//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8: Confrontation 
// Story: Lavender Ponyville 
// by Quadraginta 
//------------------------------//

	"You know what, Applejack?" said Twilight as they both continued ascending the stairs. "I'm not a fan of puppeteers, but I have a bad feeling that somepony, or something else is pulling the strings behind what's happening." 
"I hear ya, Twi," replied Applejack.
They ran. Running was something they were both used to by now, especially running in waking life. Running in dreaming life, though, they both knew to feel different. This, however, felt all too real. The clopping of their hooves against the hard floor, the blood and adrenaline rushing through their bodies, it all felt too real. That was the scary part. The part that scared both Twilight and Applejack.
They were also fearful of the idea that if everything else felt so real, so would the pain that accompanied whatever it was these Denizens were planning to do to them. As for what that was, it wasn't too hard to guess. They wielded fireaxes. Fireaxes cut things. Even Applejack could do the Fancy Mathematics. 
The purple-hued aura never let up. It covered anything and everything. Even the Denizens gave off their own purple auras, only theirs flickered and pulsed, as if beating from whatever flowed through their veins. If they had veins. 
The final thing they feared was what would happen to them if they actually died. From what they saw earlier, it seemed as if the images of whoever died were used for the Denizens of the tower. What they didn't know was if their souls were actually trapped in the tower, or if it was only their image that was being used. Either way, neither Twilight nor Applejack wanted to find out.
After running up several flights of stairs, they were fortunate enough to find what looked like a trapdoor that closed off the lower levels of the staircases. Applejack slammed the trap door closed and locked it. Seconds later, banging noises could be heard coming from the trap door. 
"I wonder how long it'll hold," said Applejack. She decided not to stay and find out.
They made for the staircase, but were dismayed to find that it led to another dead end. 
They turned around to see the Twilight look-alike standing in the middle of the room, staring back at them. It was unarmed. There were no signs of it having entered in the first place, as the trap door was still being banged upon. 
They stood like this for a while. Staring each other down. The insane eyes of the look-alike never blinked, never shifted, but only stared straight at them, one eye looking at Twilight, the other looking at Applejack. 
The look-alike then took one step forward. Twilight openly flinched from this. It then took another step forward, in which Twilight and Applejack took one step behind in response. 
"Twi, you're a genius, use your brain," said Applejack. 
"Another blast of magic?" suggested Twilight.
"Sounds good. Just do it," Applejack urged Twilight. 
"Well, alright." Twilight fired a bolt of magic at the look-alike. It merely raised one hoof, which the bolt hit, and then the magic bolt bounced back and flew right back at Applejack. Applejack took the bolt head-on and was sent flying back until she hit the wall. 
"Applejack!" Twilight yelled in surprise. She should have known that the Denizens would have gotten more intelligent. How could she have been so foolish, relying on the same strategy more than once? 
She turned her attention back to the look-alike, who had closed the distance between them completely by now. The look-alike grabbed Twilight by the neck, and was choking her. Twilight fought against the look-alike, thrashing within it's grip. She could feel the life slowly drain out of her, the oxygen in her blood thinning. She was going to die, right here, right now, and there was nothing she could do about it. At least she'd join Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, and probably Applejack, if she was dead, in either heaven, hell, or being a prisoner of the tower....
No! Now was not her time to die. Instead of yielding to the deadly grip of the look-alike, she fought harder this time. She struggled with all her might, and she could feel the grip of the look-alike slipping slightly. 
"No!" said Applejack weakly, who had crawled over to the look-alike and feebly grasped her ankle in an attempt to help Twilight. Applejack bit down upon the look-alike's ankle, causing her to drop Twilight. "Twi! Run!" 
"Applejack!" choked Twilight after she had fallen out of the look-alike's grip. She laid on the floor, gasping for air. She stumbled back up on her hooves and was about to help Applejack, until the trap door suddenly opened and the two Denizens sprang forward, their fireaxes in tow. One of the swung the fireaxe downwards and cut off Applejack's leg cleanly. She screamed loudly and madly from the injury. 
Twilight looked helplessly as they mutilated and murdered Applejack before her eyes. Twilight didn't know whether Applejack would Pass after dying or become a prisoner of the tower, but, for now, she wouldn't allow Applejack to suffer. She fired a bolt of magic directly at Applejack. The bolt passed through her head and out the other side of her skull. Gore and grey matter splattered onto the floor, before promptly disappearing.
"I'm sorry, Applejack," said Twilight. She had probably condemned one of her best friends to an existence of eternal servitude, but now was not the time to mourn. She focused her magic, her horn glowing brightly, and decided to cast a spell which she learned a long time ago, but never found the use for, until now. She focused her magic into a single point, until it became a tiny point of extreme magical pressure, all while the three Denizens approached her slowly. 
She then unleashed her magic, causing a large explosion which flung the three Denizens into the walls, but also sending her flying into a window, which shattered. Luckily, though, she landed on a solid floor. No, wait. A solid, moving floor. She opened her eyes to see that it was a conveyor belt, which was carrying her to an unknown location. 
Not wanting to take the chance, she created a small ball of focused magic, which she threw at the open window before her, causing another large magical explosion, in an attempt to slow down the Denizens that were surely giving chase to her.