//------------------------------// // Chapter IV // Story: A Device for Divine // by stanku //------------------------------// Even though the distance was barely a few hundred meters, it took Twilight half an hour to find her way back to the village from the swamp. The trees and their impossibly thick roots hid the houses even when they were practically right under her nose, and the treacherous soil made every step a calculated risk. In the end, she had to use her strained mind to levitate herself around the forest floor until she got to land on the outskirts of the village, and by then she was barely able to stand without shaking. Swamp water still dribbled from her mane and tail, and a rotten scent lingered heavily on her. Without glancing back, she made her way back to the town hall. It’s as if the forest itself wants me dead. Celestia help me…what am I going to do? She pushed the double doors violently open, and walked straight to the library. At first the sight of the toppled bookshelves startled her, but then she remembered that the chaos was her own hoofwork. After shaking the rest of the water off herself by the door, she took a deep breath. Calm down. That rule still holds true, even if you just avoided drowning into a swamp. Calm. Down. As she walked past the secret passage, she noticed that it had now completely collapsed. Also, I was very nearly buried alive. No biggie. She sat down by the filled hole, and floated the book in front of her. And set out to find which one would blink first. This thing was what kept the room below standing, somehow. Either that or I’m just the unluckiest pony in Equestria. She tilted her head, looking at the picture in the book’s cover from different angles. It’s the Black Twig, no doubt about that, although the roots are more mangled than what I remembered. But what does it mean? Why was it hidden away? And why do I feel that it’s staring right back at me? She raised her hoof, and reached for the book. Her limb froze mere centimeters from it. What if it’s cursed? If this is the Witch's spellbook, it could have strong magic protecting it. I already know it can affect the surrounding world. She bit her lip, suspended in indecision. But if that is the case…it could contain valuable information about her. Maybe even where her lair is.   She opened the front page. It was empty. On the second, there read with a beautiful hoofwriting: On Witches, Their Ways, Magic, and Culture.   She turned another leaf. A table of contents appeared, followed by a foreword, a dedication to Princess Celestia, and the first chapter, titled as “On Witches in General”. She almost began reading the chapter when she noticed the date on the dedication. “To her Majesty Princess Celestia of Equestria, by Her most leal subject Hollow Bark, on the 12th Day of the 8th Turning, Year 611.”  This book is almost four hundred years old. And it’s still as good as new; it’s even drier than I was when I crawled from that swamp. The water had no effect on it. This is…what is this? She began reading. Soon it became apparent that whatever this was, it wasn’t what she had expected. This is an academical work, and a very competent one at that. How have I never heard of this pony before? By all rights he should be among most renowned names of his era. His style and methods are very modern, definitely ahead of his time. Could this be a fake, somehow? She drew her eyes of the immersive text, and leafed through quickly the rest of the pages. A woodcut drawing in the middle of the book caught her eye. It was another illustration of the Black Twig, similar to the one in the cover, but in the branches there had been written something. Runic writing, and very old at that. Without my library, it’s impossible to tell what it says. She sought for an explanation from the surrounding pages, and found the following text: …the fact being most evident in the symbolism of the rune called the Black Twig (picture on the following page). The numerals three and five seem indeed to carry a salient meaning in their lore, and it is my suspicion that enough of the topic can never be said, not at least in this book. Yet, some careful observations can be made around the subject… As she read on, one particular word captured her attention like a magnet. …which leads us on the more sinister and, without doubt, violent tendencies of the creatures called the the Witches. Also in their rituals that include a sacrifice of some living being, the numbers three and five are most frequent in their prevalence, in not only what comes to the number of creatures sacrificed, but also on the count of cuts, placement of limbs, etc. More accurate observations on these can be found on section eight. At this point it must be noted that this gruesome idolatry appears also to extend to the ponykind whom, as explained in section two, the Witches regard as their mortal enemy and object of enmity. She stopped