Night of the Blue Sun

by Key Strix

High Hopes

Twi…

Twilight…

Twi… light…

The softly spoken voice repeated within the darkness. Over and over. A familiar voice gentle but unsettling in a rather haunting manner. Long pauses between each call. Every one of them unanswered. Twilight mindlessly stared at a black abyss, unable to register the calling of her name. She was at a loss to any reaction till her attention was claimed by a pulsing pain that grew enough in intensity to seize a response. Her eyes flickered open.

“Luna?” Twilight muttered as the voice still echoed in her throbbing head with blurred images of crossing in. Sluggish to sit up, she looked around the small room around her with heavy bags beneath her groggy scanning eyes. No one. Her fore-right hoof lifted from beneath the blanket to rub her weary eyes as she soaked in the details.

The environment was dimly illuminated by a small gathering of candles that were lined upon the walls just like most other things save for the assorted bottles that were hung from string to the ceiling. Pots and masks all in variant colors added to the décor accompanied by the large black brewing pot in the middle of what was obviously the inside of a large tree.

“Zecora’s place?” Her head tilted as she spoke softly to herself “What am I doing he-…” Her voice drowned out and her draws of breath briefly drew to a near halt as her thoughts slammed hard into a series of memories they couldn’t turn from.

Oh no! Oh no! Oh no, no, no!

She thought as her head continued to throb but this time while being pounded upon by a horrible series of recollections. The attack on Canterlot. The streets filled with screams of ponies. The sky cluttered with masses of changelings. The devilish grin of the swarm queen Chrysalis.

Then the violent rumbling of the tower as she nearly fell to her death.

Twilight rolled out of bed and fought to stand upon all four weak limbs and softly trot in place with her two front legs in a panicked manner “Okay! Okay! Everything is fine now, right?! The battles over! We won! Right? Woo-hoo?” Spoken out loud only to herself while looking from side to side, hoping someone would walk in at any moment to confirm her rambling reasoning as it went on “Celestia defeated the queen and had help from Shining Armor who showed up late to push back the… thousands of changelings. Didn’t even need the elements after all so they were safely stashed away again and… and uh…” She lifted a hoof to push her unkempt hair from her eyes before she started to make circles around the large empty kettle.

“Because the hospitals both in Canterlot and Ponyville where so full from such a massive attack, which probably no pony was REALLY harmed in aside from a few scrapes and what not, my friends decided to bring me straight to Zecora’s in which she…” Twilight paused and looked to a window, taking note of the night time darkness that blanketed the thick forest “…had some magical super potion!” She continued her rambling and her pacing about “It healed me right up in-oh I dunno… eight hours or so? But because it got soooo late, my friends couldn’t stay because they got super tired and wanted to make sure everything in Ponyville was okay! Or something like that! But Zecora also left because she needed to get some more food for me for when I awoke because she knew I’d be famished.” Noticed the package labeled food next to her bed. Her left eye slightly twitched “Or… she just went to get some more! For herself!” She forced a chuckle and a beaming smile.

No matter how much she rambled though, she couldn’t persuade away the very soft tremble that periodically passed down her spine. “O-okay Twilight,” She told herself having come to a stop. She sat and held her front hooves before her eyes “stop shaking.” She commanded “You just had a near death experience is all but it’s okay! It’s okay. Everything is fine now. Luna saved you and you just blacked out from the stress of it all. Now you’re up and everything is fine! Even though…” Her eyes slowly surveyed the room once more “no pony seems to be coming.” She then kept quiet as she desperately listened for the sounds of hooves or any movement at all beyond the house that wasn’t just the howling wind or the chirping of crickets.

Nothing stirred.

“But… where did Luna come from?” Twi went back to pacing about and talking to herself, not wanting to listen to the silence any longer “I mean, she was missing for days before the attack.” Twilight’s eyes continued to shift as she backtracked on all she last remembered happening. “Celestia did her best to keep the news from spreading to prevent panic and called upon me, my friends, and many under her command to spread out and find her. Having search even beyond Ponyville itself, we had no luck and all tried to meet back up at Canterlot… but…”

She shuddered to think “That’s when they came.” Her gaze suddenly snapped from right to left “But where was my brother? He should have been putting up a shield at the first sign of any trouble! Bet Celestia’s going to have some harsh words for such negligence. And why did Luna show up then? Could she have been… with Chrysalis?”

