Dominant Species

by DarkPhoenix

What Now?

Chapter 3: What Now?

Teleporting was always a curious sensation to experience. Even to a pony like Twilight, who was used to making small little jumps, it still felt odd to her. The best she could describe it to her non-unicorn friends was to imagine being able to feel every sensation at once, yet to not feel anything at all. Imagine being blinded by both light and darkness, to feel like you’re being stretched impossibly thin, and compacted into a single point. The journey would seem to take forever, yet be over in an instant.

She could remember the first time she successfully teleported; she came out the other end feeling sick to her stomach and had to lie down until the world stopped spinning. The longer the distance traveled, the more intense the feelings were. But, the more a unicorn utilized teleportation, the more inured they became to it. She could make short jumps without feeling any ill side effects at all.

Wherever Princess Celestia had decided to teleport her, she knew that it had to be far. Never before has she felt such an intensity in the sensations. To be stretched and compressed, the light and the darkness, the intermingled feelings all across her body, each was significantly worse than ever before.

When finally the world replaced itself, the first thing she did was collapse. Her legs refused to support her and she fell over. Rather than meet solid ground, however, something cold and wet cushioned her. Her stomach rebelled, nearly emptying her dinner across... wherever she was.

She tried to open her eyes to see her surroundings, but they were sealed shut. She panicked, her hoof frantically swiping at her face, trying to figure out what the problem was. She could feel the same cold substance being smeared across her face.

As she panicked, slowly, her senses returned to her. She felt cold, mind-numbing, bone-chilling cold. Something soft and wet was being forced against her body at high velocity, carried on the piercing wind, the howl of forcing her ears to pin themselves against her head. She could feel her mane and tail being whipped about violently.

Snow, she thought. Wherever I am, it’s snowing. Once more she tried to open her eyes, once more she couldn’t. As her mind calmed down, she brought up a hoof once more, this time touching cautiously at her eye. She could feel ice crystals freezing her eyelids together. Her tears must have frozen as soon as she landed.

Tears... As rational thought continued to take back control, her mind brought forth everything that had just happened. The dragon, the Royal Guard being wiped out, Canterlot’s destruction, her brother, the Princesses. Everything had happened so fast.

The images in her head brought the tears back, the liquid leaked out her eyelids and crystallized in the cold air. She could feel them turn into ice crystals and either be blown off and away, or stick to her coat. She laid in the snow, not sure where she was, crying.

All her life, she had prided herself on being smart; and while it was true that some of her intelligence was innate, she had also studied and researched. She liked to learn new things, that sense of discovery when some new fact or figure took up residence in her brain. Learning had come easy to her all her life; knowledge took up residence in her mind quickly.

But despite everything she knew, everything she had learned, she had no idea what had just happened. Everything she had seen was both a blur, and ingrained in her mind with alarming clarity. Images spewed forth and ceased with no logical order to them. It seemed that her brain simply could not, or would not make sense of what had just transpired.

How long she lay there, shivering and blind, she didn’t know. It was only a sound, heard even over the wind, that brought her back to reality. Somewhere nearby, somepony was coughing and retching.

She needed to see, but trying to force her eyes open felt like she was going to tear her eyelids off. The pony coughed again, too faint to tell who it was. Wiping at her eyes was ineffective at clearing the crystals.

She had almost made the decision to stumble around blindly when she remembered something. She was a unicorn, she had magic at her disposal. Her horn lit up as she summoned a small heating spell, feeling the air around her warming up.

The ice freezing her eyes shut melted, several more tears rolling their way down her muzzle. Her shivering, which had started moments after she appeared, calmed down in the increased warmth. Finally she was able to open her eyes. The first thing she was was a white blur, nothing had shape or definition to it. Blinking her eyes, the world came into focus.

Everything was still a white blur. Snow was everywhere around her, falling from the clouded sky overhead, blowing across the ground, piled up into drifts. All she could see was snow, lit only by what few traces of moonlight made it through the clouds overhead.

The sounds of retching invaded her ears once more. They swiveled around, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. A particularly loud hack blasted out, and she turned her head towards it. In the absence of her spell, she started shivering again.

She was about to move when her hoof collided with something hard amidst the soft snow. She looked down to see a large purple gem, half-buried in the white powder. It was the same gem that Princess Celestia had tossed at her right before...

Twilight shook her head in an attempt to banish the images conjured up. She peered closer at the jewel. It had to be important. The princess had smashed her neckpiece to get it out.

The more she stared, the more it seemed like an ordinary gem, the kind of thing she’d give to Spike as a treat. Try as she might, she simply couldn’t fathom why Princess Celestia would give her that thing. But she knew that she had to take it with her. Enveloping the gem in magic, she lifted it out of the snow, carrying it alongside her as she moved.

She couldn’t see anything through the snowfall. Her head held down, her eyes slitted against the wind and snow, she trudged forward. Her one, singular focus was finding that pony she had heard, to the extent that she refused to acknowledge anything else.

Her element tiara was still resting atop her head. The metal had long grown cold to the touch, and it was freezing her head and ears even more. But she didn’t take it off. It was simply easier to wear it, rather than worry about carrying it through the snowy wastes.

She crested a snowbank and on the other side, she could just make out the shape of a pony. The rise offering slight protection from the snow, she could open her eyes a bit more. She still couldn’t see precisely who it was, but she could make out wings, which narrowed the choices down to two.

