//------------------------------// // Messages // Story: Vae Victis // by Eggroll //------------------------------// ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ஜ۩۞۩ஜ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Messages ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ஜ۩۞۩ஜ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ “Huh? Where am I...” thought a confused Twilight Sparkle, waking up to see herself surrounded by trees. Slowly getting up from the leafy forest floor, she looked around in all directions to see nothing but trees. Not knowing what to do, she started walking in one direction.“I must be in the Everfree! But...I don't recognize this part.” She kept walking forward. Not getting anywhere, she looked up to the night sky to see it was getting dark. “Hello?!” she cried out in exasperation. “Is anyone out there? Hello!” Stumbling around the forest, hoping to find any form of life, she suddenly stopped. The air felt colder and she could feel another presence watching her. Looking around, she thought she caught something out of the corner of her left eye. Turning around and bracing herself in a battle stance, she saw nothing but trees. Resuming her previous direction, but still keeping an eye on her left, she eventually turned her head and saw a very tall pony. Twilight stopped again. This was the last creature from the portal. Twilight suddenly felt very sick and started to cough. She tried to get away, but passed out on the floor. “Twilight?” called out a concerned voice. “Twilight!” the voice called out again. This voice continued to call out for some time, before starting to shake her awake. Slowly opening her eyes, Twilight quickly shut them to keep out the harsh light that was above her. Opening her eyes again, she saw a purple dragon standing at the foot of her bed looking up at her. “You were coughing in your sleep, 'Twi.” said the purple dragon. “Who...?” asked Twilight, still remembering the dream. “It's me, Spike! Are you all right? Maybe you should go see a doctor.” he said as he went to get a scroll. “No! It's fine. It's fine...” hastily replied Twilight.”What time is it?” “It's already noon, and I'm starving.” answered Spike while cracking open a rock. “Mm, sapphires!” he said, chomping down on the blue gems. “Well, I'm going to go visit Zecora and ask her advice on some things.” said Twilight. Grabbing her saddlebags and filling them with papers, she headed out the door and towards the Everfree Forrest. She knew full well that she could teleport to the edge of the Everfree and cut the two hour walk in half, but she needed this time to think about her late encounters. Pulling out a piece of paper, she began to write while walking, levitating the piece of paper in front of her while writing with the inked feather. Day 1 A strange and horrible being from another dimension, presumably a parallel dimension, has entered through a portal that was created by the Doctor, a brown colt who asked me to help him to further the studies of parallel dimension travel. We did make contact thanks to my knowledge of teleportation and his “amplifier”, but this creature, along with two others still came through. The first creature to come out of the portal was a pony with a mask that momentarily incapacitated me, skewing my vision (via tackle). I couldn't get a clear view of the second or third creature, the former acting beast-like, while the latter I can't remember besides he was very tall for a pony. Last night, I had a dream about the last creature. I was in the Everfree during the night time. The part of the Everfree Forest I'm not sure of. The trees were more spaced out and I could see the sky from below. I remember wandering around a bit, then feeling something wrong. The air grew colder and I felt eyes on me. I turned to my left and saw nothing but trees. However, when I turned back in the direction I was going, I saw the creature standing there, watching me. I started coughing and then woke up. At this point, Twilight Sparkle could see the Everfree Forest. Putting her notes and writing supplies back in her saddlebags, she galloped the rest of the way to the edge of the Everfree, and started walking around it, looking for the familiar path that lead to Zecora's house. However, when she got there, she noticed something...off. Looking closely, she noticed that some trees had circles with crosses through them. “These new markings looked freshly carved by the look of them.” noted Twilight, again producing the note paper and writing a small addition to the previous notes. Something was still off about these symbols. This little nagging feeling at the back of her mind. She knew she saw these before, but couldn't put a hoof on it. Still trying to remember where she saw these symbols, she began the half hour walk to Zecora's hut in the Everfree. Lost in thought, she heard a snap behind her that jostled her out of her