The unicorn soon bit down on the inside of her cheek and stopped in her tracks as she shook her head “No! No way Twilight! She would never follow such a path again! It’s dumb of you to even think such a thing!” Having felt her emotions start to bubble even more so, she couldn’t help but huff loudly before looking straight to the front door “Think it’s about time for some fresh-“ her sentence drowned out as she noticed the note stuck to the door, just above the handle “…air.”

Curiously she clicked her hooves right over to pull it from the small sticky substance that kept it in place and unfolded the paper. The very first set of words scrawled out in all caps sent made Twilight’s skin crawl.

DO NOT GO OUTSIDE

Couldn’t help but press down a hard swallow but didn’t flinch her eyes from the paper as she scanned for the rest of it.

If you had missed it, there is a book next to your bed waiting to be read. Please use what food I have to vanquish your hunger and try not to worry as I hope to be back in a hurry. Zecora.

No longer able to force a smile up any more, she found her worried stare first turning to the window once more, letting the thought sink in of how cold it suddenly felt. Colder than a summer night in a forest should have felt. But there was no fire. Normally on a night this cold, Zecora would have one going in place of her cauldron but the only source of heat was the only source of light: the candles aligning the walls.

She then looked to the bed as she drew her way and noticed the vast amount of blankets that had been covering her before she awoke. Upon the table next to the bed was a collection of bottles which reeked of strange chemicals that were no doubt used for many healing sessions. Next to them and closest to the bed was a book with a brown cover, a generic journal title, and rope bindings. Twilight may have batted an eye at the food pack again and felt the growl of her stomach, but it could wait as her eager thirst for knowledge clearly outweighed her urge to fill her empty belly.

Comments

[Key Strix]

The story title has been changed. It's simply better suited. Sorry for any confusion caused by it.

[Blaze Spectrum]

None was caused 1819213.

Probably because I'm following you.

[Mossflower]

the story's good so far, i just have two things i would like to point out:

black pegacorn

you're referring to chrysalis; she's a changeling, i don't think that label is valid on her, and besides, isn't it easier to just call winged unicorns alicorns? (it's even canon now)

the situation is really really hazy (even the information we do have is kinda confusing). we start of with twilight fighting a shitload of changelings, no solid information on how she ended up there, what she's been doing since they arrived, where she is exactly or where she's headed etc.. then RD appears all of sudden with the elements of harmony in a bag, she swoops up twilight, dumps her at the entrance of a tower and then flies off. she's cornered at the top of the tower, where chrysalis is waiting...celestia appears out of nowhere and twilight manages to escape through the window, with luna catching her as she faints. she then wakes up in zecora's hut and thinks about the situation, giving us a little information on the situation, it's still rather hazy though.

one more thing i would like to say; it's really hard to pick up on what elements the story will contain, again; not much information. it's easier to start reading something when you know what concepts to expect, groups are a pretty good way to convey this.

looking forward to more

[Jack-Pony]

1821918 I would like to point out that never in (S.3 Ep.5) was the phrase 'alicorn' and 'winged-unicorn' directly linked to one another. The only thing that we have is its general appearance. 'Alicorn's' traditional usage is a reference to that of the material of a (suspected) unicorn's horn...

[Mossflower]

1822564
actually, it's quite common now that another definition is "winged unicorn", alicorn practically means winged unicorn in a number of languages as well, french and latin if i remember correctly are amongst them.
also, in the episode; no, they never outright said it, but when it's an amulet styled as a unicorn with wings and they call it the "alicorn amulet" i think the connection is valid.

[Key Strix]

1822564
1821918

I just switched it out. No biggie.
It's meant to start out very hazy. Cranking out the third chapter right now which should do decent job in explaining the majority of stuff that happened. Maybe not all of it right away. Though I could add a slight bit in the first chapter to say that Chrysalis had been watching the battle from an open balcony.