Entanglement
By: Michael A
She walked along the dark surface. Turning her head from side to side, she searched for any form of light. Minutes before, she had attempted to cast her illumination spell, but, for some currently unexplainable reason, it failed to cast, and no other spell she had tried since had worked. The area surrounding her wasn’t just black—it felt as if there was nothing. She felt like she was in some sort of void—where the darkness around her simply represented the empty space. Twilight trotted firmly, but her feet made no contact from any tangible floor. She tried to remain calm and try and figure out a logical explanation for what was going on, and where she was. But this… Place? Didn’t seem to have any logic at all.
Her train of thought was suddenly cut off when quiet, and seemingly distant, voices seemed to ring out from every directions. Twilight quickly looked around, trying to find the source, but all she could see was the unchanged void.
“H-Hello?” Twilight nervously called out, “is anypony there?”
Instead of getting an answer, the voices began to get louder. With each passing second, they grew. Each voice seemed to belong to a different individual, but there was thousands of them, each taking over the others. The truly strange part was that they didn’t seem to be talking to each other. Twilight tried to make out what the voices were saying, but the combination of the thousands of voices all mashed together into an incoherent cacophony of sound.
The voices continued to grow.
Soon, it felt like thousands of ponies were inside of Twilight's head, screaming. It soon soon after became too much; Twilight pressed her hooves to her temples, desperately trying to muffle the screams. She closed her eyes and prayed for release.
“Stop!” she screamed, falling to her flank.
Twilight's head rung. It felt like a beach ball was being inflated inside of her skull. She curled up into a ball, keeping her hooves pressed at her ears. She began to cry, the pain that filled her head growing to an unnameable level. She wanted to die right there, ending the pain.
Suddenly, Twilight's mind soon filled with thousands of images, each flashing only seconds apart. None of the images she could remember seeing before. The images was of a pony, or group of ponies, doing something. The ones that followed mimicked the first, but certain aspects were different. Each image after the first had a different outcome when the others came along. During this, the screaming didn’t stop, and twilight continued to cry. She screamed for them to stop, and nearly begged them to do such. But they didn’t listen.
Just as Twilight was about to scream again, she saw something. Opening her eyes more, she saw that it was a large, black alicorn that stood about ten feet from her position. The alicorn had back fur with random streaks of white running across it. It's mane seemed to flow just like Celestia's or Luna's, and it flickered with black and white static. As it stood there, it’s whole body seemed to shift in every direction, but remained intact enough to show the same basic form. The alicorn seemed... unstable.
Twilight, with her hooves still on her ears, called out, “Help me.”
The alicorn looked at her with it’s black, hole-like eyes. At the same time, a clear voice echoed through her head. It somehow managed to be separated from the others, but still seemed to comprise of several different voices, but these all seemed to originate from the same voice, but garbled up and distorted.
Focus on this… this voice alone… tone out all the others, and just focus on me…
Twilight didn’t question, and did as she was told. Focusing, she concentrated on the single tone, the single voice. As she continued to do this, the other voices seemed to fade out, and began to get quieter and quieter. Before long, all that remained was the alicorns voice.
Twilight gave herself a minute to compose herself, before getting up and facing the alicorn. She looked back into the alicorn’s black eyes and said, “Thank you.”
The alicorn nodded in reply, but didn’t say a word. She just stood there, not saying anything, looking back at Twilight with her black, empty eyes.
Twilight went to speak, but her vision seemed to flash… no, the whole void flashed. As she stared at the alicorn, the area around her began to flash white and black, streaks of either color flashed back and forth, locked in an intense battle. The alicorn began to flash, her form shuddered and morphed. It was unconstant, forever changing. Static.
The visions returned. The images began to flash, but not of not random ponies and events… but her and her friends. Each one was of something she remembered her and her friends doing, but each time something was different. They always ended differently.
The images began to shift. Twilight saw her friends being killed, one after the other, time and time again.
Another shift.
The image of Celestia lying dead in her chamber, followed by Nightmare moon on the throne.
The images continued, each one a more twisted version of her reality, things happening that never happened, but could have happened.
Help me...
The images suddenly stopped. The world around Twilight shifted back into the abyss of black. She blinked, then rubbed her eyes.
Help me…
Twilight heard it. It was the voice of the… alicorn she had seen earlier. Nervously, she spoke, “H-Hello?”
Help me, Twilight… I am tired.
“Tired?” the unicorn repeated. “What do you mean? Who are you?”
I have been here for too long… So tired… You must help me.
Twilight took a step forward. “What do you mean? Please, I can’t help you if you don’t explain.”
I am trapped here… in this void… I have been here for a long time.
Twilight was scared. The entire situation had put her on edge, while the nightmarish images she had just seen were still burned into her mind. But, despite this, the voice sounded… sad. It wasn’t threatening, nor ‘evil’. As much as she wanted to run, her curiosity and empathy glued her in place.
Go to the everfree… to the place of stone and water. A place lost to time, where the wind shall sing and nature talks. Find my home. Cast the spell. Set me free.
Twilight blinked. “You want me to go to the Everfree Forest?”
To the place of stone and water…
“Where is that?” Twilight asked, hoping for clarity. Never before had she wanted a notepad so badly in her life. “Please, can you be more specific?”
Too tired… must rest…
“No! I need more!” the unicorn begged, taking another step into the everlasting void. “Can I, at least, have your name?”
Call me Vitae…
Twilight stumbled as the voice began to shake and shift. Bend and twist.
It is time for you to go, Twilight… please, save me…
The unicorn took another step forward, but fell as nothing met her hoof. She screamed, plummeting into the screaming abyss.
Everything went black...