//------------------------------//
// Breakthrough 
// Story: The Rings of Dusk 
// by Scribblestick 
//------------------------------//

Twilight's lungs heaved as she shoved herself through the forest. "Spike!" she called, though the dragon had long since vanished from view. She choked down a sob and pushed forward. Branches whipped at her face. Thorny bushes cut her legs. She hardly noticed. "Spike!"

"Twilight." Luna's even voice sounded almost robotic beside Twilight's shrieks. Twilight kept pushing forward. "This blind chase will not help Spike, or us. We must make a plan."

Twilight ignored her, instead shoving her way through a tangle of branches. Several of them broke, leaving deep gashes in her chest and shoulders. The pain finally broke through her panic, and she fell back, gasping from exhaustion, fright, and guilt.

The forest was dark, as it always was away the beaten paths. Twilight's eyes darted around her, and her ears turned toward every tiny sound, hoping somehow that she'd find Spike running toward her. We must make a plan. She let Luna's advice burrow through the tumult of emotion that ruled her mind, until at last, she was able to think.

"Okay. Okay." Twilight took several deep breaths and paced as best she could in the undergrowth. "The things took Spike. They took him. That means we have to move fast."

Luna nodded. "The question is, how do we track it? My magic has so far been ineffective, and that creature is too agile and quick to leave a trail behind."

"Right. No trail, and no..." She paused, both in her pacing and in her thinking. The idea was there, the perfect plan, shining like a beacon in the night. She would have done it in an instant, except for the one glaring flaw.

"Twilight? Do you have an idea?" Luna asked.

Twilight's eyes darted to Luna's splinted wing. She shook her head. "No. It won't work."

"Perhaps not, but it may be a good starting point," Luna said.

She sighed. "All right. I know a spell that will help me track Spike. But I can't use magic, and I don't have time to teach it to you, so it doesn't matter."

"You could cast a spell," Luna said. The weight of her sentence, and its implications, settled in the air like storm clouds.

"No," Twilight said. "We're not doing that again."

"Very well. What other option do we have?"

The question only added to the pressure threatening to overcome her. Twilight wracked her brain for something, anything, they could do. She found only blank spaces, and soon her knees gave out beneath her. As she collapsed under the weight of terror and helplessness, a vice tightened around her heart, squeezing out a single, pitiful sob and a sprinkling of tears.

"Your fear is justified," Luna said, "both for Spike and for what may happen. You will have to face it, eventually. In my opinion, Twilight, that time has come."

Twilight forced herself to breathe. The focus steadied her nerves just enough to think about what Luna had said. Spike needs me to be brave, she thought. I have to be brave, for him and for me.

Slowly, she rose to her hooves. "Okay. I... I'm ready to try."

Luna's horn glowed, sending shimmering magic around the rings on Twilight's body. "Remember that whatever vision you see, it is not real," she said. "I am here with you, not those dark creatures."

Twilight nodded. "Don't remove the one around my wings," she said. "That will slow me down if I lose control."

Luna nodded in return. The magic around the larger ring faded, and the smaller one slipped off of her horn. Twilight felt a surge of magic, but she forced it back. Focus on the spell, she thought, allowing a bit of magic to channel through her horn. A shimmering path appeared before her, winding erratically through the trees. "There," she said. "I see it."

Before she could take a step, a sudden surge of magic overwhelmed her control. Pain flashed through her head. When her vision cleared, she found herself in a dense jungle. The shimmering path still lay before her, only it appeared much longer than it had before.

TWILIGHT. ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?

She jumped at the booming voice. A red-eyed creature stood just behind her, watching intently. Her body screamed at her to run away, but she forced her terror to stay at bay. It's not real, she told herself. That's Luna. We're looking for Spike. Spike needs me. I have to stay focused.

TWILIGHT.

Twilight shook her head to clear away the fear. It worked, but only barely. "I'm okay," she gasped between the strain of maintaining the spell and staying in place. "I'm okay for now," she added. "Let's go."

Twilight took off at a slow trot, following the winding trail. She sensed the red-eyed creature following her, and more than once she had to pause to remind herself that it wasn't real. Her magic ebbed and swelled seemingly at random, and maintaining her tracking spell became nearly impossible. After what felt like hours, she said, "Put the ring on."

The visions and spell ended, and she felt herself falling over. Luna caught her with magic and held her until she recovered her strength. "Well?" Twilight asked. "How far do you think we went?"

"We have been walking for about 15 minutes," Luna answered.

"15 minutes?" She threw herself to the ground with a groan. "I thought we'd been at it for hours!"

"It appears your condition affects your perception of time as well," Luna observed. Twilight covered her face with a foreleg and groaned some more. "Little progress is better than no progress," Luna reminded her.

It's not fast enough, she thought, but what choice do I have? She stood up and prepared to enter her nightmare world again. Please, Spike. Hold on. I'm doing the best I can.

