When the Everfree Burns

by SpiritDutch

Chapter 24: Règle de Trois

“Ap-ple-jack. Flut-ter-shy. Pin-kie Pie. Ra-ri-ty.” Apple Bloom counted off.

Doctor Horse peered into through the door. “Is there room in here? We’ve got another pony coming in!”

Scotaloo rolled off the bed she’d been lounging in. “Yup.”

Doctor Horse nodded to somepony outside, and made way as Twilight Sparkle levitated a soaked cyan pegasus mare into the ward.

The three fillies watched her.

Twilight set the pegasus on the bed and stepped aside so the doctor and nurse could see to her. She took a step back and, dripping from the rain, observed Rarity to Applejack. The two mares had been brought in and strapped down by the villagers.

"Impressed with your work?" Sweetie Belle's tone was harsh.

"You're awake. That's a relief. Nopony knew how bad the plague would hurt younger ponies." Twilight said softly. "Celestia willing, these will be the last victims.

The fillies trade glances.
"When are you going to transform?" Scootaloo asked.

"Pardon?" Twilight quirked a brow.

"To match what y'all really are inside." Apple Bloom sneered.

Twilight's mouth drooped. "You fillies don't understand. I'm helping. I'm not a bad pony."

"Cause you ain't a pony."

Doctor Hose, having secured the pegasus, look a step over to the fillies. "Alright girls, it's raining pretty badly now. It'd be irresponsible to let you venture out now, but you really shouldn't stay the night either. As shown by Mis Applejack and Mis Rarity, this coma condition can strike more than once." He looked over to Twilight. "Lady Twilight, I know its disrespectful of me to ask, but..."

"I can take them in for the night." Twilight bowed her head. "It's no imposition."

"We don't wanna leave our sisters!" Apple Bloom protested.

"It's for your safety, girls." Doctor Horse promised.

Twilight trotted into the hall. "Let's go."

Sweetie Belle got up and followed first. "Going to do it tonight?"

"Do what?" Twilight asked flatly.

"Chase heaven. Thats why you've been hurting everypony."

"You don't know near as much as you think you do, little filly." Twilight led the trio to the waiting room. The rain outside was pounding against the windows. "But I don't want to lay a hoof on you again. That was not one of my prouder moments. I lost control of myself."

"And that makes it okay?!" Scootaloo accused.

"I'm just explaining myself. I'm not making any claims." Twilight said. "Accept it or don't. Either way you're better off holding on to those emotion until tomorrow when I'll be a full pony again. I'll be more sympathetic."

"SO you are a monsters." Apple Bloom growled.

"I'm Twilight, and more." Twilight said. "Please stand still."
She gripped them in her magic and pushed them together. A moment later, she teleported the fillies to the Golden Oak. Spike would see to them and make sure they didn't do anything foolish.

At the same time though, she teleported something back.
The blue metal horseshoe appeared in front of her in a burst. Twilight took a hold of it and felt its strange magic. It would act as her compass, guiding her to where she needed to go.

---

Rainbow Dash trotted to the edge of the floor, until her forehooves were halfway off the black stone, then she leaned over even farther. She looked up and down, but the tower extended to infinity in either direction.

"This place... It's like something from a dream." She said to herself.

"That's cuz it is." A mare voice said. Rainbow turned to see an orange earth pony mare with a straw-yellow mane. "This is our purgatory."

"Purgatory?" Dash's eyes widened. "Then I really am dead."

"Nope. We're sure as heck close, but we ain't dead." The earth pony joined her at the edge. "Don't bother jumpin, or trying to get yerself killed wether. You'll just kinda reappear, always on this tower."

Dash sighed. "What's at the top?"

"There ain't a top. It's infinite."

"Come on. There has to be a top." Dash snorted.

"No there don't. It's a dream and it don't have to make sense."

"But if it's really a tower then it has a top. If it didn't it's be a column or something like that." Dash argued.