reading when she found cold shivers travelling along her spine. As her focus shifted from the text, countless thoughts flooded her mind, all of them demanding to be processed properly. From the chaos, the ones that were somehow connected to Fluttershy gained priority. The Mayor wrote that four ponies had gone missing…and Fluttershy would make the fifth. Perhaps the villagers simply fled before the Which could capture her last victim. Hurriedly, she sought out the section eight. What follows is a depiction of the most commonplace rituals of the creatures known as Witches, or what I have in my studies on them identified as seminal for them. A word of warning for my reader must precede any further progress, though. In my urge to lay out the facts about these vile creatures, the bare truth as I see it, I have refrained from withholding any details, no matter how obnoxious, disgusting, or revolting, in what comes to their rituals and rites. You have been warned. She turned a page, her hoof trembling. Two pictures appeared, both taking a whole page for themselves. The first one was labelled with the same runic writing that Twilight could not for her life read. The picture itself was quite explicit, though. She stared at it for five heartbeats, and then had to close the book with a loud thud. Celestia help me…has that actually happened? Are the Witches really real? How could I have not heard about them? Why there hasn’t been more written on the subject? Not after…that… It took her a moment to recoup and fight back the nausea that inevitably followed the initial shock. How could someone do something like that to a pony… Could that happen to Fluttershy? The question seemed unreal, impossible, chimerical. And it wouldn’t leave Twilight alone. What should I do? What can I do? I don’t even know how much time I have left, if any at all. She stared at the book before her, her blood rushing in her ears. “What should I do?” she asked from it, begged from it. But the cover remained mute. She opened the table of contents again. There must be something useful here, anything. I couldn’t have found this book by mere accident, there must be a reason I have it. There must be. Of the fifteen sections, it was the fourteenth that seemed the most promising place to start. “To Combat the Plague of Witchcraft,” she muttered to herself. She quickly sought the chapter, carefully avoiding to glance at any of the pictures. As my lifework nears its end, a question may have arisen in my reader: What to do in face of such wickedness? How to remain sane in the face of all the insanity that the Witches represent? All these queries can be, in my mind, summed up in the following one: How to fight against them? For fight we must, if the ponykind is to have any absolvement from this pestilence. In this section, I offer my reader the means for that end. May Celestia guide your mind in what comes to their usage. When she turned the page, her heart sank. Runic writing. Why in the hay did he insist on writing all the important bits in runic writing? She slammed her hoof against the pages, cursing. This is hopeless…I should be halfway to Owl Moor at this point, not wrestling with this stupid book! Abruptly, she stood up, and galloped for the door. She almost made it outside when the second thoughts got to her. But what good will that do? Even if they do believe, and not just tie me to a bed, what can they do? Even Damp Towners failed to find their missing friends, how could the others success any better? It would only take time…and I don’t believe there is much left. Very slowly, she turned to face the library again. The book is my only clue, my only hope. I must make it count. She returned to the library, where the book lay open. But not on the page that she had stopped. Instead of the cryptic text, she found herself looking at ordinary writing. But I could’ve sworn…or could I? I don’t even know anymore… She started reading, and soon gasped. Locating Witches is a notoriously difficult task, for they are by their very nature masters of deception, falsehood, and lies. At every point a Witch will try to lead their trackers astray, often times into their doom. Nonetheless, it is not impossible to find their whereabouts, not if the seeker’s mind is sharp and her heart true. This definitely wasn’t what I was reading a moment ago, thought Twilight in confusion. Did the mouse try and chew the pages, turning them while at it? Maybe it heard me coming and skittered away. Or maybe…no, that’d be ludicrous. She kept on reading. The easiest and most reliable way to find a Witch is to burn down the forest they reside in, or where they are suspected to reside in. Unfortunately, often times such means, albeit effective, cannot pass. Yet this is precisely what gives the Witches a cutting edge in the first place; this modesty and hesitance from our part, which our enemy lacks completely. Whoever is reading this book, if there is one piece of advice that I would have you learn from me, only a single thought, then it would be this: A Witch is a disease. They are a plague. They are a wound. And sometimes, a wound needs to be burned. A bit harsh, but rational, thought Twilight in passing.   