Born to Light

by Mailbox_of_d00m

Chapter 10: Contact!

Darkness abated from the vertical extremes of Twilight Sparkle's eyes. Dazed, she attempted to pin-point her location, but her surroundings were too unfamiliar. Considering that the train was the last thing she could remember, she questioned the process by which she had arrived in a hollow cube of weathered wood planks. Twilight did not notice the dried blood on her cheek or the water still clinging to her fur.

Postal Code, having emptied the contents of the bucket just moments ago, remained in an awkward position, staring intently at Twilight as if he was trying to determine whether his actions returned the intended result. Upon noticing her movement, he quickly jumped back and attempted to act in a more casual manner, Twilight slowly raised an eyebrow and tried to speak: "P-Postal Code? Wh...What happened?"

Postal Code didn't respond. He resolved to stare at her again, and moments later, he proceeded to move closer to her. He hugged her, and a tear fell from his eye. Twilight, quite shocked by the sudden gesture, broke from the embrace and pushed Postal Code away.

Following this incredibly awkward moment, neither Twilight nor Postal Code knew what to say or do next. Twilight knew that now was not the time to start a conflict, and Postal Code had actually seemed to anticipate Twilight's reaction. So, having not decided upon anything, the mare and the stallion just sat there, each trying not to make eye contact with the other for too long.

Finally, Twilight spoke: "I'll ask you again – what happened?"

"To make a long story short, the train crashed, you were unconscious, and I carried you here."

"Exactly where is 'here'?"

"Um...to be honest, I'm not totally sure. All I know is that we are in a cabin on the side of a river in some forest."

"Are you sure you couldn't be a little more specific?"

"Well, if it helps any, I think we are in the forest adjacent to the track the train was following. But if I knew anything more, I would have told you."

Twilight scurried over to the window. It was too dark outside to clearly perceive anything. Twilight felt as though she was about to panic, but her own consciousness calmed her. They were only lost in the woods. Ponies go missing all the time (around the Everfree Forest, at least) and they always show up soon after. Pretty soon, they would be out of the forest; they would return to Ponyville and find the author...wait a minute! What happened to the manuscript pages?? She asked Postal Code just that.

"You had them, right? Then they should be close to the wreckage nearby where I found you."

"Then we should hurry. We can't let this minor setback stop us from returning the manuscript."

"But it's way too dark out there! How will we find the pages without any light?"

"For your information, I did happen to notice that flashlight on the floor next to you. I assume you used it to find this cabin in the first place."

"Oh...right."

Twilight continued: "Plus, I just so happen to have a light source of my own."

With that declaration, Twilight's horn began to glow, the tip emitting a radiant purple-pink light. The horn illuminated everything within Twilight's vicinity, much more than Postal Code's flashlight could ever dream of accomplishing. Now, this should not have been anything particularly noticeable to Postal Code. After all, he did attend a college in which he was considered a minority (Canterlot Academy consisted almost entirely of unicorns) so he should have seen the illumination spell performed before, if not countless times. In fact, he did. It was quite strange, for he did seem a bit in awe of the spell. Perhaps, could he have been jealous due to his lack of magical potential?

Twilight headed towards the door. Postal Code did not move. Her voice showing the slightest instance of agitation, Twilight said, "Come on, Postal Code! The sooner we find the manuscript pages, the sooner we can get out of this forest!"

Postal Code remained in place. For some reason, he appeared as if he had just been lobotomized.

And the sooner I can return to my normal life, completely devoid of stallions with dissociative disorders, Twilight thought.

As she passed through the threshold of the front door, she heard a voice from inside the cabin call out, "Um...wait!" Twilight reluctantly turned her head. Postal Code continued: "Could we, um, just forget all this ever happened?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"Um, I mean...when I, like, hugged you, and all...could we just pretend that never happened?"

"At least until we get back to Ponyville, yes," was Twilight's response.

Countless questions overwhelmed Postal Code's mind. Should he tell Twilight at all what had happened before he woke her up? Did she already know? How could she not have noticed anything Postal Code had noticed? How could she be oblivious to his injuries as well as her own? What in Tartarus could have kept her from noticing that dead pony in the corner? (Funny thing, that dead pony. The corpse was real, but it seemed like it was more for show – as if it was more like a bad plot device!) And what the hay is so darn important about those manuscript pages?