“Hello!” she called out. The wind picked up her voice and carried it away. The figure didn’t even turn its head.

Twilight carried on, eyes focused on the pony. As she got closer, she could pick out more details, including the cutie mark: a rainbow lightning bolt.

“Rainbow!” she called out once more. This time Rainbow’s head turned, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. “Over here.”

Twilight trotted over to her friend. Pegasi had a natural resistance to colder temperatures, but even Rainbow Dash was shivering uncontrollably at the cold. Trotting around her, Twilight could see a hole in the snow, a frozen pile of sick inset into it.

“Twilight,” Rainbow said, having to nearly yell to be heard over the wind, before devolving into a coughing fit. Twilight put a hoof on her friends back, moving close to share as much body heat as she could. When she stopped coughing, Rainbow continued. “Where are we?” She was still wearing her element necklace, though the gem had lost much of its luster.

“I’m not sure. Maybe to the North?” She honestly had no way to tell, everything around was simply snow. Maybe when the storm cleared and she could see further than ten feet in front of her, she could figure out where they had ended up.

“Have you seen the others?”

She shook her head. “No. But they have to be close. They have to be...” her voice trailed off. Once more what she had just seen, and been through, tried to force its way into her mind. With a violent mental shove, she forced it all back. Dealing with that could come when she wasn’t in danger of freezing to death. Already she could feel her hooves going numb from the cold. Ice matted down her coat, mane, and tail.

One look at her friend’s eyes and she could see that she was going through the same thing. It was as if Rainbow’s eyes were a mirror and she could see what was in her own head. Neither of them spoke for a moment.

A strong gust of wind snapped them both out of their memories. “We need to find the others and get to shelter,” Twilight yelled over the storm.

Rainbow nodded. “How? We can’t see anything.”

Twilight thought about that. The only reason she had found Rainbow was because she was being sick when the wind was going in just the right direction. Perhaps if they shouted then anypony who was downwind would hear it, but anypony upwind wouldn’t hear a thing. They also couldn’t just wander around. The odds of them finding one of their friends were low. They needed some way to draw ponies towards them.

An idea occurred to her, though she wasn’t entirely sure if it would work. “Rainbow, hold this,” she said, passing the gem over to her friend.

The pegasus took the gem in her wing, cradling it close to her body. “What is this?” she asked.

“I’ll explain later.” Her horn lit up again as she channeled magic into it. After a few seconds, a trail of multi-colored sparks flew out and into the air. Twilight watched it arc up before exploding with a loud bang in a shower of sparks, casting light across the area. Something like that should be visible even over the storm, at least for a short ways.

“Is that...?”

Twilight nodded, the action sending the next firework on a lower trajectory. “Trixie taught it to me the last time she was in Ponyville. Hopefully the others will see this and come find us.”

Twilight continued to send magic into her horn, shooting off a string of fireworks. She kept it up for several minutes, her hope fading as still nopony showed up. But still she continued, shivering and huddled up with Rainbow Dash.

“Twilight look!”

She turned her head, making sure to keep her horn pointing upwards. Coming out of the snow was another pony figure. It was hobbling on three hooves, the fourth being used to keep a rather large hat on its head.

“Applejack!” Twilight called out.

Applejack came up to them. “Neat trick there, Twi. I thought I was in trouble until you started making all them flashes.”

Nopony said anything else. There was nothing to say right then. Applejack joined in the huddle, adding her body heat into the equation as Twilight continued to fire off fireworks, her hope rekindled.

The wait for another pony to show wasn’t nearly as long this time. Less than a minute after AJ, a new figure made itself known, this one instantly recognizable. An outline came nearly hopping towards them, though she was having difficulty with the snow.

Pinkie Pie struggled over, her normally poofy hair being weighed down by the sheer amount of ice and snow trapped in it. The wind nearly pushed her down the last snow drift. She tried to smile at all her friends, but the smile never quite seemed to reach her eyes. Even the unflappable Pinkie was feeling the weight of what had just happened, though she at least pretended to carry on.

As soon as she was near enough to be heard, she launched into a speech, complete with exaggerated gestures. “Hi girls. Wow, Twilight! That sure is awesome! I was able to see you like super-duper amazingly easy. I thought I’d be wandering around for a long time trying to find you but instead it was all like ‘pshooow’ and ‘kabam’ and I was totally like ‘that has to be Twilight’ and so I went to investigate.”

“That’s nice, Pinkie,” Rainbow said.

“I know, isn’t it?” She wrapped a forelimb around Twilight’s neck, pulling her into an embrace and nearly causing the next firework to singe Applejack. “It’s ‘cause Twilight is so smart and superiffic!”

With some assistance from AJ, Twilight wormed her way out of Pinkie’s grasp, re-aiming her horn at the sky. Pinkie kept talking, but Twilight tried to tune her out, instead concentrating on finding their last two friends.

Nearly ten minutes passed. The four of them were huddled as close together as they could. Even Pinkie had stopped bouncing around in favor of keeping warm and conserving her energy. Twilight could feel herself getting a headache from the magic use. She knew that she would have to stop soon. They needed to find shelter before they froze to death outside in this blizzard. Though what shelter there could be around here, she had no idea. She had read in a book once about how to survive in situations like this, though she had never had to put that knowledge into practice.

