January Shedule / Winter Commission Update / Newly Updated Chapters / New Story Chapter Updates · 4:28pm Jan 6th, 2020
As some of you might remember I had another contest in November to decide what kind of art piece I would commission next. Well things are finally complete. The artist, CountessRose has completed the piece. It's an awesome comic strip showing Twilight near dark transformation that happened around the middle of chapter nine of Journey To Hearth's Warming. Down below I will be showing off the piece with the link and also including the scene it was based on as well as the intro scene and the after scene. All three of which have been updated. To anyone who is curious about this month's schedule, that will be at the bottom along with the other updates. Either way, onto the scene.
******
Indigo Frost’s echoes beat down over the town’s roads and pathways. The sounds carried through the swirling of the ruins of the older buildings and the new buildings as they fell to the ground. Bouncing off the edges and slowly back to the clocktower and the altar that stood before it.
Tears fell from the face of a lavender alicorn mare as she shivered in place. She wasn’t cold, despite the snow all around. Yet the shivers refused to leave her no matter what.
This lone mare gave little care to the echoes nor to the ponies, griffins, and sirens that ran from it. Sure she wanted to give some sort of reaction outside of her own self but her legs wouldn’t answer. All she could do was stare at the fresh corpse lying on the altar in front of her.
Her mind replayed over the events that led to this yet even though the events had only happened seconds ago everything about them was a complete shadow. She couldn't see everything in a better light, but all she could pull fourth was darkness.
Darkness...
Darkness...
Darkness...
No sliver of light came to her. No signs, no hope, no kindness, no laughter, no generosity, no honesty, no loyalty, no friendship...
Friendship…
Friend…
Free…
Her mind screamed for an answer as she finally felt her leg move. On their own, or out of some base instinct her legs pulled her toward the corpse. Despite how much she wanted to know the reality of what she was seeing in front of her, her mind was now screaming at her to stop.
Don't look...
Don't look...
Don't look...
It's not real...
It's not real...
It's not real...
It's just a shadow...
It's just a shadow...
It's just a shadow...
Finally, she found herself in front of the corpse. It was just mere inches from her. The face of the dead dark lavender unicorn stallion stared back with the blankest stare. She reached out and brought it's forehead to her.
Her eyes widened and her mind could no longer deny reality. The shadows faded, the darkness lifted to show Crimson dead in Twilight's arms. On pure reaction, she squeezed tighter, wanting him to react, give some sign that maybe this wasn't real, but it was very real, no matter how much she didn't want it to be.
“Oh by the gods, it’s an alicorn.” A voice, so small yet it broke through Twilight’s agony. She turned to see a small dark blue colt.
The colt reached out and placed his hand on her back, rubbing lightly. “Oh, lovely goddess don’t weep!” The colt walked closer. “The good lord said when we die we go to a better place?”
In the background, Starlight watched in total fear. Everything was playing out just like the dream. This meant only one thing to her, stop it. Stop it now!
Without any more hesitation, she rushed forward.
The colt attempted to calm Twilight’s pain but just like in the dream he was abruptly stopped by another voice, this one far older. “It’s an alicorn, a famed immortal!” The older one threw a stone.
Starlight quickly knocked the stone away as it flew. It landed on the ground barely missing Twilight’s face.
“Just like the immortals that brought this war to us!” Another voice screamed out in rage.
Starlight landed between Twilight and the quickly growing crowd of anger, “No, it’s not like that. It wasn’t her fau--” Another stone flew, this time hitting her in the face.
“Move, mare. The witch must die!" A heavy stone punched Starlight in the stomach, pushing her to the ground.
"Get away from that colt!” Another stone flew. This time it finally made contact, tearing into the left side of Twilight’s face. “You don’t deserve to be near him, you are practically the one responsible for all of this.”
The eyepatch fell to the ground.
Starlight reached out to Twilight yet all she could do was twist as great pain wrack her whole body. Her eyes looked to the crowd and her mind raced back to the dream.
Narrowing her eyes she found the brown donkey standing in the crowd. Sorrow and fear covered his face. She reached out to him for answers, maybe even help, but instead, she got one word and this didn't come from him...
