Chapter 1 - Awakening
“Spike?!” Twilight exclaimed rushing over to the casket that had taken residence in her assistant’s bed.
She banged on the side of the coffin with a hoof, trying to elicit some sort of response from within. But when she received no answer from her dragon, she attempted magic. But as her thoughts drifted towards breaking the casket, and freeing her assistant, she was shocked when nothing happened. There was no tingling of her horn, no sheet of magic covering the casket, just her normal every day thoughts.
“My magic?!” Twilight exclaimed again, her voice echoing loudly in the expansive silence that surrounded her, “Oh no, oh no, oh no. This cannot be happening.” Twilight murmured to herself, though it still felt like she was shouting. First a green moon, then Spike being replaced with a creepy coffin, and now she was suddenly unable to use magic? She had trouble wrapping her usually structured mind around such obscene developments.
“Dream!” Twilight exclaimed for a third time, “Yes…This is all just a terrible, terrible dream. Nightmare even. I’ll just…” Twilight paused looking back at her unkempt bed, “I’ll just lie back down, go back to sleep, and when I wake up everything is going to be just fine Twilight. Just, fine.”
Twilight laughed nervously, the way every sound seemed amplified ten-fold was starting to get the better of her slightly, but the feeling was strong enough that she resolved to stop making noise as much as possible. She could not help but feel as if there was something creeping in the darkness just beyond her vision, stalking her. Some odd creature that was following her every sound, because it had no eyes, waiting for its chance to have pony for dinner. The thought absolutely terrified her.
“Ok Twilight. Easy girl. You’re going to be ok.” She muttered, wincing as even the smallest of whispers seemed to be a shout. Carefully, and as silently as she could, the unicorn slowly made her way back to her bed, lying down and quickly covering herself completly with her comforter.
“Just go to sleep Twilight. Go to sleep and everything’s going to be just fine when you wake up. Just fine.” She repeated the last part like a mantra, taking a single deep breathe in between each repetition.
“You sure about that?” Another voice echoed in the darkness, just as Twilight thought she had finally gotten a handle on the situation.
“Agh!” Twilight screamed jumping out of the bed, grabbing her bedside clock in hoof as she did, ready to physically fight whatever it was that had just talked into submission. Twilight was not going to go down without a hoof swinging, “Wh-Who’s there?” She tried to demand, but the shakiness of her voice was not going to fool anypony much to the unicorn’s dismay.
“Hmm…Never been asked that before. Well actually never been asked much of anything before. Usually it’s just ‘raghhh’, and ‘urrrrr’. Before they try and eat me.” The voice seemed unaware of Twilight’s very terrified state, “But I thought I heard something different, so I decided to check it out, and here I am. To think I found someone else that can actually talk? It must be my lucky hour.”
“Where are you?!” Twilight yelled into the darkness, clock still in hoof, “Come out where I can see you.” She demanded, though as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she silently debated if making such a demand was even a good idea. Without her magic, there was little she could do if whatever the creature was tried to eat or kill her. Though, she reasoned, it was probably better to see your attacker before you died than being surprised. As the morbid thought seemed to come to life with each passing second. Twilight prayed to Celestia, and Luna both for some sort of sign as to escape this nightmarish place intact. Her only solace was that this just had to be a dream, and if so then she had nothing to really worry about. But it was hard to will her heart into believing in what her mind thought was perfectly sound reasoning.
“Geez, you’re a little pushy aren’t you? Fine.” The voice answered, and was followed instantly by the sound of stomping hooves.
A moment later, and a pony entered the dim green light of the moon shining through the window, much to Twilight’s surprise. But she seemed a little odd, for lack of a better term in Twilight’s frazzled mind. She had neither horn, nor a set of wings, nor the physic of the usually stout earth ponies. No cutie mark adorned her flank, despite her looking like she was at least Twilight’s age. A pitch black mane fell naturally across the pony’s neck and back. Likewise both her coat, and tail were the same unnatural black. The only thing not black on the mystery pony were her eyes, which mirrored the odd green of the moon. She was unlike any pony Twilight had ever seen before.
“Is there something on my face?” The newcomer asked tilting her head, and cocking an eye at Twilight, “And why are you holding that thing?”
“Who, who are you?” Twilight asked, her brain unable to function at a higher intellectual level to form a better question, like ‘Are you going to eat me?’
“Hmm…” The newcomer thought for a moment before frowning, “I’m me…who’re you?”
“T-Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight answered simply, grip still tight on the plastic clock.
“Twilight?” The pony asked, and Twilight could have sworn an odd look crossed the dream ponies face, but it was gone to fast for Twilight could tell for sure. The black pony shook her head before speaking again, "Never heard of that kind before. But oh well, can't say that I care to much. You never answered me about that thing in your hoof.”