Just as she was about to call it quits, a voice, carried on the wind, reached them. “Over here!”

Rarity emerged from the snow, her normally pristine mane falling around her head. If there was snow and ice on her coat, it was lost amongst the white. She looked like she would rather be anywhere than where she was, a grimace on her face.

“Rarity!” Pinkie called out, leaving the huddle to give her an embrace.

Rarity chuckled half-heartedly, returning the embrace without any conviction. “Girls, follow me,” she said without any preamble.

“We still need to find Fluttershy,” Twilight said, her horn firing off another firework despite the layer of pain it added to her headache.

“No need, I know where she is. I’m taking you to her.”

For the first time in over twenty minutes, Twilight powered down her horn. “You do? Is she hurt? Is she okay?”

Rarity held out a hoof. “Calm yourself. She’s fine. We ended up...” she paused a moment. “Landing close to each other. When she spotted the fireworks I offered to go investigate. The poor dear was too frightened.”

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. The addition of Rarity and Fluttershy meant that all of her friends were safe. Well, as safe as they could be when they’d be frozen within an hour.

“Wait, so you left Fluttershy alone to freeze out here,” Rainbow asked.

Rarity shook her head. “No. We found a cave. It’s not much, but it’s better than out here.”

Twilight’s ears perked up at that. A cave was a blessing. It meant shelter from the elements, potentially warmer inside. If they had a cave, they might just survive the storm. “Lead on Rarity,” she said.

With a nod, she turned around and headed back the way she came. The rest followed, with Twilight bringing up the rear right behind AJ. They trudged through the snow, trying to keep an eye on the pony in front of them.

Twilight had no idea how Rarity knew where she was going, as by the time Twilight walked over the same spot that she did, her hoofprints in the snow were already gone. The howling wind just erased them from existence. It was becoming very difficult to walk, her extremities had lost almost all feeling. She knew that if she didn’t find shelter and warmth very soon, she would fall and not be able to get up.

Twilight looked up, seeing the shapes of her friends in front of her. It may’ve not been the best idea for her to be in the rear, but none of them were thinking straight by this point. If she was as cold as she was, then her friends couldn’t be doing much better. She just had to keep up, and make sure that everypony stays up. If even one pony were to fall, she wasn’t sure the rest of them would have the strength to carry them.

Hours seemed to pass. It was as though amongst the blinding white surrounding them, time had no meaning. The only thought in her mind was putting one hoof in front of the other and continuing on, making sure to keep AJ’s blond tail in sight at all times and trusting that the farm pony wouldn’t lead her astray.

So absorbed was she in concentrating that she actually bumped into AJ when the mare came to a halt. So bad was her numbness that she only recognized the hit because she could see it. She brought her eyes up, looking around AJ.

Rarity had stopped and was looking down, pointing with a hoof. She was saying something but her voice was lost to the wind. Pinkie was right behind her. Twilight gasped when Pinkie took a step forward and vanished from view. Rainbow moved forward and disappeared as well.

Twilight panicked, thinking that something had gone wrong, or that the cold had gotten to her mind and she was imagining things. She had a sudden vision of her, lying in the snow and unable to continue, but because she had been in the rear nopony noticed her absence. This all had to be some sort of hallucination.

Applejack moved forward and also vanished. Twilight blinked. Only she and Rarity were left now. Rarity was beckoning her forward with a hoof. If this was a vision, then Rarity could be either friend or foe. But her only other option was to turn tail and run. If she ran, then her death was practically assured. It was only theorized by following this vision of Rarity.

Realizing that she had no choice, she moved forward. Rarity was pointing down in between two snow drifts. Twilight squinted, trying to figure out where the others had gone.

“Watch the first step,” Rarity yelled into her ear.

Twilight looked at her, receiving a nod. With a sigh, she took a step forward, her hoof meeting only air where she thought there would be snow. The sudden shift of balance sent her tumbling forward and down a small slope.

She landed on her back with an exhalation of air. As soon as the world stopped spinning, she saw that she was looking up at a hole in the ground. Because of the falling snow and the wind, the hole was mostly covered. It would be nearly impossible to see.

Strong limbs helped her up as Rarity descended the slope with more grace than Twilight had. No sooner was she on her feet, and thanking AJ for the help, did Rarity beckon them on once more.

“Fluttershy is just around here,” she said. There was an outcropping of rock that she lead them around. Barely any light managed to penetrate the hole, just enough to illuminate the way.

Twilight was barely ten feet inside the cave and already it was ten degrees warmer. That, combined with the pain she had felt upon landing told her that this, at the very least, wasn’t a vision. She followed her friend, AJ taking the rear this time.

Moving around the rock, she saw that the space opened up. A shaft of moonlight pierced the middle of a small cave, no bigger than the first floor of her library back in Ponyville. A few particles of snow drifted down, but that was it. The wind was blowing the snow right across the hole through which the light was filtering.

The light showed that it was a typical cave: a sloped stone floor, rock walls and ceiling. A small depression at one side held a pool of water, somehow unfrozen. She breathed out, and while she could still see her breath, it was far warmer in here than it was outside. And quieter. The wind had been reduced to a small whistling noise.

Her eyes were drawn to something yellow which stuck out. Fluttershy was looking over at them, her mouth hanging open.

