Just what secrets lie in the purple-hued town that exists only in the dream world? And what secrets lie in it's landmark tower?
A dream. It's just a dream. Lavender Ponyville is just a dream about a town almost exactly like Ponyville being covered in a weird purple-hued aura, isn't it? A weird purple-hued aura, along with a mysterious tower in the middle. That's it. Just that. Isn't it?
Twilight stood in the middle of her library, without memory of how she got there, or why she was even there. True, it IS her library. True, she DOES live here. But she never remembered letting the place grow an atmosphere this dismal. She never remembered the library being this....empty. All the books were missing, and the air itself seemed to give off a palpable feeling of dread and forboding, yet at the same time wonder and curiosity.
Twilight noticed something else, too. Everything was covered in a lavender-hued aura. If you looked at something, you also saw a lavender hue just floating right over it. Everything glowed purple, though as much as Twilight loved lavender, she did not like the feeling of this.
She took a walk around the library, examining the interior in full detail. Nothing seemed right. Not a single square millimeter of the library seemed right. Everything had the same lavender hue to it. The windows were boarded up for no apparent reason. Not only that, but everything also seemed....fuzzy. It was almost dream-like, the way everything looked and felt. But it also felt too vivid to be just a dream. Twilight, however, knew better than to just brush it off as too vivid to be a dream. Dream or not, though, Twilight was going to get to the bottom of this, and no creepy lavender aura was going to stop her from doing so.
Twilight walked over to the front door and slowly pushed it open. As she expected, the entirety of Ponyville itself was covered in the same, dismal lavender that coated the inside of her library. She stepped outside to get a better look. Not only was Ponyville covered in lavender, but many of the buildings had boarded up windows.
Twilight suddenly remembered something.
"Spike," she whispered. "Spike!" She searched all around the library for him, for any trace of him, anything that might tell her where he was. Maybe a note or something that told her she went out. But no, she found nothing. She began to grow worried. She then turned around, and the scene before her instantly changed. She began to calm down at this point. She now knew she was obviously dreaming. This happened to her all the time in her dreams, and to most dreamers in general. Turn around, and the dreamscape before you suddenly changes.
Where Twilight now appeared to be standing in her dream was the center of Ponyville. It was completely empty, and nopony was out. Twilight was completely alone, with nopony to pester her, free to explore the dreamscape at her leisure. Just the way she enjoyed her dreams.
She saw something in the corner of her peripheral vision. She turned her head to see a large, imposing tower next to her. It was huge, and it appeared to be made of red bricks. Still with a purple aura, though.
"That's strange," Twilight said to herself. She had dreamed of walking through Ponyville many times, but never before had she dreamed of a strange-looking tower suddenly appearing in her dreams. Or the town being covered in a purple hue, but that's beside the point. She walked up to the front doors of the tower and knocked lightly. No answer.
She gently pushed the doors open. They opened without resistance. She stepped in, her hoofsteps echoing off the walks of the inside of the large room she entered. It was a huge, circular room, completely featureless, except for what looked like a "help" desk, and a sprial staircase on the other side of the room.
The doors closed behind her when she entered. Twilight examined the room closely, but found nothing. She then ascended the stairs.
Upon reaching the top of the staircase, she saw two dark figures in the middle of a room identical to the one downstairs. One of the figures was laying on it's back, while the other figure was standing before it. The one lying on the floor looked to be a normal mare. In fact, the shadow looked vaguely familiar to Twilight. It looked like...
"Fluttershy?" Twilight said. She was about to walk over to the figures, until the figure standing up stomped on the figure on the floor. The figure on the floor let out a cry of pain. It sounded all too much like Fluttershy.
The figure stomped on Fluttershy again, causing her to scream once more. Twilight was about to run over and help who she thought to be Fluttershy, but she felt a pulling sensation upon her body. It grabbed her and forced her back, where she felt a sense of dread and helplessness as she saw one of her best friends pummeled to death right before her eyes.
Then she remembered, she was just dreaming. She let out a small sigh of relief. This was just a dream. Fluttershy would be ok. The real Fluttershy.
"Fluttershy?" Twilight knocked on the door to her cottage. She decided to check up on Fluttershy, even though she knew that she would be just fine. It was silly, she knew, but it was just a nagging feeling that went through her. She had to make sure, just in case.
"Fluttershy?" she knocked again, more firmly this time. No answer. She pushed against the door. It was locked.
Huh, that's strange. Thought Twilight. She decided to use her magic to break into Fluttershy's cottage. She felt bad about breaking into her friend's house, but she also felt that she had to deny a new feeling within her. A feeling of suspicion.
The door clicked open, and she used her magic to push the door inwards. She stepped inside and closed the door behind her.
"Fluttershy?" she called out again. Still no answer.
"Am I still dreaming?" She wondered out loud. She did a reality check and spun around. The scenery did not change. "Maybe not." Fluttershy probably went out. It wasn't unlike her to go out early to buy supplies for her precious animals. But Twilight decided to make sure.
She walked up the stairs to Fluttershy's room and knocked. No answer. What a surprise there. She gently opened the door and stepped inside. She saw Fluttershy's bed and saw a lump underneath the sheets. She promptly breathed a sigh of relief. She was just asleep, that was all.
