Among the deep-green pines, raging rapids, and magnificent mountains, there rests a cabin. Its front door opens gently and from inside, Twilight emerges. Thin mist hangs above the yard, hiding everything but the most closest pines and the constant roar of the nearby river. Still, the grey veil already shows signs of rupturing as the sun peeks on the horizon. Twilight walks on the damp grass, looking around in the colorless world. The sound of hoofsteps on the porch make her turn. Rarity and Rainbow Dash trot out, supporting Fluttershy in between them. Rarity is the only one carrying a saddlebag.
“Can you do anything about the fog?” asks Twilight from Dash.
The three stop on the wooden porch. Dash looks around with a professional expression on her face and says: “Sure I could, but it’d be pointless. This won't last more than a few hours tops.”
“How long would it take for you to clear this?” continues Twilight.
“Uhh… Just alone, more than a few hours.” Dash adjusts her position, making sure that Fluttershy’s wing lays comfortably against her back. “The mist ain’t thick, but there’s a lot of it.”
“Surely we can wait a few more hours?” says Rarity. She gives a worried look at Fluttershy leaning against her flank. “I dare say, the weather is not the only argument in favour of that.”
“I can manage,” says Fluttershy quietly. The two ponies by her sides seem to be the only thing keeping her standing.
Twilight looks at the three of them for a moment, her face expressionless. “Every hour we waste is another hour away from Canterlot.”
Dash and Rarity glance quickly at her, then at each other. “Twilight…” begins Rarity, looking at Twilight again. “Time can’t be wasted if there’s no way to spend it. We can barely see you standing there.”
“Rar’s got a point,” says Dash. “And Fluttershy is barely holding it together: she can’t even fly. That cave won’t be running anywhere.”
“But something inside it might,” says Twilight. “Unless Draught Tear went there to teach rocks how to scream, there could very well be more of his victims trapped inside.” Veiled by mist, her eyes appear colorless. “And they may not have a few hours.”
Nopony says nothing for a while. Beside Fluttershy's feeble swaying, they barely even move.
“I guess I could beat the fog back bit by bit,” says Dash carefully. She looks at Fluttershy. “Can you guide us like that?”
Fluttershy swallows. “I… I think I can.”
Rarity notices that Twilight is eyeing her expectantly. “Very well, then,” she says. “But you must come help me with Fluttershy.”
“Of course,” says Twilight and walks next to Dash. After they have exchanged positions, Dash rises to her wings and starts beating back the grey walls, driving a path for the three ponies trotting behind her. Their progress is slow, for the path up the mountain is a steep one right from the start and sprinkled with rocks, roots, and undergrowth. At places it turns almost invisible even without the mist. But the real problems begin when they move away from the track and into the unmarked routes.
“Ah!” gasps Fluttershy as her hoof slips on a wet rock. She would have hit the ground, but Twilight moved just in time to stop that.
“Is it far away?” she asks.
Fluttershy, panting slightly, looks around herself. After over an hour of travelling, the mist is still respectfully abundant. “I don’t believe so… but it’s hard to say. I flew there on the first time, and everything always looks different from the air.”
“Not now it doesn’t,” says Dash above them. Exhaustion taxes her wings, and sweat trickles along her neck and brow. “It’s all porridge here, too.”
“Should we pause?” suggests Rarity, looking at Twilight.
“Not yet,” answers Twilight. “Fluttershy said we’re close. Let’s move on.”
Rarity opens her mouth as if to say something, but only sighs. They carry on and after half an hour of wearisome travelling, Fluttershy finally says: “Stop. Rainbow, stop. I know that cliff.” She points at the mountainside to their right, an almost smooth wall of rock that disappears into the mists above. Sweaty and tired, they still can’t help but wonder at its massive size. “It’s up there,” says Fluttershy.
“Up… there?” asks Rarity. “We’ll never make it.”
“We all won’t,” says Twilight. “You and Fluttershy stay here. Me and Rainbow will check it out.” Carefully they let go of Fluttershy, who settles on her stomach on the ground. Her eyes close immediately.
“That sounds good,” she says feebly.
Dash lands next to them, wiping her brow with a wing. “If something happens, scream like your favourite gown shrank in the wash,” she says to Rarity.
“You just be careful in there!” says Rarity as Twilight and Dash rise to the air.
“We will,” assures Twilight, just before they disappear into the mist.
Rarity turns to Fluttershy and sits down next to her. “Would you like some water?”
“Yes, please,” answers Fluttershy. She drinks deep from the canteen that Rarity produces from her saddlebag. “Thank you,” she says.
“Don’t mention it.” Rarity takes a sip herself and puts the canteen neatly back into the bag. After that, they both quiet down.
