Veil of Twilight

by QT-Mark

Twilight's Shadows - Chapter 2

The copies of Rarity and Pinkie Pie seemed motionless, just as the real Rarity and Pinkie were. Whenever Pinkie or Rarity moved, the copies seemed to adjust and shift exactly the same.

“This… May be an interesting fight.” Rarity whispered over to Pinkie. They were both adamant and vigilant. Pinkie Pie could feel beads of sweat forming on her forehead from the tension.

“Well, come on, Never-Et make your move.” Pinkie shouted toward the copies. The Pinkie copy stood there for a moment before unsheathing her dagger, an exact replica of Pinkie Pie’s own sky-diamond dagger.

“Why don’t you make your move? Think you can keep up with us?” The Pinkie Pie copy replied with a confident tone.

“Ha! I should be asking that question to you!” The real Pinkie Pie asked.

“I’m just asking, because you seem to have put on a few pounds. Must be those cupcakes.” The Pinkie clone giggled.

“What?! I am not FAT! Wait a minute, you’re a copy of me! We weigh the same!” The real Pinkie fired back, getting agitated. She looked over at Rarity, “Am I this agitating?”

“Pinkie Pie. Focus. Stop quarreling with yourself. They're trying to distract us.” Rarity replied with her own agitation. She looked over at her pink friend. Pinkie Pie really knew how to turn a serious moment silly. Rarity turned her attention to the Pinkie Pie clone in front of them. She looked around, “Hey, where’d the Rarity copy go?”

“Rarity, to your left!” Pinkie shouted out to her. Rarity’s head jolted to the left to see her clone coming at her with unimaginable alacrity, daggers in hand and aimed for her torso. Rarity barely had any time to throw up her own dagger to dodge eminent death. She couldn’t avoid the other dagger though. She felt a sharp pain as a blade created a tiny fissure up the side of her thigh. She screamed out in pain and fell to her knee as her leg burned.

“Rarity! Are you okay?” Pinkie said trying to comfort her friend

“Y-yeah… I’m fine. It’s… Just a scratch.” Rarity assured Pinkie, trying to hide the fact that she now had a large chasm down her leg. The Rarity copy faded back into sight beside the Pinkie Pie clone, as she laughed.

“You should really pay more attention.” giggled the copy of Rarity, “It doesn’t surprise me that a complacent moron like yourself wouldn’t be able to hold her own, even against herself.”

Rarity stood in shock as the words soaked in. She squinted her eyes and rage began to take over. “Oh, it. Is. ON.”

Rarity was suddenly in front of her clone, both daggers in full swing. The clone only smirked and easily pulled its own daggers up to defend itself. She laughed at Rarity, “I know all your moves, inside and out.”

“How is that even possible? H-how can Never-Et become two things he knows nothing about?” The mortified Rarity replied.

“Don’t think too much about it. It might hurt your self-absorbed little head.” The clone snickered and gave a hard kick to Rarity’s gut, knocking the breath out of her and pushing her to the ground. She hit the ground with a bit of a thud, the heavy impact reigniting the fire in her thigh. She let out a groan.

“Alright, new plan,” Rarity got to her hooves and leaned over to Pinkie Pie, “we should attack together. I wasn’t expecting this shadow shifter to be… special.”

“Alright,” the pink pony replied, “well, how should we attack? It almost seems like we’re much slower than they are.”

“Just keep them busy. Make them cautious. I’m going to fade into the shadows and find out where Never-Et is hiding.” Rarity tried to keep her voice as quiet as possible, but felt it was in vain, for if Never-Et were every shadow, then he could perceive everything that a shadow consumed; the inside of the house entirely unlit.

Rarity looked as if she dissolved. She phased into nothing. This elicited a slight smirked from the clones.

Pinkie Pie gripped her weapon and rushed toward the Rarity clone. The clone confidently laughed and was suddenly behind her. A smile swept across Pinkie Pie’s face and she threw her dagger behind her, the dagger piercing the clone’s torso, blood now dripping from it. The clone gasped and swung her arm around, hoping to return the damage. Pinkie, with swift coordination, pulled the dagger and jumped backwards over the clone’s head.

Without further hesitation, Pinkie Pie began sprinting toward her own clone, while the Rarity clone tried to recover. Pinkie Pie went to strike at her clone, but stopped a few feet before her and jumped back.

