The world as we know it has come to an end. Our homes are destroyed, our bodies tainted, and our lives irreparably torn asunder. Madness and violence have become the very air that we breathe. But despite it all, Harmony has not abandoned us. Not yet.
In what feels like an instant, we lost everything.
We were happy, unsuspecting, peace-loving creatures caught up in something beyond our control or understanding. There was no way we could've prepared ourselves for what was to come, let alone do anything to stop it. What was supposed to be the celebration of the Sun we all love and revere, became a horrific whirlwind of violence and fear and insanity. And that was when our world changed—when we changed.
In the aftermath of the Collapse, nothing remains but monsters, madness, and the scattered remains of a peaceful age now lost to us—or so we thought. But in reality, there is still hope for something better. In the all-consuming darkness of this new era, the embers of Harmony still exist. The light is small, but it burns with a resilience that will not allow it to be snuffed out so easily.
All that's needed is a spark—something to stoke the embers into a roaring flame that will bring us out of the darkness and back into the light of Harmony once again. In the aftermath of the Collapse we are lost, we are suffering, we are cursed but not all of us are without hope.
A sound like the distant rumble of thunder echoes across the sky. The reverberations cause the ground to shake and bid dead and fetid winds to stir once more, if only briefly. Silence rings in the wake of the sound for only a short few moments before it comes again and yet a third time after. The third fall of that thunderous sound tears an unsuspecting creature from its insensate state.
The creature jolts awake, an immediate and all-encompassing agony stripping it of any other forthcoming sensations or emotions. It tries to rise to its full height but the crippling pain scouring every inch of its flesh sends it crumpling back down to the ground. A wretched scream erupts from its throat as pain and madness coalesce into a singular amalgam of suffering.
Unbeknownst to the pitiful creature, the world around it brings not only pain and madness but monstrous change as well—change from within and without. Fur once smooth and sun-kissed grows coarse and thorny, its bright orange hue darkening to a filthy, rusty red. The tips of the creature's ears and tail retain the golden shade of a mane now gone, but the radiance is lost—the color a pale imitation of what it once was.
Beneath the fur, the flesh stretches and warps hideously, and muscles are torn and reassembled into something wholly alien. Bones snap like the branches of a dead tree only to reform and regrow stronger than before. The hooves and muzzle that once marked the creature as equine become something closer to the thick paws and defined snout of a feral wolf—with savage claws and barbarous teeth both fit to shred meat and bone with ease.
Verdant green eyes once full of pride and earnestness now glow abnormally luminous and predatory. Agonized screams turn to feral howls and enraged snarls and before long, the pain and madness have burned away the creature's reason entirely. It can taste the blood and insanity in the still, dead air and its newfound instincts nearly send the horrid beast into a deranged frenzy.
As the unearthly changes take hold and the hunger sets in, intelligent thought is violently shoved aside. The hunt is the only thing that matters now, and the prey is close. The massive wolf-like beast rises to its full height and raises its nose to the sky. It sniffs at the rancid air, catching the scent of something large—some dangerous entity of colossal proportions.
The beast's ears prick up at the thunderous sound of its approach, its mastodonic steps distant, but growing ever closer. Having pinpointed the sound, the beast turns in the direction of the entity with a fierce growl of anticipation. Its lucent green eyes pierce ineffable darkness lit only by the pale light of a broken moon high above. On the horizon to the south, over a blackened forest of twisted trees, it spots the hulking shadow of its prey.
The beast licks its slavering chops before letting out a sonorous howl fit to rouse the dead from their slumber. The distant giant, as if in response, gives its own earthshaking wail—a deep, melancholic sound that only serves to make the beast's blood boil all the hotter. Without further preamble the beast rushes forth, bounding at an impossible clip towards and into the ominous thicket to meet the wailing titan.
In the blackened dirt, where the bloodthirsty beast stood only moments ago, lies a weathered old stetson left behind and forgotten by the wolven horror that was once a mare.
The world had changed, becoming something darker, something completely alien and horrifying. The stars were wrong, the moon a shattered and unsightly thing to behold. The air reeked of bloodlust and madness and chaos. Land once verdurous and healthy had turned black and lifeless, twisted and tainted by the same vile forces that had corrupted everything else around it.
Vicious, mindless, undying horrors roamed the blackened land seeking to sate an unquenchable thirst for blood and flesh and violence. For the poor creatures of Equestria who'd never known such overwhelming asperity in even the darkest annals of their history, this was an all-encompassing nightmare made real. If one looked hard enough, one could find the broken, twisted remains of a more harmonious era scattered here and there.
Much of that world, however, had been buried in the Collapse—a complete and utter breakdown of the barrier between two dimensions that should never have intertwined. The Collapse brought with it demoniac changes not just to Equestria, but to its inhabitants as well. Those whose bodies were not rent asunder and devoured by maddened monstrosities were made to suffer a new and horrendous existence as those selfsame monstrosities.
At least, for the most part.
Wretched as the world had become, and unbeknownst to many whose lives had been lost or changed irreparably, there was still a glimmer of light in the interminable darkness—several of them in fact. Not every creature, be they a victim of the Collapse or a resident of the invading dimension, had given up their sanity. Spread thinly throughout the land, in fact, were the merest scraps of a mostly lucid society.
Beasts that had survived a long and nightmarish war with their minds intact had banded together to create small communities where possible. And for the creatures whose entire world had crumbled in the Collapse, there was hope in the form of those small but powerful glimmers of light. Through the efforts of a single creature—a single mare who herself had become an unwilling sacrifice—the magic of Harmony survived, albeit in scattered pieces.
Still, while that power is no longer whole, those Equestrians who are able to make their way to that fragmented Harmony dispersed throughout the land—those who've lost their body, mind, and soul to the Collapse—should find their way once more...
...and if Skal-Ga—no... if the other me... if the other Twilight can gather the missing ponies who represent the Elements of Harmony, then there may be a way to restore if not all then at least some semblance of order to this horrible world.
The lavender alicorn finished its explanation of the current situation and fell silent. The pony was only a projection, the mere ghost of a mare who'd had her physical form stolen away from her. Given a new life as an ethereal entity by the Tree of Harmony, she was now bound to that Tree. Once the rightful wielder of the Element of Magic, the mare had herself become that very Element.
Through circumstances beyond her control—whether she wished it or not, whether for good or for ill—Twilight Sparkle's fate and consciousness were now tied inexorably to the Will of Harmony. It was a fate she hadn't expected, nor was it something she particularly cared for but there was no getting around it now. The deed had been done and all she could do now was cope as best she could with the current situation.
If needs must, she would do all in her power to ease the insurmountable burden of those lost to the darkness and madness of the Black Dimension. Standing before her, basking in the radiance and conviction she exuded, was the twisted creature Twilight had been speaking to up until a moment ago. Here was yet another victim of circumstance—a mare whose body had succumbed to the awful changes wrought by forces beyond her control.
Here was a mare who, though abominable in physique, had managed to fight against the madness and retain a sizeable portion of her sanity. Despite all odds, the mare had overcome what should have been impossible to resist, but she was by no means an ordinary mare, nor were these ordinary circumstances. In fact, the mare, for all her mental fortitude, owed much of her lucidity to pure luck.
"I see... so this is the state of things..." croaked the mutated mare after taking a long moment to let Twilight's words sink in. Her once-powerful voice had become a deep rasp, an effect of the vile mutation. She eyed the intangible alicorn a moment, then focused on the luminescent sapling that served as an anchor for her incorporeal form, "to think my desperate struggle might've been in vain had I been only a few yards further from the Tree's power... how galling."
Twilight winced at the mare's displeased frown, partly from guilt and partly from the way it further twisted her already demonic features. In many ways, it was wrong to call her a pony, for that's not quite what she was anymore. Like the rest of the Equestrian citizens who'd survived the Collapse, she'd been changed into something altogether unpleasant to look upon—something right out of a foal's nightmare.
The former mare had become a tall, spindly thing whose lush black fur had turned to oily black skin that stretched tightly over long, bony limbs. Her terribly thin, hunched appearance belied a brutish strength incomparable to the equine creature she'd been before. Each of her four legs ended in ghoulish prehensile paws tipped with flexible, knife-like protrusions.
Her mane, which once glimmered and rippled with all the stars of the night sky, had fallen into a long and hideous writhing tangle of octopoid curls. Radiating unearthly incandescence, the curls hid much of her warped visage from view save for a muzzle filled to excess with needle-like fangs and two baleful pinpoints of pale blue light where her eyes ought to have been.
Above, emerging from within those writhing curls were two long black horns that curved inward toward each other. Along her back were wicked spines that stretched all the way down to the barbed tip of a long, flagellated tail. And completing her ghastly appearance was a pair of powerful, batlike wings whose span was double that of what the former pony possessed originally.
This is what had become of the alicorn who'd returned to Equestria after one thousand years of banishment upon the moon. This is the would-be usurper who sought to bring her sister's rule to an end and begin her own reign under the moniker of Nightmare Moon. This is the creature who would have seen the world forever veiled in the darkness of an eternal night.
This was Luna, former Princess of Equestria who had ruled alongside her sister long ago, back when Celestia's monarchy had been a diarchy.
I'm sorry, Princess, once I sensed your presence, I used what little power I could to reach out and help you. I wish I could do more about your... well, about what happened to you, but the magic in this place is... strange and immutable in some ways. It doesn't work like the magic we ponies use.
"It matters not, what's done is done," Luna replied dismissively, "that my mind is sound is more than enough for now, and for that, you have my sincerest gratitude."
The apparition gave a wan smile at that.
I'm just trying to do what I can where I'm able for now. I've managed to plant other saplings just like this one all throughout Equestria—or what's left of Equestria at any rate.
Since Harmony is fragmented, the saplings don't have the power to change a pony back to their original form, but it's enough to keep the madness at bay for a time.
"Meaning if I wander about without seeking out the sanctuary of these saplings for too long, my sanity is forfeit," Luna surmised, "a troublesome predicament..."
I'm afraid that's the best I can do right now without the full might of Harmony and our dimension's own magic. The effect should last as long as you're near a sapling and will continue for a while after you leave, but for exactly how long ultimately depends on a pony's own strength—both of the heart and mind.
"Then I should be fine for a while yet," Luna said with newfound conviction in her tone, "I had my reasons and even now I still believe many of them valid, but in the end, I let my turbulent emotions control me and was banished for it. I will not let it happen again, not now."
Knowing what she did now about both this dimension and about Luna herself, Twilight couldn't help a bit of skepticism at her claim, though she worked to hide it outwardly. That said, the Princess-turned-abomination hadn't really seemed all that fazed about the fact that there was another alicorn that wasn't her sister in her midst.
Twilight already explained a bit about how she knew who Luna was, how she came to be the way she was now, and why she'd likely become an alicorn in the process, but Luna's reaction had been surprisingly placid. If anything it was as though she'd already expected as much to happen. Twilight hadn't said anything about it at the time, as there were more important details to discuss.
Now that the conversation had died down somewhat, however, she found her curiosity welling up once again.
Um... if you'll humor me for a moment, Princess... you don't really seem to be all that surprised that I became an alicorn. Why is that?
"Ah yes, your... transformation," the mutated mare sniffed, "while your union with the Tree of Harmony is unexpected, the fact that you've become an alicorn is something I might've guessed would happen eventually if you really were Celestia's protègè."
Twilight frowned in bemusement. Through the memories of her other self, she'd known that Celestia had been the one guiding her to the destiny of becoming a princess herself, but nothing like that had happened in her own version of Equestria.
What do you mean? Did you already know what your sister was planning?
"Not so much, no, but I know of the ascension ritual and what it requires so I could infer as much," Luna replied, "Celestia spoke at length of taking on an apprentice long before she banished me, but could never find a pony that lived up to her impossible standards.
"I suppose you've somehow managed to meet those standards, but in your case..." she tilted her head as if lost in thought, "...if my sister believed you worthy of ascension to alicornhood, then she was likely preparing you for something beyond the role of a mere archmage."
Well, yeah, from what I understand, it was her intention for me to become a princess from the very beginning—the Princess of Friendship specifically. I can't say I don't feel at least a little hurt that she never consider whether or not that's what I would've wanted but...
"Yes, that was—and evidently still is—one of Celestia's failings," Luna hissed, the icy blue light of her eyes flaring violently, "a mare so caught up in her long-term goals and schemes that she becomes blind to those suffering right before her eyes..."
She froze a moment then let out a calming breath, exhaling a puff of dark smoke in the process.
"...but such vexations matter very little now I suppose," she straightened up and eyed Twilight once more, "knowing my sister, I believe she had a purpose for you even beyond that of the figurehead ruler you would've likely been as this 'Princess of Friendship'."
Twilight opened her mouth to respond but thought better of it and looked away. After all, even as she was now—even in this macabre scenario—there was no way she could even picture taking her mentor's place as or even rule alongside her as an actual Princess with all the authority that being an actual Princess implied. What's more, she'd seen the other Twilight's memories of being the Princess of Friendship.
She'd had more responsibility, the respect of a Princess, and even a castle of her very own, but in the end, she really was just a figurehead more or less. She held some semblance of political power, but nowhere near the amount of Celestia or Luna or even Cadance for that matter. Thinking of Cadance, her thoughts began to shift to her and the rest of her family—of what became of them all.
Before she could fall too deeply into that pit of roiling emotions, her reverie was broken by Luna's thoughtful rasp.
"Setting that aside, I am more concerned with the machinations of your eldritch counterpart and her foe, this... Ancient King," Luna's lambent eyes burned brighter, "you claim that, in regaining her lost memories, Skal-Gazaath has embraced who she once was."
Yes, that's right. She's taken control of my original body and made it her own, but under those circumstances, it didn't seem like either one of us had a say in the matter. She hadn't possessed me intentionally, that was the Ancient King's doing. When she finally 'woke up' she was just as confused as I was and... things just kind of... spiraled from there.
"And the reason she was able to come to her senses was because of a specific memory?" Luna pressed with a skeptical frown, "a memory you claim the two of you shared?"
Twilight gave a small frown of her own, though hers was more thoughtful as she recalled the memory in question.
...It's strange. For her they were clearly memories, but for me... I'm fairly certain it was a dream... a dream I had once when I was still a foal. I'd forgotten it until the moment our consciousness' clashed. A lot of it is still kind of hazy, but there are some things I remember vividly.
"A dream..." Luna's frown deepened, "well, dreams and memories are linked to one another—rather most dreams stem from memories buried within the subconscious mind, but from what you've explained, this Twilight comes from a variant Equestria in another time and space," she exhaled another puff of dark smoke, "such a connection should not be possible."
I'm not really sure what to tell you other than what I saw and heard.
Luna fell silent, her brightly lit eyes dimming ever so slightly as she briefly lost herself in thought. Twilight watched curiously as the monstrous mare's head slowly turned to one side.
"Is it possible?" she muttered seemingly to herself, "no, surely not..."
Twilight's brow furrowed in bemusement, but before she could ask what she meant, Luna's icy blue eyes regained their previous glow and she turned to face her once more.
"Very well," she finally announced, "tell me of this dream of yours."
Taken aback, Twilight took a second to collect herself before replying.
A-Alright... um... well, I don't know the context of what happened—and I don't think my counterpart fully understands either—but I do remember in my dream... there were images—disjointed scenes playing out in my mind.
She paused, trying to collect her thoughts.
They were horrible... nightmarish even. I saw a bunch of ponies I didn't know suffering or worse. Horrific shadowy things chasing ponies down and devouring them, a giant monster with a burning red eye in the sky, and... and everything was so dark.
The incorporeal alicorn visibly shuddered.
I remember being terrified but not being able to wake up. It was as if I was trapped in the dream—like somepony or something was holding me there and wouldn't let me go.
The only frame of reference I had for what was happening was a voice. At the time I didn't know whose voice it was, all I knew was that it sounded angry and... really sad.
"And what did it say?" Luna pressed, taking a step forward, "what did the voice tell you?"
The voice said... it said I would have to face myself and my sins... that I would have to accept who I was and what I'd become. It was talking to me as though everything that I saw was my fault, but... but even back then, I got the sense that those words weren't really meant for me.
Luna said nothing in response, instead, falling into thoughtful silence yet again. Twilight shook her head and gave a long, weary sigh. Her projected form warped and dimmed, suddenly losing much of its brilliant shine. Lost in her musings, Luna failed to notice the subtle shift in the alicorn's intangible form or the sudden weariness in her voice.
It was after hearing those words that I finally woke up—or was allowed to wake up. The strange thing is... as vivid and traumatizing as that dream was... I forgot about it not long after I opened my eyes... just like I would've... any other dream or nightmare...
"I see," Luna murmured, "and that was the memory you two shared then. If what you say is true, then there is only one creature I can think of that would have the power to make such an inconceivable occurrence possi—"
She returned her attention to Twilight only to find that the ethereal mare's body was slowly but clearly fading away. Twilight herself looked as though she hadn't slept in several days, her violet eyes bleary and somewhat unfocused.
"Your manifestation is coming undone," Luna exclaimed, her eyes shining with discontent, "what is the meaning of this?"
I'm... I'm not sure, but... it looks like this is it for now... I think I need to rest for a while...
"No! Not now!" Luna snapped, her eyes ablaze and her effulgent mane writhing angrily, "I still have more questions! Skal-Gazaath! The Ancient King! Where have they gone? Where is Celestia?"
I'm sorry, but I don't know... I think sprouting all those saplings took more out of me than I thought... I need to rest, but once I wake up I can help you search... just find the other saplings for now... help the other ponies if you can... a-and if you somehow manage to find my brother or Cadance... tell them... tell them that I...
Luna hissed in frustration, unable to do more than watch as Twilight closed her eyes and vanished from her sight. The warm and radiant light of the sapling remained as bright as ever, but the alicorn's presence had disappeared completely.
"Foolish mare," Luna groused to herself a moment later, "I've no name or face to put to your brother nor do I know of any 'Cadance'."
With one last irritated snort, the demonic mare tore her baleful gaze from the fledging Tree of Harmony and raised it to the pitch-black sky above. It wasn't long before her wandering eyes found their way to the crumbling remains of the moon, its spurious glow sending a chill down her barbed spine.
She'd done well to keep her true emotions hidden from the young alicorn, but her show of fortitude had been just that. Beneath that veneer of relative calm, Luna felt just as sick and horrified of her new surroundings as Twilight did, if not moreso. Just the sight of that ruined, loathsome thing lighting the already unnatural night was enough to make her oily black skin crawl with fear and disgust.
What an utterly wretched sky...
She turned away and put the sight of the broken moon out of her mind, her thoughts moving to more important matters. Yes, there were still many questions left unanswered, but at the end of it all, there was only one thing Luna wanted above all else and one thing standing her way. Twilight and her vile parallel had evidently resolved to bring Harmony back to this appalling world.
In Luna's opinion, such a task seemed insurmountable as things stood now. Still, if that was to be their aspiration, she had no cause to interfere and in fact, wished them luck. Granted she still had doubts—many doubts about the abominable 'Dead Goddess', but her previous grievances with the creature now paled in comparison to those she held against the Ancient King.
There was little she could do against the elder deity now, that was an infuriating fact she had to accept. If she wanted her vengeance and a proper confrontation with her sister, Luna would simply have to find a way to amass the strength needed to take Nel-Baloth's head while taking back her sister. There was no way around it, and there was no need to hesitate.
She raised one of her peculiar paws and admired the flexible talon-like appendages jutting from the end of it. Hideous as it was, there was power in this body, Luna could feel it, but she could tell it wouldn't be nearly enough to carry out her ultimate goal. What's more, she couldn't feel even a trace of her own magic, much to her displeasure and slight fear. It was as if it'd been burned away along with her original alicorn body.
I need to adapt... to find a way to tap into this dimension's magic somehow. I cannot even think of felling the Ancient King without accomplishing at least that much, let alone survive...
At the very least, the goal itself would keep her mind focused and lucid. Keeping those thoughts in mind, Luna spread her unfamiliar wings and took to the sky to get a better view of the world around her. Her ascent was awkward but steady, and soon enough she'd gained enough of a height to scope out a potential destination.
Now where to begin...
Her question was answered only seconds later as a distant, bestial howl split the eerie silence of the night several miles away from where she lingered in indecision.
In a small and quiet clearing somewhere deep within the confines of a thick forest overgrown with tainted, putrescent trees, there lies a single pale blue crystalline sprout. Though small and feeble looking in appearance, the newborn sapling shines with a brilliance completely at odds with its dreary surroundings. It radiates a calming warmth and spiritual strength wholly alien to the world around it.
It was an anomaly, to say the least.
To many of the stygian horrors wandering the dismal plane of the Black Dimension, such a thing was anathema to their very existence. To the creature who'd stumbled upon the sapling in his travels only moments ago, however, it was an endlessly fascinating object to behold.
The beast, cloaked in his tattered black shawl and dusty dark brown robes, lingered at the edge of the clearing in frustrated indecision. He stood just outside the radiant light of the sapling, wanting desperately to move closer but finding himself unable to. Captivated as he was by the appearance of the mysterious sapling and—on a larger scale—the worldshaking events that happened only a few hours prior, something about it all made him uneasy.
The crystalline plant, despite its seemingly innocuous nature, made his short, pale grey fur stand on end and his beady red eyes twitch in physical discomfort. His pig-like snout crinkled in confusion as he tried to make sense of the strange scent emanating from the thing. Everything about what was sprouting out of the ground before him felt like an ill omen. Thus he sat hunched and restless at the edge of the clearing, pondering what to do.
What else could he do but keep his distance and document his findings of this and other recent and unsettling occurrences from afar? That was, after all, what he'd set out to do in the wake of the abnormal and frankly absurd breach of the dimensional barrier. This foreboding bit of crystal-like foliage was only a small drop in the much larger bucket of alarming and portentous events plaguing the already war-torn and monster-infested lands of Ayafern.