“How did it come to this?” asks Fluttershy finally. She turns a faraway look to her friend. “Could this all be just a nightmare?”
“Not every nightmare is a dream,” says Rarity after a short pause. She smiles bravely afterwards. “But they all have an end.”
Fluttershy rests her head gently against Rarity’s neck. “I wish this one would end soon, then.”
The way Fluttershy says that makes chills run along Rarity’s spine. She wraps a warm hoof around the pegasus’s shoulder and hugs her tightly.
***
Above them, Dash and Twilight slowly fly along the cliffside. The mist is less thick higher up, but still rich enough that they have to disperse it with their wings to get any idea of their surroundings. “We should split up,” says Dash. “We’ll find it sooner that way.”
Twilight nods shortly. “You go right, I go left. But if you find it, don’t go in alone.”
“Duh,” says Dash and swoops to the right. She disappears sooner than Twilight could have imagined.
She heads into the opposite direction, scanning the bare stone to her right from a few meter’s distance. There’s no way Draught Tear could've climbed this. Either there is a pathway somewhere or he used a teleportation spell. A sudden burst of anger sweeps over her. Why he couldn’t just tell us about the cave right away? Why he had to fight against it? He must’ve known that he was outmatched… Why he had to be so stupid? It only got him killed. She grimaces as if a flaming pain lanced through her. He was insane. A mad, lost pony after a desperate revenge. He was wicked. She glares at the smooth rock grey as a beard, grey as a certain beard that belonged to a certain stallion once. By a random trickery of the fog, his face seems to stare at her from the mountainside, eyes wide open, empty, expressionless. Dead as stone.
And the cave mouth that suddenly stares at her resembles the wound on his chest more than a simple trick of the fog can explain. Twilight stares at the rupture that opens before her, the hole that stands out as a black gash from the grey reality. For her life she can’t tear her eyes off the sight. For her life, she can’t make out a word. Eventually a howling gale that sinks into her bones snaps her out of the trance of the void. “R-rainbow!” she shouts. “Rainbow Dash!”
After a few more shouts and signs from a glowing horn, Dash finds Twilight. She looks at her, then at the cave. “Should I tell the others we found it?” she asks, eyeing the blackness before them.
“In a moment,” says Twilight. “Let’s just… take a peek inside first.” She flies closer to the cave.
“Uhh… okay,” says Dash and follows. They land on the comparatively flat cliffside that spreads in front of the cave. “Seems that there’s another way here,” says Dash, pointing at the narrow track that starts near them, leading down.
Twilight ignores it, her focus completely sucked in by the cavern. She lights up her horn and trots forward. Dash raises an eyebrow behind her, but follows without a word. They stop at the cave mouth, which is high enough to allow two ponies stand atop each other and wide enough to accommodate three to walk side by side. “Can you notice anything strange?” asks Twilight, peering after the fleeting darkness. It runs farther than her light can reach.
“No…?” answers Dash after having studied the cave for a moment. “It’s a cave. I’ve seen a few of those in my life.”
“Don’t you see how smooth the walls inside are?” says Twilight. “And how there’s no stalactites or stalagmites? By all reason a natural cave should be about as old as the mountain, but this one can’t be even a hundred years old.” She turns a peculiar look at Dash. “Somepony built this.”
“I think we have a pretty good idea who that was.”
Twilight blinks in confusion. “No, you don’t understand. Draught Tear couldn’t have built something like this by himself. Nopony could.”
“Not even with magic?”
“Magic isn't miraculous,” says Twilight annoyedly. “Like any tool, it requires time and skill from the wielder. And it consumes energy just as drilling rock would.” She turns her eyes to the cave again. “He would’ve needed help. A lot of help.”
Dash follows Twilight's gaze warily. “So you’re saying his friends could be there waiting for us?”
“I don’t think Draught Tear had any friends,” answers Twilight. “But I’d bet my horn that there is something expecting us in there.”
Dash blinks, and the wings stir gently on her back. “Should we keep them waiting?”
Twilight takes a step forward. “That wouldn’t be polite, would it now?”
They walk inside the cave. Behind them, the shades close their path. The way is straight as an arrow and smooth as a road. After a minute of steady trotting, Twilight stops Dash with a raised hoof. “You heard that, right?” she whispers, squinting deeper into the tunnel.
“Yeah…” says Dash quietly. “Sounds like… something alive?”
“The bats,” says Twilight with relief. “It must be the bats that Fluttershy told about.” They walk further and soon enough find the ceiling covered with dark, furry things with leathery wings. Few are still awake and their eyes gleam in the light of Twilight’s horn as the two ponies walk under them.
