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// Story: Hour of Twilight
// Chapter: Chapter 6: Mare of the World
// Author: Darth Femto
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Chapter Six
Mare of the World

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Rainbow was sitting on a cloud, lazily flying above Ponyville. She would be sleeping right now, if she wasn't waiting for something. Glancing at the Sun, she estimated the time of the day and shot off towards Ponyville Primary School. The cyan pegasus arrived earlier than she should have. She landed in front of the school, waiting patiently for the bell to ring. For a brief moment, she closed her eyes and enjoyed a gentle breeze brushing against her coat, her mane and tail dancing lightly. All around her, the flowers were in full bloom, the beauty of the Spring showing all of its colors. She listened quietly to a pair of birds, chirping happily in the afternoon.

The moment of silence was interrupted by the school bell, which rang loudly, announcing the day's end. A wide grin appeared on Rainbow's face, as she waited for her daughter, the orange pegasus filly Scootaloo, to exit the school and pick her up. The doors of the school opened wide, allowing several foals to run past them, rushing to their parents. Giggles and squeals of innocent happiness filled the air.

As the large group of foals left along with their parents, Rainbow's smile faded into a sad frown. Her daughter did not exit the school, nor did she hear anything about her at all.

The cyan pegasus turned to face the pony that called her out. It was Applejack, her best friend. "Hey AJ, what's up?"

The orange earth pony looked sadly upon her friend and sighed. "Rainbow, what are ya doing here? Shouldn't ya be practicing for the Wonderbolts?"

Rainbow shook her head. "Nope, I came to pick up Scoots, but she hasn't come out yet. I wonder why. AJ, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" she asked her friend.

Applejack sniffed and wiped her tears off. "Rainbow... Scootaloo's been gone for two years now," said the earth pony, approaching her confused friend. "Dash, ya have to let go. She won't come back..."

Rainbow's eyes were watering, fresh tears streaming her cheeks. "W-what... but, how? Why? Why isn't she coming home AJ... Where is she?" the broken mare sobbed, her shoulders heaving with pain. Rainbow collapsed to her haunches and cried out. Applejack reached her out and pulled her in a tight hug, trying to comfort her broken friend. For the past two years, the cyan pegasus would come everyday at the school, to pick up her daughter, blindly convincing herself that Scootaloo was still there. Deep in her heart, she knew she was still alive, somewhere.

"Let it all out, girl..." Applejack nuzzled her friend. "Can you hear me, Dash. Miss Dash!"

Rainbow jumped from her dream, glancing around, her eyes meeting two pairs of eyes staring at her. She gaped in astonishment when she realized one of the figures was Princess Luna. She looked very pale and sad, her expression betraying exhaustion. Hopelessness. The pony standing next to Luna was a tall, silvery maned unicorn mare, who was nudging her in the ribs.

"Stop that..." Rainbow said, as she wiped out her tears. 'It was all just a dream... no, worse. A memory.' She got herself up and stretched her wings. "What happened, where are we?" Her eyes took notice of the room she was in. It looked like a prisoner's cell, with grates for a door. The smell of decay quickly filled her nostrils, causing her to cough up. "What the hay!?" she snorted.

"Be quiet, or you shall attract unwanted attention," Luna spoke in a soft, soothing tone. She glanced around the room, before fixating her eyes on the rainbow maned pegasus. "It appears we are in the ruins of Twilight's consciousness. We are locked down in this place by her will."

Rainbow Dash looked stunned and confused. "B-but, how did we get here in the first place?!"

The pegasus gulped and nodded weakly. "Yeah... I guess. How are we going to get out?"

Rainbow nodded and followed the Moon Princess. They trotted down a dark, endless corridor, filled with cells such as her own, filled with sleeping ponies. She recognized many of these ponies. They were the first victims of the deraged unicorn, from twenty years ago. They were apparently chained down, limiting their movement.

The silvery unicorn turned to face Rainbow. "These ponies are the new source of power of the Crimson Dawn. She apparently locks souls within her own and uses their sadness and misery as fuel for her powers. As to why are they sleeping, it appears that she is ... well, crushing their hopes from within. Just like... like your dream."

Rainbow's lips quivered. "That's so... so cruel of her! It isn't enough that she kills them, she even eats their souls and tortures them emotionally!"

The unicorn nodded sadly and sighed. "We can't save them... Their souls are too weak. They would eventually fall back to sleep once we wake them. It's discouraging. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Silverghost, student of Princess Luna," she smiled at the pegasus. "Nice to make your aquintance, Miss Dash. I heard a lot about you and the other bearers. Oh, I'm losing my head here, don't mind me, let's keep moving, shall we? Miss Dash?" The unicorn glanced behind her, to search for the pegasus. She spotted her standing in front of a cell, gripping the grates with her hooves. "Miss Dash, what are you-"

Silverghost was silenced by the sound of soft snoring. Following Rainbow's gaze, she looked into the cell, her vision falling upon the form of a small, purple maned pegasus filly, sleeping. What was truly shocking was that a small, purple unicorn filly was curled up next to her, sleeping aswell. Silverghost looked uneasily between her and the distraught cyan pegasus. "Miss Dash, please. We have to move on... Wait, what are you doing?!"