This creature was no doubt beastly in appearance, but he himself was no monster. Indeed, the furry, porcine individual furiously scribbling notes onto a piece of parchment was in fact quite docile all things considered. His hideous tusked visage and rather brawny physique belied a scholarly and somewhat diffident soul. What's more, the creature had opted to devote his life to the odic arts—an odd choice for someone of his prodigious bulk.
But that's just who Togg was, and given the state of the world, he wouldn't have had it any other way. It was what allowed him his freedom from the madness permeating the air. It was what gave him the ability to traverse these hellish plains with a modicum of reassurance, for brawn could only get you so far in such a turbulent and chaotic era. His practice of the odic arts is also what allowed him to sense the peculiar and potentially dangerous presence headed his way.
Togg's pudgy, claw-tipped fingers tightened around his quill in surprise and bemusement, his whole body tensing as he scanned his surroundings. Rather than stand up, he quickly shoved his quill and notes back into his slightly overstuffed satchel and shuffled further back into the underbrush. It wouldn't do all that much to hide his large frame but as a Conjurer he had a few more options available to him.
With a wave of his hand and a single whispered word in the Black Tongue, the air around him began to warp and hiss. A second later and the Conjurer faded from sight completely, his presence hidden from all but the most observant of odic users. Breathing a small sigh of relief, he turned his eyes to the sky and extended his senses outward. It didn't take him long to find the source of what he was feeling.
Now that he was focused he could sense the presence of two creatures approaching, one of which was fairly powerful and the other greatly weakened. Under any other circumstance, Togg would've assumed it was just another of the fallen settling down to feast upon fresh prey. Most devoured what they killed right then and there, but others—primarily those that hadn't completely lost their minds—had the sense to retreat to a safer area before their meal.
That said, Togg could feel that neither of these scenarios was the case. The one thing those two creatures had in common, the one thing separating them from the rest, was the fact that these creatures—whatever they were—gave off the same ominous aura as the shining plant just a few yards away from where he was hidden. There was no definitive proof that what was approaching wouldn't be hostile, but the gut feeling was there and his gut feelings hadn't steered him wrong yet.
One of his tufted ears twitched at the distant sound of flapping wings and he snapped his gaze up and to his left to see the indistinct shape of some winged thing closing in from overhead. The Conjurer frowned as the beast grew near. His eyes weren't the best in low light, but they'd adapted well enough for the most part, much like most every other creature over time.
It was enough that he could just make out the shadowy outline of the flying monstrosity. A bit closer and he could tell that it held in its grasp some other beast that was almost three times its size. Its flight was clumsy and unstable but otherwise, it didn't seem like the winged thing was in any danger of dropping its charge. The wary and bemused Conjurer continued to watch from the shadows as it began its stumbling descent into the very clearing he sat just outside of.
Once the monster deemed it was low enough to the ground, it promptly released its heavy load, causing the other beast to drop right before the sapling with an earthshaking whump. The Conjurer gave a quiet snort of satisfaction at having been correct in his silent assumptions. Whatever the creature was, its destination had clearly been this strange plant, which meant that there was a less than zero percent chance it too had something to do with what was happening in Ayafern.
Of course, there was also a chance that, like himself, the creature had also set out to investigate the many anomalies. Having gotten a much better view of the thin black demon, he could see that there was indeed a spark of intelligence in the bright blue glow of its eyes. It was a ghastly creature the likes of which he hadn't seen before during his travels.
A tall, black demoniac beast, thin with large curved horns and impressive bat-like wings. Its eyes burned like icy blue embers in the darkness and its countenance, while vicious in appearance, currently held a calm and clinical expression as it alighted upon the ground and observed the other beast before it. Following its example, Togg turned his attention to the massive, unmoving entity and had to stop himself from gasping aloud.
The larger specimen was, by Togg's guess, some kind of oversized lupine. Upon closer inspection, there were clear signs of it having been heavily and recently injured. The wounded beast lay on its side, its breath coming in quick, wheezing whimpers and gasps. Its dark red coat was riddled with black bruises and large gashes openly spilling dark blood across the dirt beneath it.
Togg couldn't help but wonder how such a vicious looking creature could've wound up in such a pitiable state. Had it been the smaller winged demon? It was possible, but the porcine Conjurer didn't want to rule anything out. Whatever the case may have been, it was evident that the massive wolf was on death's door—not that something like that really mattered to most creatures anymore.
For a moment there was only silence save for the pained whimpers of the giant wolf. The winged demon eyed the beast briefly before silently turning to the sapling as if waiting for some kind of reaction. The action further stoked the embers of Togg's curiosity and apprehension. He made to move closer, but stopped, reminding himself that he knew nothing about either of these new arrivals.
Revealing himself now may have been suicide for all he knew, and he had no desire to die, even as things were now. Instead, he continued to watch and wait, and as he listened, his caution and patience were rewarded only moments later. As both he and the demon watched, the sapling's radiant light suddenly seemed to increase threefold, causing the demon to stumble back in surprise and Togg himself to raise a hand in front of his sensitive eyes.
The phenomenon only lasted a brief second before the light died back down, but it still took Togg a few more moments to blink the spots in his eyes away. As he was readjusting to the relative darkness, his ears picked up something he didn't expect to hear—a voice, vaguely feminine and tinged with surprise.
"What's this?"
His vision finally cleared, Togg turned to see that the demon's gaze had returned to the wolven beast. It hadn't been his imagination—the surprise was clearly evident on the demon's face, and looking at the wolf, Togg could see why. Wrapped about the dying beast in a thick shroud was the very same ethereal light that illuminated the crystalline sprout.
The light seemed to crawl along its immense form, sealing its open wounds shut and clearing away the nasty bruises covering its entire body. If he listened closely enough, Togg could even hear the muffled sound of bones and sinew being rapidly reknitted beneath the surface. In this world there existed several means to recover one's health, but Togg had never witnessed restoration on this scale.
Just who were these creatures? And just what kind of power was hidden within that sapling?
"This... I'd been told that these creatures were undying, but this is the work of Harmony?" Togg heard the demon mutter to itself in disbelief, "I was not informed that the saplings had this kind of power... interesting..." it turned a curious and slightly frustrated gaze back to the sapling in question, "and it appears she has not yet awakened... a shame."
Another brief moment of silence passed, the moment made all the quieter now that the breathing of the giant wolf had evened out. Togg switched his gaze from one creature to another, his mind reeling at everything that had been revealed to him. Everything he'd witnessed thus far had raised far more questions than answers. He wanted desperately to pull out his notes and document what he'd seen.
He even considered revealing himself on the off chance that the demon wouldn't attack just so he could grab hold of the answers he sought. It—she seemed to be in her right mind after all, and could even speak. That had to mean negotiation was possible, right? Yes, there were risks, but it just might be worth it to sate his own boundless curiosity. He moved a step forward but then hesitated, doubt filling his mind as he thought of what could go wrong.
Unfortunately, his initial decision to make a move hadn't gone unnoticed and the decision to confront the matter head-on was made for him. The moment he set foot outside of his hiding spot the demon's head whipped around to where he was hidden, her blazing eyes pinning the Conjurer right where he stood. Too late did he notice that he'd all but completely stepped out of the underbrush.
"Oh? What have we here?" the demon rasped, her tone bearing just as much curiosity as wariness, "a creature cowering in the shadows in a world tainted by vicious bloodlust and senseless barbarism?" her eyes brightened and a twisted, fang-filled smile crossed her face, "ah... perhaps you are one of the few fortunate enough to escape the pervading madness?"
Togg remained frozen where he was, silently cursing his own folly and indecision. His spell still held, but it did him very little good now. He'd been caught and as if to drive home the fact, the demon spoke again, now fully turning to face the concealed Conjurer.
"Come now, there's no need to hide from me," the demon called out with a toothy smile. If such an expression was meant to reassure the wary pig then it had failed miserably. Possibly realizing this, the demon continued, "ghastly in appearance though I may be, as you can see, I'm perfectly sound of mind. If you are indeed the same, then I believe there may be more to gain from a civilized discussion."
A civilized discussion.
How long had it been since he was granted the gift of a simple conversation? Too long by far, Togg thought bitterly. He'd been wandering this darkened land for he knew not how long with nary a single soul to talk to. For too long his only traveling companions had been unprovoked savagery and his own will to survive with his mind intact.
A sad and pitiful existence for a simple scholar such as himself, but what could he do? Though the demon's stated intentions were to talk, it was clear to Togg that she hadn't let her guard down in the slightest. An entirely fair stance to take given the circumstances, but it did little to ease his reservations. Still, the promise of civil discourse after so long was proving to be a difficult temptation to resist.
The Conjurer hesitated a moment longer, then decided to take the risk. With a calming breath, he dropped the invocation in its entirety and stepped out from beneath the shade of the hideously gnarled trees. He'd revealed himself to the demon but made sure to keep a number of incantations ready in the back of his mind. The demon, for her part, frowned, though Togg got the impression that she was sizing him up. She nodded a second later, apparently satisfied with what she saw.
"I have to admit, I didn't expect to find somepo... someone like you so soon," the demon commented, "could it be luck? Fate perhaps?" she chuckled deeply and shook her head, "whatever it may be, I'm glad for the opportunity. I have a great many questions and I'm hoping you'll indulge me some answers."
Togg didn't give an immediate answer, instead, choosing to turn a cautious eye towards the much larger beast near the sapling. Its cuts and bruises had all but vanished, leaving its rust-red coat pristine and even slightly glossy in the pale moonlight. The demon frowned and followed his gaze to the fallen wolf. With its wounds healed, it had evidently fallen into a deep state of unconsciousness—its breathing now slow and content.
"Is it sane?"
The demon turned back to the porcine scholar at the sound of his inquiry. Though his voice was as rough as sandpaper, his words were spoken with a surprising amount of clarity. It was unexpected, but the demon was quick to rein in her surprise and returned his perfectly understandable inquiry with a pensive scowl.
"If my suspicions are correct—and all signs so far seem to indicate that they are—then we should have nothing to worry about once it wakes," she replied diplomatically, "more to the point, I believe introductions are in order," she raised a monstrous paw to her bony chest, "I am Nightmare..." she paused, her eyes dimming slightly, "...Luna. You may call me Luna."
Togg snorted, remaining both unconvinced and wary of Luna's words, but chose to humor the demon. At the very least, it was clear she had no intention of attacking and truly did want to talk. He'd no doubt find out soon enough whether or not the wolf would be just as willing to converse. In the meantime, this was indeed an opportunity that was far too good to pass up. Steeling his nerves, he cleared his throat and straightened up to his full height, noting that even as tall as Luna was, he still towered over her in his bipedal form.
"Well met, Luna. I am Togg Tahlzul of Yarmha, last disciple of High Conjurer Thak and scholar of the Casia Stella Academy of the Odic Arts. I pray that our discussion bears both of us fruit, for I have many questions of my own."
Wrapped in the tattered remains of a long worn tunic darkened with grime and age, the titan moves with the glacial slowness of an iceberg along an arctic sea. Its thunderous steps are unhurried as it aimlessly wanders the eternally nighted lands of Ayafern.
Its mournful wails ring out ceaselessly in the dark, the sound all but drowning out the somber clink and clatter of the heavy iron chains that drag from the manacles bound to the giant's arms and legs. Its head hangs low with the weight of some unknown burden and its grotesque features remain hidden behind a long disheveled curtain of oily black hair.
Prodigious in its bulk, with arms like boulders, legs like the thick and wizened trunks of a tree several millennia old, and a murky grey hide as resilient as stone, the giant would paint a daunting picture of strength to any who would cross its path. The morning star it carries, half as large as the colossus itself and its barbed steel head blackened and rusted red with the blood of its previous victims only serves to reinforce that monstrous aura.
But the wolf, mad with hunger and blinded by its bloodlust, fails to comprehend its full might. Like a strike of lightning, it bursts forth from the shade of the surrounding trees, eager to play the part of the vicious hunter. Opening its maw wide, the would-be predator moves in with blinding speed and snaps its jaws down on one leg of the unsuspecting giant with enough force to crack through its stony flesh.
The giant cries out in pain and raises one shackled arm before bringing down its mighty morning star in response. The sluggishness of only a moment ago melts away as though it had all been some terrible ruse. Like the sudden eruption of a long-dormant volcano, the titan's rage explodes and the wolf is forced to release its prey and retreat.
It nimbly steps away just out of the titan's reach, but the impact of the morning star upon the ground causes the wolf to stumble. Stunned and reeling from the sudden attack, the wolf has little time to recover as the titan presses its aggressive assault. The titan closes what little distance the wolf had gained in an instant in an attempt to crush the smaller beast beneath the weight of its other fist.
Instincts honed only recently kick in and the wolf launches itself sideways, narrowly avoiding another attack. Seeing an opportunity for retaliation, it hops along the outstretched arm of the giant, racing up the limb to reach its neck. Another furious roar rips itself from the giant's throat as it tries to shake the wolf off, but the reaction comes too slowly.
The wolf sinks its claws into the titan's hide for purchase before tearing once more into the stony skin of its neck with all the savagery of a wild beast. More wails of pain and rage escape the titan as it thrashes about trying to dislodge the wolf. Desperate, it drops the morning star to the ground and reaches up to grab at the gnawing pest.
Lost in its bloodlust, the wolf fails to disengage itself in time to evade the giant's hand as it closes around its middle. With a surprised yelp, the distracted predator suddenly finds itself torn from the giant and thrown bodily into the trees where it smashes against several with bone-breaking force. With another battle cry, the giant takes up its weapon and charges in to finish what the would-be hunter started.
The collision with the many gnarled trees, while far from fatal, leaves the wolf bruised, battered, and dazed. Amongst the many trees felled from the impact, the injured wolf tries to pick itself back up from where it had fallen. As it struggles to rise to its feet, the thunderous sound of heavy footfalls reaches its ears. Raising its head, it spots the source of the noise.
The horrifying realization that the titan is already upon it is enough to allow the wolf a brief moment of lucidity before the bloody morning star falls and its world is reduced to nothing but agony and a newfound but short-lived sense of regret.
"Gah!"
Applejack's eyes snapped open and she let out a sharp yelp as disjointed images of wanton brutality flashed through her mind. She tried to scramble to her hooves only to immediately find that something was very clearly off.
"What in the—"
A quick look below and around herself was enough to confirm her suspicions, but not much else. Where she expected to find the orange hooves she was born and had lovingly spent her entire life toiling away on the farm with, there was instead a pair of dark red paws whos vicious claws dug softly into the ground.
"W-Wha...?"
Whatever thoughts or memories had assaulted her mind before were quickly pushed aside and momentarily forgotten as panic begin to set in. Twisting herself around, she saw to her horror that Bucky McGillicuddy and Kicks McGee had both been replaced by those same monstrous red paws. A sound escaped her lips then, a sort of keening whine—like that of a wounded or distressed canine.
It was something she'd heard many times before from Winona back home, but certainly no noise she'd ever heard herself make. And, no matter how little sense it made, no matter how much she didn't want to believe it, she had been the one to make that very canine sound. Applejack wasn't one for lies of any kind, not even to herself.
She made it a habit to be as open and honest as she could, and somewhere beneath all the panic and confusion, there was a rational mind capable of putting two and two together. That said, the mare wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination and she'd told more than her fair share of fibs in the past. As hard as she tried to live by the policy of honesty, there were still times when even she gave in to falsehoods and denial.
And in this case...
"A dream," she whispered, staring in wide-eyed disbelief at the bushy gold-tipped tail whipping anxiously back and forth behind her, "it's gotta be a dream, right? Or some kinda nightmare—"
"As an authority on both, and as much as I wish it were the case, I can assure you that this is neither a dream nor a nightmare."
Snapped out of her horrified reverie by the unsettling voice, Applejack whipped back around to see a pair of piercing eyes like icy blue flames staring back at her from a short distance away. Caught in the intensity of those smoldering blue flames, it took a moment for the bewildered mare-turned-wolf to notice the rest of the creature those eyes belonged to.
It was a heinous thing—a winged horror that Applejack could've sworn had crawled its way out of the deepest depths of Tartarus. The former cowpony saw this creature and somewhere in the back of her mind she knew she was meant to be afraid, yet the fiend's ghastly appearance evoked in her not fear, but a strange sense of familiarity.
No, it ain't just that... it feels more like... like...
She shook her head, trying to gather her wits as best she could. The one thing Applejack knew for sure was that everything about this situation was wrong. She had to ground herself somehow or she wasn't going to make any kind of headway into figuring out what the hay was going on. There were questions that needed answering and she wasn't the kind of mare to hesitate.
As if bidden by some new instinct, Applejack took on a more intimidating stance, lowering her head and doing her best to ignore the low inequine growl rumbling from deep within her throat as she glared at the monster before her.
"Alright, start talkin'," Applejack demanded, "you know somethin', right? Where am I? Who—what are you? An' what happened to me?"
Now that she was able to think somewhat rationally, it was becoming increasingly clear to Applejack that there were more disturbing oddities at work than just her appearance. Though her voice had reached the other creature's ears, it hadn't been through word of mouth. Rather, the only thing that had been emitted vocally as she 'spoke' was a vicious snarl.
How the hay is that supposed to work?
"Now that's a fine tone to take with the one who delivered you from what was to be your fate as nothing more than a fine bloody paste upon the ground," the creature sniffed as she calmly approached the confused wolf.
"Woah, back up," Applejack's ear perked up and she raised her head in surprise, "ya'll did what now? Wait..."
Images once again flashed through her head, though they were hazy and indistinct. She recalled some massive hulking titan and shuddered at the remembered agony she suffered as it bore down on her with that barbed weapon, but even the recollection of that horrible pain felt vague and dreamlike in her mind.
Focusing on those hazy memories, she did, in fact, recall the distant sound of flapping wings and an obscure sensation of being lifted into the air. At the time, somewhere beneath her feral minded fear, she thought she'd imagined it, but evidently, that hadn't been the case.
"That was you?" Applejack muttered, trying to piece her thoughts together into something coherent, "you pulled me outta that... that mess?"
"And risked a great deal in doing so," the creature replied, "but nevermind that. Now that you've come to your senses, I need you to tell me your name as well as anything and everything you remember prior to that encounter."
"Now hold on just a second," Applejack shook her head again, trying to clear up the last of the fog in her mind. To her frustration and dismay, much of her thoughts were still shrouded behind a hazy veil, "Ah... the name's Applejack, but... but Ah... Ah don't..."
"You don't what?" the winged creature pressed impatiently, "out with it, girl. Do you or do you not remember what transpired before your encounter with the giant?"
"Ah... Ah can't remember," Applejack finally whispered after a moment, "Ah know Ah ain't supposed to be... whatever Ah am now. Ah know Ah was a pony at one point, but aside from that... Ah don't know."
"Really?" the creature asked, taking another step forward, "nothing at all? Not where you came from or how you got here?"
"Well..." Applejack wracked her brain, "it's vague, but Ah do remember somethin' about a farm... an' that Ah was lookin' for somethin', but Ah can't remember what. Aside from that... Ah don't know what happened before gettin' mashed up by that giant lummox. Don't even know how or why Ah got into that scrap in the first place."
"Hmmm..."
The creature studied Applejack silently for a moment, as though musing on how to proceed. Before she could come to a decision, Applejack spoke first.
"Alright, Ah answered your questions, now what about mine? Who are you, and..." she paused and looked past the winged creature to the radiant crystalline sprout as if just noticing it for the first time, "and... what the hay kinda saplin' is that?"
It was true that Applejack had a slew of questions that needed answering, but upon noticing the sapling, those questions somehow seemed a bit less important than they'd been before. The sprout had seized her attention and wouldn't let go. She felt drawn to its warmth, and before she'd even realized what she was doing, she had already made her way past the other creature and now sat before the infantile tree.
Again, Applejack felt that strange sense of familiarity—the same sense of familiarity she'd felt from the winged black beast. Something about both the other creature and this sapling almost reminded her of something she'd lost. Basking in the sapling's warmth, she pushed herself once more to try and remember, but nothing came of the effort besides a painful twinge of longing and a deeper sense of loss.
"Tell me, Applejack, does the name 'Equestria' mean anything to you?"
The question was enough to pull some, but not all, of the wolf's attention back to the creature and she turned to see that the creature in question had moved to stand beside her, her gaze also seemingly ensnared by the young tree. Applejack was quiet for a moment, then shook her head slowly.
"Now that you mention it, Ah feel like Ah should know what that is... and Ah think Ah do to a certain extent," she finally answered, "but it's like... like almost rememberin' a dream ya had the night before. The pieces are there, but a lot of 'em are missin' an' what's left don't make a lick of sense," she cast the creature beside her another side glance, "but you know, don't ya? You know what's goin' on, what all of this is about, right?"
"It's true that I understand a good deal more than you do at the moment," the creature replied, "but it would be a lie to say that I know everything there is to know about our... current predicament," she turned to meet Applejack's gaze, "you feel it as well, don't you? That overwhelming sense of kinship that stifles our mutual fear and distrust of each other?" she motioned to the tree before them with her chin, "the warmth we each draw from this tiny sapling?"
Applejack merely stared back at the creature, both surprised and expectant. The creature, in turn, gave Applejack a wry smile.
"I heard your cry from afar, but it was that feeling of kinship that led me to save you from that raging colossus," she explained, "I led the titan away and brought you here, and it was this sapling that allowed for the full recovery of your physical health, though it seems the Tree's power wasn't enough to restore your memory."
"So lemme get this straight," Applejack replied after a minute, "you're sayin' you were a pony just like me, an' Equestria is... where we came from?"
"Indeed," the creature confirmed, "and really, it wouldn't be entirely inaccurate to say that we still reside in Equestria, though many things have changed."
"Like what?" Applejack asked before frowning, "an' Ah still don't got a name to put to the face, stranger."
