//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: A Tale for Twilight 
// by Simon S Borderline 
//------------------------------//

Twilight had no idea where she was, as fast as she ran she didn't seem to go anywhere. The blanket of fog had thickened so much she felt it suffocating her. She continued to run, eyes shut and tears streaming until finally she came to a stop. Her breath came in ragged gasps as she tried to make sense of it all, but as long as she kept her eyes closed she kept seeing that grizzly sight so she opened them.
The darkness was so dark when she opened her eyes it hurt just to look into it, she stopped running and held her hoof up to her face but saw nothing. Twilight concentrated her magic into her horn and shone as bright a light as she could to penetrate through the dark, every bone and muscle in her body protested in agony as she pushed forward. She walked further into the nothingness beyond hoping against hope to find some answers but finding none as her horn struggled to alight anything beyond her footfalls. 
She heard a scuffle somewhere and wheeled around expectantly. Nothing. She heard a distant shriek of a laughter and retreated until she felt a bump. Again turning she found nothing even as she stretched her hoof out to feel for the strange object that stopped her. She looked around a final time before continuing on.

...

Twilight had no idea how long she had been walking, a week, a month, a year? She just knew she couldn't stop, every time she did they would come back. Every time they came back they would come closer. From the first time she heard them they never left her and she always knew they were there. She never gave them a name because they would never let her sleep. They were quiet at first but then the further she walked the louder they became making her cry and plead to give her a moments peace. 

And then it stopped.

Everything just stopped, there were no voices, there were no sounds, there wasn't even a breeze. All her world just went dead and there was nothing at all. Twilight settled down and closed her eyes to rest, the light of her horn dying down and her drowsiness lulling her to sleep. Then she heard it, it was faint at first just like them, but then it grew louder. Twilight slowly opened her eyes and lit her horn as she tried covering her ears to make it stop. The ringing in her ears was the same as when she had water in them after a little swim. That thought brought her momentary happiness before the ringing threw it away, it was so loud her head began to ache as if it were to explode at any moment. 

And then it stopped..

Suddenly a blast of overwhelming laughter of every kind surrounded her, in the light of her horn she caught glimpses what was beyond. Twilight rushed forward but could not manage to see their full form as they stayed just out of her reach. She stopped to catch her breath and they just laughed harder. She tried running off after them again to bring them into the light but they matched her pace and again managed to stay just one step ahead. She stopped again, her panting being drowned out by all the laughter that surrounded her. She tried running one more time but stopped as soon as she realized it would be pointless. So she began to think and took off again, this time though she ran straight in one direction before changing course and running of in another. Aha! She saw one of their hooves, at first she thought they were great big ponies maybe even horses, but now she knew they were floating.
'They must be pegasi' she thought. 'All this time they were just pegasi' a little mumbled laugh escaped her lips as she came to the realization. She smiled as well, now she knew who her tormentors were. Twilight tried new ways to get them into the light. She tried false starts then turned to look behind her as she stopped and saw a little bit more, after that she tried running in circles and watching their silhouettes move around lazily. She even skipped a bit before losing her temper at not seeing them again. Twilight became angry and started chasing them again with abandon jumping this way and that just trying to get another glimpse at them, for Celestia's sake all she wanted was a glimpse! 
Twilight gave a misstep on her next landing and fell heavily on the floor, the laughter grew louder and louder all the while. Twilight struggled to get up as she heard the laughter blot out all sense of thought she had in her mind, it was so deafening she couldn't think and she always thought that was just a figure of speech. She was wrong. 
'I was wrong' thought Twilight. A little giggle escaped her mouth as she looked down at the floor. “I was wrong.” she said out loud though she couldn't hear herself. “I WAS WRONG!!!” Twilight threw her head back as she started laughing with them, chortling with the best and cackling with the worst. She jumped up and down and rolled around on the floor, her sides split and her mouth ached from laughing so much. Then she choked. Twilight rolled over on her stomach as she stopped laughing and struggled to breathe. 
They were still laughing when she regained her composure and started crying. Small tears at first but before long she was bawling. Twilight wailed and sobbed uncontrollably as they kept laughing, finally she could take it no more and with every last ounce of strength left in her body she let out a howl. Her magic increased tenfold by her loss of control and lit everything up around her. 
What she saw made her wish for the eye piercing darkness once more. It had seemed that all around her all of ponyville had come together. Everypony she met every face she knew hung in front of her all with wide smiles on their faces, partly due to their dried cracked lips stretched over their teeth and gums. Their glassy milky eyes were rolled back in their sockets where others had theirs missing completely. Their bodies were pale and stiff as they clung to the air like sock puppets, they were dripping as well. The dark brown liquid wasn't blood though, she knew too much to think it was blood, it was spoiled rotten lymphatic fluid flowing from the various cavities on their rotten bodies. 
Twilight turned around to run again in fear but one of them came down upon her and shrieked in her face, she fell back as another flew forward and slapped her across the face. Twilight turned to see who it was when she felt another slap on the back of her head, tears flew from her eyes from the force of the hit. Twilight looked up as Cadence's figure dropped forward at her from it's place with her arm outstretched. Twilight shut her eyes and braced for the hit that never came. She looked back as Cadence flew back up, but another hard slap came from her left and they continued. They carried out this way in no visible pattern that Twilight could predict. Tears flowed freely as they continued to assault her, laughing altogether the entire time. 
She was lifted by one of them and slammed onto the ground knocking the wind out of her at the same time before she was picked up again. They threw her around another three times before they let her lie there in misery and agony. They all danced around her and shrieked into her ears even louder than before if it was possible and laughing in her face. Through her tear stained eyes however she managed to see something beyond them. Though their best efforts weren't enough she spotted two insignificant beads of light glowing dully in the darkness. Suddenly the laughing started dying down and they weren't pushing their faces into hers anymore. 
For a long time she stared at them and they stared back. It wasn't until Twilight felt alone again that she managed to stretch out her arm to them.
'Please. I just want them to stop.'
The beads did nothing but watch.
'I just want my friends back.'
Nothing.
'I just want to go home.'
The beads remained unchanged in their position or glow. Twilight just lay there alone. Then it all came together, a warm breeze brushed against her cold tear streamed face, a warmth of love filled her aching body, and sweet whispers of comfort filled her ears. Twilight felt encouraged and managed to must the force to drag herself to the beads. Little by little she made her way as she started to her her friends voices calling out to her.