Before Twilight could say anything, she was being drawn into an embrace by her usually shy friend. “Oh thank goodness you’re okay. I was so worried.”

By the time Twilight was able to react, Fluttershy had already moved on to Rainbow. She embraced each pony in turn, receiving an overly-enthusiastic hug in return from Pinkie.

Twilight stumbled over to the wall, collapsing against it. The increased warmth was already having an effect, but she was still shivering uncontrollably and couldn’t feel her limbs or face. Her thoughts were muddled and it was hard to focus on any one thing unless she threw her entire mind behind it. Now that she was out of the storm and with her friends, all of her energy seemed to dissipate.

She lay on the cold floor, too exhausted to move. Her eyes closed and stayed that way for the first time since she had opened them after being dropped in this snowy place. She could hear her friends still, but the sound was muted, like being underwater. At this point she wanted nothing more than to fall asleep.

Something nudged her. When she didn’t react, it nudged her again. She mumbled something that sounded incoherent even to her. The thing left her alone then. She slipped blissfully further into the darkness.

Her descent was abruptly halted when she felt herself being rolled over onto her back. The change in position was disconcerting at first. Somepony lifted her head up before placing it on something soft and warm, almost like a heated pillow of some sort. Her tiara was removed and set aside somewhere.

She settled into the warmth, letting it lull her back down. The darkness drew her in with promises of warmth and comfort, of escaping from being cold. Distantly she could hear something screaming at her to stop, but she ignored it. She was so tired, all she wanted to do was sleep.

Her eyes flew open when a hoof connected with her jaw none too gently. She managed to feel that even through the slowly receding numbness. Sluggishly she raised a hoof to her face, rubbing where the blow had struck.

As the world once more came into focus, the yellow blur above her transformed into Fluttershy. “Wha...?” she managed, her voice sounding slurred. It was like she had one too many drinks at one of Pinkie’s adults-only parties

“I’m so sorry for hitting you Twilight,” Fluttershy said. “But you musn’t sleep.”

“Why not? I’m so tired...” She could feel her eyelids starting to droop closed again.

Fluttershy shook her, the jarring jolting her back once more.

“I’m sorry Twilight, but I can’t let you sleep. It’s too dangerous. Your body is shutting down from the cold. Until I can warm you back up, you have to stay awake.”

“Oh,” was her response. She summoned the energy to look around. She was laying with her head on Fluttershy’s belly. Her friend was sitting up awkwardly against the cave wall. There was no way it could be comfortable. Around her were the rest of her friends, all huddled together. While they all looked cold, shivering as the ice and snow from outside melted off their coats, none of them were as bad as she was.

“Why just me?” she said.

“Pegasi are more resilient to cold weather and Earth ponies are just naturally more resilient. You suffered worse than they did. If Rarity hadn’t found this cave, she would be just like you are right now.”

“Oh,” was all she was able to muster. They all sat or lay in silence for an indeterminate amount of time. Twilight’s thoughts were still muddled and sluggish. Without outside influence, she couldn’t focus on any one thing.

“Twilight?” came Fluttershy’s voice once more.

“Mmm?” she said.

“Talk to me Twilight. Stay with me.”

The noise gave her something to focus on. “About what?”

“Whatever you want.” She could hear the concern behind her friend’s voice.

“Tell me how you found this cave?” She tried to wave a hoof around to emphasize her point, but all she managed to do was flail for a moment, nearly hitting Fluttershy.

“I found it actually,” Rarity spoke up. Twilight turned her head to focus on her. “You remember me saying that Fluttershy and I... landed next to each other?”

Twilight nodded. Glad to have something to focus in on besides the beckoning darkness.

“Well, we were huddled together when I thought I heard something. I went to look and quite literally stumbled across this cave.” She presented her left foreleg which had a bruise beginning to form underneath the white coat.

“Hmm. So it was blind luck?”

Rarity nodded. “Or the will of...” she trailed off, unwilling to finish the sentence. A pain entered her eyes and she bowed her head.

It took Twilight a moment to connect the dots, but when she did, a great pit opened in her chest where her heart was. “The will of Celestia,” she whispered.

“Twilight...” Rarity said.

All of a sudden it was like her thoughts unjumbled themselves and everything that had been pushed back by her impending frozen death came screaming to the forefront. All the images rushed forwards, eager to replay themselves one by one. She saw it all: from the dragon’s reveal to her last sight of Princess Celestia.

“Celestia,” she said. “Shining Armor. Luna. Mom. Dad.” She was almost afraid to say the names for fear that their ghosts would be summoned. Instead all that came forth was fresh tears.

She cried in front of her friends. Somehow she summoned the strength to cover her eyes with her forehooves. With heaving sobs she wept at what had come to pass. She wept for the ponies that had died, all of them, not just the ones that she knew. She wept for her friends, being stuck in this cave with her. She wept for the ponies whose fate was unknown, including her assistant, friend, and honorary little brother, Spike.

Time passed, how much she didn’t know. All she knew was that ponies she loved, ponies she looked up to, were gone. Each time it seemed like she could summon control over herself, her mind brought up another image, fresh, raw pain coming with it.

Distantly she was aware of her friends around her, but she paid them no mind. She could feel something warm and wet landing on her head, almost like rain on a summer’s day. Her pillow shook occasionally, but she didn’t care. She was alone at that very moment, just her and the pain.

