A bit of fair warning, it will probably be after this chapter that the timeline might get a little confusing. Just assume anything I don't specifically mention will have little impact in terms of story telling.
Night had fallen over Fillydelphia and Rainbow Dash couldn’t sleep. She was perched on a cloud and was keeping an eye on the ground for any movement. Seeing nothing for the moment, she turned back to the hotel where Twilight was sleeping.
‘I hope she’s sleeping well,’ Dash thought and resumed her lookout. In the room, Twilight was tossing and turning in bed.
“Hmm, too cliché… I’ve seen that happen a hundred times… that one’s interesting, but a little out there.”
Twilight stirred and opened her eyes to find the other Twilight sifting through some weird panels. She didn’t take notice of Twilight as she stood up.
“Why am I here again?” Twilight asked to no one in particular.
“Well, I didn’t call you. Maybe you just wanted my company,” the other Twilight said and brushed one of the panels away with a hoof.
“I don’t think so,” Twilight said and moved next to the other her, “What are you doing anyway?”
“I’m just reviewing ways the world can end,” she said. Twilight was silent for a moment.
“What?”
“Even someone like me needs a hobby,” she said holding a hoof to her chest. Twilight just stared and sighed.
“Fine, I’m sure it makes sense to you. What do I call you anyway?” Twilight asked.
“What, you can’t call me Twilight?”
“It’ll get confusing.” The other Twilight thought for a moment.
“Fair enough, you can call me Cheshire Twilight.” Twilight gave her a look as she turned back to one of the panels. “Ooh, that’s a good one.”
“Cheshire?” Twilight asked.
“For my sterling personality,” Cheshire Twilight replied, which caused Twilight to sigh.
“Whatever.” Silence reigned over the two for a minute. “So, ways the world will end?”
“Mhmm,” Cheshire replied and waved the panel away, “It’s a really interesting concept when you think about it.”
“Care to elaborate?” Twilight asked, genuinely curious about this topic. Cheshire Twilight brought up three panels.
“I’m mostly interested in what happens after each instance. For example,” she waved a panel over to Twilight, which showed a barren field with dead trees. “In this instance, a war of some kind unleashed a kind of magic which burned the earth to cinders.” She grinned widely, orange eyes burning into Twilight. “What you’re looking at now is Sweet Apple Acres.”
Twilight looked at Cheshire and back to the panel in shock. The scene in the panel panned over to show an old barn. Cheshire Twilight waved the panel away as a pony emerged from under it.
“Of course, ponykind survived that although only in small numbers,” Cheshire waved another panel over. “Not so much for this one.”
This panel a snow covered mountain range with a blizzard raging all around. A pony, shielded entirely from the winds, was walking along. Every now and then, it would stop and dig at the snow and continue on.
“I’m not entirely sure what happened here, but whatever happened made that pony the last one.” The pony turned its head to the side and started running from something when the panel floated out of sight.
“Have all these happened?” Twilight asked.
“This is all just speculation on my part, but it could happen.” Cheshire said and waved the last panel over. “This one’s
my personal favorite.”
This one showed an odd scene, a strange light in the middle of a strange landmass. It took Twilight a minute to realize that it was Equestria, arranged in such a way that if one looked up you would see settlements hundreds of miles away.
“I like this one because the world actually folded in on itself,” Cheshire Twilight said making a folding motion with her
hooves, “And the amazing thing is at the proper time, it will burst open and create a new world.”
A strange fairylike creature flew by and settled in the air next to an earth pony with a strange full body tattoo. The two
exchanged a few words before moving on.
“Why is that one your favorite?” Twilight asked as the panel floated into the darkness.
“I guess I just like the idea of a new, pure world being born from a corrupted one. But that’s not the point here.”
“What do you mean?” Cheshire Twilight dropped her grin.
“Out of all the ways the world could end, what’s happening now is something I didn’t expect.” Cheshire looked away
from Twilight. “That thing, this…demon, I’m afraid of what it could do.” Twilight gave Cheshire an odd look.
“What do you mean? All it’s done is chase Rainbow and me and possess Pinkie.”
“And it tried to kill you,” Cheshire said and looked back at Twilight. “What do you think it will do if it succeeds in that?” Twilight wasn’t sure where she was going and her face gave that away. Cheshire Twilight sighed. “It would seem you’re too stressed to see the bigger picture. We’ll have to continue this another time.”
“Wait, what do you mean? Why can’t you tell me now?” Twilight asked.
“Because you don’t understand the severity of-“ Cheshire stopped and widened her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked. Suddenly a tentacle shot out of the ground and bound her legs while another wrapped
around her mouth. She shot a mean look at Cheshire Twilight, who continued staring into thin air.
