//------------------------------// // It Begins // Story: Catatonic // by Stormy Night //------------------------------// Catatonic: Chapter 1 Twilight Darkness. Twilight blinked a few times, or she thought she did. She felt her eyelids moving but there was no change in the light. She waved a hoof experimentally in front of her face. Nothing. Wherever she was, it was completely, absolutely, utterly dark. A darkness that couldn't possibly exist. She felt neither warm nor cold, and the air was utterly still and silent. Too silent. She drew in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and let out the loudest shout she possibly could. Rivaling Princess Luna's Royal Equestrian Voice from the feel of it. She yelled until she ran out of breath, but to no avail. She heard nothing. Any sound she may have made died long before reaching her ears. 'Think, Twilight' She told herself. 'Stay calm, assess the situation, evaluate your options.' The words were from an old book she'd read as a filly, advice on dealing with unknown scenarios. 'You can't see or hear anything. What about your other senses?' Smell. She sniffed a few times, drawing in air that was neither warm nor cold and neither dry nor humid. Nothing. 'Smell is caused by receptors in the nasal cavity reacting to airborne particles. No smell means no particles.' She thought, forcing herself to remain calm. 'A completely airtight room perhaps? No, because then I wouldn't be able to breathe, would I?' Taste, she decided was currently unimportant as there was no way it would help her to analyze her current situation. Touch then. She thought back as far as she could, in this case only a few short minutes, and tried to remember. 'Do I feel anything right now?' She asked herself. She had just enough time to consider what an odd question that was before her mind was washed away by an overwhelming flood of sensation. One thing and one thing only dominated her body. Pain. Every muscle ached and throbbed as if she'd worked it to the breaking point. It vaguely reminded Twilight of the time Rainbow Dash had insisted on teaching her to fly. After the first lesson she had scarcely been able to walk, newly aware of how minute and flawlessly controlled adjustments of every muscle were required for proper flight. This was far worse than that though, a dull burning that pervaded every fiber of every muscle. And it was still the least of her problems. Her left wing felt as if it was full of broken glass, jagged shards that ripped and tore at them from within. She tried to stretch it, only to be rewarded with a fresh burst of agony. Tears flowed freely from her eyes, burning as the salty liquid ran across a landscape of cuts and abrasions. The right wing was worse, feeling in it reduced to a heaviness and a dull and terrible throbbing in the joint. Beyond that, there was only cold numbness. She shook as she felt the muscles moving in a way that she instinctively knew was wrong. Twilight tried feebly to get up off the ground, groaning as she felt at least two or three broken ribs shift in her side. The jagged ends of the breaks tore again at her ravaged muscles as her lungs spasmed. She tasted blood as she coughed and fresh spikes of pain filled her. She collapsed back to the ground, feeling another dagger of pain digging deep into her abdomen. Somehow both colder than ice and hotter than fire, it was a ripping, tearing sensation. Her tears flowed even more freely now, sides heaving with ragged sobs that left her moaning and shivering with pain. Her rear legs refused to move at all, and the slightest effort to force them drew an unheard whimper from her. 'Broken' She thought, once the veil of bright red pain had somewhat receded. 'In at least four places.' The pain was still there, more powerful than before even, but rather than cloud her mind it had brought a kind of perverse and detached lucidity. 'I need to see this, I don't want to look but I have to.' It was with this thought that she drew on her magic, a spell to conjure a floating orb of light. The build of energy began, power flowing from the core of her body along a specialized offshoot of the nervous system to her horn. Instead of a ball of light, however, she was rewarded with a burst of pain that sent daggers of agony deep into her head. Her forehoof slid up, muscles screaming protest as she surely did more damage to her already battered body, and encountered not a smooth spire of bone but a jagged and splintered stump. Her eyes burned from the renewed tears and she screamed, the ragged pain in her throat a testament to a sound she could not hear. 'My horn.' She thought, shaking as the darkness quietly surrounded her. 'My horn my horn my horn.' For a unicorn to lose her horn was the most unthinkable, most unspeakable and agonizing thing imaginable. It was the worst of all possible things. Not even in her worst nightmares had Twilight imagined this fate befalling her. Any other injury could be healed by somepony with the right spell and knowledge, but a broken horn was permanent. While the bony spire could be regrown with time and care, the extremely delicate and complex system of nerves that channeled the energy of magic to its focal point was irreparable. It was at this point, she thought as the lucidity she had felt rapidly faded, that she should have lost consciousness. Nopony could suffer such grievous harm without going into shock and passing out. Yet the blissful embrace of unconsciousness never came. There was nothing in this place but darkness and pain and fear. She wished desperately for that sweet nothingness to overtake her, but to no avail. She sat in the darkness, ragged sobs wracking her ravaged body, and waited. Waited for anything that might end this torment, anything that might bring relief from the relentless agony. She wept and she waited, but no end came. “I wish my friends were here.” She whispered. The words fell away, unheard even by the one who spoke them. “I wish I wasn't alone.” Spike A small green dragon sat on the rock hard cushion of the remarkably uncomfortable chair. A dozen more just like it lined the walls of Ponyville Hospital's waiting room. Some were filled but most sat empty as the clock on the wall slowly ticked away the hours. He had been sitting in the same chair since shortly after 3 o'clock in the morning, when a sudden and ear-splitting scream had awakened him. His dream about living in a house made