“Twilight you can beat this...” 
'That was Applejack' Twilight thought.
“Give'em the ol' one two”
'And Rainbow Dash'
“Darling you simply mustn't”
“Oh, please come back to us Twilight”
Twilight pushed herself harder as she heard her friends calling for her, and though she dragged 
herself closer to the beads they remained unchanged.
“Come on, Twi. Show that phony bony maroney who's boss.”
'Pinkie Pie?'
Twilight turned around to see a bright white light shine behind her and was confused. She turned back and saw the beads' glow intensify. Twilight didn't know what to think until they started edging closer. Learning to fear them Twilight pushed off the ground as she remembered why she was here. Twilight had knocked over a shelf in the old section of the Canterlot library and found an old tattered book. Thinking it was interesting to say the least she stowed it away in her saddlebags and didn't begin to read it until yesterday night. Remembering back to the strange title her translations read “The Necromantic Principals”.
Twilight started running towards the light as the beads raced for her as well. Running faster than she had ever hoped to in her entire lifetime she realized it was too late as the wave of darkness began to envelope her. 
Twilight reached out for the light but it pulled away, surprised she dropped to the floor and shut her eyes knowing what was coming. But it didn't. Twlilight opened opened her eyes to find that she was alone in the dark. The light had moved away but behind her the darkness had also retreated, the beads once again docile. She heard a voice in her head that nearly made her question her sanity once more. 
As the voice spoke the light grew brighter turning the cave of darkness into a blinding wasteland. The shadows moved further back into their corner as the words trumpeted throughout the land and reverberated inside her head it felt as though it would split open any second. Then all was silent again as the light vanished from the scene turning into a small bright orb that floated gently ahead of her. 
All was grey around her. Twilight herself felt conflicted as to what to do. Behind her lay certain doom but what of this light? Had it arrived to be her savior? Now it lay still and silent. The voice she heard demanded that she stay behind and not move any closer. The voices she heard in the library pleaded with her to go on, then assaulted her. Twilight remained in this limbo for more time than she'd care to admit when making a decision but ultimately decided that she would not remain here. She would continue to run to the light in an effort to escape, she would not stop until this place was a suppressed memory deep in her psyche, and if this endeavor would prove fruitless at least she would see her end.
Tightening her sore muscle Twilight again started for the light which made no attempt to flee the second charge. Twilight swore she heard a deep rumbling laughter from behind as she was again in reach of the light which grew brighter at the last second and trumpeted in protest.

