What happened to my friends

by bryonyTheWolf

WHTMF chapter 5 - part 1

This chapter is a lot longer than I would have liked.
So I am releasing it in parts. This is part 1, the rest will be in part 2.

Twilight took a moment to look at the door. It was different from the others. The others she had encountered so far were made of crystal. Or something shimmering. This door was made of wood. With dyed wood nailed into it to make Fluttershy’s cutie mark.

The alicorn wasn't sure why. But seeing such a huge difference, before even entering the next room, made her feel uneasy. Her wings ruffled softly and her legs wobbled a bit below her, as she pressed her hoof against the door, attempting to open it. The wood was damp and swollen, and it creaked loudly as Twilight tried to pry the door from the frame, but the swollen wood had forced the door shut.

Twilight tried using her magic to open it. She tried bucking, headbutting, ramming it. But nothing made the door open. With a loud groan, Twilight opened her wings in frustration and a loud, intercom-like voice, suddenly echoed from somewhere inside the pillar.
It spoke in a low, grumbly voice: “Alicorn… confirmed…”
And the door slowly opened with a systematic hiss.

Slowly closing her wings, twilight hesitantly walked through the door, looking around at the room. The door opened inward as Twilight stepped in, and she checked the other side. Only to find a complete lack of mechanics, pipes or cogs to get the door to work as intended.

This only added to Twilight’s confusion, before she saw the room she had stepped into. It was the upper floor of the apple family barn. But something felt off….
The colours of the walls and support beams were not right, the floorboards were a different type of wood to Applejack’s home. It almost felt like some kind of mirror dimension.

As she explored the upper floor of this barn, she went to where the stairs WOULD be, only to be greeted with a flat wooden floor.
“Right, well it looks like I'm limited to upstairs…” Twilight mumbled to herself. Slowly turning around and taking in her surroundings. There were 3 doors in this hallway. Most Likely the bedrooms of Applejack, Big Mac and Applebloom.

She decided to slowly make her way toward Applejack’s bedroom door, turning the handle with a soft click, and the door opened, without making a single sound. But then she realised this room was slightly wrong too. Looking around the room, she noticed a window, looking out to… Applejack’s barn?

She then looked closer at the decorations on the walls and support beams.
“Pears?!” Twilight exclaimed, her eyes widening. She was in the barn of the neighbouring farm, the Pear family!
But why? She barely knew the pears aside from their rivalry with Applejack’s family.
She spun around in small circles, looking around the room as she tried to figure out what was going on.
Why would she be here of all places? Why wouldn't she be in an area connected to her friends? And where was the glass box?!

But then a small glimmer caught her eye, from outside of the window.
She walked over slowly, and looked over at the Apple Farm once more, something was shimmering against one of the trees. As if the moon itself was trying to guide her along the path of discovery.

Twilight squinted her eyes a bit, trying to make out what the gleaming item was, but it proved to be fruitless, and Twilight attempted to climb out of the window.
Given how there were no stairs, what other choice did she have?

Climbing onto the windowsill, she spread her wings and took flight briefly. Twilight moved slowly through the air, unsure if this was the right direction to go in. Nothing tried to stop her flight, nothing tried to pull her back to the Pear barn. She made a rather smooth trip from the Pear Barn to the Apple Farm’s archway entrance.

Looking at the trees on the way to the barn, she spied the glass box, bolted to one of the trees. It glistened in the moonlight, almost as if it had been freshly polished. Looking into her saddle bag, she saw that the item she had to represent Fluttershy, was a pastel pink hair clip with a light blue flower on the end. She laid it on the bottom of the box, closing the front, and saw the hole for her horn open up.

Remembering what Rarity said to her, she couldn't help but nervously look around at her surroundings. She’s fully out in the open as she sees this flashback, and now she knew she could be open for any kind of attack, and not realise until it was too late…

Giving a small sigh, calming her nerves, Twilight slowly lowered her horn into the hole of the box, letting the white magic flow into her head. Her eyes slowly glowing a bright blue.

She soon saw the point of view, of Fluttershy. But her vision was blurry. She was crying. Tears dripped down Flutterhy’s face as she looked at Pinkie Pie who was sat in front of her, a concerned look on her face.

“P-Pinkie what do we do? Everypony has gone missing! We’re the last ones left! Twilight has sent her entire royal guard to look for us! Celestia and Luna have come out of retirement to help find them, and even Discord has been dimension jumping to find our friends… Noone has found them!”

Fluttershy spoke in a panicked tone, shaking and her voice wavering as she tried to get her words out to her Pink party pony friend.
Fluttershy’s ears were folded flat against her head, her mane was a mess and she had rather big bags under her eyes from lack of sleep, each night was spent wide awake, worrying that she might be next.

Pinkie Pie tried to reassure Fluttershy that she would be ok,and that everyone is doing everything they can to help.

