Dracula

by Lynked

Journal of Twilight Sparkle

Journal of Twilight Sparkle.
Monday, March 1

Ponyville is well and alive again. After the strange incident last night, I was worried for the ponies here. They seemed rather shaken about it. In the end, it all worked out though, and I am pleased to report that life is going on. Yet I am still puzzled as to the origin of such an... event. An earthquake doesn’t quite describe what it was. No, not at all I think, however it was quite similar.

Being an alicorn now has perks in itself. I could feel something, a sort of fluctuation that came with the quake. It... resonated, yes. It resonated from the Everfree forest. I don’t want to venture in there, but now as a Princess, I must find the source of this near catastrophic event. I do not know what could have caused this, but one thing is sure; it was felt everywhere. As for the catastrophe, that was averted, and as I said, life goes on.

I’m looking outside right now, and it is a beautiful day. The sun is warm and very bright, and I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere in those purple mountains was my... sister? Mentor? I’m still trying to decide what she is to me now that I have this abnormal position in life. She’s probably still up there though, warming herself in her own sun. Makes me wonder if I get a celestial body. In a way, I want one, though I don’t know where it would fit in with they cycle of day and night, or what it would be called. The Twilight Sun? Sounds kinda cheesy.

I’ll ask about that. In the meantime, Dash and Applejack hit it off! Yep, and I am proud to call that genius plan my own. That’s right! That dinner date was an astounding success, and having recorded the outcome and doing some late night predictions, and maybe a bit of gossiping with my partner in crime, I have decided that these two will be a couple in a week, give or take a few days for the probability factors. Either way, it’s very exciting! I can see it now... those two out by the Ponyville lake, together.

Rarity is getting in my head.

But this is the exact reason that I don’t want to go scouring through the Everfree right now. To go alone is dangerous, and I don’t want to drag Dash and Applejack in, and those two are my reliable ponies. Rarity and Pinkie? One’s afraid of dust particles and the other is bloated right now. Something about “cakes just falling into her mouth”. Yeah, the Cakes aren’t too happy with her as of late. She’s gone on a sugar spree.

Guess it’s just that time.

Anyway, I’ll report in more as this all develops. For now, I think I’ll go out and treat myself and Spike to some lunch, then go see how the townsponies are handling the minor reconstruction work that needs doing. Will devise a plan for the Everfree soon.

Monday, March 1, Dusk

The town today was so busy that it was hard to think. For now, everything seems to be going well though, and that’s good. Scaffolding is up everywhere, and the pounding of hammers and nails is consistent. Dust is everywhere, and so breathing is incredibly hard. It just hasn’t settled yet. It will soon though, so I’m not concerned. My concern is actually with Mayor Mare, who I saw today while I was out in the market (which, by the way, is doing surprisingly well). She was so frantic and frazzled; I could smell oil on her knotted fur and mane, and the dark lines beneath her eyes had been distressing. I’ll entail the conversation here:

“Mayor Mare? You look terrible! Did you get any sleep?” I asked.

She shook her head and sighed, slouching a bit. I cut the conversation with the tomato vendor short and turned to her. “Is something the matter?”

She blinked and yawned, nodding. “Would you follow me, just for a moment? I have something I must tell you.”

Standing she nodded to the town hall, our apparent destination. Quickly and hooved a few bits to the counter and snatched my tomatoes, cantering to catch up with her. When I was beside her I said, “What is it? Is somepony hurt?”

Again she shook her head, which seemed to not want to stay upright. “No, but I would be lying to say I understood. Has Princess Celestia contacted you, by chance?”

I thought for a moment. “No, not yet, but I’m due to write her a letter tonight.”

“I’m not surprised,” said the Mayor. “Her note to me was written so hurriedly, but I thought perhaps you’d like to have a look at it.”

I nodded. “Yes please. If anything important has happened, though, please tell me right away.”

“Oh, nothing yet,” she said. By now we had gone through the dusty, boisterous streets and arrived at the scaffolded Town Hall. “But again, I believe you should see this note.”

I followed her up the steps and into the shade of the building; today grew exceptionally hot exceptionally fast. It wasn’t long before we were baking in the sun, and so the shade was welcome. In the foyer, she asked me to sit on the couch, and I did as she went into her office. After a few moments, she came back with a rolled up piece of parchment bearing a broken wax seal of a sun.

I took it, thanked her, and left; she said she was busy, and I was busy too. By now I’ve read the note. It was hastily written, just as Mayor Mare had said, and said only one thing: that a detachment of guards were on their way to Ponyville, and should be here by tonight. I’m more than “kind of” worried, now. Just after reading this, I sent her a letter informing her of the damage, the rebuilding, and my plans to venture into the Everfree. I haven’t heard from her yet, and it is distressing.