“There must be hundreds of them,” says Dash, eyeing the creatures suspiciously. Suddenly, her hoof steps on something soft and squishy. She looks down and gags. “Eww, gross!” she exclaims, rising immediately to her wings. “The floor is covered with their–”
“Guano,” finishes Twilight in disgust. She grimaces, wipes her hoof against a wall and spreads her wings. “Never mind that.” They fly onwards, wrinkling their noses. When the bats leave behind them, the darkness inside the tunnel seems to grow even more oppressive. It consumes not only all the light that carries from the cave's mouth, but also the faint noises of the bats behind them. Twilight’s horn glows twice brighter now, and still they can barely see ten meters ahead of themselves. And then they arrive to it.
“What is it?” asks Dash tensely.
“It must be the barrier Fluttershy mentioned,” answers Twilight, her tone equally stiff from creeping fright. “Although… I wasn’t expecting it to look like that…”
Before them, the air vibrates gently. It almost seems liquid, the way how its surface waves gently as if brushed by a wind, although no breeze blows in the cave. It’s impossible to say whether the thing is opaque or if the darkness on the other side simply decides to ignore Twilight’s light. She takes a step closer to the strange object, tilting her head slightly. From half a meter’s distance, she can hear an eerie, high-pitched humming emanating from the mystical wall.
“Can you break it?” asks Dash behind her. She is still floating above the floor.
“I don’t know,” says Twilight after a moment. “This magic is… weird. It reminds me of Zweistein's negativity theorem...”
Dash lands and trots next to Twilight. “How about we just throw something at it?”
Twilight gives her a condescending glance. “Or maybe you just try walking through it?”
Dash shrugs. “Okay.” She raises her front leg.
“Wait, stop!” blurts Twilight as she sees that.
Too late. Dash’s hoof touches the humming air… and passes through as if it was just air. A relieved and nervous laughter flees from her.
“Are you crazy?!” shouts Twilight.
Dash gives her a condescending look. “Hey, I thought we were in a hurry? Besides, if it was a trap, it wouldn’t have been so obv–”
Her sentence ends in a shrill and terrified scream.
“Rainbow!” cries Twilight. Terrible pain twists Dash’s face. Her wide eyes stare at beyond the barrier. Twilight looks at the same direction, and the sight makes her gasp in fear. Something has seized Dash’s front leg, wrapping the part that she had pushed through completely in a coat of shadows that have no beginning. They reach for her from the nothingness itself. And they squeeze.
“Ah!” yelps Dash in pain. She yanks back her hoof, but the shadows won’t let go. Instead, they start to pull. “Help me!” she cries hysterically, staring at her captured limb.
For half a second, Twilight’s brain refuses to comply. The sight of absolute horror in Dash’s face is simply paralyzing, unreal in its finality. It is beyond the fear of death. It is the fear of what comes after. But something more pressing than fear emerges inside her when Dash's third shriek melts into the second one. “Let go of her!” cries Twilight, her horn exploding into a blaze that no sun would be ashamed of. The brightness floods the corridor… but fails to penetrate the transparent wall.
“Argh!” wails Dash. Her wings spread open like moved by a spring, beating her back against the shadow’s grip. Summoning all her strength, she manages to slow down her unavoidable slipping to the other side.
It didn’t work, realizes Twilight. The barrier blocked the spell. Panic stretches every second, ultimately ripping them apart in wild frenzy. Dash screams again, but this time there is blind rage mixed in with the trepidation.
“Do something!” she shrieks, thrashing in the air.
Twilight grabs her friend from the waist and starts to pull. She brings her wings to the work, flapping desperately to release Dash. She can feel how the pegasus’s body has tensed into its extremes, how her every muscle fights against the hostile power. But bit by bit, they both get dragged closer and closer to the humming wall. “No!” shouts Twilight. “No no no no no no!” She presses her eyes shut and pulls. Her horn burns brilliantly, and the light fills her limbs and wings. Soon her whole body drowns in deep purple glow. “Give… back… my… friend!” she shouts through gritted teeth and hauls with every ounce of strength she can find. They fly backwards in a wide arch and hit the cave floor hard, Dash on top of Twilight.
“Oof!” they yelp simultaneously. The freezing shock lasts for a microsecond, and then they’re back on their feet, staring at the wall. Beyond it, the darkness stands still as a grave.
“What… was… that?” asks Dash, panting.
“That is… what happens… when you do crazy stuff!” cries Twilight, equally exhausted. She sits down heavily. “I don’t think… that it can… reach us here.”
“Maybe we should… back off just in case?”
“In a moment…” says Twilight, collapsing to her flank. “I need… to catch my breath…”
Dash sits down next to her. She looks at her right front hoof. “It felt like my hoof was freezing completely.” She turns her limb, searching for wounds or frostburns. “But now it’s like nothing had happened. It’s not even red or anything.”