"Ah... right," the creature replied liked she'd forgotten the fact, "once upon a time I was known as Luna, and that is what you may call me. As for these changes," Luna swept a somber gaze across the surrounding forest where both former equines stood, "a great calamity has befallen our world, perverting the very nature of everything we once knew into something dark and twisted.
"Though I once called Equestria home, I come from a time long before yours, so I know little of the Equestria of your era," she brought Applejack's focus back to the glowing sapling, "that said, I do know that we were once separated from this world ruled by madness and violence, but this calamity brought our peaceful world to an end and this... what you see before you is all that remains."
"This?" Applejack asked, pointing one massive paw towards the sprout, "this tiny thing is all that's left?"
"There are evidently many of these saplings spread far and wide across the land," Luna clarified, "and each of these small saplings holds a mere fragment of a much greater power. It is this power that swept away your madness and brought you back from the brink of death."
"My madness?" Applejack tilted her head in bemusement, "is that what happened? You're sayin' I went nutty in the head and got into a fight with that thing?" her eyes suddenly lit up in realization, "Wait, that oaf back there, that wasn't another pony was it?"
"That was no pony, but rather a... no..." Luna suddenly turned away from Applejack and the sapling to stare out into the darkness, "...perhaps it may be best for you to explain to Applejack the nature of that titan?"
Applejack stared at Luna in blank confusion for a second before following her gaze, but there was nothing in the direction she was facing, and that was given how well both their visions had adapted to the all-consuming darkness. Luna ignored Applejack's quizzical look and continued to stare out at the distant trees with an impatient scowl.
"Seldom have I seen such a coward as this one," the demon muttered to herself before calling out, "I believe we have thoroughly established that the wolf means us no harm. We still have much to discuss and I alone am not enough to shed light on this situation!"
A sort of awkward silence filled the air as Luna waited for some kind of response from beyond the light of the sapling. Applejack began to have her own doubts about the demon's sanity—that is until she herself heard someone call back from the shadows.
"If you speak of giants, then there is only one that I know of who still roams these lands freely..." came a rough yet oddly cultured voice.
It was then, seemingly from thin air and just out of the reach of the sapling's radiant light, that another beast appeared. The boar-like creature was heavily robed, bipedal, powerfully built, and though it was no colossus, it still towered over both Luna and Applejack, even as large as both former ponies were.
With his presence hidden, Applejack hadn't been able to sense the beast at all, but now that he had revealed himself—and despite his intimidating appearance—the creature somehow had a rather underwhelming presence. At first, Applejack couldn't understand where the disconnect was coming from, but with her new instincts she picked up on it after a moment.
It's his scent... Ah don't smell any kinda hostility comin' from him. Actually, Ah think the poor fella's more afraid of us than we are of him...
With that conclusion, the tension vanished along with her surprise and she sat back down from where she'd suddenly jumped up. All that remained now was curiosity, both of who the robed boar was and what he had to say. The boarish creature eyed Applejack warily, no doubt making sure she wouldn't attack, and breathed a subtle sigh of relief when she went back to resting on her haunches. With a hand to his chest and a slight bow to both monsters before him, he spoke again.
"You said your name was Applejack, yes? I am Togg Tahlzul of Yarmha," he began in a gruff but courteous tone, "it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"Pleasure's, uh... all mine, Ah guess," Applejack replied uncertainly, "Luna here is makin' it sound like the whole world is out to get me. Mighty glad to know not everythin' wants to smash me to bits."
"Alas, there is no shortage of vile and vicious horrors that want nothing more than to destroy and devour, but yes, there are those of us who still retain our wits, however small in number we may be," he shook his head sadly, "given this fact, I hope you can forgive my impertinence in keeping my presence hidden. In a ruthless age such as this, one cannot be too cautious."
"No Ah get it, believe me," Applejack replied with a rough snort and a dark grimace, "Ah don't blame ya none, an' hey, if you can tell me what the hay is goin' on I got no problem callin' you a friend," she flicked an ear and turned to Luna as another thought occurred to her, "an' Ah suppose Ah owe ya more'n a bit of thanks for savin' my hide."
Luna snorted and turned away.
"Keep your thanks, whelp," she replied in a curt tone, "more than anything I was simply repaying a small debt I owed to somepony else."
"A debt?" Applejack asked, "to who?"
"I'm sure you will find out soon enough," Luna replied cryptically.
The cold and vague answer left Applejack feeling somewhat irritated but before she could press the matter, Togg cleared his throat, catching both the former mare's attention.
"Yes well... there is still much yet to be discovered for all of us," Togg replied, "Luna and I have spoken of a few topics at length while you were indisposed, but it seems many questions still remain for both of us."
"Yeah, Ah've got a ton of 'em for sure," Applejack nodded and cast a quick glance back at Luna before looking back to Togg, "an' speakin' of which, what were you sayin' about the giant?"
"Ah yes," Togg's expression turned grim, "Miss Luna spoke of your unfortunate encounter with the Wailing Mountain."
"The... Wailin' Mountain?" Applejack gave a puzzled frown, "is that what ya'll call it? Ah mean Ah guess it was makin' a lot of noise, but..."
"Indeed," Togg nodded, "those few who have crossed his path and lived to tell the tale have taken to calling him the Wailing Mountain, but during the War of Liberation he was known by another name."
"Now wait just a darn minute," Applejack interjected, "War of Liberation?"
"A subject we only slightly managed to touch upon before you awoke," Luna clarified, "it was a war that took place between an eldritch goddess and an ancient king several hundred years ago."
"Huh," was Applejack's simple reply.
Something in her hazy memory stirred at the explanation, but try as she might, she failed yet again to penetrate the thick fog clouding her mind. She shook her head and grimaced in frustration, wanting to know more, but unable to recall anything. Before she could ask more about the war, Togg continued speaking.
"Yes, it was a long and grueling war—one of such a scale that it fundamentally changed the nature of our world," the conjurer raised a melancholy gaze to the broken moon above, "...and even much of what lays beyond."
He fell into a pensive silence for a brief moment before slowly shaking his head and letting out a despondent sigh.
"Ah, but it does me little good to dwell on the past," he turned back to Applejack and his tone shifted to something a bit lighter, "getting back to the previous topic, the giants are a pitiable people, you see.
"They were once a mighty tribe of fearsome warriors who'd thrown their lot in with the King during the war," he explained, looking almost wistful, "the strongest among them all was their war chief and champion, the one they called Yodyr. Better known back then as the Raging Mountain, both for his remarkable size even among giants and his unparalleled ferocity on the battlefield."
"No kiddin'," Applejack commented bitterly, "assumin' that's the brute Ah ran into back there, Ah'd say that's as fittin' a name as any."
"A beast among beasts," Togg said, nodding in agreement, "sadly, many of the giants fell to the Goddess' eldritch forces during the final battle.
"Those that survived were said to be imprisoned by the Goddess in a dungeon hidden somewhere deep beneath the earth. Yodyr in particular suffered a crippling defeat at the claws of the Goddess' Fell Guardian and the fallen war chief himself was confined along with his kin, that is until he escaped.
"No one quite knows when or how he managed to escape his imprisonment, but many believe it was centuries of torture that drove him mad and the fate of his tribe that causes him to weep endlessly," he paused to let the gravitas of his tale settle, then scratched at his chin thoughtfully, "this is all hearsay mind you, and while a good bit of it has some basis in truth, there is still much that remains in the dark."
"Well shoot," Applejack muttered in the ensuing silence, "now Ah feel kinda bad for the big guy, an' this 'Goddess' sounds like a real piece of work."
Again, she felt the distant pull of some memory veiled within the fog, but nothing came of seeking it out.
"Just who is this Goddess anyway?" she asked, turning to Luna, "somethin' about the name sounds familiar, but Ah can't put my hoof—er... paw, on what it is."
Luna, having already heard most of the story from Togg earlier, was content to let the conjurer explain, but she let a bit of surprise slip into her mostly passive expression at Applejack's words.
"You know of the Goddess?" she asked, "the Dead Goddess, Skal-Gazaath?"
Applejack tilted her head, her lupine features scrunching up as she contemplated the name. Eventually, she shook her head.
"Ah think so," she said slowly, "there's definitely somethin' there, but I can't reach it."
Luna opened her mouth to say something else, but then closed it and stared at and past the former earth pony, her eyes dimming slightly as her mind suddenly ran along another line of thought. Applejack watched her ponder on something or other with increasing unease. She looked over to Togg who looked just as perplexed. She blinked and turned back to Luna.
"Uh... Luna, ya got somethin' else you wanna say or...?"
Just then her eyes blazed back to life and she turned as if to stare out at something amidst the trees.
"Luna?" Applejack tried again, "what's—"
"Come, there is something I must show you," she all but commanded as she began a brisk trot into the surrounding forest. She stopped a moment and turned back to Togg, speaking almost as an afterthought, "you may come as well if you wish."
"Wait, where are ya goin'?" Applejack asked, scrambling to follow behind as Luna continued forward, "where are we goin'?"
Though she didn't stop this time around, Luna turned her head to address the baffled wolf.
"We're returning to the sight of your skirmish with the Wailing Mountain," she answered, "there is something nearby that I believe you might have left behind."
"I left somethin' behind?" Applejack asked, she took a quick look back to see that Togg had decided to follow as well, and was surprised to see that the bipedal boar had no issue moving through the thick underbrush despite the heavy robes he wore. Impressed but ultimately distracted by Luna's words, she called back to the demon in front of her, "what was it? What'd I leave behind?"
"I thought it a bit strange at the time though I paid no mind," Luna continued, ignoring Applejack's questions entirely, "now I think it may just be the key to recovering the past that eludes you."
The journey back to where Applejack had first awakened was a long one, but thankfully—and strangely, thought Togg—their trek was a peaceful one, all but devoid of any deadly creatures lurking in the underbrush. Much of the trip was spent bringing the pony-turned-wolf up to speed on the current situation. Togg knew nothing of Equestria and Luna had very little to say about the Equestria of Applejack's time, though Applejack and Togg noticed that the former Princess had little to say in general.
She kept to herself for the most part as she led the other two through the overly tangled and eerily silent forest. It didn't help that Luna would occasionally break through the trees overhead and take to the skies without warning to check their position and in doing so, leave Applejack and Togg to wait until she returned. This left Togg to answer many of Applejack's questions, of which she still had several.
There wasn't anything he could do about Applejack's questions regarding Equestria, but the porcine conjurer had plenty to say about himself and his own world. Togg's words came warily and hesitantly at first, but by the time they'd all made it roughly halfway through the twisted forest, he'd gotten into the conversation. It wasn't long before he was eagerly discussing his chosen discipline with the large wolven beast.
Applejack listened as politely as she could while Togg droned on excitedly about odic theory and the supposedly awe-inspiring feats of his mentor. It was clear to the former pony that the conjurer took great pride in his craft, but Applejack would've been lying if she said she understood even a hint of what he was going on about, so rather than telling him as much, she decided to simply nod along with his words.
Truth be told, she normally wouldn't have minded telling Togg her honest thoughts about what he was rambling on about, but with more pressing concerns clouding her mind, she couldn't be bothered. Given her worries and having not yet fully come to grips with her current state of mind and being, it was a wonder Applejack could spare even half the attention she was giving Togg as it was.
And then there was what she'd evidently left behind prior to her madness.
Applejack had tried to ask Luna about what she meant, but the former Equestrian princess had simply ignored her and continued to focus on the path ahead. It put her off somewhat, but after a while, Applejack had just begun to assume whatever it was would be self-evident. It didn't ease her worries, confusion, or curiosity any, but she was nothing if not a patient and reasonable mare... at least she would've liked to think so anyway.
As it turned out, Applejack felt she may not have been entirely wrong in her assumptions. As the three neared the edge of the warped forest, the scent of something familiar hit the wolf's enhanced olfactory senses like a sold brick wall. Her lupine head raised to the sky and her nostrils flared as she inhaled what she was suddenly certain was the smell of her past.
It wrapped around her like a tantalizing shroud and dragged her forward. Her nose sniffed against the ground and her legs began to move almost on their own. Any dialogue from Togg was ignored and forgotten as she pushed ahead of the surprised and concerned scholar without a word. Luna, for her part, merely stepped aside to let Applejack pass and continued after her, wordlessly letting her lead the rest of the way.
"It seems Miss Applejack has caught the scent of something," Togg observed worriedly, "a threat perhaps? Some unseen nightmare hiding in the depths of this interminable darkness?"
"Not likely," Luna replied as the two of them followed Applejack out of the malformed underbrush and onto the dead, blackened soil beneath the alien sky above, "I wager that she has picked up the trail of the piece of her she'd left behind."
Togg turned to Luna with brows slightly raised. Her tone was dismissive, but Togg was surprised that the stoic demon had even deigned to answer at all. Although he frowned a moment later at her next words.
"I believe you mentioned something about being able to sense the presence of those around you," Luna commented snidely, "surely you would have known if there was any real danger?"
"Not every vile creature can be sensed with odic energy alone," Togg replied somewhat defensively, "and my natural senses are a bit... lacking compared to yours and Miss Applejack's I'm afraid."
Luna merely gave a derisive snort at that and picked up her pace to catch up with Applejack. Evidently, she had nothing more to say, so Togg simply sighed and followed after the other two. Another half-hour or so passed In relative silence as Luna and Togg continued to trail after Applejack, who still had her nose pressed to the ground. She moved swiftly, pushing ahead with purpose and seemingly heedless of anything and everything else but that scent of familiarity.
Then, as if a flip had been switched, Applejack froze. Her head suddenly snapped up and her ears went erect and alert. At that same moment, Togg felt something tug at his preternatural odic senses and he too stopped in his tracks. Luna had no need for sharp ears or odic senses, as her flaming azure eyes alone were enough to pierce both darkness and distance to spot the shifting, shuffling silhouettes further up ahead.
"What in Mother's name?" Luna muttered, frowning as she tried to make out the formless shapes, "what are those creatures?"
"Ah ain't got a clue," Applejack replied, a low and dangerous growl escaping her throat. She crouched, her hackles raised as she stared straight ahead, "but whatever they are, they sound like trouble, an' they smell even worse."
Luna frowned and took a few steps forward, straining to get a better look at the distant shapes. After a moment or two, her eyes flared brighter, and to her surprise, she could suddenly make out the creatures clear as day. It was as if something had filtered the shadows out of her vision and now she could see the thin, hunchbacked monstrosities for what they were.
There were five or six of them, chittering and burbling unpleasantly in high-pitched, unintelligible voices. The naked skin that stretched taut over their diminutive forms shone pale grey and oily in the moonlight. Their misshapen, lumpy backs were bloated with grotesque black and purple splotches and boils.
Two pointed ears jutted out from either side of their flat heads. Their eyes were the same sickly shade of purple as the boils upon their backs and filmy with cataracts. If it hadn't been for the shape of their heads and the wide mouths full of gnashing, shark-like teeth that dripped with black ichor, Luna might've mistaken them for some manner of overgrown and diseased hairless rats.
Not a single one of them seemed to pay the trio of onlookers any heed as they all danced around restlessly in an uneven circle about the wide, soot-strewn clearing. At least, Luna thought it was some kind of dance, though she couldn't be completely sure from where she was standing. Whatever the case, it was clear the hideous things were distracted, and for that, the demonic mare was thankful.
"Blighted goblins," Togg hissed, his beady red eyes narrowing and his snout wrinkling in disgust, "a nasty lot to be sure, but..." his disgusted grimace turned to one of confusion, "their territory lies much further southeast near the Swamplands of Kveth. Why are they here? Another effect of that disastrous anomaly perhaps?"
"Ah don't know an' Ah don't care," Applejack growled, her emerald eyes flashing dangerously, "those ugly critters are standin' between me an' somethin' Ah really need to see."
"I know not what has caught your attention, but you must calm yourself, Miss Applejack," Togg warned, seeing the telltale signs of bloodlust in the wolf's eyes, "do not be so eager to rush into combat, blighted goblins may look frail, but—no, wait!"
Togg raised a hand to forestall Applejack's headlong charge, but the enraged wolf had already once again given into her instincts. She shot off like a lightning bolt towards the group of unsuspecting goblins before either Togg or Luna could stop her. Luna looked from the rapidly bounding form of Applejack to Togg as the conjurer cursed and raised his hands. Her eyes flared with interest as he flexed his thick fingers and cried out in a language vaguely familiar to the mare.
At his call, several orbs of ebony fire manifested above and around him in a large semi-circle, each flaming orb roughly the size of his own massive fists. Luna managed to count at least a dozen orbs before Togg shot out a hand and sent them all flying forward at a speed that very nearly broke the sound barrier. They overtook Applejack's speed with ease and, shocked out of her fury, she stumbled to a near stop as the flaming projectiles passed her by.
Luna, who'd seen similar magical attacks used in the past during warfare, had expected the orbs to explode on impact. What she hadn't expected was for each orb to rip through each goblin's flesh, piercing them all with pinpoint precision and leaving gaping holes where each orb hit. They hit with such force that many were either sent flying or skidding roughly across the ground.
The wounds left by Togg's assault glowed white-hot for a brief moment, the intense heat searing the flesh shut even as the helpless creatures hit the ground. In a matter of seconds, the blighted goblins had been completely wiped out, and silence once again filled the air. They'd only just begun to notice Applejack's charge when Togg's conjuration hit and barely had any time to scream in alarm let alone mount any kind of meaningful resistance.
The flaming black orbs had only left several black patches where they landed, the scorch marks indistinguishable from the jet black soil save for the still smoldering embers in some spots. Applejack, who'd nearly reached the group of goblins before Togg interfered, stood dumbfounded as she stared at the disease-ridden corpses before her. For a moment she was unsure of what to do or say and the disorientation from the sudden recession of bloodlust did little to help matters.
It wasn't long before she noticed something amidst the grotesque bodies, something that snapped her back to full lucidity. It was something so familiar yet so out of place, she wasn't sure if she was seeing things or not. An image—some deep-rooted scene began to push its way into the forefront of Applejack's mind as she gawked at the object.
Almost as if in a daze, she took a step forward but a distant voice called out to her just then, freezing her where she stood and dispelling the hazy image from her thoughts. Growling in frustration, she whipped around to see the approaching forms of Togg and Luna, the former hurrying as fast as his legs would carry him and the latter following along at a more sedate pace.
"W-Wait! Fall back, Miss Applejack!" Togg panted as he came closer, "d-don't... don't move another step forward! Though they may be corpses, the blighted goblins still pose a dire threat!"
Applejack was about to turn away and ignore the conjurer when a low hiss reached her ears, the sound not dissimilar to the hiss from a faulty pressure relief valve. It wasn't long before the sound was accompanied by a foul, acrid stench that set Applejack's newfound instincts on high alert. Those instincts to flee warred with an overwhelming desire to investigate, to know.
Not wanting to hesitate a moment longer, she made a split-second decision. She took one last look back at the panicking Togg before reaching down and snapping up the wrinkled, dirty stetson in her maw and backpedaling away as fast as her lupine legs would allow. She jumped away and in the next moment, everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
She watched in a sort of horrified awe as the black and purple splotches rapidly encroached upon the pale, unblemished flesh of each goblin corpse. The large boils bubbled and hissed as they too covered more and more of the pale grey skin, moving from the back to the arms and legs and more. It was when the bodies began to bloat to a frankly ridiculous size that Applejack's eyes widened in alarm.
Aw horseapples, Ah don't think Ah'm gonna—
Space folded around the horrified wolf, shutting out all sight and sound and sucking all the air out of her lungs. For a brief instant that felt like an eternity, Applejack struggled desperately to breathe, but each attempt seemed to grow weaker as she felt her body being crushed in on itself. The pressure was immense, it was too much. She felt like she was being squeezed right out of existence.
And then it was over.
Just as soon as the torture began, it ended, leaving Applejack shaking and panting from the horrifying experience. She stood on wobbly legs, her eyes wide and focused on the dirty, ruined stetson resting at her massive paws. She took a minute to collect herself while sucking in several precious gulps of stale air. Someone called out to her, but it sounded muffled and far away like she was hearing it from beneath a large pool of water.
She raised her head slightly to see Togg crouched before her on his hands and knees. The conjurer looked just as bad as she felt. She could see his body shaking, his chest and shoulders heaving with exhaustion, though Applejack couldn't understand why. Looking past him, she could see Luna looking no worse for wear. She stood back, eyeing Togg with an unreadable expression.
Still in shock, it took her a few moments to notice but looking past Luna, the bloated goblin corpses were nowhere to be found, nor were the scorch marks from Togg's attack. As she took in the scenery she slowly began to realize that they'd all somehow arrived back near the forest's entrance. There were many questions that needed answering right at the moment, but they all had taken a backseat to the thoughts and emotions swirling about in Applejack's head.
"By... by the Black Constellation, that was... far too close... for my liking," came Togg's winded voice as he struggled to rise to his feet, "are you okay, Miss Applejack? Unharmed I hope?"
He let out an exhausted sigh as he finally stood up and when he didn't hear a response he fully turned to face Applejack. She stood staring out at the forest with unfocused eyes, her mind clearly elsewhere. Togg frowned, concern written all over his own face as he took a step toward her, but stopped as she spoke.
"Ah remember..."
Togg blinked, then turned to look back at Luna who had finally turned her attention to Applejack. When she didn't say anything, he returned his focus to Applejack.
"You... remember?" he replied carefully, "you mean your past? Your home? How you came to be here?"
It took a long minute, but Applejack eventually gave a slow nod and her unfocused gaze drifted back down towards the stetson. It was clear the hat hadn't survived Applejack's rough treatment, crumpled, full of holes, and wet with saliva as it was from when she'd made a desperate grab for it with her teeth. She took another minute to stare at it, then blinked once and spoke again, her voice hoarse with emotion.
"Ah remember all of it," she weakly batted at the hat with a paw, flipping it over, "every single moment. Ah remember who Ah was, who Ah am, an' where Ah came from."