thoughts. She turned pale white and slowly turned around. Twilight wanted to turn around and make a run for it, but she just couldn't move. Another snapping of twigs, this time to her right. She again turned towards the source of the sounds. She couldn't see anything or anyone in the trees. Walking off the path, she saw a piece of paper taped to a tree. “Bit of an odd place for a note.” Twilight said out loud. Slowly walking towards it, she used her magic to take down the strange note and saw the same slashed circle on the front of the paper in black ink. Turning it over, there was another symbol, this time two eyes crossing over each other forming a four pointed star. On each corner of the note was one word in small print. Reading from the upper-left to bottom-right, a message was formed. “We are always watching.” she read. Looking at the note closer, there seemed to be a red stain on the lower-right corner. Analyzing the note for any further evidence, she didn't notice a pony in the trees far behind her, watching her every movement with cold, emotionless eyes. “I don't know, it's just that I hear these horrible voices telling me to do things to my best friends. They're like family to me! They mean so much to me, but I want to do these things to them...” Silence follows. “Yeah, your right. Thanks!” said a satisfied cyan pony as she got out of her chair and headed off to work, like every morning for about a week. The random note appearing out of thin air disturbed Twilight quite deeply. That wasn't the main reason, though. It was what's on the note. A combination of both symbols and the message. The first symbol seemed to be popping up everywhere in the Everfree. Looking into the farthest depths of her mind, she tried to remember where or when she first encountered the now recurring sign. Looking back at her notes for any help, she suddenly remembered where she first saw it. “The pony in the mask...” she muttered to herself. His cutie mark was a red version of this symbol. Wandering along the path in the dark forest, she wondered how much longer until she got to Zecora's house, when it suddenly loomed into view. Her hut was still creepy as usual, but it seemed abandoned. Galloping up to a window, Twilight peered inside and saw nothing. “All this time for just a note?!” she shouted. She quieted down immediately, remembering she was still in the Everfree and there were other creatures. As she started walking towards the entrance of the forest, she remembered the Zecora spent most of her afternoons gathering herbs and other ingredients for her potions. Of course, that didn't help much because Twilight still didn't know where Zecora was. The Everfree Forest was big, and Zecora could be anywhere. Walking back towards Zecora's hut, she noticed another note on her door, similair to the one before. “Oh, no...” said Twilight as she took the note down. This time the note was a perfect square, unlike the torn up note she took down earlier. On the front was a symbol, this time the eye within a star symbol. There were no messages, but there was a picture on the back of the note. The Everfree was dark this deep in the forest, so Twilight had to cast a small illumination spell to see. Closing her eyes and concentrating on the light, a small purple glow shimmered at the tip of her horn. “There we go! Now let's see what this picture is abou--” Twilight stopped mid-sentence, mouth gaping wide. On the picture were two ponies, a blue stallion with a white mare. Their faces were crossed out, and the crossed circle symbol was over their cutie marks, but Twilight Sparkle could recognize the couple anywhere. “Mom? Dad?” she said. Below the picture were two simple words: Found you. The very sight of the defaced picture made her sick. Somepony was messing with her, and she was going to find out who. The symbols should could handle, but now...this? The only possible person who left behind all these signs was the masked pony, and surely he couldn't have broken into her library home. Taking the photo and putting it in her saddlebags, Twilight continued searching, this time not so much for the whereabouts of Zecora, but rather any other signs about the masked pony. Circling around the wooden hut, Twilight searched intently for any other hints or clues to the identity of the mystery pony. After her third time around the vicinity of Zecora's home, Twilight gave up searching for any clues. Sitting down with a sigh, she rested a bit, trying to make sense of all the messages. Setting the picture and note in front of her, Twilight tried to think of any meaning to the symbols. The only things she could conclude was that somepony was watching and following her every movement, and somepony has been sneaking around her library. At the thought of a stranger lurking stealing and defiling her personal belongings, Twilight began to wonder what else that he or she wanted. Getting up