Both Rarity and Applejack stared into the direction of where the Nightmare Twilight had been watching too as well. The two of them could have only wondered just where the unicorn was looking towards and why. All kinds of questions ran through their heads. Among them perhaps the most obvious one. The one that asked whether or not there could have been any kind of tracing left by the force that took over their little soothsayer.
The pair of them turned their attention to one another and Rarity gave a gentle nod. One of them would have gotten out to investigate the stuff that would be going on. The traces and evidence of the matter must have been close by. It was unlikely that Twilight had turned into the path of the Dark Witches and Rarity knew that little fact. No, there was something else that must have taken a hold of the soothsayer. Rainbow had stated that a devil took her over, but was that the truth on the matter? Wasn’t she just rambling on because of her emotions? She didn’t had a real clue to that.
The unicorn broke the eye contact with the admiral before she placed her hands behind her back. In the light of the purple flame did she began her search. She began to search through the stuff that was displayed before her. Though there was nothing in the nearby area could have helped her to come up with something that could point her in the right direction.
That was at least the case until she turned her attention to a certain tree. For behind that tree, there seemed to have been something that caused the mare to raise an eyebrow. “Well now, what do we have here?” she asked to herself moments before she took a step closer.
“Ya found something, Rarity?” Applejack asked out of sheer curiosity. But the unicorn didn’t answer straight away. Instead she seemed to have taken her time with it all. She had to make certain that whatever it was that she saw, wouldn’t come to life and just flat out attack her.
That fright was one that continued to keep the mare on edge. After having witnessed a doppelganger who turned out to be a Dark Witch, the unicorn wouldn’t have been surprised if that thing turned out to be one either. The eyes of the unicorn arrowed themselves as she approached it with the greatest of care.
One hoof was placed in front of the other before she closed her eyes shut with firm force. If there would have been a massive overload of light, she would have come prepared. The breathing of the unicorn was quick and her adrenaline was pumping through her body. The anticipation of something happening right before her was almost getting too much for her heart.
But nothing did happen to her. Everything just remained standing still and Rarity dared to open up one of her eyes. The eye then turned over to the object behind the tree. There was however, a slight problem. The very eye with which she looked at it, didn’t even manage to get the thing in focus. Which meant that Rarity was staring at it in a blur.
The answer on the question of Applejack also still had to be given, which was the thing she did then. A gentle sigh was given off through her mouth before the words came. “I found something, yes. But what it is and whether it’s alive, remains to be seen. Don’t come any closer until I say so, alright? And Jackie…”
“Yes?” the admiral replied. She hadn’t expected the fact that there was something that came afterwards. Which made the matter perhaps all the more interesting to listen to.
“If something happens to me, run. Just run like the wind and try to get back to Canterlot. Don’t think about me or Twilight. You, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rainbow hold a greater value in that moment,” added Rarity before she seemed to been stating her last will to them.
The admiral released a simple nod while she prepared every last muscle inside of her body to just get the hell away. For if anything would have happened, she had to get the rest of the group that was still with her. Thoughts of terror raced through her before she shook her head.
The unicorn crawled up closer and closer to the tree but didn’t dare to open up her other eye just yet. For some reason she still expected that it would have been coming back to life and that it still would have gotten right for her.
A primal fear that just would have continued to linger inside of her body. She had to be ready for everything without showing too much hostility. So one of her hands reached out for her biggest flintlock and cocked the hammer inside of the holster. If anything would have happened did she at least had a chance to defend herself.
Time was up though. All that she could have done from that moment onward was to turn around the tree and face the terrors that were lingering there. The unicorn did just that and she jumped in with a set of closed eyes. She then landed almost right next to the thing she caught in her eyes earlier and gently opened them again.
Whatever it was that she saw, it most likely was able to give them all a lot of answers. Or at least that was the thing that the unicorn hoped it would be doing. For a deep and slow inhale was given off by her.
In her eyes it then appeared, the husk of the giant centipede. The eyes of the unicorn just went as wide as they were allowed when she first saw it. A hand was brought to her mouth just before she began to shake her head. It couldn’t have been possible, right? Fear had made room for utter disbelief from her part as she began to feel herself truly uncomfortable.
Even in its lifeless state did the husk managed to give off a truly terrifying presence. She shook her head even more vividly as the hand was removed from her mouth. “This can’t be. This just, can’t be!” Rarity exclaimed in a soft tone to herself.
“What did ya find?” Applejack asked while she was still too scared to move a muscle. The unicorn then just gestured her over with a single hand. The admiral caught the signal the first time it was given but still tilted her head. Step by step did she came closer to the tree and went around it the other way. Though there was nothing which could have prepared her for the sight that would have been revealed to her.
