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// Blind Darkness 
// Story: Not Surprising 
// by n3k1dsk1llz 
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Twilight looked up at the sky. She didn’t know why she did. She knew there was nothing there. There hadn’t been in years. No stars. No moon. No sun. No clouds. Sometimes she wondered how she was alive. She always reached the same conclusion: she was an alicorn. Of course, that didn’t really mean much. If that actually meant anything, then why was she the only one left?

She didn’t even remember exactly what happened. There was a bright light and then she was alone in the dark. She couldn’t find her friends. She couldn’t find anybody. No ponies. No animals. It took her a little over a day to walk to Canterlot. She couldn’t fly because of the darkness. She walked the tracks using the light from her horn to keep from losing her way.

Her horn glowed permanently now. She didn’t even have to consciously maintain the spell. She didn’t know if she could even turn it off. She didn’t care either. There was no one to bother. No one to find. It was all just a black void. She spent her days scavenging for food at this point. She had cleaned out Ponyville a while ago. She didn’t know the name of the town she was currently in the middle of cleaning out.

Twilight didn’t know why she bothered trekking back to Ponyville from Canterlot. When she had been in Canterlot, it was all the same. No ponies. No animals. Even Celestia and Luna were gone. She cried herself to sleep in Celestia’s bed that night. She had thought about ending it then. There were plenty of ways that she could have done it in Canterlot. The only thing that stopped her was the fact that she was an alicorn. There would be something that would hinder her death. She just knew it.

Now...she wasn’t so sure. Celestia and Luna were both gone. Twilight had even checked out the Crystal Empire. Nobody there either. Cadence. Shining Armor. Flurry Heart. Gone. Of course, being gone didn’t mean dead. No matter how many times Twilight tried to end her suffering, that little piece of logic always came in and stopped her. So she carried on. Scavenging what she could to survive.
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Celestia wasn’t sure what to do. She had never seen anything like this before. There were no records of it anywhere in any library in Equestria. Twilight was blind. But not just blind. She was completely unaware of any pony around her. As if...she was being blocked from reality.

That first day and night were the worst. Thank goodness she had a friend like Rainbow Dash. She flew as fast as she could to Canterlot as soon as they noticed it. Twilight was walking around Ponyville calling out, not noticing any of the responses. Her friends tried yelling, poking, even pushing her over. Perhaps the most odd, though, was when she arrived at the train station and started walking the tracks. Her friends kept her company the whole way. Walking alongside her. Making sure she didn’t fall.

Her arrival at Canterlot castle, despite the warning from Rainbow Dash, was unnerving. Twilight was clearly scared and, though she was surrounded by her friends, utterly alone. After walking the whole castle, calling out for anypony to answer, Twilight ended up in Celestia’s room. She crawled up onto Celestia’s bed and started crying. Celestia held her all night, crying with her.

The next day, Celestia decreed that across Equestria, all must watch over and protect Twilight Sparkle until this spell could be undone.

That was five years ago.

No progress had been made on anything. Daily, Celestia would try her hoof at trying to break through the spell. Nightly, Luna would try to break through Twilight’s dream door. It was completely immune to Luna's power.

And every day, the citizens of Equestria cared less. It's not that they didn't care, but what could they do. They all had their own lives to live. You can't stop the world for one pony.