Rainbow ignored the white unicorn and entered the cell. She approached slowly the two fillies sleeping. "Hey Silverghost, can you get this orange pegasus away? Please..." she whispered towards the confused unicorn. Silverghost nodded and closed her eyes, working her white magic into the orange filly, gently picking her up and levitating her out of the room. Rainbow smiled briefly and motioned for the white unicorn to continue following Luna. "I'll be right behind you, I promise," she spoke in a soft voice.

Silverghost sighed and rolled her eyes. "Very well, Miss Dash, but don't fall too behind, or else you will be found out by the demon." The unicorn picked up and left the cell, along with the orange pegasus, continuing along the corridor.

In the room, Rainbow's breathing was becoming erratic. Her heart was beating faster and faster. A small smile crept on her features, while her pupils shrank. Glancing around the cell, she found a long chain, that wasn't apparently attached to anything. Rainbow picked it up and approached the sleeping filly. The purple unicorn bore a six-pointed star cutie mark, surrounded by several other, smaller stars. There was no doubt, this was Twilight Sparkle. And she was vulnerable.

The cyan pegasus approached the filly, chains in hooves. She held her breath as she gently placed the chain around the filly's neck, so as to not wake her. Rainbow took a deep breath, and in a split second, pulled on the chains hard, waking up the purple unicorn.

The small filly placed her hooves on the chains and tried to release herself, as she was being choked to death. She whimpered and tried to scream, but only wheezes came out. Finally, with her last powers she looked into the rose eyes of her assailant, an evil grin splayed on her face. Twilight's eyes were darkening at the corners, a sign that she would soon lose consciousness and die. She closed her eyes shut, unable to look anymore, tears streaming freely on the surface of her cheeks.

Rainbow Dash was pulling even harder on the chains, her eyes watering in frustration. "Why won't you just die already!?" She suddenly felt something very hard hit the back of her head, knocking her unconscious. Rainbow lost grip of the chains and collapsed on the floor.

Feeling slowly returned to the cyan pegasus, groaning in pain as she opened her eyes, to reveal two ponies and an orange filly glaring sadly at her. Rainbow shook her head and got up, trotting over to Scootaloo. However, the filly pegasus backed away from her mother, while looking her straight in the eyes for a brief moment. "Scoot, what's wrong? It's me, Rainbow Dash!"

The orange filly snorted and turned her back on her adoptive mother, glancing sadly at the scene in front of her. Princess Luna was struggling to save the purple filly Rainbow had tried to kill. "How could you, Rainbow Dash? She's just a filly!" Scootaloo sobbed, refusing to look at her mother again.

Rainbow was stricken. She was angry and sad at the same time. "What do you mean?! She's a monster! She took you away from me, twenty years ago!" she screamed at the smaller pegasus, frightening her.

"You are more of a monster than she ever was. And it wasn't she that took me. It was-," a cough interrupted Scootaloo's sentence, as she glanced at the other filly. Her eyes widened when she noticed that the purple filly was waking up. "Twi-Twilight! You're awake!" she jumped over and hugged her friend, sobbing into her coat with tears of pure happiness.

The filly Twilight woke up and groaned. She felt a warm shape press against her, crying into her coat. Looking down, a smile appeared on her face and she squeaked happily. Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but only coughs came out. She wheezed, trying to form words, but her throat hurt incredibly bad. A dark blue hoof pressed on her shoulder, causing her to snap her attention at the source of it.

The alicorn of the night smiled at the filly, gasping for breath. She consumed all of her energy to bring the small unicorn back to life. "Rest easy, Twilight Sparkle. You cannot talk right now," she spoke softly, nuzzling the filly's cheek. "You're safe with us."

Twilight looked around the room and smiled at the white unicorn, which apparently had been crying the whole time. She then laid her eyes upon the cyan pegasus and tried to scream, backing away from her into a corner of the cell, curling into a ball. Scootaloo went after her and reassured her friend.

"Don't worry, Twi', she won't hurt you anymore," she threw an annoyed glance to the angry pegasus behind her. "Not when I'm here to protect you!" she returned to the filly, grinning from ear to ear.

"Why aren't you killing her?! She's the reason why we are all here in the first place! She's keeping us here, poisoning our minds with nightmares! So why!? Why are you saving her life? We can finally go home!" Rainbow screamed out angrily. Her rose eyes glared at the ponies in front of her.

"Because she is the only hope we have to restore everything. She is the key to defeat the Crimson Dawn," Luna spoke confidently. "Because, she is the true Twilight Sparkle! Am I right, young one?" she asked the purple filly, cuddled in Scootaloo's arms. Twilight, through her teared eyes, smiled and gave a nod, resting her head on the orange pegasus' shoulder.

Rainbow was speechless. She collapsed to her haunches, leaning against the back wall and cried. 'Why? Why is this happening?' She looked upon the two fillies and approached them, scooping them both in a tight embrace, nuzzling them both. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry for acting like that! I was just... so furious. Can you ever forgive me, Twilight?"

The purple filly looked the cyan pegasus in the eyes and grinned. She wheezed a few times, but managed to speak. "Of *cough* course, Rainbow Dash *wheeze*, I forgive you! That's... that's what friends do," she finished, returning the embrace. Scootaloo was giggling happily and enjoying the group hug.

Luna smiled to herself and prepared to leave, when she felt a pair of hooves snuggling her. She rolled her eyes and sighed, returning her student's embrace. "We will all get out of here... I promise."

Hour of Twilight

by -Brutus

Mare of the World