//------------------------------//
// 7. Twilight Sparkle: Black Dahlia 
// Story: Rise of Ponietheus 
// by twitterdick 
//------------------------------//

	"Wake up, Twilight!! Hmm… it isn't working. …Maybe if I shout louder. TWILIGHT!"
Twilight Sparkle felt herself in that half suspension between awake and asleep. Soon she felt the ground she was laying on, then her curled body positioning and finally some more sound. She didn't move yet and her eyes remained closed. The hardwood floor was strangely comfortable. The air smelt wet.
"Ouch! Hey, Pinkie! Settle down, you're freakin' us out."
"I would appreciate it if you didn't shout, Pinkie Pie. I've just got the worst headache. Twilight probably just was exhausted, she'll snap out of it soon."
"Hmm… Maybe if I start poking her."
'Stop poking me, Pinkie.'
"Hey, she moved a bit! I'll poke harder."
'Stop. Let me sleep. I don't want to deal with this.'
"…Her Majesty isn't cold, is she?"
"No, she's pretty warm. She's twitching, I can see it!"
'Maybe it's a dream. No storm, no thunder, no blackness… just a dream.'
"The storm is getting worse, sir."
"Any sign of Flash Sentry, Sergeant?"
"None sir."
"Geez, it's really dark out there…"
"At least there hasn't been much thunder recently. Oh, poor Angel bunny just hated thunder…"
'Oooh, it's not a dream…'
Twilight felt Pinkie's mouth close up on her ear. She cringed, expecting Pinkie to scream or violent shake her. Instead, she heard a whisper, "Hey, Twilight… Can you hear me?"
"Mmm… I can hear you…" Twilight mumbled, eyes still closed. She buried her head into her hooves.
"Hey, she's awake! Ha! It worked!" said Pinkie Pie.
Silence. Twilight almost slipped back into sleeping.
"Get up, Twilight!" Pinkie Pie screamed as she violently shook Twilight, "We're in a lot of trouble!"
Twilight Sparkle curled up and clasped her hooves onto her face. "I know," she groaned, "…What do you expect me to do about it?"
"We have to think of a plan, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash said.
"Get up, silly!" said Pinkie Pie.
"Your Majesty…" said an old looking Royal Guard.
Twilight stirred and pressed herself up from the warm floor. Drool sopped from the corners of her mouth. She smacked her lips and looked around. There she was in the library; bookshelves, Rainbow Dash, wood, Pinkie Pie, some Royal Guard, more wood, more books, another Royal Guard… and thick black clouds rigidly stuck outside the nearby window. It was remarkably dark, save a few lanterns inside the library. She pawed her eyes sheepishly.
"Is it night time already? How long was I asleep?"
"About 45 minutes…" Rainbow Dash said solemnly.
"What?"
"The storm, it persisted," Rainbow Dash said, "It spread out over the sky in no time…"
Twilight scanned the room again, "Well, Princess Luna said… wait, where are the others?"	
"Hey, Princess Luna said what?"
"The others, Rainbow Dash, where are they? Spike and them, I mean."
"Oh, those stubborn ponies!" Pinkie Pie said, "I tried to tell them to go back to the library with me, but they wouldn't listen; 'Ah jus' dun got ta git back ta mah farm!'/'Darling, I've got make sure the darlings in Canterlot are alright, darling!'/'I've got to follow Rarity so nothing bad happens cuz we're in luuuhv!'"
"Hush, Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash snapped.
"I had my guardsponies escort Lord Spike and Miss Rarity to Canterlot per your orders, Your Majesty…" said the old Royal Guard. 
'Wait…Royal Guard?'
"My orders?" Twilight asked, her drowsiness shed, "What are you talking about? Hey, who are you? Wait… Fluttershy! Where's Fluttershy, is she alright?"
"I'm okay, Twilight," Fluttershy said calmly. She comfortably sat on a bench and wore a fragile smile. The black patch stuck to her coat like paint flung to a canvas. Rainbow Dash had collapsed into the wall but an arm's reach from her, and, of the two, looked far more exhausted. 
"Oh, I'll introduce everypony!" Pinkie Pie said. "This one with the grey coat and the serious face is Knight Commander Protean Joy. He's here to ensure your safety and he's very stern and authoritative and speaks firmly and with enunciation. Then this one over here with the white coat and the sleepy eyes is Knight Sergeant Mogadon. He's quiet and in the background and doesn't like it when I ask him questions. I'm not sure what his favorite color is, but my bits are on blue. Oh, and this lovely little thing is Fluttershy, who… wait, you know all about Fluttershy. Ha! Duh!!"
"They're sure polite," Fluttershy said.
"Your Majesty," the old guardspony said, extending his hoof towards her, "Might I help you up?"
