A Fear that Came to Pass

by ChingKittyCat

Chapter 10

Now, if Twilight was given time to react to what was happening, she would have gone out there and fought. She had precisely zero seconds to react to herself being dragged out of the town, and into the forest beyond. The forest known as the Everfree forest's sibling. The Neverfree. Whoever came up with such a name seriously needed to come up with a better name, because that name was just plain cliched and stupid.

This forest wasn't compacted like it's sibling, no. It was very tall and spread out. The complete opposite of the exotic forest that stood outside of ponyville, actually. This forest might seem decently easy to navigate through, but here's one of the problems with it. This forest, this one in particular, releases magical gasses each year that cause hallucinations and nausea. This gas has no color, and cannot be seen by the naked eye.

It is especially bad for unicorns, because natural magics that come from the earth can mess them up extremely if the threat is dangerous enough. It will heighten the effects of the gas if a unicorn using magic happened to breath it in. As long as the magic stayed off, then the gasses would not triple their effects on the victim.

Enough exposure to the gas, and it would drive a pony up the wall. Eventually leading to their demise.

The town was at least fifteen or so hooves (Feet) behind them at this point. Which isn't very far. Though, the trees did seem to do a good job in covering up the diminished group of ponies. Twilight's hoof had been strained from the pushing and shoving, which in other words, was not very good. They had her pulled out of bed in the middle of healing, and she still was recovering from her nightmare.

Twilight puffed. This sudden work of exercise was not very helpful, but it was required at the moment. They had to get away from the town, as quickly as possible. If even one of those soldiers manages to see them within the scraggly trees, then they would be goners. From what it seemed, there appeared to be some incredibly strong magic around them. Seeing as their armor and skin was not damaged in the slightest by hooves or weapons.

The weapons they had were slightly intimidating. They were large, pointed spears of blackness. Like the jousting spears that were used in.. Well, jousting. Except, out of the same exact material, and much more of a hostile weapon than an entertaining tool. Which is what normal spears were for. Twilight had seen normal spears, but those weapons seemed a bit more advanced. Strange how an empire that's been gone for a thousand years can return with weapons that are still better than Equestria's.

Kind of sad.

Twilight quickly took a glance over her shoulder, back at the town behind her. The sounds of battles were still loud in her ears as she ran from the outbreak. Though it got farther and farther away, it echoed through the forest at a high volume. Everypony else probably did not have this effect, because Twilight was still slightly drowsy from being woken up just a minute ago.

Nevertheless, she had to run. Run to keep up with the group, and away from the soldiers. What the heck was Celestia doing? It's been, what, almost a week and he still had not been dealt with. Once she reached the Crystal Empire, she better be assisted by the entire royal guard militia. Whatever was left of them, anyways. Pathetic sods cant even defeat changelings..

Twilight couldn't keep her gallop. She gasped, exasperated, as she desperately stopped for air. The group now slightly ahead of her, did not stop, however. She breathed in deep gulps of the forest's air, unaware of what properties the air had in this certain season. The group was now five hoof steps in front of her.

Now ten. Twilight needed to keep up. A simple teleportation spell should help if she used it now and again. Her back leg was straining and lagging by this point. Without a second thought, she poofed out of existence for a millisecond, and reappeared next to her group. Who were all still running. Something seemed to have changed with the small group of ponies, but Twilight was too busy focusing on running.

Twilight had switched between running and teleporting repetitively. Each time she had teleported, she slowly grew this feeling to vomit. Perhaps it was the forest that was making her feel woozy, but the group was not stopping it's sprint. Oh. Wait. They were slowing down, finally. Twilight's gallop had turned down to but a shamble as soon as she saw the group slowing down.

Eventually, they stopped. Twilight's eyes grew blurry. Enough with the blurriness. It was obnoxious. Twilight felt something work up her throat. She gagged. Twilight instinctively covered her mouth before unloading her lunch from a day or so ago. Twilight had some food while being treated for her wounds. It was just a couple hay sandwiches, nothing much. It was all on the floor now, in a digested mess.

Twilight coughed, as her eyes grew misty from vomiting. Her face was now red. Luckily, she had not barfed in the group's direction. Luckily enough for her, or else she might have totally embarrassed herself. She could already feel another load trying to leave out of her mouth. She struggled to keep it down, as the flavor now stuck in her mouth only tried to help the next round escape Twilight.

She gulped, letting out an exasperated sigh after she released her breath. She was shaking at the moment. She knew that if she looked at her mess for a bit too long, then she knew her body would be tempted to add to the already big mess. Twilight needed to keep her lunch down for the travel. Just in a few hours, she would grow hungry.

She wiped her muzzle with her hoof, getting rid of the excess vomit. She then wiped her hoof on the grassy forest ground. When she looked back around, luckily, the group was still sticking around. They didn't run off like they had back in Foal Mountain. Twilight had wondered about how they had gotten so deep in the cave within seconds, back when she was in bed.

They were oddly quiet. Silent. Dead silent, in fact. Twilight stumbled over to them. Her trot unorganized from the previous task she had just done. She moved her way up to one of the ponies in the group. Mocha Bean. She seemed almost frozen. Twilight waved her clean hoof infront of the mare's face. No response.

Great. What was going on here? Twilight scowled. She pushed Mocha Bean. Mocha Bean did not even move a centimeter. Okay, Twilight already had her visit from him today. She did not need another one right now. It had only been a minute. Twilight flung her head backwards, and stared up into the sky.

"Uggghh. Just get it over with, you."
Twilight moaned, before snapping her head back to the proper altitude. No response. What else did she expect, honestly. Twilight poked Mocha Bean repetitively. Nothing changed. It seemed like time itself was frozen. Everything except for Twilight and her green mess off to the left.

