Darkness. No sight. No light. No safety. Only fear.
Hoof steps echoed, the sound dancing between the slanting patterns of rain slashing through the air and exploding on the ground. The dark clouds covered the sky. But it wasn't clouds. It was smoke. Smoke that rained. A side effect of powerful magic spells.
Suddenly, a flash of bright white lit the dark world for only a few seconds. A glimpse of the pony making the sounds of hoof steps was revealed. She was wearing a dark cloak, but her horn glowed with a dark pink light. She had captured the flash and used it to light her path and her path only. Her coat was lilac, and her mane dark purple with pink and blue stripes. She was known well across Equestria, the reason for her cloak. Also the reason why she had charmed the light so that only her eyes could see it.
"Malikcall ellidonit, shambulldon mistasna," the pony spoke a dead language. It had not been heard for millions of years. The only other ponies alive who could speak it were Celestia and Luna. But this unicorn was speaking an ancient spell.
"Balik dash dolikinon," the pony shouted into the magic rain. Her eyes glowed the same color as her horn, the magic aura growing brighter and larger. But still only she could see it. "DARKNESS BE GONE."
The magic exploded past the range of the unicorn. She was lifted into the air as the smoke cleared from the sky, and the rain stopped. Her eyes were not glowing anymore and her horn wasn't either. Her powerful alicorn wings beat hard, keeping her in the air. But they were not strong enough. She fell back to the ground with a yell and a grunt as her bones were smashed into the earth.
Ponies emerged from tents pitched next to half-burnt houses. Though Twilight's eyes were closed and her head dizzy, she could hear the astonished mutters of the ponies. Twilight took to the sky again, this time staying afloat. She landed on a soft cloud high above the Canterlot ruins. From her point of view, the once-pretty cliffside was cut in half by a jagged line shaped like a half-circle. The buildings on the edge looked like they would collapse at any second, their blackened frames showing with burnt cushions and clothes inside. Broken wood and light metals, and other remnants from kiosks and lampposts that were on the streets, piled together in a heaping line against the side of the mountain. The impact of the Blue Ribbon, what the ponies had name the mysterious spell, had forced them across. Water was flowing rapidly off the edges of the broken cliffside. Though half of the mountain (and city) was missing, melting water still flowed through the rivers and down waterfalls from the peak. Tired and weary stallions were gathering some of the wood and metals, to build more sturdy shelters than the tents donated by Appleoosa. Mares and fillies were kept together, huddling by small fires. It was nighttime. Twilight assumed that they had been hidden underneath for about a week. She didn't know for sure though. The magic smoke had covered the moon and the sky. Celestia and Luna were staying at the top of the mountain, making sure that the days and nights continued. Since the smoke was gone, they would be making their way back to the former-city.
Twilight sighed and closed her eyes. The moon shed light onto the wrecked city. Strange shadows were cast along the streets from the broken buildings. Twilight flew from the cloud, spreading her wings again. She had to check the perimeter. It was her job. Even though she had not managed to fly through the black smoke like Celestia and Luna, she had been assigned to protect the citizens from any potential creature on the loose. Twilight didn't know what that meant until what she guessed was the day before. She had traveled through the smoke for what seemed like hours, until she finally reached the broken cliffside. She flew around the side of the hill, spotting old mining sites forgotten deep underground, giant mole holes, and even ancient artifacts. But she also found where she was headed to now.
Twilight reached the cliffside. Trees hung onto the side, their roots half-revealed into the cold, unforgiving night air. Twilight stayed parallel to the cliffside and traveled straight downwards, trying to reach the spot halfway down the mountainside.
"Finally," she breathed as she reached the giant hollow space. Water was still dripping from the slimy, pointed stones on the roof of the hollow space. Twilight laughed coldly and shook her head at the term, "hollow space". She knew better than to call it a cave.
Twilight walked deeper into the hollow space. the light from her horn cast long and strange shadows on the otherwise dark floor. Her hooves clacked against the cold stone. She breathed outwards deeply as she found what she was looking for. This strange sight... it reminded her that there was something ready to fight. That Rarity was right about everything. The princesses weren't as god-like as they were made out to be. Twilight should have known this as much as any pony.
