Chains
> Quick! grab something to use as a weapon, but pick it up with your teeth/mouth, no telekinesis.
Twilight tries her best to stay calm and think through the situation as rationally as possible. She drags in a ragged breath. Okay, so she doesn't have use of her magic beyond the simplest spells. Alright then. She'll just have to improvise.
As much as she dares, Twilight blows out her light spell in tiny increments around herself. Wan and dull, a sphere of light crawls out over her body and the floor around her, spills out in magenta candleglow and sprawling shadows that pour just to the edges of her fur. As soon as the light starts to dance against crystal, Twilight perks her ears and stares into the black abyss outside her vision. That stomping, the huffing and vibrations of whatever is in the room with her, continues but doesn't seem to get any closer. Thankfully, it hasn't seemed to notice her light at all.
Twilight huffs a silent sigh, and turns to the floor immediately around her. Whatever's ransacked her kitchen hasn't left much for her to grab. All the food she could possibly use as a distraction is long gone. The table, which she could theoretically use like a lion tamer would to push the beast back, is either gone or broken into such tiny pieces that she can't recognize it anymore. She knows that her pipes are still nearby, just out of reach of her spell, but wrenching one of those free would cause a horribly loud screeching noise, plus she isn't sure if she has the strength to pry them from the walls.
With a hum, Twilight quietly kicks at the crystal floor below her. Her hoof catches on something sharp, and below her tiny tinks sound out along with a glittering of light. From the gouges ripped from the walls, and whatever other trauma the castle has gone through, there are plenty of shards of crystal scattered about. At least some of them have to be light enough that she could grab them with her weakened telekinesis and swing them as a weapon if needed. Failing that, she could grab a piece in her teeth if she was careful enough. Twilight would hate to have to cut or, Celestia forbid, even stab any creature, but she has to defend herself somehow if it comes to that. Her life, and possibly Equestria's future, is depending on this.
She searches around for a decent piece; she could go for something she could easily grab with her magic, but she wants something large enough that whatever is in here with her won't just scoff at it... Twilight spots a larger chunk of crystal at her right hind hoof, a jagged, uneven shard that's about the length of her foreleg, and about as thick at its base. She could theoretically still try her telekinesis on it, but... her horn throbs, and she resists the urge to poke at it with a hoof.
--There's another thunk from the other side of the room.
Something heavy, meaty, followed by the shuddery, hot breath of something huge. Then, at the end of that noise she hears something trail after it now that she's focusing. A sliding noise, something heavy and soft, like a large body or tail being dragged across the ground after it. Following that is... a tinkling noise. Light and tinny, like claws -- or maybe something else? -- clacking against the hard floor in a cascade. And most importantly, all that noise is closer now.
Twilight takes a shaky breath. On jittering hooves, she curls back, so very slowly, onto herself and takes a step backwards. Like when she was a foal sneaking to the pantry and trying not to wake Spike or her parents, she eases back and leans down to grasp the shard of crystal. As soon as her light spell glitters off of it and her raspy breath bounces from it against her cheeks, she opens her mouth and clenches her teeth at its edge. She rolls her tongue to grip it without slicing the inside of her mouth -- and then she prepares herself to get out of the room somehow.
Whatever the creature is that's still breathing heavily nearby, it was blocking her only exit. Should she try to distract it? Or maybe just charge her way past?
Next, see what the monster is, then determine if you should fight it, or use your flight speed to get past it.
Twilight's breath curls hotly around the weapon in her teeth. She flicks her tail. She doesn't exactly like it, but she realizes that all of this decision making sure would be a lot easier if she knew where, or even what, this things is. After all, she's doing all this worrying on the assumption that it's some sort of magical beast, but for all she knows it could just be one of Fluttershy's cuddly creature friends. She does live in a crystal tree, after all, and Harry the Bear likes trees. Logically she knows with everything going on that that isn't the case, but, well, it would certainly be nice about now.