She closed her eyes and Togg thought he could see a tear rolled down her face, but when she opened them again after yet another long minute, there was no sign of a wolf broken by her circumstances. Her eyes passed over both Togg and Luna and they each saw something else entirely. Her bright emerald eyes flared to life, blazing with a dozen different and powerful emotions—rage, determination, purpose, fear, anguish, hope, and far more.
She took one last look at the ruined stetson... and stepped over it as she made to move past the other two. Applejack didn't know where she meant to go exactly in this broken, twisted world, only that she knew she had to move forward. As far she was concerned, there was no time to sit and wallow in despair—not when she still had others counting on her.
"Ah know how Ah got here," she continued as the others separated to let her pass, "an' Ah know what Ah need to do."
Togg and Luna watched her go for a bit before the former broke the silence.
"Well," he finally said with a chipper tone he didn't quite feel, "it seems your plan was a success, Miss Luna. We certainly had a time of it, but I'm glad she's recovered."
"Hm," Luna replied, not taking her eyes off Applejack as she moved further away, "I'm not so sure she has... and I also feel the hat had little to do with the return of her memory."
Togg frowned.
"What do you mean?" he asked, "if not the hat, then what else could it have been?"
At that, Luna only shook her head and began following after Applejack. Togg raised a hand and opened his mouth to say something else, but stopped himself. Luna was clearly done talking and any other questions probably would've gone unanswered. Instead, his frown grew pensive as his mind wandered back to the blighted goblins.
Why here? Why now? And what were they doing?
He glanced down at the abandoned hat, both his worry and curiosity growing by the second. After a second of indecision, he walked back to the stetson, bent down, and scooped it up. The moment his fingers closed around the crumpled brim, something like an electric shock ran through his hand and shot up his entire arm. His eyes widened and he very nearly dropped the thing in surprise but managed to hold on to it.
What in the Goddess' name?
The inquisitive glint in his beady eyes grew brighter.
This phenomenon... the same as the sapling? No... this is something different, but not entirely dissimilar... it doesn't explain the appearance of the goblins so far from their territory, but maybe...
His thoughts ran wild with questions and possibilities, but at this point, he could do nothing but speculate. He'd stumbled upon a golden opportunity—or rather it had fallen right into his lap, and he'd be damned to the Pits if he let it slip away now. Casting a furtive glance over his shoulder, he saw that neither Applejack nor Luna had paid his absence any heed and continued onward toward the Goddess knew where.
Well... I suppose they'll need a guide anyway, right? Someone to keep them on the right track and out of trouble?
With that thought and many others in mind, he carefully slipped the tattered stetson into his satchel and hurried to catch up with the others.
The roots of what remained of the Tree of Harmony had spread far across the lands of Ayafern. Many of the creatures, both the relatively sane and violently maddened, had taken notice. Some—like Togg Tahlzul—had taken an interest in the radiant saplings. But there were others that saw the Collapse and all that it had brought with it as a scourge.
Those who had long ago embraced the unearthly shadows that covered every inch of Ayafern saw these resplendent roots as nothing more than a blight upon their eternally nighted world. It was an unnatural warping and melding of two wholly disparate dimensions—an anomaly that should not be but nevertheless is. These creatures would seek to snuff out the unwelcome light of Harmony and return all back to the madness and chaos left behind by a long and crippling war between a Goddess and a God-King.
But among both the creatures of brilliant Harmony and eldritch Darkness there existed a being who was an anomaly unto itself. The being in question was an ageless spirit—one whose existence was born of nuclear chaos but not wholly bound by it. His name was Discord, and he was a creature who was the very embodiment of his namesake. Presumed a despicable villain by those who thought they knew better, the spirit was cast in stone and forgotten by the world.
Shackled by the power of Harmony and unable to exert his chaotic will over the unwashed masses, he could do nothing but watch and wait as countless years passed him by. For well over a millennium, he was forced to watch as Harmony encroach upon and overtook his carefully crafted anarchy. But Discord was far from upset, for he had played his part and knew that his time would come again.
The ages of chaos and order rose and fell in cycles after all. This was a fact that was etched into Discord's very malleable and sometimes non-existent bones. He'd known it since the very moment of his renascence within the center of infinity. It was only a matter of time, and time meant nothing to a creature like Discord. That said, there was one thing the chaos spirit hadn't counted on—something he never expected to have to contend with.
Namely, the unspeakable actions of one Onyx Thaddeus Pie.
Ponies could be so deliciously unpredictable during times of strife, and personal hardship especially seemed to bring out the worst in those colorful little equines. Their willingness to jump straight to the most extreme solutions to try and resolve their problems was something Discord thoroughly enjoyed about ponies, at least in most circumstances. It amused him. It entertained him. It fed his endless thirst for madness and disorder.
But, like with everything else, there was a line that mere mortals weren't meant to cross. Chaos came in all kinds of flavors, and though Discord had sampled them all, there were certain flavors that even he found distasteful. He harbored a special dislike for all things eldritch and religious zealotry in particular. Though he couldn't remember his reasons for the aversion, he knew he had them and he knew the aversion was strong.
It was especially ironic considering his origins and the fact that, in a sense, the chaotic spirit himself could be considered an eldritch being. Discord was well aware of this fact and, contrary to what one might think, it brought him no amusement. He had no love for the place he came from or the unearthly, unsightly abominations he was forced to call his kin, so rather than stay, he chose to abandon and forget it all.
He'd forgotten a great many things since his previous quiescence and subsequent reawakening, but the echoes of a past he'd left behind still remained in the form of that nameless antipathy. It was a past he felt he was better off not knowing, but unfortunately, a certain desperate earth pony had done his best to drag those memories kicking and screaming back to the surface.
The foolish stallion had brought forth something that ought not to have set foot beyond the dimensional veil separating Equestria from that place. Even from within his stony prison, Discord could feel that presence—ancient, otherworldly... familiar. Though he couldn't quite recall exactly where or when he'd seen or heard the umbral deity, he knew without a doubt they'd met somewhere before.
It wasn't something the chaotic spirit wanted to dwell on, but much to his relief, the stallion's grim commune with the elder being had been brief. No sooner had it arrived than it retreated back into the Dark from whence it came. The problem had resolved itself and Discord could continue to wait out his long and boring imprisonment in blissful ignorance of what once was... or so he thought.
Unfortunately for him, that was not to be the end of his otherworldly problems.
The zealous earth pony would continue his grisly dealings with the Dark for many more years to come. He would even go so far as to convert an entire community into a fanatical cult of worshippers. Try as Discord might to simply ignore the madpony and his macabre actions, he couldn't help the nagging sensation he felt that history was repeating itself somehow.
The thought tore at Discord and would've driven him mad, had he not already been a physical representation of the very concept. It had gotten to the point where the spirit had very nearly reached his breaking point, but then something strange happened. In a sudden and violent dimensional distortion that shook Discord to his very core, the entirety of the stallion's cult vanished.
It all happened in the blink of an eye, and the stallion himself disappeared not too long after it was all said and done. He hadn't died as far as Discord could tell. He simply seemed to just... fade out of existence, never to be seen again. Needless to say, it was a joyous, if baffling, occasion for the fed-up spirit. Assuming the foolish pony had finally bitten off more than he could chew, Discord put the issue out of his head for what he hoped would be the last time.
That hope would eventually turn to certainty as decades became centuries devoid of any more unearthly foolishness. The age of chaos that Discord had put into motion would inevitably give way to a brilliant era of harmony. What followed was an age of unprecedented growth and prosperity, though it would come at the cost of the diarchy that Equestria was initially founded upon.
The equine kingdom once ruled by both the Sun and Moon would become a monarchy. The Sun would banish the rebellious Moon and take the throne for herself, and Discord in his stone prison would be a jolly witness to it all. Alas, that would be the final occurrence of what Discord considered true chaos to come for almost a thousand years. The rest of that time would see the avatar of disorder wallowing in endless ennui as Equestria basked in radiant harmony.
Unbeknownst to both Discord and the rest of Equestria, however, the Dark was still there, lurking just beneath the surface. The selfish schemes of elder deities from beyond the veil had already been set in motion. The die was cast long ago and the fate of Equestria and its many denizens had been tragically and irreparably altered from the very beginning.
The tail end of that prosperous millennium would see the birth of six young would-be champions of Harmony. Had ancient powers from the other side not interfered, those six would have pushed Equestria to even greater heights in the future. But lamentably, such a glorious future was no longer meant to be. Discord was indeed a powerful being who could see far beyond what mere mortals could comprehend, but he was neither omnipotent nor omniscient.
What's more, his focus had waned over the centuries, the utter banality of his sedentary existence having been too much for him to bear. His consciousness had dulled to the point of near dormancy by the end of the peaceful era that had reigned for a thousand years. The birth of Celestia's future protege did not rouse him and the sonic rainboom heard around the world would garner only a very brief and very mild interest from the draconequus.
Had he been more cognizant of the world around him at the time, Discord would have noticed the blatant disruption of the magical field surrounding Equestria. Not only that, but he would have also picked up on a very brief yet very familiar distortion in the dimensional wall keeping Equestria protected from the horrors of the other side. As things stood, however, he let the incident pass from his thoughts like a soft breeze through tall grass.
It was only as the very fabric of reality began to crumble and reshape itself around him that Discord stirred. Night blacker than any he'd ever seen in Equestria had fallen over the land. A deep and guttural roar seemed to emanate from the very earth itself as it collapsed and reformed over and over again beneath his marble cage. Alien stars began to light up the void-like sky above, rapidly blinking in and out of existence one after the other.
And the screams.
A terrible cacophony of screams filled his ears. Horrified. Terrified. Agonized. Feral. Monstrous. Not even during the height of his reign over Equestria had Discord heard such screams. Each and every single one pierced his mind, snapping him out of his centuries-long stupor and instilling in him a sense of complete bewilderment and a sort of horrified fascination.
He reached out to touch the world with his preternatural senses for the first time in ages and his confusion turned to shock at what he saw. Equestria was physically, spiritually, and fundamentally falling apart right before his very eyes. The shock then quickly slipped into anger as he realized what was happening. The other side had spilled over into a realm it had no business in, and the Dark and all its foul creatures were both literally and figuratively consuming the land, devouring it whole.
In a word, it was unchecked, unmitigated, unstoppable chaos, and Discord—the very avatar of chaos and disorder—was not happy in the least.
He had slept for far too long. He had willfully ignored the world. He'd seen the signs, felt them all to some extent, and turned away from it all. He foolishly assumed that any cosmic kerfuffles would sort themselves out and that he need only wait to be released from his prison. He had waited so patiently for his time to come. He'd been so eager to reclaim his Equestrian playground—so excited to tease and taunt and torture his little equine playthings.
But it had all gone wrong.
It wasn't his time to shine, it was theirs. It was their playground now, and the innocent denizens of Equestria were theirs to do with as they pleased. They had stolen the new era of chaos and madness out from under Discord's snaggletoothed snout. Even if he were to be liberated from his marble prison right here and now, the chaos spirit wasn't sure if he could take it back at this point, even with his immense power.
And so he silently fumed as the Dark continued to encroach upon the world, his stony cage still intact, but only just. He could feel the power of Harmony ebbing away, and it would likely only be a matter of time before he was free and able to stretch his misshapen arms and legs again. He'd only just begun to ruminate on what he could do about the situation once he was freed when a blinding pillar of prismatic light burst forth from the ground in the far distance.
He watched stunned as another column of light erupted elsewhere, then another and another and countless more after that. The draconequus immediately recognized the light for what it was—how could he not, given his current state? Harmony was trying to fight back against the Dark, and the sight of it gave Discord an idea. It gave him a path forward, and as that idea blossomed in his mind, he smiled inwardly.
Another pillar of rainbow light emerged from right beneath his marble pedestal just then. It engulfed him entirely and, as it tore away the stone that held him captive like so much wrapping paper, he began to laugh. It was a long, loud cackle that did little to convey the true depths of the humor he felt at the sheer irony of this outrageous state of affairs.
Rarity's plea was cut off as she ducked yet another object thrown full force at her face—another of her expensive paintings torn right from the wall she noted. With an instinctual flex of will that no longer had anything to do with ordinary unicorn magic, she plucked the painting out of the air and set it gently onto a nearby table with all the other tossed items.
All she could was give an inward sigh at this unfortunate turn of events. She knew to some extent that her sister would notice her transformation. She knew in general that what Twilight had done would have some unforeseen consequences. She'd basically had no say in what was done to her, but she couldn't blame Twilight for that. Never mind the fact that she literally couldn't blame her. She didn't want to.
After what she'd learned about the mare's circumstances, she realized that Twilight had been just as much a victim as Rarity herself was. Did Rarity have regrets about her forced subservience and monstrous new nature? Of course, she did, but she also knew things could've been much worse.
She still had her own free will for the most part, and despite the new compulsions that had come with the change, Twilight hadn't once tried to take advantage of her position as Rarity's Goddess. There was also the fact that she felt... free in a way. Powerful. Like she could do anything she wanted.
Like she never had to worry about anything ever again.
She loved that feeling, but in truth, it also scared her. There was a lot about her situation that scared her if she thought about it too hard. She remembered looking on as all her friends were slaughtered by the Dead Goddess' pet back in the library.
She remembered feeling as though she should be horrified or traumatized but unable to muster even the slightest bit of empathy. Granted she knew it would all work out in the end and, in the end, she was proven right. Regardless, the change in her mental state regarding certain things was still disconcerting, to say the least.
Ultimately, despite the nightmarish circumstances, she was coping with the changes and in her personal opinion, she'd been coping rather well. Then it came time to make sure her little sister was sheltered from whatever storm was coming. She hadn't seen the filly all day, but knew she'd be in the crowd somewhere once the Summer Sun Celebration started.
Sure enough, she'd found Sweetie Belle stuffing as many cakes and cookies as she could fit in her mouth at the snack bar alongside two other fillies. Rarity had approached without hesitation, thinking nothing of how her eldritch aura would be perceived by her surprisingly perspicacious sister.
That oversight had resulted in Sweetie Belle's frightened flight from the celebration. Rarity, shocked and more than a little hurt, had followed the scared filly all the way back to Carousel Boutique. There, she was greeted to the sight of her sister running about looking for the 'real Rarity' to warn her of some horrible imposter.
Rarity, not happy with this state of affairs one bit, had gone into the boutique to explain the situation which in turn had led to her current predicament. For the last few minutes, Rarity had to avoid a constant barrage of knick-knacks and smaller furniture thrown by a filly screaming accusations and denials from behind the couch she normally used for... dramatic purposes.
"Sweetie Belle—"
"No!" the filly cried, popping up from behind the couch to lob another pricey vase, "I don't care what you say, there's no way you're Rarity!" she jabbed an accusatory hoof—the one not holding the vase—in Rarity's direction, "I don't know how you moved all that stuff, but I didn't see any magic!"
"Yes, I can see how that would look suspicious, but—" another flex of her will and the incoming vase was placed next to the painting, "—I will admit that extenuating circumstances have changed me rather drastically, but nevertheless, I am Rarity, Sweetie Belle," her expression turned pleading, "I'm still your big sister... is there nothing I can do to convince you of that?"
That seemed to give the filly pause. She frowned, searching her supposed sister's eyes for any tell-tale sign that she was lying. From the moment she'd seen her at the celebration, everything about Rarity had seemed wrong. It hadn't felt like she was looking at a pony at all. It still didn't feel that way even now, but if she was telling truth...
If there was even a chance...
"...When we took that trip to Manehattan with mom and dad three years ago..." Sweetie began, taking a deep breath, "...w-when I got lost and that creepy stallion chased me into that alley," she shuddered at the memory, "when you found me, what did you do?"
Rarity's eyes widened as the memory of that day slammed into her. She hadn't thought the filly even remembered, but thinking on it, of course, she would. It would've been a traumatizing ordeal for a foal. It was a traumatizing ordeal for Rarity herself, one she'd told Sweetie Belle never to speak of again.
She'd never forgotten, and since Sweetie Belle had never once brought the matter up since that day, Rarity had assumed—had hoped rather—that she'd forgotten it, but apparently, that wasn't the case. That Sweetie Belle would bring it up now of all times had caught Rarity so off guard that she was rendered momentarily speechless.
"Rarity," Sweetie Belle pressed, now looking almost as desperate as Rarity had a moment ago, "what did you do?"
"I... Sweetie Belle, I..." Rarity took a step forward, "I told you never to speak of—"
"WHAT DID YOU DO!?"
"I KILLED HIM!" Rarity snarled, her once azure eyes now nothing but bottomless pools of inky black darkness, "that disgusting stallion... that wretched piece of filth... an immoral beast not worthy to be called a pony."
"Killed...?" Sweetie Belle trailed off, her own pale green eyes wide as she stared, horrified but oddly transfixed into the pitch-black darkness of her older sister's eyes, "you... y-you told me you put him to sleep..."
The words just slipped out, but Sweetie Belle knew it had been a lie. In truth, the filly had put the pieces together a long time ago. She was naive like all foals her age, but only to an extent. She was smart enough to read between the lines and loved her sister enough to take her secret to the grave.
Yes, she murdered a pony, but she'd done it to protect her after all... right? After wrestling with herself, she'd finally come to that conclusion, and it was that belief that allow her to keep her mouth shut... but now... now she'd had a chance to hear the truth straight from Rarity's own mouth.
She'd taken that chance. Taken that gamble, and now she was getting her answer for better or for worse.
"He dared to lay his dirty hooves on my little sister... so I killed him," Rarity continued, unaware or uncaring of Sweetie Belle's whispered words. Her mouth twisted into a grim smile as she spoke, "I snapped his rotten neck and threw his carcass in the alleyway dumpster to fester with the rest of the garbage."
That was all Sweetie Belle could take.
She thought she'd be prepared for the answer, and maybe if Rarity—if it had come from her sister—then things might've been different. But this monster with the black eyes and horrible smile? This wasn't her sister. This wasn't Rarity. Maybe it was some evil thing that took over her sister's body and stole her memories.
Sweetie Belle didn't know, but it was clear that Rarity was gone. That, coupled with all the emotions she'd been bottling up about what happened in Manehattan for the last three years, was too much for the filly. With a pitiful wail that cut through Rarity's dark thoughts like a knife, Sweetie Belle ran.
"Sweetie Belle?" Rarity called out, her features that of a normal pony once more, "Sweetie Belle, wait!"
But Sweetie Belle was already off, disappearing into the back and down the short hallway. Rarity winced as she heard what was presumably the door to her sister's room slam a moment later. She raised a hoof, ready to follow after the filly she could hear sobbing from the main room, but thought better of it. The filly was so distraught she hadn't even bothered to escape the house.
"Oh, Sweetie Belle," Rarity whispered, guilt and remorse marking every bit of her features, "I'm so sorry. I wish things didn't have to be this way, I really do, but..."
But this was how things had turned out in the end. For the first time since she'd been Awakened, Rarity desired nothing more at that moment than to go back to the way things were. Go back to who—to what she used to be. She wanted to rush into her sister's room and hold her until she stopped crying.
She wanted to tell her everything was going to be okay because her big sister was here... but she couldn't do that. Not anymore. Even if she was just a normal pony, she wasn't sure if everything would be okay. Too much else had changed. Too much had been revealed and though she didn't know what it would bring, there was a storm coming.
One she wasn't sure even the Dead Goddess could stop.
No, she couldn't comfort Sweetie Belle like she used to anymore, but she could still protect the filly. With her newfound power, she could at least keep her sister from harm. And this time she'd be more careful. Exposing Sweetie Belle to her little 'crime of passion' had been the worst mistake Rarity had ever made.
It was a mistake that haunted her even now, but this time would be different. Rarity swore right then and there that no matter what the near future brought, she'd make sure to keep the coming nightmare far away from Sweetie Belle. No matter what it took or what she had to do.
With that in mind and new determination in her eyes, Rarity gave the hallway one last look before blinking away to join Twilight and the others at Town Hall.
Rarity could only chuckle helplessly at her own naivety.
Sitting there, watching over her sister's twisted and unconscious form in the light of the small sapling's brilliant glow, she'd had plenty of time to think. She'd thought about how she'd left Sweetie Belle all alone, convinced that she would stay put and out of danger.
She had hoped, but no, Sweetie Belle had instead run off somewhere during all the chaos. It was only by miraculous coincidence that she found the filly before those mad beasts had slaughtered and devoured her. She'd been able to deliver sound retribution but could do nothing to stop the horrible mutation her sister had gone through when Equestria was absorbed into the Black Dimension.
She thought about what happened with Twilight and Skal-Gazaath. She'd been made aware of the situation through her link with the Dead Goddess. She was made aware of Twilight's separation from the Goddess and subsequent role as the embodiment of the Element of Magic.
She was aware of Princess Celestia's fate, the concerning and somewhat enigmatic events surrounding Rainbow Dash, and Nel-Baloth's capture of Pinkie. She also knew that Pinkie had something to do with the 'Throne' Rainbow had mentioned during their meeting back in the library.
She didn't quite understand it all just yet, but that didn't matter right now. The only thing that did matter in this moment, was Sweetie Belle. Rarity had begged her Goddess to do something. To do what she couldn't. She'd begged her to save Sweetie Belle. She hadn't said as much, but their link had been enough to convey her feelings as they spoke.
And though they could do nothing to stop the monstrous changes, Twilight and Skal-Gazaath had indeed pulled through in the end. Twilight had brought the remnants of Harmony to the Black Dimension and it was those small but numerous remnants that would allow Sweetie Belle to retain her sanity.
She would still be a pony where it mattered, and that was all Rarity could ask for given the circumstances. She was thankful enough for that, but then her Goddess had told her of her plan to bring Harmony back to Equestria. She'd told Rarity that she had a role in that plan—a significant role at that.
Rarity thought about that plan, about the fact that she could actually make things better. The Awakened mare wasn't sure if she could ever be the same as she was again, but she thought that maybe if all went well, she could at least return Sweetie Belle back to her old filly self again.
