm here, here in Bright Foals! Hehe, sounds like Bright Falls."
"Pinkie, listen to me. I'm at the sheriff's station. Come and get me. I can't talk now." The mare to her right looked relieved.
"Yes, please, go and bother her! She hasn't left me alone!"
"Twilight, what the heck is going--" The call was interrupted before she could finish. I had to get Sunset to let me go. I needed to get to Elderwood National park to meet Spike's kidnapper, or kidnappers. I walked back inside the hallway to find the stallion on the floor sleeping. Then suddenly, the T.V. near the door turned on with a flash of light and I saw myself in the cabin room with the papers and ink, just like last night.
"A writer is a light that reveals thee world of his story from darkness, shapes it from nothingness, the way a sculptor carves a statue from a block of granite. If I stop, the world filled with friendship dies. Darkness will reclaim it. It's a long, hard journey into the dark. Spike's life is at stake, but I can't think about that, or I'll lose it. The dread lingers at the edge of perception. I'll push on. Anything is possible here. I'll rewrite the lessons of friendship, remind the world about them, I'll save him."
The T.V. then turned off and smoke erupted from it, just like last time. I walk out of the hall and back into the main section of the building to find Sunset Shimmer talking to a stallion in a sweater vest.
"Marvelous, Sunset. I just wanted to settle all the damage the Flim Flam brothers might have inadvertently caused on their recent and regrettable little outing." I began to walk up to both of them and Sunset noticed me first.
"Are you feeling any better, Twilight?"
"I'd like to leave. Am I free to go?"
"Well, we still need to talk about--"
"Am I under arrest?"
"No, of course not." She gave me an assuring look. "But I need to know where you'll be staying, so I can get in touch with you." The deputy cut in to tell where to go.
"I'd avoid the Motel. The Magical is known for its roaches. The cabins at Elderwood are pretty nice though."
"That sounds perfect." I gave a slight smirk. At least I now don't have to worry about getting there now. The pony with the sweater vest had an idea though.
"I'm Doctor Emil Hartcolt. I'd like to invite you to stay at Coltron Lake Lodge." Seeing the pony who talked to my Spike in the flesh made me get steamed.
"Did you talk to my friend?"
"I had the pleasure of discussing your situation with him on several occasions." He still had that smug look on his face. His stupid face.
"Did you set something up with him?"
"I invited him here. My clinic is a place where--" Before he could finish his sentence, I used a push spell, right in his face at full power. I think I broke his muzzle. Sunset pushed me back and the deputy started freaking out.
"Wow, wow, hey Twilight, take it easy. What was that about?!"
Before we could continue, the door opened and Pinkie Pie came bursting in.
"Alright, nopony move! Get your hooves off my friend!" Sunset looked slightly surprised at the sudden appearance of Pinkie.
"Pinkie Pie, what are you doing here?"
"Trying to save my BPPFFL." I looked at her, confused.
"What?"
"Best Pony Princess Friend For Life, duuuuuh. If you have problems with Ms. Sparkle, you talk to me. You silly fillies won't know what hit you when I sic my party cannon on ya!" Dr. Hartcolt began to get back up, still with that stupid smug look.
"No harm done, Sunset. I'm alright. I don't want to press charges. Ms. Sparkle, my offer still stands." I ignored him as I started to walk towards the door.
"Get me out of here." Pinkie and I walked through the door.
"What in the name of fun cakes was that about, Twilight? We don't need a replay of that thing that happened when you had those Grand Galloping Gala tickets. I thought they were gonna lock you up!"
I had to talk to somepony. I told Pinkie everything. She thought I was making a joke. But when I mentioned the pages, I had her. The fact that I had written something, even if I couldn't remember it, was enough for her. She smelled a party idea. And she believed that Spike had been kidnapped. Anything beyond that was another party. I had a midnight appointment with the kidnapper in a place called Lovers' Peak, somewhere in Elderwood National Park. The plan was to rent a cabin. We had finally arrived and Pinkie was giving me a lecture about how bad this was.
"I don't like it, Twilight I don't like any of it. It's not good. In fact, it's disgusting, like dirt." We approached the lodge and the waitress from the diner approached us. Wait what?
"Hi Ms. Sparkle! Pinkie, you found her!"
"Hi Derpy."
"Oh, wow, I was just thinking about you, too! It's really cool to actually meet royalty. I was just bringing the Doctor some coffee. He's in the back, checking out some samples he got." She turned around and looked at the clock in front. "I really need to go! Great seeing you again, Ms. Sparkle!" She began to walk away, but turned to Pinkie. "See you later, Pinkinator!" They bumped their hooves as Mrs. Hooves began to fly away. We both walked inside the building.
"Wow, you seemed to be friends with her, quickly."
"Well, you shouldn't be surprised this point. Plus, she helped a lot when I was looking for you. Seriously, Twi, what you were saying back there, just listen to yourself. What you shot somepony? And his body just disappeared? When was the last time you slept? Are you on a sugar rush? Have you been drinking?"
"What, no! Look, Pinkie, I'm missing a week, and someone's got Spike, and everything's just --"
"Do you understand what it sounds like when you say stuff like that? And Dashie thinks I'm random. When you start confusing fiction with reality, you're buying yourself a one-way ticket to the funny farm that's not actually funny."
I walked to the door and began to head outback.
"Wait here." I turned and saw Dr. Hooves examining a plant in a chair. "Hello again Dr. Hooves. You rent cabins here?" He just noticed me.
"Oh, hello there Twilight. Yes, I do. Actually, I'm sorry about this, would you mind grabbing the registration form from the front desk? I'd get it myself, but my hooves are kind of full at the moment."
"Sure" I walked back inside and Pinkie continued to lecture me.
"Seriously, Twilight, you can't just go and meet a kidnapper. Those situations always leave a bad taste in your mouth. You need to talk to the guards."
"He's a part of my family. And it's my call. Can we talk about this later?"
"No! This whole thing -- listen, you hit your head. I mean, geezy wheeyzy, Twilight, come on. You gotta understand how crazy all this sounds. If you're trying to pull a joke on me, freak me out (which isn't very like you) it's working. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, let's have a laugh on Pinkie. Well, you had me going there. Real funny, Twi. You can quit it now."
