A Disparate Bond

by the7Saviors

A Monster in the Dark

Twilight didn't know where she was going, but at that moment, it didn't matter.

The only thing that mattered to the filly was fixing the damage Starlight's words had caused. She had almost missed the odd looking colt as he dashed away, but soon caught sight of him once more as she turned another corner.

The corridors she chased the colt down seemed to get darker and darker, as she went along, but that could've just been her imagination.

Still, despite the growing unease caused by her surroundings, she continued onward. The look on the colt's face as he fled was still fresh in her mind, and it pushed her to follow after, and call out to the colt.

She called out again and again, but there was no response. She galloped as fast as she could, but the dark colt always seemed to be one more step ahead of her.

Eventually she turned one last corner and hit a dead end. The colt had stopped running and now stood with his back against a dark stone wall.

There didn't seem to be any doors down this way, and as tired as she was, Twilight couldn't help but be glad for that. She stumbled to a stop a short distance from the cowering colt, but said nothing.

She stood there with her head drooping and her chest heaving as she struggled to catch her breath. After a few moments she had recovered enough to speak once more.

"You... I... I'm sorry... gimme a minute," Twilight panted, "you're... really fast."

She went quite for a moment and just focused on her breathing. After that moment had passed, she looked back up at the colt and found that he was still pressed up against the wall.

"Hey... don't be afraid," she said, giving him a reassuring smile, "I'm sorry about what Starlight said. She's just... wary about strangers, and... well... we've never seen any th—ah... anypony, like you before."

She winced at her slip, but the colt didn't seem to notice. In fact, Twilight saw that the colt wasn't even looking in her direction.

Instead, the colt sat on his haunches, staring up at the ceiling above him. His small leathery wings and odd fluffy ears twitched nervously and his Twilight was given the impression that he was waiting for something.

"Um... what are you doing?" Twilight asked, following his gaze and seeing nothing of note other than a high stone ceiling, "what's up there?"

"I-It's like I... like I s-said, before," the colt replied, lowering his gaze and looking around the hall with worried eyes, "you... y-you two shouldn't be here..."

"I'm sorry if we're trespassing, but Starlight and I don't really know how we got here," Twilight replied, taking an unsure step forward, "why shouldn't we be here though? What's—"

A distant shriek of terror from back where they had come, caused Twilight's ears to perk up and her eyes to widen.

"W-What was that?" she asked, her head snapping in the direction of the voice, "wait... was that... Starlight?!"

"Oh no..." Twilight heard the colt mutter weakly, "I told you... I told you both you shouldn't be here. You shouldn't have followed me, you should've left like your friend wanted..."

But Twilight wasn't listening anymore, all of her attention was focused on Starlight and the rising guilt she felt for leaving her behind all alone in this creepy place.

"Starlight?" she cried, moving a few steps forward before taking off in another full gallop down the hall, "STARLIGHT, I'M COMING! HANG ON!"

The colt watched her go with sad eyes, knowing full well what would happen next. After a few seconds he bit his lip and turned away... only to look back at Twilight's retreating form.

She rounded a corner and the colt lost sight of her. As her hoofsteps grew more distant, the colt was seized by a sudden urge to make sure she and the other filly were okay.

The urge was so strong, that he found himself taking a step forward before he even realized it. He paused for a moment, shocked at his own actions, but another moment later, he took another step.

He had listened when the filly said that they had arrived here by mistake. He knew they didn't deserve to die for such an accident, and despite the other filly's harsh words, he didn't want to see her suffer either.

With some effort on his part, he grit his teeth, gave a small half groan, half whimper of resignation, and took off after the other two fillies.

---

Starlight was completely and utterly lost.

Both she and Twilight had already been lost before, but now Starlight was wandering alone in these dark spooky corridors. She had lost Twilight's trail a bit ago, and was now creeping as quietly as she could around the halls, her eyes frantically twitching this way and that.

She jumped at shadows and 'eep'd' at every little noise that echoed in the dimly lit corridors she unwillingly explored. Why was it so quiet? Just where in Tartarus was everypony? Would she run into more of those creepy bat ponies if she stayed here?