Twilight turns a flank, looking at her friend’s hoof. “Are you sure? The thing was pulling like mad.”
Dash tries putting weight on her leg and doesn’t even blink. “I know. But it’s all good now.” She looks at Twilight and bites her lip. “Twilight… I…”
Twilight raises her eyes to meet her's. “It’s okay, Rainbow. You don’t have to say anything.”
A careful smile raises on the cyan lips. “Not even a thanks?”
“Well, that might be appropriate,” says Twilight, smiling faintly, too. Then her expression turns serious again. “Actually, I should be thanking you. I think you just saved us both.”
“Uhh… What?”
“The barrier,” explains Twilight, peering at the wall again. “I don’t think it was meant to keep us out… but to keep that thing in.” She looks at Rainbow. “If I had broken the barrier, there wouldn’t have been anything to restrain it.”
Dash swallows and shudders. “Oh…”
“Yeah,” agrees Twilight. “But it didn’t happen, so let’s not talk about it.”
“What do we do now?” asks Dash after a moment.
Twilight sits up. She gives a long look at the darkness beyond the ethereal wall. “From what I can tell, it would seem that the barrier is designed to stop everything magical… and to let everything else through.”
Dash frowns. “But didn’t Fluttershy say that the bats couldn’t get past it?”
“Maybe the humming keeps them off,” says Twilight after a pause. “Or maybe the thing on the other side likes to keep its floor clean.”
“Okay… but how does any of this help us?” Dash stands up on all fours. “That thing must be guarding something. Whatever it is, we need to get it.”
“I know…”
“So, what do we do?”
“I don’t know!” snaps Twilight, stomping the ground with a hoof. “Let me think…”
Dash flinches, turning her eyes off Twilight. A rock about the size of her hoof catches her eye. She picks it up and throws it at the barrier. “Take that!” she shouts.
“Rainbow!” blurts Twilight. She tries to stop the rock with her horn, but misses just barely. It flies through the wall and disappears into the darkness. If it hits something, it doesn’t make a sound. “What did I just tell you about–” Her sentence ends abruptly. With glazed eyes, she stares at the barrier of enchanted air. Her mouth droops slightly open, frozen in unfinished scolding.
“Uhh, Twi?” asks Dash. “You okay?” She waves a hoof in front of her face.
Twilight blinks. “Could it be that simple…” she mutters.
“What? What did you think up?”
Twilight stands up quickly and turns back to the cave mouth. “Let’s get back: we need to make something.” She flies onwards, Dash following right after her.
“Make what? Come on, tell me!”
Twilight glances over her shoulder. “That rock you threw… What if it had a spell hidden inside it? A spell that was set to trigger with delay?” She smiles conspicuously. “A spell that would make that thing in the dark regret the day it was born?”
“Can you make stuff like that?”
“It would basically be just an elaborate water balloon. Yeah, I can manage that.” Twilight looks in front of herself. “All I need is a suitable container. And then we’ll see just how smart that wall actually is.”
***
In Canterlot, in the backyard of one of the large, poor tenements, a colt opens his eyes dreamily. At first he wonders why his mother hasn’t tucked him in, for the morning is chilly and damp. He gropes around himself, searching for the lost blanket. But then he remembers that no such thing exists. “Mommy,” whispers Berryfer. His eyes stare at the darkness. His breathing intensifies second by second along with his heartbeat as the missing pieces find their places in the puzzle of his mind. “Pa,” he sobs. Tears swell in his eyes red from crying. A sorrowful, painful gasp climbs up his sore throat, cracks open his mouth, and gets cut in half as he bites his tongue.
I can’t cry, I can’t make a noise. They could still be near. I must think, I must use my head. I must… I have to… The decapitated groan rolls past his lips. More follow in its trail, shaking the colt’s body as they fall into the oblivion. “Mommy…” he sobs through gritted teeth, clasping his front legs against his chest. He squeezes himself until it starts hurting, after which he squeezes even tighter. His belly crumbles noisily, plunging him into pure panic. He tries digging deeper into the disgusting filth that surrounds him, but the bottom is too close and he can only huddle deeper into the pathetic burrow into which the thrashed himself during the uneasy drowsing that saw him through the night.
Eventually the hunger, the revolting smell, and the unfathomable yearning make him crack open the dumpster lid. The bright light outside blinds him instantly, making him drop the lid. On the second attempt, he squints until he can see the yard better. He sees no movement. But they could be waiting behind that fence. Or around that corner. Or on the roof. Mother could be with them, Pa too. His stomach crumbles again. He closes his eyes, draws deep breath, and pushes the lid completely open. Sunlight washes over his dirty coat and messed up mane, his tear-stained face and quivering lip. He opens his eyes and looks around. Apart from the few darker clouds, it’s a beautiful day.