I walked back outside the cabin and handed the paper to Dr. Hooves.
"I think this is the form you wanted?"
"And here are the keys. Okay, you're all set, Twilight! Glad to have you staying here."
"Thanks." I grabbed the keys with my magic and put them on my ear. "Can you tell me how to get to Lovers' Peak?"
"Oh, sure! It's at the end of the nature trail. Just follow the paths, you'll get to it eventually. It's an easy walk. Nice spot, too! Me and Ditsy went up there yesterday. Watch out for the bear traps though. Hunters can't help themselves." I walked back inside to hear more of Pinkie's reality check (a reality check from Pinkie Pie...now I know I've gone insane).
"Look, Twilight, you're asking me to believe that you shot somepony who went POOF! Into thin air! Ponies who were bulletproof until you pointed a flashlight at him. You hear that from ponies who end up spending their time in padded rooms that look like marshmallows!"
"I'm done talking about this. We aren't speaking of this until we get to the cabin, got it?"
"But--" before she could finish, I shut her lips closed and trotted out of there.
*A few hours later*
We finally got to the cabin, but Pinkie is still going on about this.
"That's just crazy talk Twilight." I just stood there, thinking of what to do. "Twilight! Twilight? We should go back to the sheriff, or call Princess Celestia."
"Damn it Pinkie! They'll hurt him." I was getting tired at this point. I knocked over a lamp because of my frustration. "This is not a goddamn debate, Pinkie. I'm going to Lovers' Peak. He said to come alone."
She picked up the lamp and looked at me with a sad expression.
"What did the lamp do to you?" She put it back and continued to talk to me. "I understand what's happening. But you're my BPPFFL and I'm worried you're turning into a nut cake. Listen, whatever you want me to do, I'll do it."
"You stay here, and if I'm not back by morning, call for help."
I walked outside and looked around. With the moon shining blissfully, I trotted down the stairs. Time for round two.
"What in the hay am I doing!" I thought too myself as I started trotting down the stairs. "Why should I trust Pinkie with a task like this!" I hadn't even trotted 5 feet away from the cabin, but I was already worrying. But Pinkie was one of the closest friends I had. I should have more faith in her. As I approached the bottom of the stairs, I saw an abandoned wagon, with oddly enough, another letter of friendship. My curiosity got the best of me and I picked it up. It read:
Dear Princess Celestia,
I am happy to report that the dragon has departed our fair country, and that it was my good friend Fluttershy who convinced him to go. This adventure has taught me to never lose faith in your friends. They can be an amazing source of strength, and can help you overcome even your greatest fears.
Always your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
"I need to figure out where these things are coming from. Are they trying to tell me something?" I said as I folded it and teleported it away. I decided if I somehow find anymore of these, I would put them in my Journal I brought with me when Spike and I first came here.
I was nearing the entirety of the lodge areas and I approached the last set of wooden stairs. I was about to head down when a bush exploded into a pack of ink-like birds and caused me to fall on my flank. "Sorry for saying this Fluttershy, but you STUPID BIRDS!" I got up and watched the birds fly around frantically. Tonight was going to be ruff.
I wandered down a dirt road while reading another page I had found. It was from when Rarity and Applejack had that sleepover at the library. My head abruptly became disoriented and flashed with rows of images of Spike being pulled under the lake, a quill splashing oil back and forth, and a mysterious figure in a star speckled scuba suit waving at me. Everything was soon white, then dark and I heard a loud and powerful crash, followed by a fearful and unfortunately familiar scream.
"Doctor Whooves? No, no no no no not you too." I began to sprint as fast as I could towards the buildings in front, which happen to be where I Pinkie was first lecturing me. "Doctor Whooves, where are you?!"
"O-over...here."
I turn towards the sound to see Doctor Whooves leaned on the window near the back. I also notice that something had taken the entire front portion of the building off. I slightly jogged over to him and saw that there was...blood. It was scattered on the back window and splayed on the floor, as if something had been dragged. I then saw that the doctor had a big gash across his chest. That explains the blood.
"Sweet Celestia Dr. Whooves, what happened?" I asked as I began to use my magic to slow down the bleeding.
"I found this...page that h-had something about never judging a book by its cov-*cough**cough*...its cover. Accepting someone for who they are. Then a zebra in shadow walked in here and tore the building apart."
I looked over and saw that page was on the floor. I was about to read it when doctor Whooves pleaded with me to turn the lights on before it came back. I quickly agreed and went directly to the other building to look at the fuse box. The only way to make sure he was safe was to get the power running and the lights back on. I went inside and noticed an axe was slammed into the fuse box, I was too late for the lights. I heard slamming and rustling erupt from the building and burst through the window to quickly get to Doctor Whooves.
There were now dark splotches all over the ground. they where hurt by the light when I quickly shinned it over to them. Then zebras crowded in shadow emerged from the building. I thankfully had my revolver from the previous night with me. Since I'm a quick learner, I soon dealt with them.
"What the, why zebras. I don't remember any zebras living here." I quickly ran through the building and saw Doctor Whooves was no where to be found. Instead, there was now a mammoth sized hole in the wall. I ran through and realized I was in the back area of the building.
"Some people live more in 20 years than others do in 80. It’s not the time that matters, it’s the pony."
"Oh no, not him too." Before I could fully comprehend that Doctor Whooves wasn't himself anymore, I felt a force push me back. I fell on my shoulders and dropped my weapon. I saw through blurry iris's that the Doctor had been taken ever by the darkness. "Why does it have to be you too?"
"This is who I am, right here, right now, all right? All that counts is here and now, and this is me!"
I stood back up, not realizing where my pistol was and began to back up to the wooden railing. I tried to plead with him, get him to somehow realize that he wasn't himself. He then started charging at me at a speed to fast to see. I shut my eyes tight and screamed at him to stop. I could see the blinding light through my eyelids as my horn produced a flash of brightness. I then hear the railing violently snap. I turn and look down to see the poor doctor plunge to his demise. I almost didn't expect the flash of light when he hit the rocks below.
