//------------------------------// // Running Away // Story: No More Magic // by Ninjayorkshire //------------------------------// The Everfree Forest was home to a diverse range of dangerous creatures, in this Celestia forgotten woods few ponies dared to enter, one of this ponies was Twilight Sparkle, she would frequently scout this wretched grove, researching about the different types of magic that were found in the shadowy place. And again the unicorn found herself in the middle of that cryptic area, but her situation was not like the other times, this time she wasn't calmly walking trough the bushes to find new samples for research, that day she was madly rushing trough the labyrinth of trees, her white robe was shred by the sharp branches and now it‘s pieces laid scattered in forest’s soil, her safety goggles were lost in the multitude of flora and fauna. But her way of movement was not the only thing that differed that day from the others, in any other day Twilight would be in her top condition in both physical and mental standards before entering Everfree, but fate had lead her to be now in the most dangerous area in all Equestria without food and water, with her ribs broken, her coat full of bruises and her mind thrown deep in a whirlpool of confusion. “At least here I won’t hurt anypony, Celestia can find a better apprentice, Spike has friend that like and will take care of him” The pony stumbled in the root of a tree and fell in the ground, the strain of running an hour without stop together with the pain of broken bones and the sorrow of a future without seeing her friends and family made her body stop working. Her mind was following her physical form’s example, the light signals that got to her eyes became confuse, everything was transformed in a multicolored blur, even the sounds lost their meaning, her world, that was now incomprehensible, began to get darker and darker, spite that she managed to get a glimpse of something getting nearer, it was a mixture of red and orange that smelled like sweat and apples, but before she could tell what the figure was everything got pitch black. The sheer darkness embraced Twilight, in all directions she could only she a endless void, and that pure emptiness stayed for what she thought was some minutes, until something caught her attention, a source of light, the illuminating beams escaped from a rectangular shaped opening that seemed to call the unicorn to it’s encounter, she tried to answer it’s pleading by running towards the exit, but something was strapped to her legs preventing her from getting to the light. She looked again to the hole in the dark expanse, only to find it was a opened door in the end of a corridor, Twilight blinked, she wasn't more in the black nothingness, she was now in a stone pathway that leaded to a opened wood door “MOVE” a voice came from nowhere and scared the poor mare, she tried to walk, but when she lifted one of her legs she felt a cold pressure against her coat, looking down she found the source of this alien felling, there were shackles, that bounded not only her four legs but also her neck. Questions began to surface in the unicorn’s mind asking why she was in that situation, the questions would have to wait “I SAID MOVE!” again the disembodied voice appeared, now clearly angry with Twilight’s refuse to walk. “Okay, okay I will walk” So the purple mare slowly proceeded toward the door, every step she completed made the characteristic sound of metal hitting itself. As she started to get closer from the only source of light in the stone pathway, she could hear voices, every inch closer to the opening made the sound clearer, till she finally deciphered the sound, there was a mob of ponies cheering, but they weren’t yells of happiness like in the Summer’s Sun Celebration, they were screams of the most pure hate, swears that could easily traumatize a filly and a sadness so deep it could be felt even without words. When she finally made to the door she expected to be hit by the sunlight, but in the world outside there was no sun, the sky was populated by grey clouds. Seeing her outside made the ponies, who were screaming, to go quiet, Twilight took this chance to watch her surrounds. She was in a wood platform in the middle of a square; the ponies that stood in the ground level were all clad in black clothing, in the elevated area there were a group of ponies, that consisted of four ponies and a smaller form all wearing black hoods hiding their faces, a pink alicorn with multicolored mane and a bigger alicorn, who had a white coat and a flowing multicolored mane, her usual regalia was missing. Celestia’s horn lit, in a flash a scroll appeared in front of her imposing figure, with a booming voice that was more know to used by her sister, the alicorn started to recite the words written in the black piece of paper that she grasped with her magic “TWILIGHT SPARKLE, YOU HAVE BEEN FOUND GUILTY IN THE CHARGES OF MURDERING, FLUTTERSHY THE ELEMENT OF KINDNESS, A JURY OF YOUR EQUALS DECIDED THE EQUIVALENT PUNISHMENT FOR YOUR CRIMES TO BE DEATH IN THE GUILLOTINE”. Twilight could see the sadness in her tutor’s eyes when she proffered the sentence “DO YOU HAVE ANY FINAL WORDS?” The little unicorn could only swing her head and walk towards the guillotine that was placed in the middle of the wood construction; she placed her head in the contraption and waited. “MAY THE GODS HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOUL” With the swing of a rope the wood piece that held the scythe was dislocated and the steel blade began to fall. The unicorn waited, she waited to fell the cold touch of the metal going trough her neck, she waited to fell the hot blood gushing from the open wound and she waited to fell her head falling in the bucket. But what she felt was warmth in her closed eyelids; wanting to dissipate the forming heat she opened her eyes, only to fell the morning sun launching an attack at her eyes “Why there’s sun?” when her vision got used to the strong light she began to scout the surrounding space. She was in a bedroom, but not hers, the room where she was in had a single window a door and very little furniture, to be exact it only had a bed where she was sitting, a bedside table that had a cup of water in it and a closet, the walls were made of wood without painting or paper. “Where am I?” When she tried to leave the bed, she felt a strong pain coursing trough her body, looking down to her body she found the source of pain, all her chest area was bandaged and her coat was full of smaller patches of dressing. “What…” realization hit her, images of that morning incident began to flash trough her mind, again she began to feel exhausted both physically and mentally, and that exhaustion was too much for Twilight, forcing her to drift into deep sleep.