With a sigh, Twilight reasons that she's going to have to mare up and take a good look at this thing. She can figure out what to do once she has more information.
Twilight braces herself. She draws herself up straight, pulls herself up tall and ready on tensed legs in preparation to run. She rolls the muscles at her withers, where her back meets with her wings. Her left side screams in protest at the sudden tension, and her feathers aren't quite responding right, twitching and spasming on her other side with wild magic. She must have injured something deep within the base of her wings, maybe even shattered the hollow bones inside, so she doubts she'll be able to fly straight. Still, she splays her feathers in case anyways. She needs to leverage every advantage she has. She's hasn't been without her unicorn magic since Discord's maze, and the thought is making her nervous.
Twilight snorts. Gnashes her teeth hard against the chunk of crystal in her grip. Then she brightens her horn with a flood of light. Twilight winces hard at the stab of pain that lances into her strained eyes, her stinging horn. As the magenta glitter beams out all around her, the shadows fall out around the battered kitchen, filter through the murky stagnant water puddles. Then it falls against something huge, and lumpy, and the creature in the corner opposite of her falls into focus and--
Twilight's mind goes blank. She drops the crystal. It falls to the dirty ground at her hooves. Blankly, she thinks that it wouldn't have done anything even if she hadn't dropped it. She nearly vomits.
The thing is awful. Horrible. She's never seen anything like it. Not in Equestria. Not anywhere.
The giant, bulking thing has to bend with its jaw scraping the ground to fit inside. The giant lump of flesh, undulating as it gasps for air, twinkles and shines with rows of glistening wet scales - dark, spade-shaped daggers that stick out from every available scrap of skin except for the face. Twilight can't even see the shape of its body through the deadly spikes. And its face-- it looks like, once, it might have been a lizard. It's huge jaw is rough-textured, ending in a gigantic meaty snout that pops with gnarled teeth. All of the molars don't even fit inside the creature's mouth; shards of yellow-white jagged bone tear through its own mouth, curl inwards and stab into the monster's own blistering skin - as it gasps in ragged breaths, a black, stinking ichor oozes from its nostrils, from the audibly ripping skin of its mouth, out of everywhere the spikes -- which she now realizes are bone -- erupt from its heaving flesh. And wrapped all around it... yanked so tightly around every inch of it that the creature's natural colors are obscured by horrible bruises and weeping ulcers, are metal chains. They even bind the ragged, bleeding holes where Twilight assumes its eyes used to be before they were torn out.
The only things left bare are its ears, feet and mouth. It can hear, and it can kill.
Twilight squeaked. She must have, because now it looks towards her with those gaping holes. It takes a step, and its giant lumpy foot cracks the crystal beneath it with its own furiosity.
It opens its mouth, its horrible mouth stinking of blood and infection and meat, and then before Twilight can think, it's crawling on its belly in her direction.
Twilight doesn't even think. She can't -- something small and instinctual and scared takes over, throws herself towards the exit. Everything blurs into a purple cascade of light bouncing from the crystal as she sprints. She doesn't see where she's going, just bursts from the doorway of the kitchen and lets everything dull to a numb muscle-memory as she takes corner after corner, dodges upturned tables and pools of coagulated blood. Her body screams in protest, her muscles and head pounding with white-hot lances of agony, but still the walls zip by her. The thing is still behind her- she can hear it howling, an awful wet noise that she can physically feel hotly ruffling the hair of her tail. Once it snaps at her; as its mouth shuts with a mighty clap behind her, she can feel its blood and plus splash into the fur of her back.
With a whinny, Twilight opens her wings-- a window! She's a way from the front exit, but there's a window in her vision now, at the end of her light spell, down the hall, she just has to-- she jumps and--
Twilight's body clears the window. She's met with an abyss of nothingess.
