...but on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring forth true harmony.
~*~
The Everfree Forest. Known across Equestria as the largest, most hazardous wilderness free from anyone’s control. All across the land, ponies knew of the dangers and ferocious creatures living in its depths. Only the most daring or foolhardy adventurers entered, for reasons unfathomable by the more rational populace, and few ever returned to tell their tales, often telling of others falling victim to the inhabitants of the dreaded Forest. Cockatrieces, dragons, manticores, and Timberwolves were the most well known, but even the flora itself had fatal capabilities that shouldn’t be underestimated. But there were those that swore that the flora and fauna were far from the most dangerous threats to one’s life in the Everfree Forest- most of these poor fools often madly babbled that the night itself took their late friends.
Thanks to its dangerous environment and the huge area it covered, the Everfree was a very hard to control area, which in turn made it into a common meeting place for the Night Forces. Again and again guard squads had been sent into the forest to patrol, and nearly every time they either found new traces left behind by Night Forces or got into small fights with members, but it could never be confirmed that there was an actual hideout somewhere hidden in the darkness of the forest, not to speak about the prize in lives the forest claims every time.
Twilight Sparkle was no newbie on how to proceed through the forest. She has been on two previous patrols, the first time as a fresh recruit out of basic training, and the second time as one of those leading the procession of new recruits. She knew that even the slightest mistake could be fatal. One wrong step and she might step on a cragadile. Proceeding through bushes without care and she might end face to face with a cockatrice. Letting her guard down even for a short time might give a timberwolf the opportunity to sneak up on her.
Carefully Twilight proceeded through the thick forest, taking her time to not meet the same fate as so many others before her. Dressed in her enchanted suit that covered most of her body and changes its appearance to roughly match her surroundings she nearly vanished into the cacophony around her. Personally she would have prefered to wear her usual armor, but it was too heavy and made too much noise to be useful on a stealth mission. And, of course, she would be a big gold and orange colored beacon in the forest.
So far her mission went by without problems. The only encounter she had has been with a lone, injured timberwolf that got separated from its pack. She barely had to do anything for it to turn tail and run for the hills.
All things considered Twilight had to admit she was getting bored, which was a weird concept regarding the fact that she was in the middle of the most dangerous forest in Equestria. Where were all those animals and monsters? The last time she has been here it was hard to proceed for more than thirty minutes without encountering anything dangerous.
Now, Twilight has been wandering the woods for several hours since her arrival in the early afternoon without anything worth mentioning. It was like every single creature in this forest was hiding from something, and just the thought of something dangerous enough to cause timberwolves and manticores to hide was worrying. She shuddered upon thinking that any second the ground would begin to tremble and an Ursa Major came into her field of vision out of nowhere.
Nonetheless, Twilight proceeded on her way. She had to find a clue that could lead her to the hidden Night Forces, and who was she to complain that there was a lack of obstacles? Maybe it was just her lucky day.
Reaching the edge of a clearing Twilight looked around for any sign of life, but it was just as quiet as before. Using the opportunity she looked up to estimate the time of day. The forest itself was nearly always in a state of darkness thanks to the thick canopy above blocking out the light, so one of those rare clearings was one of her only ways to see the sun.
Surprised Twilight realized that it was not as late as she had assumed. She had expected to see the moon high in the sky, with the mark of the Mare in the Moon on its surface, but instead it was just about to rise.
The fact that the night had not arrived yet could be an explanation for the lack of monsters so far, but Twilight doubted it. With the night only lasting for five hours the monster always used part of the daytime to hunt. Something else had to be going on Twilight knew nothing about.
Looking around the clearing to decide in which direction to proceed something at the edge of the clearing on her right caught her attention. Carefully stepping closer she saw that something had made its way through the bushes, something not much bigger than Twilight herself judging by the broken twigs.
With no other lead to go on Twilight followed the path through the bushes, and soon enough a grin spread on her face. Just ahead Twilight could see a small area covered in mud, and a hoofprint embedded in it.
