//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: A Journey Unthought Of: Revival of Chaos // by Hustlin Tom //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle stirred into the conscious world once more. She propped herself onto her haunches and opened her eyes. The visibility of the area was very poor, so to aid her sight she cast a spell of illumination. Lavender light spread across a small portion of the darkness, but the light petered out a couple of feet away from her. Beyond her magelight, the darkness stubbornly retained its hold on all her surroundings. “Hello?” she called out, hoping desperately for some form of reply. From what seemed to be a far off distance, she heard a demented chuckling sound. “Is anyone there?” she called out again, and she turned her head this way and that as looked for the source of the malevolent laughter. Her anxiety was steadily growing as she ran face first into a solid wall of crystal. The frightening laughter continued, and Twilight turned back towards where she had come from, away from the reflective surface of the crystal wall she had just run into, “Where am I?” “The caves beneath Canterlot,” the familiar voice of Princess Cadence finally replied from behind her. Turning to face the direction of where the voice was coming from, Twilight was greeted by a wall of crystal filled with evil eyes. The Princess continued relentlessly as Twilight leapt away from the eerie display, “It was once a home to greedy unicorns, who wanted to claim the gems that could be found inside for themselves.” Twilight had backed away from the wall of eyes, but the green light that had illuminated from them had vanished. Her head whirled in every direction as she continued to back up. An eerie glow identical to the one she had just witnessed from the other side of the cavern appeared behind her. “And now,” Princess Cadence’s voice continued in a tone of malice that made Twilight’s skin crawl, “it is your prison!” Twilight rushed back to the center of her rocky prison, crying out all the way, “Help! Help! Somepony please, help!” Princess Cadence cackled at the desperation in Twilight’s cries, “It’s no use! No one can hear you, and no one will ever think to look for you either!” The Princess vanished and reappeared from one set of crystals to another, and her features became more horrifically distorted each time she reappeared. “Most ponies have forgotten that these caves even exist, which is why they are the ideal place to keep the ones who try to interfere with my plans.” The evil Princess laughed manically, and Twilight could almost swear that she saw a pair of fangs. “Plans?” Twilight spoke to the reflection of her former foalsitter, which was now in the ceiling, “What plans?” The reflection coyly gestured to itself, “The plans I have for your brother of course!” Twilight’s eye grew wider, but in that moment all the fear that had been festering in her heart combusted into a passionate fury. Her horn’s light grew brighter and hotter, and sparks began to descend from it, “Don’t you dare do anything to my brother, you, you monster!” The Princess’ reflection smiled mischievously as she waved her hoof at Twilight, “The only way to stop me is to catch me!” Her laughter filled the cavern once more as her reflection vanished, only to be replaced by so many copies of Twilight’s face. Angry and alert, Twilight’s eyes scanned all the reflections for any sign of the harpy of a mare she had once called the best foalsitter ever. She heard a small laugh, and she saw the eerie reflection of Princess Cadence out of the corner of her eye, “Over here!” Reacting on instinct, Twilight launched a concentrated beam of light at the reflection, which she hoped would sear through the crystal. The spell instead backfired, blasting off every reflective surface it came in contact with, until it finally scorched the ground right in front of her. “Nope!” the Princess called out again, as she now appeared in every reflection of the cavern, “Over here!” Twilight, panicked, angry, and now near sensory overload, began to randomly fire concussive blasts of magic at every reflection she could find. At last, one spell struck a surface that exploded into tiny fragments. As the silicate dust fell to the ground, Twilight saw the form of her tormenter, Princess Cadence, sitting right in front of her. The pink alicorn had braced herself as the blast had taken place, and she was surprised beyond all belief to see little Twilight Sparkle running towards her, a horn fully charged with magic, and an ember of burning hatred in her eyes. The Princess tried to back away as she waved her hooves frantically, “No! Wait!” Twilight bowled over the villainous Princess, and was about to make her next move when she saw that her tormenter was shivering in fear beneath her, “Please! Don’t hurt me! Twilight, it’s me! Please, you have to believe me!” Twilight was so bewildered by this rapid change of behavior that she didn’t move a muscle. Princess Cadence continued, “I’ve been imprisoned like you. The Cadence who brought you down here was an imposter!” Twilight shoved her face in the Princess’ face, who hid her own for fear of what the still angry and suspicious unicorn would do. “Likely story!” Twilight seethed, but she was shocked once again as the pink alicorn slowly got to her injured hooves, and she began to do a familiar dance. “Sunshine, Sunshine. Ladybugs, awake! Clap your hooves-“ “And do a little shake,” Twilight finished as she bumped hooves with the Princess. Princess Cadence smiled a weary but happy grin at Twilight, who began to smile in growing joy. The two of them embraced happily as they recognized that each of them was truly who they said they were. “You remember me!” Twilight declared. The Princess patted Twilight’s back as she chuckled happily, “Of course I do! How could I forget the filly I loved to sit for the most?” In that momentary joy, the silence was interrupted one last time by malicious laughter; it was the laughter of the Princess’ evil doppelganger. Numbness overtook her as the thoughts that had pervaded her mind for the last five weeks without interaction, food, or water returned to her once again; her Shining Armor, all of Equestria, was in danger. Twilight rushed past her vision, which snapped her out of her stupor. “We have to get out of here!” Twilight called back to her, before she stopped and waited for her to catch up, “We have to stop her!” The Princess sprang to life as she followed after her young friend, and there was a look of worried determination in her eyes. Oh, Shiny, she thought to herself, I’m coming for you!