“Don’t move, don’t scream, don’t breath,” she said and closed her eyes. “It’s right on top of us.”
Twilight gave her a weird look before Cheshire Twilight opened her right eye and was surprised when an image slid over her right eye too. And, if not for the binding around her mouth, she would have screamed in terror at the mass of shadows and teeth that she saw. Cheshire Twilight blinked a couple times and the image was dispelled.
“I have an idea, but please don’t do something stupid until I tell you to, hm?” She them moved off to a section of darkness and started looking around. “Come on, where are you? Oh please don’t’ tell me you’re asleep! Aha, there you are!” Cheshire lit up her horn and pulled out a panel of a starry sky. She placed it in front of Twilight and the tentacle removed itself from her mouth.
“What do you-?” Twilight started to ask.
“Call for help!” Cheshire Twilight said sternly and pointed at the panel.
‘It’s getting late,’ Rainbow Dash thought to herself and stifled a yawn. She looked up at the night sky and took in the stars and moon. She settled herself into the cloud and shut her eyes.
“Help!” Rainbow shot up at the voice and looked around. When she didn’t see anyone nearby Dash scratched her head.
‘Did I really hear something?’ Dash thought to herself.
‘Dangit Dash, get your flank down to the room now, that thing is right on top of me!’ a slightly rougher voice shouted in
Rainbow’s head.
Dash perked up and flew down to the window. When she got there her eyes widened in shock and fear when she saw the creature looming over Twilight, who was still asleep.
‘How did that thing get in there?’ Dash thought but shook it away, ‘I’ll worry about that later.’
The creature seemed focused on Twilight which gave Dash enough time to think of something. Thankfully the window
was still open, so Dash soon formulated a plan with her usual tact and cunning.
She braced herself against the cloud she was resting on, kicked off it and flew into the window the room. Dash planted
both of her front hooves against the creature’s face, causing it to fly across the room.
“Twilight, get up!” Rainbow yelled and Twilight jerked up and looked around frantically. She barely got on her hooves and cast a protection spell when the beast got up. Twilight focused on keeping the spell up as Dash turned to her. “Don’t suppose you would mind explaining how you spoke into my head?”
“Not now Dash, we need to get out of here,” Twilight said and winced a little when the beast pounded on the spell. “Can you get the bags?” Dash nodded and grabbed Twilights saddlebags and secured it onto her. The beasts eyes widened and it started pounding against the spell harder.
The pony working the front desk of the hotel had nothing to do except read some horror novel he picked up. He perked up when he heard some crashing coming from upstairs, which he responded to by shaking his head.
“Honeymooners,” he said and returned to his book. “Alright Ms. Stride, how will you escape this situation?”
Rainbow finished her saddlebag while the beast continued to pound against the spell.
“Alright I’m done, let’s get out of here!” Dash said.
“Good, I don’t know how much longer I can hold it off,” Twilight said back as the beast gave another pound against the shield. It then perked up as if it just realized something and turned to the wall to its left and facehoofed.
“Uh oh,” was all Twilight could say lunged at the wall which didn’t hold up at all. Twilight jumped on Rainbow’s back and yelled, “Dash, get us out of here!” Rainbow did as ordered and jumped through the window and took flight shortly before the beast broke out from the wall next to them and followed them outside.
A minute later, the receptionist opened the door to the room and saw the damage.
“What happened to this room?!”
Twilight was holding for her life as Dash flew the two of them over the city. Every now and then Twilight would check behind her and saw the creature following from the rooftops. Eventually they settled on a stray cloud with the beast settling beneath them on a roof. Dash bent down a little to let Twilight down onto the cloud, where they both lay down.
“Ok,” Twilight started, “new plan; no more hotels or any place near ground level.”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” Dash said and looked down. “It will help save on bits anyway.”
Twilight nodded and pulled out her journal and quill.
I learned something new today, being that our pursuer can, in fact, enter hotel rooms. Until we find a way around that little detail we’re sleeping in the clouds.
With that done, Twilight returned the journal to the saddlebag and settled into the cloud.
“So, you mind telling me how you spoke to me while you were asleep?” Dash asked.
Twilight sighed. “Honestly Dash, I don’t know. Everything became so complicated so fast.” Twilight snuggled deeper into the cloud. “Maybe I’ll explain it when I understand it, but right now I just want to get some sleep.”
Twilight didn’t see the look on Rainbow’s face, but she was glad that she didn’t say anything and did the same as Twilight. The two of them were asleep in a few minutes.
Also, any other works mentioned here belong to the original authors. If you have a problem with this, feel free to complain because I probably deserve it.