'Looks like somepony wasn't careful,' she thought as she stepped closer to examine the print. 'It's still fresh. It truly seems to be my lucky day.' Twilight continued in the direction the print was pointing, still very careful to not run into any monster, or even the one who left the print behind.
She knew that this could very much be a trap laid out by the Night Forces who are already aware of her presence and waiting for her to walk into it, but sometimes it was necessary to take certain risks.
It only took a couple of minutes until Twilight saw movement a small distance ahead of her. Her first thought was that the wind was rustling the branches of the trees and bushes, but it was too much focused on one area. It certainly was something living moving through the thicket.
Taking a moment to make sure her stealth suit was covering her properly Twilight moved closer towards it, moving slightly around the left side to avoid getting spotted.
Soon enough she was able to see what was disturbing the quiet of the forest, and she smirked.
'Found you,' she thought in satisfaction as her eyes wandered over the small group ahead.
While she couldn't make out many specific details through the darkness, she could see that the pony closest to her was a unicorn, and regarding the small frame it was most likely a mare. While she was following the others she kept looking around the forest in apparent fascination, and Twilight assumed that it was her first time visiting the Everfree, and that she might have been the one careless enough to leave the hoofprint behind for her to find.
However, Twilight's focus was mostly on the other two ponies with the unicorn, or to be precise on the wings attached to their sides. Squinting her eyes she tried to get a better look, but the darkness made it impossible. While she was certain about the group being part of the Night Forces, it was also possible that it was a group of adventurers foolish enough to explore the forest.
Just when she was about to get closer one of them began stretching slightly, showing his wings in the process which allowed Twilight to see that they were in fact not the normal feathery wings of pegasi, but more leathery, like the wings of bats.
"Thestral...," Twilight muttered to herself, narrowing her eyes.
Thestrals had been a thorn in Equestrias side for countless centuries. Corrupted by darkness these ponies had been preying on innocent lives since the founding of the country, always hiding in the darkness. Long ago they aided the Mistress of Darkness in her war against the Queen, and nowadays they continue the fight as agents of the Night Forces.
Their identities now confirmed Twilight's eyes wandered back to the unicorn mare who was still looking around while following her partners. Not showing any kind of fear or anything at all indicating a kidnapping it was clear that she was one of countless traitors that turned their back on Equestria and followed the darkness and its false promises willingly.
Just the thought of somepony betraying the Queen and all of Equestria made Twilight growl in disgust, but there was nothing she could do about it.
The group had nearly disappeared by now in between the trees, and Twilight carefully moved after them, keeping enough distance to not be spotted. Sooner or later this patrol would return to their hideout, and they are leading her right to it.
~*~
Twilight followed the patrol from the shadows until she came to the edge of a cliff overlooking an area that was hidden from the air by the huge treetops above. Contained within was a camp made up of many tents, magical fires to provide warmth and at least three dozen armed guards of the Night Forces.
With a grin on her face Twilight observed the camp from her position. She had fulfilled the first part of her assignment and found them, now she only had to find out what they were doing here and maybe find a prisoner to bring back with her.
While there have been rumors of a huge hidden base of the Night Forces somewhere deep in the Everfree, Twilight could tell this was by far not that base. From the look of it this camp has been built at most a week before her arrival, so there had to be a reason for their presence.
Twilight knew that getting into that camp would be no easy feat with the amount of guards around, not even accounting for the fact that she had no idea where to look once inside the camp, but maybe whatever they were looking for was still outside the camp.
Observing the surrounding area Twilight saw something of interest on her left: the ruins of an old castle, not too far away from the camp. That could be the reason for their presence, and even if not it was a good hiding place to overlook them from a safe distance. Either way it would be worth investigating.
With her decision made Twilight slowly moved backwards away from the cliff, keeping her eyes open in case of more patrols, before she moved between the trees towards the castle.
~*~
It took Twilight nearly an hour to reach the castle without being noticed by patrolling guards. Getting inside the castle instead was much easier, but considering the worn down state it was in it was no surprise.