Her mind replayed the final moments before she had been forcibly teleported. Her mentor, her friend, even a mother figure, somepony she had looked up to for many years, standing at the top of that hill, her horn glowing with power. Everything about her had been shown in brilliant glory, lit by the encroaching wall of flames. Twilight had always assumed that Celestia would be there for her, throughout her entire life. It was one of the benefits to being a goddess.

The reality now was that Celestia was gone. Twilight had outlived the one thing that was guaranteed to outlive her. And with the destruction of Canterlot Castle, so too had vanished all of the material things that she could use to remember her with. It was like all traces of the Princess had vanished.

Twilight dropped her hooves and opened her eyes, tears still forming. She was sure that a large puddle should have formed underneath her by now. But her back was only wet with melting snow and ice.

Above her she could see the source of the warm rain, Fluttershy was crying as well, her tears dripping off her muzzle and onto Twilight. The pegasus was using her wingtips to brush away the tears while her forehooves cradled Twilight’s head. Even when she was sad, Fluttershy still thought about others.

The rest of her friends all had their heads bowed, looking at nopony in particular. They were each lost in their own worlds.

Twilight tried to speak, but all that came out was a croak. Her throat was raw from crying so much. She swallowed and tried again, this time managing to produce a raspy sound that somehow became a word. “Rainbow...”

Rainbow looked up. She stared at Twilight for a moment. “Yeah,” she said, her voice lacking in its usual brashness.

“The jewel,” Twilight motioned with her hoof.

The pegasus lifted her wing, showing the jewel tucked underneath, safe and sound.

Her horn lighting up briefly, Twilight summoned the gem to her. Once it was within reach, she grasped it with her hoof, drawing it to her chest and clutching it close. It was the one thing of Celestia’s that still existed and wasn’t buried somewhere underneath Canterlot. She held onto it tightly for fear it would somehow vanish if she didn’t.

She had expected the gem to bring her some measure of comfort, but what comfort it did bring was hollow, useless. It served only to remind her that everything had changed. But still she clung to it, desperate for something, anything.

“Twilight. What is that?” Rarity’s voice broke through her mental struggles.

“It’s a gem. The Princess tossed it to me right before she... Before she...” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence. Saying Celestia’s name out loud was one thing, but to actually admit to the air that she was gone was something entirely different.

“May I look at it?”

Twilight paused, unsure of what to do. She knew that Rarity was far more knowledgeable about gems than she was, and if anyone could decipher the hidden meaning behind it, it would be the seamstress. But she feared letting go of it. The two sides warred within her, until Rarity spoke once more.

“I promise to treat it with the utmost care.”

With more than a little trepidation, Twilight held out the gem. Her desire to understand just why the Princess had given her this won out. The jewel was enveloped in the blue glow of Rarity’s magic.

Rarity lifted it up, bringing it to eye level and spinning it slowly, inspecting it from all sides. “This is from her neckpiece, yes?”

Twilight nodded.

The unicorn inspected it a bit more before handing it back to Twilight. So eager was she to get it back that she practically snatched it out of the air. Once the gem was safely back in her grasp, she spoke. “What did you find?”

“It’s a flawless gem, no imperfections at all. At first I thought it was a simple amethyst, not the first choice for royal gear, but I suppose the Princess perhaps had a fondness for them. But take a look at it, closely.”

Twilight brought it up to her eyes, squinting to see through the few remaining tears. With a shake of her head, the tears were flung away. She examined the gem up close, something she had failed to do before now. She could see small scratches on it, not unusual since a jeweler’s tools would leave little marks like that.

“Do you see it?” Rarity asked.

“See what?”

“Look closely at the marks.”

She did just that, looking at the marks. They seemed innocuous enough. She let her eyes trace over one mark, following it as it curved up and around the jewel, overlapping with other marks.

As she traced, her mind plotted out the route of it and all the other lines. She gasped as she realized the truth. What at first glance was a series of random tool marks and scratches accrued over however long the gem had been in service inside the neckpiece, was in fact much more. The scratches formed an intricate pattern. It had to have been deliberate. The weave was too perfect to have been created at random. The entire gem was covered in the pattern. Lines looping around and curving across the facets of the jewel. Each line was tiny, but there were so many of them.

“What does it mean?” Twilight asked.

Rarity shook her head. “I was hoping you could tell me. I’ve never seen that before on any gem.”

Twilight turned the gem around and around, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. That it was a pattern was obvious. What she didn’t know was what the pattern meant, or even why it existed in the first place. She had already thought that the gem was important somehow, but now the mystery only deepened.

With a sigh she lowered the jewel, knowing that she was unlikely to get anything out of it for now. Returning the jewel to her chest, she looked around. Her friends were still all huddled together, . But as the cave grew warmer they all slowly separated slightly, each drawing into themselves and re-living the immediate past which was already becoming surreal.

The silence covered the cave like a thick, suffocating blanket. It threatened to smother them all, yet none of them knew what to do about it. Never before had anything like this happened to any of them. Never before had they witnessed such destruction, not to mention the deaths of their seemingly immortal goddesses, all within the span of a few minutes.

Even the normally jubilant Pinkie was feeling the weight of the present. Her poofy hair was still hanging down around her head, despite the missing weight of the ice and snow. Twilight couldn’t be sure, but she thought that even the mare’s coat had lost some of its color.