"Oh, Fluttershy," she said as she walked closer to her bed. "Sorry about breaking in. I just wanted to check up on you. I'm glad to see you're ok, tho-" She froze. Something was amiss. Fluttershy wasn't moving. She wasn't even breathing. Twilight walked over to Fluttershy's bed and ripped the sheets off of her. She gasped at what she saw. Fluttershy's complexion was pallid. Twilight reached out a hoof to touch her. She was cold. She had likely been dead for a while.
"I-I'm still dreaming," Twilight said, unsure. "I've got to be." She quickly covered up Fluttershy's corpse, unable to look at it any further, and went to a closet and withdrew a sewing kit. She took out a random needle and jammed it within herself. It hurt. Blood drew where she stabbed herself.
She was awake. She would have shed tears then and there, but right now was no time to grieve. She saw the outline of Fluttershy being stomped upon by a mysterious figure in a dream she had, and now the real Fluttershy lay dead in her bed.
Wait a second. Twilight went back over to Fluttershy's bed. She braced herself and yanked the sheets back off again. She examined the corpse closely and saw bruises on it. It looked like somepony had stomped on her over and over again.
Twilight immediately ran down the stairs, out the cottage, and towards her library. She was going to get to the bottom of this, if it meant risking her own life.
Upon arriving at the library, Twilight immediately set to researching something, anything about dreams. Anything about dreams. Specifically dreams that killed. It seemed silly, yes, but it also seemed silly to check up on Fluttershy she saw her get killed in a dream, only to find her corpse in real life. At this point, Twilight decided nothing was silly anymore.
Book after book after book, Twilight found no answers. She was getting frustrated at this point. Just then, a peculiar cover caught her eye. She looked over to it.
'Dreams: an Encyclopedia.' She took out the book and began reading it.
"Dreams: a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep. Many theories have been made about Dreams. One particular neurologist named Ponemund Freud came up with the idea that Dreams symbolized one's deepest desires. Ancient Egyptian ponies believed Dreams to be another world which your soul visited every night when you slept. Today, though, many theories float around saying that dreams aren't all that they seem to be. Dreams-" Twilight started to get impatient and started to skim pages. She flipped through many pages, before she saw the words 'kill' and 'dream' used in the same sentence. She stopped at the page and began reading.
"Dreams can be very strange at times. They often seem to make little, if any sense at all. There are rumours floating around that speak of a mysterious phenomenon of a certain town that's said to only exist within the dream world. This town is said to be an exact copy of Ponyville, except it's perpetually covered with a purple-hued aura. The rumours that speak of this town speak of it's supposed ability to kill ponies in real life, by killing them in-dream. Where does the town's ability to kill come from? A mysterious tower located within the center of it. Ponies who claimed to have traversed this tower have spoken of a murderer that lives within the confines of the tower. Not much else is known about this "Lavender Ponyville," aptly named so because of it's lavender-hued aura." Twilight thought about what she just read. The book just described last night's dream in almost perfect detail, from the purple aura down to the tower itself.
Twilight pursed her lips thoughtfully as she set the book down. How would she go ahead and tackle the situation? There was, silly enough as it sounded, a killer dream on the loose. A killer dream town, to be exact. It seemed like the only way to handle the issue was to just sleep. And dream.
Twilight immediately ran up the staircase, went to bed, and used a spell that instantly knocked the consciousness out of her.
Twilight was one of the few ponies in existence lucky enough to have perfect dream recall, and very strong and vivid dreams. Slumbering ponies had many dreams during the night, but only remembered one or two of those dreams, if they were lucky. Twilight, at the moment, didn't know whether to consider herself lucky, or unlucky.
Upon falling asleep, Twilight was immediately set in the same location she was in when she last dreamed. Fluttershy's body, however, was missing. The tower must automatically 'clean' itself of it's victims every night.
Twilight didn't know when to begin or even if she should stay and explore the tower by herself. She was in danger, and she was by herself, with nopony to back her up.
She decided to just persevere and began ascending the stairs. She made it up several floors, the trip being surprisingly easy, with nothing getting in her way. It was honestly a breeze, just ascending all of these stairs.
Just then, a thought occured to her. The tower was tall. Really tall. It would likely take a while to ascend all of the staircases and reach the top. Of course, she was dreaming, so she wouldn't tire out. But still, she couldn't help but feel....apprehensive about what waited for her at the top of the staircase.
Just then, as she was making her way up another staircase, she saw a figure in the corner of her eye. She turned her head to see-
"Rainbow Dash!" she said. Actually, she had no idea whether it was Rainbow Dash or not. It was pretty dark within the tower. The walls had windows, but they let in very little light. What Twilight saw was a dark figure of a pony walking towards her. The figure's mane flowed in the same way that Rainbow Dash's mane flowed, but something about the figure seemed....wrong. It wasn't walking normally. Instead, it was stumbling, and it seemed to have a hard time standing up, as if it was about to fall over at any moment. Just then, the light coming from the windows shined. The light hit the figure at the perfect moment, revealing it to be Rainbow Dash, as it said, "Twilight.....run...." Rainbow Dash then fell.
Twilight was surprised at the state that Rainbow Dash was in. Her many was coated in thick red, completely blocking out the rainbow colouring, and the red was flowing out of her mane and staining the brick floor of the tower. All over Rainbow Dash's body were cut marks and gashes, where more red seeped out. Twilight could see a hint of entrails leaking out of the underside of Rainbow Dash, and she choked down bile. Bile, which, in a dream, shouldn't taste so real.
Twilight then noticed another figure approaching her. This time, it was running straight towards her. Twilight noticed the hat the figure was wearing and recognized it as-
"Applejack?!" Twilight stammered out loud, not wanting to see another one of her friends fall dead right in front of her.