It takes him fifteen minutes to climb off the dumpster and sneak next to the wall. From there, he progresses slowly towards the front of the building. As he gets to peek around the corner at the street, his heart is racing like a rabbit with a pack of wolves in its tail. He looks left, then right. Puddles litter the street in their scores, all standing perfectly still. Nothing moves, although he can hear noises carrying from somewhere farther away. He pulls his head back, presses himself against the wall, and counts to ten. He sprints for the front door of the tenement. It lies ajar, and he dives in, closing it behind him as quickly and as silently as he can.
Inside, it’s dead quiet. He looks up the staircase, peers into the apartments down the corridor, but doesn’t see even a rat. He pants in the hall, his ears picking up sounds that don’t exist. “P-pa?” he whispers, holding his breath. “M-om?” No answer. He takes the first step up. Even as he was expecting it, the creak still makes him tremble all over. He gets up to the second floor, then to the third, and finally to the fourth. The corridor there is as long as the way to the stars. “P-p-pa? M-m-mom?” No answer. He walks towards the room they first slept in, finding it empty. Next, he walks to the one with all the board games.
Among the colourful boxes, there sits a pony. A colt. A yellow colt with a dark-brown mane. No. No. No. Berryfer gasps in horror and disbelief. The colt’s head turns as if moved by somepony else. Two eyes stare at Berryfer, two eyes grey as dust. “No!” Berryfer cries, backing away. “No!”
“Who are you?” asks Cough. His voice is a whisper from beyond the grave.
“Why are you here?!” yells Berryfer. “What did you do to my parents?!”
Cough tilts his head to the left. “Do I know you?”
Berryfer charges at him. Cough only stares indifferently as they collide forcefully, tumbling on the floor. Berryfer stands up immediately and captures Cough against the planks, pressing his chest with his front hooves. “Why are you here?!” he shouts hysterically. “Where are my parents?!”
“Your name’s Berryfer,” wheezes Cough. A tortured smile spreads on his lips. “I remember you.”
Berryfer pushes harder with his hooves. Cough coughs painfully. “Where… are… my parents?” whispers Berryfer.
The grey eyes flicker. The smile vanishes. “I don’t know,” he manages. His front hooves fumble at the legs pressing him down. “It hurts.”
Berryfer doesn’t move. “What… happened to them?”
“They… They went away…” Cough starts fidgeting and squirming. “They left.”
“You’re lying.” He presses more.
“Argh!” gasps Cough. He tries pushing Berryfer off him. “I’m not! I’m not!”
Berryfer moves his hoof to Cough’s exposed throat. He just moves it there, almost gently. Cough stops his weak struggling immediately. He looks up at him, his lips forming inaudible words. “T-t-the Smoke got them,” he says. “P-please…”
Berryfer’s hoof trembles erratically. He can feel Cough’s throat quivering under his touch. He gazes into the dusty eyes and sees fear: naked, simple fear. The hoof moves away from the frail coat, lands on the floor. His other front leg follows suite. Berryfer staggers backwards, staring at Cough as if he was death itself. He sits down shaking.
Cough looks at him fearfully, breathing shallowly. “I’m sor–”
“Shut up,” sobs Berryfer, staring at the floor. “Shut up, shut up, shut up…” His head droops like a broken twig. “Why didn’t they take you?”
Cough sits up, eyeing warily the other colt. “I… don’t know… Maybe they don’t take foals?”
“They do,” says Berryfer quietly. “They take everypony. But not you.” His eyes rise slowly. “They take everypony except you.”
Cough leans slightly farther away from him. “Maybe they think I’m too weak to work…”
“They don’t care about that,” says Berryfer, wiping his eyes. He stands up. “They don’t care about anything.”
Cough jumps up and backs away. A bright green box crunches under his hoof. “It wasn’t my fault!”
“Then why are you so scared?” asks Berryfer. He takes a step closer to Cough. “What are you hiding?”
“Nothing!” Cough’s hind legs hit the wall behind him. The sparse sunlight from the covered windows paints his body with stripes. “You scare me!”
Berryfer stops. “What?”
“You scare me,” repeats Cough. “How did you get away from them?”
“I hid in a dumpster in the back,” says Berryfer. “Can’t you smell?”
Cough sniffs at him. “Ugh… Yeah… I can.”
They eye each other cautiously for a moment. “What do we do now?” asks Cough eventually. He is barely shaking anymore.