"I'm so sorry doctor. I wish there was another way." A small tear soon developed in my right eye as I mourned for my lost friend. I turned to see my pistol under a picnic table. I had it in my magic aura as I walked back into the building and out through the hole in the entrance. I remembered the letter I had and took it out.
Dear Princess Celestia,
My friends and I all learned an important lesson this week: Never judge a book by its cover. Someone may look unusual, or funny, or scary. But you have to look past that and learn who they are inside. Real friends don't care what your "cover" is; it's the contents of a pony that count. And a good friend, like a good book, is something that will last forever.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
This was the letter that I wrote when I first met Zecora. Is the darkness trying to use my lessons against me? Well, it didn't matter. None of that mattered at the moment! I had to get to Lovers' Peek, I had to find these kidnappers. I had to find my friend!
I began to trot up the stairs after being consumed in the light of a stray light post. It had been a lot more eventful of a night with more taken coming after me, along with having to grieve for the loss of a great friend. But i would lose a greater friend if I didn't get a move on. I reached the top and came across a small tram. I activated it, but had a very bad feeling about using it. The feeling grew even higher when it started squealing with the sound of rust. I hopped on and it started going down by itself. Even though it was against my nature, I stopped trying to make sense of things.
I suddenly felt a tiny gust of wind fly by my head and noticed that it was a bird as black as night. I thought nothing of it, until I turned back and saw a flock of at least 25 more flying right at the cage. I didn't have time to react as they slammed into it and caused it to start swinging uncontrollably.
"Oh jeez this is gonna be bad!" I said as the cage slammed into the other side of the tram system, causing me to fall on my stomach and drop both my gun and light. Taken had already surrounded me by the time my daze had left. I tried to reach for my flashlight before a darkened hoof had stomped in front of it. I covered my face, expecting my vision to fade along with the searing pain. Instead, a flare had appeared out of nowhere, along with gunshots, which caused all the taken to be engulfed in their flashes of death.
"Come on Princess, we gotta get moving. More of 'em coming!" I opened my eyes to see a light red pegasus with forest camouflage gear on, from head to hoof. I got up and picked up my flashlight. "That flashlight's filly junk. The flares will keep the bastards away." He pulled out a flare and handed it to me. He must've been dealing with these things for as long as I have, maybe even longer.
"You can see them too?" I asked, reluctant to actually meet somepony else dealing with this problem.
"Hell, of course I can see 'em. C'mon, we gotta move. We gotta get the the shed containing all the Winter Wrap Up gear."
"Why? Why there specifically?"
"Ha ha ha ha! Because that's what the next lesson talks about!"
"What are you--"
"Let's move." He was clearly getting impatient at this point.
"I lost my gun back there."
"Oh, I've got a gun. Just keep that light steady on 'em!"
It took a moment, but then I recognized him. He'd been on the train when I'd first arrived here with Spike. He knew who I was. We were heading in the direction of Lovers' Peak. There was no way this was a coincidence. He was the kidnapper. We headed to a gate when two taken had ambushed us. I aimed the flashlight right at them and almost forgot I didn't have my weapon anymore. I slightly jumped when the stallion began firing at them, he wasn't bad. Before the second one had vanished, it managed to chuck an axe at me. I managed to dodge out of the way, but when I did, everything seemed to move in slow motion. I actually seemed to do that a lot when I avoided blows from these things. We passed by a tree before three more appeared. This was when I realized that he was a terrible shot. He missed at least 5 shots before killing two of them. The third one began charging at me, its darkness already drained. The stallion didn't even notice at first, then saw I was missing. He finished it off, then walked up to a door with wooden boards all over it.
"Use the flairs I gave ya to to hold 'em off while i get these boards off." At this point, I was getting fed up with him.
"Give me the gun."
"Heh. No can do, Sparks."
"Are you kidding? Give me the gun, that's an order!"
"No time for royal disputes, here they come!"
I turned and saw 3 to 4 taken coming at us. By the time I turned back to him, he had already moved two of the boards. I saw the taken approaching fast, so I did something foolishly brave. I ran right into them and turned on the flare, causing the darkened ponies to be knocked back and flee behind the trees, almost hissing at me. When the flare ran out, they came back out brandishing their weapons. I looked back to see the door open with the stallion nowhere in sight. He certainly was fast, but absolutely disrespectful.
"What in Tartarus! I'm gonna--" I then heard more gunshots appear with his figure from the door, blasting the taken in front of us.
"You're gonna die if you don't move it!" I ran past him and into a light shinning down on the wooden room. I sat down and began to breath slowly to try and calm my nerves. The light somehow filled me with energy, it felt almost relaxing. "Aw, you feeling better now, Sparks? All cozy and safe?" He said as he walked behind the light and stopped firing. I guess the taken won't try to get past or touch any kind of light. We both ascended the stairs and approached a wooden catwalk, with the shed to the right of it. We walked to the edge of the catwalk, trying to catch our bearings.
"This is it Princess! The last stand! Here's the rest of my flares." He handed me at east 4 more flares from his pockets. He then walked to the front of the catwalk and pointed his pistol out in the darkness. "Get ready, we fight them as long as they keep coming.
"Give me the goddamn gun! They're coming!" I was getting extremely mad at this point.
"That's not how this goes! Get with the program, Sparkle." A group of taken had began attacking when activated a flare and threw it at them and shinning my light at them. The stallion began firing and soon we had dealt with them quickly. "Huh, guess we thinned the herd tonight."
"Let's cut the act now. Where's my friend?"
I knew you were gonna say that. I understood what type of pony you were when I read those lessons. You're a pretty unique analyst when it comes to this stuff. You're gonna created something magical and frightening, once we get some... actual magic in these papers."
"What in Celestia's name are you talking about? Where's Spike?"
" I want the entire Journal of friendship letters... Or he's gonna suffer bad." He then traced his hoof across his neck.