“Thing in my hoof?” Twilight asked, not realizing what the pony was talking about right away. Though when she did, she instantly dropped it. Worried that her new acquaintance would put two, and two together and figure out Twilight was ready to pummel the mare into unconsciousness at the slightest provocation. It did not look like the pony was going to harm her, and she wanted to keep it that way.
But a moment later and Twilight wished she had just set it down like a normal pony. If the sound of her whispers sounded like a shout to her, then the clock hitting the floor was like a sonic rainboom. The noise reverberated all around the library, taking a few agonizing moments before quieting down entirely, and afterwards a slight ringing had settled itself annoyingly between Twilight’s ears.
“Shhh!” The pony shushed, pouncing on the clock to keep it from making any more noise, “What the heck do you think you’re doing? Do you want them to find us?”
“Them?” Twilight asked hesitantly, unsure if she wanted to know about anything that could make this nightmare worse.
“Yes them.” The pony answered, carefully retracting her hooves from the clock until she was content it had stopped making any noise. If Twilight had not been scared out of her mind, she would have thought the act slightly amusing.
“What exactly are them?” Twilight asked again, the thought of knowing the unknown, and not wanting to know the unknown in this nightmare warring inside her mind. Though at this point, she doubted there was much worse that could happen to her.
But as soon as the thought crossed her mind, the library started to violently shake, "Oh crap." The black pony muttered, "Get away from the window, quick!"
"Wha-" Twilight started before the pony grabbed her by the hoof and, with a grunt dragged her onto the bed.
Twilight just went along with it, to shell shocked at the rapidly changing events to fight as the pony quickly threw the blankets over the two of them. Again the library shook, rattling Twilight's already rattled brain. She could feel another headache coming on. Every few seconds, the shaking would assail the library, a brief moment of nothing, then another bout of shaking. It was almost as if something huge was walking around outside, a thought Twilight really did not want to dwell on.
Twilight went to open her mouth to ask her new found companion what exactly it was that could be making an entire building shake. But before she could get even a squeak out, the other pony had clamped Twilight's mouth shut with her one hoof while making a shushing motion with the other. Twilight hoped it was not a hydra or worse, a dragon, two of the only creatures she could think of that could cause such a commotion. But seeing as how the dream had been going thus far. Now that she thought of it, there was little doubt in her mind that it was indeed going to be one of the two, or more likely some horrible mutation of both smashed together.
Twilight stayed deathly still her heart pumping faster, and faster as each supposed footfall got closer, and closer together. Then suddenly after one particularly violent tremor the shaking stopped, and Twilight could only wonder in horror if the thing was waiting right outside the library ready to crush her, and the other pony. Or set the library on fire, or...The possibilities seemed to be endless, and each new thought was worse than the last.
Seconds, felt like minutes that dragged into what felt like hours. Nothing happened, the footfalls had not restarted, and both Twilight and the black pony made no sounds, nor did either dare move an inch. Twilight could just imagine the nightmare creature standing outside the window, peering inside looking for a little pony to eat. The thought made her shake violently, and she whimpered softly as silence retook everything in its oddly threatening grasp.
Beside her the black pony just sat, ears alert, somehow managing to look unfazed by the whole ordeal. Twilight had to wonder if this was the first time the pony had ever done something like this before. But then she remembered that this was all just some sort of elaborate dream. A pony that seemed totally fine when confronted by green moons, people in creepy coffins, and giant hydra dragons, was the by far the least unimaginable thing that had happened to the unicorn so far.
Then suddenly, there was a cry unlike anything had ever heard before. It was utterly inpony, inanimal even. The loud wail sounded like something straight out of a horror movie, and it chilled Twilight to her very bones. Twilight had thought it impossible she could feel any more terrified than she already was, but that cry, whatever it was, had managed to do it. She hoped to Celestia she would never see whatever kind of horrible creature made such a sound, dream or no.
After the cry, silence again reigned supreme over the two ponies. Twilight made no thought to move. She had yet to hear the large creature move away, so logic clearly dictated that it was still outside the library waiting for the opportune moment to strike. However her partner, appeared to think otherwise. Because in the next instant she tossed the covers off the pair, and got off the bed as casual as can be.
“Wha-?!” Twilight gasped before she clamped her mouth down quickly. She did not want to make a sound. She kept forgetting that one important piece of information, and mentally berated herself for it.
“Relax Twilight.” The pony spoke normally, getting up from the bed, “It’s gone now.”