That, more than anything, convinced her to go along with the plan. Even then, despite her agreement, she still had reservations about what Skal-Gazaath would make her do now that she was wholly herself again. To her surprise and relief, however, those reservations disappeared once her Goddess had given her her own task.
"We need to get Pinkie back, but in my current state I'm fairly certain facing Nel-Baloth isn't a good idea," she'd said, "I have a few things I need to do before I can make my move but in the meantime, I'm having Lemon Hearts, Minuette, and Twinkleshine to look for Applejack and Fluttershy... assist them if you can, but make sure to keep your sister safe. This world... this is no place for a foal."
Rarity didn't need their bond to hear the sincerity in Skal-Gazaath's voice. There was real emotion there, something she hadn't expected to hear if she was being honest with herself. Knowing who Skal-Gazaath had been before her ascension to an eldritch deity, Rarity supposed it wasn't all that surprising if she really had regained her memories from eons past.
With a plan of action in the works and her Goddess' blessing, all that was left was to tend to Sweetie Belle. Rarity's Awakening had allowed her to retain both her mind and her beautiful equine form, but Sweetie Belle and the other denizens of Equestria—those that had survived—hadn't been so lucky.
The poor filly's body had been turned into something truly strange to behold. The filly now resembled something liken to a malnourished polar bear with short off-white fur and large feathered wings that blackened at the tips. Her face consisted of an elongated snout stuffed full of sharp black teeth and lambent eyes the color of jade.
Oddly enough, she kept the mane, though it was now it was an unkempt mess the same off-white color as the rest of her. The strangest change in Rarity's opinion had to be the digitigrade legs that ended not in paws, but in thick black bird-like talons. The talons looked large enough to support the weight of Sweetie Belle's new body which had somehow grown to twice Rarity's own size.
To anyone who didn't know any better, they'd think Rarity was the one in need of protecting. The idea would've made Rarity laugh if the situation weren't so tragic. Rarity's victims upon entering these darkened lands had found out the hard way that the mare had a monstrous form of her own hidden beneath that pristine white fur.
Rarity thought it rather fitting given what she'd done in the heat of the moment all those years ago. A beautiful maiden hiding a violent, vicious beast within. She laughed again. The laughter was a hollow, bitter thing that died as quickly as it had come. Feeling strangely self-conscious, she busied herself by taking a closer look at her surroundings.
Rarity hadn't seen Twilight in her new form yet. She hadn't shown herself in the crystal sapling, but Skal-Gazaath had been there in her mind to inform her of the changes following the Collapse. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that the Collapse had completely rearranged the world.
Rarity and Sweetie Belle had still been near the boutique when the dimensional barrier had begun falling apart, but as things escalated, the landscape began to shift drastically. It was only by following the nearest pillar of prismatic light that Rarity was able to find one of those crystal saplings and bring her still mutating sister to safety.
Thankfully she'd made it in time, but she'd been so focused on Sweetie Belle that Rarity hadn't actually taken the time to figure out where exactly she'd wound up. She didn't see any landmarks she recognized at first glance. There was no sign of the Everfree Forest, no Carousel Boutique, no Sweet Apple Acres... nothing related to Ponyville in the slightest.
She and Sweetie Belle had ended up in what, at one point, was likely a lovely little prairie but now was nothing more than a lifeless field of dead grass. Although she wasn't sure if it was her imagination, it seemed like the grass around the sapling had regained some of its green hue. The sight brought a brief smile to her face, but it fell soon enough.
"I suppose a bit of reconnaissance is in order," she muttered, her roaming eyes trailing back to her unconscious sister. She frowned, "no... no, that can wait until Sweetie is awake and up to speed. It's going to be hard enough explaining all of this without having to worry about her waking up while I'm gone."
And so, with a sigh, Rarity shifted about, making herself comfortable. She sat by Sweetie Belle's side like a sentinel guarding its sworn charge, her eyes scanning the horizon for any more threats. She'd stay there, waiting as long as she needed to.
She'd ignore the unnerving silence, the eerie broken moon above, the constant worry gnawing at the back of her mind about her Goddess and the fate of her other friends. She'd cast aside her doubt and ignore the memory of her previous failures. She'd ignore the raspy, bone-chilling laughter in the distance—
Rarity's ears perked up and eyes suddenly black as the void snapped in the direction of the sound. It was faint, but she could clearly hear the sound of laughter some distance away. It was a dusty, wheezy sound, like the laugh of an old stallion long past his prime. It didn't come off as threatening or dangerous, and Rarity didn't like that one bit.
She stood up, her eyes never leaving the direction of the laugh as it grew closer and closer. She didn't dare move an inch away from her sister. She'd make no moves until she could get some glimpse of the approaching creature first. It felt as though ages were passing her by as she waited, but eventually, Rarity saw something.
The silhouette of some impossibly tall and lanky biped slowly but surely hobbled its way over a large hill some few dozen yards away. As it got closer, Rarity could just make out the outline of a long coat flapping about. It moved yet closer and the pale moonlight revealed a being dressed head to hoof in what looked like an outfit Rarity had only seen in pre-modern gothic fashion magazines back home.
The creature's long black coat was tattered and torn almost beyond repair, as were the white shirt and dark brown vest beneath. His black leather gloves were fingerless, revealing wizened, withered grey skin. The black trousers were torn completely off at the shins and the black boots looked as though they'd seen endless years of rough travel.
Completing the strange ragged look was a black tricorn hat and a large brown scarf, both of which kept the creature's face shrouded from view. As it moved forward in his awkward stumbling gait, Rarity could also make out a long cane in one hoof—no, a hand since it had fingers. The creature looked as though it was trying to use the cane to balance itself, but that didn't seem to stop it from tripping over its own two hooves—or feet rather.
"That's close enough," Rarity called out, hoping the creature could be reasoned with, "not a step further if you please."
To her surprise, the creature complied, coming to a stumbling stop just a few yards away. It stood there swaying as if on some unseen breeze. Its laughter had even stopped, though its breathing was ragged and raspy. Rarity had gotten it to stop, but she didn't know how to proceed from here. Since it wasn't talking she decided to start their colloquy.
"Who, or rather what are you?" she asked carefully, "you'll have to forgive me if I sound rude, but circumstances require that I remain cautious of... strangers."
The raspy, wheezy laugh came again.
"Oh no, no it's quite alright," came a voice as old and dry as a desert, "to be honest, I hadn't expected to find anyone out in these fields, let alone a beast as sane as you yourself seem to be. Allow me to introduce myself properly."
In a motion that surprised Rarity yet again, the creature shifted his weight. One hand on his cane and the other sweeping forward, he gave a deep bow.
"I am but a doddering old fool wandering these dead lands in search of an impossible dream," he claimed, "though I was known by many names in the past, you may call me... Barbatum."
With visible effort, he slowly straightened up and though she couldn't see his face, Rarity got the impression he was giving her a toothy smile.
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Rarity Belle."
It wasn't posed as a question though Rarity's expression demanded an explanation. The lanky creature calling itself Barbatum inclined his head in response, both his gnarled grey hands resting atop his equally gnarled cane as he answered.
"I do."
"How?" Rarity asked, her brow furrowing in annoyance, "I'm fairly certain we've never met."
"Ah, we've never met, no, but I know you all the same," Barbatum insisted, "frustrating as it may be, I'm afraid I can give no explanation as to how that is possible at the moment, but rest assured, I bear neither you nor your poor sister any ill will."
"Suppose I believe you," Rarity replied with narrowed eyes, "if you mean us no harm then why have you come? You say you hadn't expected to see any creature out here and yet you come knowing exactly who I and my sister are. What am I to make of such a situation, Barbatum?"
"Make of it what you will, Miss Belle," Barbatum replied with a disarming sweep of his hand, "I know of you and yours, but that is not to say I knew you would be here," he turned and nodded toward the glowing sapling, "in truth, it was the brilliant glow of this little anomaly that drew my attention from afar."
Rarity frowned.
"And... you know what this is as well?"
"I have an idea," the wrinkled old biped muttered almost to himself as he scratched the area where his chin might've been, "but I'm not quite sure how such a thing would have... hmmm..."
Rarity quietly watched the lanky creature for a moment as he continued to contemplate the sapling before him. Her suspicions had by no means lessened, but curiosity began to mix with the wariness.
"Mister Barbatum—"
"Just 'Barbatum' if you please."
"Very well, Barbatum," Rarity's brows creased thoughtfully, "are you... as a resident of the Black Dimension, do you perchance know of Equestria?"
Barbatum gave a grandfatherly chuckle of amusement as he turned his obscured visage toward the mare.
"And who says I'm a resident of the Black Dimension?"
Rarity blinked at that.
"...Are you not?" she asked with a bemused tilt of her head, "forgive me if I sound rude, but I've certainly never seen a creature such as yourself where I come from."
"Oh no, you wouldn't find a creature like me in the world you come from," Barbatum chortled before raising his veiled gaze to the black sky above. There was a brief but pensive silence and when the tall creature next spoke, it was with a slow thoughtful tone, "no, I'm less a resident and more... a prisoner, perhaps? Yes, that seems more fitting, I think." He lowered his unseen gaze back to Rarity and again the mare got the impression he was smiling at her, "A lost soul sentenced to wander this star-strewn cage of madness and despair for all eternity."
"I see," Rarity smiled a helpless, uncertain smile."I'm afraid your answer has me at a bit of a loss. If you're not a denizen of this place, from where do you hail? And how do you know of this sapling and us ponies if you're not an Equestrian native?"
"My home is in a place I can no longer reach," Barbatum suddenly hunched over, throwing more of his weight on his cane as his body was wracked with a horrendous coughing fit. Rarity made to take a step forward but stopped herself as the old biped raised a withered hand. After a moment he straightened back up with a sigh and continued on as if nothing had happened, "In fact, I have ample reason to believe I no longer have a home to return to even were I to be released from this damnable cage."
"Oh," Rarity frowned, "I'm... sorry to hear that."
"Bah, no need to feign pity on my account, Miss Belle," Barbatum snorted.
He turned and began hobbling over to the radiant sapling. Rarity tensed as he drew closer to her sister, but the ancient creature paid the unconscious beast no mind as he passed. He paused a few steps from the crystalline sprout as if unsure whether to continue or not, then took another step before slowly and carefully settling himself down onto his rump with a groan of effort.
Rarity moved to stand next to him, still somewhat wary of his intentions. No matter how she looked though, the veiled biped seemed content to bask in the warm glow of the luminous seedling. There was something odd about how comfortable the creature looked, but Rarity couldn't quite put her hoof on why.
Given what she was now—whatever that might've been—Rarity herself felt some slight discomfort being so close to such harmonious energy. It wasn't enough to keep her away and all it really meant was that she was no longer able to benefit from its warm aura as much as a regular pony might. Barbatum on the other hoof was completely at ease in the light, looking visibly more relaxed than she'd seen him since he arrived.
It certainly raised a few more questions in Rarity's mind, but she shelved them with a huff and instead sat herself down beside Barbatum. The old biped gave a contented sigh, staring into the sapling as he finally continued speaking once more.
"It's not all that strange that I know about Equestria, y'know," he said, and chuckled at Rarity's skeptical look, "oh come now, is it really so hard to believe? Ayafern and Equestria are two sides of the same coin, Miss Belle," he glanced over to the mare next to him, "you could call this place a... dark reflection of your world. The 'Black Dimension' to your 'White Dimension'," he gave another chuckle, this one wry and bitter, "though considering recent events, I suppose things have changed somewhat."
"So... what?" Rarity began after a moment, "you're saying that knowledge of Equestria is common in this place? In Ayafern?"
"Not common, no," Barbatum conceded, "but there was once a circle of scholars and conjurers and the like who, many, many moons ago—long before the war between the Goddess and the God-King—discovered the existence of a world parallel to their own," he gave a slow shake of his head, his tone turning grave, "they made it their life's goal to breach the dimensional boundary separating Ayafern from this mysterious new world. They yearned to discover what secrets it held."
"Interesting," Rarity replied. She remembered Rainbow Dash mentioning something about a massive war back before everything went sideways. "I imagine those scholars and conjurers likely paid a terrible price for their ambitions?"
"A terrible price indeed, yes," Barbatum confirmed with a grim nod, "the fools hadn't a clue of the forces they sought to control, and in the end, they were all laid low by their own folly... all of them, save one."
"A classic tale of hubris and over-reaching ambition," the mare replied with a knowing nod, "and I suppose you were to play the role of the sole survivor in this antediluvian tragedy?"
"Oh no, not me," laughed Barbatum, "I may be well beyond my prime but I'm not quite that old, Miss Belle," he shook his head, and again Rarity got the sense that he was smiling as he spoke, "the survivor of that ancient debacle is of no real consequence to you or me—the event itself has no bearing on my point either for that matter."
"Then why bring it up at all?" Rarity asked with a slightly annoyed frown, "and excuse me once again for my rudeness, but what exactly is your point?"
"My point was simply to answer your original question," Barbatum replied, "the reason I and those few scholars who yet remain know of your world is because of the efforts of those who came before—fatal and misguided as those efforts may have been."
"Hmm," Rarity nodded once, "when you put it that way, I suppose it would make a bit of sense."
"As for why I brought up that mess in the first place," the wizened creature continued, "well, there really wasn't any reason other than to explain why there hadn't been any more attempts to breach the boundary," he fell quiet for a moment and when he spoke again, the smile had left his tone, "...not until recently at least."
"Recently," Rarity muttered before her features creased with an uneasy understanding, "you're talking about the Dead Goddess and the other one... Nel-Baloth I believe his name was."
"Mmm," Barbatum nodded solemnly after a moment's hesitation, "you'd be wise not to speak the God-King's name so openly while you're in Ayafern, Miss Belle," he turned slightly to give the mare a small side glance, "take it as a word of advice from an old man who's seen far too much in his long life."
"Why is that?" Rarity asked in bemusement, "does his name hold some kind of power here?"
"In a manner of speaking, yes," the 'old man' replied, "to the ones who've lost their minds to the madness that shrouds the world, their names mean nothing anymore, but for those of us who've managed to cling to our sanity, the names of the Goddess and God-King hold a great and terrible weight... and for your sake, that is all I will say on the matter."
Rarity had more questions she wanted to ask—many more to add to the pile, but she acquiesced for the time being. Instead, she focused on something else that had been bugging her for some time now.
"Do you... know about me? What I am, I mean," she asked warily, "do you know how all of this happened and..." she cast a slightly pained look toward her monstrous and seemingly comatose sister, "...and how, or even if, I can change my sister back to her original form?"
"Alas, my dear, I have no concrete answers for you regarding what happened to your world," Barbatum replied, sounding genuinely apologetic, "but I do have my suspicions, and while I would never claim to know her motives or methods, I do know that the Dead Goddess has made you into what the members of the Church of the Ebon Star would call one of her Apostles."
Rarity frowned, not sure if she liked the implications of his answer regarding what she was. All the same, she was both surprised and unnerved to find that the word somehow felt... right. She didn't particularly put much stock into religion—very, very few ponies did—but she wasn't unfamiliar with the idea. She'd known that there'd been a movement several hundred years ago to deify Princess Celestia and churches had been erected in her name, but as she understood it, the Princess herself heavily discouraged such worship.
It hadn't really hit her until that moment, but now she had to ask herself: Was this religious worship? She couldn't help but think of Pinkie and her family but that seemed more like a cult than any respectable religion. No, what Rarity felt was something more fundamental—a deep devotion that had been carved into her very soul the moment the Goddess had taken her life. She couldn't quite explain it, but there it was. This was no religion, but something more. Something other. Some indefinable force that compelled her to worship Skal-Gazaath.
"And just what is an Apostle exactly?" Rarity asked, almost desperate for an answer, "What does that mean? What is this Church of the Ebon Star?"
"If you're asking me what kind of creature you've become, I'm afraid I can't say for certain," Barbatum replied with a shake of his head. "According to the congregants of the Church, an Apostle is a holy being crafted in the Goddess' image and exists solely to carry out Her Will—or so they say." He paused and turned to look at Rarity. She couldn't make out his expression but when he next spoke, his tone was curious, "Tell me, Miss Belle, does that sound accurate to you?"
Rarity opened her mouth to refute the claim out of principle, but found she couldn't quite get the words out. When she stopped to think about it, wasn't that more or less exactly what she'd become? Wasn't that the reality she'd been pondering over not too long ago? The fact was, that description was closer to the truth than the mare was comfortable with now that it was spelled out by someone else. Unsure how to respond, she simply shut her mouth and grimaced at the wizened creature before her. Barbatum merely gave a thoughtful hum before turning back to the glowing sapling.
"Well, in any case," he continued, "the Church of the Ebon Star is much easier to explain. Put simply, it is a congregation of creatures who rejected the God-King's rule and worshipped the Dead Goddess as their one and only deity. During the war, it was the Faithful who made up much of the Goddess' standing army."
"I see," Rarity replied, "and does this Church still exist? Are there... any more of these Apostles?"
"Oh, I'm sure there are still some lingering remnants of the Church wandering about somewhere," Barbatum answered with an airy wave of his withered hand, "but the Church of the Ebon Star was all but wiped from Ayafern by the end of the war, at least for the most part. I know there were several Apostles before the war, but the only ones that remain that I know of are the Goddess' Fell Guardian and the Faithful Pet."
"The Fell Guardian and Faithful Pet," Rarity repeated to herself. It was the first she'd heard of the Fell Guardian, but the Faithful Pet... Could it be the same beast that attacked Ponyville? Would that make the thing that took over Spike, the 'Fell Guardian'?
"It's said that those two were the original Apostles," Barbatum said, not noticing Rarity's pensive expression as he continued, "two divine beasts that arrived with the Dead Goddess when she first alighted upon the lands of Ayafern."
Rarity said nothing to this. She already knew of the Dead Goddess' true identity and that the original mare behind the eldritch deity wasn't from this world but came here from another Equestria. When and how she had first arrived, Rarity didn't know, but she was curious about the two companions the Goddess supposedly brought with her according to Barbatum. There were still a great many questions Rarity had about the world of Ayafern but Rarity chose to move on for the time being.
Given her current situation, she'd likely have plenty of time to learn more. Beyond a growing sense of urgency, she also didn't quite trust the old creature calling itself Barbatum—at least not yet. If he did have a solution to her biggest concern, then maybe she could extend a proverbial hoof in trust if not outright friendship. For now, she didn't want to reveal just how much she actually knew about the Goddess. Instead she decided to discuss the main issue that was eating at her mind.
"What about Sweetie Belle—my sister," she asked, once again turning a concerned eye toward her monstrous sibling, "do you know of any way to return her back to the way she was?"
"On the subject of your sister, well... that's a bit harder to say," Barbatum replied after a moment. His gaze drifted over to the transformed filly in question and he gave long and contemplative hum, "perhaps... theoretically, if you could untangle Ayafern and Equestria from each other—and assuming you find yourselves in Equestria when the dust settles—then there might be a chance," he paused, then shook his head sadly, "but alas, I wouldn't know how to bring such a resolution about and I doubt it's even close to possible at this stage."
Rarity didn't respond immediately. She knew there was a plan to restore the power of Harmony to the world, but neither Twilight nor the Goddess had said anything specifically about restoring the affected ponies to their original forms. It might have been implied but Rarity herself wasn't so sure. All she could do now was hope that solution presented itself. In the meantime, Rarity wasn't sure what to do at this point. The world was foreign and full of danger. She could handle herself, sure—she'd already demonstrated that to herself.
She could seek out Fluttershy and Applejack, but Twilight had already sent Twinkleshine, Minuette, and Lemon Hearts—her fellow Apostles Rarity realized wryly—to take care of that matter and she had Sweetie Belle to worry about. There were the Goddess' Fell Guardian and Faithful Pet to consider, but when Rarity had asked about the two creatures who'd invaded Ponyville, Twilight—the Goddess'—informed her that she'd seek them out herself. There were already plans in place and pieces moving on the board, though some of them were still unaccounted for.
Nightmare Moon was one such piece. Rarity didn't know if she'd survived the Collapse and even if she did, she had no idea where to even start looking or if she was okay. The only thing Rarity had been told was to take care of her sister, but she couldn't exactly do much about that other than to keep watch over her for now. Large and powerful as Sweetie Belle may have appeared, it still wasn't safe to move her. In this place, there was likely always something worse waiting just around the corner.
And so, the mare sat before the sapling, chewing on her thoughts and wondering what her next move would be once Sweetie Belle finally woke from her comatose state. She'd gotten so lost in her own head in fact, that she'd very nearly forgotten about the decrepit biped sitting next to her. It wasn't until Barbatum suddenly stood up with a strained groan that Rarity remembered the 'old man'.
"Well, it's been a pleasure, Miss Belle," Barbatum began, favoring his walking cane as he got to his feet, "but I think it's best if I take my leave for the time being."
"Oh? So soon?" Rarity asked, slightly surprised at his abrupt announcement. From the outside looking in, this would have seemed a simple chance encounter, but Rarity wasn't quite sure that was the case. To her, the man clearly had a purpose in coming here, and though he'd given the mare a lot to think about, the knowledge he shared she likely could have gotten from the Goddess herself. None of what he'd talked about did much to help her current circumstances. Then again... "And 'for the time being'? Are you implying that we'll meet again?"
"Perhaps we will... in time," the biped replied in a not unkind tone. He brushed some stray dirt from the back of his tattered coat and fully turned to face Rarity, "but for now, I have business elsewhere and you have a sibling who will likely have many questions to ask you very soon." He nodded to Sweetie Belle and Rarity followed his gaze. Her eyes widened as the bear-like beast that was her sister began to shift and stir.