Pinkie Pie’s tail started swishing and twitching. The clone stood there dumbfounded but began laughing at the pink pony. To Pinkie’s surprise, Rarity came bolting from the ceiling, shortly after, onto the pink clone and landed two precise strikes, both seemingly evenly in her chest. Rarity jumped off back into the air and faded into the shadows once more.

The two clones both got to their hooves, drenched with blood.

“I think it’s time w-we try something else.” the Pinkie Pie clone said to her companion. She nodded and they both dissolved into the shadows. Pinkie Pie was ready for anything.

“Aiiieeee!!” Rarity went flying through the air and landed right on Pinkie. She wasn’t exactly ready for that. They both laid there disoriented for a moment before a second Rarity came out of the shadows with her daggers in front of her. The first Rarity threw her arm up and blocked the dagger with the bracer. The pressure against her arm was rather painful, and she felt like the blade would slice straight through the bracer and her wrist any minute. The defending pony swung her blade around, causing the assailing Rarity to jump backward.

Both Rarities got steady on their hooves. Pinkie Pie got up too and stood beside the Rarity closest to her, thinking it was her friend.

“Pinkie Pie, what are you doing?” The white pony across from her asked shocked. “That’s the clone Rarity!”

“What?! No, she’s the clone!” The Rarity beside Pinkie accused. Pinkie took a look at the Rarities. She first looked at their left thigh, the one that was cut by the clone. Both Rarities had the same gash up their thigh. They were now identical.

Pinkie Pie was now completely confused. She had no idea which one was the real one.

“Pinkie Pie, it’s me. I’m the real Rarity!” The Rarity across the room struck a pose like a diva.

“I do not pose like that!” The Rarity beside Pinkie Pie yelled. “Pinkie, I’m the real one. I’m the real Rarity.”

Pinkie Pie gripped her own head, her fingers threaded through her mane. She was thinking about the situation, under great pressure. She had a thought, and she felt brilliant.

She looked around and saw two windows on either side of the room, but they were hard to see. The silhouette is all she went by. “Rarities,” Pinkie Pie told them, “stand by the windows on either side of the room.”

The two white ponies looked and picked a window to stand by. The Rarity beside Pinkie stood by a window to her left, and the Rarity across from Pinkie stood by a window to her right. Pinkie stood in the middle between them. She focused for a moment and her boots hummed. The purple color filled the slits in the back, and within a blink, the boards covering the windows fell to pieces, revealing the outside light.

The Rarity to Pinkie Pie’s left was unscathed. The Rarity to her right jumped back into the shadows.

“Augh! It’s time to stop this little game!” The clone shouted at Pinkie Pie. It faded back into the darkness, leaving Pinkie and Rarity cautious.

“Whew, thank Celestia you had that brilliant idea. I think we just found ourselves a weakness!” The white pony exclaimed walking over to Pinkie, whom was still in the shadows. Pinkie Pie went to reply, but was met with a sudden sharp dagger in her shoulder.

“You will be returned to Lady Sparkle dead or alive!” The voice of Never-Et spoke. His sinister voice haunted the ponies’ minds. The deep, ghostly voice, almost like low, yet gruffly whispers.

Rarity held up Pinkie Pie so she wouldn’t fall. As Rarity embraced Pinkie, she felt a streak of pain across her back, followed by a warm substance trickling down it as well. She screamed out in pain as they both fell to their knees.

“We… We have to get b-back into the light. We can’t s-stay in the shadows or that monster will kill us.” Rarity told Pinkie. Pinkie Pie nodded her head as to acquiesce.

“We r-really need to get out of here.” Pinkie finally said.

The two limped toward the light, holding each other for support. Pinkie gasped again as a piercing slash came across her back. Rarity followed sharply as her left leg was sliced again. They were almost to the curtain of light, a savior of their lives, but were put to a stop when they both felt it. A penetration of their skin, of their torso. They both fell to the floor. Pinkie Pie’s vision was growing dark. Rarity felt like stone.

They lied there, gasping for breath, as they felt the blades that pierced their bodies dissolve into the shadows, and felt them being dragged into the veil of darkness by their ankles. They could not speak due to shock. They could barely breathe. And they surely believed they were stronger than this, but obviously to them, not against themselves.

As they were being pulled into the drapes of malevolent darkness, Pinkie Pie finally managed to squeak out a few words, “Rarity…”

“Y-yes… p-p-Pinkie?” Rarity barely managed to say.

“I always th-thought of y-y-you as m-my big s-sister… A sister I n-never had… And… I just w-wanted to say… I l-love you…” Pinkie said under fading breath.

