It was cold; that was the first thing her mind registered as she regained consciousness. It was slow, as if her brain was trying to keep her in the void that was her dream-less state. Twilight Sparkle could recall a few times in which something similar had happened to her; most of those times had been because of some new book that interested her and she had been in the mood to know something new. Yes, it was something that had been mocked before by her hoofful of friends several times, but Twilight could never say no to a good book.
Contrary to gossip, Twilight Sparkle have never read every single book that was part of the library on the Friendship Castle, but she was working her way up and maybe one day she will be able to finish those books that were waiting patiently for her on their custom made bookshelves. They had been a ‘castlewarming’ according to Applejack and she had loved the gesture by one her friends. They, alongside other pieces of furniture that she had received by friends, family and acquaintances of Ponyville, turned the castle from a cold, empty castle into her home.
Sadly, as she began to shiver due to the cold of the stone floor, she was arriving at the conclusion that she was not in fact at the castle; unless of course, the castle had some kind of dungeon underneath that she was unaware of it.
It was cold and the musty smell was finally being perceived by her nose as the cobwebs of sleep were being vanished. She felt tired and her muscles hurt, as if she had been running against Rainbow Dash; she had learned her lesson form that time, but the burning of her muscles was a sensation that will be remembered for a long time. It was because of that memory that Twilight knew how tired her body was.
The walls were as nondescript as it could be, or at least they appeared to be due to the low light that a single light bulb in the ceiling could show. They were grey, with chipped paint and completely forgotten; they were walls that absorbed the little light that was present. The light wasn’t anything better really; it was dim, barely present and instead of letting Twilight see what was in the room, it only created shadows that made her squint to see anything. It came from a single light bulb that was hanging from the wall; it seemed to be as old as the room due to the poor quality of it and how it flickered.
With a tired huff Twilight prepared to cast some extra light but then came the pain and with it, the extra stimulus to wake up completely. She winced as the pain traveled across her body, sending her legs into spasms and losing control, falling into the hard floor. The pain bounced inside her skull as her teeth ache after her head impacted the cold surface of the room.
After a few seconds, her muscles stopped convulsing and the pain turned into a numb hum inside her head. Her breathing began to calm down and once again she was capable of moving her body, but she had learned her lesson and didn’t try to cast any spell; instead, Twilight put a hoof on top of her head, to see what was going on with her horn, but instead of finding something like Sombra’s dark crystals, her horn was completely smooth and no imperfections could be found. Sadly, Twilight couldn’t know what was happening with her magic, at least without some help.
With that out of the way, Twilight once more got up, carefully moving her hooves cross the grey stone floor as she looked around the room, feeling the darkness and coldness seeping underneath her coat and making her shiver. It wasn’t just the cold that got that reaction out of her; it was the place and the strange circumstances in which she had found herself in the room. Shaking her head at that, Twilight quickly found the exit on a bizarre metal door in front of her.
Just looking at it made Twilight’s thoughts come back to her, since its proportions were all wrong, it was just so bizarre to look at. Sure, since her transformation into an alicorn, Twilight had found out that most doors were now slightly smaller and finally understood how the princesses must feel since they were the tallest ponies around, but this was something knew. The princess of friendship felt small in comparison of the door, with it being taller than her, almost double in fact; it was bizarre, it made her think of the doors back at the… human world.
With that back on her memory, Twilight pulled on the doorknob, finding that it was closed and she had to twist it to get it open. Now she had another clue of what was going on, but it only brought more questions about the place.
Finally, using both front hooves, she was capable of turning the knob, as the door seemed to howl more than anything due to how much rust had been accumulated. The sound send shivers across Twilight’s spine, only increasing her already high levels of stress. Shaking her head to concentrate again, Twilight took a look outside of her room, but was only found with disappointment.
Instead of finding her home for a couple of years, Twilight found herself on a lonely corridor, with just a wooden bench that seemed a little too big for her, making the idea that she was currently on the human world only more plausible. Everything was dark and silent, only a corridor of walls as grey as those found in the previous room, but there was a shine in the distance, bobbing up and down as if… it was a light and somepony… or someone was getting closer. Then she saw the person coming closer and something inside Twilight began to spread across her body.
The girl was a redhead; wearing a jacket like those she had seen human beings wearing form time to time, with an orange chevron at each side and in her hand was a black flashlight. The one thing that confused Twilight was the fact that the girl was smiling at her.
“It… can’t be… Twilight? What are you doing here?”
“How do you know my name?”