When Twilight stepped out of the air in the library, she had expected to be greeted by the shocked yells of her #1 assistant, of at least once more be enveloped in the soft scent of warm, worn parchment. The library she entered ,though, was something very much not the same library she had last visited.
The most immediately obvious difference was the lighting. While when she had left, Twilight hadn’t been the most... vivacious mare, she had still clung to some of the more obvious trappings of her life. The most important of those were the almost unimaginable store of candles that lit the library in perpetual glory, alleviating at least some of the strain on the young pony’s eyes as she read the small print.
During the bright days of summer, Twilight and Spike and Owlicious would throw open the windows, and let the sunlight pour into the room. Often until long past the time the sun set, Twilight would leave the glass panels open, allowing Owlicious easy access to the library, and letting the warm breeze that came from the west to play through the rooms. Even in winter, though the windows remained tightly shut, Twilight would make sure that the colorful curtains arrayed around the room would be pulled back, letting the colder, whiter glare of the sun to shine into the tree-house.
The library Twilight stepped into was dark, with every curtain pulled tightly closed and not one of the many candles in place and stored on shelves and in closets lit. The only time Twilight had ever seen the place so dark was upon her arrival in Ponyville, when they had intentionally darkened the room to hide her surprise party.
The thought interrupted Twilight’s careful analysis, and she felt a smile tugging at her mouth. The events of that day and the following showdown with Nightmare Moon played through her mind in sporadic flashes. Rainbow Dash tornado-drying her hair. Pinkie gasping and running off. Her belly ached in the memory of the deliciously full feeling she had walked away with after her first encounter with the Apple family with, stuffed to the gills.
There wasn’t the unnatural quiet in the room now, and enough light filtered in through the closed curtains to give Twilight just enough light to see that nopony was crouched in the dim corners of the room. This wasn’t a party in waiting, this was what the library looked like when it was abandoned.
Twilight bit her lip, and took a few steps towards the front door. A single beam of light, broken by the wooden supports holding the clear glass. The light fell golden on the smooth wood of the floor, with its small black cross the only break in that perfect square.
Suddenly, the space seemed to close in around her. The darkness was suffocatingly, agonizingly close. It pressed against Twilight’s sides, crushing her lungs and making her breaths came out in pained gasps that swirled the thin layer of dust. Twilight’s eyes were squeezed tightly closed as she blindly hurried to the door, scrabbling for the doorknob.
The brass knob twisted after a moment of panic, and Twilight fell through the opening and into the street.
Her landing sent a cloud of dust puffing out around her, and Twilight huffed as she tried to catch her breath. Then, squinting against the sudden glare of the midday sunlight, She pushed herself to her feet slowly. Shaking herself as she rose, Twilight wiped the dust off of her coat, looking around.
Ponyville’s town square was almost unchanged since she had last seen it, with only the slightly dreary aura hanging over Sugarcube Corner as a sign that she had even left the quiet little town. Here and there, ponies went about their daily business with their usual cheery demeanor, wandering from stall to stall in the little farmer’s market, chatting with their friends.
Twilight remembered how the warm apple pie that the Apples always gave out on cold days would rest, warm and heavy in her belly during the chilly winter mornings, or the sweet, wet tang of the strawberry lemonade that the Berry’s would doll out left right and center during summer. no matter what the season, there was always somepony trying to make things easier, better for others. While Twilight wasn’t quite innocent enough to believe that they did it only out of kindness, she knew that even if they were sliding in a bit of self advertisement, they were nonetheless helping everypony.
She could just make out Big Macintosh slipping a steaming slice of pie onto a small plate for Fizzlepop. The magenta mare smiled, batting her eyelashes as she flirted with the stoic stallion. Big Macintosh seemed oblivious to her charms though, merely bowing slightly and moving to get another slice ready.
Fizzle’s head jerked back, affronted as Big Mac turned away from her, and Twilight knew that if she were only a little closer, she would be able to see tears welling in the mare’s eyes. Then she schooled her face into a cheerful smile, thanked Big Mac, and walked away, taking small, careful bits of her treat as she walked.
With her path thus cleared, Twilight made her way hastily over to the stallion, reaching the booth the Apple family had erected along the side of the street just as the red pony turned back to face outward. When he saw Twilight. he smiled carefully, nodding to his left, where a pie slice wrapped in wax paper rested, waiting for some hungry soul to wander by.
“Yes please. Thank you, Big Macintosh.”
The stallion nodded slowly, eyeing Twilight as he nudged the slice closer to her, then turned to prepare another.
“I was wondering. Have you- Oh sweet Celestia, that is so good.” Twilight interrupted herself, moaning as she took a small bite of the hot dessert. Her eyes rolled back for a moment as she savored the rich, sweet taste, with just enough tang to make it pop in her mouth. Perfection. “Umm, oh yes! Have you seen Applejack recently?”