Twilight took his hoof and came to her feet. "You're Commander Protean Joy, I take it."
"That I am, Your Majesty."
"Hm, 'Majesty'? … Hey, what did you say about Spike?"
"Lord Spike ordered me to escort him and Miss Rarity to Canterlot on the grounds that they were, by your orders, responsible for ensuring the safety of Canterlot's citizens."
"No, no, no… Canterlot's been attacked. Luna told me so. We need to get out of her. We need to meet her in the Everfree forest right now!"
Rainbow Dash stood. "'Canterlot's been attacked?' Do you think it was by the same guy that attacked Discord?"
Twilight Sparkle brought a cloth from the table to her mouth and wiped away the remaining drool. Any other time, and such an event would have embarrassed her greatly. Protean Joy began questioning and Rainbow Dash told the story of their investigation, during which Twilight stumbled over to the window to stare at the storm. It pulsated like waves throwing themselves upon a beach.
"Hey… Hey, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight moved then to her bookshelves - the L's. She scanned the section while mouthing the word 'log' to herself repeatedly. 
"Twilight?"
Twilight pulled a book from the shelf; A Log of Unexplained Weather Phenomenon. Such a storm not crafted or otherwise managed by pegasi was troubling, even disregarding the previous events. She felt Rainbow Dash walk up beside her on the left side and stare down at the pages with her. She tilted her head, and Twilight felt a spark in her head. Rainbow Dash was on the same wavelength as her. 
Twilight flipped through the pages. There was nothing noteworthy - some logs of snowstorms in the dead of summer, ice melting despite freezing temperatures, unexplained floods, unexplained fires… There was nothing even close to such a dark storm.
"Check for black lightning. That ought to stick out," said Rainbow Dash.
Pinkie Pie crept up on the other side of Twilight. Twilight almost felt her, and winced in anticipation. "Twilight? Hey, Twilight, what's the plan?" Pinkie Pie asked.
Twilight squeezed her lips together and exhaled out her nose. "I don't know, stop asking me…" she said. She paused, then added, "We need to know something about this storm before we can come up with a plan on stopping it."
Pinkie Pie rubbed her chin slowly. "Hmmm…" she said, "Have you tried… looking it up in a book!"
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "We're looking at a book right now!"
Pinkie Pie placated a look of sheer surprise and stared credulously at the old book on the table. She then tapped her chin and thought. "Well… You could look in a different book!"
Twilight sighed. "If only it were that simple," she said, "If only somepony could just burst through the door with all the information we need just glued in their hoof."
Just then, Rarity burst through the door with Spike, his hand still stuck through that book, on her back. She had a strange mix of trauma-induced terror and indignant anger brewing in midst the scowl on her face and she was sure to make her presence known in the way swung the door open and slammed it behind her. Still, her anger was not directed at anypony in particular, and she retained a level of glamour in her behavior. She plucked Spike from her back and placed him gently on the floor then took four or five deep breaths to calm herself, fluffed her hair to make it somewhat presentable and trotted over to a nearby table to take a hefty gulp of water. The room was in silence before her. She finished her glass, exhaled, and turned rather gently towards Fluttershy. "How are you feeling, dear?"
"Oh. I'm, um… fine. How are you? You look terribly exhausted…"
Rarity squeezed out an exhausted laugh and forced a smile. "Me? No, I'm fine. I only ran from Canterlot to here… It's only a few miles, I'm good…" She helped herself to more water.
Twilight Sparkle was more concerned with Spike. She helped him up and pulled the book from his hooves with her magic before discarding it onto the floor. 
"You alright, Spike?"
Spike frowned. "I'm alright. It's everypony else that I'm worried about."
Pinkie Pie poked at the book on the for like it was about to explode. She batted it around a bit, like a kitten with a ball of yarn, then opened it and read. Twilight shrugged this off. 
"Are you okay, Rarity?"
"Oh… I'm peachy," she said before guzzling down another glass of water, "…Thrill of a lifetime."
"My soldiers," Protean Joy said, "What of them?"
Rarity's sardonic veneer slipped away into grim territory as her lips tightened. She frowned and simply shook her head.
Mogadon, still quiet, allowed his ears to perk up. He scooted in from the back with a stern look on his face. Then he spoke. "What happened to them?"
Rarity shuddered. "…The whole castle, and everypony in it… They were all black and quivering. Some… thing, like a pony but bigger, came out of the shadows and attacked us. It seemed to be sapping fire…"
Twilight and Rainbow Dash both raised their eyebrows. "Fire!?" they said in unison.
Rainbow Dash turned to her. "Like whoever attack Discord!" she said.
Twilight nodded. "Same guy?"
"What do you remember?"
Twilight thought. "Um, a horn… and an eye."
Spike whimpered. "A piercing blue eye?"