Berryfer sniffs and wipes his eyes some more. “I know what I'll do. I’m gonna find mommy and pa.” He lowers his hoof slowly. “And you’re gonna help me.”
“M-me? H-how?”
“If the Changed ponies really don’t care about you, that means you can go where I can’t. You can find my mommy and pa.”
Doubt mixes in with wariness in the dusty eyes. “B-but… They are Changed, too…?”
“I'll fix that. But I need you to find them.” His eyes soften a tad more. “Maybe we can find your parents, too.”
Cough gives him a long look. “O-okay… I can help you.” His hind legs detach from the wall. “But you must promise me something.”
Berryfer narrows his eyes. “What?”
“Don’t ever make me lie down again.”
***
Standing in a semicircle in front of a large cave, four ponies stare at an empty water canteen. The mist has mostly dispersed by now, revealing a breathtaking view into the valley below. A sea of pines spreads before them, split apart by the massive waves of mountains and the complicated network of rivers. Even the small cabin can be seen from up here in all its insignificance. Nonetheless, they all look intently at the round canteen.
“I don’t want to sound vain or anything, but I really do love this particular canteen,” says Rarity. The other three give her a look. “I know the fact doesn’t weight much now… but it felt right to mention it,” she finishes, scraping the ground with a hoof.
“If this works, I’ll make sure that you will get your choice from all the canteens in Equestria,” says Twilight, glancing at Rarity.
“How can you know what spell to use?” asks Fluttershy. She isn’t as pale as in the morning, yet she sways slightly even while standing still.
“Trial and error, Fluttershy, trial and error,” answers Twilight. “Although I’m pretty sure I’ve got the right one for the job already.”
“Like a catch-all evil beater?” asks Dash, floating above the ground.
“Something like that, yes,” responds Twilight from under her eyebrows. “It’s a spell to negate other spells. I once used something similar against Discord.”
“But that one failed, did it not?” asks Rarity.
“It was Discord we were up against,” says Twilight. “I doubt that the thing guarding the cave is composed of as high-level magic. But magical it is, I’m sure of that.”
“Speaking of which, how do we know that Discord doesn’t have his claw in all this?” asks Dash.
Fluttershy flinches. “Rainbow… Don’t go there again.”
“Why?” continues Dash, circling above Fluttershy. “He hasn’t shown his face for forever. He should be helping us, right?”
“But he isn’t,” says Twilight. “Discord is a problem for the future. Right now, we have plenty enough of those in the present.” She lowers her eyes at the canteen. “Stand back, girls.”
Rarity and Fluttershy back away while Dash glides beyond the edge of the cliff. Twilight’s horn lights up slowly and soon glows bright purple. She closes her eyes, concentrating. The canteen floats up and turns towards her. The air hums as energy gathers at the tip of Twilight’s horn and from there, moves into the canteen, packed in a point of white light. The bright illumination disappears as the cork closes the bottle.
Twilight sighs and opens her eyes. “Like a water balloon.” She looks expectantly at Dash. “You still want to throw something at the thing?”
“You bet,” says Dash, grinning. She flies closer and picks up the canteen from the air. “You all wanna come watch?”
They all nod and follow her into the cave. Fluttershy is still supported by Rarity and Twilight. They light their horns as the darkness grows thicker around them.
“I have one question, Twilight,” says Rarity. “Does the spell cancel the barrier, too?”
“Most likely it will,” answers Twilight without looking at her. “Our magical powers will be safe though: the wall should block the spell and then evaporate.”
Rarity frowns. “But that would mean… If the monster inside doesn’t vanish as well…”
“It will,” says Twilight. “And if it doesn't, it’ll be weak enough so that I can finish it off.”
Rarity gives her a look. She is about to say something when Dash, flying before them, says: “You guys may wanna watch your step now. We’re entering the danger zone.”
“I thought you said the barrier was quite deep in the cave?” asks Rarity.
“I don’t think she was referring to the barrier…” says Twilight, looking down. She grimaces. “Wait wait wait–”
Rarity’s eyes dilate as her hoof lands on something soft and sticky. Her neck stiffens, stopping her from looking down. “Just what… did I step into?”
“You may not want to know,” says Fluttershy as she looks down. “I should've remembered that bat caves aren’t the cleanest places in Equestria.”
Rarity ceases to breathe.
“Just wipe it off and let’s carry on with wings,” says Twilight, rolling her eyes. She looks at Fluttershy. “Can you fly, just for a short while?”
“Maybe…” Fluttershy answers. She spreads her wings and tries to rise up. With sweat and effort, she manages to get one metre off the ground.