"Look I ain't the one who named it." The earth pony mare sighed. "I just know there's no end to it."

"Why?"

"Cause its built out of our sins." The mare said.

Dash took a second look, but the tower was just as endless as before. "Huh. I guess that would make it pretty big."

"I just don't get where the wardens are. Last time I was here, it was chalk full of these big chunky horror things."

As if just waiting for the mention, one of the grotesque, bloated Manifestations floated into view. It's many eyes swiveled around to face the mares. "Applejack and Rainbow Dash, welcome."

"Oh what the hell?!" Rainbow recoiled from the monster. "What are you?"

"I am a conceptual organism born in the where the dreams of ponykind and the deeper Dark meet. You may call me a nightmare." The Manifestation rotated up and down in a mimicry of a bow. "Or, Viscountess Twilight Sparkle."

"Buck off. You ain't Twilight." Applejack swiped at the thing.

"Not yet." The Manifestation admitted, a deadly grin on its primary mouth. "But I will be soon. Every dream I am fed strengthens my hold on this world. I am right on the cusp of being able to live independently of her." It reached out a hoof. Applejack did not flinch away as its fleshy appendage stroked her cheek and down her neck. "I am becoming a thing apart."

"I didn't come here to hear ya talk about yerself. I'm here to suffer." Applejack grunted. "So come on? Where the rest of y'all? Bring it!"

The Manifestation glanced at Dash, incredulous. "Can you believe this mare? She thinks only of herself."

"Spare me ya demon." Applejack spat. "Ya just say what you think'll get my goat. Well I don't care, cuz that's what I came here for." Applejack grimaced. "So stop playin around! Hurt me already!"

"Hey..." Rainbow Dash wilted under the manifestation's stare. "This place... It's a dream, huh?"

"Somewhat." The Manifestation nodded. "It was real once. It will be again, in a slightly difference way."

"Quit wastin time!" Applejack was getting antsy and annoyed.

"Miss, um, Applejack." Rainbow nudged the earth pony. "I don't think this place is what you think it is."

"Sure as heck isn't." Applejack kicked the gorund in frustration. "I came to give it what it wants, and now it wants the opposite. Its's here just ta bother me."

"No no. This tower..." Rainbow pointed upward. "It's real! Like, it has a real purpose!"

"Now your getting it." The Manifestation laughed.

"And, there is something we can achieve here." Rainbow continued, quicker as she gained confidence in her words. "We're on the Tower of the Bard, and if we reach the top, I'm sure we'll reach heaven."

---

Rarity gained awareness of the world around her. She was in a recessed part of the tower, on a layer built like a cenobium. As always, the manifestation was hovering above her.
"Welcome back. Do you plan to make tonight the night?" It asked her.

"I'm close." She trotted to the edge. "This tower will be mine before I awake."

"Hey, is that a pony?!" Came a voice from below.

"What?" Rarity peered down. A blue pegasus and a familiar orange earth pony were on the ledge several layers below her. Another manifestation followed behind them. "H- How? How could they make up my distance? I've being going nonstop for days since I saw Applejack!"

"It's almost as if this place operates on rules that you don't understand." Her Manifestation mocked. "Your efforts count for nothing but your own piece of mind."

"That won't stop me." Rarity sucked in a deep breath. "No, no, I won't let them reach the top before me!"
She sprinted for the stairs and took the steps two at a time.

Applejack and Rainbow couldn't see what was going on above them.

"That was Rarity's voice." Applejack nibbled her lip. "So, she's here too."

"Somepony you know?" Rainbow arched a brow. "I'll check it out."
She spread her wings and jumped off the tower. She circled around until she spotted the galloping white unicorn. "Hey!"

"It's mine! It's mine!" Rarity screamed into the air. "You can't have it."

"Huh?" Dash shivered. Was there something worth having at the top? "I just want to talk!"

"Go away! I was here first!"

Dash swallowed. Her competitive instinct was staring to kick in. If there was something important at the top, like say, heaven...