Another way to locate a Witch is to use the animals that they keep as their pets and servants, that they have cursed and possessed to carry out their evil deeds. These may vary from dogs to pigeons, from swine to snakes, from fish to insects. No pattern of favourite animals can be said to exist for the Witches, who will pitilessly enslave any poor animal that they happen to need, although it is true that individual Witches might prefer some animals over others, which connects to the topic of the Witch Clans that I dealt with in section five. Anyhow, how to recognize an animal possessed by a Witch? Simple; it will try to harm, damage, and ultimately kill you. Instinctively knowing that they will be forced to such unnatural behaviour, most animals avoid Witches by all means possible, which, it must be said, speaks favourably for their intellect. That would explain the scarcity of animals around, thought Twilight. But it still doesn’t help me much. I can’t just barge into the forest and hope that some animal eventually attacks me. “There has to be something more practical in here,” she muttered under her breath, leafing through the pages. But then a particular line caught her attention. Some dangers cannot be faced without the faith in the impossible, and the threat of the Witches can without doubt be said to be among those perils. Sometimes, the only means to fight them is to submit oneself to the shadow of uncertainty, to act unpredictably in order to gain a genuine element of surprise. Sometimes, the only way to make progress is to barge straight into the forest. She blinked, and read the last sentence again. The black ink didn’t stir, didn’t flux. It gazed back at her in a way an abyss does, a rupture of unfathomable depths. With a fresh sense of uneasiness, she read on. Unfortunately, the most common spells designed to locate traces of magic work poorly in the case of Witches, who indeed are apt in concealing themselves. But let not my reader be despaired, for the author of this tome is not one of the most common designers in this regard. I have invented a spell that is specifically intended to seek out traits of Witch magic, and after a few tests I can vouch for its effectiveness. It shall be among my most precious gifts to whoever is reading this book. Use it. Use it now.     There was something peculiar in the way the last words of the fragment were written. The otherwise eloquent hoofwriting suddenly turned erratic, hasty, and almost manic in a space of few words. Twilight swallowed, and turned a page. To her astonishment, the aforementioned spell was written in language she could understand. But why just this spell, and not the others? Under the spell, there had been written, with the same manic style: In addition to locating Witches, this spell can also be used to identify one that has taken a form of a pony or an animal; it will expose them completely. It is simply a matter of applying more intensity. I warmly recommend you to try it in practice and thus become assured of its potency.   Twilight closed the book. Reading it for too long seemed to be causing her headache. First time that happened ever since my fillyhood…It must be the stress. She considered her options, or the one that had been laid to her on a plate. He vouched for the spells validity…but if I use it and it really works…what then? Am I match for a Witch, a real Witch? Even if I find her, can I defeat her? And what happens if I fail? She bit her lip, eyeing the book in her hooves. Its cover was of the same utterly black shade as the ink within. Black as a pupil, she thought. She stood up. It doesn’t matter what I fear or do not fear. Fluttershy needs my help. I will not rest until that help has been delivered. And if it means barging into the Forest of the Shallows and into the Witch's lair, then so shall it be. She collected her belongings into the saddlebag, leaving out anything that wouldn’t be of use in the forest. The only things she took from Fluttershy’s bag was some food. Lastly, she packed in the book. Before she could leave the library, and idea struck to her. After a quick search, she had produced a piece of paper and a quill. After the letter was finished, she attached it to the town hall’s door. Then she ventured into the forest, and never looked back. In the bright sunlight, the letter declared the following message: To anypony who finds this message. It was two days ago when I, Twilight Sparkle, and the pegasus Fluttershy arrived to this village to investigate the disappearances that had happened here a week before. We were on an errand of Princess Celestia of Equestria, to whom I would like you who are reading this message to deliver it as soon as you are able to. In the case that I, too, have gone missing since the discovery of this letter, it shall serve as my last report to my Teacher and my Princess.     