‘How could it be gone?!' Twilight wanted to scream but kept it in. She looked towards the window afraid of seeing a bunch of dragon heads peering back at her, but instead all she found was a green-tinted skyline, “It’s…gone? But…how?” Twilight could not help but wonder. There was no sound of the obviously large creature retreating, how could it just disappear into thin air?
The black pony shrugged, “That’s how they work.” She stated matter-of-factly, “Thankfully it decided to walk around like normal in the first place. It’s the worst when they sneak up on you, and then you feel their breath on your backside all of a sudden.” She shivered, “I won’t ever get used to that.”
“But it had to be huge!” Twilight exclaimed, but kept her voice to a hoarse whisper, “How could it just disappear?” She asked again, unable to wrap her head around the idea.
Again the pony shrugged, “I’ve come to realize that the bosses can do whatever the heck they please. It’s a shame you had to come here on a full moon. That’s when they come out by the way, wel…that and when it’s a full sun too. Usually it’s a lot less dangerous. But on those two hours you’ve gotta watch out, they go absolutely insane.” The pony rambled, trotting over to the window to stare outside, “Though actually now that I think about it, it’s the absolute worst when it’s an eclipse. Usually I just find a hide hole, and hide when that happens. Thankfully that only happens twice a year, instead of twice a month.”
“Bosses? Shadows? Full Moon? Full sun? Eclipse?” Twilight muttered utterly confused, her headache starting to flare up to unmanageable levels with every new thing she learned about her dream. It was not helping her get a handle on her current situation in the least.
‘Dream, not situation.’ She thought with a renewed fervor, ‘it’s just a dream, and not real. I don’t need to get a handle on the situation, because there isn’t one!’ She yelled at herself as she tried to will her mind into believing. But everything seemed so terrifyingly real. She had never had such a realistic dream, and she was finding it hard to be absolutely certain at this point. She made a mental point to find, and read a book on dreams when she woke up.
“You ok there?” The black pony asked. Twilight snapped her head to the pony to find her staring at her.
“Fine. Fine, just a little confused as to what’s going on.” Twilight admitted, feeling a tiny bit better as she did.
“Hmm, that’s understandable. I know I was my first time here.” The pony replied, before she suddenly sniffed the air, “Uh oh…” She muttered just loud enough for Twilight to hear.
“Uh, oh?” Twilight asked, fear once again taking hold of her, “What’s that mean?!” She demanded.
“It means run!” The pony commanded, as she dashed past the confused purple unicorn, disappearing into the black void of the stairwell.
Twilight froze confused, why did she need to run? There did not seem to be anything amiss. Should she trust the pony? The black pony had yet to do anything that warranted Twilight’s distrust, in fact she had probably done a lot to earn it. But it was a dream, and who knows what could have been running through the dream ponies mind. Could it have all been a ruse to lull her into a false sense of security? Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted quite rudely however when that terrifying scream shattered the silence, as well as Twilight’s mind.
After that she did not need to be told twice, she sprinted towards the stairs, but paused just before them, she could not just leave Spike. Quickly she turned towards the coffin, but just as she there was a loud crash. Twilight stared in both fear, and awe as the biggest claw attached to the biggest arm she had ever seen crashed through the roof of the library, shattering glass, and wood alike like it was made of terra cotta. Glass shards and wooden splinters alike peppered the room like a swarm of angry wasps, and Twilight nickered as she felt bites of hot pain lance her all over.
Twilight froze, unable to move as she held back the tears that so often accompanied getting hurt. But that was the thing that really made her stop, she was hurt? Everything she had heard of dreams from everypony she had ever met said that pain in a dream usually woke a pony up. Had they all been lying to her? Twilight did not have long to ponder the question, as the sounds of wood falling all around snapped her back to her senses.
Twilight watched in horror as the claw lifted itself out of the room, and was replaced by a giant pure black masquerade mask. It had no eyes where the holes of the mask were, but Twilight could feel the thing was staring right at her, and it paralyzed her with fear. A moment later the thing opened it’s mouth, and that same soul-piercing screech filled the interior of the library.
Twilight watched as the mask disappeared, replaced by the clawed arm. It reached directly towards her, quickly. Twilight barely managed to jump to the side as it careened into the wall just behind where she had been standing, smashing the entire section to pieces. Again wood assaulted her, though this time it was not so painful.
Twilight rushed forward, instinct taking hold of her rather than thought for once. She ducked underneath the massive arm that seemed to have gotten stuck in the wall, and galloped straight for the coffin that was Spike. But as she tried to move it, she found herself unable to. It seemed as if the thing weighed tons.