Rarity gave a weak smile, a smile covered in her own blood. They were both leaking large amounts of blood and some tears.

The two ponies were at the edge of the darkness. They pulled each other close with the last of their strength, embracing each other, awaiting the darkness to be eternity.

Pinkie started giving hushed sobs, and Rarity nuzzled her. This was it. Their so-called skill put to waste. The two closed their eyes.

Suddenly, the doors flung open, almost off their hinges. Three Cloud-steel-tipped arrows followed after a carpet of light roared into the house. The light caused the shadows to release Pinkie and Rarity, who were still embracing each other.

Applejack and Fluttershy entered the room. Fluttershy hurriedly ran over to the two severely injured ponies.

“Oh my, Applejack. They’re in critical condition. We have to get them out of here.” The yellow pony stated in shock. “Oh no, they’ve passed out from so much blood loss. Applejack.”

“Ah know, Ah know. Fluttershy, can you drag ‘em out while I get yer back?” Applejack asked her.

“I… I can try, but you know I’m not very strong.” The pegasus replied.

“Do it fer yer friends,” The orange pony told her, pulling two arrows from her leather quiver and drawing them across her bow made of ever-gloss. She aimed it at the darkness, waiting for whatever kind of monster might unveil. Fluttershy struggled but managed to start dragging her friends toward the door.

“This… Would be easier… If we had… Twilight on our side!” Fluttershy said under heavy breaths. For a weak pegasus, even dragging two ponies is straining work. She wasn’t used to carrying more than a bunny or two. That is, until industrialization probably poisoned them all. Fluttershy could probably never forgive Twilight for that.

“Stay focused, Fluttershy, yer doin’ great.” Applejack told her.

“Eep!” The yellow pony’s legs were wrapped in shadows, which caused her to fall. Applejack began firing arrows in the darkness. Nothing seemed to work. The arrows only seemed to whip through the foggy shadows.

Applejack was a workhorse. She got things done, and she always stayed prepared for the unexpected, including unexpected events like this. She anticipated her normal attacks to fail and knew she'd need to change tactics.

The earth pony smiled, reaching into a satchel on her belt, pulling out a few tiny spherical devices made of a silver metal. They were just big enough for her to fit three in one hand. A fuse came out of the silver spheres. She smirked and lit all three using a match she pulled with them. Applejack threw one into the back of the room where it was darkest. She threw the second to her left against the wall, and the third to the right by the window.

Within seconds, the three detonated, creating new holes in the walls. The holes led to the outside, letting more light pour into the house.

The shadows that were wrapped around Fluttershy dissolved, and she got to her hooves as quickly as she possibly could.

“AGHHH!” Never-Et’s echoing, ghostly voice screamed out. The shadow creature’s true form, rushed upstairs.

“C’mon, Fluttershy. We need to get the hay outta here!” Applejack yelled as she rushed over to the pegasus and began helping her drag their friends. As they neared the door, the building began to shake and collapse.

“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!” Fluttershy repeated. Support beams of the building began to fall.

“YOU WILL NOT LEAVE!” Never-Et’s haunting voice rung again.

“Hurry!” Applejack shouted.

“I’m trying!” Fluttershy squeaked through a slight sob.

The two put all their effort into saving their friend’s and their own lives. As they reached the doorway, the building began to crumble and break like a house of cards. They embraced their pony friends and jumped out into the warm sunlight. They just narrowly avoided death.

“We… We made it.” Applejack said, breathing heavily.

“We should really get back to Rainbow Dash in case one of those… things is there too!” Fluttershy suggested.

“Good idea, sugarcube.” Applejack agreed, taking Pinkie Pie in her arms and carrying her. “Ya got Rarity, Fluttershy?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Fluttershy nodded her head.

~~~~~~

Rainbow Dash sat alone in the storage building while Applejack and Fluttershy went off to look for Rarity and Pinkie Pie. She sighed, feeling useless at the moment. She couldn’t fight, and felt like she could, but wasn’t allowed to.

“I really want to go fight too, but these stupid injuries keep me from it.” Rainbow sighed again as her body began to ache. “Ow.”

She looked over at her satchel, a blue bag with her cutie mark stitched onto it. She unclasped the latch, and opened her satchel. Inside she pulled out one of her favorite books, amongst other things like a deck of cards, a canteen, and a sharpening stone for her swords.

This book she loved so much was actually the book that made her like reading more. It was a book that one of her closest friends showed her: “Daring-Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone.”

She had already read it, but she decided to read it again anyway. Rainbow Dash opened the book, and began quietly reading aloud the words across the pages.