A low growl of discomfort escaped the creature's fang filled maw, but her eyes didn't open quite yet. Rarity was by Sweetie Belle's side in an instant, looking over every inch of her monstrous form. "Sweetie Belle," she whispered, unsure if she should fully wake her sister or leave her to rise on her own, "it's alright, Sweetie. I'm here. Rarity's here. I know you must be scared and confused, but you're not alone. Your big sister is here to watch over you. All will be explained. We'll get through this together, don't you worry..."
Rarity continued to murmur words of comfort and encouragement as the transformed filly slowly and groggily came to. She paused as she once again remembered Barbatum, but when she turned to regard the wizened old man, he was already gone. It was just her and Sweetie Belle amidst the effulgent glow of the Harmony sapling, with no evidence of Barbatum's existence to be found anywhere. As a creature who could appear and vanish just as suddenly herself, Rarity wasn't too surprised by his absence. What did surprise the mare were the words that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.
"By the by, if you've no place in mind to go, there is a small town to the east not too far from here. The inhabitants are hardly a friendly lot, but I believe you may find something of interest there. Whether you choose to go or not is entirely up to you, but whatever your decision, I wish you and your sister the best of luck..."
Barbatum's voice faded away like a distant echo, his final words punctuated with one last dry, dusty laugh. Silence followed in its wake, silence save for Sweetie Belle's low growls and whimpers. Rarity herself was left to wonder not for the first time just who or what Barbatum really was. Had his true purpose been that final message all along? If so, why all the banter? What did he gain? What was this small town and, if she decided to follow Barbatum's advice and go, what exactly would she find there?
After thinking on it for a few moments, Rarity shook her head. It wouldn't do any good to worry about it now, and it wasn't as if she didn't have time. Rarity could decided on a course of action after she made sure that her sister was okay. After all, ensuring Sweetie's safety and mental well-being was going to be enough of a challenge as it was. No need to make things more complicated than they already were.
Octavia's return to the world of the living was an agonizingly slow and confusing process.
She groaned and tried to shift her body, but everything felt heavy and mostly unresponsive. Her thoughts were slow to come and the mare found herself slipping in and out of wakefulness a few times before consciousness finally stuck and she managed to blink her bleary eyes open.
She blinked again, then several more times. She felt a frown cross her face as her groggy mind tried to puzzle out why everything was still pitch black. As if in response to her consternation, a faint tingling sensation started to build up behind her eyes and the world around her gradually brightened enough for her to get a grasp of her surroundings.
Her bafflement only grew as she looked out over the narrow rocky path before her. Everything was tinted a pale violet shade in her vision, but that phenomenon was quickly falling to the bottom of her list of things Octavia needed answers to. The rocky path in front of her was littered with small boulders and the withered husks of dead, leafless trees and other dried out foliage.
On either side of the path were cliff faces so high she couldn't see the ledges above. In short, the mare had woken up in some kind of ravine. The realization shocked the mare's addled mind into clarity and she hastily tried to scramble to her hooves, that strange sense of heaviness no long weighing her down. Memories came flooding back into her brain, adding panic to the confusion.
The Summer Sun Celebration.
Octavia recalled the events of that night. She remembered how it had all gone wrong—even before the world went mad. She remembered how the preparations for her performance had gone awry. Octavia thought back to how Vinyl Scratch had not only knocked her precious cello right out of her hooves during the reckless DJ's own preparations, but had stomped a hoof down on the neck, snapping it right off.
Octavia knew it had all been a tragic accident on Vinyl's part, but she couldn't hold back her roiling emotions at the time. The instrument had been a treasured family heirloom passed down the Melody family line for generations. The ensuing argument had nearly come to blows and in the end, the furious cellist had no choice but to commission some last minute repairs for her cello.
Because of that, she'd completely missed the opening ceremony to welcome the Princess to Ponyville. She hadn't been there to witness the absence of the Princess or the arrival of Nightmare Moon. She'd been close enough to hear the commotion and realize that something was wrong, but by the time she finally met back up with Vinyl Scratch, the world had already gone mad.
Her memory grew hazy from there. She remembered the endless screams, both equine and... not. She remembered feeling the earth tear itself apart beneath her. She remembered Vinyl galloping towards her, calling out her name. She remembered the sensation of falling down and down and down for what felt like forever. The last thing she could recall before everything went blank was horrendous, mind shattering pain as something inside of her warped and twisted and ripped itself out.
And now she was down here in a ravine, trying to make sense of it all. She was wide awake now, but the gears in her head continued to spin uselessly with no resolution or understanding in sight. The mare continued to stare out at the boulder strewn path in dumbstruck silence for another minute before another sensation finally distracted her.
She couldn't pinpoint what she was feeling at first, but slowly she began to realize... she was hungry. No, she wasn't just hungry, she was practically starving. It felt like she hadn't eaten in weeks, and the thirst. Suddenly well aware of her bone dry throat, she tried to swallow, but found there was no saliva. She licked lips as dry and cracked as an arid desert... and froze.
Octavia slowly ran her tongue over teeth again. Then again, and once more as a cold pit opened up in her stomach. Those... are not the teeth of an herbivore, she thought as she continued to press her tongue against the two massive fangs she could feel in her mouth. All of her teeth were wickedly sharp, but her canines had grown especially long and she could help poking and prodding at them in horrified fascination.
Octavia wanted to believe this was just a nightmare—that what happened during the Summer Sun Celebration was all in her mind. She wanted so desperately to deny her reality, but she couldn't. The overwhelming hunger and thirst, the ground beneath her hooves, the feel of the fangs in her mouth, they were all just too real. Cold dread settled over the fanged mare as she slowly came to grips with that reality.
Beyond the dire need for some kind of sustenance, she felt weak. The legs she stood on were shaky and it felt like a strong breeze could knock her over. Looking down at herself, the mare understood why and had to bite back a scream at what she saw.
Octavia was an earth pony, and like most earth ponies, her strength and constitution had been a cut above the other pony tribes. In contrast to her reckless and whimsical roommate, Octavia had been a very health minded mare. She made sure to eat properly and exercise each and every day. She wasn't vain, but she'd been fairly proud of her body and the work she put into it.
Now? Now she was quite literally nothing but skin and bones. Her legs were as thin as reeds and her ribcage shown prominently through her skin. Her once pristine grey fur had darkened to a shade just shy of black. Large patches were missing, exposing sallow, sickly brown skin beneath. Her mane and tail had become a much paler shade of grey. The hair was dry and wispy, visibly falling out as she moved about.
She had no way to see her own face, but Octavia couldn't imagine it looking much better than the rest of her.
I look like... like a corpse!
The thought and the sight of her own body made her feel sick, but the sensation was quickly swallowed up by the ever increasing need to feed on something. Anything really. The desire was enough to pull her eyes away from herself and toward her surroundings.
Realizing she might not be alone, she tried to call out to her unicorn roommate. The only thing that came out of her mouth was a dry, unintelligible rasp that barely reached her own ears. She swallowed and tried again, but the result was the same. She cursed inwardly, getting more and more frantic.
She was worried about Vinyl Scratch and the state of Ponyville but it was getting harder and harder to focus on anything other than the hunger and thirst. The two desires almost seemed to mix together into one gnawing, aching need. She'd begun gnashing her monstrous teeth without realizing it, looking around with wild eyes as she tried to keep a hold of her own mind.
Just when she thought she might go mad, a scent found its way into her nose, somehow carried on a breeze that didn't exist. The smell was unfamiliar but intoxicating. It wrapped around her, consumed her fraying thoughts, drove the unnatural hunger-thirst to new, horrendous heights. The emaciated mare whipped around, nearly tripping over her own hooves in the process.
There, standing behind her a short distance away, was a figure cloaked in shadow. No matter how she tried, Octavia couldn't make out the creature's form even in her violet tinted sight. The only thing she could see were two eyes that burned like bright red coals. They captured her, keeping her held in place and pressing down on her increasingly feral mind.
Fear, raw and unfiltered, coursed through her body. Fear, and a strange sense of familiarity. Before she could pinpoint where the feeling was coming from, that intoxicating scent hit her again, distracting her from the fear. She managed to lower her gaze slightly and there on the ground before the mysterious shadow, lay somethintg Octavia couldn't quite wrap her head around at the moment.
To her, it looked like a large lump of wet flesh, a dark pool of red slowly seeping out from beneath it. As she stared at it, trying to comprehend what she was seeing, the smell slammed into her again and that was enough to quash the last of her reason. All thought fled from her and instinct took over.
With the ferocity of a starving wolf, she shot forward and pounced on the lump of flesh. She paid no mind to the shadowy creature as she tore into the bloody meat. The shadow for its part, seemed content to watch the once prim and proper cellist rip chunks out of the fleshy mass and devour them whole.
The feast went on for some time, the night silent save for the grunts and growls and smacks and squelches of a carnivorous beast violently consuming its long awaited meal. Lost in the bliss of her grotesque feast, Octavia neither felt nor saw the physical changes that washed over her. She paid no mind as the wrinkled brown skin beneath her fur turned a healthy pinkish red. She didn't see the patches of missing fur on her body and her mane and tail gradually filling back in.
The color was still a dark, nearly black, grey but it grew in thick and glossy—more rich and voluminous than it had been even before Octavia's world had literally crumbled around her. Her skeletal frame began to fill out as well. It wasn't long before she'd regained her healthy earth pony body and then some.
Octavia's strength and senses surged far beyond that of a normal earth pony, but she remained oblivious, muzzle deep in the bloody meat laid out before her. She didn't bat an eye when the shadow patiently dropped another massive slab of unidentifiable flesh in front of her. She simply took it in stride, ripping into it once she was done with her prior meal.
This went on for another fifteen minutes or so, with Octavia having devoured another two massive slabs of flesh before sanity finally started to take control once again. Eventually the mare sat back on her haunches, closed her eyes, and let out a deep sigh of satisfaction. Octavia couldn't remember ever feeling this full. She was sated on a level that felt almost spiritual and it felt... good. She felt... good.
"Well, somepony certainly looks pleased. Enjoyed the meal that much, huh?"
Octavia's eyes snapped open and the mare nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of the voice. Despite her surprise and realization that she'd forgotten all about the shadowy creature, she'd recognize that voice anywhere. The mare refocused her attention on the shadow that had just spoken and, sure enough, she found not a shadow at all, but the familiar lackadaisical grin her housemate and long time friend, Vinyl Scratch.
As far as Octavia could tell, the unicorn mare looked the same as she ever did. Her white coat and wild electric blue mane and tail didn't have a single hair out of place. The only thing missing were her headphones and the violet shades she wore everywhere she went. Without them, Octavia had a full view of her eyes.
Octavia remembered the mare's eyes being a soft cerise color and though she never would've admitted it to Vinyl herself, she found them rather beautiful. The eyes of the mare she saw before her now had no such beauty. There was nothing soft about that crimson gaze. Those weren't the eyes of a pony, they were the eyes of a predator. They were the eyes of something alien and primal—something that stalked you in the dark.
Despite the instinctual terror those eyes invoked in Octavia, she found herself oddly drawn to them. For a long moment she forgot to breath. Her mind stalled as she took in the appearance of her friend of several years, the mare she thought she knew better than anypony else. The sound of awkward laughter brought her back to her senses.
"Aw, come on, Tavi," Vinyl said with a teasing chuckle, "you keep staring at me like that and I'm liable to start thinking you want more out of this little dinner date. Oh, speaking of which, you got a little something on your, uh... well..." she trailed off and gestured to her own muzzle, "...everywhere, actually."
Octavia blinked, then—without taking her eyes off of Vinyl—slowly raised a hoof to her face. The squelch of something wet and slimy met her hoof as she gently touched her cheek. She quickly pulled the hoof away with a yelp. She jerked back, causing something pink and ropy to fall from her muzzle and splat onto the small pile of entrails she'd left uneaten. She stared at the heap of viscera and shuddered in visible disgust.
"I... I think I'm going to be ill," she muttered. She felt sick but was in no danger of upending her recent feast despite her words. If anything, the sight was starting to make her hungry again. She shuddered again.
"Ah, you'll be fine," Vinyl replied as she walked around the pile to stand beside Octavia, "we should probably get you cleaned up though." She threw a foreleg around Octavia's withers and started to guide her down the rocky ravine, away from the remains of her meal. "Come on," she continued, "there's a small river a bit further down this way. We'll get that gunk off you and I can explain all the crazy details on the way, alright?"
Octavia just nodded numbly, not resisting as Vinyl Scratch dragged her along down the path. They walked together in silence for a time and Octavia was thankful. She desperately needed to collect her thoughts and Vinyl seemed to understood that. She didn't jump right into an explanation, instead waiting until Octavia was ready to talk first. After several minutes, Octavia finally did speak, her eyes focused on the seemingly endless cliffsides above and on either side of her.
"Vinyl... what are you?"
Vinyl Scratch winced at both the question and Octavia's resigned and borderline emotionless tone. She'd expected that question to come after asking about her own circumstances. But then again, the cellist had always managed to catch her off guard like that. "Oof, going right for the throat," Vinyl grumbled before letting out a soft, resigned sigh of her own. "That's, uh... not an easy question to answer, Tavi."
"Answer it anyway... please."
Vinyl sucked in a breath, held it for a second, then let it go as she replied. "Well... we don't really have a name for what we are, but I guess the closest approximation would be... a vampire?" She scowled thoughtfully, then shrugged, "Yeah, given what I've read about what they can do, that's the closest thing I could think of."
"A vampire. I'm friends with a vampire. Fancy that." Octavia chuckled humorlessly. She shook her head ruefully and lowered her gaze to the ground, catching sight of her dark grey hooves as they trotted along. "If that's the case, I suppose I have you to thank for my... current state? Made me one of your loyal thralls, did you?"
"Wh-wha—no, hold up," Vinyl sputtered, halting her easy gait as she rounded on her friend, "that is not how this works, okay?"
"Oh?" Octavia replied, raising a brow, "enlighten me then, Miss Not-Quite-a-Vampire. How does this work, exactly?"
"I... it's... ugh!" Vinyl Scratch groaned and slapped a hoof to her face, "Okay, look. Yes, I was the one who gave you the biological makeover and introduced you to your fancy new diet, but! I had my reasons." She looked Octavia in the eye, her exasperation melting away into something more serious, "Things would've gone very badly for you if I didn't do something. I'm talking death here—no, worse than that probably."
"Worse than..." Octavia paused as flashes of the Celebration crossed her mind. She recalled the sensation of falling endlessly and the horrible pain. A sudden realization struck her and she glanced upward, her stomach doing a flip as several things clicked into place in her mind, "...oh."
"Yeah, the world kinda went crazy." Vinyl replied with a grim nod. "This crazy evil alicorn showed up in Town Hall while you were gone and then a ton of monsters showed up after that. Then ponies started dying and the earth started shaking and Equestria pretty much just kind of tore itself apart."
She paused, then in a slightly quieter voice continued. "We'd just found each other when the ground opened up right under you and... well..." A look of guilt crossed her face, at odds with her predatory appearance. "I tried to save you, y'know? Jumped right in after you, but... didn't make it in time."
"I..." Octavia grimaced, not wanting to say it, but forcing herself to, "I died... didn't I?"
"Not quite," Vinyl said with a shake of her head. She gave the other mare a wry lopsided smile, "you hit the ground, but somehow you hung in there long enough for me to work my magic. Must've been more of that earth pony resilience or something, huh?"
Vinyl's grin faltered and died in the face of Octavia's unamused scowl. She coughed and looked away as she spoke. "So, uh... yeah. I survived because I'm not exactly equine and I sort of... turned you into what I am—not a thrall or anything, just... the same species, I guess."
"I see... so you did it to save my life," Octavia replied after a long, uncomfortable moment, "I suppose that would be as good a reason for making me an inequine abomination as any. Oh!" She caught herself and gave Vinyl an apologetic frown, "I'm sorry, Vinyl I didn't mean—"
"Nah, don't worry about it," the other mare replied with a wave of her hoof, "you totally did mean it, but I don't blame you and I won't fault you for it. From your perspective, that's exactly what we are."
Octavia's brows furrowed. "You keep saying we. Are there more of... your kind? Besides me, I mean?"
"Oh... well, not in Equestria, no—not that I know of, anyway," Vinyl answered, her tone somewhat more subdued. "Honestly, that question's a bit more complicated, y'see."
"How so?" Octavia pressed, her tone more curious than anything else. Despite everything, she found herself falling back into an old rhythm talking to Vinyl. Her personality, at the very least, hadn't changed in the slightest from what she could tell, and that did wonders to ease her mind.
"Okay, so... once I made sure you were stable, I did some looking around, see?" Vinyl explained, "there wasn't much to see down here but as it turns out, we're not exactly in Equestria anymore—well, we are... but we're also not." At the other mare's bemused and slightly irritated expression she hurried to clarify.
"I don't know all the specifics, but..." Vinyl paused to gather her thoughts, then continued, "alright, Equestria—well, this whole world really—straddles a dimensional line that separates it from another world called, Ayafern. You with me so far?"
"I'm familiar with the concept of alternate universes, yes," Octavia replied. Admittedly, she didn't know a whole lot about the subject but she'd heard a few things in passing. Frankly, she was surprised Vinyl knew so much about it, though given everything that'd happened thus far, she figured this was just another drop in the bucket of surprises.
"Cool," Vinyl continued, looking oddly relieved, "so this world, Ayafern? That's where I'm from. That's where my kind live. Or lived. I'm not sure, haven't been back in something like five hundred years or so. Maybe. Time can be weird between dimensions so it could've been much longer or shorter."
"Five hundred—just how old are you?" Octavia knew it was a rude question, but she couldn't help herself. Thankfully, Vinyl didn't seem too bothered.
"Honestly? No idea." She replied with a careless shrug, "Stopped counting after being trapped in a dimensional bubble for a few thousand years." She grimaced, "I'd tell you more about myself, but I can't remember a lot of my past. All I can tell you is that Ayafern is my home and that this—" she gestured to herself, "—isn't my original form."
"So.. most of your memories—"
"Are from Equestria, yeah," Vinyl finished with a soft smile, "like I said, I don't know exactly how long it's been, but I'm pretty sure I arrived here about five hundred years ago. Well, less 'arrived' and more 'got spat out'."
"Huh..." was all Octavia could say for a good minute or so. "I must say, that is... quite the tale, Vinyl. I'm surprised you managed to keep something like this hidden from me and the rest of Equestria for so long."
"Oh, it wasn't easy in the beginning," Vinyl replied with an amused chuckle, "I have a sneaking suspicion I might've been responsible for a folk tale or two. But yeah, years and years of practice and all that." Her smile turned guilty as she spoke, "And, uh... sorry about keeping this all on the down low. I wanted to tell you—tried a bunch of times actually, but in the end I just didn't have the guts."
Octavia thought about it for a long moment, trying to decide if she was upset or not. She found that she wasn't. She couldn't be. With her mind so preoccupied with all the other questions she still had, she didn't have the capacity to be angry about something so understandable. She likely would have done just as much to hide it if she was in Vinyl's horseshoes... which she supposed she now was.
"I won't hold it against you, Vinyl Scratch," she finally replied with a soft smile, "I completely understand your position and may have even done the same in your place." Vinyl gave a grateful smile of her own, but then Octavia had a though and continued, "By the by, did you happen to, ah... create any other of your—our kind?"
Vinyl Scratch blinked in surprise at her friend's correction, but quickly pushed past it. She felt strangely touched by the gesture, but didn't want to embarrass herself or Octavia by dwelling on it. Instead she shook her head and answered, "No, by the time I remembered I could, I already knew it would've been a bad idea."
"Ah, good. That's... good."
Another bout of silence fell over the two for a while but was quickly broken when they finally reached the river Vinyl had mentioned. From what Octavia could see, it was less a river nd more a small stream a few meters wide and only a few inches deep. It looked as though it had been part of a larger river that had long since dried up.
It wasn't much and the water was somewhat rancid looking, but it was enough to clear the rest of the blood and viscera from Octavia's face and neck. She took a moment to observe her own features in the stream. She couldn't see much of her face even with her apparent night vision, but the one thing that did stick were her eyes.
Like Vinyl, they burned with an inner light, bright and inequine—though hers shone a vibrant violet color rather than the red of Vinyl's irises. She found the change haunting, but felt the same kind of draw that she did from looking into Vinyl's eyes. As the mare washed herself of the bloody muck, she continued to ask Vinyl several questions.
When she asked about her fur and mane, Vinyl mentioned that the transformation shouldn't have done anything to change the color. It was only when the DJ continued where she'd left off regarding the current state of Equestria that she understood. Vinyl didn't have a concrete answer for what happened, but evidently she had a guess.
According to the mare, Equestria had somehow found itself consumed by her homeworld of Ayafern. Her theory on Octavia's altered mane and fur colors was that Ayafern's atmosphere had begun to change her in some way. The change hadn't fully taken hold due to Vinyl's intervention though, so the only change was her color.
The rest of the changes had been Vinyl's doing but after having thought about it some more, Octavia found she could cope with her new form for now. Vinyl's own concerns came mostly from the fact that she was still an equine. If they truly had been dropped into Ayafern then Vinyl would've reverted back to her true form... or so that's what she assumed.
It turned out that may not have been the case. Then again, neither Octavia nor Vinyl Scratch knew the reason behind their circumstances or even what their circumstances truly were. With that in mind, the only way to discover what was going on and what to do about it, was to make their way out of the pitch black ravine.
In the meantime, Octavia was content to listen to what Vinyl could remember of her past as they made their way further and further down that narrow, rocky path.
Octavia had never once asked about where Vinyl Scratch had gotten the meat to satiate her ravenous hunger. Frankly, she really hadn't wanted to know. Unfortunately, it wasn't long after the cellist's much needed wash in the slightly rancid stream that she got her answer anyway.
Octavia smelled them before she saw or even heard them. The stench made the monstrous mare pause, but that was all she'd had time to do. The noises came just as she was processing that something was wrong. Slow, guttural clicks that somehow sounded wet to her ears. The disturbing sounds rose up from somewhere ahead of her and Vinyl, bouncing off the rocky walls on either side of them and carrying much too far and too loudly for Octavia's liking.