from the ground, Twilight started the long walk back to her library home. Passing by one of Zecora's windows in the front, Twilight didn't notice a mask seemingly moving by itself, following her, watching. ______________________________________________________________________________ A strangely silent Rainbow Dash could be seen clearing the skies and bucking clouds, if anypony cared to look up at the cyan pegasus. She was still thinking about her talk with Him today. She's been having the talk every morning for the past week or so. Their daily chats made her mind clear and put her mind to rest. Still, she needed more answers. Clearing the last cloud and finishing her work for the day, Rainbow Dash wondered who could help her and give her the answers she needed, and only one pony came into mind. Taking a deep breath, she flew off towards a certain ponies treehouse home. Her mind occupied on the thoughts of Him, she didn't notice that Twilight's treehouse was in front of her. Suddenly looking up, Rainbow Dash quickly turned a little to the left, aiming for the window she crashed through before so many times. Bracing herself and closing her eyes, Rainbow Dash waited for the sound of falling books and herself dropping to the floor. However, the feeling never came. At least she didn't feel it. When the reckless pegasus opened up her eyes, she saw darkness. “Ha! Didja see yourself? You flew like ten feet!” shouted a laughing voice from around Rainbow Dash. “Huh? Who?” said Rainbow getting up. All she could see around her was pitch black darkness. “Aww, forgotten about me already?” replied the voice. Trying to remember where she heard the familiar voice, Rainbow Dash suddenly perked her head up with recollection. “Your the voice I talk to in the morning!” “Atta girl! For someone who has her head in the clouds, your a bright one.” said the voice with a bit of glee. “W-what do you want from me?” “What do I want from you? I want to see if your ready for somethin'” answered the voice. “Ready for what?” asked Rainbow Dash. “You'll see, you'll see. I need to get a few others first. You ponies...your somethin' different, I'll give ya that.” said the mysterious voice before the blackness faded out. “Wait!” shouted Rainbow. “When will I know? And how will I know it when I see it?” she shouted again in vain. The black darkness faded away to gray, then white. ______________________________________________________________________________ Walking on the worn dirt road back to Ponyville, Twilight thought about the strange messages again. She couldn't get them out of her head. It was like an itch, and the only way to scratch it was to find out how the masked pony knew so much about her. The only place she could think of finding him was somewhere in the Everfree forest, since that's where all the notes were located. Pondering over the logic of a hideout place in the forest, Twilight started to notice the sky getting darker. Twilight looked up and saw a giant black cloud of smoke rising over Ponyville. Panicking, Twilight kicked it into overdrive and galloped as fast as she could towards her home town, thinking that her library house could have caught on fire. After all, it was a giant tree. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Rainbow Dash didn't know exactly where she was. She was just drifting in a white, endless void. Not flying, but actually drifting in air. There was only silence. It was the first time she'd been calm and at rest since last month with her friends. “My friends...” Rainbow Dash thought to herself. “Where could they be? I'm sure Applejack and Rarity would love to relax for a while. And Twilight, too. She's always studying in that treehouse of hers.” she thought to herself. “Twilight's...treehouse?” she thought to herself again. Suddenly remembering what she was doing before the talk, Rainbow woke lying on a floor with books littered around her. When she sat up, she was surrounded by blackness again. This time, however, was entirely different. The blackness wasn't pitch black like before; it was more like when you stuck your head inside a cloud. Except it stung her eyes, making them water. Those weren't the only things either. The new blackness smelled like...smoke. Beginning to cough, she started flapping her wings, clearing away some of it with the breeze generated from her wings. Finding the open window, Rainbow looked outside and saw a fire near Twilight's house. As one of the pegasi chosen for clearing the skies, Rainbow Dash took off from inside the house, flying through the open window and into open air. Gliding on an air current above the rising smoke, she double checked that she wasn't high enough in the air to pull off a Sonic Rainboom. Folding both wings to the sides of her body, Rainbow Dash dived down towards the burning fire. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ 79 6f 75 72 20 61 74 74 65 6e 74 69 6f 6e