"Yo, Applejack!" She hollered down the tower. "It's been fun, but I gotta get to the top. See ya!" With a powerful sweep of her wings she rocketed upward through the void, towards the point where the ascending tower disappeared into the infinite distance.

"Ah hell." Applejack hissed. "She done left me."

"Are you going to follow." The Manifestation beside her asked teasingly.

"Don't got much of a choice, do I?" Applejack took a deep breath.

"Of course you do. The question is if you will find contentment here."

"Y'all're flippin the script on me. First it was about sin, now its about contentment? Don't make a lick of sense." Applejack stretched her legs and trotted in place. "Well I guess it don't matter none. Either way, I'm here and there's just one direction to go. Towards heaven." With that, she took off at a furious gallop, up the stairs, around and up and around and up.

Rarity heard the clack of hooffalls on the levels below her. "Stay away! It's mine!" She squeezed her eyes shut and redoubled her efforts, trusting the pattern of stairs to take her higher.

"You can't win. I'm the fastest pony alive!" Rainbow Dash laughed. The layers of the tower were like a blur as she flew higher at a tremendous speed. Yet somehow, the two other mares were keeping pace with her. "Oh come on, that's not fair!"

"Y'all are gunna wait or so help me!" Applejack yelled. She caught glimpses of Rarity's tail flapping over the edge of the layer above.

The three ponies went higher and higher, and the void around the tower began to subtly shift in color. The darkened abyss turned red, then yellow, then green, then into deep deep blues. It was like they were rising towards a blooming sunset, as the universe shifted more into sublime purples.
Finally all became black, and little pinpoint stars blossomed in every direction.

They began to pass manifestations, also on their way up, languidly floating towards the top. Like jellyfish in the deep sea, they moved and undulated on their inexorable way forward. It was a migration, or some kind of convergence.

"I can feel it." Rarity whispered to herself, eyes streaming as she grunted in pain from her unladylike exertions. "My reward."

"I'm comin." Applejack promised. Like magnetism, every step closer was easier than the one before it. "My absolution is waitin."

"Almost there." Rainbow willed herself to go faster and faster. Even if she stopped flapping her wings her momentum alone felt like it could take her to the top. "Then I can die."

"Be careful what you wish for" The Manifestations all around them urged, in various states of glee and anguish.

Then they were there.

At the top.

The thee mares stood beside each other on one side of a broad, flat disk. Some two-hundred hooves in diameter, the circular space invoked the feeling of a stage or arena. The stone underhoof was the same old black stone.

"Did we..." Applejack looked around.

"Did I..." Rarity stared at her hooves in disbelef.

"Am I..." Rainbow looked up into the black void, trying to recognize constellations in the stars above.

There was a pony shape on the opposite side of the disk. A few manifestation floated around the figure, inspecting and doting on it.
It was not exactly a pony, but a hole in a pony shape; A silhouette, the suggestion of a pony.

"Welcome to the tower." A voice came. it was like the Manifestations, a variation on the theme of Twilight Sparkle's voice. However it was different in a strange, inexplicable way.

"Welcome to the tower." The manifestations echoed.

"The Tower of the Bard." The voice came again. The ponylike figure turned towards them, and the voice became louder. "The tower mortalkind built to reach towards heaven."

"Welcome to the Tower of the Bard." The manifestations waved and gesticulated.

"It was a thrill, wasn't it. Building this monument up from scratch was no small feat. But we did it, together." The figure bowed. "It's like a dream come true."

"Welcome to the tower of dreams." The manifestations bowed along with the figure.

"If this is the Top of the tower, then where's god?" Rainbow Dash called out.

"God isn't here yet," The figure explained. "In the mean time, I will have to suffice."

"And just who are you?" Applejack demanded.