Even more distressing is the sun; it’s still in the sky. The moon is already on the horizon, but the sun refuses to budge. I’m very concerned now. It looks like the moon is headed for an eclipse, but I’m not sure. Now I wonder what in Equestria could convince Celestia to hold the sun there. A trip to Canterlot may be in order.

On a brighter note, though, Dash and Applejack stopped by tonight, or today, I’m not sure which thanks to the sun. But they still stopped by and asked if I wanted to come to dinner with them. I politely declined, but the moment the front door shut, Spike and I chatted like fillies. I couldn’t stop smiling!

And yet when I look outside now to the bright night and realize that there may not be a twilight tonight, I find myself worried again. The moon is still headed for an eclipse and will darken the sky soon. What interests me the most about this, however, is that a solar eclipse, usually saved for the Festival of the Sisters, has but a tiny umbra that can only block out a certain area, and that area seems to be here. The rest of Equestria will get the sun tonight, it seems.

Midnight, March 1-2

Ponies are gathering outside the library. My friends are here, but nopony else. I don’t know what to say to them! They’re looking to me for help, and I’ve got nothing! Sure, I’m a princess, but that doesn’t mean I can move the sun for them, or that I know what’s going on. My friends are throwing questions at me left and right, and I feel a little dizzy. My clock says this has been happening for five hours now, and it’s about to chime at midnight. The eclipse is in full swing, and neither the sun nor the moon seem to be moving. We’re stuck in an eclipse.

Every attempt I’ve made to get the Princess’s attention has come to no reply. I wonder if she is even getting my messages... It makes me think of the Nightmare Moon incident, almost. But she’s long gone, and the sun is still in the sky. I’ve never read anything on this before, I’ve never heard of an event like this occurring. My only saving grace is the guards, which are dispersing the crowd as I write this. I can hear hooves stomping outside as frustrated ponies go home to try and sleep, but I can already tell that nopony is going to sleep “tonight”.

To that end, I’ve made my decision. I’m taking my friends into the Everfree straight away, and we’re going to get to the bottom of this. I’ve asked the leader of the guard detachment to stay in Ponyville and keep order; he seems to agree. In fact, none of the guard are even looking at the forest. It makes me wonder.

But my friends and I all have our elements on, and we are ready to go. I’ll take this journal in my saddlebag, just in case something develops and requires recording. By Celestia I’m nervous... it’s like my hooves don’t want to work. But I’m a princess now; I’ve got this. And with my friends by my side, I’m sure we’ll end whatever new threat Equestria faces now. Surely the eclipse is of some use to us.

That use we just have to find.

Wish me luck. I’ll record my findings in the morning. I don’t want to be in the forest for more than a few hours.

Tuesday, March 2

It’s been what I would guess to be three hours. Rainbow Dash and Applejack are with each other constantly; they’re obviously getting closer. Rarity and Pinkie opted to bring up the middleground, and our couple obviously took the lead. Fluttershy stuck with me the whole time, reluctant to come in the first place. I had to constantly assure her that things would be fine, and I am still convinced that they are. All in all, our group seems to be doing well.

Right now we are in what appears to be an ancient ruin. Jaded and worn stone, all barely cemented together, craft the skeletal remains of what appears to have been a castle. What is interesting about the find, however, is that the architecture is something that I have never seen before. It is not Equestrian nor Griffon, and that makes it quite intriguing. Even more interesting, it is obvious that this ruined castle was massive. I am beginning to think that its collapse was the cause of the quake.

We are in what appears to have been a tower, though only the very base of it still stands. There is ruined furniture here and there, and books too, but all illegible. I am sitting on a dusty loveseat, actually, and it is obvious that it has not been sat on for a hundred years at least. A bookshelf is at the other end, though it is battered and collapsed into itself. Fluttershy and Rarity are inspecting it right now, looking for some sort of clues, but every legible page they find seems to be covered in strange glyphs of a language that I’ve never seen before.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash are in another tower next to this one. It seems to have survived the fall better, and I can see clearly the bashed stairs that ran up its side, and the shattered windows that were probably dusty as well. In the light of the eclipse it is almost scary to see, but right now what I feel is excitement! This is quite the interesting find! And yet, I also feel a sickness that comes with being nervous. It’s like my stomach is twisting.

I don’t like the way the castle feels.

But I assume that, with all abandoned, shattered castles that have recently collapsed within a haunted forest, the feeling must the the same looming dread. Must be something in the loamy soil that the ruins fell into. Oh yes, the castle fell, that much is obvious. From where, I don’t know. If it had been from the mountain, I surely would have seen it before. But the facts are too obvious to think it was a mere collapse in the internal structuring. The beams, the stone, the towers, all of it is at a slant that could only be caused by a strong fall.

