Shadows of the Past

by Dr Atom Discharge

Chapter Three: The Forest

Shadows Of The Past

Chapter Three: The Forest

Last time: She felt a warm, damp, breath ruffle the fur on her forehead, and a sickly sweet smell of tree sap filled her nose, she slowly looked up from her hooves, not wanting to see what she knew was there… she wanted to pretend everything was okay, but as her head slowly raised she knew it was exactly what she had known, and dreaded. Looking directly at her, just inches from her face, was a large timberwolf, its fearsome maw of twisted and jagged branches and twigs that made up its teeth. It snorted in her face, the warm sickly breath turning to mist in the cool night’s air as is broke against Twilight’s face, followed closely by a low ominous growl.

Twilight’s mood soon shifted from fear to anger; this was the last thing she wanted to deal with. A contemptuous smirk spread across her face as she readied the spell that would send the wolf sprawling in an inferno of ash and branches. But as the magic flowed through her body and into her horn, it backfired, causing her to double over in pain.… The magical restraint was still around her horn. They hadn’t taken it off at camp.

The terror soon set in as the timberwolf started to lean back, preparing to pounce. She saw her whole life flash before her eyes as the wolf flew at her. Out of reflex alone, she was able to roll aside in the last second and leave the timberwolf slamming into the tree she had been pressed up against. She scrambled to her hooves and galloped away, all too aware of the creaking noises of the timberwolf getting up and chasing after her.

This was a fight Twilight was going to lose, and she knew it. The timberwolf was faster, stronger, and Twilight couldn’t use magic, but if she was going to be a snack for some ferocious creature, then she was going to make him damn well pay for it. Twilight galloped on faster, trying to gain as much distance as she could before the timberwolf reached top speed.

The timberwolf closed the gap far too quickly and Twilight looked back in horror. As she wasn’t paying attention her hoof caught on a root protruding from the trail, and she flew through the air, spinning around onto her back just as the timberwolf lunged. Twilight’s hoof collided with the timberwolf’s jaw with great force, and there was a snap as the creature’s neck broke, and it sprawled to the ground. Twilight skidded to a stop.

Twilight groaned in pain and sat up, looking at the unmoving body of the timberwolf. She sighed in relief, struggled to her hooves, and started to hobble away. She knew the general direction of the temple, and could--her thought process stopped as a huge jolt of pain bounced up her leg. Twilight screamed out in agony and looked down at her back leg to see the timberwolf’s jaw, its head now at Ninety degrees to its body, latched around her back leg, it’s sharp, twisted ‘fangs’ sunk deep into her flesh.

Twilight froze as her mind flashed to her nightmares, to the fact Atom wasn’t there, to the immense pain she was in, and to her immense dread. She was petrified . As the deformed creature gnawed on her, she could do nothing but scream and stare at the unnatural site.

The creature reached up and sank a crooked paw, a claw missing from it, into Twilight’s leg, bringing forth another agonising scream as hot blood ran down her leg and into the monster’s mouth. Twilight struggled, but that only made her vision blur as the pain intensified. She knew it would end like this, and there was nothing she could do about it.

The creature dragged Twilight up into the air as it got to its paws. Twilight’s vision continued to blur as she was pulled upside down, she could feel the blood running down the inside of her leg. Then, she saw a flicker of movement in front of her, and out of the brush came Sabre, charging, head down, at full speed.

Sabre crashed into the creature, sending it sprawling and Twilight flying. Twilight landed with a good view of the battle, good thing because she was physically too weak to move. Even her senses were failing her; the ground started to feel soft, her vision darkened at the edges and blurred everywhere else, and her hearing became numb, making it sound as though she were under water.

Twilight saw the creature struggling back up, but as soon as it had risen Sabre charged again and knocked it back down. Sabre quickly jumped back as three balls of fire blasted past him and exploded on contact with the timberwolf. Luna ran into Twilight’s field of vision, her horn ablaze, her eyes filled with fury as she cast fire ball after fireball until the nightmarish being had stopped moving and was little more than ash.