"Twi!" Applejack said loudly and strongly. This gave Twilight some relief, as Applejack sounded strong enough to still be alive. Applejack crossed into the light, and Twilight saw that Applejack was slightly injured, only sporting a large gash across her cheek, but besides that, she was fine.
"Twi," Applejack said again as she grabbed Twilight by the hoof and began pulling her up the staircase. "Run!"
From behind them, Twilight could hear the sound of metal scraping against brick.
They ran up many flights of stairs, their hooves seemingly barely touching the surfaces of the stairs themselves. They ran, not knowing where it was they were going to. The sound of metal scraping against the brick floor echoed from behind them.
"Applejack!" Twilight said.
"No time, Twi!" said Applejack. "Just keep running!"
And so they did. They ran and ran and ran, the sound of metal scraping against brick following them, never getting louder, never getting quieter. It was a steady sound, a sound that would never tell you whether it was getting closer or farther away from you.
Eventually, they made their way to one flight of stairs which lead to nothing. Literally, it lead to nothing. It was a staircase that lead to a solid ceiling.
"Oh no!" Applejack said, her voice beginning to fill with panic.
"Maybe we reached the top of the tower?" Twilight said hopefully.
"No, Twi, you don't understand!" said Applejack, panic now taking over her voice completely. "There is no top!"
Their attention was caught by a mysterious figure that showed up from the staircase across the room. The figure was just a shadow shrouded in the half-lit darkness of the room, and yet it carried a menacing feeling, a feeling of dread and forboding. The figure itself seemed to say 'You're Fucked," without even using it's voice.
"Oh no!" Applejack yelled again. "She's here!"
Twilight felt a bead of sweat slide down the side of her head. The figure that stood on the other side of the room wasn't moving. It was just standing there, as if watching us from it's position in the half-lit darkness.
Applejack ran around the room and began hitting the sides of the walls and banging the windows, as if looking for a way out. She ran up the staircase and banged against the ceiling. Nothing happened. She was hyperventilating, which Twilight noticed, and was having a hard time maintaining a calm demeanor.
What was it about the figure that caused even Applejack to panic like this? Twilight found out when the figure began walking towards them.
The figure's movement wasn't smooth. It jerked back and forth as it stumbled towards them, in a seemingly uncoordinated manner. The light shining through the windows showed that it was holding a fireaxe. Well, more like dragging it across the floor. This was what was the source of the scraping noise that they heard earlier. More light shone upon the figure, and it's details were revealed. Instead of being a horribly disfigured pony as Twilight was expecting, it was actually a quite normal-looking mare, with the only "insane" features being her deranged eyes. She looked almost exactly like Twilight, the only two diffences being the aforementioned insane eyes and messed up mane. She also had no cutie mark.
"Twi," said Applejack. "If you know any spells to wake us up, now would be a very good time to use it."
"I'm on it," Twilight said. She focused her magic. Her horn glowed from the effort. The light from her horn grew brighter and brighter....before it fizzled out.
"Twi, this really isn't funny." Applejack said. "Please wake us up."
"This isn't a joke!" Twilight said, her own voice starting to fill with panic. "I'll try again." She focused her magic again, but the same thing happened.
"Twi! Not funny! Cast the spell, NOW!" Applejack screamed at Twilight.
"I can't! This isn't a joke! There's literally something in the air that's not letting me cast a waking spell!" Twilight screamed back.
Not good. The figure was getting closer. It was moving slowly, though, so perhaps they had the advantage in speed.
The mare abruptly jumped fowards several feet and swung the axe at them. Twilight leaned backwards as the axe swung towards them, suffering only from a small cut on the end of her nose. Applejack got the shorter end of the stick, however, as her other cheek now had a gash in it. Blood dripped off of their injuries and dotted the floor. The blood droplets grew smaller and smaller, and then disappeared, as if the floor was absorbing the blood.
Applejack turned around and bucked the mare in the face, causing it to stumbled backwards slightly. It dropped it's axe, which Applejack picked up and threw at the mare. A sickening splat was heard, right before the figure fell to the ground.
"I-is it over?" Twilight asked. Her answer was automatically answered when the mare slowly stood back up and removed the axe, which had been embedded within her side. Twilight found it strange, and at the same time sickening, that the mare remained silent the entire time, not uttering a single word or muttering a single moan of pain.
Applejack immediately returned to the walls, feeling them up and down and seemingly searching for something. Searching for what? Twilight didn't know. A sudden click caught her attention, though.
"Twi! this way!" Applejack grabbed Twilight by the hoof and dragged her to the part of the wall which clicked and shoved her into it. Twilight crashed into the wall, which opened and revealed a slide, which she fell into.
Twilight slid down the slide in complete darkness. The darkness seemed to permeate every inch of where she was going.
"Applejack?" Twilight yelled.
"I'm here, Twi!" she assured Twilight.
Twilight breathed out a small sigh of relief as she continued sliding down the slide. They were both ok. For now.
As she slid down the slide, Twilight thought about the interior design of the tower. From where Applejack had shoved her through the wall, she had expected to fall out of the side of the tower and towards her death, but she had instead fallen onto a slide. Twilight thought the design of the tower unusual, but then again, she was dreaming, so real life physics and logic had nothing to do with where she was right now. But then again.....killer dreams just didn't sound feasible. But then again....