She opened her mouth, not sure if she was going to gasp or shriek or ask Vinyl what in Celestia's name that was. The grotesque clicks increased in number, speed, and volume before she could do any of those things. In a matter of seconds, the once unnatural silence was gone and the entire ravine echoed with the noise.
Octavia watched, wide-eyed and horrified as slimy, hairless things started emerging from the shadows. First there was one of them, then two, then five, and they didn't stop there. They crawled out from behind boulders and from beneath sparse, dry underbrush with rake-like claws and much too long and lanky limbs. They skittered down the cliff faces from above, their bulbous, fleshy bodies hidden from view by the relentless darkness pressing down on the ravine from up high.
Bulging, bioluminescent eyes protruded from their vaguely reptilian skulls like sickly yellow suns. Long ropy grey tongues hung from their slavering maws and, despite the pervasive darkness, Octavia could clearly make out vicious fangs dripping with foul black ichor. The disgusting creatures continued to spawn from the shadows one after another, crawling and slithering and scuttling on all fours.
When all was said and done, the terrified cellist counted several dozen of the wretched flesh-things barring their path forward. She might've become a monster in her own right, but Octavia had no experience dealing with this kind of horror. She'd never been into those kinds of picture shows or campfire stories like Vinyl Scratch. While normally not one to shy away from a tough situation, she'd been a mare of perfect poise and noble upbringing.
This nightmare was so far out of Octavia's wheelhouse that she couldn't help but laugh. It was a manic thing born of helpless terror and more than a little madness, but she thankfully managed to cut it off almost as soon as it rose from her throat. Fighting against an encroaching mental break, Octavia swallowed, took a slow step back, and turned to her longtime friend and roommate without taking her eyes off the creeping, clicking horrors.
“V-Vinyl?”
That was it. That was all Octavia could think to say in the face of her situation. It wasn't much, and the quiet rasp barely reached her own ears, but the reborn mare put every ounce of her fear, confusion, and desire for assistance in dealing with the threat into the name she spoke. Fortunately for her, that was all Vinyl Scratch needed to hear to understand.
“Yeah, this ain't good,” Vinyl muttered in response. She grimaced at the sight of the creatures before them. “Might've stirred things up a bit too much while I was out, uhhh... foraging for food.”
“Foraging for...” Octavia's face twisted in bewilderment for a second, then she finally tore her terrified gaze from the beasts to look at her friend in shocked disgust, her face going pale, “...no, you can't mean you... th-that I just—that they were what I just—”
“No time,” Vinyl quickly interjected, “look, these things might look scary, but they're actually cowards. Opportunists. They only attack in numbers and when they think they can win, but the moment you prove you're the stronger predator, they flee like frightened rabbits.”
As Vinyl Scratch spoke, her eyes burned a brighter crimson and Octavia suddenly noticed fangs she only just now realized hadn't been there a moment ago. A feral grin crossed the now monstrous unicorn's face as she adopted a threatening crouch. She looked to the stunned earth pony like a manticore getting ready to pounce on its prey as she eyed the things that had been edging ever closer this whole time.
As if to prove Vinyl's point, the slimy beasts paused at the sight of her baleful gaze and lowered stance. Octavia couldn't tell for sure, but she got the impression that the creatures suddenly looked... uncertain. Their grotesque clicks sounded more... hesitant. It might've just been her imagination, but the mare didn't think so. Vinyl spoke again before she could dwell on the matter too long.
“In this case, you gotta strike before they do—catch 'em off guard,” the DJ growled, her voice suddenly husky and dangerous, “sorry in advance, Tavi, but I'm about to go a bit wild here. You might not like what you're about to see, but I need you to ignore it and book it past here the moment they scatter.”
“What? Wait, but I—” Octavia's voice caught in her throat and she paused. She found her eyes wandering back to the fleshy monsters. Seeing her like this, Octavia had no doubt that Vinyl Scratch could take care of herself, but she still couldn't help but worry—both about herself and her friend. She understood what she had to do... but still, “...what about you?”
“I'll be right behind you, don't worry,” Vinyl replied, flashing a confident grin that looked more like a bestial snarl, “just... try not to trip over your own hooves once you take off. Got a lot more strength in those legs now, y'know?”
Octavia wanted to argue the matter more, but knew Vinyl's plan was a solid one, assuming she was right about them and could keep them at bay long enough to make them flee. She was also too late in any case. As they talked, the creatures started in on them again, their movements slow and cautious. Before they could take more than a single step and before Octavia could say anything else, Vinyl Scratch made her own move.
She shot off like greased lightning towards the flesh-things, the unicorn gone from Octavia's side before she could blink. By the time the earth pony whipped her head back around to the clicking beasts, Vinyl was already laying into them. She could only watch in horrified fascination as her laidback, layabout roomie of several years viciously and mercilessly ripped the flesh-beasts apart. She tore into their viscous fleshy hides like Octavia had not so long ago.
Frantic clicking turned to angry screeching as the creatures swarmed Vinyl. They bit at her with dripping fangs and clawed at her with raking talons but the mare didn't relent. The unicorn was a machine, ripping literal chunks out of the horde with her own fangs and pulping heads, torso, and limbs with each powerful blow of her hooves. She took each strike against her in stride, ignoring them outright as her torn and punctured flesh regenerated at a speed that outpaced the horde's attacks.
Despite her true, monstrous nature, Vinyl Scratch was still a unicorn, and thus had access to magic. Octavia knew this and had expected her to use it, but her friend seemed to be content with physical brutality. Given what she was doing to her adversaries, Octavia couldn't find it in her to blame the other mare. She clearly had no need for the more arcane option, and if Octavia was being truely honest with herself... she was beginning to see the appeal.
There was a primal satisfaction she felt somewhere deep within her watching Vinyl systematically dismantle each and every one of those crawling horrors. Her fear waned as the fight went on, turning to something close to visceral joy as she began to imagine herself in Vinyl's place. The longer Vinyl Scratch fought, the more she could see it. She could almost feel her fangs biting into soft flesh, rendering it asunder, the red meat and succulent juices filling her mouth.
She could almost taste it all, swallowing it down and feeding her insatiable hunger even as she smashed into their reptilian skulls with her own hooves. It was a tantalizing thought—intoxicating even. Somewhere off in the distance she heard her stomach growl. The world around her was growing hazy but the massacre in front of her was thrown into sharp relief. Octavia was panting now, her breath coming in ragged, needy gasps. She took one step forward, then another, her hooves seemingly moving of their own accord.
She wanted it. She want it so badly. To rend the flesh. To break the bone. To feed and feed and feed until her stomach was full to bursting. She was so close. They were right there. Right. There. All she had to do was—
With terrified screeches that shook the stagnant air, the horde broke and ran. What creatures remained fled in all directions. Some scurried into the underbrush but most took to rocky walls, using their long talons to quickly scale the cliffsides. The sight made Octavia falter long enough for Vinyl to cut through her haze of violent madness. The unicorn was still wrestling with a few stragglers when her crimson eyes caught Octavia's. She didn't say anything but the message in her gaze was clear.
Run.
Octavia hesitated, but only for a moment. She had no idea what had come over her, and knew full well she'd need to unpack what just happened sooner rather than later, but not now. Now she was in her right mind once again and that meant listening to her friend and following the plan. The creatures had scattered just as Vinyl predicted and it was time to go. The earth pony ignored the intrusive voice in her mind telling her to finish what Vinyl started and took off at her fastest gallop.
The mare very nearly did trip over her own hooves as she raced past Vinyl Scratch and the remaining monsters. To her astonishment, she'd cleared the distance in the blink of an eye—almost literally from what she could tell. The world blurred as she sped down the only path ahead of her. She weaved her way past towering boulders and over minor crevasses that'd opened up in the ground with an almost effortless grace she'd never had in her previous life.
The obstacles—which she'd realized earlier were likely a result of the world tearing itself apart—were barely slowing her down. She hadn't even broken a sweat yet. It wasn't long before her shock turned to exhilaration, the simple act of moving becoming a rush unlike anything she'd felt before. At some point—Octavia wasn't sure how long it had been—she heard Vinyl's voice from somewhere behind her calling her name.
Looking back, she saw a small speck of white rapidly closing the distance. It was Vinyl, and unlike Octavia, who'd chosen to dodge past the giant rocks, Vinyl Scratch simply leapt atop them, hopping from boulder to boulder at a clip that outstripped even Octavia's ludicrous pace. Mere seconds after spotting her, Vinyl took one final leap and landed next to her friend, smoothly transitioning into a gallop that matched the earth pony stride for stride.
“Hoo boy! That was wild, huh?” Vinyl grinned at Octavia, not sounding winded in the least as she ran. Her grin didn't last long and a concerned frown replaced it a second later as she continued. “You okay, though? Looked like you went a little crazy back there at the end.”
“I'm fine,” Octavia replied, surprised to find that her voice and breathing were both fairly steady as well, “Well... I'm fine now, but what was that, Vinyl Scratch? You know something about it, don't you? What happened to me?”
“Yeah... well, maybe,” Vinyl conceded with a pensive frown. She paused a moment to gather her thoughts, then spoke. “When you first woke up, you were on death's door and starving. Your initial reaction back then was only natural for our kind. This reaction could have been the lingering remnants of that initial frenzy... but I don't think that's the case.”
I returned her pensive frown with a concerned frown of my own. “What do you mean?” I asked, “Are you saying this doesn't normally happen? Maybe some... I don't know. Some symptom of the recently turned? I've never read them myself, but I've been told that happens sometimes in those vampire stories.”
“We're not vampires, Tavi,” Vinyl replied in a rare display of seriousness, “and those are just stories anyway. No, it doesn't work that way with us. I don't remember a lot about myself, but I do remember how our race works... mostly. I at least know that turning another creature into one of us is rarely done, if ever. Too many risks, though I can't remember why or what kind.”
“I see. That's... more than a tad concerning,” Octavia replied, her frown deepening as worry set in. She tried to shove aside the questions Vinyl couldn't answer and press on with the topic at hoof. “What do you think is going on then?”
The DJ said nothing in response for a bit as the two ponies rounded a jagged bend in the path. The turn ended in an incline that wasn't quite steep, but not exactly slight either. Several massive rocks piled up near the bottom and Octavia could see the anemic trickle of another stream trying to push its way past the blockage of stony debris. It was an easy feat for her and Vinyl to make their way up and over the boulders and they did so without slowing down.
The incline evened out a short distance ahead and the two powerful mares had to keep to one side of the deep ravine as the trickle widened into more of a proper river. The water was still relatively foul and the plant life dry and mostly withered, but as they pressed on, they saw more and more evidence of nature around them. To Octavia, it felt like progress, even if neither of them knew where they were headed in the end.
“I think... it might have something to do with this place—the world, I mean. How it changed,” Vinyl finally explained after some time. She raised her eyes to the black nothingness above them both, “my memory might be shot, but... I don't think my world was like this when I was last here. All these shadows and the looming darkness is bad enough, but there's something in the air.”
She trailed off for a long moment, just staring up at the bottomless void above. Octavia waited for her to speak again, opting not to look herself. Every time she looked at where the sky should've been, the utter nothingness above made her shudder. Eventually, Vinyl shook her head and focused on the path ahead as she continued.
“At first, I thought it was something about Ayafern's atmosphere that changed you, but after giving it some thought, I'm not so sure,” she said, her tone slow and thoughtful, “I can feel that this is Ayafern, but there's a... a haze hanging over everything—or maybe it's more like fog after a heavy rain,” she grunted in frustration, “whatever it is, it wasn't here before, I'm sure of it. I can't really explain it, but I think that invisible fog might be what started changing you and it's that change that's having a lingering effect on your mind.”
“A fog, you say?” Octavia looked around, but couldn't see any fog. Perhaps her senses weren't keen enough yet. Vinyl had apparently been the creature she was since birth, unlike Octavia who'd been turned. Maybe that gave her naturally stronger senses she used to see the unseen. “I can't see anything like that, and I feel fine now,” she turned back to Vinyl Scratch, “are you quite certain it's nothing to do with my changes?”
She trusted Vinyl Scratch, despite everything, but she still felt the need to ask. As she expected, Vinyl Scratch just shook her head again and tapped her nose with a hoof, her stride unbroken. “I'm sure, Tavi. It's not something you can see really. It's closer to a smell, though not quite that either. Like I said, it's hard to explain. But the, uh... scent for lack of a better word, it stinks of madness and bloodlust and odic energy. Took me some time to figure that out, but... yeah.”
“Odic... energy?” Octavia tilted her head in confusion at the unfamiliar term, “what is that?”
“Right, guess you wouldn't know, would you?” Vinyl chuckled awkwardly, “Od, or odic energy, is... well, you can think of it as Ayafern's version of mana. It's what conjurers use to cast their conjurations—like mages with spells. Get it?”
“Yes, that's a simple enough concept to grasp,” Octavia nodded, “so if I'm understanding your hypothesis correctly, you believe this 'invisible fog' is what caused my initial transformation, and—though incomplete—you believe that change has allowed this pervasive madness into my mind?”
“More or less,” Vinyl confirmed, “I'm pretty sure my intervention kept most of whatever this is from affecting you, so we're probably good for the most part. You... might have some relapses from time to time, though, like before,” she somehow managed to shrug as she ran, “mind you, this is all pure conjecture here. I have no idea how any of this works because I don't know where this is stemming from.”
“I understand,” Octavia replied, “but this does raise more concerns. Namely, if this fog is everywhere, then what happened to everypony else? Did they transform? Are they vicious bloodthirsty monsters like those things back there?” her face suddenly went pale as another thought struck her, “Sweet Celestia... were those other ponies?!”
“Nah, I don't think so,” Vinyl replied, unperturbed, “pretty sure, those were local beasties. Natural ambush predators from Ayafern. Something tells me we'll know a changed pony when we see one,” Vinyl blinked, then frowned, her ears and nose twitching, “speaking of ambush predators...”
Octavia wasn't nearly as convinced as Vinyl Scratch seemed to be, but it turned out she didn't have time to argue. It took a moment for her to pick up the familiar scent, but pick it up she did. It was a stink she wouldn't soon forget. The smell was bad enough, but then the clicking came, the sound resounding throughout the ravine. It came from every dark corner. Every direction. Behind, ahead and above.
The lack of air resistance made the eerie clicks and screeches plenty audible even as the two ponies tore across the ravine at impossible speeds. It was long before Octavia spotted the telltale glow of those buggy yellow eyes peeking at the two ponies from just about every angle further up ahead. Her already racing heart sped up another notch as a deep shriek loud enough to shake the earth and vibrate the bones suddenly erupted from somewhere further behind them.
“Vinyl?” Octavia squeaked in a voice several octaves higher than normal, “Vinyl, what was that?”
“Aaand this is why we didn't stick around,” VInyl muttered before replying out loud as she studiously keeping her eyes eyes forward, “just try not to look back and don't stop mov—”
VInyl turned to see that her friend was already watching the path they'd come from with a look of terrified anticipation. The unicorn swore and turned to look behind her as well. At first, they could see nothing, but Vinyl Scratch could feel the earth trembling beneath their pounding hooves. Another second passed. More trembling. And then a veritable tidal wave of pink flesh, bulging yellow eyes, slavering jaws, and long, flashing talons burst forth from the darkness, tearing down the ravine after the pair.
As if that hadn't been horrifying enough, a massive pair of luminous golden eyes descended from the shadows above the tide, the orbs shining like twin suns in the sky. Slimy, flesh covered limbs half the length of the Friendship Express reached down the cliffside to join the rest of the horde in its pursuit. The titanic horror that emerged from around and above the bend didn't seem to care if its gargantuan claws crushed the much smaller beasts beneath it.
The looming abomination of viscous flesh and and rending claws and dripping fangs only had eyes for the prey in its sights.
“Oooohhh no,” Octavia whimpered, “oh no. No no no no...” She turned away, unable to bear the sight of what lay behind them.
Thankfully, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia were fast enough to keep ahead of the horde. Unfortunately, what awaited ahead of them wasn't much better. The appearance of the massive monstrosity behind them had made Octavia forget all about the ambush waiting before them. More of the slimy creatures leapt at the galloping ponies from the cliff face with talons outstretched, clicking and screeching all the while.
Before Octavia could inhale a breath to scream in terror, a magenta glow encased the closest of the beasts and every one was crushed and tossed aside not a second later. The path now clear, the two ponies continued onward unimpeded for the moment. It took a second for Octavia to process what had happened, but when she finally did, she turned to Vinyl Scratch, astonishment written clear across her face. The mare's horn was aglow with that same magenta light, her expression one of grim focus.
“Vinyl, you—”
“Cool, right?' Vinyl interjected, her light tone not at all matching her serious scowl, “I know. Just keep running and don't stop for anything. I'll take care of the creepy crawlies in front of us.”
Octavia eyed her for another brief moment, then swallowed and nodded before putting on an extra burst of speed. And so they continued to run, ignoring the horrible shriek of the giant and the countless screeches of its smaller kin. True to her word, Vinyl Scratch used her magic to keep the horrors in front of them at bay. Thankfully it seemed most of the creatures were gathered behind them, leaving the path ahead relatively clear in comparison.
The two ponies also moved fast enough that their would-be ambushers mistimed their ambush and had to scramble after them more often than not. All the same, Vinyl and Octavia knew they couldn't keep outpacing their pursuers forever. Speed was all they had going for them in the face of those numbers and though the two friends could keep going for a while yet with their powerful bodies, their endurance wasn't endless.
They'd tire eventually, and once that happened, Vinyl Scratch knew not even she'd be likely to survive what came next. Something had to change before it was too late, but neither mare could see any way out of the situation. No matter how it twisted or turned, the ravine didn't seem to have an end. The dry foliage had grown exponentially thicker, but that was little comfort when there was only one path.
Even if they attempted to hide in the underbrush, they only had two ways to go, and the horde was large enough to fill the entire ravine. Vinyl and Octavia would be swarmed regardless of what they did. Vinyl couldn't tell if Octavia realized this, but the unicorn herself certainly did. Still, she pushed on nevertheless in hopes that their luck would somehow turn around. She wasn't sure how, but something had to give... right?
Then something changed and in the span of a single heartbeat, all was confusion.
Three ambushers lunged at the pair from the dry but plentiful foliage and Vinyl's horn lit up to crush them like the rest, but that didn't happen. Instead the beasts halted mid leap, seemingly catching on nothing at all. They screeched in confusion and thrashed about wildly for a second or two before being yanked back into the foliage so fast it almost looked like they'd teleported.
Vinyl hadn't expected that, nor had she been able to register what happened before something else caught her attention. Next to her, Octavia cried out and tumbled to the ground, limbs flailing for purchase that suddenly wasn't there. Vinyl only had time to look over in surprise when the other mare's flailing body also vanished into the desiccated underbrush.
This time Vinyl caught something on the edge of her enhanced vision—a razor thin thread that somehow glinted in total darkness. It shone briefly before disappearing into the bushes along with Octavia. Vinyl Scratch didn't waste time thinking what that meant, nor did she bother to call out her best friend's name. With no hesitation in her heart or mind, she rapidly changed course, racing into the rough thicket after the other mare.
Bursting through the parched shrubbery an instant later, Vinyl Scratch was surprised to find herself rushing through a cramped cave tunnel. She was so surprised by the abrupt shift in scenery that, for a moment, she scrambled to a stop to look around. Looking behind her she saw that, sure enough, she'd entered a small cave hidden just behind the underbrush. Strangely, the foliage beyond the entrance didn't look the least bit disturbed despite her mad dash into it.
Distantly, Vinyl heard the earthshaking shriek of the titanic horror outside and briefly wondered if the horde had seen them enter the underbrush. Would the monstrosities follow them into the cave or had they escaped the bloodthirsty tide? A startled cry from further in the cave brought the DJ back to the issue at hoof. She cursed herself for getting distracted, put the questions and worries out of her mind for now, and took off once again.
No time. Whatever happens with those freaks, happens. Nothing I can do about it right now.
With that thought in mind, Vinyl pressed on. Luckily, the tunnel, while not very large, didn't seem to branch off into several other tunnels like the unicorn feared it might. It was a fairly linear path, for which she was thankful. That said, there was something strange about the cave. It wasn't entirely shrouded in darkness like everywhere else. Embedded in the walls around Vinyl were small crystals that gave off a subtle blue-white glow.
Some might have found the light calming, but to Vinyl Scratch, the light was slightly uncomfortable. Not only that, but it felt weirdly familiar. Again, the mare pushed it out of her mind, saving the mystery for later. It wasn't long before the cave widened out and Vinyl started to see what she'd half expected to see when she noticed what had pulled Octavia and the crawling horrors in.
Webs.
Thick, glossy spider webs stretched across the walls, ceiling, and floor of the cave ahead of her. Vinyl grimaced at the sight, but didn't stop moving. The sooner she made it to where Octavia was, the better. She deftly avoided the numerous threads and made her way deeper in, only to grunt in surprise at what she saw next.
Tangled within the webs up on the ceiling, clicking and screeching in rage and fear, were the horrors who'd been yanked into the cave first. All of them were thrashing and flailing like their lives depended on it, but to no avail. Their knife sharp talons apparently proved useless in the face of the webs that held them aloft. Momentarily stunned, Vinyl looked around, but whatever spider that had done this was nowhere to be seen—nor was Octavia.
Must be further in... hold on Tavi, I'm coming for ya.
Her conviction redoubled, Vinyl left the beasts to their hopeless struggle and moved on. Thoughts of what the posh cellist might be going through tried to assault Vinyl's mind, but she viciously shoved them down. She hadn't heard Octavia's voice since her initial shout, but that didn't mean she wasn't alive. Even if she wasn't a fighter normally, Vinyl didn't believe for a second that some cave-dwelling spider would be enough to take her out. Not anymore.