"You touch him and I'll END YOU!!!" I screamed at him as I pushed him back with a force spell. He fell off the catwalk onto the ground below. Looking up at me, he got up quickly and started taking off into the air. I tried shooting him with a few paralysis spell, but he dodged every one. I flew after him, but by the time I got up to his elevation level, he'd ducked into the woods. There's now way I would go in after him in there. I didn't even have my gun. I looked back at where he fell and saw he dropped a paper. It was one of the lessons of friendship. When I read it, the location he picked made more sense.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Winter Wrap Up was one of the most special things I've ever been a part of here in Ponyville. It helped me to learn that we all have hidden talents, and if we're patient and diligent we're sure to find them. And as always, with good friendship and teamwork, ponies can accomplish anything...
I heard a scream that sounded like Pinkie Pie. I immediately flew in the direction of the scream, hoping that Pinkie would be okay by the time I get there. By the time I arrived at the lodge, There were birds everywhere surrounding the lodge. I could here Pinkie freaking out from inside. She saw me fly and started trying to say what happened.
"Twilight, thank Celestia you're here! These birds showed up and won't leave. I tried giving them pie and making them laugh, but they just ignored me and started attacking me. I've been in hear waiting it out, but they won't leave. Please make them go away."
"These aren't normal birds Pinkie. Their taken over by what I was telling you about. Just stay in there and don't come out until I say so!" She bolted away from the window and locked all the doors and windows. I got all the birds attention by screaming at them. They all started flying at me in a group, almost surrounding me. I took a deep breath and concentrated as best as I could. My eyes erupted into light and my horn shinned brighter. I unleashed my magic with a massive force and erupted into my own sun, blasting all the birds into oblivion. I opened my eyes slowly as I faintly landed on the ground, with Pinkie rushing from the lodge to help me.
"Hey, Twi. I'm -- I'm sorry for thinking you were having an overactive imagination."
"It's fine. As long as you're safe." My horn started vibrating and I activated it after a few times. I was still recovering from the spell. It was the kidnapper. He had a unicorn mare with him in a similar outfit. "You son of a bitch! Where's Spike?"
"Twilight! Mind your mouth." She almost never hears me swear.
"Enough manplay Sparky. You deliver the Journal and you can have the dragon back. Simple as that."
"I don't -- listen, I'm gonna need time to rewrite them all. I need... a week."
"You don't have them?"
"I need a week."
"Two days! The old Bright Foals Coal Mine is nearby. You can find it easy, Princess. The main building, there at noon. You bring the journal with all the lessons you've written. If not, well... Get me?"
"Yes. Yes, I get you." The unicorn then abruptly ended the call. Pinkie got this confused look on her face.
"What, not even a goodbye?" She looked at me and noticed my head was down. She wrapped her arm around me and embraced me in a much needed hug. "Twilight, what's going on?"
It's been a day since my confrontation with that stallion that kidnapped Spike. Spike... just thinking about him makes me feel the worst. I've been unable to write properly with all these thoughts cycling through my head. The dark presence, my somehow rewritten friendship letters, the recent loss of my good friend Doctor Whooves. It's all been bashing my head open, causing way too many headaches to put up with. Or maybe those are because of Pinkie constantly openly worrying about everything, running back and forth and naming every possibility of bad outcomes. Thankfully, some fortune has come my way. I recently got a letter from Ditzy, saying that she had found some of the friendship letters and wants to hoof them over personally. We headed over there immediately, Pinkie somehow looking more excited than I do.
"How the hay did she get her hooves on the letters, anyway?" I say as we walk up to where she lives.
"I don't know. She's amazing though for doing this, I thought we were lost in this. Listen, I found lots of crazy stuff while I was digging around..." I suddenly get a surprise when my horn starts glowing. I activate it and I'm greeted by Sunset Shimmer.
"Hey Sunset, what's wrong?"
"Twilight, we have a royal guard here. His name is Bluegrass."
"Royal guard?"
"He's... anxious to see you. You'd better come to the station."
"Okay, I'll be right over." I end the call as I follow Pinkie through a double doorway attached to fencing. "Let's make this quick." We're then greeted by an older stallion who is walking towards us.
"Can I help you folks? Name's Redbay. I'm the manager."
"We're looking for Ditzy Whooves, works as a waitress at the diner?"
"Who?" he said with a puzzled look on his face. I didn't really like using that nickname everyone calls her, but seems I had to use it hear.
"(sigh) Derpy?" I nearly cringed at the name.
"Grey coat, yellow mane, bubbles as her cutie mark?" I gave him an annoyed look and he soon corrected himself. "Derpy Whooves, riiiiight. Yeah, sure. Nice mare. Who wants to know?"
"I'm Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship."
"A princess, huh? I heard on the radio you were visiting. Well, I'll show you her cottage." He then turned around and waved his hoof toward where I was facing, motioning us to follow him. He had a slight limp to his walk. "That Derpy, she's a nice mare. Pretty cute too. Too bad she's already with the doctor." The mere mention of his name caused me to look down in sorrow. There was nothing I could do to save him. I just had to keep going forward. All that matters is saving Spike.
"As I was saying, Twilight, I found all sorts of weird things from the local newspapers and the old ponyfolk who live here. This place is wacko! Ponies disappearing out of nowhere, mysterious deaths, urban legends come true... and, get this, most of this stuff takes place around Coltron Lake." Pinkie was going insane telling me these things, like it was the most important piece of the story.
"Well, you ain't wrong Miss. The Bison thought the lake was a doorway to Tartarus. I'm what-you-call the superstitious type myself, since you never really know what's out there. But I don't hold with that sort of thing." The stallion gave a joking look like we were crazy talking about this stuff. Pinkie looked at Redbay like he was the crazy one.
"This is serious stuff buddy! Lives are on the line!" Pinkie walked in front of him and started poking him in the chest. She looked like she was going to pounce on him.
"Pinkie, calm down. It's fine if he has his own opinion on this." I pulled her closer to me with my wing and she looked at me with worried eyes.
