//------------------------------//
// A Ruined Castle 
// Story: Daughters of Dusk 
// by PoneFluff 
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Still reeling from the force of impact, the dark shape’s wail petered into a pathetic whimper. Her ears rang from her own cries, her nose burnt at the scent of rot and decay all around her. Raspy, shuddering breaths filled the silence as her eyes burst open. The two brilliant purple orbs swam with tears, flitting from place to place as they searched for something… anything familiar. 

Her first attempt to rise to her hooves only succeeded in provoking a cry of pain. The source of her agony was soon revealed to be Her wing, bent and bleeding. Her once meticulously preened and cared for feathers were broken and splattered with blood. Slowly she drew another breath, recalling the emergency spell package her mother had made sure she’d memorised. 

A purple glow lit from her horn as she began to cast the spell package. The first spell ran through her body quickly, flowing into the next. The second spell was a targeted healing spell, eliciting another yelp of pain as her wing bones snapped back together. Immediately after came an anaesthetic, numbing the pain before the glow from her horn died. 

With her wing healed as best she could, the small alicorn started to look around her surroundings. The building panic and fear inside her only further fueled by the seemingly desolate building she was in. 

“H-hello? M-mom? Is anypony there?” Her voice called out, softly echoing back at her off the mossy stone walls. The banners on the walls looked somewhat familiar to her. The faded outline of a white alicorn bearing the mark of the sun on her flanks calmed her growing fear slightly. At least she was still in Equestria.

As she took in her surroundings, her eyes finally stopped on the two thrones. If the blasted marble rubble could be called a throne anymore. Realisation dawned upon the filly as memories clicked into place. She had been here before, years ago, on Nightmare Night with her mom and sister. 

The thought of her sister brought a sudden burst of energy to the filly. Any building exhaustion was crushed by worry for her counterpart. From where she sat at the foot of the thrones, she could easily see the rest of the ruined throne room. From the blood on the wall, beside a fallen banner to the long since rotted carpets and tattered but still hanging banners. Yet, she couldn’t see any sign of her sibling. 

Tears pooled once more at the corner of her eyes as she looked at the blood splattered on the near wall. Dread started to claw its way into her heart as her ears folded against her head. Star couldn’t be gone. That was her blood, not her sister’s, right? Carried by her fear, the small alicorn galloped down from the thrones toward the bloodstain to search for any sign of her sister. 

“Star! Are you there?” She called, her voice wavering with each repetition of the words. The filly’s ears perked up as she heard something from the fallen banner beside her. As fast as her legs could carry her, she raced over to it, skidding to a halt before slowly poking at the fabric with her magic. 

The partially rotted material wasn’t hard to lift, revealing a small trail of dark crimson blood coming from further in the mound. Hazy’s breath hitched as she removed the rest of the banner, seeing the blue form of her sister limp on the floor. 

A pulse of magic lifted the limp body into her sister’s forelegs, which immediately cradled the diminutive body. The tears practically burned as they rolled down the dark filly’s cheeks. She couldn’t find words to speak as she held her sister tightly. Silently she prayed to Faust that she wouldn’t lose her lil’ Star.

Fearing the worst, the small alicorn pressed her ear to Star’s barrel. Time felt as if it slowed down as she listened, not noticing how she held her breath. Seconds ticked past until, with a groan, Star’s green eyes slowly opened. The two seafoam green orbs were different sizes, Star’s gaze was unfocused. Yet it was enough to make out the familiar filly holding her.

“Hazy? W-where are we?” Before the blue filly could continue speaking, she was cut off by her sister, tightening the hug. Hazy’s body shuddered as tears ran free, and she sobbed, relieved that her sister was alive, having finally broken her facade of strength. Not missing a beat, Star nuzzled against her sister, stretching her wings to try and hug her back. As she reached out with her wings, Star hissed in pain, raising a hoof to a cut on her neck. 

Hazy lifted her head at that noise, spotting the cut and igniting her horn to heal the oozing wound. As Hazy closed her eyes to focus on the spell package, Star looked around, taking in the soft orange light streaming through glassless windows and holes in the wall. Outside as far as she could see stretched trees, with a small trail of smoke in the distance. The whole scene was strangely beautiful in the blue filly’s opinion. Star spoke, barely louder than a whisper, only loud enough to be heard over the soft hum of her sister’s spell. “Sis, look”

Following her sister’s request, hazy turned her head to look out at the sunset and cloudy sky outside. Peaking just over the top of the forest looked like the ponyville town hall, which didn’t make any sense. If the town hall’s pinnacle was visible, her mother’s castle should have easily been visible. The whole crystalline construct dominated the horizon all around, for it not to be here only added more fuel to the fire of fear burning in Hazy’s core. 