With nothing but the pale shapes of trees for her light to bounce off of, Twilight barrels into the pure darkness. Blackness swallows her whole, down to the tips of her feathers, and for an instant, as she splays her wings open fully around her, she is floating in a gentle, endless blackness that cradles her like a foal in the womb. She has no way of knowing where she is, what is around her-- and therefore, there is nothing but the slight swooping sensation in her stomach to tell her she's not flying, but falling, until her body slaps meatily into something. She is in purgatory, and then an unforgiving ground slams into her fleshy, tiny body. Somewhere, Twilight feels her entire being blossom into agony once more.
And then the darkness is absolute.
When Twilight opens her eyes, she's met with nothing. She vomits stomach acid onto her heaving chest, and then vacantly she feels herself standing up. Also without any conscious input, her horn alights.
The grass shines, yellowed and dead and cast into magenta light at her hooves. Numbly, Twilight tries to turn around. She can barely feel anything, can barely get her muscles to follow instruction, but blankly she fumbles about in a drunk stumble. Her light catches against crystal -- a door, an open window, a path? Her stomach lurches, she watches as she vomits again, this time an acidic orange splurt onto a crystalline road. Her eyes follow it: it heads outwards, and then splits off into a path.
Twilight shakes her head. Tries to think through the pain and the curtain of fog that hang over her every thought.
That's right. She's outside. She--
With a start, everything clicks to a quick clarity. Or, well, as much clarity as there can be had when you're surrounded by pitch darkness.
The monster!
Twilight jolts forward, then jerks in a circle to search around, but-- it's gone. Thanks the Stars Above, it hadn't followed her! Not yet, at least. She turns back from where she fell, and through her spell she can't see it through the dark hollow of that window. It doesn't mean that it isn't still after her, but she should have time to get away if she hurries, and if the creature isn't too persistent. The path from her crystal home branches off into a series of small roads which snake through Ponyville. She should, in theory, be able to choose one and lose the creature if she has to through some tight, winding corridors. Eventually she might even be able to track down her friends!
The only thing is...
"Spike..." she mumbles.
She doesn't want to leave him behind. Not here, not with that-- thing. But...
Twilight can barely move. She's in more pain than she's ever experienced before in her life. She can't fly. She barely has her magic. She's dehydrated and malnourished. And if one creature like that is in her castle, who knows what's happening in town, or in all of Equestria? For the sake of herself and all of her friends, including Spike, she's going to have to find either the Princesses or the Element Bearers and try to figure out what's going on. Also, she isn't even entirely sure if Spike is even inside the castle. He might be somewhere else in this darkness, fighting to find her at this very moment. Still...
"I'm sorry, Spike. I'll find you. I'll come back for you if I have to."
Her heart clenching, her body aching, Twilight limps up to the path that leads out from her front door. Quickly, she's met with her first crossroads.
The path left is a roundabout walking path that leads down to Carousel Boutique, and another branch off to Town Hall. Conversely, the path right will lead her towards the market street, and then further out towards Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight isn't sure where her friends - or anypony, for that matter -- are. The majority of the townsponies most likely retreated to Town Hall if they were able, as they were instructed to do if they couldn't make it to Twilight's castle in case of emergency. Plus there was always a chance Rarity had holed up in her shop. On the other hoof, Applejack surely would have gone to check up on her family when all of this started, and Sugarcube Corner is in the same direction as the Acres, so she might be able to find Pinkie Pie. Or, given the circumstances, she might find nopony at all in neither direction!
Twilight whinnies to herself, and gulps hard against her sand-dry throat. No matter what she decides, she can't stay here. For all she knows, the monster inside her castle is circling its way around right now to burst out the door and chase her some more.
Twilight rubs a hoof against her aching chest, and tries to breathe.
Which way should she go?
Event: Major Decision
Should Twilight:
Go Left (Towards Carousel Boutique)
Go Right (Towards Sweet Apple Acres)
This decision will have major consequences on the story.
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>go to the farm, if only for the sole reason that it also leads to everfree and the tree of harmony, where she can figure out what to do next
Go right, there bunch of tree to take cover or see any coming to her incase