As we arrived to the village of Damp Town, we found the place deserted. No soul could be found, not even after a thorough search. Instead, after the first night spent, the pegasus Fluttershy has gone missing, leaving no trace. Against all the odds,  I have not lost hope but rather, I have committed all my remaining strength to finding both Fluttershy and the missing villagers. The mystery behind these disappearances has begun to unveil, for during the second day in the village I found a tome of mysterious origin, written by a scholar named Hollow Bark. The tome was old, ancient even, yet reading it has assured me that the reason behind these disappearances is nothing less than the Witch of the Shallows. The tome was a massive account of the ways and nature of the creatures known as Witches, and not some child’s story but a scholarly work showcasing great wisdom and dedication to the subject. This is why I had to take the book with me, for it might be the only weapon I have against the Witch that has cursed this place with her presence.          And so I arrive to the reason I have written this message in the first place. I have gone after the Witch of the Shallows, to save my friend Fluttershy and all the villagers of Damp Town that might be at her mercy. My haste to execute this mission was the certainty that, should I hesitate, would the lives of the ponies mentioned be endangered. I can only hope that you will understand my reasoning, Princess Celestia. To my other friends, to Spike, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, to all of Ponyville: No words can describe the sorrow I feel as I write this letter, of knowing that I may never see you again. Any limited amount of time would be too little to tell of my feelings towards you all, and time is a commodity I do not have the luxury of spending. Again, I can only wish for your best and hope for your understanding.   Good Bye, Twilight Sparkle, Faithful Student of Princess Celestia of Equestria and a Proud Friend of All of Ponyville A shadow covered the letter as a tall, dark figure read it silently. After finishing it, she picked it up with her horn and incinerated it without blinking. Princess Luna walked off the town hall’s stairs and looked into the direction Twilight had just wandered. The forest had already swallowed her completely, it seemed. The Princess narrowed her eyes in deep suspicion. Twilight…what in the heavens are you doing?                                                   *** Hour passed as Twilight pushed deeper into the forest, her spell keeping her afloat the water surface that gently rippled under the spots where her hoof almost landed. The dense canopy made sure that sunlight was always somewhat of a luxury in the Shallows, but as the evening creeped closer, even that sparse blessing was quickly fading away. Sweat gleamed in Twilight’s brow as she once again, for the umpteenth time, stopped in her tracks. She looked around in the quiet forest, but saw nothing but growing shadows. The question is…are they seeing me? She swallowed, and dug the book from her saddlebag, opened it, and cast the location spell. A purple wave expanded rapidly from her horn, lancing through the trees, leaves, and everything else in it’s path only to disappear into the rising gloom. Nothing. Not even a hint of a trace of magic. Either the spell is flawed or this Witch is more competent than what Hollow Bark had to face in his time. Frustration and exhaustion twisted her sweating face. Her jaw clenched, she put the book back into her saddlebag. Must move on, must press deeper. She stepped determinately forward…and screamed as her leg sank into the green waters.       The confusion tipped her delicate balance, and the rest of the spell faded instantly. She dropped into the swamp, and submerged. Almost immediately her head broke the surface, coughing and spitting water. She kicked with her legs, trying to tread the water, but her hooves had tangled on some weeds in the bottom. She was stuck. “Help!” she shouted in panic, her mouth bouncing over and under the surface like a cork. She strained her neck and tried to scream again, but the water flooded her mouth. The more violently she trashed, the faster her strength failed her. I’m gonna die, I’m going to die, I’m going to drown, dear Celestia I’m going to dr– She sank completely. Seconds passed, and the water calmed down surprisingly quickly. The deep green exploded again as Twilight surfaced, gasping for air. She looked wildly around, but there was no shore to speak of, no ground to step on. She started swimming. Her saddlebag made the effort difficult, but eventually she spotted a piece of turf not too far away. She panted, swam, and