"Failure..." A dark voice spoke from behind her. From Twilight...
“Get away from him!” More voices shouted to the alicorn.
“You are responsible for all of this!!” Another throw...
“Don’t you dare mutilate him, you selfish witch!!” Another throw...
“You are as evil as that ghost!!” Another throw...
“Stop it!” Starlight attempted to get up, but without any warning at all, she was knocked away by a massive pulse of maroon colored magic.
As quickly as it began it ended, the shouting stopped and echoes of the stones ended. The colt backed away.
The lone lavender alicorn turned away from the corpse and face the crowd as massive amounts of maroon smoke pushed forth from her mouth and eyes. At this moment she seemed devoid of all emotions, swinging her head around like a random beast.
She lifted her head up and screamed so loud. Mindless rapidness was gone in an instant. All things replaced by pure rage. Over her face the frostbitten scar as if powered by this maroon magic moved over her face and to her body.
The ground around her shook and cracked. With one swift move, the altar ripped open to reveal a vast pit. The ground crumbled around it almost in fear of it, yet the ground Twilight stood upon was so still.
The maroon smoke got heavy and flowed toward the pit. It flooded out like a tidal wave as all she do was shake, twist and growl. The gas flowed to the ground moving across the ground like sludge. As fast as the pit formed the gunk filled every crevice before shooting upward.
Turning solid and as thick as the hardest crystal the maroon shot upward and formed a giant hand that continued to get bigger. Gripping tightly to Crimson as it grew taller and wider. Many looked in horror as it quickly out stood the clocktower that had always shined over all. More confusion was brought as the remaining ground that could only shriek away was now bending upward around as if something was pulling each stone and pebble creating massive gashes in all directions.
Watchers could only back away. Starlight herself tried reaching Twilight but it was as if a mighty gravitation force was pushing her back with more power then she ever felt before. Out of nowhere birds nearby crash to the ground, squirrels twisted and fell out of trees, dogs and cats threw all their rage at the sight of the hand before quickly falling too, all these animals could do was show their anger and quickly die by an unknown force.
Finally, Twilight dropped her head and stopped screaming.
All continue to look in confusion. Horror had only faded slightly to the sheer height of the mighty sculpture in front of them. It's shadow nearly covered the entire city. Many stared at it... except for Starlight.
Starlight's eyes were on her teacher and the pain of her relation. The dream came true, this is what the voice wanted to hide from her. She failed. She did her best, but it was all for not. However, she wouldn't know the true horror of her hesitation until she finally heard Twilight speak.
"You want a monster...” Twilight's voice was... so cold. Devoid of all joy, or sorrow. All could be heard was one absolute thing that brought a chill to everyone's core and drove all their attention back to her as she finally turned around.
"Twilight..." Starlight walked forward. A faint smile filled her mind upon feeling the mysterious field gone.
Twilight's form had changed complete. All her fur had turned hard like the frostbitten eye, fading to the same color. a pale almost icy blue. Her form had grown in height yet shrank in width, She was almost as boney as Indigo Frost. One thing was certain in this moment this lone mare standing at the center of everything was no longer Twilight.
"MONSTER!! A SHATTERED MONSTER!!" the mare's roars punched Starlight to the ground. Slowly the mare approached the group.
Rapidly the pale mare's head tilted left and right as her mane floated upward. Her eyes fell on the colt that had shown her kindness. Without any warning or even any signs of hesitation, she rushed at the colt pushing him to the ground. She pushed her hand onto his throat and pressed down hold. "Well, do you want a shattered freak of nature?" The harder she pushed the more clear a smile formed on her lips as her horn pulsed a maroon color and her hand filled with magic. “I'll give you... the shattering... The Shattering Moon Li--”
The mare’s words were stopped by a distinct noise. It was soft yet also very sharp. She loosened her grip only slightly and scanned around searching for the source until her eyes fell on a dark blue siren right behind her with a strange dagger-like ocarina in his mouth.
For a second Starlight through the ocarina's noise was the same as Indigo Frost's summoning spell, but this was somehow different. For one thing, despite the instrument resembling a weapon, it's sound gave no fear nor rage.