“Comeon you stupid…” Twilight grunted, wishing she had been born an earth pony for a moment, as she tried to duck her head under the small space between head and basket to get it onto her back. Behind her she heard the claw finally dislodge itself, accompanied by another shriek of the creature.
“No, no, no…” Twilight mumbled as she strained to move the coffin to no success, “Why won’t you move!” She yelled in frustration, kicking it.
Twilight turned to look for the deadly claw, getting ready to dodge it again, only to find it heading straight towards her. She gasped as time seemed to slow to a crawl. There was no time to move away from it this time, it was going to crush her, and Spike. They were both going to die. Then she remembered it was a dream, ‘why did she run to help Spike?’ She thought to herself in desperation. He would have been fine when she woke up. Instead she helped a stupid coffin, which may or may not have even had Spike in it in the first place, and now she was going to get crushed by a giant monster. She briefly wondered if there was truth to the rumor that if you died in your dreams you died in real life, or if that was another lie as well.
She winced as the claw loomed over her. She closed her eyes as she looked away, afraid to see certain death coming straight for her. But the moment never came. It all happened in the span of second. Behind her she felt a warm, almost benevolent presence. Twilight to open her eyes just in time to see a bright white light fill the room. She quickly found the source to be emanating from the coffin, white symbols now covering the blood red wood, just before she was quite suddenly blasted away from the object quite violently.
She screamed in surprise as she flew through the air, just as the creature let out a cry of pain. Twilight briefly saw the creature’s arm disintegrate as the light from the coffin engulfed it, before she flew straight down the library’s stairwell.
She hit the ground floor with a painful thud. The sounds of the creatures agonized shrieks duller, but still quite loud a floor away. Twilight moved to stand, being extremely careful for anything that might have been broken in her fall. But as she found her hooves beneath her, she found that she was still in one working piece, to which she breathed a sigh of relief.
It was a short lived moment of respite however when another loud crash shook the libraries foundations to the core, coupled with another loud shriek. Twilight could tell the creature was furious, and she had a good idea why. She had to get out of here, and find somewhere she could hide before it could find her again. She just hoped that Spike would be safe if he was indeed inside that coffin.
“Quickly! This way.” Twilight heard her pony companion shout from the foyer, and Twilight was quick to listen.
As Twilight entered the foyer, she only caught a glimpse of a black tail outside the front door, as it moved to the right of the door, and out of view. Twilight tried to speed up, but the myriad of tiny wounds all over her body screamed at her in protest. She never was one for physical exertion, and her adrenaline rush from trying to save Spike was quickly wearing out.
Not a few feet outside the library she had to pause, already out of breath. Her vision was dimming, and she could feel a few spots on her coat that stuck to her skin. Even as she thought of going on, she just could not bring herself to take another step.
“Hey! What’s wrong we gotta go.” The black pony spoke, galloping back to Twilight, her voice curt, and slightly annoyed, “Stop standing-. Oh geez, you’re hurt.” The black pony’s voice instantly became softer.
“I-I’m fine. Don’t worry. It’s all a dream, I’ll be fine just as soon as I wake up.” Twilight panted, behind her the creature screamed again.
“Dream?” The black pony asked confused, “This is no dream! Come-.”
The black pony did not get to finish her statement, Twilight watched as a large ceramic looking ball crashed into the pony’s side. Twilight saw the black pony skid across the ground, a whine of pain escaping her as she hit the dirt. Twilight tried to go, and help but found her body to be unresponsive to her demands.
She watched in terror as the ball hit the ground, and bounced up to float in mid air. It seemed to spin in several slow circles before it stopped, and much to Twilight’s dismay it split in half. A large black tongue lolled out of the divide. It was a giant floating mouth, could this dream get any crazier? Twilight thought as she watched the mouth close in on her. Behind her she felt, rather than heard the giant creatures stomping, which could only mean the beast had figured out it’s prey was no longer inside the library.
Twilight gulped, even if it was a dream, she still did not want to die. It already hurt so much, and she figured that dying was only going to feel even worse. She tried to keep an eye on both the floating ball, as well as the larger creature but they were on both sides of her. She tried one last time to run, but she quickly thought against it. She could not bring herself to leave the black pony to her fate, even if it was a dream. With a low whiney she lowered her head, ready to accept her fate, hoping that she woke up before the inevitable happened.
I am thou.
An odd voice echoed through her head, seeming to come from everywhere at once. She perked up, a renewed fire burning behind her eyes for a reason she could not place.
Thou art I.
The voice continued, as both her head, and chest exploded in massive pain. But still Twilight felt determined she was going to see this through.
It is time. Open thy heart, and take hold of the power within!
Twilight knew what to do. She did not know how she knew, just that she just did, “Per-so-na.” She muttered, enunciating each syllable clearly.
