//------------------------------// // Veiled // Story: Twisted // by Spica //------------------------------// The cool air of the night brushed Twilight’s mane as she stared out of the window, at the dark sky in which only a moon -that at that precise time- shone in the sky. That same night, it was in a crescent state, the familiar image of a moon horse hidden by the sunlight. The moon must be very lonely She closed her eyes and wished for a thousand stars to appear so that they would make company to the moon. She then saw how, in the middle of the black sky of the night, the moon glowed brilliantly, displaying the face of the Mare in the Moon for some instants. Twilight's awe at the display was broken when she felt a tingling sensation in her rumps.  She looked at her side in alarm, and discovered the mark that had appeared in there. a big star surrounded by many little ones.   She blinked and then jumped in ecstasy. “‘I’ve got my cutie mark!  And they are very pretty stars!  Wait until I show this to mom and dad!” The young unicorn galloped out of the room, waking up her parents with the heavy sound of her hooves hitting the floor. --------- “Well, I finally finished my work here, now I’m free to go and play with some ponies! Leaving the bakery at the highest speed she could muster, Surprise flew above the town, her golden mane flowing with the wind. Everywhere she passed through, ponies would lift their heads and look at her. “Got my eye on you, Surprise!” “You better not try anything, young lady!” She dove to the side, avoiding a tomato FIrefly threw at her. Sighing, she flew to the outskirts of town. “I’m bored, and all the ponies in town seem to be quite awake today, I can’t prank anyone. What should I do?” Behind the horizon, the sun began to fall, creating the familiar orange and red sky that she loved so much. She looked as night approached, and a smile covered her face, as broad as any she could produce. “Now I know. I’ll work through the night if I must, to give this little town an awakening as they’ve never had one.!” She rushed back to the bakery, her dear home, waving to all the ponies that she found in the way, and little Spike. Sighs and weak smiles followed her, with ponies knowing they would have a very surprising time soon. ------------ “Go an’ get some milk, will you, Jackie?” said her mother while she worked around in the kitchen. The rooster outside sang again as Applejack tripped on the door. Her mother turned around. “Be careful, missy.” “Ah’ll be, mom,” she answered, picking herself up from the floor and dusting her hat. She headed for the cow coop, falling a couple more times along the way. Ah wish ah was like mah pappy. She imagined herself, hat sitting diagonally on top of her head, golden hair tied up in a knot as it gleamed under the sun,and freckles brought upon her by countless days working from daybreak to dusk. Thousands of apple trees would be tended to, farm chores would be hard, but rewarding work, and her mommy and pappy would congratulate her for her good job. She was not Applejack, the clumsy pony, but Applejack, the loyal and most dependable pony, whose name anypony could call. “Applejack!  Applejack, bring the milk!” called her mother from the house. She shook her head and ran again to the coop, tripping again when her four legs became tangled. -------- Sparkler crossed the area in the map with a red X. She peered all over the document, perusing the places in which she had already sought for the diamonds and precious stones she coveted. “Where can I go now?”   Her horn lit up, and a glow of the same color scanned the map. A small red dot appeared in a certain area not too far away from the village. “Risky Peak?” she read, frowning. “I don’t really like the sound of that place, but I’ll go anywhere I need to.” Rolling the map, she placed it in her bag, and looked around her room choosing other objects she would need in her journey. “There’s the shovel, pick, map, towels, bags, food, water, replacement clothes… I think that just about covers everything.” Putting on her sun hat, she exited her home, route straight to the Risky Peak. --------- If there was one thing Posey loved, it was her garden. She worked hard on it everyday cultivating many kinds of plants and flowers that were known to local ponies, but also many other rare species she had managed to get her hooves on in the few journeys she had made to faraway lands, or by contact with ponies who came from those lands. There were two things that made tending to her beloved garden a difficult task, though.  First, there was the task of looking over for plagues or diseases that could affect her plants, and which many times involved spraying her plants with dangerous products; there were magical treatments against the invading plagues, but she could simply not afford most of them most of the time. She pulled through that fairly well, though. What she was not so successful against was with the hordes of wild animals that roamed through the town, most of them coming from the nearby forest. She had set up barricades, put up scarecrows and some other security measures against them, but she would invariably find some of the beautiful plants or flowers that grew up on her orchard assaulted by the voracious fauna. She sometimes wished she had as much talent with animals as she had with her precious flora. -------- Firefly rested on top of a cloud, letting the warm sun lull her into a stupor. She could feel the occasional pegasus or bird passing near, but didn’t let them bother her in her very deserved break after half a day of work and training. Slowly she closed her eyes and feel asleep, while the wind gently blew her cloud throughout the town’s air space. In her dream, the land and the sky extended infinitely in the horizon. The radiant light from the sun, always in front of her, guided her, and the feeling of the wind under her wings, harder as she accelerated more, left her feeling exhilarated.  Firefly was happy and free, roaming the whole wide earth. -------- Dusk fell on the Everfree Forest. Although the malevolence that had once been held inside of it had been reduced since the Elements of Harmony had been restored to the Tree, the chilly wind that blew through it, shaking the beasts that lived inside it brought with it a sense of darkness and malice.  The same wind carried a disturbing laughter which was followed by the words of a sibilant voice. “Now that their timeline is scrambled, the bearers of the Rainbow Power will be useless against me. I will devour Equestria and all the lands, and reshape them for me to live in.”