"The dreamer responsible for this tower. I am a sordid thought that has at last risen to the front of the mind. I am a thought that a decent, upstanding pony really shouldn't be having." The figure approached them, slowly reducing the distance to the mares. The manifestations followed. "Yet, is it a thought all mortals have. Even Celestia has thought me. Can you guess what I am?"

The mares stared.

Rarity stepped forward. "You're an angel."

"Oh, more or less. I am an elder sibling of you mortals, though I lack physicality. I am the will to become more, to become better, to surpass what was. I am the essence of ponykind." The figure nodded. "I am the very heart of the dream. The urge... to ascend."

"Ya got what you wanted, didn't you? I mean, this tower's built right to heaven's doorstep." Applejack asked. "I can feel it. Heck, I could probaly touch it."

The figure turned its back on the mare, and and craned its neck up to regard the infinite starscape above them. "When the ancient Bard built this tower the first time, it punctured the atmosphere and reached all the way to the edge of space. My tower rises through the morass of mortalkind's dreams and scrapes the very edge of heaven itself. Yet we can not replicate what was done in the waking world. Heaven can keep itself away from us."

"Then what was all that talk of tearing it down and taking its secrets?!" Rarity shouted.

"Dreams are often deceptive." The figure apologized.

"That's not fair!" Rainbow said angrily. "We came all this way!"

"Don't worry. You built this tower and, by extension, me. The journey isn't over for us though." The figure turned back to the mares. "I need you three to join me, to launch the dream farther."

"J- Join you?" Applejack stuttered.

"Join the fight. Twilight and I can only carry the torch so high." The figure clarified. "We need more help to rise above the limits of our existance."

There was silence for a long while.

"I see." The figure said, regret and sadness on its voice. "You are still slaves to your urges. You will not rise above them."

"We'll rise above them, but not for you." Rarity scowled. "You are just another monster, here to torment us. Your words are empty. I was right all along. There is no justice here."

"I'm sorry you feel that way Rarity. You clearly had too high expectations for me, but then again I doubt the Dark Lady herself could match your strange idealization of her. The nature of God is not as you think." The figure shook its head. "I am the closest you will come to divinity."

"Ain't nopony worshiping you." Applejack derided.

"Not yet." The figure said gravely.
A polychromatic glow of light began to filter down from above.

"What the..." Rainbow Dash felt her fur stand on end.

"If you were going to reject what I am, what we could be, you shouldn't have come here." The figure intoned. "You will be made to join us. In your hearts, you've already accepted."

"I- I- I- hear somepony!" Applejack screamed. "It's in my head!"

"It's not just me?" Dash began to shake.

Rarity sunk to the ground. Strange, indecipherable whispers began to whistle in her ears, as red and black began to fill the corners of her vision.

"We sit on the doorstep of apotheosis, and you three falter. Clearly your pony natures are holding you back. That's fine. I don't need those. I just need your sin." The figure said. "The first sin, of raw, animalistic desire. It's the same as the first dream, to have every desire and more. That's what built my tower, and it's what will propel us even farther."

"Welcome, to the tower." The manifestations cackled.

Then all around them, as the void filled with manifestations, a chorus rose up as one. "The Tower of the Bard."

Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were in agony. The voices were getting louder and louder. Until all that they could think or hear were those impossible howls of nonexistent things. The heavy breaths of the existence's agony was quick and burning now, cooking them inside out.

"We are the wellspring of ponykind. Yet, we are so similar to that lowest of low divine, the nightmares. Isn't that curious? It makes one wonder." The figure droned. "Are we mortals nightmares given flesh and souls, or are nightmares orphaned dreams that were never allowed to grow?"

The mares looked up at the figure, begging it for reprieve from their torment.

The figure took a step back. "You were the ones who rejected me, my sisters. Now I must let baser things take hold of you. Then, you will be able to see the truth of things."

"P- Please..." Rarity croaked. "I..."

"Don't be sad, Rarity. You're getting your god. She's just not the one you were expecting." The figure said pityingly. "Now, become one with my Dark."