~~~~~~

Twilight Sparkle sat in her room on her bed, reading over some test results. She had been particularly busy the past few weeks with experiments. She didn’t know why, but she felt compelled to speed up the process, and by doing so, she had been running on little sleep, but she didn’t care. Her thirst for death and blood was more overwhelming than a good rest.

Twilight looked over at a nightstand beside her. A little locket reflected the fire of the lamplight that sat beside it.
Twilight Sparkle sighed. She remembered what happened. None of these things were her fault, but she couldn’t stop herself. Yes, it's what happened to her so long ago. She remembered those events so vividly...

~~~~~~

Twilight Sparkle was a normal mare, just like any other, and was loved by many friends, respected as well. She had a lavender coat, beautiful violet eyes, the sweetest voice, and most importantly, she was hooved, she was a pony, she was herself.

It was a sunny day, bright, warm, and cheerful. She was sitting in her room, studying like she always did. Spike was downstairs sorting the shelves as Twilight requested, and she herself was comfortably lazing on her bed.

There came a knock on her door. She hadn’t been expecting anyone.

“Spiiiike! Could you please get that for me?” Twilight called down to him.

“I’m on it, Twi!” The little purple dragon replied. He opened the door, watching as a wall-eyed pony with a blonde mane, grey coat, and gentle smile dropped a little package and turned to fly away. “It’s a package!” Spike called back up to Twilight, waving goodbye to ditzy pegasus.

“Bring it up, please?” Twilight looked down at him from her bed and gave a goofy grin.

“Alright, fine. But only ‘cause you said please.” Spike chuckled and carried the package upstairs. When he got up to her room he handed her the package: a brown, cardboard box about the size of Twilight’s head.

Twilight looked at the top where all the addressing was. “Hey, this is a package from my mother.”

“I wonder what it is.” Spike curiously said.

“Hm, well, we’re about to find out.” Twilight answered, opening the box eagerly. The box was mostly filled with packing peanuts. Laying on the mass of Styrofoam pellets was a letter, hoof-written by Twilight’s mother. She recognized this.

“Your father and I are growing old, and we believe it’s time for you to be in possession of the Sparkle family heirloom. Our family has passed down this sacred heirloom for generations, for longer than a thousand years. We hope you like it, and please take good care of it, so that you may pass it down to a filly of your own one day. We love you very much.”

~Love, Mom~

Twilight reached further into the box and felt it. She felt the cold metal the necklace was made of. She pulled out the heirloom with her hooves and gasped.

“Oh… Oh my goodness. It… It’s beautiful!” Twilight exclaimed, shocked at the gleaming radiance it gave off. It surprised her that an heirloom that had been passed down for so long looked so untouched by time. It shone with flawlessness, and was virtually unscathed. It had no scratches, no dents, no markings of damage.

It was an amulet with a golden chain. The chain gleamed when the light touched it. The amulet itself was a flawlessly cut, diamond-shaped amethyst, placed in a gold-rimmed socket. On the back of the socket was engraved “Sparkle”.

“I… I can’t believe it! I’m in possession of the family heirloom!” Twilight was overjoyed. She held the necklace up to her face and nuzzled it before lifting it with her magic and wrapping the chain around her neck. She played with the amethyst a bit.

She suddenly didn’t feel right. She flinched and rubbed her head.

“Twi? You okay?” Spike asked confused. Twilight nodded her head and smiled.

“Yeah, I feel fine, Spike.” She replied calmly. “I feel sleepy though. I think I’ll go to bed early.”

“Okay, well, sleep well.” Spike smiled and gave her a blanket.

~~~~~~

A wicked smile swept across Twilight Sparkle's tear-covered face.

“Nightveil Sparkle…” she murmured to herself. It was clear. Something was terribly wrong, and this wasn’t Twilight. She unclasped the mechanism that held her cloak around her neck, the diamond-shaped amethyst. She held it under the lamplight, and read the back.

“Sparkle.” She whispered as she glanced over the engraving. She got up out of her bed. It was late and she was tired, but she had to take care of something that she had been putting off. “All of my friends are gone; they’ve probably been taken by the creatures of the industrial wasteland; although, there is much news of their survival from a lot of workers.”