Cold Blue stood strong aiming his falcata right at her head. “Let the child go. Now!” The pale mare only growled at him. “I see, the brilliant mare I watched from afar is not even here anymore. There is only the..." His words stopped as he brought the strange instrument completely away from his mouth. "Just as they said, a bastard, a butcher, and a killer. That is all I see here."
Without any fear, Cold Blue charged forward and tackled the pale mare off of the child. Pressing his falcata right between the center of her breastplate he wrestled her far away from the group. Turning he yelled to Starlight, "Omnious get the child."
Starlight came to her senses with that word and ran over to the child and picked him up. She checked over and was glad to see no wounds at all. However, her mind's absolute thoughts were still on Twilight. "Okay, he's fine, now let go of my teacher--" She stopped at the sight of Cold Blue pulling back his falcata and aiming toward pale mare's heart.
"NO!" Starlight screamed forth as black and white magic quickly grabbed the weapon just as it pierced the armor. "Leave her." Starlight couldn't hold back her tears at this moment.
"WHY?! Tell me!"
"Becuase she's not a monster!"
"Tell that to them." Cold Blue pointed out to the townsfolk as he pushed down harder. The hold weakened enough for him to now puncture the skin.
"I... I..." Starlight's eyes fell on them. The very folks that who had just partied with her and Twilight in this very place not but yesterday. All were backed away in unheeded fear. "She's... my teacher... She's my friend."
Despite the roaring of the pale mare below him Cold Blue couldn't help but understand Starlight's words. "...Fine." On that, he turned his falcata to its hilt and bashed it against the pale mare's head, knocking her out.
With that, the maroon magic faded around them. The scar shrank back into place and her fur, size and body returned back to normal. The true Twilight had returned.
Getting up he walked over to Starlight. "She will live and as long as you keep her away from this altar. When she wakes she will be normal again. In fact," He tried rephrasing, "She will not remember this event ever happened."
Starlight let go of the child and let it run back its mother. Taking in a deep breath she walked back to Twilight, passing Cold Blue along the way. "Thank you--"
She was stopped when he placed his dagger-like ocarina to her throat. "Don't you dare thank me at all. She needs to die, not just to save these weak souls but to save herself." His eyes pointed to the mother of the colt they just save, much to Starlight's shock the mother's sight was filled with rage toward not just Twilight, but them as well. "They will never forget. They will never stop hating. This is the path of a monster and like it or not your teacher is now on this path."
"What... What should I do?"
"Take her and leave this place forever. No matter what happens in the future, no matter whether it is filled with hope or darkness, never return here--" He pulled the dagger away and sliced a rock that had flew toward them in half. "Because next time I won't be here to save her from their... prejudice." On that final, he dropped his weapons to his sides and ran off from sight. "You have until sundown before they show you who they truly are."
Starlight didn't know at all how to react to what he said or everything she saw today. The one thing she knew for sure was she had to get Twilight out of sight for now and at least far away from this area and the monolith now standing in the center of it all.
******
******
******
Okay that was the selected scenes. I hope you enjoyed them and got a look at the art piece. CountessRose does plan to show off a speedpainting on this on Friday. I'll update you all with a link when that comes out. Either way onto this January's schedule.
For readers of Journey TO Hearth's Warming, the story is currently on Winter Break and will return with new chapters in February. For the readers that are expecting more chapters on Letters to the Gods, I'm sorry to say that story is still on hold. Yes, I did plan out new chapters since Dr. Pr. Halo made a cameo in the previous chapter to Journey To Hearth's Warming, but these chapters won't be coming out right away since I have been so busy this month. I'm planning possibly March or April for that. Luckily I do plan to post stuff this month. You will be receiving a new chapter to Friendship Needs a Bodyguard as well as another story returning. As some of you might have noticed Blood Soaked Mask has been brought back on the site. I didn't get to update it like I planned, but I do plan to update it soon enough. However just like that another story will be returning this month. Check out the schedule to find out what and when.
******
Wednesday - January 15th - What Happened Last Night? - Yes, it's coming back. Really I have no idea why I removed it.
Wednesday - January 29th - Friendship Needs a Bodyguard - File 1: The Drunk Savior
******