It was Applejack who broke the silence. “I just don’t get it,” she said, her southern drawl drawing out each word. “What happened? And why?”

Rainbow answered her. “What happened? Some... thing just wiped out Canterlot, the Royal Guard, and the Princesses. That’s what happened.” The pegasus had a fire in her eyes.

“Rainbow,” Fluttershy said.

“You were there AJ, you saw the same thing we did. Whatever that thing is, it just destroyed Equestria. In minutes. Not the Royal Guard, not the elements, not even the Princesses were able to beat it. It just snuffed them all out like it was nothing.”

Every word was like a knife, plunging over and over into Twilight’s heart. The truth behind Rainbow’s words was undeniable: they had all been there and seen it, just like she said. And despite their best efforts, they had failed. The Elements hadn’t been enough to stop the dragon. They had failed and everypony else had paid the price. The tears which had stopped now returned once more.

Rainbow, please,” Fluttershy tried again.

Rainbow continued, her wings flaring out. “And now, to top it all off, we’re out here in this forsaken wasteland. Why? We don’t know. Only that instead of burning to death, we get to freeze. Or starve.”

“Rainbow, stop!” Fluttershy shouted, loud enough for her voice to echo off the cave walls.

Rainbow ceased her ranting, looking over at her oldest friend. Twilight couldn’t see what Fluttershy was doing, her vision blurred once more. But Rainbow fell silent, her head bowed once more as her wings settled back into their normal position against her side.

“I... I’m sorry Twilight.” The pegasus’ words did nothing to cushion the blow. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that Rainbow had every right to be mad. But still her words tore Twilight apart.

Her friends were quiet, letting her get herself under control again. The tears stopped fairly quickly. She had cried so much in the last couple of hours that she wasn’t sure she could cry anymore.

Umm, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight looked up, realizing that her head was still lying in her friend’s lap and that she must be quite uncomfortable. She sat up, sitting on her haunches. She wiped away the last vestiges of tears from her eyes. “I’m sorry Fluttershy, you must’ve been uncomfortable.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Oh no, Twilight, I’m fine.” Despite her words, the pegasus’ smile turned into a grimace when she stretched her hind legs out. “But I wanted to-” her voice trailed off and became inaudible.

“What?” Twilight asked.

“I wanted to-” Again she trailed off.

“Fluttershy...”

“She wants to ask you something,” Pinkie spoke up.

“Oh. Um, what do you want to know?” Twilight asked.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did the Princess save us? Why did she send us here?” Fluttershy turned her head away. “I’m... I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

Twilight set a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “It’s okay Fluttershy.” And in truth, it was something she had wondered herself. Though the first step would most likely be figuring out where “here” was.

She took in a deep breath, buying time to steady herself. Despite her harsh words, Rainbow was correct. They may have gotten lucky in finding this shelter, but they weren’t out of danger by a long shot. Surrounding them was nothing but ice and snow. They needed to figure out where they were and leave, or else they would die here.

“To answer your question,” Twilight said, her voice trembling and still a bit croaky. “I don’t know where we are.” She shot a glance up at the ceiling. “Maybe when this storm dies down, we can figure out where we are.”

She drew in another breath. “As for why she saved us and not herself, I don’t know that either. I think that if she just wanted to save us, she wouldn’t need to teleport us all the way to... wherever we are.”

She looked around. Each of her friends were looking at her, hope in their eyes. She knew they were hoping that she had the answers, that she would be able to explain things. But that wasn’t the case. Sure, she had grown up with Celestia and knew her the best out of everypony here, but the Celestial diarch had lived much, much longer than her. Twilight may be the smartest unicorn of her generation, but that was nothing compared to the knowledge Celestia must be privy to.

“I can only think that perhaps we are supposed to do something here. That Celestia has some plan for us. But what it is, I don’t know. Or how we’re supposed to do anything when we don’t know what to do.”

Pinkie spoke up for the first time since they had reached the cave. “That gem, could it be some sort of super-special thingy?”

Twilight looked over at the mare. Her hair was starting to poof back up and her coat was returning to its usual luster. “I don’t know.” She was getting tired of saying that phrase. It was something she almost never had to say, and whenever she did say it, she promptly fixed that, learning whatever it was she didn’t know. But now, she has no way of knowing. No library, no tomes, texts, or scrolls to look at. She felt insignificant.

But her entire world had been turned upside down in the space of a single night. They had discovered proof that they weren’t alone in the universe, only for it to attack them. They had gathered an army, only for it to be destroyed. Their leaders were dead and they themselves had been flung to who-knows-where. At this point, she was willing to concede that there wasn’t much she did know.

She glanced down at the gem, still being cradled in a forehoof. Celestia must’ve had a purpose behind giving her this, but she simply had no idea what it could be. Except for the pattern inscribed on it, it was a simple, unremarkable jewel, one of several that made up the Princess’ ceremonial regalia.

The more she thought about it, the more her thoughts ran in circles. This was one puzzle that was impossible to solve, as she didn’t have all the pieces.

A noise to her left brought her back to reality. She looked over to see Applejack trying to stifle a yawn.

“I’m sorry,” the farmer apologized.

“It’s okay AJ,” Twilight said. “We should try and get some sleep tonight.”