Luna ran up to Twilight, concern evident on her face. She said something but Twilight simply couldn’t hear… everything was going quiet… going dark… going cold… Twilight tried to hold on, but she couldn’t, it was too hard, and she had no energy left, she slipped into the void of unconsciousness, letting its embrace replace the chaos around her, the comforting darkness blocking out the pain that throbbed throughout her whole body.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight’s eyes slowly pried themselves open. Everything was blurred, but she could see and feel the slow bobbing movement she was being subjected to. Her mouth was dry, her throat hoarse; she tried to speak but the words came out as little more than a gasp, but it seemed to be enough to get the attention of whoever was carrying her.

She felt herself slide to the ground and tried to move, but her limbs cried out in agony as she tried to move the muscles. She vaguely felt something pressing against her lips, so she opened her mouth. A cool, refreshing liquid flowed down her throat, soaking the parched surface. She coughed a little, making her eyes flash and her head spin. She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she found she could now see Luna and Sabre huddled next to her with deeply concerned expressions.

“Twilight… are you okay?” the princess asked quietly, worry obvious in her voice.

Twilight croaked out in a hoarse voice, “Y-yeah… I think so…”

She knew it wasn’t true, but it was all she could think to say. Twilight struggled to her feet with the help of Luna and Sabre. She looked over herself and saw her back leg, as well as several other areas of her body, were covered in bandages. The memories of the terrible event sent a shiver though her whole body. She tried a couple of times to stand by herself before she was able to stay on her hooves.

“H-how long as I out for..?” she inquired tentatively. Luna and Sabre exchanged worried glances.

“About… two days…” Sabre said slowly. Twilight’s heart sank as she looked around. She didn’t want to ask this question… she already knew the answer.

“B-but.. where is Atom..?” she asked, putting out her last ounce of hope on the line… Luna sighed heavily and looked down.

“We… haven’t seen him since he set off from camp with you…” she responded despondently. Twilight’s face sank in sadness and desperation, her imaginings dark and unwelcome.

Twilight sighed heavily, knowing that there was little chance of him having escaped. She then rose up a little and started to limp forwards.

“Right… let’s get going then..” Twilight said hollowly. Sabre and Luna exchanged another worried glance before following her.

After a short time walking, Twilight was struggling to keep her speed up, especially in the afternoon heat, but soon the sun began to sink. making things a little easier. Still, she was not going to make it much further at the pace she was going, and both Sabre and the Princess knew this. They both kept a close eye on her; she had been through far too much to be pushing herself so hard.

There was a small sound, like the snapping of a twig, to Twilight’s right, but by the time she had looked over it was too late. The trio had been surrounded by a group of shaded figures, the low sun blotting out their features.

“Halt! Who goes there!?” said a haggard, frightened voice. Twilight recoiled slightly, landing on her bad leg and collapsing to floor with a slight scream of pain.

“Stand down you idiot!” Commanded a familiar voice, and Captain Blade stepped out of the sun’s glare and helped Twilight back up. “Good to see you again Ma’am I--” he started to say but was cut off by the guard who had shouted earlier.

“Captain! Get away from it! It could be another trick of this accursed forest!” he shouted almost hysterically, causing the Captain to swivel around and glare at him.

“I am no foal, soldier! I know a real pony when I see her, and I most certainly know the Princess and Captain, so do not question me! Now go back to camp and sleep before you take leave of the last of your senses.” The soldier cowered lightly at the Captains shouts, and nodded, turning away and walking down the road. The captain turned back to Twilight.
“Come now, we need to get you back to the camp before the night sets in…” he said with a sense of foreboding.

Captain Blade lead the group back down the road for a way, before pulling off into the brush and through the woods. He was beginning to show anxiety as night truly started to set in. But finally they saw the flickering glow of fir through the trees and were soon at the camp which was huddled around a central fire. Further out, in a circle around the camp, was an assortment of torches burning away.

Twilight studied the torches as they passed, and Blade started speaking without even looking back

“It seems to be the only thing that we can do to keep the creatures away, This forest is unnatural. There aren’t many of us left. We have been picked off by things resembling the stuff of nightmares. We’ve been killed by beings that don’t even have a body. They are just… shadows. We plan to make a push for the Old Palace tomorrow… we are glad to have found you before we reached it...” the captain explained sorrowfully, the exhaustion evident in his voice.

When they reached the centre of the camp. Twilight could see the fix they were in. There were approximately half the number of tents there had been , and those that remained were torn and bloodied. Many of the remaining guards had wounds all over their bodies. It was a sorry state… but it was a camp which was better than nothing, even if the forest had taken a serious toll.

