A Different World: The Future and Fate of Equestria

by Riclo

Chapter 26 | Pent

I spent the rest of the day trotting around the entirety of the badlands, where I took a look at everything since I wasn't exactly sure if and when I would ever be here again. It was at least something to take my mind off of everything else that was happening, although I still couldn't completely get rid of that feeling of looming doom. I could only hope that I was wrong about just how dangerous Tartarus was.

At the moment it was dark out - night time was here and those who weren't sleeping were on the lookout, posted along the red mountains that surrounded this place. The room I was staying in for the night was very well decorated, fitted with all sorts of golden borders and shiny jewels everywhere. Most of the rooms in this fortress seemed to be like this, and I rolled over in my bed as I stared blankly at the ceiling.

'I wonder what Celestia and the others are doing right now...' I sighed, rolling onto my side and nuzzling into my pillow. Even though I wasn't exactly tired, I found myself drifting off to sleep anyway simply out of being lost in my own thoughts.

---

The sound of a low-pitched bell loudly ringing from the outside abruptly woke me up, followed by a sinking feeling in my stomach. That sound definitely couldn't have been anything good, and after a few seconds I slowly sat up from my bed.

'They're here, aren't they?' I stood up and walked over to one of the glass-less windows. It was still dark out, and I couldn't really see much - but I could hear it. The sounds of hasty footsteps as well as the voices of orders being given out. I had no doubt in my mind anymore that the monsters from Tartarus were here.

I backed away from the window, looking around at my room and then beginning to pace back and forth. What was I even able to do? It wasn't like I could help that much - my horn was still cracked, and I knew from experience how useless I was without magic. I would probably just get in the way if I tried to help. I hated the idea of just standing in here doing nothing though, to which I eventually decided that taking a better look at things couldn't have been a bad idea, right?

I made my way over to the open passage-way out of my room; if there was one thing I quickly learned about this place, it was that doors didn't seem to exist. After a quick look back and forth, I saw that the hallway just outside my room appeared to be empty, so I stepped all the way out and slowly began making my way through. Aside from the bell ringing and the rustling outside, it was surprisingly quiet inside the fortress itself - I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I trotted as far as the hallway extended before it changed directions, and upon turning, the first thing I saw down the other direction was Trixie. Normally I would've been annoyed, but I was too stressed out from the current situation to really care about my gripes with her.

"Have you been outside Trixie?" I asked as I began making my way over to her.

"No." She replied simply at first before continuing. Closer inspection showed that she was still half-asleep. "Do you know why this annoying bell is going off in the middle of the night?"

"I think we're being attacked. By Tartarus no doubt." I replied. "When I looked out my window it sounded like they were getting ready for a battle."

"Oh." Trixie blinked. "Well let's go outside then."

Although still a little hesitant, I abided, trotting with the mare across the lengths of the fortress. It didn't take much longer before we reached the entrance, and upon stepping outside, I saw that it was at least a little bright outside. My guess was that it was very early in the morning - too early for there to be light, but late enough for it not to be pitch black. We trotted further out, where in the darkness we could see the outlines of bipedal creatures marching around - they had to have been the dragons that lived here. It was during my observing that I suddenly noticed King Ralphis himself walking right by us, as well as a few higher ranking-looking dragons surrounding him. At first glance he seemed very pre-occupied, so I opted not to bother him, but Trixie had other plans.

"King Ralphis!" The pony called out, trotting up closer to the king as he turned his attention to her. "Are you going off to battle? Don't forget to bring Trixie - she will be of great help!"

'What in the world is she doing?' I started frowning already. Was this pony out of her mind? "Trixie, what are you doing? It's way too dangerous for somepony like you - you should already know how dangerous these monsters are!"

"Are you going to deny her a chance to prove herself in battle?" Ralphis responded. I was taken back at his reply, to which I really wasn't that ready for an answer.

"I.. well.. no... but-"

"You should go back inside. You're in no condition to fight." The king interrupted, before continuing on with Trixie and his other soldiers. I could already feel myself fuming with rage as he walked off just like that - telling me to go inside and then bringing that entitled abomination Trixie with her.