"I'm going to sit here until you appear. I know this is your work. Don't try to do a sneak attack. I know you're here."
Twilight continued. She increased the speed of which she poked Mocha Bean. Mocha kind of felt a bit like fluffy fur. Just, pure fluff. Nothing else. Even though she had a short coat.

"T-twilight? Are you there..? I'm.. I'm scared!"
A voice called off in the distance. It sounded like a small child. Male. Though it sounded slightly feminine. Twilight recognized this voice. Spike. Twilight rolled her eyes. A obvious trick. She wasn't going to be falling for that again. The pace of the poking heightened, slowly. She was kind of hoping that time unfroze so she wouldn't have to deal with this.

"I'm serious! Twilight! This isn't funny! I couldn't find you at home!"
Spike's voice continued. Twilight grumbled. There was no way that Spike was alive. She knew this full well. Just another illusion. Just another nightmare trap lure thing. He knew about Twilight, somehow, but he didn't know that much. Obviously. Twilight was ready this time. No way was she going to flake out on kicking him right in the ass.

Twilight's horn sparked to life as she looked around for that shadowy form that he took. It wasn't anywhere. Instead, she spotted a small purple and green figure out in the distance, between the spaced out trees. He was not facing Twilight's direction. It was a small dragon. No wings. That was spike. He had his claws cupped over his mouth as he called out for Twilight. He had tears balled up in the edges of his eyes.

Twilight wasted no time shooting a small laser at the dragon. The dragon appeared to react to the laser hitting him, holding his arm, where the laser had hit. It wasn't much of a laser, just a test one to see if he was real. He gasped as he noticed Twilight and the group. His feet flew as he ran to Twilight faster than somepony could say 'How?'. He wrapped his hands around Twilight's cloaked body.

Being pulled into a tight hug by her assistant who she thought was dead, Twilight eye's grew wide in shock. She put her clean hoof around the dragon, returning the hug. She could feel the moisture of his salty tears on her coat. This was too good to be true. Twilight maintained her aura, just incase he suddenly reappeared to give her some prophetic bull. She was getting sick of it.

"Spike, what are you doing out here?! It's dangerous!"
Twilight scolded, looking down at her still crying friend. Spike looked at her, still sniffling as he pulled away to give her some space, which was appreciated.

"I went to look for you.."
Spike answered simply. Twilight made sure to look both ways for the intruder of her dreams. Which she knew that this was a dream. When she looked back at Spike, he was gone. Just poof. Gone. Well. That was anti-climatic. You'd think that he would build up Twilight's trust that this wasn't a dream before he pounced and flung a riddle at her before leaving.

Twilight puffed her chest, letting out a small growl as she did so. What was next on the agenda? Maybe he would pop out of the tree tops or something. Fall flat on his face, and make himself look like an idiot. That would be the funniest thing she would have seen all day. Considering this day has only lasted a minute.

"Twilight?"
Spike chimed up. He was actually just right beside her. Oh. Twilight glanced over at the dragon, who was pointing to the path that Twilight had recently teleported and sprinted down. A way's down the path came a heavenly light. Twilight's pupils dilated, instead of constricting. Normally, when exposed to great light like this, pupils would constrict.

A large alicorn figure was wandering from the light. A long, flowing mane of silver followed behind the mare. Instead of flowing in nonexistent wind, it just simply bobbed and moved as the alicorn-like figure moved. The alicorn lacked a horn. In fact, the only alicorn thing about it was the fact it was really tall.

Every time Twilight would blink, the figure would grow closer. Along with the light. The light was the sort of cliched god light. One that constantly followed behind a godly figure. More details of the figure was revealed as it drew closer. It was all gray. It's eyes were closed, and it had a sort of rocky body. Not made of fur, but stone. It was that statue from Hollow Shades. What exactly was it doing here?

With another blink, the statue was now sitting in front of Twilight. It's forelegs underneath it's stomach. It 'stared' at Twilight with closed eyes. Twilight almost felt entranced by the laying statue before her. It gave off this warmth that could not compare to anything else but an angel. Like Celestia's warm embrace whenever she did a task correctly. How she missed that feeling,

Now she was feeling it again. Twilight smiled, as she felt common sense wash away, and this drug-like feeling take over her senses. Spike had just disappeared again, but she had not noticed. Twilight was busy just looking at this statue. She smelled the air. Cookies, freshly baked and escaping from their oven prison could be smelled. Where it was coming from, Twilight didn't know.

The statue pulled Twilight in almost a bit too fast. Extending a wing, that Twilight soon found herself under. Twilight had not teleported, she was just suddenly underneath the stone wing of the statue. The wing did not feel heavy on Twilight's back as she snuggled up next to the once inanimate object.

"Twilight, stay with me. I will teach you the wonders of this forest, and what magic it holds. I implore you, the beauty will astound you. Stay with me, Twilight. Let us wander."
The statue asked. It had such a graceful voice. Actually, it was the voice of Celestia. Twilight had not recognized the voice. She was focusing more on the statue then the voice it was producing. She had listened to what it had said though. Every single thought in her mind was about the statue. Nothing else. The statue. The statue. A god. A angel.

Twilight had a choice. She could stay with this statue who was currently comforting her, or, she could frolic back into the darkness and peril. There was an obvious route to take here.

Author's Note:

We're at the chapter 10 mark! Yay! Let's celebrate!
With an early choice! There may be an unexpected turn of events if you choose the stranger route..

Comments

[Snipe5000]

I vote for stay with the statue

[Fryguy]

4436886

But what about the group? I don't know, ether is fine with me!

[Snipe5000]

4437285
I'm hoping that the pony she's with isn't just a hallucination and that she might give Twi some insight on her inner darkness.

[Fryguy]

4438633

Yeah, I say stay with the statue.