crawled onto the grass, where she collapsed. Water trickled by her mane and tail, dripping off her shaking back and flanks. I hate this place. I hate the trees, the water, the plants…I hate it all. “And I hate the bucking smell!” she sobbed. “Why it has to smell like a carcass here…why…” The stench was revolting, more so now than ever before. And then she realized just how disgusting it indeed was. Her lips quivering, she looked up. The smell…it’s coming from the other side of the mound. With trembling legs, she stood up, and sneaked closer to the origin of the stink. Laying there on the grass, in a pool of dried blood, there lay a deer. A dead deer. “Dear Celestia…” she gasped, unable to tear her eyes off the sight. This must be the Witch’s work. She looked around, expecting to see the Witch staring at her form somewhere. But all she saw was more trees, swamp, and shades that painted them all dark. She looked at the deer again, and flinched for the second time. Despite the resistance of her legs, she walked closer to the corpse. After a short and nauseating examination, she finally gave in for her instincts and galloped away, retching in the swamp. It doesn’t look like anything I saw in the book…no symbols, no plan, no meaning…just butchery. Plain, mindless, horrible butchery. She wiped the spit from her mouth, shuddering. There were teeth marks. Could this be some poor animal’s work that the Witch has cursed? It has to be. No animal would do something like that to another. not voluntarily. Eventually she had regained enough of her composure to produce Hollow Bark’s book, and cast the location spell. She held her breath, but the result was the same as it had been ever since she had left the village. A strong urge to throw the book into the swamp captured her, but instead she resolved to shove it back into her drenched bag. She sat down, fresh tears welling in her eyes. Why did I come here? Soon it will be night and I can’t even find my way out of these woods. I’ve never been this lost in my life. Her head drooping, she noticed the tracks that had been imprinted in the soft ground. Paws. There was a dog here. The Witch must have kidnapped it from the village, and made it end the deer…for whatever purpose. From some confines of her mind, a memory stirred; a recollection of a spell that had been among the first ones she had ever learned. To find missing pets. I can find the dog with the spell meant to find missing pets. And if I find the dog, I find the Witch. A spark of hope glimmered in her eyes as she got up, sought the clearest pawprint she could find, and closed her eyes. Please let it work, please let it work, please… She was almost too afraid of the spell’s failure to cast it. Her horn flickered once, and then dimmed. When she opened her eyes, she gasped in relief. Before her, a trail of purplish mist floated, travelling amidst the trees. The animal’s scent. I can see the animal’s scent now. She yelped in excitement, but then remembered the deer next to her, and quieted down instantly. This is not over yet, not even close. She took a deep breath, concentrated the last of her mental energy, and cast the spell that allowed her to walk on water. It took her an hour to find the end of the scent, and by that time the night had already fallen on the forest. She had stopped at the foot of a small, steep-sided hill, at the side of which there lay a cave entrance. She could sense the utter darkness that flowed from within. The water around the hill was only ankle deep, so she could stand on her own feet, even though she doubted she could do even that for long anymore. Nonetheless, she tried concentrating on the task ahead. It was then that she realized how scared she actually was. She barely dared to breathe, her senses were stretched to the point where they might snap at any moment, and her heart felt like it already had. This is it. That must be the Witch’s lair. I need to be brave, I need to be quiet…and I need to win. Too much depends on me for failure to be an option. She started moving. Muddy waters departed before her steps as she approached the hillside, from which jagged rocks protruded like massive teeth. The moss that covered them silenced her steps as she began climbing, but still she was mortally afraid that one loose rock would give away her presence. When she was almost on the cave’s mouth, she heard noises inside. It sounded like rapid breathing, like a panting, like a dog. Many dogs. Is there a pack? How can I defeat them and the Witch? How can I– A scream echoed from the cave. Fluttershy. That was Fluttershy. Another scream, this one even more shrill. Twilight rushed into the cave. She didn’t need to run for long, for a jagged rock in dark has a way of stopping carelessly running ponies. She hit the stony floor hard. Had it not been for the third scream, she might just have let the mists of consciousness float away – instead she darted onwards, this time lighting her way with her horn. She ran, ran like she had never run before, ran like her life depended on it. And then she was there.     