> Pony Cloud > by Tekkie > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > A Night(mare) to remember. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight sparkle laughed as her friend Pinkie Pie attempted to pin the tail on the pony for the tenth time, she had been attempting this for a couple of minutes now. The party that Pinkie was throwing was to mark the first anniversary of the day Twilight Sparkle (as orders from Princess Celestia herself) moved into Ponyville's library. Twilight looked up at the sky, examining the stars as they shone brilliantly in the night sky, Rainbow Dash had been working hard to make sure the weather was perfect for Pinkie's party, however Twilight couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right, as if this was just a distraction, Twilight smiled and shook her head diminishing the silly thoughts 'oh Twilight dear, you've simply had a very busy day and you're just worried something will ruin this large celebration Pinkie is holding in your honour' she thought to herself, smiling happily the lavender pony turned her attention to the snack table. Now that she thought about it she was pretty hungry so she trotted over to help herself to a snack, before she could reach the table however, there was a loud crack in the air and the sound of evil laughter erupted ominously from the centre of Ponyville. Everypony in town stopped what they were doing and looked towards the source of the sound, even Octavia had stopped playing her signature violin. There was another sound of evil laughter as the two fell out of sync, a loud crack of lighting revealed a large mare standing atop the library, Twilight recognised her straight away - Nightmare Moon and next to her: Discord. Twilight and Pinkie Pie looked up at the duo with disbelief we thought we had destroyed Nightmare Moon and encased Discord in stone for eternity. Discord grimaced at the reactions he was receiving, however nothing compared to the evil grin Nightmare Moon was showing, there was a final loud crack as a large, round pony appeared floating in the air behind them, it's horn glowed a bright pink as comets started to erupt from the sky, crashing down against Ponyville. Ponies started running and screaming, calling out for help. Twilight looked around frantically unable to find her friends and that's when she heard it, Trixie calling out for help as the top of the library fell down towards her, acting quickly Twilight rammed Trixie out of the way of the falling tower, grunting in pain as the heavy tip of the tower crushed her neck. Twilight groaned as she slowly flipped herself over, landing on her stomach Twilight looked up at the wreckage or lack of wreckage rather, there was a single building standing and that was one of the buildings she rarely entered: Octavia's bar, Twilight rushed into the building at the sound of faint music, when she arrived however the only pony there was a slow-motion Octavia with a strange fox with bat wings sitting on the stage next to her "shameful isn't it? the music is playing, but nobody here to hear it except from me and you" it said, it's wings spread and it took flight, dropping a scroll on the floor in front of Twilight, curious the lavender unicorn lifted the scroll using her magic and opened it. Twilight read over it in her mind Forest, is that it? one lousy word? she thought to herself however this one word was all she had right now. Twilight sighed and headed towards everfree forest, the walk seemed long and empty without any pony stopping to say hello, she panted lightly when she finally arrived at everfree, a sword was lodged into a tree at the entrance, blocking her way. Twilight examined it carefully, half of the blade was missing and the part that was there was made of an amethyst-like material, she wrapped her mouth around the hilt of the blade and pulled it out, lifting it with her magic Twilight watched, almost entranced as the rest of the blade formed in reaction to her magic all of a sudden a large snake leapt out of the shadows, catching Twilight off-guard she yelled from fright, falling over as the snake attempted to bite her, Twilight kicked the snake off of her and brought the end of the sword's blade down on the snakes head splitting it in two, the sword reacted to the snake's blood and the hilt suddenly warped itself to manipulate the look of a snake's skin, Twilight looked up at the entrance to everfree forest and gulped quietly, she didn't know what was going on but if some pony did, then she was certain she could find them in here. > Everfree Forest Pt.1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight had been walking through the normal route to Zecora's for a while now, she wasn't sure whether it was just the lack of her friends or something a bit more sinister behind the length of time it took for her to even get this side. Twilight stopped curiously as she spied a floating ball of crystals "Rarity would love that" she said aloud as she approached it, only to be swept off her hooves by a large spider, which hissed at her. Twilight stepped back as the spider jumped at her just as it reached mid-point in its jump the strange fox/bat creature from before swept down and forced it against the ground, digging it's fangs into it's head, crushing it slowly. The creature looked up it's fuzzy muzzle covered in the blood of the spider "Ah, Twilight just the pony I was looking for" "e-excuse me sir, just what are you?" Twilight interrupted, the sight of a odd creature like this sent questions reeling through her mind, the creature gave out a sound similar to that of a snort, however Twilight wasn't sure whether it was a snort or a laugh. The creature smiled with a wicked fanged grin Twilight winced nervously at the sight of the thing's fangs "Well miss Twilight, what I am is not that of importance right now, what is important - is whether or not you're ready to recollect your world, you see last night the world was wiped blank, leaving the various structures and populace encased in these magical shells" it explained, Twilight couldn't help but laugh "My good sir, it is impossible to contain all information of the world in magic shells" she argued, it was impossible after all. It cackled at her response "with Pony magic? sure, it is indeed impossible, however with dark magic and the power of discord, do you really think it would be impossible for that combination?" Twilight swallowed quietly as the sword started strafing back and forth on its own, the creature smiled and looked at the floating crystal orb "go on