All these questions and more went unanswered as Starlight made her way down yet another empty, silent, barren corridor. With each empty hallway she trotted down she cursed her own stupidity and if she ever managed to get out of here, she'd—

A low growl emanating from somewhere ahead of Starlight made her freeze, wide terrified eyes locked on the long corridor before her. She could see sunlight reflected off a distant wall where the long hall turned sharply to the left. Another low, deep growl had her shivering, and her own body fought against her as she tried to turn back the other way.

She didn't know what was around that distant corner, but she really didn't want to find out. Unfortunately her shaking legs wouldn't cooperate, and so she remained frozen where she was.

Then she heard the heavy thud of footfalls echoing down the hall from up ahead. Judging by how they seemed to get a little louder with each repetition, whatever they belonged to was getting closer.

And whatever this thing was... it was big.

A quiet whimper escaped Starlight's lips as she saw the shadow of something decidedly not equine pass over the distant wall.

A moment later she saw it.

First came the jet black snout full of countless dagger-like teeth dripping with saliva. Then came the rest of the head. It was clearly leonine with brilliant golden, intelligent, and predatory eyes, a wild, tangled mane of pure white. Then she saw its legs, juest as dark as the fur about its face and thick with muscle.

And finally, as it turned the corner, she could see the rest of the creature.

Starlight had never seen a manticore before, but she had read about them. They were supposed to be giant lions with bat-like wings and a massive poisonous scorpion tail.

She had seen pictures of what they looked like, and while they were certainly scary, they were nothing Starlight had to worry about. After all, they were a breed of creature that only existed within some of the more dangerous forests of Equestria proper, not the desert in the Land Beyond.

Oh how wrong she had been.

This creature, this monster, may not have looked exactly like the manticores she'd seen in books, but there was no doubt that it was a manticore all the same.

Unlike the manticores in her books, this one had a black coat, white mane, leathery blood red wings, and a dark grey scorpion tail. One would think that such a large creature as a manticore would have trouble navigating the rather enclosed space of a Fortress corridor.

To Starlight's dismay however, the corridor in question was just large enough to comfortably fit the beasts bulky muscular frame, provided it kept its wings folded. The petrified filly didn't question why the manticore looked different. She didn't question where it had come from or even why it was here.

In that moment, when the manticore turned the corner and locked eyes with the filly, nothing else mattered but the almost painful beating of her heart against her chest and the hunger in the beast's eyes.

It was Starlight that screamed first.

The spell broke, and the filly turned and sped off in the other direction as fast as her little legs could carry her. The manticore stared after the filly for a moment, silent save for another low growl.

Rather than let out a deafening roar as any other manticore would do, it bounded after Starlight quickly and quietly—the only sound to be heard from it being the heavy thud of its massive paws as they hit the ground.

It knew the prey before it wouldn't last long, and was in no rush to see the hunt end. And so it followed after the small filly at its own pace, content to corner its meal when it was at its weakest and most exhausted.

Just because it was hungry didn't mean the manticore couldn't have a little fun in the meantime.

---

Tired though she was, Twilight didn't stop, and another cry from somewhere to her left spurred her onwards through hallway after hallway. Her fur became matted with sweat and her breaths came in short, panicked gasps, but she pushed herself forward, desperate to find Starlight at any cost.

As she galloped down more corridors, she would stop every so often to listen for her friend, who would oblige with another wordless cry or shout for help. It took several moments for the lavender filly to realize that Starlight's cries had stopped altogether, but she didn't stop searching.

The silence only made her panic more, and tears began to form in her eyes as she thought about what kind of horrible fate Starlight had been subjected to.

And it was all because Twilight herself had abandoned—

"Twilight!"

The sudden call of her own name made her scramble to a stop and she whipped around to see, the very filly she'd been looking for galloping towards her. Twilight's heart soared at the sight of her friend and she was about to call back when she noticed the look on Starlight's face.

Her eyes were wild with fear and she was galloping towards Twilight like her very life depended on it. Seeing that caused Twilight's own prior panic and fear to return, and it tripled when she saw the titanic frame of a manticore round the corner after the pink filly.

Any fatigue Twilight felt right then was washed away in a flood of adrenaline as she turned and galloped the other way, Starlight right behind her. Images of a dream thought forgotten rose to the surface of Twilight's mind as she galloped away from the manticore.

The horror of running away from something she couldn't fathom and the despair of never being able to escape no matter how fast or how long she galloped clouded her thoughts.

That was when she felt it.