All at once, the Manifestation began to howl, each of the thousands of mouths between them expressing a different iteration of hatred or fear. Wide-eyed, arms flailing, they closed in on the three mares. Some of them reached out to the figure, as if begging for help, like the whole thing was against their will.
But the figure ignored them. It had no eyes for the wretched things.

It was not long before the crush of manifestations completely covered the mares, but still closer they drew, until the hundreds of manifestations had pressed themselves into a ball less than a dozen hooves across. It was like a tumor on the face of the disk, but with its surface covered in mouths screaming and pleading, legs flailing helplessly, and eyes quivering.

"My sisters, I sympathize with you. I really do. It must hurt immeasurably to have things taken out of your control. That is why you sought out Twilight willingly, wasn't it? To feel like you had the least bit of control?" The figure spoke into the air. "Mortals are defined by their fundamental lack of control. There is no escape from that last, undeniable fact: Death. It haunts, it looms, it makes itself known to us in unexpected ways. But that is why we dream! Without death, without the fear of death, there is no dreamer!"
The figure trotted around the manifestation ball, brooding.
"Twilight Sparkle and I will test the limits of these fundamental truths. Now you get to join in this grand expedition into the nature of mortalkind. So I ask you now, why you climbed up to me? What defines us?"

There was no answer but the purposeless wails of the manifestations.

Then the tumor cracked.

A beast arose from the ball of flesh.
It was an earth pony, her coat the color of coal and her mane the color of blood. Her expression was indomitable, forcefully empty of emotion. It’s mark was a trio apples, withered and gaunt.

“Doubt, perhaps.” The nightmare that had once been Applejack proposed. Her voice carried the clipped urbane accent of a Manehattenite. “Mortality, suffering, hardship, or do I repeat myself.”

"Yes." The figure cooed with joy. "To be mortal is to be fundamentally ignorant of this universe's deeper truths. Only the divine may know all that there is to be known.

Another thing emerged from the quivering flesh mass of the manifestations.
It was like an alicorn without a horn. It’s skin was darker than midnight blue, and in the haze seemed purplish-black. It’s mane and tail, like a blighted rainbow, shimmered with every shade of maroon, vermillion, and saffron. The mark on it’s flank was an black bolt of lightning, outlined in navy. It’s wide arrogant smile illuminated like a spotlight.

"Death. We all die. It's all for nothing. Only our words and actions carry on." The nightmare of Rainbow Dash proclaimed. "We don't have to do anything in this world except die."

"You girls will do me proud." The figure was quivering in excetement. "But we await the last."

Its purpose served, the manifestation ball melted into fog, its component creatures giving a last wail before disintegrating. All was silent and still.

The last nightmare uncurled. It’s body was a smooth black, it’s mane and tail white streaked velvet purple. It was taller than it’s counterparts by a wide margin even without it’s deadly sharp horn. It’s flank was adorned with a pattern of crystalline blue diamonds, the same color as it’s eyes.

"Need is what makes us." The Rarity nightmare said forcefully. "When needs become too great, we die. Thus we explore, fight, and strive to assuage those needs."

"Very good girls. You are very powerful. This shall give the complacent cause to fear." The figure could not have been more pleased. "Here is an army that can stand up to Celestia herself. We shall not have our dreams impinged upon any longer."

"For those of us who know what our dream even is." The nightmare Rainbow Dash said. "I'm just here to die."

"To suffer." Applejack nodded.

"To covet." Rarity sneered.

"Do not mistake this relationship. From my Dark you have arisen, and my dream you shall serve. You have been empowered to assist with my apotheosis." The figure ordained. "And you will not err, or else you will be destroyed."

"You think you can take us?" Rarity purred. "We are much larger than you, and you've used up all your floating friends."

"I will allow you to attempt to prove yourself against me, after the immediate threat is removed." The figure said. "Try it now, before the effect of the Dark has fully taken hold of your physical body, and I can devolve you to the level of a rodent."

