Into the Black

by somatic

6: Orders from the Princess

Back in Ponyville, Twilight often had nightmares about being banished to the dungeons. She dreamed it was damp and cold down there. She dreamed icehearted wardens would clank along the stone corridors, keys jangling in iron grips. The other prisoners would wrap their hooves around the bars, screaming at times, shouting at others.

Her dreams got the damp and the cold right, but as for the others, she was wrong. There were no more prisoners here, none but her. She guessed they’d all been pressed into service as soldiers; no reason to stick them in a cell if they can be thrown on an airship.

At least, she thought she was alone. Down here, buried beneath the castle, there was only the faintest of lights, and she could barely see her own muzzle.

Her skin erupted in goosebumps as something fuzzy and scaly crawled over her. Acting on instinct, she waved her wings to brush the—it must be a beetle?—away. Her only reward was a sudden sprain in her muscles. Right, no wings.

She wrapped her tail around herself, a few bits of tree sap still stuck in it. She hadn’t had a chance to clean herself up since the Everfree, and a few streaks of blood still discolored her fur. Her bandages had leaked again, of course.

Twilight slumped into a corner, wishing she could curl tighter and tighter until she vanished. It was dark here, dark like she deserved. The only sounds were the incessant crash of mechanical anvils, muffled by distance, the slow whine of wind through the drafty castle, and a light little snore.

Her head rose from its hiding place behind her hooves. Snoring. It wasn’t her, and no rat she’d ever heard sounded like that. It reminded her of—

“Spike?”

“Snnrk.”

“Spike?” The distant lantern was too dim to illuminate anything, so Twilight reached out with her hoof. “Is that…” Bump.

“Hrrk? What? I wasn’t sleeping, just resting my eyes!” Spike yelled that last word as Twilight snapped him up in her forelegs, clutching him close like a drowning mare who’d just found a life preserver.

“You know, Twilight, you can just ask to hug me next time. No need for the theatrics.” He dislodged his nose from her chest, rubbing it a bit. “I think you bruised my schnozz.”

The unicorn took advantage of his distraction to dry her eyes on her fur. “Sorry, Spike. I’ll make sure to get permission next time.”

“Well, it better be signed, notarized, and in triplicate,” Spike mumbled, his nose thoroughly rubbed and now nuzzled back into her fluff.

“Of course, Spike. Of course.”

The prison cell was damp and dark and cold. A unicorn’s giggle echoed off the walls.

---

Screams. Vines like knives cut through the air.

“Spike!”

“I’m over here!”

She heard his voice but saw nothing. Choking clouds steamed up from the earth, only dispersing long enough for glimpses of rotten trees and boiling sky. Still the vines whipped, lashing at her hooves.

Again, wings that were not there struggled to lift her up. Again, she failed.

“Spike!”

She saw smoke mix with the smog—good smoke, the sparkling smoke that came from Spike’s lungs. Following the trail, she cut a path through the quagmire.

The dragon found her first, jumping out of the way to avoid Twilight’s crashing hooves. “Whoa, slow down! I’m right here!” He held up his claws to stop the charging unicorn.

Twilight reared up to slow herself, the momentum of her mad dash sending ripples through the mist. Once she had calmed down, she lowered her head to Spike’s. “Where are we?” she muttered, as if the vines could hear her.

Another voice answered. “You should be able to recognize a nightmare by now, Twilight Sparkle.”

Two sets of eyes stared at the newcomer. There had only been air before, but now there stood Princess Luna, spread wings keeping the smog at bay.

“Princess?” quavered Spike. “Princess, what’s going on?”

Twilight continued his thought. “This doesn’t seem like the nightmares I usually have.” Subconsciously she drew Spike closer to herself. “And, to be honest, I’m not sure why you’re helping me with them, not with… everything that’s going on.”

Luna was impassive as always, offering only a single shake of her head and monotone response. “This is not your dream.” At a whisper from the princess, the clouds parted.

Atop a mountain of moss before them burned golden lances of light. Through the lashing vines, Spike and Twilight caught glimpses of a dirty white coat and a mane that was choked with thistles and thorns. Another lance scorched away the vines, and they saw Celestia, hooves entangled and wings bleeding from razor cuts, for a split second before the Wilder closed in around her again.