Twilight went around her bed. There was a bookcase with several books packed together. She pulled a blue, green, and purple book in order. The bookcase slid open, revealing a dark and eerie passage. Twilight went down into the darkness and disappeared behind the curtains of shadows. The bookcase slid back into place, perfectly covering the passage.

When Twilight got to the end of the passage, there were tables with leather straps, tables with metal braces, machines giving of random sequences of lights and sounds, and the smell of rotting corpses covered in chemical scents. She went over to a table and opened a drawer. Inside were several miscellaneous things, but Twilight picked out what she needed at the time: six plastic, transparent bags, sealed to protect the contents inside.

The bags were labeled with individual names on each bag: Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Trixie. Twilight laid the bags out on a table with a few beakers, test tubes, burners, and other tools used for chemistry.

“Time to begin,” Twilight told herself, “and put what I’ve learned about life to the test.”

~~~~~~

“Ya’ll okay?” Pinkie Pie heard the pleasant accent of Applejack’s. It sounded like she was talking from the other side of thick glass, though. “C’mon now, you two. We’ve wasted a lot of time fixin’ ya’ll up, and we’re runnin’ late.”

Rarity groaned and sat up, struggling to brace herself, through the pain. “W-what happened? We…We’re alive?”

“Course ya are. Yer lucky ya made enough commotion fer the whole town to hear.” Applejack snickered. “And with that, we need to get the hay outta dodge before any other monsters show up.”

Pinkie began to open her eyes, giving a silent groan. She looked over at Rarity, who she thought was Rainbow Dash for a moment, because she was wrapped in bandages. In fact, Rainbow Dash was floating above them as well. Her wings gave strong, heavy strokes against the air, keeping her afloat. She was suited in heavy steel armor; it was unbelievable that her wings could support all that weight.
The armor was a glimmering smoky black. It was plated and layered, and it looked as though it would take something massive to even create a scratch or dent. Her torso, legs, and hooves were covered in the blackened metal. Her hands up to her wrists were protected by a pair of gauntlets of the same material but left her fingers exposed. The designs on the armor looked regal, yet ancient, and therefore very intricate. The plates of armor were lined with golden trimming, and on the left side of the breastplate was Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark glossed over to help protect it from being scratched off.

“Aww yeah! Feels so good to be free again!” Rainbow announced audaciously.

“Take it easy there on the wings, Rainbow,” Applejack told her, “you haven’t fully recovered yet.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I will be!” Rainbow reassured.

“Can ya’ll walk?” Applejack looked over to the two ponies on the ground, just recovering from the beating of their lives. “Now I know we just took down a giant metal statue and all, but we took it down together, when we were at our strongest. Did ya forget how hard you were slammed into that wall, Rarity?”

Rarity blushed a little, and looked away. “Uhhh, well, maybe I forgot, you know because I was hit so hard, and everything.”

“Ya ain’t playin’ innocent with me. Yer not invincible, Rarity.” Applejack got a little more serious.

Rarity only looked down. She felt responsible for the injuries she caused Pinkie Pie. “I… I’m sorry Applejack. I’m sorry, Pinkie. I guess I let my sense of honor get the best of me. That shadow shifter was right. I’m just a selfish, complacent pony.”

“Now, Rarity, nopony said that,” Applejack bent down to comfort her, “Ah just simply said that you shouldn’t go tryin’ to play the hero.”

“Yeah, that’s my job!” Rainbow Dash flew up to them and struck a heroic pose. Rainbow suddenly stopped posing when she noticed Rarity and Applejack giving an unimpressed glare.

“Now’s not the time, Rainbow.” Applejack told her. “Anyhoo, ya ready to go, Pinkie? Can ya walk walk?”

Pinkie nodded and stood up, groaning as pain struck a heavy chord in her body. “Y-yeah. I can walk.”

“Alright, then. Let’s go, ya’ll.” Applejack told the group.

After much time wasted, the five finally got back out into the nothing, on their way to the palace. They now have to make up for lost time; the sooner they get to the palace and end the suffering, the better. The five ponies were on a critical mission, as they’ve been before, to restore harmony, and under Twilight’s reign balance is lost entirely.
They had enough time to make it to the palace, as long as the road was smooth, and if there were few obstacles. Their hope was to be there within a few weeks, before Twilight gathers the power to control everything with only a finger. And Twilight was working endlessly to achieve that. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy… All five ponies delving into unknown darkness, into more sinister hatred than they could imagine. They hoped it was going to be simple.

But nopony can foresee the future…

~~~~~~

Twilight Sparkle gave a long-awaited exhale. She was successful. She looked at the liquid-filled tubes that lined up evenly. Six tubes.