Applejack’s eyes were looking over the husk and noticed that it was a truly enormous centipede. The admiral then had to place a great effort in not to scream in terror. Rarity wanted to keep it a secret to both Pinkie and Fluttershy, so the Applejack was forced to keep her mouth shut. The admiral placed both of her hands against her mouth in order to suppress the screams.
“Calm yourself, Jackie, just calm yourself for the moment. It’s dead or, dormant, actually,” replied Rarity in another a whisper. Her eyes then shifted over to the little camp and watched how both the doctor and the lamia were talking to one another under the light of the purple fire.
The hands were taken off of the admiral’s mouth as she couldn’t believe what she was staring at. “Is this, what Ah think it is? But how? How can she be here? And, oh mah goodness…”
“Exactly Jackie,” the pirate said before she turned her head back to the admiral. “The devil has paid us a visit and taken one of us with her. She’s real, she’s just as real as you and I.” The head of the mare was then dropped down to her chest before she shook it ever so gently. “Luna stand with us, for this truly is a dark moment in our time.”
“Ya think we might be able to, ya know, touch it?” Applejack asked while she never took her eyes away from the empty husk. It just utterly terrified her as she watched over the whole scene. She could have imagined the sheer amounts of fear that was going straight through Twilight as the maw was standing right before her.
“Don’t even think about that,” responded Rarity quick and in a snarl. “It’s the physical form of Nightmare Moon, touching it is like ringing her front door bell! She’ll come and get you, just like Twilight. You can’t defeat the devil herself!” The words of the pirate rang a great truth and Applejack realized that the more she thought about it. Perhaps it was indeed better to just let it be for what it was.
“Let’s not discuss this with the others. They don’t need to know what lies here. We’re going to make way for the port of Manehatten, now. Twilight, is lost. I’ll give Rainbow the signal in the form of a blast and hope she understands it. We can’t stay here, not with this here. We have to go, you understand?” Rarity spoke to Applejack. She was more than ready to get the hell away from the place. It was the only thing that they could have done actually.
The admiral nodded to the words of the pirate before she released a deep exhale in return. She wanted to just shatter the husk with every fiber of her body, but who knew with how many layers of dark magic it was protected by? It surprised Rarity that there wasn’t some kind of protective barrier around it when she approached it. But that didn’t want to say there wasn’t one hidden.
No, the mares had to play it careful. They had to set in low and pray on the fact that they would have gotten out unscratched. Normally Rarity wouldn’t back away from a fight that easily. But she knew who her enemy was. She knew that the powers of the devil couldn’t be matched by hers even if she tried. If anypony would have had a chance against the actual devil, Twilight would have been the right candidate.
It was true that the pirate believed in the goddesses as well, but she only prayed to the lunar one. Not to mention the little fact that Twilight had been studying them for as long as she could remember. She was just a simple pirate compared to a brilliant and religious scholar.
“Ah heard ya. Make for port, sail to Canterlot,” repeated Applejack. The plan was as bare boned as it could have been. Rarity nodded in return before she walked away. The admiral then just followed her as she gained the creeps from the terrifying looking centipede. A shudder went down her spine as she glanced over the rest of the company.
Both Fluttershy and Pinkie didn’t have the slightest of clues about what was going on though. The two had been exchanging cultural differences between each other when they noticed in the corners of their eyes that the mares came back. Of course they hoped that there was good news from them. Yet the expression that could be witnessed upon both of their faces told a whole different story.
The lamia and the doctor already felt the clouds of rain that would come, even without any of them having spoken a single word. Rarity took it upon herself to bring the news to them. She was a little bit more refined in doing such a thing. The unicorn was more able to bend words so that they didn’t sound as terrible as they would have seemed.
“We’re going to make way for the port of Manehatten, now. We can’t stay here any longer. Our safety will be in jeopardize if we do. I can hope that you understand the matter. Twilight, is off to do something else. I can only hope she is able to return to us once it is over. She… She…” That was the point where the lie had to be formed and it needed to be formed quickly.
Pinkie and Fluttershy would only have believed so much before they would have realized that Rarity was telling them a lie. Which meant that the pirate captain had to be utterly careful with her words to begin with. “She’s working on something, a debt that had to be settled a long time ago. She just vanished from the face of the world without a note, so I can only guess what she would have meant with it,” said Rarity to the other two members.
Then came the time to figure out whether or not Pinkie and Fluttershy actually would have been able to take the bait that was given by Rarity. The unicorn naturally hoped that the two of them would have walked right into it. If not, she had a whole lot of explaining to do on the matter.