Eventually, they were shot out of an opening at the bottom of the slide, and they emerged into a room almost exactly like the one they were just in before they went down the slide.
"Ouch," said Twilight when she landed. It wasn't a soft landing. She and Applejack were literally shot out of the opening like bullets, and they skidded across the floor.
"Anyways...." said Twilight as she slowly got up, wincing slightly from the burn marks she had sustained from skidding on the floor.
"Twi, how'd you get here, anyways?" asked Applejack.
"I feel like I should be asking you the same question," Twilight said.
"Well, Rainbow Dash and I have been exploring this tower for about a month now. We were getting better at avoiding the risks and dangers this tower had, but this time we got careless, and....and..." she choked back tears. "Rainbow Dash is dead now."
A month? Twilight was honestly not expecting that.
"What about you, Twi? How long have you been exploring?" Applejack asked.
"Well, this is actually my second time here." Twilight admitted. "How have you been exploring for a month?"
"Everytime Rainbow Dash and I fall asleep, we're sent here. We've had to fight for our lives every night for over a month, now, Twi. Didn't you notice how we were acting different lately?"
"Well..." Twilight said. "I noticed, and I asked you two about it, but you both said it was nothing and that I shouldn't worry about it."
"Oh. Right. Sorry, Twi..." a single tear leaked out of Applejack's eye. "And now Rainbow Dash is dead." She was openly crying now. "I didn't tell anybody else about this, Twi, because I didn't want to put anybody else in danger. You understand, right, Twi?"
"I understand, Applejack. But now Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are dead, and-"
"Fluttershy, too?!" Applejack exclaimed. "Why did I not hear about this?"
Twilight sighed. "Look, Applejack, right now, we're both in this together, and we have to do something about the tower, and-" Twilight remembered something.
"Wait," said Twilight. "It's daytime right now. Why are you, of all ponies, asleep during the day?"
"Wait? It's day now?" asked Applejack. "I guess I have been in here for a while, now. Has nopony tried to wake me up, yet?"
"I don't know," said Twilight. "But that doesn't matter now. We can't seem to wake up now, so I guess we might as well explore. It's either that, or die staying still."
"I guess you're right." said Applejack.
"Well, lead the way," said Twilight. "You've been exploring longer than I have. After all, it was you who saved us both earlier."
"Well, after falling through so many trap doors and....trap walls, I guess, I now expect to find a way out of any sticky situation. I doubt my luck will keep up like this, though." Applejack said. She had stopped crying by now. Her tears, like her blood from earlier, were absorbed into the floor.
Applejack turned towards a flight of stairs and ascended it, with Twilight following close behind.
After climbing many staircases, they decided to take a break. They sat down on the bottom of a random staircase and rested, recuperating and relaxing after about an hour of exploration.
"Why didn't your magic work earlier?” Applejack asked.
“I don’t know,” said Twilight. “It was as if there was something in the air that was preventing me from casting a spell that could wake us up. I could feel it. I think I can still use other forms of magic, though.”
“Well, either way, I’m just glad we’re safe for now.” said Applejack.
A sudden scraping noise caught both of their attention.
“Well, buck me.” Applejack got up and immediately began running up the staircase again, with Twilight following close behind.
"Wow. She moves fast!" Twilight followed close to Applejack as quickly as she could.
"It's not all the same pony." said Applejack. "It was just a coincidence that the pony from earlier looked almost exactly like you."
"What do you mean?" asked Twilight.
"From what I've gathered in this past month, this is something that I can only guess, but it's what you would call an.....ah....what was it called again? Infe....Infer...."
"Inference?" said Twilight.
"Yeah, an inference. I infer whoever dies in the tower, their image is used for one of the occupants of the tower."
"Meaning....?" said Twilight
"Whoever dies in here become a Denizen of the tower." said Applejack plainly.
"So, someone who happened to look exactly like me died in this tower?" Twilight asked.
"Seems like it. I'm just glad we haven't seen Fluttershy yet. I wouldn't have the heart to buck her in the face."
As soon as they finished ascending another flight of stairs, they came across a figure with a familiar yellow coat.
"Speak of the devil." muttered Applejack.
The figure walked towards them, in the exact same manner as the figure before, with the faint light from a window shining on it in exactly the same way as the figure from before. As expected, the figure was a cutie mark-less mare, only this one looked exactly like Fluttershy. She had the same insane eyes and wild mane that the other figure had.
From behind them, Twilight saw another figure creeping up slowly towards them. It was too dark to see who this figure was, though.
"Got any ideas, Twi?" asked Applejack.
"Yeah. I can't wake us up, but I can probably blast a bolt of magic at Fluttershy and send her sprawling, giving us enough time to make a break for it." said Twilight.
"But it's Fluttershy-"
"That's NOT Fluttershy." said Twilight. "And whoever is coming up from behind us is not whoever it may have been originally."
"I....sorry, Twi. You're right." Applejack said apologetically.
"Ok, ready. On 3." Twilight readied herself.
"1....." She went into a stance.
"2...." From behind her, she heard the sound of a fireaxe being lifted off the floor.
"....3!" She unleashed one bolt of magic which hit the Fluttershy Denizen, sending her flying across the room. She crashed through a window and promptly disappeared. Twilight then turned around and fired a bolt of magic at the figure that was approaching them from behind. The light from the bolt briefly illuminated the figure, revealing it to be an unknown mare whom neither Twilight nor Applejack had seen before.
"Run!" said Twilight as she ran up a flight of stairs. Applejack followed closely behind.