Then suddenly, the pains in her head, and chest were gone, just as the area around her burst into blue flames. Twilight panicked for a second, trying to escape the sudden inferno that licked at at her hooves. But she quickly found that it did not burn. In fact it was quite cool to the touch, and it even looked like the creatures were afraid of it.
Twilight let out a soft sigh of satisfaction, glad that she was safe for the moment. However the feeling did not last long as it quickly turned into a grunt of pain, her headache returned worse than before. She watched in surprise as her horn started to glow so bright even she could see it. But the glow was not the familiar purple energy of her unicorn magic. This was energy of a pure white, and it caused an intense pressure at the base of her horn.
The intense feeling in her head, as well as the brightness of the white continued to build until the struggling unicorn thought she could handle it no more. It easily outclassed both the many cuts, and bruises she had acquired throughout the course of her dream, and she wished to Celestia and Luna both for it to stop. It reached such a fevered pitch, that she had to close her eyes for fear of going blind, and to keep the feeling of her eyes about to pop out of her head abated.
Then, with a culmination of a sound not unlike glass shattering the whole event seemed to be over.
“H-Huh?” Twilight wondered aloud, eyes still shut. Everything was silent again, and she was terribly confused as to what exactly had just happened.
When she opened her eyes, Twilight fell back on her rump. In front of her stood one of the most wondrous creatures she had ever seen. It stood nearly twice her height, standing only on two legs instead of four, and looking entirely comfortable doing so. She, for Twilight instantly thought it as such, wore a fantastic suit of armor that covered her from head to toe. A large star embroidered cloak fell majestically down her back, and both cloak, and armor were a brilliant shade of amethyst. In her left arm she held a tome not unlike the black one from the day close to her chest. However this one was not the same ominous black, but a brilliant white. In her right armored-claw she carried a massive scepter of pure gold, a wonderfully cut pink diamond inlaid in it's tip. Twilight guessed that it was nearly as long as herself, snout to tail-tip. From the back of her helmet flowed hair of brightest gold that freely ran down to her waist. A sharpened ivory horn peaked out from its forehead, a space in her crested helmet reserved just for it.
Twilight stared in awe, not even caring if this new creature wanted to kill her as well. If she had to die by anything, the unicorn would much rather die by such a majestic looking beast, than the creepy black creatures that were plaguing her.
The giant turned to face Twilight and knelled beside the unicorn, bright purple eyes stared at her from behind the helm, 'I am, Cassiopeia, and I am yours to command my mistress.' A calm and soothing, yet still firm and strong, voice echoed through Twilight's head.
Twilight could do nothing but nod, "Protect us!" She yelled without thinking, feeling that it was the right thing to say.
The armored giant nodded, and stood. It's armor barely making a sound as she did, As you wish.
Without another word the giant charged past Twilight, and she watched in awe as it brought the great scepter down on the giant beast's head. It connected with a sickening squish, black goo filled the air like a water balloon had just popped. The beast let out a roar, and tried to swipe at the armored giant, but the book in her hand started to glow, and as the creatures hand started to near Cassiopeia a shield of light not unlike the light that had appeared from the coffin materialized. The creatures hand collided with it, and evaporated into black smoke.
But while Twilight watched her new found ally fight the beast, she could not help but feel like she had forgotten a key piece of information.
"Auuu." A moan came from behind Twilight causing the unicorn to freeze, just as she remembered that there was a second monster in the equation.
She turned to find the mouth-ball creature just inches of her face. She screamed, jumping backwards with renewed vigor just as the word, "Agi!" Left her mouth.
Instantly the monster burst into flames.
A few seconds later and the giant creature now behind her let out another horrific scream, this one hoarser, and stopping way to soon compared to the others it had done throughout the dream. Twilight turned to refocus on the fight between giants. Far to exhausted to try and piece together what had just happened between her and the mouth-ball. She was surprised to find that the black monster was slowly disappearing into a cloud of equally black smoke. Cassiopeia seemed unharmed in even the slightest.
Happy to see that she was, at least for the moment, safe. Twilight fell to the ground letting her exhaustion take hold, hoping that the armored giant would protect her until she woke up. With as all of the spare energy she had left, she looked over to the black pony, who was in the middle of the process of getting herself up off the ground, and Twilight could not help but smile happy with herself that she had not abandoned the dream pony. Everything looked like it was going to be ok. She was not going to die tonight, despite the odds, and while the library might have been in shambles, and Spike may or may not be ok stuck inside a creepy coffin. Twilight was going to wake up in a little while and everything was going to be just fine.
With that final thought, she let a much needed sleep take hold of her.