The space she entered in was wide, although not tall enough to allow two ponies to stand atop each other. Stalactites and stalagmites decorated the place like candles and, more importantly, illuminated it, too. A closer look would have revealed the colonies of glowworms that fed on the moss growing on the stone – indeed, an academic mind might have spent better part of a year studying the ecosystem of the place. As it happened though, the only academic mind present had her whole attention nailed to the sight in one the room’s corners. A sight somepony would have been honoured to paint a picture of. It was the most seemingly innocent sight Twilight had ever witnessed, to see Fluttershy playing with some canine pups, oblivious to the outside world, smiling, laughing. She laughed with a pitched, tensed, and almost frightened voice, but still, she laughed. She also screamed once – when one of the pups bit her front leg – until she noticed Twilight standing there, staring at her. It was then that Twilight noticed the wound bleeding on her right temple. That was the signal for the reality to come flooding in, fast and violently. ”Fluttershy, get away from those animals!” Her shaking voice, combined with the echo in the room, created a sense of an edge over which only insanity reigned. That caught not only the full attention of Fluttershy, but of the pups as well. ”Twilight, listen to me, listen to me very–“ ”Get away from them, now!” Twilight's words were given weight by the shadows creeping along her horn. ”They are not dangerous!” Fluttershy screamed, sounding like somepony verging between pure panic and self-control forced to the extreme, the combination apparently being held together by a very light thread. Twilight didn’t care to know on which side Fluttershy would land should the thread snap. She couldn’t say anymore what she really cared about. That is usually the time when instinct takes control. Without wasting another second, Twilight caught Fluttershy with a levitation spell and yanked her away from the pups, knocking one of them over while doing so. They all started whining loudly. The whining was almost immediately answered by a loud growl, coming from a corridor leading even deeper into the cave. Twilight could hear something emerging, something big. ”Fluttershy, get behind me!” She had let go of her friend at the instant she heard the growl and now Fluttershy was standing there, in the middle of the room, breathing rapidly and looking like she was about to collapse. Her head wound was bleeding more heavily. ”Twilight”, she panted, ”You don't understand, you don't–” She had not finished her sentence when a wolf twice the size of Twilight and darker than the corridor it came from landed on the other side of the room, fangs revealed. It scanned the room for half a second, saw Twilight, and leapt. It got less than a meter from Twilight before her spell  caught it in the stomach, and flung the creature violently on the other side of the cave. That is no dog, thought Twilight as she stared at the momentarily confused animal. That is something else. “We need to get out!” she shouted in panic as she saw the beast shaking its head confusedly. Her eyes darter at Fluttershy. “Run!” “Twilight, no!” cried the pegasus. She moved between her and the wolf. “I can explain, but you must calm down! You must listen to me!” She has been bewitched, realized Twilight in terror. The Witch must be near, but where? The wolf growled again, standing up. And the Twilight knew. It’s the Witch: She has taken a form of a wolf to try and deceive me. A new spell made her horn glow purple, a spell that she by now knew from memory. I must break her illusion, to show Fluttershy what she truly is. The beast took a step towards her. In front of it, Fluttershy was saying something, shouting and flailing her wings and hooves, but Twilight ignored her. She could feel the magic intensifying at the tip of her horn; it twisted the light and air around it, and sucked in her last strength. The wolf’s fangs gleamed with saliva. Fluttershy glanced at it. And Twilight cast the spell. Everything changed. A new leaf turned in the great book of life. Of the new scene, the gory and furry lumps of meat, along with some random bones, would be the real eye catchers. The second price would, without discussion, go to the look on Fluttershy's face, stained in blood of course, for most of the place was. The third place, somewhat disputable, would have been swept home by the storm raging in Twilight's mind, a storm of dark, sinister silence, seasoned with a hefty dose of nausea. And finally, the honourable mention would have gone to the mindless, endless, hopeless crying and whining of the little pups in the corner where they all had huddled. Some were even