The mare and the lamia both looked at each other for a little while before their heads turned back to both Applejack and Rarity. The tension was about to be cut in two and either the lie would have worked, or fallen flat on its face. In the end did both the lamia and the pegasus give off a nod. They had accepted the lie that was being told by the pirate captain. “Now if you please, we have a lot more work to do and a long trip to go.”
“But, mustn’t we find Rainbow as well?” Fluttershy asked just before she got back up on her legs. The matter was in fact already handled by Rarity who answered with a gentle nod. It was a relief from the heart of the pegasus as she began to pack her gear.
“I’ll fire a bolt in the air that will signal our departure from here. Rainbow is aware that we are having to go to Manehatten so either she’ll wait there on us, or join us on the quest to it,” replied Rarity to the doctor. The other pegasus gave off a small nod before she continued with packing up their stuff. It was the only thing that could have done before they would leave again.
Once again had the time gotten to them to make their departure from the place. Neither Fluttershy nor Pinkie had even the slightest idea about the terrible husk that stood right behind one of the trees near them. And it was most likely for the best left in that way. The last thing that Rarity would have wanted was that there was unneeded terror given off to all of them.
Yes, it was the husk of the devil as stated in many tales and legends. But said devil didn’t appear to have been home. Which gave them all a great opportunity to just make their getaway quicker than anything. They were running once more against time itself. The unicorn looked if they were all complete and slowly allowed the fire to be dimmed.
It dimmed all the way down to the point there was nothing left of it. The giant flame had vanished from the realm of existence just like that. And then it was Rarity who charged her own horn. The unicorn would have released the shot of sapphire blue aura into the air. The beam exploded in five different directions under the sounds of an explosion.
It almost seemed like some kind of firework had gone off in the middle of the woods. But the bang was in fact placed for a reason. The reason being that Rainbow could then have realized that they were going. That they would have started another leg of their journey.
Within one of the clouds that hovered over the forest, did the eyes of the pegasus glanced through a small opening in the cloud. The bright blue light reflected in her eyes as she watched the thing happening. “So they are going… What got them spooked in the middle of the night?” she whispered up to herself.
Anything could have happened with the mares and she was fully aware of that little fact. But she couldn’t care any less about it. Her own mind still needed healing and that was best done by just staying in the cloud.
She knew that the company had gone off to the distant place of Manehatten. That was the plan which got set up anyway. So that was the plan they would follow. Such a simple plan it was: go to shore and get a boat. That was it, but the difficulty was thrown at them for whatever reason.
The mare turned back around and away from the light as she let out a sigh. She was tired and needed her sleep again. She had gotten some of her required sleep but that was only before the blast happened to play out. That was the thing that managed to wake her up again.
Rarity would have discharged her horn before she gave a nod to herself. If the signal wasn’t clear to Rainbow, there was only one thing else that could have been done. And that was for the mare to go straight back to Cloudsdale and continue to live her life. At least that was the mindset that the unicorn had for her. One that she seemed to have been content with, for she didn’t had any plans to go to Canterlot either.
Applejack, Pinkie and Fluttershy, all began to walk in the general direction they had to go again. They moved around the spring where they had been bathing before and just followed that one direction. The compasses of both Applejack and Rarity were taken out to find their directions. The admiral walked up front and simply followed the direction she needed to.
While Rarity had formed the rearguard and only seemed to control whether or not they would divert too much from their original course. Which was possibly a good thing that they were doing it like that. It meant that the compasses couldn’t have been countering one another out and if something happened to one, they always had the other.
Silence remained while the group of four wandered through the woods in darkness. Not even Rarity’s light was shining down a path before them. All they had been going for them was that the darkness concealed them all. Any creatures that weren’t used to the darkness couldn’t be hunting upon them.
At another end could it have been seen as some kind of safety mechanism for them. Their eyes got adjusted to the darkness and they weren’t emitting off any light. Not to mention the fact that they tried to move in utter silence.
But one thought constantly remained in the minds of both Rarity and Applejack. The thought that they hoped that Twilight was able to defeat the devil that was blocking her way. They both hoped that the mare wouldn’t have been turned into a Dark Witch as well, just to do the devil’s bidding. No, that kind of fate they wouldn’t have wished for her.
Yet the unknown factors were those of where the mare had been gone off to. The soothsayer could have returned to the Frozen North for all they knew. There were just too many variables in the equation that would have been able to give some straight form of answers.
The only answers that could have been given off on the matter, where the many ‘if’-answers. The answers that all began with the little two lettered word of ‘if’. One of the smallest words in the dictionary, but one with perhaps the greatest meaning in all of their lives. That one little word dominated their entire lives on a daily base and they didn’t stood still upon that fact too often.