Of course, that makes it all so much more interesting. All the doors and ruined tapestries are at a permanent slant. The walls, the corridors--those that are still standing, of course--are all bent and twisted. Some of them are even like a spine; all boney and decayed. There’s no actual bones, though, unless the shattered furniture counts as “bones”. Like I said, the castle was absolutely abandoned before its collapse.

Well, I’ll take a moment to record all of our other findings before wrapping this little investigation up. When we arrived, we found that the front gate was completely knocked in, and so we got in easily enough. The entryway, which opened into a foyer, was also dusty and dead. The hollow orange light poured in absolutely everywhere, and the shadows of the castle did nothing more than create a feeling of loneliness.

Some stairs ran up the back of the once-grand room, and on either side were some dusty banners, too tattered to really make out what was once on them. Everything else in the room was, again, shattered. We made our way up the stairs, where hallways once branched off. It was hard to step down from the ledges and into the crumbled halls, which were all partly sunken into the marsh, but Dash and I made good use of our wings.

We went down a long hallway, being sure to avoid as much marsh as we could, but the slick slime was coating the walls. Almost every door we tried as unlocked, but led to the swamps; it seems like many of the rooms that branched off of the castle walls have fallen into the mud, and we could even see some of the wooden bracing and stone mortar. So we left the halls and explored a bit more.

Many of the rooms we found were crushed though, and so we could not go in them. There were some, however, that were in tact. Among these was a simple art room, but every single canvas was shredded, and so we have no clue as to what kind of art was in there. Fluttershy suggests that it was of the castles original owner, and if that were true, then it would have given us great insight into the ruins. The room was huge, and connected to a tower that was lost to the marsh. From this room’s crushed windows we could see what was most likely a courtyard at one point, but it and the canvases bore many similarities. From here, however, we could also see a massive tower, mostly in tact, at the very back of the castle. When we reached it and tried the door, however, we found the entrance to be blocked by fallen stone.

Where we are now is the left wing of the castle, which was probably symmetrical with the right, telling me that wherever this castle was perched, it was somewhere that allowed for such symmetry. This is strange, simply because there’s only two places that could allow that: the ground or the peak of a mountain. And seeing as the castle fell...

More on this later. For now I’m eager to get out of these lonely halls and this orange light. The wind, though warm, is beginning to pick up, and it’s ominous to say the least. Besides, trading the castle for a bed sounds enticing, and I’m sure the rest of my party would agree. I’ll go round them up and head out for the night.

I’ll come back though. This ruin must be full of mysteries and treasures, and answers of course. Answers that I’m eager to have.

Wednesday, March 3, Dawn

The eclipse is retreating, and the sun seems to have the sky again. We just made it home, and parted. Applejack and Rainbow Dash have gone to Sweet Apple Acres together, which I can’t help but grin at. Fluttershy asked to stay with me for the night, after Pinkie bounced away, blabbering into Rarity’s ear how exciting the castle was, and how it must have gone “all kablooey and whoosh” when it fell. So I have Fluttershy for the night, which is good. Poor girl was completely shaken by the trip. I don’t blame her.

What I think got to her the most, though, was the bats. When we left the castle, a flurry of black bats rushed out of a window on the tall tower. I remember her screaming when they swept over us. We tried to explain that they were just bats, but the castle and eclipse had already scared the poor mare so badly that she could only mumble things about the bats not being, well, bats. I’m worried for her. I fixed her some soup and led her to my bed, where she’s lying down now. Seems I’ll be sleeping on the couch for a while, but I don’t mind. If only I could record her eyes, it would make sense. Something in the pupils, something deep in them... it gives me the chills. I really feel for her.

But I need some sleep now; my magic is faltering with the quill, and I can’t stop yawning. I have to stop before my eyes close completely, but that’s alright. Spike said he’ll take good care of Fluttershy if she wakes up, and I trust him completely.

I’m just glad to be out of those ruins. They might be fascinating, but they creep me out. By now it’s obvious that there’s something wrong, but I still have a feeling that by the time this is all over, our thoughts right now will be comparatively calm.

Comments

[Zweiterversuch]

Wooooah!
A solid beginning! Questions start to pop up in my head and I can't wait to read the next chapter.
Nice...really nice indeed.

[Syvvak]

my... sister? Mentor? I’m still trying to decide what she is to me now that I have this abnormal position in life.

Nice. I have never thought much on the whole Alicorn Twilight thing (don't really care), but that is something that would kinda be considered.

Great story so far (finally got around to reading it). I love Drac (Stoker's). I can't wait to read more. Onward and upward.