“Where’s mom’s castle?” Star voiced the question on Hazy’s mind. In all her fourteen years of life, her mother had tried her best to drill a firmly analytical mindset into the dark-coated filly. Hazy remained silent, her eyebrows furrowed in thought. She couldn’t remember what had led to them arriving here, just a void in her memory. “Sis, Mom’s coming, right?” 

“I...I don’t know.” The elder filly answered, closing her eyes and igniting her horn to try and feel out for their mother or anypony teleporting nearby. The cool sensation of opening her mind to the ambient ebb and flow of magic washed over her. She’d be able to feel anypony teleporting within a few miles easily. Any further than that, it’d have to be somepony especially powerful, like a worried alicorn mother, for example. The calmness she felt all around her unnerved the filly. She could almost always feel her mother’s presence. Like the other adult alicorns, Princess Twilight practically radiated power, sending waves throughout the ambient magic of Equestria. However, all Hazy could feel was two sets of distant ripples. The world around her felt far more empty all of a sudden, instead of being able to tap into the ambient magic and feel comforted at the presence of the rest of her tribe. 

“Where is everypony?” The filly said, rising to her hooves and feeling as her sister followed suit. The pair’s hoofsteps echoed out into the vast throne room, the late evening light spilling in and turning the otherwise greystone a warm orange. As her horn glowed, she felt a pulse, something incredibly powerful nearby. It wasn’t like an alicorn’s magic. It felt...older. Whatever it was, it seemed further into the castle. 

Extinguishing the glow of her horn, Hazy led the duo towards the edge of the throne room to what seemed to be a wrecked door frame. Blackened stone surrounded it as if it had been blasted off its hinges. Wary of whatever had happened, the two fillies stayed close, a black wing stretched protectively over Star’s shoulders. They both remained silent, but they could feel the faintest echoes of powerful magic that practically oozed from the burn marks. 

The corridor they found themselves in led deeper into the castle. A mixture of rotted furniture juxtaposed by pristine pieces of art decorated the walls ahead of them. Before them, the corridor continued into the darkness, small stripes of light entering through the cracks in doors. With a frustrated little hum, Star ignited her horn, filling the dark with a gentle golden aura. In the safety of her sister’s light, Hazy forged on, her ears picked up on the sound of Star following behind her.

As they continued, natural light became rarer and rarer, instead replaced by empty torch brackets and smashed chandeliers littering the floor. Edging around the shards of crystal, the pair gasped in awe as their eyes settled on two doors built opposite each other. If she had any doubt, these doors removed it. 

“B-but these were taken to canterlot last hearth warming?” Star whispered at Hazy’s side. Before them lay what someponies would consider to be among the most renowned historical artefacts in Equestrian history. The bedroom doors of Luna and Celestia, each a peerless work of art that would only open for an Alicorn. Their true splendour, however, was only revealed in the presence of the owner of the rooms. Hazy remembered all her mom’s work into getting the doors extracted and snuck to canterlot to surprise the sisters. The weeks spent sat beside her mother and watched her work on the enchantments to restore the doors to their full glory. Yet, here the doors sat, worn down and neglected. 

Before Hazy could act, a golden glow had surrounded the door handle and started to push the lunar themed door open. Glittering sapphires and silver inlaid into the door sparkled as, with a groan, it began to open. In the silence, the hinged practically screamed in protest against the sudden motion. The sound of metal snapping joined the building cacophony. Hazy lit her horn at a grunt of strain from her sister and started to push against the immense door. Under the force of their combined magic and with a rumble rivalling that of a hungry dragon, the door finally gave way to allow them access into Princess Luna’s bedroom. 

The room was lavishly furnished, dark oak furniture covered in what must have been inches of dust. A walk-in wardrobe sat in the far corner, besides a floor-to-ceiling mirror, allowing Hazy and Star to catch a glimpse of themselves in it as they walked in. What struck Hazy the most about the room was that practically all the furniture was enchanted. The entire room seemed to be drenched in protective spells to ward off the progress of time. 

Star giggled and bolted across the room towards the wardrobe, drawing a soft sigh from her sister. Meanwhile, Hazy’s eyes were drawn to the bedside bookshelf. Thanks to her mother, books were a passion for her, and she hoped that they could hold clues to what exactly was going on. If this was some strange prank by Discord, he’d never had been able to fill out the books. It was too orderly, she guessed. 