Twilight looks at Rarity who seems to have turned into a living statue: she stares straight in front of herself, tense as a bow. Twilight sighs heavily. “Never mind… I know a better way.” Her horn glows brightly for a second, and then they disappear. Further in the cave, Dash yelps as the three of them suddenly appear before her. “A minor setback,” explains Twilight as she sees her expression.
Rarity blinks and gasps for air. “I think I just saw my life flashing before my eyes.” With a move that embodies the very idea of revulsion, she wipes her contaminated hoof against a nearby wall.
“Is that it?” asks Fluttershy, sitting down. She eyes suspiciously the sight before them.
“It is,” says Dash, narrowing her eyes as she looks at the humming barrier. The darkness beyond is as black as before, impregnable. “So, I just fling this through?” she asks from Twilight.
“Not yet: I need to set the trigger,” she answers. “After that, the spell will cast itself after thirty seconds.”
“Why not ten?” asks Dash, hoofing the canteen towards Twilight.
“Why not eight and a half?” says Twilight. “Thirty is a round, solid number. It’s not really important.” She touches the canteen with her bright horn. A jolt of energy surges into it, making the bottle glow from within. “Okay. Do it.”
Dash leers at the wall and tosses the canteen into a vertical movement. With one sharp, powerful kick, she sends it flying towards the vibrating air which it pierces with ease, disappearing into the abyss behind. “Goooaaal!” she hollers.
Twilight glares at her. “Have you ever thought of taking serious stuff seriously? What if your kick had cracked the canteen?”
Dash gives her an annoyed look. “Yes, Princess…”
Twilight opens her mouth. At the same time, something hits the back of her head hard. “Ouch! What the–”
“It threw it back!” blurts Rarity, pointing at the canteen that rolls on the cave floor. Its glowing intensifies with every second past. “The monster threw the canteen back!”
“Oh no you won’t!” cries Dash, dashing towards the canteen. She picks it up and hurls it back at the wall. It sinks in, only to almost immediately fly back with immense velocity.
This time, Twilight catches it with her horn. The canteen pulses with purple light like a miniature sun. It has less than ten seconds left, realizes Twilight through the throbbing pain that stems from the back of her head. I don’t have time to diffuse it. And if it explodes on this side, it will drain my magic, break the barrier… and leave the monster intact. The calculation lances through her mind in less than a second. The choice that lies at the end stops time completely. She looks at the black void and at the canteen that floats between them. It won’t stay there unless somepony keeps it there.
“Throw it back!” cries Dash, flailing with her front hooves. “Twilight, throw it back!”
The canteen’s side almost cracks as dark-purple light seeps through. Twilight crouches, gathers strength into her hind legs… and sprints towards the barrier.
“Twilight!” the other three ponies shout together.
The canteen flies against Twilight’s chest, where she locks it with her front legs. She can feel it shaking fervently, and its light burns her eyes. Her wings spread mid-motion, carrying her the last few meters. From the corner of her eye, she can see Dash surging for her. She doesn’t reach her in time. Twilight passes through the enchanted air, and for a fleeting moment the eerie humming fills her ears completely. After that, all sounds die. Her eyes are wide open, or at least she thinks they are. It’s impossible to tell, just as it’s impossible to breathe. Cold. Cold. Cold. It’s the only word that chimes in the frozen desert of her mind. But it’s not the absolute darkness, the weird sense of weightlessness, or even the breathtaking cold that she is most terrified of… but the certainty that she is not alone.
It’s beyond Twilight to say whether she spent a year or a second on the other side of the barrier. She wakes up as her whole body shakes violently. Detached syllables and alphabets ring in her head, trying to rebuild the words that somepony is shouting at her. She recognizes a “T”, a “ght”, and the anxiety that glues them together. Twilight… That’s my name. My… name… She opens her eyes. “My name’s Twilight,” she says weakly. “Twilight.”
“Twilight!” cry the three ponies around her, huddling closer. Suddenly, she feels like suffocating again, although this time the feeling is somehow more welcome.
“Okay, let’s give her room,” says Dash finally. “Come on, let her breathe.”
They stand aside. Twilight squints at the light of Rarity’s horn, looking at the relieved faces of her friends around her. “You… You're Rainbow Dash,” she says, looking at Rainbow Dash. “And you’re Rarity,” she continues, blinking at Rarity. When she looks at Fluttershy, she has to frown. “Flatterlie?” she tries eventually.
Fluttershy blinks, the joyous smile on her lips failing. “Uhh…”
“No…Fluttershy,” corrects Twilight, shaking her head. She sits up, touching her temple with a hoof. “What… What happened?”
The other three share a worried look. “Can’t you remember?” asks Rarity.
“You dived through the wall,” says Dash. “You were there like a second, and then the darkness just exploded.”