“Twilight, darling, about that...” Rarity spoke up. “Without the Princesses, what will happen to the moon and sun? Will they just stop where they are?”

Twilight thought about that. She tried to remember if she ever read something concerning the sisters’ being absent. “I think so. The sisters control their movements, so without them around, they’ll just cease to move.”

“Then what does that mean for Equus?” Fluttershy asked.

“It means that half the planet will be a desert, the other half a frozen wasteland.” Twilight said grimly. “Only a small band in the middle will be livable. It means that our world is already gone, unless we can find a way to bring at least one Princess back.”

Her words echoed about the cave, seeming to add to their weight. The shoulders of everypony in there dropped as what she said took hold.

“But that won’t happen for a long time, right? We still have time to fix this?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight nodded. “Yes. It’ll take time for that to happen.”

Pinkie jumped up and bounced around. “Woohoo! Okay girls, we need to get out of this cave and figure out where we are. Then Twilight, you need to cast some scary powerful magic and bring back the princesses.” She mimed this by holding a hoof on her forehead in a crude approximation of a unicorn horn and making whooshing noises. “Then we need to go and kick this meanie dragon back off our world!” She jumped up and bucked the air a few times. “Whaddya say girls?”

Pinkie’s antics caused Twilight to smile for what felt like the first time in forever. Somehow the party pony had headed off the lowering of the mood once more before it could take hold. “That sounds like a plan Pinkie.”

In truth, that was a crude but effective summation of what Twilight had been thinking. Surely Celestia had some sort of plan for if something like this were to happen. There was no way that the diarch would let her world die without a plan for how to save it. The only question was what that plan was, and how did she and her friends fit into it?

“I don’t know about y’all, but right now, I need to sleep,” Applejack said, yawning again. The farmer had laid down on the rock, curling herself up into a ball.

Twilight nodded. “Agreed.” She didn’t want to sleep, afraid of what she would see in her dreams. But her body was winning the war against her mind. It would only be a matter of time before she fell asleep regardless of what she wanted.

The six mares huddled together for warmth as they slept. Twilight found herself laying down on the cold rock floor between Fluttershy and Rarity. But each time she closed her eyes she was assaulted by the horrific scene that had happen just hours before. Images of death and destruction flashed across her eyelids. Above all was the Princess, standing there looking away from Twilight with a ghost of a smile that haunted her.

She resorted to laying with her eyes open. The rock walls of the cave may be boring and featureless, but at least they didn’t bring forth anything, no flaming fields nor dying ponies. The wind still whistled outside, though it had long ago been reduced to background noise. Mixing in with the wind was the soft sounds of her friends sleeping.

Fluttershy shivered a little in her sleep, a whimper escaping her lips. Twilight figured that she was dreaming about what had come to pass. She was sure that none of them would have pleasant dreams that night. Twilight summoned her remaining strength, reaching out a hoof over Fluttershy and drawing her close. The pegasus let out a comforted sigh, nuzzling up against Twilight’s body.

Twilight maintained her vigil of the cave walls. However, she was eventually forced to give in as each eyelid acquired bricks of exhaustion. Her eyes closed and quickly she slipped into sleep.

* * *

Twilight found herself standing atop the same hill where everything had changed earlier. Standing next to her were her friends. She looked behind her and saw the Princesses, alive and well.

It was night and they all stared up at the moon. The white orb hung in the sky, casting its pale rays across the shadowy ground. Camped out in the field was row after row of Royal Guard. Their armor reflected the moonlight. It looked like a sea of golden figures.

Twilight searched the sky, looking for the dragon. In the distance, Canterlot could be seen, whole and resplendent in the night. But the dragon was nowhere to be found.

“I don’t get it?” she asked.

“What don’t you get, my faithful student?” Celestia responded.

“Why are we here?”

“We are waiting for something,” Luna spoke up.

“But what?”

“You’ll see soon enough,” the sisters answered in unison.

Twilight tilted her head, not sure what to make of the answer. “I don’t understand,” she said.

But before she could ponder on it further, a cry arose from the Royal Guard. Twilight snapped her head around. Before her very eyes, members of the guard were simply vanishing. Seemingly at random, a guard would shimmer, as if a reflection cast upon a pond. Then the guard would simply vanish.

Other than the initial cry, nopony reacted to anything. “What’s going on?” Twilight cried out.

“We’re waiting for something,” called everypony present, their voices mingling and crossing, forming a cacophony of sound. Even as they spoke, more guards vanished, their voices subtracted from the equation.

More and more guards vanished. Soon only a few remained, including Shining Armor. Twilight galloped towards her brother, determined to stop what was happening. “Shining!” she called out.

He didn’t even turn his head to regard her. His eyes remained fixed upon an empty portion of the night sky.

Just as she reached him, he started to shimmer. “No!” she cried. She tried to throw her hooves around him. Instead she passed right through him, ending up on her face in the dirt.

“Shining,” she called him once more, reaching up a hoof towards him.

But her words passed through him just like she had. He continued to stare, even as he vanished without so much as a pop.

Twilight continued to hold her hoof out to empty air. “What’s going on?”

Her glance moved over to Canterlot. The entire city shimmered. Not a sound was heard beyond her own breathing as the city itself vanished. The mountain beneath it was unblemished, like Canterlot had never been built.