"You know what, Applejack?" said Twilight as they both continued ascending the stairs. "I'm not a fan of puppeteers, but I have a bad feeling that somepony, or something else is pulling the strings behind what's happening."
"I hear ya, Twi," replied Applejack.
They ran. Running was something they were both used to by now, especially running in waking life. Running in dreaming life, though, they both knew to feel different. This, however, felt all too real. The clopping of their hooves against the hard floor, the blood and adrenaline rushing through their bodies, it all felt too real. That was the scary part. The part that scared both Twilight and Applejack.
They were also fearful of the idea that if everything else felt so real, so would the pain that accompanied whatever it was these Denizens were planning to do to them. As for what that was, it wasn't too hard to guess. They wielded fireaxes. Fireaxes cut things. Even Applejack could do the Fancy Mathematics.
The purple-hued aura never let up. It covered anything and everything. Even the Denizens gave off their own purple auras, only theirs flickered and pulsed, as if beating from whatever flowed through their veins. If they had veins.
The final thing they feared was what would happen to them if they actually died. From what they saw earlier, it seemed as if the images of whoever died were used for the Denizens of the tower. What they didn't know was if their souls were actually trapped in the tower, or if it was only their image that was being used. Either way, neither Twilight nor Applejack wanted to find out.
After running up several flights of stairs, they were fortunate enough to find what looked like a trapdoor that closed off the lower levels of the staircases. Applejack slammed the trap door closed and locked it. Seconds later, banging noises could be heard coming from the trap door.
"I wonder how long it'll hold," said Applejack. She decided not to stay and find out.
They made for the staircase, but were dismayed to find that it led to another dead end.
They turned around to see the Twilight look-alike standing in the middle of the room, staring back at them. It was unarmed. There were no signs of it having entered in the first place, as the trap door was still being banged upon.
They stood like this for a while. Staring each other down. The insane eyes of the look-alike never blinked, never shifted, but only stared straight at them, one eye looking at Twilight, the other looking at Applejack.
The look-alike then took one step forward. Twilight openly flinched from this. It then took another step forward, in which Twilight and Applejack took one step behind in response.
"Twi, you're a genius, use your brain," said Applejack.
"Another blast of magic?" suggested Twilight.
"Sounds good. Just do it," Applejack urged Twilight.
"Well, alright." Twilight fired a bolt of magic at the look-alike. It merely raised one hoof, which the bolt hit, and then the magic bolt bounced back and flew right back at Applejack. Applejack took the bolt head-on and was sent flying back until she hit the wall.
"Applejack!" Twilight yelled in surprise. She should have known that the Denizens would have gotten more intelligent. How could she have been so foolish, relying on the same strategy more than once?
She turned her attention back to the look-alike, who had closed the distance between them completely by now. The look-alike grabbed Twilight by the neck, and was choking her. Twilight fought against the look-alike, thrashing within it's grip. She could feel the life slowly drain out of her, the oxygen in her blood thinning. She was going to die, right here, right now, and there was nothing she could do about it. At least she'd join Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, and probably Applejack, if she was dead, in either heaven, hell, or being a prisoner of the tower....
No! Now was not her time to die. Instead of yielding to the deadly grip of the look-alike, she fought harder this time. She struggled with all her might, and she could feel the grip of the look-alike slipping slightly.
"No!" said Applejack weakly, who had crawled over to the look-alike and feebly grasped her ankle in an attempt to help Twilight. Applejack bit down upon the look-alike's ankle, causing her to drop Twilight. "Twi! Run!"
"Applejack!" choked Twilight after she had fallen out of the look-alike's grip. She laid on the floor, gasping for air. She stumbled back up on her hooves and was about to help Applejack, until the trap door suddenly opened and the two Denizens sprang forward, their fireaxes in tow. One of the swung the fireaxe downwards and cut off Applejack's leg cleanly. She screamed loudly and madly from the injury.
Twilight looked helplessly as they mutilated and murdered Applejack before her eyes. Twilight didn't know whether Applejack would Pass after dying or become a prisoner of the tower, but, for now, she wouldn't allow Applejack to suffer. She fired a bolt of magic directly at Applejack. The bolt passed through her head and out the other side of her skull. Gore and grey matter splattered onto the floor, before promptly disappearing.
"I'm sorry, Applejack," said Twilight. She had probably condemned one of her best friends to an existence of eternal servitude, but now was not the time to mourn. She focused her magic, her horn glowing brightly, and decided to cast a spell which she learned a long time ago, but never found the use for, until now. She focused her magic into a single point, until it became a tiny point of extreme magical pressure, all while the three Denizens approached her slowly.
She then unleashed her magic, causing a large explosion which flung the three Denizens into the walls, but also sending her flying into a window, which shattered. Luckily, though, she landed on a solid floor. No, wait. A solid, moving floor. She opened her eyes to see that it was a conveyor belt, which was carrying her to an unknown location.
Not wanting to take the chance, she created a small ball of focused magic, which she threw at the open window before her, causing another large magical explosion, in an attempt to slow down the Denizens that were surely giving chase to her.
It was not a single conveyor belt. It was several. Five, to be exact. Five conveyor belts, all placed next to each other, all going at the same speed in the same direction towards the same destination.
Twilight did not sit there and wait for the conveyor belts to take her where she needed to go. She ran along the conveyor belts, with the Denizens giving chase. Her explosive magical ball from earlier had not slowed them down at all.