The sight. It was a dark stone cage, meant for something much larger than even Cerberus. There was a metal gate in front of the stone, much like something you'd put in a jail cell. Twilight's eyes grew dark as she once again spotted it. The hole in the gate, the metal twisting outwards. It was left by something, something that wanted to escape and did.
It was left by Elixtricate.
Twilight sat down and put her head on her hooves. Tilting it, she stared at the ripped metal of the cages. Funny how it looked so... destructive.
Twilight had assumed Elixtricate was nothing more than another nemesis to defeat, like Evil Discord or Chrysalis. She underestimated the whole "all of them combined into one" fact. By a lot. Looking at the strange metal bars, she straightened again. She put a hoof forward. And another. Slowly, catiously.... she took her first step into the cage.
She gingerly placed one hoof upon the cold stone of the inner cage. It was pulsing, she realized with a sickening feeling clutching her senses and making her whole body numb. But she took another risk, and put her other front hoof forward.Then her two back hooves. With nothing wrong except for the pulsing, Twilight walked the perimeter of the cave, staring at the walls covered with red stains. There were claw marks ripped into the stone. They were deep. Twilight had been looking upwards and to the sides instead of looking on the ground. When she nearly tripped over something large and hard, her head snapped downwards. As her eyes took sight of the thing that had caused her to loose her footing, her wings clutched to her side.
"Oh my Celestia..." Twilight muttered with wide eyes. "What is it?"
The "it" was pointed. A razor-like design was on the edge of it. It was twice as long as Twilight was from mane to tail. The pearl-like whiteness of it reflected the light that Twilight didn't even notice was coming from torches along the wall. They had lit upon her entry.
Twilight gasped suddenly. She whispered to herself, "It's a tooth."
And then she saw it. On the very edge of the tooth she caught a gleam of silver. She followed the direction of light to the center of the cage. She saw two giant hoof-cuffs lying on the ground next to the silver platform. The metal was ancient and rustic. Twilight took a hesitant step forward.
The chains were twitching on the ground like jumping beans. Glowing blue lines, almost like magic aura, twisted away from them, disappearing into the air like smoke. The blue aura was thin. White sparks jumped from the lines.
"Like a blue ribbon," Twilight said out loud. She assumed that the Blue Ribbon had caused the chains to break, enabling Elixtricate to break open the metal gate.
The silver platform in the center seemed calm as Twilight went to investigate it. As she got closer, the platform appeared to be the source of the vibrations.
"What the hell?"
Twilight lifted her wings and hovered above the platform, hesitantly, before plunging onto it. The air was knocked out of her on impact. The vibrations crawled through her hooves and made her stomach churn and her head become dizzy. All was silent for a few seconds. A few precious seconds.
Then it came. The metallic screaming pierced Twilight's brain. Her eyes grew silver like the platform. Just screaming echoed in Twilight's head. She put her hooves to her ears, screaming with the unseen creatures.
"STOP IT!" she cried out as loud as she could. Even with her ears plugged, she couldn't hear her own thoughts. Or her own voice. "LET ME OUT OF HERE! STOP IT!"
Then there was white. Twilight's stomach lurched. Her nearly exploded. Her face became cold with sweat. Her brain felt like somepony was twisting a knife in it.
And then calm. There was a slight ringing in Twilight's ears. She flicked them a few times. Her vision was too sharp, but it soon faded back to normal. White hooves appeared in front of her face. She immediately straightened up and bowed, dipping her still-dizzy head.
"Your highness," she exclaimed. "Thank you for saving me."
"It was not I who saved you," Celestia said.
Twilight now stood upwards. She gazed at the dark alicorn staring at her with serious turquoise eyes.
"We prefer not to reuse the dark magic spells We learned thousands of years ago," Luna spoke, her tone as serious as her eyes. "But it times like this, We find them to be very useful."
Celestia's brows were furrowed. Twilight stared deeper at Luna's eyes and realized the layer beneath seriousness: fatigue. Twilight assumed her eyes were troubled, dazed, and tired as well.
"What will we do now?" she muttered. Her clear voice rang out in the dark, lonely caverns, echoing along the empty, silent walls. Her reply was water dripping slowly off of the stalactites and the stalagmites.