The day wore on in 20-minute loops. If Luna felt frustrated by their slow pace, she didn't show it. Twilight felt like her soul was slowly being crushed under the weight of her own inadequacy, but she pressed on, even as the sun set and the shadows deepened. Luna raised the moon during one of Twilight's breaks, and it was another hour before they reached the trail's end.

"Well. This is... interesting," Luna said as Twilight practically collapsed from exhaustion.

"I don't care," Twilight mumbled. "Where's Spike?"

Luna stepped wordlessly around her. Twilight's heart began to pound at the silence. "It appears you've led us to another of these obelisks," Luna said.

Twilight followed her gaze. The obelisk stood in the center of a pond. For an instant, Twilight saw herself taking a long drink from its glassy depths. "I've been here before," she said. "This place.... This is the jungle. That's what I've been seeing every time I use magic."

"And this monument must be why this place remains in your memory," Luna reasoned. "Come look at the markings."

Twilight dutifully hauled herself upright and stood beside Luna. "Unicorns," she said, scanning the pale blue lines. "It looks like they're casting a spell on the one in the center."

"They're channeling energy through the center one," Luna explained. "I remember this method of spellcasting, from our early days as rulers of Equestria. It replaced the old chanting methods of casting spells. Each unicorn would say a small part of the spell, and the one in the center would combine their efforts into a single effect. Quite ingenious, if less efficient than the current style."

"Spike mentioned seeing information about unicorn magic in my notes," Twilight said. She looked closer at the center unicorn - specifically, their horn. "It's pointing that way," she said. "Back the way we came."

"And that cloud arrow we saw last night was pointing in this direction," Luna said. "Each must point to the others' location."

"But why?" Twilight wondered out loud. "Did the old pony tribes make these to help them find each other? But, why would earth ponies not have one as well? And what does any of this have to do with those shadow creatures, or these rings?"

"I am not certain," Luna answered as she withdrew paper and quills from her bags. "I will trace these markings, as I did the others. Perhaps looking at them side by side will give us additional clues." Luna paused for a moment. "Didn't you say Spike's trail ended here?"

Twilight gasped. How could she have forgotten? She pictured the trail's end in her mind. She rushed to the edge of the pond. "Here," she said. "It ended here." She looked around, but saw no sign of the dragon. "Where is he?"

Luna joined her and looked around, shedding light in the immediate area. "Perhaps he moved on," she suggested.

"The spell should have shown that," Twilight said. "Spike!"

"Think. Don't panic," Luna said. "Is there anything that could interfere with the trail? Anything that could wipe it clean, so to speak?"

"There is a concealment spell, but it's tricky. You wouldn't find it way out here," she said.

"Perhaps some creature, then," Luna suggested. "It would come as no surprise to me if some animal in this forest could disrupt Spike's trail."

The thought of Spike facing down yet another monster nearly sent Twilight into a paralyzing panic. "Spike!" she called. "SPIKE!"

The two searched the entire perimeter on the chance that Twilight had misremembered the trail's end. It was only at the end of their search that Luna spotted something promising.

"Look," she said. "Hoof marks. Fresh ones. Somepony was here earlier today."

"They're overlapped with Spike's prints," Twilight added, peering in the dim light shed by Luna's horn. "Spike must have gone with them." The thought calmed her nerves immensely. He wasn't in the grip of that shadow creature or some other monster. "He's with a pony."

Luna followed the trail until it entered the treeline. "They went this way," she declared. "I think it would be unwise to follow them now."

Although Twilight would have liked to find Spike, she couldn't argue. Now that her nerves had been eased, a deep exhaustion settled on her. She yawned. "Yeah. We should get some rest."

Luna gathered some wood and got a fire going while Twilight looked at the drawings she'd made of the obelisks. They were stylistically similar, indicating they had been made at around the same time, perhaps even by the same craftsponies. "I wonder," she said, "who was meant to see these?"

"Pegasi and unicorns, respectively," Luna answered. "They can only be seen by those types of ponies, after all."

"Yes, but why?" Twilight pressed. "What's the purpose? Why go to the trouble of having them point to each other if they can't be seen by one pony? Unless..."

"Unless...?" Luna repeated.

"Unless they're not meant for unicorns or pegasi," Twilight answered. "What if they're meant for alicorns?"

Luna stroked her chin thoughtfully. "It is an interesting thought, but as far as we know, only four alicorns have ever set hoof in Equestria - and two of those fairly recently."

"You could say the same thing about these rings," Twilight replied. "If these are meant for alicorns, why not these obelisks?"

Luna's gaze drifted to the drawing Twilight had been studying. "These lines," she said. "They look..." She stacked the two pieces of paper and held them up in the firelight. Twilight gasped.

"It's a map," she said. "A topographical map."

"Indeed. And look," Luna continued. "This is the clearing, and this is the pond."

Twilight leapt to her hooves, her exhaustion momentarily forgotten. "And the cloud arrow and horn. They're pointing right there!"

The two mares smiled at one another. "Well, now," Luna said. "It appears we are starting to make headway."