Of course, Postal Code, being the currently-incomprehensible earth pony he is, decided to disregard all of these inquiries and follow Twilight.

***

Was Postal Code afraid of the dark? Hardly. He once crawled through the pitch-black sewers of Baltimare to satisfy a dare. It wasn't the darkness that got to him. Rather, it was the thought of a potential threat. He nearly lost said dare because the sound of nearby construction work had set his hyperactive imagination in motion. So, Postal Code's memories of the three omens – the body, the scream, the dark cloud – scared him out of his wits. He tried his best not to show it, but Twilight Sparkle occasionally noticed his legs shaking.

A fear of the dark did not overwhelm Twilight either. Hey eyes could handle a little challenge, so long as Twilight remained on schedule and within the range of her knowledge. Of course, neither was true at the current time – she was supposed to have arrived in Ponyville hours ago, and she really didn't know how to escape from this forest – so one could say she was just as scared as Postal Code was.

***

Minutes passed, though they felt like hours. Twilight Sparkle and Postal Code continued on as the density of the darkness around them expanded relentlessly. Attempting to mask her alleged fear, Twilight declared, "Be on the lookout for anything. You never know when something just might–"

A throwing knife flew past Twilight's face and secured itself in a nearby tree. Out of the darkness sprung another pony, its body veiled in shadows and the clefts of its hooves fastened with two sickles. The pony knocked Twilight to the ground and held a sickle to her neck. Twilight tried to gaze into the ponies eyes, as if to try and identify her assailant, but the shroud of darkness prevented eye contact.

Though Postal Code, in any other situation, would have been one to avoid clichés, he screamed the only thing he could think of at the moment: "NO!!" Postal Code charged forward and collided head-first with the pony, knocking it away and giving Twilight just enough time to recover from shock.

She couldn't believe it, but Twilight heard a voice:

Harness the power of your light. It is the only way to defeat them.

The voice was quite similar, if not identical, to the voice she had heard in her dream – ugh, just thinking about that nightmare gave her the creeps.

The pony charged at Twilight again. Somehow, Twilight seemed to know what the "voice" meant by "harnessing the power of the light." Praying that she had the right idea, Twilight lowered her horn, aimed at the pony, and let off an enormous burst of light energy,

The burst traveled straight forward and made direct contact with the unsuspecting assailant. The result was a massive flare of light. It was too bright to handle; Twilight and Postal Code had to avert their eyes for their vision's sake. After the light dissipated, there was nothing. No blood. No dust or ashes. No metal particles from the weapons. There were literally no traces of the pony's existence.

Twilight's trying to figure out where the pony could have gone paralyzed her, but Postal Code felt differently. His jaw agape, he continued to stare towards the spot on the ground at which the darkness-covered pony was standing just moments ago. Eventually, he came to his senses and said, "Th-that...was...AWESOME!!"

Twilight tried to ignore Postal Code's immature outburst, and she resolved to continue moving forward. "Come on, Postal Code, now's not the time to gawk! You need to show me where the manuscript pages ended up," she said.

Realizing that he had once again done serious damage to Twilight's impression of him, Postal Code calmed himself down. He proceeded to follow Twilight as a strange shadow danced behind the trees, a small portion of its shape reflecting the faintest hint of teal.

Comments

[Connorbeast]

Nice chapter. RD? And what program do you use for the modeling?

[Mailbox_of_d00m]

667863
First off, about RD. Technically, she does not have a specific place in the story just yet. She was in chapter 5, as you know, but chapter 5 was just a dream sequence; so, technically, the events of that chapter did not actually happen.
Regarding the modeling: I use a game called "Garry's Mod" (or "Gmod") to model. If you want to learn more about it, where to buy, etc., you can find all of the information at The Gmod homepage. Also, I will keep some Gmod-related content in my blog, and you can always check my deviantART page for more examples of my work.

[Connorbeast]

670170 Alright sweet.