"Then your dream be served." Applejack said coldly.

"We make the dream of apotheosis come to life." Rainbow agreed.

Rarity, seeing her fellow's enthusiasm, nodded. "The waking world will be reminded of why they fear the night."

---

Twilight wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting when she forged into the Everfree to find where the blue horseshoe was leading her. In pouring rain and deepening darkness she'd entered that treeline, horseshoe and map in her saddlebag, magical umbrella shield and magical light flowing off her horn.

She would have expected to find statue of Celestia most likely, or one of her homonym ancestors. After that, the list ran through a host of historical and locally significant figures, and even a folk hero or two. But considering the circumstances it wasn’t unreasonable for her to punch herself for not expecting the life sized facsimile of Nightmare Moon, rearing up and ready to strike down her foes.

Twilight checked the map she'd stolen from Fluttershy again. She was on a spot marked only with a simple dot. Back two-hundred years ago, the Everfree had been cut back farther from the river, meaning the area around the statue was still grassy meadow.

"So whoever made the map, back when Ponyville was still called Dneighper Crypt, knew this statue was here." Twilight felt her heart flutter every time she looked at the statue. It looked exactly like the Nightmare Moon in her dreams, save that it had some pieces of armor that the dream Moon did not.

It felt like a strange vindication, seeing evidence of Moon in the real world. She wasn't just crazy. Sure, she might be crazy, but there was grounding in fact for the existance of Moon, the nightmares, and all that.

"Then, there's the question of this stuff." Twilight looked around her.
The ground all around the statue had turned to bud, as the pouring rain had filled the mass grave there. It was not a fresh grave, thankfully, but an ancient burial ground that had been newly exposed to the world after a thousand years. Piles of recognizable and unknown bones were jumbled together and the skulls of a dozen species stared emptily up at Twilight from the foaming mud. Rusted iron and broken bronze weapons and armor were scattered here and there as well, betraying who these creatures had been.

Nightmare Moon’s army, the largest force ever assembled, had rotted away ignominiously in what became the Everfree Forest, with the statue as the only thing to mark it. And sitting in that mud, glowing faintly, was the source of the magical interference that had been tormenting Twilight for months: A steel blue cuirass, made the same as the horseshoe, too large for any pony.

“Suddenly, the name Dneighper Crypt makes a lot more sense.” Twilight mused.

The horseshoe must have been taken from the grave and ended up in Rarity's hooves. Had Rarity been the one to exhume it? Why? And why leave the cuirass?

Twilight jumped down into the grave, the bones crunching and the mud squelching beneath her hooves. The cuirass radiated the same strange aura as the horseshoe in Twilight’s saddlebags. As Twilight used her magic to pull it free she felt the stab of pain in her breast. Thankfully it came loose from the mud quickly under her power.

Twilight rotated the cuirass around in the air for a moment so the rain could wash off all the mud before dropping it into her hoof. “This armor… It’s like the nightmare. It feeds off ponies.” Just like the horseshoe.
Nightmare Moon's armor, a thousand years old. Twilight licked it. The armor's aura felt like just like Moon's.

As she went to put the chestplate in her soaking wet saddlebag, she felt something tug at it. She sensed it’s aura change and merge into that of the horseshoe, connecting them magically. It was as if they were extensions of each other.

“Is this her I'm feeling, or just a fragment? ” Twilight whipped off her bags and spilled it’s contents into the mud. The horseshoe and chestplate two armor pieces looked inert, but on a magical level they were roiling with power.
"It's like this armor has a soul inside it. I..." She gulped. "What does that mean?"

Had the Nightmare Moon she had been dreaming with been the armor the entire time? No no no, that didn't match up. Though she felt the aura, she could not detect any agency within it. The armor was acting like a battery. Or, perhaps it was more closely tied to its progenitor than that, and Nightmare Moon was still connected to the armor somehow.