"Oops, sorry Mister." she said while giving an embarrassed look. He just nodded and started leading us toward the cottage. "Anyway, there was an island there, owned by an old mare named Falebine. Now, some of the articles I found on the newspapers made her out to be a powerful unicorn. But when I asked all the ponies if they'd heard of her, they just looked at me like I was crazy or refused to talk to me after that. Those who did said they had never heard of her or any of her books. She was apparently very interested in Sombras magic. She'd learned how to use it fully, but not control it. The place was apparently always darker the everywhere else, even during sun filled days and all ponies could hear when they walked by were heavy gusts of wind and the mare screaming. So much so that it was called the Isle of the Abyss. Ooooohh." she said while waving one of her hooves at me dramatically. "Heh, sorry. The last anyone saw of the island was when a giant black magic field swallowed the island whole and took Falebine with it."
We came to a short stop when we noticed something unsettling. It was a passenger car of a train. Pinkie and I just stood there staring while the stallion laughed.
"He he, yeah how about that! It was there in the morning, as if it had fallen from the sky. But it would take a tornado to lift something like that here. Thank Celestia nopony got hurt." He turned and opened up a wooden fence door as Pinkie and I followed through.
"Did you find anything else that could help us Pinkie? Anything at all?" It took her a moment, but then she started bouncing happily.
"Yes, this one might interest you a little. Trixie apparently went there a week later and was never seen again. Trixie was learning magic from Falebine!"
"She wasn't learning dark magic was she?" A look of utter shock was plastered on my face.
"No no of course not. In fact, she might've went there to save Falebine, but was taken herself."
"And where did you learn all of this about Trixie and Falebine?"
"From Cynthia Weaver. That old mare who is worried so much about the lights. She knew Falebine before she disapeared and she had some kind of a breakdown. I'm filled with so much information I feel like I'm going to--"
Her words were cut short as she didn't realize where she was going she slammed the side of her head into a wooden pole and fell back on her flank. I helped her back up and we looked at Redbay. He was looking at the last cottage in the area.
"Well, M'lady, this here's Derpy's cottage. Mind me asking what you want with her, if you don't mind me asking of course?"
"We're just here to talk to her." I said with a light smile. He returned the smile and trotted back the way we came. I walked up to the front porch and it looked liked well kept. I saw Pinkie come up behind me and she looked like she had something on her mind. "What's the matter Pinkie?"
"Do you think we should tell her about what happened to the doctor?" I could tell she didn't want to tell her, but she felt as though it was the best thing to do.
"It's better than hiding it from her" I said as I walked up to the door. I was about to knock when the door just swung open. "Hi there Ditzy, mind if we..." I held my tongue as I fully looked at her. She appeared as though she had fallen down a hill. She was still wearing her diner uniform, but it appeared disheveled and ripped apart. Her eyes had bags under them and she had no emotion on her face at all. She also seemed slightly...darker than how she usually looks. "...come in?"
"Oh dear, Ms. Sparkle, I'm -- I'm so glad you're here." Her tone matched her face, void of any emotion. "Please come in, your friendship letters are in here."
"What's wrong with Derpy?" Pinkie whispered in my ear with large amounts of worry and a slight amount of saliva. I couldn't answer and we just followed her inside. The place didn't have a single candle or light source at all. Even all of the blinds were gone and large pieces of cardboard were blocking them. "Hey Derpy, are you okay? You seem less...bright than usual." I slightly scowled at Pinkie for that. Now is not the time for puns.
"Ditzy I would love to talk with you, but now's not the time. I really need those letters for something. It's very important that I get them quickly."
"Yeah, plus there's something we need to tell you." Pinkie trotted over and put her arm around Ditzy's shoulder. "The Doctor--"
"Is gone, I know. It happened after he took a little trip down the rocky road." she said, still having no emotion in her voice at all.
"How do you know that Ditzy?" I asked while slightly backing up. Things were definitely wrong here. Before I had a chance to react, I felt a cold and metal object clank me in the back of the head. I fell to the floor as my vision faded in an instant. All I could hear was Pinkie screaming for me.
***
My eyes were assaulted with an aura of bright light shining in my face. I was surrounded by darkness, but something was holding it back. I started to hear a very familiar voice calling out to me.
"Twilight! It's coming for you, hiding in Falebine's skin, my once great and powerful teacher. I'm to weak to stop it. You must turn the lights on."
The light then vanished and I could feel a dark presence surround me. I was turning in all direction, but I couldn't activate my magic. I felt like a trapped animal. Suddenly, a new, but also familiar voice began speaking to me.
"I promised I'd come visit you and your cute little friend. You must finish what you started!" I felt as though something cold touched my arm, but when I turned, there was nothing there. "I insist."
The first voice came back, sounding urgent.
"You must turn the lights on." I was beginning to panic. "Turn the light on."
***
I awoke on a bed in a dark room. It appeared to be Ditzy's room, but dark, except for a small T.V. in the room illuminating the surroundings in white. I moved my eyes frantically, but I couldn't move. I looked up and noticed an old mare leaning down towards me. It was the same old mare who gave me the keys to the lodge. The same old mare who appeared in my dream.
"Back to work, filly."
"Haagh!" I screamed as I gained control of my horn and shined the brightest light I could. I looked around the room and found the mare was gone. I lowed the brightness after realizing I was safe. I felt nauseous, hung over. Only anger and confusion kept me going. I looked at the T.V. as it flashed with light. I could see myself speaking gibberish again.
"I can't tell reality from dream anymore. But it seems I have an imaginary assistant to help me. She's an old mare in a funeral dress. I call her Falebine. She's very strict. I'm writing faster and faster. My lessons are being heavily changed. These changes are getting very aggressive and each day there's less of the meaning of friendship and more of her. I hate it, but I know she's right. She promises me I can save Spike this way. She knows more of this than I do. About the complex incantation I'm attempting, about this place. She has worked with a unicorn before under similar circumstances: Trixie Lulamoon, one of my long time friends. The meaning of the letters seems to be shifting. Their turning chaotic, into hatred letters. I'm getting close, I can feel it."
