This is War

by Script Singer

(1) Nightmares

Twilight, Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Crystal Mane ran as fast as they could, explosions igniting behind them. Twilight panted hard, refusing to let herself stop in risk of putting not only herself at risk but the others.

"We have to find shelter!" Luna yelled over the loud explosions.

Suddenly out of nowhere, darkness filled their vision as the explosions stopped. The ponies stopped running, looking around confused. A loud thundering boom roared in the air. Twilight felt herself falling and hitting the ground. She let out a grunt from the impact. She could hear the others falling as well. Twilight shook her head as she regained her senses. "Is everyone alright?" she asked as she sat herself up.

"Princesses, where are you?" Crystal yelled looking around.

"Crystal Mane?" Twilight uttered. "I can't see anything, anyone else has any luck?"

"What's going on, where are we?" Cadence asked.

The ponies kept talking over each other, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Everypony, calm down. We'll be fine," Celestia said. "We just need to-”

Twilight heard a sudden loud scream from Cadence. She turned toward the sound but only saw darkness. "Cadence, what happened?" Twilight said. She couldn't hear her voice.

"Sister, what's happening?" Luna asked.

Twilight regained her vision slightly, finding Cadence a few feet in front of her. She ran up to her, but stopped once she saw what laid before her.

Cadence laid on the ground motionless, her eyes rolled into the back of her head as slight blood dripped from her mouth. Twilight stood motionless, horrified at the sight.

"I don't know Luna," Celestia said. "But we-" She stopped speaking as a sudden pain emerged inside of her body causing her to scream out in pain, Luna following. Twilight's vision disappeared once more, then returned after a few moments, showing all three of the princesses laying dead on the ground.

"No!" Twilight gasped in horror. She brought her hooves to her head, trying to control her thoughts.

Suddenly, bodies of ponies she knew appeared around Twilight, lying motionless on the ground. She stared in horror as memories flooded back into her mind. Voices echoed through her head.

You could have saved them, Princess... A voice echoed.

Twilight shook her head. "It wasn't my fault!" She cried. "I... I..."

They died because of you...

Suddenly, the bodies crawled over to her, grabbing Twilight on her hooves. She pulled away frantically and ran as fast as her hooves could go. The bodies chased after her, screaming and crying out, reaching for her once more. One managed to grab her tail, causing her to scream out in pain. She fell to the ground, tripping as the bodies crawled on top of her, holding her down tight.

"You could have saved us......"

"NO!" Twilight screamed as she felt herself being dragged into the ground. Her vision grew black, and everything went cold...

---

Twilight woke up in shock, panting hard as sweat dripped down her head. Her heart pounded against her chest. She stared over at her nieces' side, sleeping soundly. Twilight took a deep breath as she slowly exhaled.

"Another dream..." Twilight thought. She let out another deep breath as she got out of her bed to go take a walk and clear her mind.

She opened the door slowly, trying not to wake the young filly from her slumber, closing it behind her. She walked out into the hall, taking slow steps to pace herself. She tried to process what was in her dream, why it felt so real... Who were the ponies that were in the dream, what it might have meant? Was it some sort of sign?

Suddenly, she thought she heard a voice, causing her to turn around, but saw nothing, so she continued walking. The voice grew slightly louder as whispers filled her ears.

Her breath slowed down as she felt her vision doubling. She thought she saw her brother Shining Armor standing in front of her, but she shut her eyes for a moment and gently shook her head to regain her vision. The form before her kept changing into other ponies she knew and had lost.

“What’s happening…?” Twilight muttered. “My head…”

She leaned up against the wall as a loud ringing noise rang through her head. She sat down and brought a hoof to her head, groaning softly.

The ringing grew louder as her vision continued blurring. She tried to focus her vision, figure out who was the pony standing in front of her. She shut her eyes once more as the ringing grew louder. She kept mumbling to herself as her breathing grew faster and ringing continued, voices whispering in her head, repeating things from her dream. She opened her eyes, finding the image forming into Chrysalis, but then faded suddenly.

Twilight opened her eyes wide as she tried to process everything, but the image of the creatures dragging her back into the darkness filled her mind, causing her body to grow weaker as if she was being pulled down back into darkness.

Finally out of exhaustion, Twilight shut her tired eyes and laid down onto the floor as a soft chuckle echoed through her head.

She became unconscious as she heard the soft hoofsteps echo through the hall.

Author's Note:

Okay yes, it's a little short as well... I'm getting there, kay? It's hard to explain but I'm trying to work on the build up. I also have the next few chapters already written, just need to edit them a bit before they're published. Also, might just wait to post them just to make you wait on the edge of your seat...