//------------------------------//
// A Princess' Fear 
// Story: Those Left Behind 
// by the7Saviors 
//------------------------------//

I was not okay.

Everything around me seemed faded and I couldn't shake the numbness that had settled over me. Cadence said something, but I didn't really hear it. I think I responded, but I couldn't really seem to remember whether I actually did or not.

I just continued to fly towards the mountain.

My thoughts eventually turned to the thing that had caused all of this, and I wondered where it had gone. 

Somewhere deep in the back of my mind I couldn't help but be impressed with the monster's destructive capability. It had managed to completely bypass the Everfree Forest's strange magic and raze the entire area to the ground in one fell swoop.

Oh, there were a few withered tree shaped husks left, and the old castle was still somewhat intact, but other than that, the forest was gone.

Just like Ponyville, Canterlot, and several other places I'm sure.

If there were any other ponies around, they wouldn't be anywhere near the Equestrian capital. What I had found back in that cellar had all but confirmed that for me.

Ponies weren't even safe from the blast below ground.

Cadence was saying something again, but I ignored her as I continued to ruminate on our hopeless situation.

At first, I had wondered why only the four of us were spared the destruction, but then I remembered that we weren't spared so much as we survived through the event.

I remember the white hot pain that enveloped me and the other Princesses.

It was the worst pain I had ever felt.

But we all survived it, and that alone answered the one question I had been afraid to ask Princess Celestia since my Ascension.

We were completely immortal.

We had to be -- how else could we have lived through--


Something was watching me.


My thoughts screeched to a halt.

My eyes snapped open and my wings locked up, causing me to fall out of the sky.

I couldn't scream.

I couldn't breath.

I tried to call out to Cadence, but when I turned to the pink alicorn, I saw her in the same exact predicament I was in. The utter terror on her face matched my own and together we both plummeted to the ground, unable to speak or scream for help -- not that we would've recieved any.

Just before we hit, the sudden paralysis vanished and I immediately and clumsily tried to pull myself out of freefall -- flapping my still relatively new wings for all I was worth. I idly noticed that I had dropped her hat, but at the moment there was nothing I could do.

By some miracle I had managed to correct myself, but I was losing altitude -- that is, until a pair of pink hooves wrapped themselves around my barrel and yanked me up and forward.

I turned to see Cadence gritting her teeth as she struggled to pull me up. I looked back to the ground and saw that we weren't too high up.

"Cadence!" I cried, "I think I'm okay now! You can let go!"

She nodded and released me.

I flapped my wings a few times before descending once more -- this time with a lot more control. I dropped to the ground in a clumsy attempt at a landing and Cadence landed next to me much more gracefully a moment later.

I panted heavily and didn't speak for a moment as I tried to catch my breath. I was suddenly and violently jarred out of my despair by whatever had just happened -- said despair being replaced terror and an odd revulsion.

"Twilight, what on Equus was that?" Cadence asked, her eyes wide with panic.

I shook my head and panted a few more times before answering.

"I... don't know..." I gasped, "did you... feel that?"

Cadence took a few breaths of her own before responding with a nod.

"It felt like I was being hunted," she whispered in a quivering voice, "like I was prey caught in some kind of trap."

I opened my mouth to respond when I was suddenly interrupted by another voice.

"Twilight! Cadence! Are you two okay?"

The sound of Princess Celestia's voice nearly made me jump out of my skin and Cadence's reaction was similar. I let my heart rate dropped a bit more before I replied.

"We're alright, Princess," I answered, "did you and Princess Luna feel that?"

"Indeed, my sister and I could--"

"FOUL DEMON! YOU HAVE LAIN WASTE TO OUR FAIR KINGDOM AND COMMITTED GENOCIDE AGAINST OUR PRECIOUS SUBJECTS! NOW YOU DARE TO DISTURB THE SANCTITY OF MY MOON?!"

I winced at the sheer volume of Luna's mental shout.

"Princess, what--"

"Twilight, look!"

I turned to Cadence and saw her terrified gaze locked onto something above me. I followed her gaze and my body locked up at what I saw.

Luna had been wrong to call it her Moon -- we had all been wrong.

That was no Moon.

It was an eye. 

What we had thought was the silhouette of another celestial body's shadow, was actually the black sclera of a massive eye -- its white iris now completely visible.

Every single instinct in my body told me to flee, but I couldn't move.

Cadence was right -- it was like I was prey caught in a trap, or the hungry gaze of a predator.

The baleful gaze it cast down on the ruined land  had set me shaking uncontrollably and I didn't even have to look at Cadence to tell she felt the same. 

"T-Twilight..." Cadence muttered, "w-what is that?"

I didn't answer.

I couldn't answer.

All I could do was stare at it as it stared at me.

The massive black and white eye blinked and its gaze suddenly shifted.

"Twilight! Cadence!" Celestia cried telekinetically, "you have to help me stop Luna! She's trying to--"

Her next words were drowned out by a sudden low but heavy thrum that shook the ground. It continued to grow in pitch and volume by the second. Disoriented by the sound, Cadence and I snapped out of our fear induced paralysis and took to the sky.

Before any of us could react, the sound reached its peak and the entire sky lit up as a massive pillar of white light erupted from the eye, slamming itself into Mount Canterhorn and completely obliterating what was left of the mountain.

The light from the blast burned itself into my retinas and the resulting explosion nearly deafened me.

I screamed out my former mentor's name, but that was more an agonized reflex than anything else. There was absolutely no way in Tartarus I was going to be heard over the sound of that blast.

To make matters worse, I could practically sense the massive shockwave headed in our direction.

Almost out of instinct, my horn flared to life and a large magenta colored barrier enveloped Cadence and I.

It almost wasn't enough.

The shockwave smashed into the barrier with a force unlike anything I had ever felt. It nearly shattered on impact and I grit my teeth as I tried to hold it up. I was absently aware of the blood pouring from my nose and down my muzzle, but I held on regardless -- enveloping my horn in a second layer of magic.

Several runes covered the barrier as I added more power and I nearly passed out from the strain.

Just as I was about to scream out in agony, the force of the shockwave finally began to die down. The strain gradually lessened to the point were I could release the shield and I did so at the first opportunity.

"Twilight!"

I slowly turned to the pink alicorn as I started to descend to the ground -- my wings no longer able to support me.

"C-Cadence..." I gasped, "Celestia... L-Luna... please... go make... sure th..."

That was it.

I was too spent to say anymore.

I had already been disoriented from the initial blast and had used every bit of my not insignificant amount of magic to keep the barrier active. It was only then that I remembered my connection to the ambient Magic around me. Unfortunately, it was already too late to do anything about it.

I was so drained I couldn't even make a small spark.

My vision began to fade, my wings grew limp and useless, and I fell. I heard Cadence call out to me from somewhere above, but I was already blacking out.

My gaze flickered to the giant eye just as its iris faded out and it returned to an empty black circle in the sky.

That was the last thing I saw before my vision was replaced with a dark nothingness.

There were a lot of things I didn't know.

I didn't know if Celestia and Luna were okay.

I didn't know what that thing was or why it chose to destroy everything we held dear.

I didn't know what the state of the rest of Equestria and the world beyond was.

But there were a few things I did know.

We were no match for whatever that thing was.

My friends were gone so we didn't have any access to the other Elements -- and even if we did, I doubt they would've helped.

I also knew the entire mountain was completely destroyed.

If there were any survivors left in Canterlot, they were gone now.

Goodbye mom... dad...

Shiny.