“My creations. My beloved creations!” Twilight excitedly shouted at the tubes. Within the tubes were ponies with wires and pads connected to them. The advanced technology and magic allowed her accomplishments at great speeds.

“Look at what we’ve accomplished! Look at where we’ve come.” Twilight seemed to speak in a different voice.

“It… It’s so beautiful. We can accomplish anything. We are unstoppable.” Twilight stated to herself as though having a conversation with a figment of her own imagination.

The ponies in the tubes were not just ordinary ponies. They were Twilight’s friends. They floated in the liquid, lifeless bodies, replicas of her closest friends. Now, she had the help of her friends, and it would make conquering the planet so much easier for her.

Twilight Sparkle took and inserted a piece of glass into a machine that seemed to be connected to the tubes. A malevolent grin spread across Twilight’s face as she pulled a switch, the machine activating and lighting up the tubes.

“I can’t have any heroes trying to stop me within my own palace. So I have to make them like me!” Twilight snickered. The first tube lit up, the liquid becoming purple. First was Rainbow Dash. Next Applejack, then Pinkie Pie, then Fluttershy, and Rarity. As the process finished on Rarity, the machine malfunctioned before it began on Trixie. “Huh? What happened? Blast this machine!” Twilight turned off the machine, and opened the slot where she inserted the piece of glass. Perhaps I ran out of the gene. Let me get another sample.”

Twilight went over to her desk, retrieving another sample of her synthetic genetics. She walked back over to her machine and replaced the original sample. She turned the machine on again, Trixie’s tube going through the process. It eventually lit up purple, like the rest, except this time it was lighter purple, but Twilight didn’t notice.

“Get some sleep, my friends, we have a big day tomorrow.” Twilight told the sleeping ponies as she crossed the passage once more, retreating into her room. The machines died down, the life support for the ponies excluded, and darkness shrouded the room and all was silent.

Hours passed and night was far from over. Ominous shadows curtained every inch of the palace.

But there was a sudden rustling in the lab. Trixie’s tube flickered with light. Hers was the only one that lit up. Trixie was inside, awake and wriggling around. She had pulled all the wires and pads off. She pushed against the glass hoping to find an opening, but it was solid.

“Mmmf.” Trixie choked, trying to get air, but there was only water. She began banging her fists on the glass. She was hitting it as hard as she could. She continued hitting the glass with her fists, and eventually cracked it. Seeing that she was making progress, she started hitting harder and faster. She started feeling lightheaded from using so much energy to free herself from her cylindrical prison.

She used as much force as she could and finally broke the glass. The water poured out, and she inhaled a copious amount of breath. Trixie looked around. She was drenched, her blue coat was darker. She was completely nude, but that wasn’t the key issue at the moment. Her main concern was wondering where she was and what was going on.

“Where am I?” Trixie whispered under her breath. “Wait.” She paused and began remember: She was on an operating table, one of the first test subjects. She couldn’t move. She was strapped down. Twilight stepped from the shadows with a table covered in blood and knives, beakers with chemicals, and surgical tools. Blood was drawn, incisions in her skin were made, and she screamed and pleaded with every inch of her fiber, but the pain never ceased. Trixie died that night.

Trixie had to escape; she had to get out, but how? She looked around and found an air duct in the back behind some machines. Maybe she could get out through the air duct. She walked over to the duct and tore away the cover. She had to hurry before Twilight noticed her attempt to escape. Trixie really hoped that Twilight hadn’t heard the glass break. This possibility only made her work faster to escape.

Trixie crawled through the dark tunnels of the vent. They winded around and sometimes made her think she was just going in circles. She had no idea where exactly she was going, in fact, but she didn’t care. She remembered the pain and agony she suffered through as Twilight stood over her, pouring acids over her body, ripping her flesh off, horrific things that made her sick just thinking about it. These memories seemed to take her body and just drive it away. She had no idea how she was alive, but she didn’t think about it; she was breathing and that was good enough for her.

Trixie came across several openings to fall through, but she wanted one that was outside of the palace or at least close to an exit. She crawled for a while, looking around for an opening to the outside, but instead she was met with a dead end.

