//------------------------------//
// Reborn 
// Story: Shrouded in Fear 
// by TinnyPiano26 
//------------------------------//

Twilight closed the door behind her and looked around. She was at the end of a long, white hallway that seemed to stretch on forever and what looked to be hundreds of doors lining the walls. She opened the first door on her left and found what looked like a tan conference room with a long table in the middle surrounded by ponies that were all eyeing her. She smiled sheepishly and went back into the hallway, moving to the next door. Inside was a sky-blue playroom where several foals were playing with the various toys scattered around. Twilight stayed at this room for a while, watching the foals play, a large smile on her face, then returned to her search. The next room was blank and empty with the only thing out of place being a small blue bag placed in the far corner of the room. She briefly considered looking at the bag's contents, but decided against it and moved on.

The following room was the most peculiar so far. Inside, it was a light purple, and it showed a large, rotating ball that looked to be her planet. Curiosity building within her, she entered the room and stared at the globe intently, studying the landforms and oceans with great interest. The door slammed shut, making her jump, and the globe turned into something far different and horrifying. It was essentially the same planet, except the landforms were grey and lifeless and the oceans were brown with pollution. As it rotated, she could see, in great detail, many ruins that were long ago thriving communities, but were now silent reminders of what were once places filled with life. What used to be lush, green forests teeming with wildlife were now grey, depressing, and dead. The globe suddenly stopped, setting one particular location in her immediate focus.

It was a small shack, standing alone in a long dead field of flowers. Standing outside it was a single purple mare that looked onward at the grey expanse, a large frown plastered on her face. A single tear fell from her cheek as she turned around and, using her magic, removed the shack and threw it away from her. What remained was a lone gravestone as large as the mare that had two words engraved on the front:


R.I.P.
Equestria


The globe disappeared and the door behind Twilight slowly opened. She hastily made her way back into the hall and slammed the door shut, sitting on the ground and silently sobbing. She couldn't bear to see that happen to her world, not in any form. It was simply too much for her heart to take. She would rather kill herself than witness the end of her world. When she couldn't cry anymore, she continued her search for the magic Bright Day had told her about. Examining room after room after room, she kept looking, determined to keep her world safe. Eventually, she reached the end of the hallway, finding a single door that looked no different from the others. Not a single room had given her the results she seeked. Each room was just as far from what she was looking for as the one before, and now there was only one left. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and stepped inside.

Twilight was immediately greeted by a rotten smell and complete darkness. As she walked further into the room, she was slowly becoming aware of wetness surrounding her hooves and the feeling of dread slowly creeping up on her. Suddenly remembering that she had magic, she summoned a ball of light and sent it to the center of the room. As it illuminated the room, Twilight was horrified at what she saw. Pinned against every blood-red wall were corpses of ponies, all with shocked looks on their faces. Their blood had been spread all over the walls, their eyes were ripped from their sockets and nailed to the wall next to them, their teeth had been pulled out and jabbed into random parts of their bodies, and they'd been ripped open and stripped clean of their organs which now decorated the walls, stabbed in place by their bones. Twilight tried her best to keep from vomiting, but the sight and smell had already pushed her over the edge as she emptied the contents of her stomach onto the ground. As she finished, she laid her eyes on the final object in the room.

Sitting in the middle of the room, underneath her light orb, was a small, black box with a sign above it that read, "DO NOT REMOVE CONTENTS." Slowly, Twilight made her way to the box, careful to step around the vomit. She levitated the box up to her face and studied it. It was made of black metal, the hinges and lock made of brass. It was small and lightweight, and there was a strange humming noise coming from inside. She opened the box and looked inside, where a golden ring with a blue sapphire imbedded in the middle sat vibrating. All along the golden part was a single sentence that kept repeating itself.

"JUST IN CASE."

She removed the ring and admired the ring for a minute before the door to the room slammed shut. The corpses on the wall began screaming and the eyes swiveled to look at Twilight. She covered her ears and ran out of the room, ring tight in her telekinetic grip, rushing back to Bright Day's room, the screaming following her all the way. When she finally reached the other end of the hallway, her ears ringing, the screams were but a dull roar. She waited for the ringing to stop before she entered the room. Bright Day whirled around to look at her, then smiled when he saw the object Twilight had acquired.

"You found it!" he exclaimed.

"Yes, I did. Here you go." she replied, levitating the ring towards him.

He grabbed the ring and looked at it, the smile on his face growing ever larger. Unveiling his other hand, he slipped the ring on his ring finger and balled up his fist. The sapphire began to glow blue and released two long ribbons of light that were the same color. The ribbons swirled in the air above Bright Day, then rushed down into his eyes. He began levitating off the ground, his skin regaining it's vitality and the panels on the walls shaking violently before flinging outward. As the room slowly disassembled, Twilight stared on in wonder as Bright Day curled into a fetal position for a moment before uncurling and releasing a blinding light that forced the purple mare to clench her eyes shut.



The sound of books falling forced Twilight to tear her eyes open. She was back in her bed chambers, laying down in front of the windowsill. She looked around when she heard a coughing behind her. Her eyes rested on a tall, bipedal man wearing a white cloak. His features were soft, yet serious, and his eyes were those of a wise old sage. She watched as he held out his hand to help her up as he opened his mouth.

"Are you ready to stop my brother?" Bright Day asked her.