The remaining members of the company had left the spring behind them and were just wandering through the forest in utter darkness. Not even the stars were there to aid them in the quest. All they had were the two compasses from which they hoped that they were working properly. There was no real telling from anything that the dark influences of Nightmare Moon had affected the magnetic fields of the way pointers.
Good old fashioned luck was the thing that hopefully would have been able to keep the mares alive and kicking. But they had been taking a hand of Lady Luck numerous times already during their quest. At one point or the other would she have just stopped doing so.
They hoped that it would have been at a not all too crucial time for their little band of misfits.
It must have been hours since they had started to walk towards Manehatten. Their pace was naturally slow for rather obvious reasons. They tried their best to remain unseen and undetected by the nightly predators of the forest. The only way to do such a thing was to remain silent.
But that very same silence was broken by something. Not something that seemed to have gotten from the mares themselves though. Instead it seemed almost as if it came from their sides. Something wasn’t right and the ears of Fluttershy were the first ones to have noticed it. The pegasus turned her head both to her right and left before she came to a standstill.
Pinkie Pie just slithered passed her without a word, but Rarity stopped as well. A gentle whistle was sent to Applejack that she needed to stop. The admiral understood the message but she didn’t know why. The mare turned back around and walked back to Rarity. “What’s going on, why are we stopping?” the admiral asked as she wanted to know the finer details.
“You have to ask our good old doctor here,” the pirate replied before her attention shifted. “What’s going on Fluttershy?” The question was aimed directly at the doctor who glanced off into the distance. Something just didn’t seemed to be right in her eyes.
“Can’t you hear it? A gentle rumble. Almost as if thunder is heading this way,” said Fluttershy while she pointed to the land before her. “Listen carefully and look, I don’t know what it is, but it does feel like a tremor hitting us.”
“A tremor?” Applejack exclaimed quick. “But Ah thought we had stopped them.”
“Maybe an aftershock, nopony is certain what the interval is between one or two of them,” replied Rarity moments before she closed her eyes as well. The ears were perked into the direction that Fluttershy was pointing. Gentle twitches were given off by the ears as they tried to catch up with all the sounds in their nearby area. She simply had to be certain about everything.
For mere seconds did all of the anthronies just listen to the scenes and sounds while they came and went. The chirping of the birds that all of the sudden fell silent. The rustling of the leaves that went silent as well. There wasn’t any doubt about it. Whatever was heading their way, it didn’t seemed to be disturbing nature itself. Yet at the same time it seemed to be silencing all of it at once.
The eyes of the mares went open again before they just looked over what was going on. None of them had any kind of explanation for the events as they were. All that they knew was that there was something heading their way. Not one of them dared to even make a step forwards to continue the trek. All eyes and ears were locked in the direction from where the rumbles came from.
“There!” Fluttershy exclaimed out of nowhere. She pointed straight ahead of them all and three pairs of eyes followed the finger. Much to their own surprise did they actually saw the one thing that she was pointing at. And it didn’t appeared to have been anything good.
Once again were they looking at something that they held unbelievable. “That can’t be! That’s just impossible, no creature in the land holds that kind of power!” Rarity exclaimed before she shook her head violently from side to side.
“Yet, it is,” spoke Applejack while both Pinkie and Fluttershy remained silent with commentary. None of them were having any idea about what caused it, but they were looking straight up at the thing that silenced everything. To make the matter probably even worse, it was heading straight towards them. The speed at which it came from indicated that they couldn’t outrun it. To make it the worst possible thing was one thing left. There didn’t seemed to have been any kind of end to it. It just kept stretching and stretching from horizon to horizon.
The thing that was happening to the land of Equestria was something that had never been seen before. Not only were all the sounds just silenced but all the coloring was taken right out of it as well. Every last bit of color was just consumed by a massive blob of gray that reached all the way to the heavens high.
Nopony had even a clue about what it was, but they did knew that they would have been hit by it sooner or later. The last prayers were said by the mares before they all breached themselves for the impact that it would have carried. Whatever it was, whenever it would be over. Once again it almost seemed as if they were going hand in hand with Death himself.
More and more of the color from the world was just consumed by the grayness. But the matters only turned out to be more confusing. The fact very that it seemed to be bright, almost like the gray that a pencil would have given off. No words could have been spoken by the mares as they all remained standing on the spot.
Time was almost up for them all as they all would be consumed by the grayness. The fog began to turn gray at first and gave them all a near clear view on the trees that laid behind it. Brown and black trees were revealed to the four of them until the gray had consumed them too.