After the T.V. shuts off, I walk out to the living room to find the mess that was in the living room. Pinkie was on the floor unconscious, a small bit of blood on her head. Ditzy wasn't in a better situation. She was on the floor curled up in a ball, silently sobbing. As much as I felt bad for her, I was angry. Ditzy had taken a day away from me. I had less than twelve hours left to meet the kidnappers. All I could do was get Pinkie out of her and work something out at the cabin. I left my gun and flashlight at the cabin. I'd have to fly Pinkie out of here as quickly as possible. There was no time to waste. I was going to find Redbay and tell him we were leaving. As I left, I noticed a page on the ground near the entrance of the porch. It was a friendship letter!
Dearest Princess Celestia,
I am happy to report that one of your youngest subjects has learned a valuable lesson about friendship. Sometimes, the thing you think will cause you to lose friends and feel left out can actually be the thing that helps you make your closest friends and realize how special you are...
"Thank goodness I got at least one of these!" I folded it up and began flying above the cottages. I noticed bright red and blue lights and what sounded like a stallion making siren noises.
"You don't need to do that every time we go to do something!" The stallion making the noises stopped slowly, then looked up and freaked out. He must've thought I was trying to escape because he soon shot a bolt of magic at me. I felt my wings lock up and I fell down. I landed on some discarded pillows though, so thankfully the landing was soft. I saw Redbay walk up to me with a frustrated look.
"Oh, you're gonna get it now! Celestia knows what you've done to that poor girl." I gave him the most confused look as I heard heavy hoof steps moving towards the gate fast.
"This is Bluegrass of the Royal guard! Get down, Speckle! You're going back to Canterlot. You move a muscle, I'll blast you right here I don't care." I began to lower myself slowly as I moved behind Redbay, keeping eye contact with the guard. "Stay right where you are, Twinkle!" I tried to teleport, but my teleportation spell wasn't working. That spell must've affected all of my transportation abilities.
I quickly bolted to the left, hearing a large spell fly right past my back. In fact, I heard multiple magic bolts fly past me. I don't know how I managed to dodge them all, but I did and I managed to make it over a fence, but I tripped and fell rather non gracefully. I could overhear Redbay freaking out at Bluegrass about almost killing him. I was now a fugitive from the law and I still had to meet the kidnappers. How was my life continuously getting worse and worse?!
"Why is it every time I go outside during the night, I get attacked and led to the woods?" I said while wiping some of the dirt off my legs. Today has not been so great of a day. I was lied to about finding friendship lessons, I was basically knocked out for a day, I almost lost two friends today and now I'm being chased by the royal guard. If that wasn't bad enough, I only have less than 12 hours to meet Spikes kidnappers. "What did I do to deserve any of this!"
"Get after her! Just because she's a princess doesn't mean she's above the law, don't let her get away!" I could heard bluegrass shouting at the top of his lungs. He must've been serious about catching me. Why he had the nerve to fire at me, even when I hadn't done anything was beyond me. "Move it, move it, move it! I'll have your jobs if you let her get away!" I didn't waste any time as I made a full gallop through the woods. My wings were still paralyzed from the spell I was hit with. I ran through a small pathway covered by rocks, up a hill and noticed a wooden bridge with two guard ponies frantically searching lanterns.
"Stop running!" One of the guards spotted me and I galloped below the bridge and past a creaking wooden beam. I had to slow them down somehow, so I kicked the beam and part of the bridge collapsed, causing both of the guards to frantically back up. One of them fired off a light spell in the sky, alerting the others. Then both of them started firing spells at me. I don't know how they missed every shot, but I ran past and into another rocky pathway and lowered myself to hide under them, still slowly crawling underneath. "She slipped away, keep an eye out!" I took this chance to sprint as fast as I could through a few trees and over a rock, only to find another friendship letter in the way.
"Who the hay is laying all these things out in the open for me to find?" I wanted to read it, but remembered I was being chased, so I kept running. I ran to a small dirt road and stopped to catch my breath, until I heard heavy thuds coming my way. I instinctively ducked and felt a heavy gust of wind fly over my head. I got up and began to scream. "Can I please have one moment in this crazy town where something is trying to kill me!" I looked to my right and saw what flew past me. It was a guard carriage. It was nearly destroyed and there was nopony in it. I briefly heard bluegrass near me. I followed and saw he was with a group of guards. He was apparently talking to Sunset Shimmer over the spell phone.
"Blue grass, what in Equestria is going on? My informist tells me you fired at Twilight, and she didn't do anything. You almost hit a civilian instead."
"Sheriff, Speckle's running. I'm giving chase. I don't have time for this."
"Well, make the time! You can't just go shooting at ponies in this town!"
"I'm a royal guard pursuing a fugitive. You want to discuss my methods, Sheriff, make an appointment."
"You stay right where you are, guard Bluegrass, I'm on my way." Sunset then ends the call. Blue grass must really not like her, since after, he slammed his hoof into the ground with a loud grunt. I didn't waste much time as I backed up slowly, not to make any noise. I backed up onto the dirt road and pulled out the friendship letter.
Dear Princess Celestia,
This week my very talented friend Rarity learned that if you try to please everypony, you oftentimes end up pleasing nopony, especially yourself. And I learned this: when somepony offers to do you a favor, like making you a beautiful dress, you shouldn't be overly critical of something generously given to you. In other words, you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
I then looked to my right and found another page, using my magic to bring it close.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I am happy to report that I now realize there are wonderful things in this world you just can't explain, but that doesn't necessarily make them any less true. It just means you have to choose to believe in them. And sometimes it takes a friend to show you the way.
Always your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
I trotted past the carriage and up a set of wooden stairs into a bit of light from a stray lantern. As I began heading down this walkway near the mountain, I could hear the dark presence in the woods. I'm used to that kind of thing by now. What I'm not used to is hearing screams of agony as it's happening. Screams from all the guards who were coming after me. I only felt remorse because they were just doing their job. Although, I do kind of hope that Bluegrass was in there. The trees were flailing about like mad and faint black winds blowing through the tops of the trees. I quickly ran though the pathway, along a bridge and up a staircase to another mountain pass. There was another destroyed carriage barely hanging on the side of the path. I looked down and saw Bluegrass again, talking to Sunset again.