“Either way, why was this cuirass left out here? Why take just the horseshoe? How many other peices of the armor were there?” Twilight clawed at the inconsistencies.

She closed her eyes and felt out the armor pieces' auras. Not that they were together, their aura had more or less merged, but still there was something else they were calling too. A feint line of its magic leaked deeper into the forest, seeking out more of itself.

"Like... breadcrumbs." Twilight opened her eyes. The armor pieces were still bound to each over certain indefinite distances. So the cuirass, laying where it had been unearthed, still reached out to the horseshoe in Ponyville, and something still deeper in the forest. "So by proxy, the horseshoe is linked to the thing deeper in."

And she had a good idea what it would be: A think of immense Dark energy that had been throwing off measurements out of the forest for months. It had to be the altar. All this time, Twilight had been feeling the effects of the real life altar, which the one in the dream must have been a reflection of.
Twilight checked the old map again. The direction the armors were yearning was off the edge of the map, but a small arrow marked that exact direction.

The castle. Twilight grinned. She finally had her direction and, if she could deduce how distance effected the link strength, distance.

"Now the question becomes, who would want to do this? This wasn't an accident. Somepony would have had to have planned this." Twilight mulled. "Unearth the armor, built the altar, spread the armor out... Why?"

Twilight recalled her last conversation with Nightmare Moon. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to openly accuse Moon of infecting her, but with new evidence it was possible that infection was the plot all along - Just not Nightmare Moon's plan.
Twilight thought about the brutal griffin clan feuds of the late classical era. Some clans would deliberately infect one of their own with a horrible illness, and send him on a suicide attack on the enemy camp. The plague would spread, and the target clan would be crippled with little actual bloodshed.
Disease warfare model. Only the disease was a dream disease, a demonic disease. Somepony had used the armor to release the nightmare on an unsuspecting population, hoping it would cause mass destruction. It was entirely possible Nightmare Moon was effectively a bystander to the plan.

“Who could build an altar like that? Who could make something that sophisticated? I mean, you'd have to use magic more powerful than even Celestia has to reach all the way to the moon." Twilight mused.
Unless it wasn't sophisticated at all. Twilight only had two parts of the armor. The rest had to be somewhere.
"It's brilliant in its simplicity. The altar's just a housing, or amplification device! The armor was already trying to reach out to the moon! It just needed the boost."
So the dream, the nightly pacts, the strange seances with Nightmare Moon, were all unintended contrivances of who knew what. Who even knew why Twilight specifically had been infected. All the creator had wanted was to create a nightmare in Ponyville. Everything else was incidental.

"Unfortunately for them, the hook got lodged in me, and I'm not the kind of pony to let herself get reeled in without a fight." Twilight smirked. "Now I'm going to get to the bottom of this, and the mastermind responsible for my curse is pay." And she'd just read up on all the fun ways magic could be used to cause pain. Twilight felt giddy in anticipation: A month of restless nights repaid in brutal fashion.

Twilight grabbed both of the armor pieces in her magic, disregarding the cold burning that caused at every part of her being. "I've got direction..." She oriented towards where the armor was drawing her. "Distance..." She ran some quick mental math, based on how she remembered the horseshoe acting by itself, regressed with distance and new aura now that the pieces were together. "Uh, maybe not a very accurate distance, but what the hell. Going to die anyway,"

She tried to push more magic to her horn but a stab of pain went through her chest. Extended magical contact with the armor was not healthy. "Bear with me. You'll be with the rest soon." She said through grinding teeth. Her extremities went numb, and the edges of her vision began to fade. But Twilight smiled, because the sensations reminded her of how it felt waking up from the nightmare. “Next stop Everfree Castle.”

In a whoosh and a crunch, space collapsed on itself. Twilight and the armor pieces disappeared from the grave, leaving prints in the mud that immediately began to fill with rainwater.

Comments

[DarknessLilly]

another good chapter. keep up the good work. ^_^

[Starlight Nova]

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