Once their tents had been set up, Twilight drifted off quickly into an unsettled slumber wracked with nightmares and visions, neither of which were particularly pleasant. Her dreams were filled with agony, apprehension, and horrific creatures--the likes of which could never exist in reality.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Later That Night ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight was running and running… through the endless forest, the same trees rolling by over and over as the shadowy beast galloped after her… No matter how fast she ran, she could never get any further from the being. After what felt like an eternity, she fell, slowly falling through the air as if it were water before hitting the ground with more force than she ever would have expected and rolling. When she looked up, the shadowy figure loomed over her. it’s only discernible feature being a Cheshire Cat grin and two glowing eyes.

The creature leaned down, and the shadows slid off its face like a sleeve, revealing a twisted combination of Atom and a timberwolf, the face of atom but torn and shredded by roots and branches, and the right side of his face made up of nothing but bloodied roots holding an eye in place. The curtain of shadow slid down his body to reveal the rest of his truly horrific form, a mess of guts and bloodied roots, oozing blood and sap. Atom still had the same Cheshire Cat grin on his face

“Heeeellloooo… Twilight… ssssooo gooood to ssseeeee yooou agaaaain…Iii’ve misssssssed you ssssooo much…” the twisted Atom hissed through his mangled jaw of flesh and roots.

“Twwwilight… I want ussss to be togetthhhher forever… jooooiiinnnn meeeeeee… and we can bee togettthhherrr foooorrreeeevvvveerrr,” the creature rasped.

Twilight tried to back away, but the ground had become sticky. Whenever she tried to move the ground stretched and pulled her back; she was stuck. Atom laughed: a dark, hissing, echoing laugh that sent shiver after shiver down her spine. Then his claw of roots came down on her leg and sank into her flesh, making her scream out in agony

Twilight looked down is horror as the pain spread up her leg as it started to contort and twist into bloodied roots, slowly spreading up her body inducing the greatest pain she had ever felt as her body slowly tore itself into this new terrifying form…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Next Day ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They had been trotting for several hours already when they finally came across the decrepit ruins of the Old Temple, and Twilight sighed in relief. It had been a long trip she was glad to be over with… though inside she was still being eaten away by Atom’s absence…

The small group made its way across the bridge, up the stairs of the old palace, and into main chamber... In the middle of the chamber, just in front of what had once held the Elements of Harmony, stood Dr. Atom Discharge, waiting patiently for them.

“ATOM!? How did you get here so fast?” Twilight cried in shock, running to the front of the group. But before Atom could reply, a smooth, charming voice sounded.

“Me… That’s how, young mare.” Said Discord as he slithered out from behind the stand of the Elements and rested his elbows on it, then resting his head on his hands as his body floated up behind him.

“Hello again, little foals.”

Comments

[MC BR0N3]

So...Discord's helping them?

[Dr Atom Discharge]

418436 I don't know... is he? You tell me

[MC BR0N3]

418696
Well, he isn't trolling them, or trying to kill them...
He's an ally.

[Dr Atom Discharge]

418882 Well you don't know that.. hell.. Atom hasn't even moved yet... maybe he's done something to him

[MC BR0N3]

420841
O-O DISCORDED ATOM!?

[Dr Atom Discharge]

422986 Oh... not quite yet...

[MC BR0N3]

423053 Ohh snap, looks like they're stuck between a rock and a hard place.
the devil and the deep blue sea.
Let's just say "stuck between 2 evils"

[Dr Atom Discharge]

423098 Well Discord never turns a Pony to stone... doesn't mean he doesn't turn them into something else... like a blood model... :P But I think maybe a Discorded Atom may appear somewhere

[MC BR0N3]

423148 Wonder what he'll be like...
Let's see...cruel to twilight, maybe not as intelligent, and as evil as he looks. Something like a Bond villain?

[Dr Atom Discharge]

423224 Quite Astute... We shall see if he actually appears... but he'll probably turn up in one of Twilight's dreams. HINT HINT

[Horsiin4years]

looks like they may have to pick their poison here.
I DEMAND MOAR!!!

[See ScriptScrolls]

I liked discord before he was cool... like he is here