“How can you be so sure Pinkie!? Even trixie and Starlight Glimmer have gone missing! And so many strange things have been happening since our friends began vanishing! The mirror to other worlds has been open for the last few months. Changelings have been flickering between reformed and evil, The yaks in YakYakistan have suddenly migrated to somewhere we can't find them! It's all just so much chaos!”
Fluttershy was shouting at this point, her body shaking, and more tears flowed down her face.

“Fluttershy… I know you’re scared… And i agree, a lot of strange things have been happening. But there isn't much else we can do aside from wait for results. Listen.. Spike gave me a scroll from Princess Cadance the other day, telling us that SHE and Shining armour will be sending guards from their army to help look for them, as well as the… Many other ponies that have gone missing. Everyone in Equestria is trying to help. The best we can do is just try to keep our chins up and hope they’re at least ok.”

Pinkie Pie explained all of this to fluttershy, but she too was nervous. She was trying her hardest to keep a smile on her face with everything going on, but was struggling to keep herself together, and her mane was visibly shuddering as she tried to stop it from deflating.

The yellow Pegasus took a deep breath to try and piece herself together. Looking up at Pinkie and giving a soft smile. Pinkie was right, they couldn't do much else aside from double check places where guards have searched. But then Fluttershy looked up at Twilight’s crystal castle.

Fluttershy then furrowed her brow and slowly turned to Pinkie
“Now that i think about it… When Rainbow went missing, we saw somepony or… something pull her into Twilight’s old castle! Maybe the castle has something to do with it.”
Fluttershy suggested, slowly getting up and looking at Pinkie, who had the same curious look on her face.

”How about we go and see what’s going on in the castle? Maybe it can give a few answers to where everypony is vanishing to.”

“You know, there's no harm in trying! I mean, none of the guards have done it, unless the castle has become super super sacred, and they can't walk on it.”

Pinkie responded, her face contorting in confusion as to why none of the guards that were littering Ponyville, have gone into Twilight’s old castle to investigate the disappearances.

Fluttershy and Pinkie gave each other a determined nod, before making their way up the castle’s stairs, and toward the entrance. Just like every other time, the doors opened with ease, to show the inside being pristine, untouched by time.

“You know, it feels pretty strange how the castle is still super sparkly after all this time.” Pinkie commented as they walked deeper into the castle’s main hallway.

Fluttershy nodded in agreement as they looked around. They took their time investigating each room. Starting at the front of the castle, where the kitchen and library was, and slowly making their way back into the map room.

It took a good few hours of searching for answers before they reached the map room, and when they entered, they both got a similar feeling that something was…

”odd…” Pinkie started, mumbling to herself as the 2 walked into the room. Chills ran up their spines and their fur stood on end, as they had a strange feeling that they were being watched. The 2 ponies constantly checked over their shoulders

After a beat of silence, Fluttershy drew her attention to the map on the table. Noticing something in the middle of the table, where the map of Equestria once stood proud.
“Pinkie? Isnt this a photo of us?” Fluttershy commented, with a curious but nervous tone.

The item in the middle of the table was in fact the framed photo of their friends. The exact same one Twilight found when she first arrived here. Only difference is; Fluttershy and PinkiePie hadnt been crossed out yet…

The 2 ponies exchanged a worried look, and took a mental note to return here, before leaving the room to continue their search, only to find the door to the pillar being wide open.

“Was that always open?”

“Iiiii’m not sure Fluttershy, do you still want to check it out?”
Pinkie responded with a cautious tone, doubled with a worried look in her eye.
The yellow pegasus thought it over for a moment, before giving a nod.

“We haven't found very much here aside from that photo. THeres no harm checking here as well. I want to check this castle top to bottom for our friends. If the guards aren't coming. We need to be as thorough as possible!” Fluttershy stated. Her voice slowly became more confident and determined as she spoke. Before trotting forward into the pillar's entrance, swiftly followed by a still worried Pinkie.

Though when they entered, there were no stairs, and the roof was very low down, and they were greeted with the wooden door Twilight struggled to open before. For them, it opened with ease, and the 2 of them went inside.

Before the flashback came to a close, Twilight’s vision suddenly left Fluttershy’s point of view, and rushed back to the map room, focusing in on the photo. As 2 big red cross marks appeared over Fluttershy and Pinkie’s faces.

Twilight yanked her horn out of the box with a gasp. Her breathing heavy and her wings spread in a defensive position.
“That… They… They came here on their own… Nothing drew them here or dragged them here. They willingly came to the castle?! But how could they?! This is all so confusing…”
Twilight said to herself with a strained voice. Holding her head with a wince.
All of these strange happenings all at once were giving her a headache.

Normally in a situation like this, she would know what to do… But she didnt… She was struggling to come up with a solution. She couldnt turn to her friends, as they had all been turned into monstrosities that couldn’t leave the rooms they were trapped in.

She couldnt ask the other princesses for further help, as they have sent their entire guards to Ponyville on multiple search parties.
For the first time in a very very long time… Twilight didnt know what to do…
The alicorn slowly sat under one of the apple trees, putting her front hooves over her face and silently wept.
She missed her friends, she never wanted anything bad to happen to them.
And now they were trapped in this maze of mind games.

Twilight was stuck…