Something was building deep within the filly's wellspring... something dark and born of the desperate fear and horror of her dire situation. It boiled and bubbled as it rose from the depths of her being and practically burned as it made its way to the tip of her horn.

A thick, viscous, bubbling aura as black as midnight enveloped the appendage and Twilight found her fear, panic, and despair twisted into a sudden and violent rage.

Already desperate for a way out of her predicament, she didn't fight it. She embraced the sudden influx of power and with a snarl, she skidded to a stop and turned to face her and Starlight's pursuer.

The sudden chill of raw Dark Magic cut through the haze of fear clouding Starlight's mind and she stumbled to a stop just as she passed Twilight.

"Twilight, what are you—"

Once she noticed that Twilight hadn't followed after her, she turned to call back to the filly. Her words however, died in her throat when she actually saw Twilight.

Even with her back turned to Starlight and her front facing the incoming manticore, Starlight could tell there was something very wrong with the lavender filly. Whatever was going on with Twilight was alarming enough for Starlight to completely forget about the dangerous beast for a moment.

"Twilight?"

Twilight didn't respond, her attention and ire fully focused on the manticore, who had begun to slow to a stop, sensing that something had changed, and not for the better.

Before either the black manticore or Starlight had a chance to realize what was happening, Twilight let out a furious shriek that echoed and distorted with the power being forced through her horn.

In the blink of an eye, the corridor before Twilight filled with countless spires of black crystal. The razor sharp crystal jutted from the floor, the walls, and the ceiling.

Several of them cut into and through the giant beast like burning ebony knives through so much butter. The manticore died instantly, a spike of crystal having pierced through its lower jaw and out the top of its head.

There was no struggle, there was no roar of agony, there was no escape. The force of the spires that shot up from beneath the manticore left it partially suspended in the air.

It was all over in a matter of seconds.

To Starlight, it felt like everything had happened in slow motion, and the only thing she could do was stare, wide-eyed and mouth agape at the sudden violence. A sick groan snapped her out of her daze and she turned her attention towards Twilight. She could see the other filly visibly struggle to keep herself standing.

"Twilight!" Starlight cried, the mix of emotions she was experience momentarily being overriden by worry, "Twilight are you okay? Twilight!"

As Starlight got closer, Twilight finally turned to look back at her. A familiar and unpleasant sight greeted the pink filly—eyes she had only seen once before from a certain dark stallion they had both met not so long ago.

Crimson and Jade colored eyes ringed with violet mist and pouring tears of fear, terror, and confusion met Starlight's own scared cerulean eyes.

"S... Starlight?" Twilight muttered groggily, "What's going on? What did I do?"

Starlight didn't have an answer.

Academically, she knew what had happened, but at that moment, she couldn't put it into words. Twilight didn't seem to expect an answer, as she once more slowly turned back to the very dead manticore before her.

"I killed it... it's dead, Starlight..." Twilight mumbled tonelessly after a silent moment, "it's dead and I killed it. I... I killed..."

Somewhere far away, Starlight call out Twilight's name, but the other filly's voice went unheard as the memory of what she had done played itself over and over again. The violet mist around her eyes gradually dissipated and her eyes themselves returned to their normal amethyst hue, but Twilight took no notice.

She simply sat there, blind and deaf to everything but the bloody, punctured mass of fur and flesh in front of her. If she listened hard enough, she could still hear how the crystals sang out in joy as they pierced the beast's flesh.

She could still feel how her own heart had done the same as she watched it happen.

Comments

[kitsune_shadow]

so early and without training, already playing in powers like the ones of shadow?
twin and actually a ubrum or ubrum part right?

[Chillean]

That was quick..
How did that thing get into the corridors? Hope it wasn't someone's pet

[the7Saviors]

9195092
Dark Magic can have a nasty habit of sneaking up on you when you least expect it, and when you have an affinity for it like Twilight does, well...

[The Cynical One]

9194991
So Twilight, Twilight, and Twilight all walk into a bar...

[the7Saviors]

9196767
...and meet Twilight, Twilight, Twilight, and Twilight.

Insanity ensues.

[The Cynical One]

9196787
The Twilight 6! (Now with their sidekick Twilight!)

[the7Saviors]

9196858
Ha! It's funny because I actually mean to create this massive meeting of Twilights at some point in the future.