Twilight reached through the light and fell herself fall through the air while a massive gust of air spread out around her. She saw an unfamiliar stone ceiling above disintegrate and blow itself away as the wind howled. Frantically searching around her she saw her friends standing around her crying, they all climbed into bed and hugged her. Twilight was shocked but hugged them back nonetheless and started crying herself.
“Wait, what's happening? Why are you all here?  I though...”
“Twilight Sparkle.” Princess Celestia called. “I am deeply dissapointed in you.”
“What? Why princess? I don't even understand...”
“That is exactly why. Have you any idea the evil you just unleashed upon the world?”
There was a cry of fear all around the destroyed castle as every pony looked up at the sky and watched the sun and the moon moved of their own accord into alignment and created a solar eclipse. Princess Luna arrived next to them.
“Sister what is happening? Surely this is not what it seems.”
The moon above began collapsing into itself in a fiery twisting vortex as it breached through to the other side. Dark spectres came to life in the depths of the celestial body and looked down on Equestria with hungry eyes. The ponies below could only watch in horror as the flaming inferno spread across the moon casting aggressive shadows down from a reddened sky. 
Luna watched helplessly as her namesake crumbled behind the violent force of an evil long past. It wasn't until the twisting flames completely overtook the moon and exploded outward in a coronal mass that the shadows began to descend upon the land. A cry of fear and hysteria from the surrounding city of Canterlot reached the dilapidated castle while the ponies ran around in terror. The red eyed phantoms reached into every nook and cranny of the city tormenting stallions, mares, and fillies without discrimination or restraint.
Soon the foul wind spread into the grounds of the castle and started attacking the guards and nobles alike. Before them the two princesses and the ponies watched as the angry wraiths exacted their eons long revenge on the ponies by taking them up into the air and swarming around them. They were swallowed up and lost amid the mass of twisting furled darkness the phantoms incurred with their ethereal bodies. It wasn't long after their whinnies of pain and fear ceased.
It was then the phantoms turned their attention toward the ponies standing against them. The guards who weren't crushed under the rubble ran to their princesses and lined up in front of them with spears at the ready. The phantoms did nothing but gaze down on the pitiful beasts before letting out vulgar screech and amassing among themselves once again, congressing their numbers into a single heavy black figure from the depths of which Twilight saw the same two beads as she had seen before.
The guards held fast and called out fearlessly as the massive ball of darkness extended a single clawed arm from within itself and wiped away their voices. Their bodies remain stiff as stone in their places before shivering in their places. Not long after they collapsed in heaps before the ponies as their flesh began to melt away before their eyes. Voiceless screams escaped their mouths as they held them wide open and watched themselves dissolving out of existence. Bones snapped under their own weight and organs melded together in clumps of grisly pulp, all they while their eyes sunk back into their skulls before they lay still at last.
The ponies screamed as the malignant phantasm inched slowly towards them. Celestia and Luna raised a veil of protection around them as it crept closer and urge them to believe that everything would end well for them. Before the shadow reached the edges of their veil it lifted enveloped them in its cloak, casting them into a darkness they've never experienced before passing over them. Celestia lowered her veil glanced all around her in a panic.
“Twilight!”

As it was Twilight had run off the moment the darkness peered back at her with the same hunger it had from before, and now she was running for her life. Peering back she saw the floating death in hot pursuit behind her. She knew it wasn't any use to run from this devil of a long past era, their would be nowhere she could go or hide that it would follow her. Twilight knew there was only one way to rid herself of this nightmare once and for all. She switched trajectories and heard her friends calling behind her, urging to stop and come back to them. 
But it was no use, her mind was made up. With tears in her eyes Twilight realized how pitiful this would look to those around her, perhaps even selfish, but regardless she continued to push on and with a final scream horror she leapt into nothingness. Beneath her the ground ceased to exist for hundreds of feet below her, the cliff face was jagged and not altogether vertical, perhaps on the way down she would slam against a boulder and free herself faster. Farther along she could see the droves of ponies running from their homes and villages as the haunts berated them every step of the way. She wept for them as she began to make out the leaves atop the highest trees and the blades of grass flowing in the wicked breeze they brought forth.
She hit hard against the floor and broke nearly every bone in her body as the forces of gravity held her against the flat wall of rock. It didn't give way to her nor had pity on her frail body as she was consumed by pain and the smell of blood filled her nostrils before her mouth went on to taste it. She was in sever pain, her cranium had fractured in multiple places and her mouth was beyond any recognizable shape. Her neck had twisted back in some sick angle pushing the shattered vertebrae beneath tight against her skin. Her forelegs which were spread out in the fall now lay as useless constructs of flesh and sinew. Her chest too had suffered greatly in the fall for it had caved in on itself as all the ribs in her body crumbled under the tremendous weight of her body.
All this and more Twilight slowly became aware of as she lay on the floor painfully rasping for breath with every heave. Twilight struggled to move but everything in her screamed out in pain. From not too far off she heard a scuffling but she couldn't turn her neck. Behind her she heard a shrill piercing cry before a rattling took over. Above her she could see the same pale figures as before, lit bright against the blackened void behind them by the light at the end of the tunnel. Twilight begged for the light to remain and comfort her but it slowly drew away from her again, fading away into nonexistence. Wide eyed and terrified Twilight let out a small choked gasp as she watched the last of it disappear into oblivion, then slowly she started to hear it again. Like an echo it surrounded her, softly at first but then it exploded in a cacophony of cackles, howls, shrieks, chuckles. This time it was louder, this time it was meaner, it was triumphant and arrogant, and it never stopped. The laughter kept going without visible sign or pattern that it would stop anytime soon, not even to catch its breath. The laughter had no end.