'..Are you KIDDING ME!? That stupid, smug, egotistical mare - she doesn't know what she's getting into!' I slammed my hooves against the ground. 'I can't believe he's letting her do that! She's going to get herself killed out there - does he not realize that? UGH!' I kicked a nearby rock as hard as I could, sending it zooming out of the fortress and onto the grounds below. 'There has to be something I can do. There's always something I can do, right? There always is! That's how it's always been!' I huffed out and began making my way down the stairs to the ground below. Aside from the dragons hurrying about, I noticed the civilian camp off in the distance, to which a light bulb went off in my head - maybe they could all use my help! I quickly began to run over there, barely not bumping into any of the scurrying dragons during my sprint. Upon getting closer, I noticed that there were a few royal guards there directing orders, so I trotted up to them.

"Do you need me for anything?" I asked, catching their attention. They looked at me for a few seconds in silence before responding.

"Aren't you the captain's sister?" One of them replied.

"I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be resting in the fortress." Another exclaimed. Before I could say anything back though, the voice of exactly who they were talking about rang out - my brother's.

"Twilight! What are you doing here?" He asked, appearing mostly confused by my presence.

"I'm helping." I answered simply.

"Twilight, if there's anything you can do, somebody else can do it. You need to go back and-"

"No! I'm not sitting in that fortress doing nothing while you all are fighting to protect us." I interrupted, and probably more harshly than I intended. "I'm going to be here with everypony else."

Shining hesitated his reply, looking as if he didn't seem to know what to say. Before he was ever able to get a response though, several loud shouts coming from the tops of the surrounding mountains caught our attention.

"Incoming!!!"

With our senses alerted, we began to look around, confused at first until we saw large, black winged creatures flying in from above the mountain range. They looked dinosauric, where the first word to come to my mind in reference to their name was pterodactyls. They swooped down towards us at speeds on par with Rainbow Dash, where the first few of them violently penetrated a couple civilians and then flew off with them.

"Guard up!!! Watch the sky!" Shining shouted out. The other surrounding guard's horns began to glow, creating rounded blue shields that deflected the swooping monsters straight into the ground. From there the non-unicorns guards went in and stabbed the demons with their spears, killing them all while their large beaks were stuck in the soil. I quickly noticed though that the glowing horns of the unicorns were spazzing out slightly - that must've been the effect of the grey clouds that I had hypothesized. Whenever these monsters got close, our magic seemed to stop working, and it seemed as though it was going to be the same case here. There were alot more flying monsters than unicorn guards able to put up shields though, so they were still picking off untrained civilians and horribly murdering them. The sight of it was making me feel sick.

"We have to group up!! Don't let them catch you on your own!" Shining yelled. Most of the civilians were panicking and bumping into each other though, and the sudden anguished scream of a foal being bitten nearly in half made my heart wrench. I had to be able to do something - that was the entire reason I came out here. I couldn't stand for this madness, and the sight of a random pony struggling to fight against a pterodactyl's fiercely biting beak was enough to throw me over the edge.

"They're everywhere!" One of the guards yelled out. With my mind foggy with rage, I closed my eyes and began to use my magic; I knew how much I shouldn't have, but I couldn't possibly care any less at this moment - I had enough. I was immediately met with sharp, piercing pain coming from my head, but I still didn't care - I had to fix this.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed out as a violent blast of magic shot out. The shock-wave was enough to paralyze all of the flying demons, causing them to fall to the ground and be much easier to kill. The pain that I felt in my horn right afterwards though felt like a sharp knife penetrating right through my skull. It was so painful that it left me debilitated and falling to the ground, where I let out an ear-deafening shriek of anguish. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Twilight!!" Shining called out, but I was too much in shock to even comprehend him or anything around me - I had never felt so much pain in my entire life. My entire body trembled as I barely focused enough to cover my horn with my fore-hooves, but it was useless. I felt as if a thousand migraines had gone off at once.

"I.. I-I just wanted to help.." Tears began to well up in my eyes as I felt myself being helped up back onto my hooves. I blinked and tried to focus on my brother; the pain had dulled a little bit and wasn't as debilitating, but it was still bad enough to make me want to hide away in misery. My brother shook his head as he looked at me, appearing deeply concerned and even worried as he turned to look at some nearby guards.

"You two, get over here and escort this mare back to the fortress. Get on it, RIGHT NOW!!"