then, touch it" The strange creature almost demanded, Twilight nodded slowly and pressed her hoof against it, causing the Fox-like entity to laugh loudly "Not with yer hoof!" he yelled, his wings spread as he took flight, shoving Twilight's horn against the orb and then flew off into the forest, Twilight groaned and rubbed her horn as the crystal orb started cracking loudly, beams of light shone through the cracks, there was a loud hiss and a large snake with two heads dropped down from a tree, Twilight stepped back and took the sword's hilt into her mouth, gripping it tightly as she started ripping the crystal orb open with her magic. The snake hissed and leapt towards her, Twilight ducked down and brought her jaw along it's underbelly as it went over her, the blade ripping it's scales and soft underbelly open, the snake landed heavily and didn't move for a couple of seconds. Twilight thinking it was dead moved her attention back to the orb grunting quietly as she attempted to concentrate more magic into opening it, the snake leapt forward, biting her leg Twilight yelled out grabbing the sword again she brought it down on the snake's neck, ripping through it's scales and skin until both heads were decapitated. Twilight panted heavily, turning her attention once again to the orb and finally managed to open it. A large bracelet-like object that looked large enough to go around her hoof hit the floor, Twilight lifted it with her magic and examined it thoroughly, deciding it was probably best to put it on Twilight watched with interest as it tightened around her leg, fitting comfortably. Twilight looked up in the direction the strange fox creature went and grabbed the sword, whatever that thing was it knew something she didn't and that was something Twilight personally despised. > Everfree Forest Pt.2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The manticore watched as Twilight walked through the forest, licking its fangs at the sight of the lone pony, it lunged out from the forestry and roared, bringing its paws up high, claws at the ready and it knocked her off her hooves, throwing her across into a wide opened up part of the forest, it licked it's fangs again with its tail hunched up ready to strike. Twilight grunted as she was thrown through the bushes into a wide opened space, quickly picking the sword up with her magic she looked around, poised in a position to strike or atleast a position she thought looked like she was ready to strike. A pair of glowing purple eyes appeared from holes with the bushes Twilight focused on them as they disappeared, for a second Twilight thought she had been imagining things until the Manticore jumped out from behined her and right hooked her with its paw, she keeled over and slowly pulled herself back up, only to get left hooked this time, she spat out a couple of droplets of blood and scowled her mane was messed up she didn't know where her friends were or even if they were alive and she was being left in the dark. Twilight picked up the sword and slashed the Manticore's paw away as it came in for another hit, the manticore roared loudly and stepped back, then moved in for another try only to be met with the sharp stinging pain of Twilight's blade digging into it and then it slowly started twisting, the manticore howled in pain and ripped it's paw away leaving a bloody gash in it's paw. Twilight found herself smiling at the recoil of the manticore and quickly shook her head to dismiss the thoughts, rolling sidewards to avoid the sudden attempt to impale her on it's tail, Twilight brought the sword down on the edge of it's scorpion-like tale hack-sawing it slowly and laughed as the sword turned-blade-downwards and impaled the Manticore's tail in the ground, she jumped on the tail and ran along it's length, pulling the sword out with her horn only to bring it back to her and force it into the Manticore's eye which caused it to instinctively bellow in pain and swipe her off with its claws, Twilight grunted as she hit the floor and charged at the manticore again while it was rubbing it's eye, forcing the sword into it's chest, it roared in pain and fell onto it's back, wheezing it's last breath it slowly got up and roared - unlike it's past two roars this one seemed pitiful, it fell almost in slow motion and hit the ground hard. Twilight was panting heavily and there was beads of sweat running down her body, she looked herself over and coughed quietly she hadn't noticed during the fact that the Manticore had scratched her side pretty badly, deciding it would be best to set up camp and figure out what was going on with these orbs and why a manticore had attacked her unprovoked, she headed off in the direction of were her and the mane six had first encountered "Steve" the dragon, it was only logical after all it was a source of water and she was starting to get thirsty. Nirk landed on the dead manticore's body and smiled "Oh you poor baby" he whispered into it's ears, his bat wings spread as he took flight, leaving behind a small wooden half-moon on it's body. Twilight sighed and looked up at the moon, she was so lonely right now. Nirk grinned at the negativity emitting from Twilight's camp, it was delicious she was upset and lonely perhaps the most delicious forms of negativity he had ever tasted, especially from a pony that had lived their fillyhood alone, only to have their friends ripped away from her. Nirk shook his head lightly and he flew down to Twilight's camp, smiling as politely as he could "hey now girl, what's with the frown?" he asked as kindly as he could, Twilight sighed heavily "I'm just lonely without any of my friends here.." Twilight whispered to herself, Nark felt something tick in his head, but he shook it off "well miss Twilight, I do believe you have the power to bring them back" He teased, flapping his wings lightly. Twilight looked at him with a confused look "what? you mean this thing?" she asked, lifting her hoof up to reveal the bracelet-like alchemillia* Nirk laughed and started picking up his wings speed, lifting him off the ground a little more "I've already said too much, the big boss will have my head if I tell ya any more" he whispered, turning around and flying off in the moonlight. Twilight looked down at the Alchemillia and raised an eyebrow, her horn started to glow with the purple gem encrusted into the front of it. *Alchemillia, the Gauntlet that Allowed Toan to restore the world to it's original state and allowed Maxwell (Dark Chronicle/Dark Cloud 2) to travel forward in time + restore the world.