She was strong now.
In addition to saving her life, Vinyl Scratch had given her longtime friend the gift of power. The same kind of power she enjoyed. Octavia might not have fully understood that now, but she would. When push came to shove, she'd fight back, and she'd win. Vinyl was sure of that. No, Vinyl reminded herself, there was no need to worry about her body. Her mind was another issue altogether—one that Vinyl didn't have a solution to quite yet.
She was pondering what she could do for the mare's potentially compromised mental state when the web strewn path opened up into a wide cavern. All of Vinyl's musing came crashing to a halt as she took in the situation laid out before her. Those thoughts that had tried to grab hold of her mind—those fears that she might've been too late to save Octavia—all of them dispersed and blew away like smoke on the wind, only to be replaced with complete and utter bafflement.
The open cavern was awash with that same radiant blue-white light Vinyl had seen in the tunnel, only it was much more vibrant here. The light was soft, but powerful in a way Vinyl couldn't quite comprehend. The glow triggered some instinctual aversion within Vinyl, but paradoxically brought with it a sense of peace and relief. And at the center of that radiant light was a small crystalline sapling, the little root practically pulsing with hidden power.
As surprising as that was though, the sapling wasn't what caught and held Vinyl's attention. No, what caught her glowing crimson eye were the two creatures on either side of the sapling. One of them was the mare Vinyl had expected to see, but not at all in the way she'd expected to see her. Octavia sat near the sapling, completely unharmed. She looked wary but also seemed perfectly at ease in the light. The other creature...
Vinyl blinked, then blinked again, as if she was trying to dispel some hallucination. But no, the creature wasn't going away. It was very real, and had some very familiar features to boot, even if they had been drastically twisted. Perched high up on the wall amidst what Vinyl could only describe as a nest of webs was a massive spider with eight sturdy chitin plated legs and a glossy, pale gold cephalothorax. Again, Vinyl had expected as much, and wasn't even surprised to find that it had a humanoid torso where its head should've been.
The torso was almost anorexically thin but still had clear feminine curves and, like its lower half, was covered entirely in pale gold chitin. Its arms took on a similar shape to its many legs but with delicate, almost dainty looking hands that tapered off into needle-like points at the end of each finger. The large abdomen had a bright pink pattern on the top that was vaguely reminiscent of a butterfly with jagged wings.
Vinyl Scratch had never seen such a monster before—or at least, not that she could remember—but after what she'd seen so far, this just seemed par for the course. Again, expected. What the DJ did not expect, however, was for the arachnid to be wearing Fluttershy's face. It had changed significantly. The term rising from the depths of Vinyl's shoddy memory classified her face as 'human-like', though that was being a bit generous.
Her two largest eyes were bright cyan orbs that, like the horrors just outside, shined with an inner glow. Six smaller orbs ran parallel across her forehead and though most of her features were covered by a long, flat sheet of pale, rosy pink hair, Fluttershy couldn't hide the large and deadly fang-tipped mandibles that marred her otherwise rather shapely face. Yes, her features had changed quite a lot, but Vinyl Scratch had seen Fluttershy around Ponyville enough times to recognize the pony beneath the spider.
Both Octavia and the arachne that was clearly Fluttershy looked as if they'd been having some kind of conversation up until Vinyl showed up. Now though, they'd both turned to her with visible surprise on their faces. The tension lasted only a moment before both pony and spider relaxed and genuine smiles of relief crossed their face. Vinyl figured Octavia would say something but it was Fluttershy that spoke first, her voice just as Vinyl Scratch remembered it, albeit with strange clicking undertones not dissimilar to the flesh things outside the cave.
“Oh, I can't tell you how glad I am to see the two of you safe and sound.”
It wasn't just a simple hunch or foalish bravado from a foolish foal. More than her desire to defend her timid friend or her own boundless pride, Rainbow Dash's victory was a fated thing. She might not have understood it as such just then, but the brash pegasus filly could feel it nonetheless. She would win this seemingly inconsequential race, and she would do it with such style that it would leave everypony's jaw hanging in awe.
And so, that's just what she did.
Blind to all but the victory in front of her, the filly took off like an arrow from a bow. The crowd that had come to watch the curious event became nothing more than a blur—a colorful smear in Rainbow's periphery as she deftly weaved pasts obstacles and around the thick clouds in her way. It wasn't long before the prismatic pegasus left her opponent far behind, but that wasn't enough for Rainbow.
She wanted more. She needed more. More speed. More adrenaline. More dopamine. The filly was smashing through each and every one of her limits, breaking boundaries she never even knew existed until now, and she desperately wanted to chase after that intoxicating high. Heart pounding, muscles burning, and tears streaming from her narrowed eyes, Rainbow didn't even notice the goal post as she blazed right past it.
Rainbow Dash didn't notice the wind tearing at her mane, nor did she notice how the air seemed to gradually bend before her. She certainly didn't see or sense the growing instability of the thaumic field as reality began to twist and warp around her diminutive equine frame. She hardly even registered the dark and terrible voice that whispered at the back of her mind, its sinister tone brimming with boundless patience and bottomless madness.
No, in that moment, the only thing Rainbow Dash knew—the only thing she felt—was the bliss of shattering that final barrier holding her back. In an instant, the world exploded in a blinding wave of prismatic brilliance that rippled across the sky—the sound a ringing clap of thunder that could be heard for miles. The spectacle was so beautiful, so awe-inspiring, so all-encompassing, so completely and utterly magical, that it caught and held every single eye in Equestria.
Rainbow Dash saw only darkness as reality folded in on itself right before her eyes. The filly had no time to scream before she was swallowed by a ragged hole torn in the dimensional membrane separating the colorful land of Equestria from a world of nightmares. Pride and elation fled Rainbow Dash like prey from an approaching predator, leaving only fear and confusion in their wake.
Her once lush and radiant world was now black and desolate. Hope rotted away in a single breath, and all the terrified filly felt now was a madness that quickly began to fester as it seeped into her body and mind. Pain ripped mercilessly at her flesh, snatching away all her thoughts and memories. Rainbow Dash had no idea where she was, and now she no longer had the mental capacity to wonder.
She couldn't focus on that, nor could she muster enough of her wits to be horrified by the monstrous changes, warping her tiny equine frame into something hideous and eldritch. She was coming undone—no longer a foal. No longer a pony or anything vaguely resembling an equine. The existence—the very concept of Rainbow Dash, was falling apart at the seams.
And then, in its throes of madness and agony, the thing that was no longer Rainbow Dash felt something.
A presence, looming and terrible but somehow warm and fatherly. It washed over the twisted creature, bringing back a fraction of Rainbow's shattered psyche. Gentle handshoovesclawstendrils descended upon the broken, pitiful beast and the filly—it was a filly, the creature remembered—felt the calming embrace and its—no, her mind began to clear. Thoughts came easier and a sense of peace and comfort began to push back the madness.
The voice in the filly's head spoke again, and this time the pegasus filly—Rainbow Dash, she recalled—heard it loud and clear. She heard and listened and wept as the ancient voice used its pawstalonstentaclesfingers to mold her broken and wretched body and mind back into a shape more suited for its purposes. The process might have taken years, or it might have taken mere moments, Rainbow Dash would never know. All she wished for, was an end to the pain, and the benevolent voice had provided her that boon.
It took the pain away and made her equine again, and though she had now convinced herself this was all some abstract dream, Rainbow Dash was grateful. Satisfied with its work and the filly's gratitude, the voice whispered in her mind one final time before bringing light back into Rainbow's dark world of madness and nightmares. The filly raced once more across the sky at a mind-boggling speed, a prismatic trail left behind in her wake.
All was once more as it should be, with nary a hint of the horrors experienced or the horrors yet to come. Rainbow Dash had successfully executed the sonic rainboom just as she was always meant to, and the ecstatic pegasus was none the wiser to the schemes of greater beings.
As it should be.
As it must be.
Until we meet again, my poor broken child... my witless, iridescent puppet...
Rainbow Dash's body twitched, then shuddered as consciousness trickled back into her mind. The mare had no idea where she was or what had happened or what was going on. She could tell that she was lying on some kind of cold and uncomfortably hard surface—likely stone if she had to guess—but rather than worry about that, she chose to simply just focus on existing for the moment.
Eyes closed and breathing deeply, Rainbow Dash slowly grew more and more aware of herself. She inhaled through her nose, the scents of wood, earth, dust, and mold permeating her senses... but those weren't the only smells in the air.
What... is that?
Turning her full attention to the unfamiliar odor, Rainbow sniffed again. While the other scents were certainly overwhelming, it was that other smell that bothered her. She still couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was, but the smell was strong. The potency and sheer strangeness of the scent tugged at her curiosity—so much so that the mare finally decided to open her eyes.
"Oh Sweet Celestia! What the—"
Rainbow's entire vision was taken up by a pair of flickering magenta flames, each set within the hollow eye sockets of an ashen skull. The pegasus jerked up from where she'd been lying, scrambling to her hooves in a fit of shock and confusion. Her wings flared out, the panicked mare ready to take flight at any moment. That was, in fact, exactly what she did, but as she flapped her wings to gain a bit of distance.
Before she could get too more than a few inches of height, her movements faltered, her wings twitched, and she flopped back into the stone slab she'd been lying on with a startled yelp. Something wasn't quite right, and it wasn't just the creepy skull invading her personal space. At first, Rainbow Dash wasn't sure what had happened. She'd never had to think about how her flight worked, so it took her a moment to realize why she'd failed to take off.
My magic! There's something wrong with my—
"It appears... I've caused you some distress upon your awakening... for that, I apologize, Miss Dash... such was not my intention..."
Distracted by her inability to fly, Rainbow Dash had almost forgotten about the skull that made her panic in the first place. At the sound of the raspy, hissing voice, Rainbow tore her eyes away from her faulty wings and zeroed in on the skull, only to see that it was attached to a tall bipedal frame dressed in dark violet robes that might've been extremely fancy at one point but were now grimy, time-worn, and moth-eaten.
The creature had stepped back from the stone slab—some kind of altar from what Rainbow Dash could see—and was giving the pegasus a short bow, seemingly in apology. Its robes hung loose on its frame—a little too loose, Rainbow thought. It wasn't until she noticed the bony hand pressed against its chest as it bowed that the mare realized the skull-faced entity was a full on skeleton beneath the ragged purple robes.
Sat atop the skull was some kind of tall, ceremonial looking headdress that matched the skeleton's robes in color. The headdress depicted the image of a black six-pointed star surrounded by a thick black circle. The image seemed to stir something in Rainbow Dash, but she ignored the sensation as she continued to take in the skeleton. In its other bony hand was a long staff made of black metal and topped with that same six-pointed star within a circle design, though a pale red-purple gem sat at the center of the stave's head.
Rainbow Dash swallowed, her eyes lingering on the staff in the robed skeleton's hand.
"Wh-what the hay is going on here?" she finally asked in a quavering voice, too overwhelmed by the situation to even feign her usual bravado, "Who—what are you?"
A quick glance around wasn't enough to tell Rainbow Dash where she actually was. The room was relatively small and sparsely furnished. In the dim light of the few sconces that adorned the stone walls, Rainbow could see that the room was littered with more than a bit of rubble here and there. The stone altar where she now sat was slightly elevated off the rest of the ground and, behind the skeleton, she could see the remnant of several wooden pews and some tables on either side of the room smashed into kindling.
Candelabras were scattered across the dusty and debris strewn floor, and most of the stained-glass windows were smashed in. Overall, the place looked and felt like part of some ancient religious ruin. She didn't have too much time to ponder on where in Tartarus she'd wound up before the robed skeleton straightened up from his much too polite bow, the flickering magenta flames in his eye sockets flaring briefly as he spoke.
"Ah, yes... forgive me for not introducing myself earlier... my true name has long since been lost to time... but you may call me Thak... last Archbishop of the Church of the Ebon Star... and High Conjurer of the Casia Stella Academy of the Odic Arts..." the creature bowed its head once more, "...this humble lich is pleased to make your acquaintance, Miss Dash."
Rainbow Dash blinked.
The skeleton's titles meant nothing to the mare, and if anything, left her even more confused. She shook her head and took another look around. She wanted to fly off the handle—wanted to get in the bonehead's face and demand some clarity, but right now, the pegasus wasn't feeling quite like herself, and she had trouble pinpointing why that was.
Her memory was shot, and something in her gut was telling her nothing good would come of pulling back that veil. The last thing she remembered was the sound of a voice in her mind, but even that was hazy and indistinct. Forcing down the dread roiling in her stomach, Rainbow Dash focused on finding out what she could about what was going on now.
"Where am I? And what happened to me?" she finally asked, accepting that the robed skeleton—Thak, wasn't looking to harm her for now. She snapped her eyes back to the bony creature, giving it what she hoped was a baleful glare, "Did you bring me here to this... whatever this place is?"
"My apologies once again, Miss Dash," Thak replied, still as contrite as ever despite Rainbow's accusatory tone, "I should have mentioned before... this is but one of the chapels... attached to each wing of the Academy..."
"Academy?" Rainbow Dash asked, latching onto something she knew if only in passing, "Right, you did say something about an Academy before... so we're in a school?" She frowned, "Wait... why does a school have a chapel? Multiple chapels even?"
The skeleton made a strange clacking noise with its jaw at the question, and it took Rainbow Dash a second to realize Thak was chuckling. "I suppose I could tell you... but I believe any further questions about the Academy and how you came to be here... are best left to our exalted Goddess... I will inform her of your recovery... so that she may shed further light on your... situation..."
Even as Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to ask what Thak was talking about, the High Conjurer's eye flames flared brightly, and he raised his staff before slamming the end back down on the ground with a resounding crack. The red-purple gem embedded in the head of the staff flashed, and an invisible pulse of... something washed over the small chapel. For a moment, nothing happened, and Rainbow Dash wondered briefly if Thak had failed in whatever he was trying to do.
And then she felt a presence descend upon the room.
It was stifling at first—so much so that Rainbow was left quite literally breathless—but the pressure vanished almost instantly, leaving an echoing voice in its wake. A voice that spoke directly into Rainbow Dash's mind. A voice that brought a strange mix of comfort and terror. A voice that was... oddly familiar.
Rainbow Dash? Ah, good, you're finally awake. Sorry I'm not there to greet you, but I'm currently in the middle of something.
That voice,Rainbow thought, her mind spinning as a million questions ran through her head, who is that? She sounds—
Ah, it looks like your revival had some unforeseen effects on your psyche. Strange... that shouldn't be the case... and the connection is weak, too... Nel-Baloth's tampering maybe? The voice paused as if in thought, but then seemed to dismiss her ruminations, It doesn't matter, I can tell you're confused, and I'm sorry about that. Just... give me a second...
A sudden pressure, different from what she'd felt earlier, built up in Rainbow's mind. It expanded rapidly, making the mare feel like her head would burst open, but just when she felt she couldn't take it anymore and was about to let out a scream, the pressure released like a popped balloon and the knowledge came rushing into her mind like a tsunami. Words, images, and sensations flooded Rainbow's thoughts, leaving her disoriented and weak in the knees.
It all came back to her then, and Rainbow Dash felt like her eyes had truly been opened.
The race, that nightmarish place, the mind shattering agony she felt as her tiny body twisted into shapes it was never meant to take, that voice in her head, telling her everything would be okay. Rainbow Dash remembered it all. She remembered Nel-Baloth. She remembered what he'd done to her. He'd rescued her. Molded her. Turned her into his pawn. His puppet. His plaything.
Terror and confusion turned to a caustic mix of abject horror and bubbling rage as more and more memories returned to Rainbow. Rainbow Dash was horrified by the realization that she'd never really been fully equine since she was a foal, and had gone most of her life without realizing that fact. Then came the fury at what was done to her and the blatant manipulation.
Not to mention the fact that the ancient god-king had simply killed her and tossed away her corpse when she'd outlived her usefulness. All of it was enough to make the rainbow-maned pegasus see red. What quelled her fury, at least somewhat, was everything else Rainbow Dash learned. She'd vanished when Fluttershy and the others had gone to Town Hall for the Summer Sun Celebration—slipping away from the group on stealthy legs that she'd had no control over.
From behind her prison of flesh and fur, Rainbow had been made to stand by as her world crumbled and her fellow ponies were either changed into hideous abominations like her, or devoured by the things hiding in the darkness. All the while, Nel-Baloth held her reins, forcing her to wait in that same darkness until he was ready to make his move. And then he did, using her to snatch Pinkie Pie away to do who knows what.
And once he had what he wanted, Rainbow Dash was deemed no longer necessary, and killed. One moment, she held a terrified Pinkie Pie in her tentacled clutches, and the next, Nel-Baloth's mocking voice was in her mind and her life had fled her body—the monstrous pegasus snuffed out like a candle. That was the last thing Rainbow Dash had known before she woke up here in this ruined chapel. Or it would be, if Skal-Gazaath—or rather, Twilight Sparkle—hadn't just shoved her head full of information she had no business knowing.
Now, Rainbow Dash knew exactly what was going on and exactly where she was. She knew why the magic that empowered her flight hadn't worked. She knew who Thak was and knew that Twilight had brought her here and left Thak to watch over her until she woke up. The Archbishop was right. The Dead Goddess had indeed shed light on her situation, and Rainbow Dash was far from happy about all of it.
Her first instinct was to rail against what Twilight had done, the mare feeling like she'd traded one puppeteer for another. The twinge of reverence she felt each time she thought about the pony-turned-eldritch-deity didn't help matters. Again, though, her anger was stayed, and the reason for that was the connection she and the other Awakened ponies shared—something that Nel-Baloth hadn't bothered with, at least not on Nel-Baloth's end.
Rainbow Dash could feel Twilight's guilt through that connection, the emotion thrumming constantly in the background of her mind like a heartbeat. Rainbow knew Twilight hadn't had a choice given the pegasus' state of being at the time—especially not with what Twilight was planning to do. Yes, the Dead Goddess was also essentially using Rainbow Dash to further her own ends, but this was actually a goal Rainbow Dash could get behind.
Not to mention, she wanted to find Fluttershy and the others just as much as Twilight did. With that in mind, Rainbow Dash tried to calm herself and accept everything she'd learned. She sat there on that stone altar for who knew how long, ruminating on all of it. Neither Thak nor Twilight said anything, simply waiting until the mare collected herself. She found there was a lot she couldn't accept, but Rainbow Dash also knew there was no point in bemoaning what had already come to pass.
Too much to think about, honestly. I'm just gonna focus on what I can do now.
And what she could do was find her friends, help Twilight rescue Pinkie, and kick Nel-Baloth in the teeth. Rainbow Dash didn't like being beholden to Twilight's—or more specifically, Skal-Gazaath's—whims, but seeing as she couldn't exactly do anything about it, the mare chose to cram her dissatisfaction to the back of her mind, along with her many other gripes and worries about her circumstances.
With a huff, Rainbow Dash finally opened her eyes and looked at Thak. Spreading her wings and flapping once, the pegasus lifted herself from the stone altar, this time having no issue keeping herself aloft. She knew how all of this worked now, and while she knew she could vanish and appear right where Twilight was, she opted not to go that route. She could simply pop from one place to another instantly, sure, but the fact that it took so little effort grated on Rainbow for some reason.
Eh, teleportation is overrated. Much rather use my own two wings, thank you very much.
Rainbow Dash was about to address her bony caretaker when—likely sensing the firming of her resolve—a familiar voice started to speak in her head once again.
Rainbow? Are you—
"Nuh-uh," Rainbow Dash interjected with a firm shake of her head, "None of that mind speak stuff, Twilight or Skal-Gazaath or whatever the hay you wanna call yourself. If we're gonna talk, we're gonna do it face to face, got it?"
With that out of the way, Rainbow returned her attention to a thoroughly shocked and possibly affronted Thak. The prismatic pegasus wasn't sure how she could read the unmoving expression of a skull, but she didn't particularly care at the moment. Instead, she addressed the self-proclaimed lich.
"Alright, bonehead, listen up," she declared as she jabbed a hoof at the skeleton, "you can do whatever you want, but I'm outta here. I got some stuff I wanna ask the 'Goddess', and then I'm gonna go look for Fluttershy." She narrowed her eyes in challenge as she spoke, "That's not gonna be a problem, is it?"
Thak, despite his lack of facial muscles, somehow managed to look positively incensed at Rainbow's lack of respect or reverence. His jaws clacked in silent aggravation for a few moments, the High Conjurer apparently lost for words. After a second or two, he made to say something, only to freeze, the words dying in his non-existent throat. Rainbow Dash waited for the inevitable verbal explosion, but nothing came.
Instead, Thak slowly clicked his lower jaw shut and shook his head once before rasping out, "No... that is fine. Given your connection to the Goddess, you may already be aware... but regardless, you'll find Her Grace within the Academy's central library—in the restricted section."
He finished with one final bow at the waist and, to Rainbow's surprise, vanished in a pillar of pitch-black flame. Rainbow hovered over the altar for another moment, a bemused frown crossing her face. The robed skeleton's tone had been polite, but clipped, and he'd disappeared without so much as a goodbye.
"Was it something I said?" Rainbow Dash muttered to herself.
After another moment, she shrugged. Putting the confrontation out of her mind, she flapped her wings once and took off, flying out of the tiny chapel with a speed that wasn't too far from actual teleportation. She hadn't needed Thak to tell her where the library was. Twilight had already given her that bit of info.
Elsewhere in the restricted section far below the Academy's central library, hundreds of tomes whirled about Twilight Sparkle as she wandered the spacious aisle of ancient bookshelves. The many tomes radiated an eerie black aura, their pages flapping as if in a gale force wind as the Dead Goddess passively absorbed the knowledge contained within each and every book she held within her arcane grasp.
The eldritch mare let a wan smile grace her lips as she watched Rainbow Dash race toward her location within her mind's eye.