“The wall?” asks Twilight, dazed. “I… What…?”
Rarity swallows. “She has lost her memory.”
Fluttershy stifles a gasp with a hoof.
“No,” says Dash. “No.”
“I haven’t,” says Twilight, her eyes pressed shut. “I know why we are here… It’s all just coming back in pieces.” She sways gently. “My head feels like it’s about to burst.”
“Take your time, dear,” says Rarity, sitting down next to her. “We’re in no hurry. Just take your time.”
“I’m fine, really,” says Twilight, cracking open her eyelids. “It’s like Spike had tried his new archiving system inside my head.” Suddenly her neck tenses. “Wait. Who is guarding Draught Tear?” She looks at them sharply. “Did we leave Applejack and Pinkie with him?”
Fluttershy sniffs and turns her head away. Dash clenches her jaw, looking like she would like to shatter a stone wall or two with her bare hooves. Twilight looks at them in confusion and then turns her eyes to Rarity. A tear glistens on her marble-white cheek.
“You… You don’t really remember what happened to Applejack and Pinkie Pie?” asks Rarity carefully.
“What’s wrong?” asks Twilight, rising panic staining her voice. “Where are they? What happened to them?”
“They…” begins Rarity. Another tear rolls along her coat. “Twilight, they…”
Fluttershy’s knees fail her: she falls onto her stomach. Dash rushes to her aid and almost loses balance as she clings against her, crying helplessly. Twilight stares at them in terror, in indescribable horror. “What happened to them?” she cries.
“They changed,” sniffs Rarity. “They changed…”
Twilight shakes her head. “Changed into what?”
Rarity looks at the ceiling, breathes deep and wipes her eyes. “How much exactly do you remember about the recent events?”
“I… I remember how it all began,” says Twilight after a while. “It started… about a month ago?”
Rarity nods faintly.
“Canterlot was attacked while we were all there,” continues Twilight, rubbing her temple, looking at nowhere. “I don’t remember the details… but I recall that it happened fast. Way too fast. It was night, and Luna–” Her eyes widen. “Luna woke me up! She came to me in the middle of the night, she was wounded… bleeding… She told me that we must escape Canterlot.”
“And find Project Pantheia’s headquarters,” says Rarity slowly, blinking her wet eyes. “You told us that later that night. Do you remember anything about our enemy?”
“They… They were ponies? Other ponies?”
“Changed ponies,” says Dash who is still comforting the sobbing Fluttershy. “Luna said they had Changed, didn’t she? That something had cursed them or something?”
“‘Possessed’ was the word she used,” continues Rarity. “She didn’t have time to explain properly, but basically it’s like hypnosis, only worse. The Changed ponies lose all control of themselves, their free will, their–”
“Memories,” finishes Twilight, stopping her rubbing. “Just as I did now.” She pauses for a moment. “Pinkie and Applejack… They weren’t sleeping with the rest of us.”
“No, they were sleeping with us,” says Rarity. “But they weren’t there when Luna woke us all up. We don’t know where nor when they had left. But… We saw them…”
“I remember now,” whispers Twilight. “I remember that. And that… I killed Draught Tear…”
“While defending Fluttershy,” adds Dash, soothing Fluttershy. “You got anything about that bitch who started all this?”
“Was she a mare?” asks Twilight, turning to Dash.
“We don’t know who or what it was,” says Fluttershy past her tears. “Not even if it was a pony…”
“Didn’t Luna says something about some queen?” asks Dash.
“She did,” says Rarity. “She said that our enemy wants to be the queen.” She frowns and adds: “But she was very incoherent at the time… and I had just awoken in the middle of the night.”
“We all had,” says Twilight. “I think I remember it all now. The darkness… It must have tried to tamper with my mind while I dived into it. It could be the same kind of magic that swept over Canterlot.”
“That would make sense, yes,” says Rarity. “Perhaps this cave is one of the Project’s secret facilities?”
“We’ll know soon enough,” says Twilight, standing up. “Let’s finish this.”
They all get up, although Fluttershy needs Dash to support her. Twilight comes for her help on the other side of Fluttershy as they all continue deeper into the cave.
“Are you really okay, Twilight?” ask Rarity as she walks ahead to show the light. “You haven’t even lit your horn.”
“I’m fine,” answers Twilight. “Just a bit dizzy. The spell drained my magic for now: it will take a few hours before I can even lift a pebble with my horn.”
Dash snorts. “Sounds like a good time to have a wrestle match, yeah?” Dash watches Twilight roll her eyes and continues: “I have to say though: you had some guts, charging against that monster like that. But wasn’t that a bit too rash from a princess?”
Twilight smiles at her. “I guess a dash of rashness is just what is needed sometimes.”