Twilight tried to call out, but the distance between them grew immeasurably vast as she spoke, and her words died in the smoke. The earth itself seemed to shift, pulling Celestia away.

“Celestia!” Spike’s cry didn’t make it, either. Already the smog was thickening. He pulled his feet free of the boggy ground to chase after her, but strong wings held him back.

“Save your strength. She has fought this nightmare many times before; believe me when I say this is by far the least severe.” Luna took a half-step forward, pushing Spike away from the struggling princess. A few golden sparks still shone through the smog, and Luna watched with tired eyes.

Twilight took her dragon’s side, her eyes ablaze as she yelled “We can’t just stand by while she’s in pain!”

“I have, for years.” Luna drew in a sharp breath, her exhalation sending spirals curling through the mist. “They torment her. Even still, she tells me to help the others, to guide the nightmares away from foals instead of saving her.” Finally she looked at Spike and Twilight. “Even if she would let me, I doubt I have the strength to deliver her from her terrors. As I said, this is the least of her nightmares.”

Vines bent away from Luna as she began to circle Twilight and Spike, the dragon now wringing his claws. “The Wilder she can fight. It hurts her, it makes her scream in the night, but it is an enemy she can face with fire and magic.”

Spike heard a muffled shout through the smog. “Uh, it doesn’t seem like she’s winning.” He wanted to run to save her, but the mists felt as impenetrable as brick walls now.

Luna shook her head slowly. “No. She does not win. But at least in this dream she does not have to see the broken bodies of her soldiers, or smell the smoke rising from ravaged villages.” Her knees wobbled a bit as she sat down. “She does not have to explain to parents why their children must go far away to fight an enemy that will not die. In that small aspect, this dream is better than her waking life.”

Twilight gathered Spike closer to her as she asked “Then why did you bring us here? If you can’t save her…”

“I can’t.” Luna stood up, her joints visibly aching from years of battle and little sleep. “You will.” Twilight looked into her eyes, deep and dark as oceans. “You will save her, or else you will fail and be lost to us again.” She traced a pattern in the muddy earth, black moss shriveling away from her hoof. “But not here. Twilight, our armies have sought for twenty-three years to destroy the source of this abomination you created. It is time for you to try.”

Twilight stepped closer. “How? If can’t help her in her dreams, I certainly can’t help her while I’m…” She glanced at Spike. “While we’re in prison.”

A strained smile crept across Luna’s face. “Twilight, you have always been exceptionally resourceful—though I do wish you had not used that skill to doom the world. You two will think of something.” The dream started to fall away from Twilight, fading as they woke. “Perhaps a gifted mare and a loyal dragon will succeed where cannons failed. Go into the darkness. Stop the Wilder.”
She turned to face them, and for a fraction of an instant her wings gathered them both into a hug. “Why else would I have placed you in the same cell?”

---

Twilight shuddered awake, memories of bladed branches clouding her thoughts. Nestled in her forelegs, Spike stirred as well.

“Ih sink…”

Twilight lifted Spike’s face out of her chest fluff so he wouldn’t be muffled.

“I think the princess just told us to pull off a jailbreak.”

Comments

[wlam]

Well, so that's the thing. The dead friends thing is actually a complete red herring. Nothing followed her friends from beyond the grave.

That's the impression I'm also getting at this point.

[Hillbe]

Plunder seeds!
Discords favorite snack!
Oh Spikey Wikey.........
No time for snacks Rarity
Main course?

cool lunch!

Can't save Equestria on an empty stomach

[Kevin Lee]

7287908
7288041
Actually, Plunder Seeds answers the question that's been bugging me the whole time with this thing. The Wilder began the moment when Twilight and Discord jumped time to get the energy to resurrect her friends--but unless Effect ceased to follow Cause due to it "being Discord"--after all, the Necromancy spell wasn't successful until AFTER they reappeared in the time/space--

The only other explanation is that Discord had been eating the vines and seeds to keep their numbers down all this time, and only by stepping out of the time-line did they grow again without him to keep in check.

[Meta Knight]

7287908 I agree it's just way too convenient not to be a red herring

[ferret]

Welp, orders are orders.

"Halt, in the name of the princesses!"
"No, in the name of the princesses!"

[somatic]

7509408 Yeah, I made sure to mention that in the author's notes. Spike isn't the best at medical care.