She got back to her hooves. Something was going on here. She felt like she should know what it was, but her mind failed her.

She turned her gaze back towards her friends. They too were staring at the sky. Cautiously, she made her way back over to them. The Royal Guard had completely disappeared. Only her friends and the Princesses were left. She almost felt as if approaching anypony would cause them to shimmer and vanish.

She made it to her friends without anything happening. “Oh thank Celestia. Girls, something weird is going on.”

“We’re waiting for something,” they said.

Twilight blinked. “What are you waiting on?”

“We’re waiting for something.”

Twilight turned her head to regard the Princesses. What she saw made her gasp. Luna had a gruesome looking hole in her chest. Twilight was sure she could see all the way through the alicorn, catching a glimpse of the night sky in the wound.

“Princess?”

Luna’s form started to shimmer. “Princess, what’s going on?” Twilight asked again.

Before the Princess could answer, she vanished, just like the others.

“I don’t understand. What is this ‘something?’”

Celestia’s features grew brighter. It was like somepony was shining a light source on her. All shadows were gone from her. The more Twilight stared, the more that the light source grew brighter.

She turned her head to see the light source, but with a gasp she realized that all her friends were gone as well. She hadn’t even noticed them shimmering, so focused was she on figuring out what was going on.

Behind her was an empty field, lit only by the moonlight. There was no source of illumination. But still, when she regarded Celestia once more, the white alicorn could almost not been seen with how bright something was shining on her.

Twilight could still make out Celestia’s face. She was smiling. Then she started to shimmer.

“Princess, what are you waiting on?”

“Why Twilight, the answer is simple: we’re waiting on you.”

The regal alicorn vanished, but not before saying one final thing. “Twilight...” The name started off low, but with each echo it gained in volume. The world around her started shaking as her name was being shouted to the heavens.

* * *

“Twilight!”

Twilight awoke with a start. “Huh?” she said.

She looked up to see Applejack standing over her. The farmer must’ve been calling her name and shaking her. She had a serious look on her face.

“What is it?” Twilight asked. She grew worried. Something had to have happened.

She looked around, seeing all of her friends were there. So no one had vanished while they slept. So then what had Applejack so worried?

“Twi,” Applejack said. She pointed with a hoof towards the hole in the ceiling.

A shaft of light pierced it, just like before. Only this time, the light was brighter. And the wind couldn’t be heard.

Twilight got up, confused at why Applejack was pointing this out. She stopped below the hole and looked up. No longer was snow blowing across the entrance. Clouds still covered the sky. A light snow was still falling, but it looked like the storm had passed.

“I don’t...” she started, but then something hit her. Even with the heavy snow no longer blocking the light, it was far too bright to be night.

She gasped. This amount of light could only mean one thing. She needed to confirm this, she needed to go outside.

She galloped out of the chamber. “Wait Twi,” called Applejack. She could hear her friend coming after her.

Twilight reached the entrance to the cave. The snow had mostly covered it. With a grunt, she pushed against the frozen powder. It refused to budge.

She threw her hooves forward, scooping out the snow, trying to create a hole. Tossing the snow behind her without a care, she continued to dig.

“Twi, what’s going on?”

“No time AJ, help me.” She didn’t even stop digging or look at her friend.

She felt her friend slide into place beside her. Together they worked to clear away what had been deposited by the storm last night.

As she shoveled snow, Twilight could only hope that what she was imaging was correct. If it was, then this changed everything, again.

Soon they had enough cleared that Twilight could force her head out. She scrabbled at the slick rock underhoof, trying to find enough purchase to push her way outside. She nearly jumped when a strong pair of hooves grabbed her flank.

“Hang on Twilight,” she could hear her friends voice.

With Applejack shoving, Twilight exploded out of the hole, snow billowing up and flying everywhere. She landed with a whoomp, the air in her lungs being forcibly evacuated.

As soon as she could draw in a breath, she rolled over, laying on her back and looking up at the sky. The clouds still covered most of the sky, but there were gaps. And in those gaps, she could see something wonderous.

Hints of a blue sky peeked through. The stars were nowhere to be seen. She scanned the sky, looking for something more.

Finally she saw it. A single glimpse through the clouds, seen and then gone before the clouds moved to cover it. But she saw it, shining bright in the sky, casting its rays across the land.

“AJ! It’s the sun!” she exclaimed.

Applejack nodded. “I wasn’t sure, so I thought you needed to see this. What does it mean Twi?”

Twilight felt a full smile grace her face. She turned her head to look at her friend, who was standing in the snow next to her. “AJ... Celestia must be alive! She got out.”

Author's Note:

Edited by:

Sasha Nein

Comments

[Sasha Nein]

Wooo! Looks great and I love that ending!!

[roflknief]

Yay the first glimpse of hope appears.

[BurningRockBaka]

Great story . Keep it up

[DauntedSuperior]

This story is to sad for me to read, but damn your a good writer. I had actually stopped after the first two chapters a few days ago, but I kept thinking of this story and had to read another chapter to get it out of my system. I'll leave you a thumbs up in hopes you're able to be shown around the site a bit more, but this story just isn't my cup of tea. Good luck writing it.

[Widow Peak]

“AJ... Celestia must be alive! She got out.”

Or...she never really controlled the Sun. Considering how this story is going, I will bet on the latter.