That made the stallion, who had been quietly smiling to himself as she moaned in delight, look up sharply. The smile was gone now, replaced by something that looked almost like suspicion.
“Why? Ya’ll plannin’ a party?”
“No.” Twilight shook her head gently, taking another small bite of pie. “I just wanted to have a talk with all the girls.”
“You just did.” Big Mac’s soft gaze hardened slightly as he spoke, the suspicion now plain to see. “Applejack took ya ta Fluttershy’s house about two hours ago. Mighty big hurry, too. Somethin’ happen since then?”
Twilight’s eyes widened, and the pie slice slipped from her upraised hoof. It fell on the blue wooden counter of the booth with a warm, wet splat, sending chunks of sugary apple flying. Twilight turning in place, rearing slightly in her need to move.
By the time Big Mac looked up from the now messy counter, he was dazzled by a brilliant flash of light, and as that slowly faded, so too did any trace of the unicorn who had stood before him a moment ago.
After a few seconds of staring off towards the looming edge of the Everfree forest, Big Mac shook his head, and began to clean off the counter. There would be more ponies coming by for a slice of Granny Smith’s famous Triple Apple Surprise Pie soon.
“Oh Fluttershy!” Twilight called, ambling through the cottage. Her eyes flickered around her as she slowly walked, sliding from object to object, looking for where the shy pony might have hidden herself. “Where have you gone dear? Don’t you want to play one last time?”
The silence was broken only by the occasional, broken sob from one of the ponies ensnared in the main room of the small cottage. Twilight lifted her hoof and daintily hopped over a mass of webbing covering one of the many low sofas that cluttered the cottage. The wiry clump of web shook slightly as she passed it, and she could just barely hear the faint gasping as the creature trapped within struggled to breath. It would live through the ordeal, most likely.
“I promise, my love. I won’t hurt you.” Twilight purred, striding past the still comatose form of Rainbow Dash affixed to the wall beside her. Her eyes flicked to the bound mare, before they closed as she breathed a small, evil chuckle. “For long. Who knows, you seemed to enjoy it before.”
She rounded the corner, before setting out up the stairs. The blue wooden stairway resonated with each firm, confident step.
“Oh, I did so love the way you would moan. Like a cat in heat. How each little cut would make you shudder.”
Her taunting continued as she crested the staircase, setting off down the short hallway. The only room left was the mare’s bedroom, soon her prey would be beneath her once again. Her shadow seemed to grow as she walked, a tall, thin shape creeping along the walls behind her.
“Whatever will our little Dashie think?” She hummed, and her hoof reached out, gently pushing open the door. “To see you begging me to hurt you more. Moaning my name.”
The room was empty. The pegasus was gone, nowhere to be found inside the small house. The only sign of her quarry’s passage was the window above the bed, squeaking quietly as it blew to and fro in the wind.
Twilight was growing tired of their little game, though. With an annoyed snort, her horn glowed with a blue green light akin to that of her eyes. The window crumpled into itself, and Twilight snorted in annoyance. Then, with a casual flick of her horn, the cottage was surrounded in a shield. Emerald light glimmered about them as the cottage dimmed, even sunlight unable to penetrate the mare’s defenses.
With only the green light to see by, the creature wearing Twilight’s face shrugged her shoulders. Then she set off down the hall once more, and as she did, her body changed.
Her lavender fur, already a ghastly color in the green light, changed. The murky brown became a gleaming, shining black as she walked, sheathing the mare in fur as dark as her heart. The next thing to change was her horn, the soft, stubby protrusion lengthening, tapering to a razor point where it thrust proudly from her brow.
The shadows of the hall moved then, sliding off of the wood and slithering up her body. They collected around her hooves, her throat, her head, thickening and hardening, until a gleam of metal shone through their darkness. In the space of only a few moments, the thing that had been Twilight leapt lightly from the top of the stairs, landing with feline grace on the wooden floor of the cottage.
Superficially, she looked like Nightmare Moon, though the element of restriant that clung to the evil Princess Luna was gone. Instead of seeming to hold back, this mare fairly radiated pain and despair, and with each step the shadows near her shivered.
No longer contained, the energy this pony wielded began to slough off of her, the excessive power setting the air abuzz with static. Her eyes began to glow as if lit by some infernal blaze from within, and as she smiled, her lips pulled away from a mouth full of sharp fangs.
The monster turned, her glowing eyes scanning the room, and froze.
They were gone. Her prey, all three ponies, had simply vanished. The silken binding had been shredded, as though they had simply been pushed out of the way as the bound ponies were pulled from within them.
She stared at them in a moment of disbelief, before a growl echoed from within her.
“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”
“Is behind you.”