"Yes sir!" They replied. I sobbed as I looked at the guards approaching me through my watery vision; I had never felt so useless in my entire life, and I hated it more than anything. The two ushered me along until I had composed enough to walk on my own, and then they continued to help me across. We only made it about half-way, however, when I saw the guard to my right suddenly being taken off the ground. I abruptly stopped my walk as I observed some kind of big winged demon land in-front of us with the guard right in his hands: it looked like a minotaur, only skinnier and with wings. I gasped when he threw the pony towards us, directly hitting the other guard to my left as they both skidded across the ground.

"Ahh!" I backed away from the monster, but its movements were hasty - it was already charging towards me. My first reflex was to use my magic again, but I hesitated - I didn't ever want to go through that kind of pain again. I merely stood there frozen in fear, feeling so angry yet so helpless at the same time; it was at this moment that something rammed into the beast from the side. I stood and watched as it roared, reaching its arms behind its back and then flapping its wings to lift itself into the air. It only made it several feet though before a loud and distinct slicing sound was heard, to which it glided down and crashed into the ground afterwards. More slicing was heard, to which my shocked expression soon turned disgusted as I watched its head being cut off. The bipedal dragon that was behind it then kicked the decapitated head like a rock, and upon stepping forward, I saw that it was King Ralphis that had just brutally murdered that monster.

"What are you doing here? I told you to go back inside." He spoke up, directing his attention at me.

"I-I.. I just wanted to help.." I muttered, still in shock from the previous pain and from what I had just witnessed. He was already on the move before saying anything else, picking me right up and then leaping towards the fortress. His surprisingly quick speed brought us both to the building in only seconds, where he dropped me off in a rather un-gentle manner.

"You almost died. Don't do it again." He exclaimed. After that, he was back to running off into battle, jumping around like a crazy person and killing pterodactyls right out of the sky by either throwing blades at them or jumping right onto them mid-flight. I watched in awe at his unexpected display of skill, and then shook my head, forcing myself to stop watching so that I could step back inside the fortress where it was safer.

"Maybe we'll be fine... Why did I even go out there anyway? Gosh I'm so stupid." I really wasn't even in the right mindset to go on a huge mental rant over all the things I thought I did wrong though. I had broken down crying right in-front of my brother and around everyone else out there, and the amount of hate I had for myself at the moment was just too much for me to bother with. I trotted through the hallways until I made it back to my room, slamming the door closed and sobbing.

"Why am I Celestia's student?" I paced back and forth in my room, barely able to form any coherent arguments for myself until I eventually just substituted to sitting down on my bed. I couldn't even remember the last time I had felt normal - it was as if this madness had been going on forever. I couldn't even remember what it felt like to be normal anymore. I thought everything I was doing was just a temporary way of coping, but with it going on for so long now, I began to wonder if this is who I really was - if this was going to be the new 'normal' for me from now. I shook my head and slammed my hoof against the covers, laying down on my side and then restlessly moving over onto my back. I really hoped that wasn't true because this was not a good mindset to be in. I kept making mistakes left and right, and I still was - I had just made one only minutes ago by getting irrationally angry and charging out there. It made me feel horrible and I was so sick of it.

"Please tell me this is going to be over soon. I just want to back in Ponyville with nothing going wrong... Is that even possible anymore? Will I ever even see my friends again?" I felt intense sadness at that last thought, and I rolled back over to my side, staring blankly at the wall in-front of me. "I have to... there's no way I'd never actually see them again, right? That can't be true. This will be all over soon.. it will definitely all be over soon."

Author's Note:

The writers block for this chapter was extremely intense

Also, the story's over 100k words now, which is really nice but there's still barely anyone commenting. It's like this story is isolated and I'm just here updating by myself for myself, which is literally what it's turned into: I made this sequel for the older readers from 2013-2014 over on fanfiction.net, but 98% of them either don't exist or don't care anymore and it's safe to say I did a bad job getting new readers. Updating this is just a chore as it has been for a couple months now, and I'm still adding new chapters solely because I don't want this to cut off abruptly because I hate that kind of incompleted shit - there's nothing more annoying than a nice story that's never finished.

I know that part of the reason there's so few readers is the first couple chapters - the stats show a massive dropoff and I can understand that because who wants to read that shit? It's literally just Twilight moping over some human oc that she's in love with and to people who don't know the context (so basically every reader here) it's just an extreme turn off, and I'd do the same thing too - I wouldn't read through that crap. I'm planning on going back and changing the first two chapters up a bit, but at this point it's probably too late. Oh well