trying to claw their way out through the stone, achieving no more than making a ruin of their soft paws. This would have been the total score, had someone insane enough, reality for example, been there to keep one. The moment seemed to go on and on, passing through eternity like a ship sailing some vast ocean. Twilight felt detached, which is to say that she felt nothing at all, not really even the sharp blow that Fluttershy delivered to her left cheek, even though it knocked her to the ground. Casually she found herself amazed that her friend could pack such a punch in her hooves. The thought waited a moment, patiently as ever, as Twilight slowly regained her wits and realized just what had happened. ”You...Kicked me?” she said, not quite believing her own voice even as a bruise was beginning to form where the kick had landed. ”You killed their mother.” One could have pierced steel with Fluttershy's tone, sharp and thin as it was. It was a shame, really, that the only thing it managed to cleave was Twilight's heart. ”Wh-what?” she asked, incredulous. She looked at the pups Fluttershy had apparently been referring to. They were still panicking and whining, although a few had crawled to the lump of meat that most resembled the form of their late mother. ”You killed their mother!” Fluttershy shouted from the bottom of her lungs, scaring the pups even more and making Twilight realize that maybe she should be scared, too. The word “mother” kept bouncing on the blood stained walls. ”I...it...you...they…we – I didn't – I was just... trying to save you?” The words came staggering to Twilight's mind, even more so to her lips, where some of them simply refused to leave her tongue. ”I didn't need to be saved! Couldn't you see? Couldn't you see?! We were playing! They were just puppies! From what did you try to save me?!” The last question suddenly made Twilight remember something really important. ”The Witch”, she whispered, to which Fluttershy responded: ”The Witch?”, to which Twilight shouted: ”The Witch!” ”The Witch!”, she repeated hysterically, pointing at the bloody corpse. “That was the Witch! The one that had kidnapped you! And the villagers!”     To that, Fluttershy could only answer with a stare radiating utter confusement. The blood stains made her expression less comical than it would normally have looked. “What are you talking about?” she asked, her voice settling down a bit, but only a bit. “The...the Witch,” Twilight began sounding less confident now, “It was the Witch who kidnapped you, who kidnapped all the villagers, who turned into a wolf. I...I read about her in a book.” “A book…” The word barely made it past Fluttershy’s lips, past her mind, which seemed to have moved somewhere outside her body for a while. At least her eyes stared at nothing, or perhaps at something that nopony else could see. “That was the only sensible explanation!” Twilight shouted, feeling suddenly very insecure about herself. All of a sudden, her certainty with which she had just minutes ago rushed into the cave, to save the day from an evil sorcerer called the Witch, faded. She no longer knew exactly where she was, why she was there, and what she had been doing. “There never was a Witch,” she said, more to herself than to Fluttershy. Saying it made her feel hollow, more so than ever before. Fluttershy collapsed. “Fluttershy!” Twilight shouted and rushed towards her friend, only to be stopped by stinging pain cutting through her right front hoof. She screamed and looked down, seeing a dark furry canine pup biting her leg, drawing blood even. She saw a few more of the pups moving between her and the collapsed Fluttershy who was crying hysterically now. The scene made no sense at first, until Twilight realized, with a feeling of horrible dread, that the pups were trying to protect Fluttershy from her. “No, no!”, she began, “I mean no harm to her, I mean, to you either, don't be afraid!” Her plea was met with growls and bared fangs. The path was blocked and could not be opened without force. Some of the pups licked Fluttershy's face clean of tears and blood. To Twilight’s astonishment, this seemed to calm her down somewhat, for she was not crying so hysterically anymore. It really made Twilight feel wretched to see that. Wretched enough to make her angry. “What were you expecting me to do, then!” she shouted, aiming her words to Fluttershy, who flinched upon hearing them. The puppies backed away. “I was alone, all alone, what were you expecting me to do but to assume the worst?!” Twilight continued. “I went to sleep with you by my side and woke to find you gone, what was that all about?! Where did you go, what happened to you?” Fluttershy stared at Twilight with tear-stained eyes, her mouth trying to form words that somehow managed to arrange into a more or less coherent sentence. “I…I had to…I had to go. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” To that, Twilight could only answer with: “What?!” The shout made Fluttershy flinch again. She continued, this time seemingly speaking to somepony else than Twilight, perhaps to herself. “I was, I had…  A nightmare, yes, I had a nightmare. A bad one. But no, it was not a dream, for it was real, I could feel it. I had felt it all along, but only in here I knew it.” “What are you talking about?” Twilight asked, suddenly feeling more anxious than angry towards her friend, for she didn’t seem to be aware of her surroundings anymore. She was just staring somewhere far away, almost forgetting to breathe between sentences. “The dream, the nightmare.” Fluttershy continued. “There were teeth, there was darkness, there was pain. There was death. But I, I was there too, except I wasn’t, I could only watch as, as, as…” “What did you watch, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, almost whispering the words. Now the pups were backing away from Fluttershy too, for she rised. “I watched the wolf eat a pony,” she said. The two ponies stared at each other for an eternity. One of the pups whined. Twilight slowly turned her head towards it. “You mean, it, they, you – you mean to say that they ate, they ate… the ponies?” Twilight heard herself utter the words but somehow she couldn’t link them to herself, just like she couldn’t link the affirmative empty stare Fluttershy gave to her to the sentence she had just said, an eternity ago. She fainted. Fluttershy watched her friend collapse, yet did nothing to stop her fall. She merely observed, with some curiosity, as some of the pups approached Twilight, nibbling her mane and hooves. Twilight just breathed shallowly. Fluttershy idly wondered if the puppies would kill Twilight before starting to eat her. If the puppies. Would kill. Kill. What? “NO!”  The pups jumped upon hearing Fluttershy’s scream and scattered as she drove them away from Twilight. She quickly checked that no real harm had come to her still unconscious friend and then turned to face the puppies in the room, looking at each one in turn as she spoke to them. “You don’t eat ponies anymore, remember? No eating ponies! And especially not this one pony! You don’t eat her, you don’t eat anypony anymore, got it?” The pups were looking at her, tilting their heads from side to side and looking confused. They will understand, Fluttershy thought as she watched them. But it will take time. Time and work. They had been lost, but I found them and will teach them to be good dogs. That’s what I do, I make things good again. Fluttershy, for the first time in ages, noticed that she was covered in blood. Actually, most of the place was, even the pups, even Twilight. She remembered why this was so, and almost collapsed again. The only reason why she didn’t was the knowledge that she might not be able to get up again if she did. She knew that something needed to be done, though the problem was that she had no clue what that something would be, and even if she did, she doubted if she had the strength to do it. She wondered if she could talk her way out if this mess whenever the rest of the pack would return from the hunt. She had the nasty feeling that while she herself might survive, Twilight surely wouldn’t. Fluttershy could calm down an enraged manticore, she could reason with an egoistic dragon, but she knew she would struggle to hold back a pack of wolves from killing the one pony who was responsible for spreading one of their kin on the walls of their cave. She panicked. It was when Fluttershy dragged the unconscious Twilight out of the cave by the mane that Princess Luna decided that the threshold for her intervention had been crossed. “That’s far enough, Fluttershy,” she said quietly. Fluttershy screamed, let go of Twilight's mane and whirled around to face Princess Luna, who standing in front of her. The pegasus almost fainted. “I am more than aware of your confusion, Fluttershy, but I assure you, the feeling is mutual. Nonetheless, time is of essence now, and all questions you have will be answered in time. I shall in a moment transfer the three of us well away from here, but before I do so, I want you to tell me if there’s anything I must know before we go. Is Twilight critically hurt? Are you? Speak quickly.” Fluttershy stared with her mouth and eyes wide open at the dark alicorn that spoke and acted as if she was the embodiment of all the reason and confidence in the universe. Then she asked: “Can we take the puppies along?”   Luna raised her gaze from Fluttershy to the litter of puppies that lurked deeper in the cave. They seemed to be terrified of her, yet were driven to follow Fluttershy by some instinct. The combination of the two urges made their behaviour seem rather silly. “Are you certain that your proposition is thoroughly thought out?” Luna asked. Fluttershy only nodded, her eyes and mouth still wide open. “Then it shall be so.”     With that, they were all gone.