Twilight paused and tossed a ball of explosive magic at the Denizens. Magic splashed over the walls and conveyor belts and stuck to two of the Denizens, slowing them down in a giant mess of sticky magic. They were left stuck inside the magic, their hooves just barely off the conveyor belt, left dangling and thrashing about.
That only left the look-alike.
Twilight turned around and continued running along the conveyor belt. A sudden sparkling sound wizzed by her ear, causing her to flinch reflexively in the process. Ahead of her, she saw a massive explosion of electricity that was barely out of Twilight's reach.
She was lucky. Too lucky. Luck that somehow left Applejack, but just aided her. But just how long would that luck last, in a place such as this?
She looked back to see the look-alike's horn charging, just before it threw another ball at Twilight. She threw her own magic ball back at it, causing them both to explode in mid-air. Twilight's luck hadn't run out yet; as the explosive energy from both of the balls had competely enveloped the look-alike, and it face-planted into the ground.
Twilight formed one final magical ball and tossed it. It hit the look-alike directly, causing a massive explosion, an explosion much larger than those that had all just happened.
When the energy settled down, Twilight saw the look-alike stuck in place from the sticky magic, and paralyzed from the electricity of it's own blast.
Twilight did it. She had won the battle. The battle, but not the war.
What an overused expression, she thought to herself. Overused or not, it was true.
Her magical capabilities were stronger than most unicorns like her, but using all that magic still left her feeling quite drained. She fell to her knees, taking deep breaths, trying to calm her thundering heart. She was going to have to get used to the feeling of battle if she was going to survive the tower, and if she was going to survive the rest of her encounters with the Denizens. And now that Applejack wasn't with her anymore-
Applejack. She choked back a sob at the loss of three of her dearest friends. First Fluttershy, then Rainbow Dash, and now Applejack. Half the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony were dead now. Was Equestria safe with only three of the Bearers still alive? She couldn't worry about that, for now. She had to keep moving.
She ran the rest of the length of the conveyor belt, eventually reaching the end. She looked back to check if the Denizens were following her. They weren't.
At the end of the conveyor belt was an escalator that went upwards. She gathered a little bit of what little magic she had left and formed a mine of sorts, sort of like a land mine which would trip if anypony, or anything got too close to it. She stuck it to the handle next to the conveyor belt, which, unlike the conveyor belt itself, did not move, so it stuck in place. If the Denizens broke free from their traps and got close enough to the mine, she would hear the explosion. A smart strategy, one that, unfortunately, just drained her of the rest of her magic. Well, not all of it. She had enough to form a weapon out of solid magic. Something simple, though, such as a blade, or a blunt object.
But she would save that for later. For now, she would allow herself to recharge, and if any more Denizens came her way, she would run.
She quickly ascended the escalator, not slowing down at all. She was still surprised at how life-like the dream had become. When she first dreamed of this town and realized she was dreaming, it was as if she were in a lucid dream. More vivid than any other lucid dream she'd ever had, but it still had that feeling of.....'off-ness' that told her she was dreaming. Now, though, everything felt as real as waking reality. She still knew it wasn't reality, though. What she didn't know was if she was ever going to wake up. Perhaps if she made it to the top of the tower, she would.
Wait. Applejack said there was no top. What did she mean by that? How did she accumulate that knowledge? Was there literally no top, just an endless amount of floors and stairs and winding paths that seemed to lead elsewhere yet stayed in the same location yet still, in the end, ascended? Either way, Twilight had already gone too far to turn back.
She finally reached the top of the elevator, which led to a floating platform and a door that looked as if it connected to nothing. It was literally just a door on a floating platform.
She opened the door, revealing a portal-like rectangular hole where the door had once been. She stepped through the portal. The door slammed shut behind her.
She stepped into a small, dark, medieval-looking square room. It was dimly lit by several torches placed on the walls. A single, lone figure standing in the middle. The figure had it's back turned to Twilight, and was lying face-first on the floor. Twilight saw a circular-looking object on what looked like the head of the figure.
"Applejack?" Twilight whispered. She immediately clasped a hoof to her mouth, but she was too late. The figure heard her. It stood up slowly. It then turned around, just as slowly, it's head bowed, it's hat covered it's face, but Twilight would recognize that hat anywhere. It was Applejack's hat.
The figure lifted it's head to look at Twilight, making eye contact with Twilight, with Twilight's frightened eyes staring directly into it's own insane eyes.
"Applejack...." said Twilight.
"Twi...." said the Applejack Denizen. That suprised Twilight. So far, this Applejack Denizen was the only Denizen to speak. "You thought you'd do me a favour, but you only damned me eternally to be a Denizen."
"Is it really you, Applejack?" Twilight asked uncertainly.
"Twi...." Applejack said again as she slowly stepped towards Twilight. "I'm not quite gone, yet, unlike the others. I don't know how much longer I can keep talking to you like this, before I lose myself. I can't stop hearing these voices in my head. I can't stop. But listen to me, and listen to me good, Twi. There's no top to the tower. No matter how high you climb, you'll never reach the top. But there is a way to beat the tower."
"How, then?" asked Twilight. "How do I beat the tower?"
"I don't know. Actually, I don't know if you even can. But the voices keep talking, so many voices on top of each other. They're the voices of everypony who's ever died here. Our suspicions were right, Twi. Whoever dies here is eternally damned to be a servant of the tower forever. But there is a way to beat the tower and free every soul trapped in here. I keep listening to every voice, and I keep trying to single them out one by one, listening to a bit here, and a bit there. Over time, I've managed to keep my sanity and gather enough information, and-" Applejack began convulsing violently, her facial features contorting into a deranged mask.