A quick surveillance of the interior revealed nothing of interest. No matter where she looked, she found nothing but dust and rubble. The only object that looked even slightly interesting was a six-armed pedestal in the main hall that might have once upon a time held some kind of magical artifacts, but the non-existing magical residue made it clear that those have been gone for a very long time.
This at least meant that it was unlikely that the Night Forces would disturb her during her observation besides the occasional patrol, so Twilight set herself up in a small room on the top floor close to the main hall, with a now frameless window facing towards their camp. High enough that she could observe them with her binoculars without being noticed too easily, but not too high so that the trees would block her line of sight. It was the perfect observation point.
Too perfect for Twilight's liking. Either they expected someone to spy on them from the castle and set a trap, or the one in command is an idiot to not secure this area. Either way, she kept her eyes and ears open and her magical wards up to identify and warn her of any approaching danger.
Hours past as Twilight watched the camp and nothing of interest happened. No matter how often she swept over the camp, nothing stood out to her that gave any clue on why they are in the Everfree, or even that there was a specific leader among them. It seemed more like they were waiting for something or someone to arrive.
Taking a sip of water from her canteen Twilight looked up into the sky. Judging by the moon's position it was nearly three in the morning, which meant the night was nearly over and that she needed to look for another place of observation. In daylight it would be too easy to spot her looking through the window and her binoculars might reflect the sun and show her position.
Just as she was about to leave she noticed movement in the camp. A look through her binoculars showed her that the guards seemed excited and pointed at something in the sky somewhere in her general direction. Moving to another window to get a better look Twilight gasped when she saw a bright ball of light hanging in the sky just above the castle, but it didn't take long for the light to diminish. It left behind a dark shape in the sky she couldn't make out properly in the darkness.
Moments after its appearance the shape started moving towards her, and Twilight quickly dove into cover, thinking that she had been located. A loud crash echoed through the room and dust clouds swirled around. Twilight coughed as dust covered the entire room and her head began pounding from all her wards going off at the same time. She quickly released her wards, casting another spell to get rid of the dust and crouched down to be ready to fight back whatever was attacking her, but after the dust was gone from her immediate surrounding and nothing happened she realized that whatever that shape in the sky had been did in fact not attack her, but fell from the sky.
Twilight knew that she had to get out of there. Whatever that thing was, it got the attention of the Night Forces, and judging by their reactions upon seeing it in the sky they would be here very soon to investigate, but this was her opportunity to see what they have been waiting for, and maybe even acquire it before they could.
Twilight stepped closer to where the object had fallen as the remaining dust surrounding it slowly settled down. She came to an abrupt stop, her eyes growing wide and her jaw dropping when she realized that the object from the sky was a pony.
She had a midnight blue coat, and her dark blue twinkling mane wavered without a breeze, reminding Twilight of the night sky. Her body was covered in injuries and bruises and her eyes were closed, but the steady rising of her chest indicated that she was alive. That alone was a miracle regarding the height she fell from and that she crashed through the roof, but what held Twilight's attention was something completely different.
Spread out from the mares side were two glorious wings, and she had a horn, which made it clear that she was an alicorn.
"That's impossible..." Twilight whispered, a shiver running down her spine. There was only one other known alicorn in history. She slowly moved her head to look up at the ceiling and through the hole the mare had left behind when she crashed, her eyes widening even further.
The mare in the moon was gone.
Looking back down she tensed when she saw that the alicorn had opened her eyes and was staring at her.
"Who... are... you?" she said quietly between hard, labored breaths. Twilight found herself frozen in place. Her mind locked up, unable to process the situation she found herself in. What are you supposed to do when a god-like being crashes through the roof?
Twilight was so lost in her mind that she never heard the approaching footsteps until it was too late and the guards of the Night Forces were upon her. Snapped out of her frozen state she fought back, but she was greatly outnumbered. Her eyes met once more the alicorns who was watching the scene from the floor before she got hit by a spell and her vision turned to darkness.