“Of course.” Trixie sighed and whispered sarcastically. She silently removed the covering over an opening by the dead end. She peeked her head through first, looking around for guards or traps. The area was clear. It was a dark storage closet, and a large one at that. Trixie dropped down landing as softly as she could, but still making a clop noise when she landed. She began to sweat and bit her bottom lip, hoping there was nobody around to pursue her.

She was frozen for a few minutes, just waiting for someone to catch her, but no one came. She exhaled in relief, standing up straight. She took a look around, observing the area.

“Hmm… What could I use to help me escape?” Trixie asked herself as quietly as possible. Most of the items in the room were useless to her, though. There were mostly ingredients for recipes. Large brown bags of flour packed in corners by crates labeled “spices”, and shelves of pots and pans lined up across the room. Trixie realized that this room could possibly expose her. It’s dark and if she trips and falls on a shelf, the pots and pans impacting on the floor would be a loud enough alarm to expose her and probably have her killed.

Trixie did her best to keep her hooves from making too loud of noise. She wormed around the shelves, sweat beads dripping from her forehead and cheeks. She made sure her hooves were nowhere near any objects that could make loud noises. Luckily for her, the door wasn’t too far from where she had landed.

She crept over to the door, sighing with relief as her heart calmed from exhilaration. Trixie cracked the door as silently as possible, peeking around. There was nobody around. “Excellent. Maybe this will be easy.”

She gave a sweet smile and crept out the door, trotting along the hallway and hoping for an exit. The hallway was long and narrow, almost like an eerie hallway from a nightmare where you run as fast as you can, but the hallway just keeps stretching for eternity.

Trixie went left, to the closest corner. She was draped in shadows which made it harder for her to be seen. She used this to her advantage and peeked her head around the corner.

“No guards? This is getting to be too easy.” Trixie said, becoming more cautious than before. “I don’t care. The faster I can get out of here, the better.”

Trixie carefully walked down the hallway, checking doors and looking for easier ways out; however she had no luck. All the doors led into other rooms that just went deeper into the palace.

She was walking along the hallway, using the walls for direction, when she suddenly saw a light coming around the corner at the end.

“Uh oh.” Trixie said with a low tone, while checking the doors. Inside the closest door to her was a bedroom. She definitely didn’t want to go into any bedrooms. She decided to backtrack and went back into the storage room she came out of earlier. She went inside and pushed the door almost closed, leaving a tiny crack for her to see through without being noticed.

Her heart was pounding as the light turned the corner. When the light passed, she got a glimpse of a shadowy figure holding a lantern, except it wasn’t holding the lantern; the lantern was connected to its arm.

Trixie opened the door as quietly as possible, looking around and seeing the creature disappear along with the light. “Hmm, maybe I should actually follow it.” Trixie thought. She could tail it and find an exit, using its lantern for light.

She realized that the creature had gone down a set of stairs onto another floor. She looked around and found the light going down another eerie hallway. Trixie followed it, but didn’t test its senses and kept a great distance between them.

It turned down another staircase, an odd place for a staircase actually: cutting right out of the middle of the hallway in between two bedroom doors. Trixie paid no mind and followed it anyway. She had been following this thing for a while now, almost fifteen minutes, and it seemed to just be leading her nowhere. She was looking for an exit, not trying to get lost inside a palace taking up an eighth of Equestria!

Finally it stopped and turned around, but didn’t move forward. It just sat there as though it just now noticed it was being followed this whole time. Trixie froze and backed away a great bit, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. She turned around and realized she was backing straight into another one.

She about screamed, but bit her tongue. She saw a door, and understood that she had to hide behind that door. It was her only option. Trixie opened the door as quickly, yet quietly as possible.

“Maybe I need to stay out of the halls. Or at least not stay in them for too long.” She whispered under her breath. She didn’t know what the creatures were doing on the other side of that door, but she didn’t dare check to find out. She assumed she was safe for the moment in that room, so she stayed there for a while.

It was a bedroom and black as a void. Trixie squinted and tried to see if there were any ponies sleeping in the beds, but couldn’t tell, and decided it would be best not to risk causing any noise, so she sat there against the door thinking. But it was almost pointless to think. She had no idea how to get out and no idea which doors led where. She had no maps, so this escape was going to be unimaginably difficult, but very time consuming.

Trixie sat in the dark for nearly an hour, silent, naked, cold, and tired. She wanted to be somewhere safe, where she could sleep without worry, eat without limits, and be warm with given blankets or even clothing, but instead, she was stuck planning on what she might could possibly do to get out.