"Sheriff Shimmer, this is royal guard Bluegrass, I've lost contact with most of the stallions you assigned to me. It's Sparks doing!"
"Wait, are you seriously telling me the princess just took out my deputies? Are you kidding? I mean, do you even know her? She'd never harm another living thing!"
"She's the mare we're chasing! If it's not her, who then? Bighoof?"
"I don't know yet, but I'm not in the habit of jumping to conclusions. That tends to come back and bite you in the flank." She then ended the call. I'm so glad Pinkie isn't the only one left to help me through this.
Just then, two pegasi holding a unicorn flew up to my level. The unicorn looked extremely mad.
"You on the ground, hold it right there!" He then started shooting at me as I jumped behind a rock. I composed myself, the started bolting down the path. "There's nowhere to run!" I then heard birds, dark birds. A flock was flying right at the group of guards. One of them noticed and alerted the other. They both worked in unison to fly away as fast as they could from the dark crows. I watched as two more flocks came from nowhere and flanked the group, pecking at them violently. I didn't stay to watch, but I did see some blood from the wounds. This horror was everywhere I went, circling me. The cops didn't stand a chance; they were after a princess, not a monster.
I trotted further and found a gate. I would have walked through it if it weren't for the fact that the gate started shacking violently and a black mist erupted from it. I had no idea that the darkness could possess objects too. Thankfully the spell that I was hit with had worn off, since by this point, I would've been in the sheriffs office by now. I shined my light from my horn and I could hear that faint screeching coming from the gate. The gate erupted with light and I walked through, walking down a wooden staircase. I found another gate blocking my way with darkness, but I was too low on energy at the time to perform my light spell again. But I found a flashlight behind me on a box, how convenient. I picked it up in my mouth and burned the gate away.
I walked for a good five minutes before coming upon a radio station. I cautiously approached, even though the lights were on in the building. I passed through a door through a metal fence and approached the window. It was the stallion I met when Spike and I first arrived from the train. The stallion who said he...hosted a...radio show. I tapped on the glass to get his attention and he look and was shocked, but happy.
"Fillies and gentlecolt, we're gonna have to take a quick break. But don't worry, I'll still be here for ya." He then motioned me towards the door and I followed suit, walking through the main door for him to great me with a bow. "I'm so glad you finally accepted my offer to do that interview."
"I don't have time for that sir, I really need you to-" I was interrupted as I saw Bluegrass with a squadron of guards running up to the station. Sunset Shimmer was there as well. Bluegrass began screaming at me again.
"Nowhere to run now, Sparky! You back away from Speakeasy. Don't hurt him." He began to charge his horn up. This stallion was absolutely nuts!
"Woah, woah, woah, everypony calm down! Stop with the magic, we're all friends here...right?" The host was clearly confused by what was happening.
"Cool your jets, Bluegrass. We got her. I'm sure she can explain herself." Bluegrass completely ignored her and fired a magic bolt inside the building, not hitting any of us. Sunset pushed him back from the building. "What the hell's the matter with you? Are you trying to murder innocents?"
I took this as my chance to escape as I found an open window and jumped through, sprinting to the wooden railing and not noticing where it went, slamming my side into the ground. Bluegrass must've noticed I escaped again because he started screaming at the top of his lungs.
"I'll get you yet, even if it kills me! You hear me? You hear me, Twinkie!"
I had fallen off so many cliffs it was ridiculous. That's what I get for forgetting I have wings. At least I was one step closer to my destination, the Bright Foals Coal Mine.
It was probably good I hadn’t had the chance to tell that stallion where I was going. I’d have to lose the guards and find my own way to the mine. I began to make a slight jog to the closest location, the train depot. Before I made any progress though, I spotted a friendship letter.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Being a good friend means being able to keep a secret, but you should never be afraid to share your true feelings with a good friend.
Even though these were the main reasoning for my suffering so far, I couldn’t help but continue to be fascinated by them. I felt like they were the one thing that was keeping me from cracking and becoming another hopeless soul lost to this dark presence. But I couldn’t think like that, I had to make it to that coal mine.
As I was jogging through a part of the woods, I heard disjointed and uneasy, but rapid footsteps following behind me. Just from the sounds, I could tell it wasn’t of this world.
“Don’t worry miss, we’ll protect you!” They began taunting me and swinging their weapons around like mad trying to cut me. I was eventually able to find a small bunker that was poorly kept, but open to run into. Wasn’t a good idea at the start because there was only one way in, if you don’t count all the cracks and holes in it. I was backed into a corner with the sounds getting louder.
“Oh celestia, please help me!” I was beginning to sweat. But on instinct, I shined a light from my horn and noticed more of that strange yellow writing on the wall behind me. It read “Only the light can cleanse their damned souls.” and next to it was a small box with red outlining. My only option was to open it and inside was 3 flares tied together. With the taken getting closer, I only had one option. Grabbing the flares, I unwrapped one and let it off, running back into the night.
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!” I screamed like a mad pony sprinting at the taken, sending them cowering back at the light from the flare. “Leave me alone you horrible monsters! You won’t stop me from saving my friend!” Not wanting to stay around any more I tossed the flare towards the group and began running in the opposite direction. It didn’t take long for them to catch up, but ahead was a lone light post still on, almost as a beacon of hope for my quest to find Spike. A letter happened to be laying a few feet away from the light but I couldn’t grab it. I waited in the light, waiting for my moment to run and snatch it. When I finally could I took my time reading it. I really needed a breather after that.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Friendship is a wondrous and powerful thing. Even the worst of enemies can become friends. You need understanding and compromise. You've got to share. You've got to care. And like the path cut through the orchard, there'll always be a way through.
“Wait a minute, I don’t remember writing that last part, do I?” Now this was getting scary. I couldn’t even remember the way some of my letters were written. Was somepony altering my letters? I couldn’t process this any longer because my horn started buzzing. “Somepony is seriously trying to call me now?” I answered the call to see static, but I could here a familiar voice talking.
“You are such a bookworm.” It was Spike! But how, why?
“Spike? Spike!” I still couldn’t see anything, but I knew that was him!