"A-applejack?" Twilight asked, getting ready to run. Eventually, though, Applejack calmed down, but her eyes looked more insane than before, and she now had a noticable twitch, and she spoke faster now, as if in a hurry to finish telling Twilight what she had to tell.
"Twi! The tower is a maze. You have to reach the Terminal. Once you reach it, you'll reach Her lair. Kill Her, and this will all end. We'll all be released, and then the town will disappear from our dreams. This whole nightmare will end. Hurry, Twi. You have to- DANCE FUCKER, DANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!" Applejack had finally let go. A fireaxe formed out of thin air and was now in the hooves of Applejack. She swung the fireaxe at Twilight, who narrowly dodged it each time.
"Dance for me!" Applejack screamed, every syllable of every word she spoke ladled thickly with vocal insanity. "Dance for me!" The way Twilight dodged the fire axe's swings, it was almost as if she was dancing, but that didn't satisfy the now-insane Applejack Denizen.
"WHY WON'T YOU GOD DAMN DANCE FOR ME?!" Applejack threw the fireaxe at Twilight, who dodged it. Applejack then pounced upon Twilight, tackling her to the ground, and attempted to bite her, snapping her jaw open and shut mere inches from her face.
Unconsciously, as Twilight struggled against the Applejack Denizen, she formed a ball of magic between herself and the Applejack Denizen. Expelled from the ball of magic was a blade that looked to be formed from solid light. It impaled the Appelack Denizen, using it's continued momentum to propel itself and the Denizen to the ceiling, where it stuck fast. The Applejack Denizen was stuck to a sword made of solid magic stuck fast into a brick ceiling, with no hint of it, or the Denizen ever coming loose.
Twilight immediately jumped to her hooves and dashed to the other side of the room and banged through a door. She slammed the door closed behind herself and was left standing in a dark hallway, with a rectangle of light on the other side of the hallway. She made her way towards the rectangle of light, not looking back, and not wasting any time mourning for her now insane friend Applejack, who she would do everything in her power to release from the tower.
Twilight stood before the rectangle of light, ever tempted to walk through it, but she waited until all of her magic was restored first before she would walk through it.
An hour or so later of standing still, her magic fully recovered. She would learn to use it more sparingly next time she encountered a Denizen. She was just thankful that no Denizens had come after her while she waited in this dark hallway.
Steeling her nerves, she stepped through the rectangle of light, not know what to expect.
"What the-?!" She had stepped into what was probably the most out-of-place room in the entire tower. It looked like it had come straight out of Sugercube Corner itself, with balloons and party streamers, everything party-related strewn all over the room. And Twilight saw Pinkie Pie standing in the middle of the room, sitting dejectedly in the middle of the room, her hair straight, and tears rolling out of her eyes and falling to the floor.
"Pinkie," said Twilight. Pinkie Pie's head instantly turned towards where Twilight was standing, her eyes going wide with fear at first glance, before turning to relief when she saw the look in Twilight's eye; her look was not that of a Denizen.
"Oh, Twilight!" Pinkie ran across the room and threw her arms around Twilight and broke down, crying. "I've been running away from Rainbow Dash for a long time, now! The look in her eye, it's so scary! And she has a fireaxe and keeps trying to kill me, and I have no idea where I am, and, and, and-"
"SSsshhh, it's ok, Pinkie," Twilight comforted her friend as she explained everything that was going on, where she was, and what was happening.
"Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash are all dead?!" Pinkie exclaimed in disbelief. She cried even harder this time, tears now opened streaming down her face and dripping off her chin.
Twilight waited patiently for Pinkie Pie to calm down as she held her friend in her arms. Eventually, she did calm down. She removed herself from Twilight's embrace.
"How exactly did you get to this...this..." Twilight gestured at the room before them. "....this room, anyways?"
"Well, like I said, I ran away from the Rainbow Dash Denizen, and I managed to lose her, but then I got stuck in this room. I think the tower's mocking me, now, sticking me in a room like this. I didn't know why Rainbow Dash was doing that to me, and I was too scared to go anywhere else, so I just stayed here, and....well....cried...." Pinkie said.
"Hm. Well, now you know there's a way to beat the tower. I can't promise either one or both of us won't die, but we should be safer if we go through it together." said Twilight.
"Of course we're going together!" said Pinkie. "I can't just let you go through it alone! I'll be by your side, every step of the way." Pinkie reassured her friend.
"Thanks, Pinkie." Twilight smiled gratefully. "Where did you come in from, anyways?"
"From here," said Pinkie. She gestured for Twilight to follow as she walked over to an elevator. The elevator's arrow currently pointed to the letter G, which Twilight assumed meant 'Ground," even though from everything and everywhere she had been through leading up to where she currently stood, she knew that the floor she was on was obviously not 'Ground,' but right now, with this tower, anything and everything went. Besides, it probably meant 'Ground' for this floor. The arrow could also point to 1 and 2.
"I jumped into the elevator and slammed a random button, then I ran out of it and collapsed in the middle of this room right here." said Pinkie.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Twilight. "We got our friends to save."
The elevator door opened when the arrow hit the '1.' The doors slid open slowly and silently open, revealing the Rainbow Dash Denizen standing before them. Her head was bowed, and red droplets seemed to be dripping from her face and onto the floor, where they promptly vanished.