Trixie hadn’t heard any movement in the beds and figured it was okay to crawl around and have a look at the place. The darkness made it more difficult, but over the hour of being surrounded by it, her eyes adjusted and it was somewhat easier than before. She noticed beds and nightstands, a window in the back, and chests at the ends of the beds to act as containers for personal belongings.

“Think, Trixie, think,” she told herself, “maybe the window? Maybe we’re not too high up.” She crawled over to the window, past the beds. Now that she was closer she could get a better look and verified that there was a pony sleeping in one of the beds. Trixie flattened her ears and made sure it was imperative she remain as silent as imaginably possible.

She peeked through the window. Outside, it was gloomy, even for the night. The moon seemed to mock the existing inhabitants of the planet, being so safe up in the sky like an unscathed pearl while the ponies suffered horrific and wicked deaths.

Trixie looked down, her heart sunk, “Of course.” She thought to herself. She had to be on one of the highest floors possible. Looking down, there were jagged rocks scattered across a rushing and crashing pool of water. It seemed to wildly attack the bottom of the palace as if trying to knock the entire building over. It made Trixie sick just imagining an attempt at climbing down.

Trixie sighed quietly and noticed that there was one bed open. She checked the chests to see if they were just gone, but the chest was empty. The pony sleeping was alone, and Trixie had a bed to herself. She quietly climbed into the empty bed and wrapped herself in the blanket. The velvet-like blanket was soft and she felt warm. She tried to cover her entire body. Maybe she could wake up early and get back in the vents before the other pony awakes.

Trixie closed her eyes and continued to think about ways she could free herself from this place before being caught. She smiled slightly, for this may be the last good feeling she feels for a long time, so she savored it. She savored the warmth of a blanket in a cozy bed because that’s all she wanted for the time being.

Trixie rolled over onto her side and drifted off to sleep.

Comments

[kaiserwilhelm]

very nice work. i cant wait until the next chapter

[QT-Mark]

I feel like I'm rushing and that the story sounds like it barely goes anywhere, or that it's a little repetitive. But as long as people enjoy reading it, I guess it's okay.

I do plan on slowing down a bit, read through the thesaurus some

Chapter 3 may take a little longer, but hopefully it'll be worth the wait.

[DavidPony]

interesting.....so the ponies in the test tubes are clones? does this mean there are 2 trixies running around or was that a scene from the past?

[BrokenPinkiePromise]

I need to read this!

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>> DavidPony
Chapter 2 explained that Trixie died already. I figured that was clear enough. Lol. BUT, further into the story will explain in more detail.

[DavidPony]

413704 sry forgot about that

[Neostar]

I am entertained

[Pleaseworkforonce]

she went to sleep in an inhabited room come on trixie i know your stuck up but realy
my avatar matches my thoughts perfectly (granted trixie wasnt the smartest cookie in teh show so who knows)

[Pinkie Floyd]

Wait, so, do they (Trixie and the rest of the Mane 6) have hands with fingers on their front limbs, and hooves on their back limbs or what? Does Twilight have hands and feet, instead of hooves? That would make this a little more clear so I can picture it better.

[QT-Mark]

>>Pinkie Floyd
Well of course. I didn't explain that in this chapter because I explained in a previous chapter that everypony within Equestria is affected by Twilight's spell through the amplification device she constructed. That includes Trixie since she's basically at the core source of the amplification. (Everyone in Equestria has hands and hooves. No feet.)

[QT-Mark]

439970
Thanks, I'mma try my best for a grimdark, but I don't exactly want it to be too close to Cupcakes style. Lol. I'm hoping for a place on EQD someday, and I don't think they go looking to put Cupcakes stuff in the spotlight.

[BrokenPinkiePromise]

441060
Ok, while I'm at it, some critique. I think Twilight would be capable of stealing the princesse's powers but the reason ''I want to take over the world'' sounds very unlike Twilight. If she thought taking over the world and doing her experients would be the best for everypony I bet it would happen.
By the way, it should be Lady Sparkle not Lord Sparkle unless you turned Twilight into a guy. Either way good luck with your fic.

[QT-Mark]

Very much appreciated to those letting me know my mistake. Lord --> Lady. Errors fixed. (Yay for Ctrl + F)

451720
You're very much right. It is very unlike Twilight. Twilight can snap, which we've all seen in Lesson Zero, but that's not entirely the reason for this 'dark side' of Twilight. As you may have noticed, I'm an author of surprises. Just keep reading on and you'll understand. Surprises.