of ice cream with a certain white unicorn shattered in an instant. “Twilight?” He called, making his way to the staircase that had led from the bedrooms above to the main library. “Is everything okay?” He made his way slowly down the stairs, his pupils dilating to compensate for the darkness. His careful step made contact not with cold hard wood, but with something warm and faintly sticky. An odd, harsh, metallic smell reached his nostrils. He jumped, nearly losing his balance. A thick gloom filled the room below, and he fumbled for a light. A candle sat in a holder nearby, and with a careful application of flame he lit it. Using its meager illumination, he found the switch that turned on the lights throughout the rest of the room. A shocked scream left his mouth as he saw what lie in wait. The stairs were spattered liberally with dark crimson drops and stains. These grew larger and more numerous as they descended. At the base of the staircase began a long trail, as if something had been dragged along as it bled. The trail led to the room's center, to a table littered with books of all kinds. Slumped at the base of the table was a heap of purple fur and feathers in a spreading pool of blood. Its sides heaved weakly as Spike watched. The small dragon backed away, his legs bumping against the stair behind him. One claw came down in a puddle of blood and slipped, sending him bouncing down the remaining length of the staircase. He came to a rest at the edge of the drag-marks, the thick metallic smell filling his nose and mouth. He scrambled away and got to his feet, panic setting in as he tried to decide what to do. At this hour of the morning none of the others would be awake, and he couldn’t leave Twilight to go and get them. Besides, he thought, what if whatever did this to her was still around? That left only one option that he could think of. Dashing to the writing desk, he pulled out a quill and scroll. In hasty but legible writing he scrawled a letter. At the top, in letters more than twice the size of the others, he wrote one word: EMERGENCY. Not even bothering to properly roll and seal the letter, he let his fiery breath consume it. The magical smoke drifted off into the distance, and he prayed for it to travel quickly. He turned back to the pony he thought of as not just a friend but something very like a mother. She was his family, more so than any dragon he had ever met. Her broken and twisted form was nearly motionless, giving only the occasional twitch as her own blood matted her mane and stained her coat. “Please hurry, Princess.” He said, wishing with all of his heart that there was something more he could do. “I don't know how long she can last like this.” A tear cut through the blood that was drying on his purple scales. The spires of Canterlot glittered distantly in the open window, tranquil and calm. Luna Night Court was in session in Canterlot Castle, although the name was little more than a formality as there was very little that anypony asked of the court at so late an hour. There were a few requests from the Stygians, mostly about keeping Diamond Dogs from mining for crystals in the caves they called home. The bat-winged ponies had served Luna in the past, and many had continued to do so when she had fallen to darkness and become Nightmare Moon. For this reason, they had faced fear and hatred from the other tribes. Their unusual appearance and nocturnal tendencies did little to ease the tension. The last petitioner had left some three hours before, but still she sat on the cold throne. Only four had visited her, three of them stygians and one an astronomer complaining about light pollution from downtown Canterlot inhibiting his view of the stars. Surely there were more pressing matters that she could assist with, but for some reason the ponies of Equestria were still reluctant to ask. Her guards sat silently at either side of the room, their amber eyes gleaming in the dim light. Their bat-like wings were neatly folded against the enchanted armor that they wore. All was quiet when, out of the dark night sky, a plume of glittering emerald smoke entered the room. It swirled overhead and solidified, becoming an unsealed and hastily rolled scroll. Scrawled across the visible portion, in large letters, the word EMERGENCY. Princess Luna levitated the scroll in front of her, eyes widening as she read its message. “No...” She whispered, the knowledge of what had happened sinking in. “This cannot be.” She left the throne, briskly making her way along the carpeted length of the room. “Princess,” One of her guards began, but was cut off. “The two of you are dismissed for the rest of the night. I must go wake my sister.” With that, the door slammed shut behind her. The guards stared at the heavy obsidian slabs. They had served her since her return, and were used to her strange ways. This seemed somehow different though. Luna was, by modern standards, eccentric. She was prone to over-dramatic reactions and tended to slip back into old protocol when upset. Whatever had been in that letter had scared her, and badly. The two shuddered at the thought of anything terrible enough to fill her with such dread. Without any reason to remain in the throne room, the pair left. As they walked out of the throne room, a scream filled the halls, reverberating with such power and volume that only one of the two alicorn princesses could have produced it. Fearing the worst, the two rushed to the source of the shout. Celestia's bedroom was in complete disarray, bedclothes scattered at random. In the center of the room they saw the crackling residue of a recently cast teleportation spell. A hastily written note sat on the scorched marble. One of the guards picked up the note, pulling his helmet off and setting it aside. Without the enchanted armor, his appearance shifted until he was no longer a smoky gray Stygian but a bright blue pegasus with a golden mane. His eyes shifted from the slitted amber orbs customary for a Night Guard to their natural pale blue. Without the enhanced night-vision granted by the helmet's magic he could better distinguish the writing on the page. He cleared his throat and began to read. “To all of our guards and attendants, we are sorry for the disruption but an urgent matter has come up that demands our attention. Please go about your duties as usual until notified otherwise. Signed, Princesses Luna and Celestia of Equestria.”