“Twilight. Twilight. I’m so afraid... keep me in the dark. Please help me... I look at you, Twilight, and it’s not you... something else looking out from behind your eyes...”
“Spike! Please talk to me buddy! Tell me they haven’t hurt you!”
“I’m so alone here... It’s all gonna go down the drain. You need to be careful... and cooperate.” The call then suddenly ended. The connection was terrible with constant static and fuzzy sounds. But wasn’t all that bothered me. He sounded wrong, not how he usually sounded. Plus, how did he call me all by himself? I’m sure the kidnappers wouldn’t allow him to call me. I couldn’t focus on that for too long, I had to hurry to the coal mine.
I had made it under a section that the train rides upon to continue its supply runs. My only option was to go under, so I made my way up. The train decided to make a quick run through the section, causing the whole area underneath to start shacking like mad. There were thankfully plenty of bars to hold onto to keep myself up. I neared the end of this passage when I heard the sounds of the darkness surrounding the area. As I looked around to see where it was coming from, I noticed that a few of the floor panels were missing. Turning back to the exit, I noticed that two of the panels were floating, shaking violently and covered in darkness.
“I don’t have time for this!” I said as I unleashed a bright flash from my horn, turning the panels to ash. But as I began to trot out, I heard a quick woosh before something slammed into my back, sending me flying out the underside. I bounced on the dirt road and came to a stop near the edge, still trying to recover. Before I had time though, I came flying back to me. my only option aside from being hit again was to flop out of the way, causing the item, which happen to be a barrel, to fly past me into the valley. It soon erupted into light and vanished. The back of my head felt incredibly pain and slightly wet. I checked to see if I was correct. “Ow ow ow, yup. My head’s bleeding.” I had to hurry though, even if it meant not fixing my wound.
I had now entered the supply drop off section of the depot, complete with stacked boxes and broken barrels scattered around the place. The building nearby looked quit inviting, so I entered. I scavenged the entire place for anything, but found nothing. At least, at first. Then I heard a cabinet crash onto the ground in the other room, followed by a larger than normal pony walking out charging at me with a pipe. I ran upstairs, trying to look for anything to use, but no avail. The stallion was staring at me, twitching frantically. He started charging at me, pipe raised in the air. I pulled out a flare, ignited it and threw it in his muzzle before noticing a window and jumping out it. I slammed onto the concrete below, glass shards still following suit.
“Why am I having the worst luck today, can I please get a break?!” I saw a gate to the right that still looked operational. I ran over and pushed the button, praying it would open very soon. My hopes were drained when I heard taken behind me. When I turned, there were six to seven of them slowly approaching me. “Please hurry gate, please please hurry!”
“It’s okay sweet thing. What are ya missing?!” They were taunting me, knowing I had no escape.
“Wait a minute, my wings! The spell from that guard should’ve worn off by now!” I tried desperately to flap my wings. Try to get any air so I could hurry and fly to the coal mine. It felt like I was trying to push a herd of buffalo with my wings, but I was making slight jumps.
“Those wings of yours could use a good massage!” The taken were getting closer and closer. As I tried to make one final push to fly, I heard loud lumping to my right quickly catching up to me. Before I could check to see what was making that racket, a train cart flew from the right and crushed all of the dark stallions under it’s weight.
“What the buck! That thing almost crushed me! We’ll, thanks I guess.” With one final push, I launched myself into the air, flying over the skies. I noticed the sun peak out from behind a mountain, so all the darkness began to retreat to their lairs and regroup for the next night. I had never been so happy to see the sunrise and I still had a few hours to get to the coal mine. Today I would see the kidnappers again. They were going to return Spike to me and be punished for their actions, no matter what! I would give them no other choice!
Flying around the area, I began to analyze how bad of a situation I was truly in at the moment. Spike had been taken from me. Pinkie Pie was probably in a dungeon somewhere. I was on the run from crazed royal guards. All of Equestria was being taken over by the Dark Presence and was simultaneously trying to destroy me and somehow my friendship letters had some part to play in this!
When I had finally arrived at the mine, I was early. I was supposed to meet the kidnappers at noon in the main building. It was quiet. After reading a sign on the wall, the mine had apparently been turned into a museum after the supposed volcanic eruption below Cauldron Lake, which caused collapse and flooding which injured and killed many of the workers. I had finally entered the main building and noticed a chair, deciding to rest for now and wait for them. I didn't want to go outside either. The guards surely were looking for me. The noon sun turned the place into a sauna. The day dragged on. Different scenarios ran through my mind, ways of how I’d force the kidnappers to give me Spike, or the different horrible things they might have done to him. I couldn’t help but fear the worst. I had no way of knowing if he was still alive. It was eating at my heart. I was honestly running on blind hope.
*8 hours later*
It was all a waste of time. The cowards never showed up! I began pacing back and forth, a mix of rage and sadness flowing through my body. I suddenly get a call. It was the kidnappers.
“Hey there Sparky.”
“Where the hell are you?!”
“Change of plans. You know where Mirror Peak is? It’s the big mountain north of where you are. You follow the path from the mine, you can’t miss it. There’s a lookout point there. We’ll be waiting.”
“I’m through being played with you sick monster!”
“You want to see your precious dragon freak alive?” The pegasus stallion then motion his head towards the side where his unicorn mare companion had Spike in her grip. “Because if you do, you better watch what you say to us. Do we understand each other?”
“Oh no, Spike!” He was clearly struggling, to break free, but saw me and calmed down a small bit and smiled slightly, just by seeing me. “I want to talk to him!” The focus then went back on the stallion.
“Yeah, and I want the pages. Don’t keep me waiting Sparkle!” He then disconnected the call, leaving me red from rage.
“AAAAhhh! I’m gonna kill them myself!” I tried going out the door, but seemed locked somehow. I had to get to Mirror Peak. As I stood there thinking of what to do next, the whole building shook violently, like it had been punched by a giant force. I fell on my flanks and almost hit my head on the chair. When I recovered I heard a thud and noticed a pistol next to me. It must’ve fell from a cabinet from the impact. Those kidnappers have no idea who they’re messing with!