The trembling noises only seemed to have gotten louder with each passing second and they knew it was close. It could have happened at any given time. The mares were ready though. They had prepared themselves for whatever it was that would have gotten to them all. They all had braced themselves for the events to come.
They all were ready to meet their maker so to speak. Perhaps they thought a little bit too much in doom scenarios, but when it was thought about had they truly been going out of the frying pan and into the fire.
No wonder Rainbow was tired of it all. No wonder she had taken it for the skies again. Perhaps that little pegasus wasn’t as crazy as she seemed to be. Not that it mattered anyway. For ground and air were both hit by the massive amounts of grayness.
And then it finally happened. It finally happened and the mares were hit by the grayness. Their entire world had just turned into gray and they couldn’t move. They didn’t even feel like they couldn’t move anymore. Nothing moved, everything just seemed to have been frozen. But there was no ice, there was no coldness and there certainly wasn’t any kind of subzero temperatures going on. Nor did it seemed like there was a spell that fired up which could have frozen everything.
No, there was something else that managed to freeze the land and possibly the world in that kind of state. Everything that the grayness had touched, had turned into a frozen state. All of it had just turned straight up into a statue. Not a single thing moved inside of the grayness. There was only one possible solution for the question that could have been asked.
And the answer upon it perhaps wasn’t as far-fetched as one would have thought. For the statues were made out of everything. Whether it be trees, plants, flesh and bone. Only one word would have been able to justify the events as they were going down.
Time.
Time was the one word that could have been used to describe the situation. No kind of dark spell was being used to freeze the entire world they knew. But the one thing that nopony had ever managed to get some kind of control over, just seemed to have stopped like that.
Equestria was frozen, that much was certain. It was frozen in a single moment of time itself. Time had come to a standstill in the whole of the world. One thing was out of place and it caused everything to be thrown right out of the delicate balance that the very world had.
But would the mystery be ever solved by the mares that wanted to get to Manehatten?
~~~~
Even though the fact was there that time itself stood still, there still was life to be found among the madness. It was within the castle in the forest of Everfree that she just sat. She sat upon her throne and ticked her cheek with a talon. The place was lit by gray flames while the thinking creature released one growl after the other.
Something had gone terribly wrong, that much was certain to begin with. What was unknown though, was whether or not she had something to do with it. It was upon the throne in the castle sat nopony else then the demonic mistress herself: Sunset Shimmer. Her eyes looked from left to right before her legs went cross over each other.
Something wasn’t right. Why could she have moved as time itself stood still? She could only have gotten up with one possible answer for the matter. “Mommy’s coming home,” muttered Sunset against herself before she stood up. Every spell in her arsenal was polished, every tactic that she knew resurfaced from deep within her mind.
She was ready to battle it out against the creature she had turned her back too so long ago. The battle between life and death would most likely erupt between the two. And it was her who had the intention of winning.
Then it finally appeared before her eyes. The massive mixed aura orb emerged before her very eyes. Interest had already captured her as it wasn’t just the orb through which Nightmare Moon seemed to be traveling in. “Now things turn interesting,” the demoness told to herself moments before she spread her wings.
Her serpent tongue made the repeating motion, almost like she was smelling the air around her like an actual snake would do. She was curious to see what would have gotten out of the orb. Sunset crossed her arms over each other and assumed a pose of domination. It was her castle after all and everything inside of the walls would have listened to her and her alone.
Out of the orb she came. Out of the orb she had appeared before it was shattered again. The grayness wanted to get a hold of the being that got out. Though as soon as it travelled over the fingers and the hooves, it retreated again.
The creature that left the orb was also spared of becoming locked in time. Then did the eyes of Sunset looked over the being and she instantly recognized it. But it wasn’t the thing that she was hoping to see. Instead she got something else that pleased her eye.
Her lips curled up to form a deadly smirk. Even beneath the attire of a tyrant, the glance in the eyes still gave it away. “Twilight, Sparkle, I thought you have learned after you came here last time. What’s the matter? Didn’t learn from that spine chilling experience? You still think, that I can be saved from all of this? Tsk, tsk, tsk, you of all beings should have known better, right?”
What followed was a deep snicker that came from the demoness whereas Twilight just pointed her staff to her. The Nightmare Twilight had a change of attire and she looked like a tyrant. Perhaps Nightmare Moon had the need to have some kind of fashion change before she would have engaged Sunset in s fight.
But that very same Sunset was still oblivious to the fact that Twilight was actually in control by Nightmare Moon. Which gave Moon that one little edge that was needed. A grin then appeared on the mouth of Twilight, who would have erupted out in a laughter of her own. A laughter that was meant to reveal to Sunset with whom she was exactly dealing with.