Twilight felt a budding of dread plant in her stomach. Sound faded out again, and the continued conversation of those around her blurred away. She closed her eyes and thought. No ideas came. Then, she let go into the flow of quiet desperation.
"Errgh! C'mon! There's got to be something!!" Twilight Sparkle screamed as she softly panicked. She then furiously pawed through whatever books she thought might bear even tangental relevance. She pulled them from shelves, flipped through them, then discarded them hectically. All she could her was her own shortness of breath. Her breathing, her frantic tapping of her back hoofs, the slams of books on the ground - the ebb of echo pulsating around her. The very feeling of sound was so much different now.
"Oh, no, no, no! None of these are helping! What do we do?" Twilight cried.
"It'll be okay, Twilight. We'll think of something new to do," Fluttershy said with a fragile smile. She was stiff.
"Oh, there's nothing new to do… it's all been done!" Twilight lamented.
"I have faith in you."
"Well, put your faith in another place!!"
Fluttershy retracted and her face flickered pain. Twilight brought her hoof to her right temple, and exhaled.
"…I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."
"It's okay."
"It's just… we never seem to get away from this, do we?"
"No."
Twilight let her head fall onto the nearby table and basked in the terrible silence that befell the whole room. They were all just waiting for her to say something. It was so uncomfortable. She'd always been like this when things were out of her control - she either got frantic or just shut down. Nopony else knew what to do either, but she had nopony to look to - no other princesses around this time.
"…Hey, Twilight?" Fluttershy said at the contours of a whisper.
"What is it?"
"I'm terrified." 
Her voice trembled, then went to a jarring quiet.
"Fluttershy?"
Twilight looked up at her and saw her eyes go white. She had such a look of horror on her face, and the bottoms of her eyelids and the corners of her mouth trembled. Then the dark spot on her flank just covered her like it had swallowed her up. She went all black, from head to hoof.
"Fluttershy!?"
Twilight threw herself up and went to her side. "What's happening to her!?"
"No! Don't touch her!!" Rainbow Dash cried. She blocked Twilight, who pushed to reach out.
Fluttershy stiffly curled up and whispered, "…Never seem to get away from this…" 
Thunder cracked heavily enough to shake the whole library. Every candle flickered.
"What just happened!?" Rarity cried.
"Fluttershy!?"
They were all shouting. Twilight did not appreciate the shouting. She moved away from Fluttershy and panted. There was a ringing in her ears that she was compelled focus on, drowning out all the noise around her. Buried there, in the sounds and in the pit of her gut, was sheer, thick dread. She heard breathing, and, just past that, wings beating against the sky.
"…We have to get out now…" she mumbled.
"Your Majesty?"
"Twilight?"
Twilight felt her whole body tighten up and her heart pound. Her breathing had picked up.
"We have to get out NOW!" she screamed. "Grab whatever you think we need and run to Everfree! Princess Luna will be there!"
Rarity whimpered. "…Run?"
The ground shook. Twilight's breathing picked up. There was a ringing in her ears that felt like it was tunneling into the sides of her brain. She grasped her temple. Nopony was moving.
"I said now!"
Then they sprang, grabbing various items and throwing them into saddlebags. Pinkie Pie grasped that book in her teeth, the two guards grabbed food and water, Rarity blankets and other toiletries. Rainbow Dash just studied Fluttershy desperately, and shouted at her - she was unresponsive. Spike just froze with a panicked look on his face. Twilight was quick to pluck him up and put him on her back. She kicked the door open.
"Everypony out!!" she commanded.
"But what about Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash protested.
"I said, 'Everypony out!!'" Twilight screamed.
Rainbow Dash shortly acquiesced, and, bidding Fluttershy a pained nod, joined them in their evacuation. It was terribly dark outside, but still workably visible, like a room at night illuminated by a dim candle. Twilight gathered her bearings, but didn't know the exact way. She felt the precipice of that particular panic that builds against diminishing time, and she struggled to calm down. She shut her eyes and thought about which direction to go. Then, epiphany!
'Pinkie Pie should, with that memory of hers.'
"Pinkie Pie! Which direction is Everfree from here?"
"Serrfff!"
"What!?"
Pinkie Pie spat the book out. "South!"
Twilight nodded then winced at a sudden illumination. Streams of fire glistening like liquid streamed out from nearby windows - free floating. It was almost lovely. The buzzing in her ears came back. 
"Oh no!" Spike cried. "That thing is taking fire from here too!"
Twilight followed the streams with her eyes. They all gathered to a specific point high up in the sky to the north. That point was horrifying. The fire curled up on itself like a burning river, but, moreover, a faint figure could be seen flying up near the cloud line. Twilight's neck tendons tightened. The closer that figure got, the louder the buzzing was.
"South! Everypony south!"