With an ear pointed towards the sounds of her sister, Hazy pulled a book at random. The tome seemed to be bound in leather, which was enough to make her stomach lurch. How barbaric she noted with slight disdain at the idea of some poor creature being used for bookbinding. Cracking the hefty volume open revealed page after page of dense numbers, scrawling hornwriting and what seemed to be the occasional doodle of a large bird. Hazy cleared her throat, picked a line at random and started to softly read through the page to herself. 

“Harvest predictions in line with previous years actual harvest yield despite earlier drought and the higher average summer heat. Leading from this, inquire whether additional grain shall be distributed amongst the poor to supplement local supplies to prevent any potential shortages. The cost of such distribution shouldn’t affect crown coffers in the long term. The short term right worthwhile to ensure ponies are fed.” Hazy finished the line at the top of the page, examining the rest of the paragraph for any sort of inconsistency that might suggest Discord’s involvement. To her continued horror, the page was as densely packed as the line she’d read and just as if not more technical. The possibility that this was all a prank pulled by the chaotic draconequus was growing slimmer by the moment. The filly suppressed a shudder at the idea that they had somehow been flung away from their home.

“Look at these!” A gleeful cry from behind her snapped Hazy from her thoughts, turning revealed Star clad in a near full-body cloak patterned like the night sky. A second cloak held in her magic hovered right beside her. “I found these hoods in the wardrobe, and they’re so soft. Want one?” 

As she opened her mouth to tell her sister to put them back, Hazy was met by the full force of Star’s puppy dog eyes. For anypony who had not been exposed to an alicorn filly’s puppy dog eyes, Starswirl the bearded recorded that an alicorn’s second greatest strength is their magical prowess, only superseded by the potency of an Alicorn filly’s begging to wear down any creature’s resilience. Hazy practically crumbled under her sister’s pleading gaze, reaching her magic out to collect the hood from her sister. With some minor adjustments, the two sisters paused to admire their new outfits. The night sky patterned fabric gleamed in the light.

“Is this silver?” Hazy asked, prodding at the cloak with a hoof as Star nodded happily. Her wide, enthusiastic grin betrayed the excitement at her find she felt.

“Mhm! I think we can use them as a spell focus like the cookie jar back home!” The two siblings stifled laughter at the memory of their first foray into more complicated magic. Enchanting a cookie jar in an attempt to preserve their stolen bounty of confectionery goodness...and accidentally creating a cookie jar that would turn invisible when the lid was removed. 

“I still wonder where that went.” All Hazy received from her sister was a shrug before the excitable buzz of her wings filled the void of their conversation. As Star resumed her exploration, the older filly reached out with her magic. The strange magic feeling was closer but still seemed to be further into the castle. 

The golden doors across from Luna’s abandoned bedroom practically called to Hazy, her curiosity eventually propelling her to investigate. With a firm shove of her magic, one of the golden doors swung open, the hinge creaking in protest as it revealed a desolate room. Patches of pristine floor suggested that this room had once held furniture that had been removed when the castle was abandoned. 

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Hunting for the source of the strange magic led Hazy and Star deeper into the castle, weaving their way through long-abandoned corridors. The pair stopped as they had to shove one final door open, a rush of cold air passing them. Hazy squinted as she stepped out into the last rays of a setting sun. 

The hall they found themself in was utterly ruined, empty arched windows allowing a clear view out over the vast forest surrounding the castle. A bitter wind blew through the hall. The sharp chill practically tore at the two fillies’ extremities. However, what lay at the far end of the hall on a raised plinth held both of their attention. Any shock of the cold was forgotten as their thoughts raced. For Hazy, her fears were confirmed. They truly were far from home. Whilst Star simply pressed herself closer to her sister, unsure what this could mean. Across from them lay the elements of harmony, dormant after losing their connection to the previous bearers. 

Before either could find the words to ask what they felt, a cold blue light fell across the hall, spilling through the empty arches beside the fillies. Slowly, the two turned to look, outside the moon had begun to rise. On its surface, something that neither of them had been alive to see first hoof. The mare in the moon, in all her glory, was displayed upon the surface of the moon. A vast arrangement of craters, forming the shape of an Alicorn’s head and driving the truth home for the elder of the two fillies.

“We need to get to ponyville. Mom should be there, right? I-if the elements are here, and She’s up there,” Hazy spoke, pointing at the moon with a hoof. “Then mom should be in ponyville. She’ll know what to do, I’m sure of it.”

With a destination now in mind, the fillies bolted for the doorway behind them. The thunder of their hooves echoing around the empty castle as they fled through it, retracing their steps as fast as they could. All that stood between them and Ponyville was a vast forest, which, if Hazy remembered from her mom’s stories, was home to all sorts of monsters that ate ponies...