They took off through the town. Lightning struck a nearby building, sending spiraling shocks down the houses and shops. Twilight kept a keen eye on that far off figure and lamented - it moved faster than they could run.
By the time they reached the town's square, there he was - right above them! The armor and necklace he bore appeared rusted, twisted and decrepit, as though left to nature for a millennia. White skin shown thru a hole at his nose, and around a bright blue left eye, staring down at the ponies amongst the stains of black tears. He caught wind of them almost immediately and looked remarkably surprised to see anypony outside. The fire that streamed in from all over collect there, atop his horn. His dreary body - the stark bandages, the dim helmet, his eye - all glowed from the light. He leered down on them as a conqueror bent on conquest.
"Hey, HEY!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she drove her hoof into the dirt. "Just what to you think you're doing to our home!!"
And they heard, as it were, the noise of thunder. The beast lifted himself into the air and said, "Come and see." And they saw. Fire was stricken from the houses and buildings and collected on him. He held it up above him and cackled. "You all have something of mine. I'd like it back." Then, there was another crack of thunder, and the beast winced. He turned to the sky, and their eyes followed him. The thick clouds loomed and beckoned. They stretched out, preparing their gifts for the earth.
"I said, 'HEY!'" Rainbow Dash screamed, "Don't ignore me! And don't give me any of your cryptic mumbo-jumbo. You better clear out of here! We're not scared of you!"
He tilted his head and looked down his nose at her. He scrunched his nose and said, "You should feel afraid." And then, his eye was stricken black and Rainbow Dash's muscles when stiff. Her face contorted, and Twilight Sparkle winced in sync from a buzzing in her ears. The beast above moved his head to and fro, and Rainbow's match suite - though jaggedly, for she tried to stop.  
"Make…him stop," Twilight said. She felt her right leg begin to give out, but Protean Joy caught her and propped her up. Spike slid from her back and onto the ground. She then shot a spell at the beast above, the first vaguely offensive one she could think of, and her purple blast smacked the harbinger's face. He was thrown off, and his eye shut. The buzzing snapped along and popped loudly like a string breaking from a violin. Rainbow Dash let out a scream and brought a hoof to her head.
Twilight returned to her feet. "Everypony! Get to Everfree right now! Move!!"
Rarity plucked up Spike, Mogadon pushed Rainbow Dash along and Pinkie Pie and Protean Joy took off right beside Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Dash let out a pained moan, and a tear slipped from her left eye. Still, she ran.
"Rainbow Dash? You okay?" Twilight called.
"…Y-Yes. Don't worry about me, just… just lead the way…"
"Spike! Is he following us?"
"Umm… I can't see… I don't think so… wait, yes!!"
Twilight Sparkle dared to peek behind. He was there, up above them, yet tactfully behind. She was confused - he flew faster than they ran, why didn't he just swoop in and take them out? He body language did not communicate malice, but… curiosity, perhaps?
They all soon happened upon a small bridge crossing a stream. Lightning blasted it's way to the bridge, destroying it utterly before the ponies could cross. They halted, turning to see the dark harbinger approaching behind them. Clouds above them, not nearly as festering or bleak as the ones in the center of town, suddenly parted.
Princess Luna descended from on high and onto the ground before the bridge, positioning herself between the ponies and the harbinger. "Flee!" she commanded them, "into the forest!" Twilight Sparkle obeyed. She herded the others down the bank and across the stream.
The harbinger landed gently on the ground as well. Luna lowered her head with her horn outstretched and her eye fixated on his. 
"You will not touch them."
He stopped, that fickle beast, and bowed his head. "Hello, Princess Luna," he said.
"Begone, you dark harbinger! Reverse your foal becomings and leave us in peace. Stop this - stop this now."
"'Dark Harbinger', huh?" he said, tilting his head again. His left eye curled from a forced smile. 
"One more time - leave us, lest we find a way to destroy thee!"
"You don't have to shout, you just have to wait - I'll be gone before long," he said, nonchalantly. "But this…" his eyes wandered to the sky above him. He scanned the clouds. "This just has retribution written all over it, don't you think?"
Luna just gawked at him. Her nose curled up. "What… what are you doing?"
"You all really don't remember me, do you?" he said. "…This is all just a reckoning for shunning me and forsaking my gifts. Sound familiar?"
Luna snarled and indignantly snorted. "Mind your tongue, demon."
He dipped his head again and pushed back towards the town. "Stay away."  
Luna seemed perplexed at the lack of confrontation. She just let him go like she wasn't sure what else to do.
"Princess?" Twilight called.
No response. Luna just floated there a minute - taken aback, confused. Soon, Twilight saw her slowly turn and approach the forest. The clouds behind her swelled and bellowed in a soft juxtaposition to their pulsating movement. Then, a light black rain began to fall over the town. Twilight entered the forest.