Pinkie stifled back a gasp of surprise and fear, and quickly placed a hoof over he mouth to cover up the sound. Luckily, the Rainbow Dash Denizen didn't seem to hear them, and it's head remained bowed. Twilight, instinctively knowing not to make a sound, remained silent. Luckily for them, the elevator doors remained silent the whole time, not even a 'ding!' to let them know that the doors wore opened, and no rusty creaking metal to alert the Denizen of their presence, so they remained completely unnoticed.
Twilight quickly pressed the button for Floor 2, and the doors began closing again. They were almost in the clear, until the Denizen suddenly lifted it's head. Upon seeing Twilight and Pinkie standing the elevator, the Rainbow Dash Denizen thrust a hoof between the doors of the elevator. The Denizen's hoof came between the doors at just the right moment, stopping the doors from closing all the way. The doors struggled to keep closing, however, and the Denizen's hoof cracked like glass and blood started dripping from it.
Pinkie backed up against the wall in fear, while Twilight aimed her glowing horn at the Denizen. A bullet of magic shot forth from her horn and hit the hoof, releasing it from the door, and allowing the doors to shut all the way.
"That was too close," Pinkie said.
"Way too close," said Twilight.
"There might be more of them on the second floor," said Pinkie.
"I know, and that's what worries me," said Twilight. But then a thought came to her, a thought she hadn't tried earlier. "Pinkie, this is currently a dream right now. A very vivid, and extremely dangerous dream, but still a dream. Why not try creating a weapon for yourself to use? After all, I can control my dreams just fine, so there shouldn't be any reason that you can't."
Pinkie didn't reply, which was strange for her, but Twilight couldn't blame her, after what had just happened. Twilight knew Pinkie would take the idea into consideration, though.
When they reached the second floor, the door opened, again opening slowly, almost as if it were deliberately taking it's time.
When it opened, they stepped through, into a long, descending spiral staircase. They could lean over the railing to see into the lower levels. Or at least, they would have been able to, had the lower levels not been shrouded in what seemed like solid darkness.
Twilight formed a magic sphere of light on her horn, which she dropped over the railing and down into the lower levels. After a few feet, the darkness seemed to swallow the sphere.
"Well, that's disconcerting," said Twilight. "No point in staying put, though. Come on, Pinkie. We better get moving." She began to descend the staircase, with Pinkie following close behind. Their hooves banged upon the metal staircase, the sound reverberating all around them, as if many hammers were banging metal plates all around them. The sound honestly was a concern to both of them. It might attract unneccesssary attention. Then again, unneccessary attention was pretty much all they were getting.
The perception of the staircase was quite unusual. They could see the immediate space around them, and several feet above and below them, as if they were being illuminated by bright spotlights, but beyond their little patches of visibility was the aforementioned darkness, which, again, seemed solid.
After a while, they decided to sit down and rest, after what seemed like an eternity of descending an endless staircase.
"So, I've been thinking about what you told me earlier," said Pinkie, breaking the silence. "About forming something solid in this dream land? Well, I was wondering what I should form, but now it came to me..." she closed her eyes and concentrated hard for a moment, before a cannon suddenly formed before them, on a slightly lower part of the staircase.
"Look! I made a party cannon! See? Told you I never leave home without it," she grinned.
Twilight couldn't help but laugh at what just happened. Even in a dark, broken environment such as this, Pinkie still found a way to do unreasonable things, like making her party cannon.
"Speaking of your party cannon, does it fire anything besides parties?" Twilight asked.
"Oh, yeah, it fires cannonballs, too. But since we're dreaming, I thought I might add a different kind of ammunition into it." Pinkie said slyly.
"Well, I guess we're about to find out," said Pinkie as she got up and readied her cannon. She pointed the business end of it upwards, waiting for a potential target to walk into it's theoretical crosshairs.
Several tense seconds later, a target did appear. It was the Rainbow Dash Denizen, her hoof still leaking blood, which stuck to the staircase and dripped off of her hoof with each step.
As soon as the Denizen got close enough, Pinkie slapped the behind of the cannon, causing a large square slab of concrete with a rounded off top to be shot out, and it impacted the Denizen, causing it to fly back and into the wall, where it comedically bounced off and fell into the darkness below.
Upon closer inspection, Twilight saw that Pinkie fired what looked like a-
"A tombstone? Wow, Pinkie....uh....didn't expect that," Twilight muttered.
"Well, I thought it would be a nice touch to our friends," Pinkie said in a tight voice, obviously resisting the urge to cry again. Now wasn't the time to cry again, though. She pulled herself together quickly, and disintegrated her party cannon back into nothing.
They continued descending the staircase, constantly prepared for another attack, or perhaps for the Rainbow Dash Denizen to make it's way back up the staircase and try to attack them again. At this point, they both were smart enough to know that the Denizen wasn't dead. Anything but.
They walked as silently and slowly as possible, so if the sounds of quick hoofsteps drowned out the sounds of their own slow hoofsteps, they would know it was a Denizen approaching.
Just as they expected, the hoofsteps of a Denizen was eventually heard. Several sounds of Denizens, actually. The sound was coming from both above and below. Twilight and Pinkie went back-to-back, Twilight preparing her horn, and Pinkie with her party cannon. Twilight took watched of the ascending part of the staircase, and Pinkie the descending part.
The hoofsteps slowed down, slightly at first, but then slowed down so much, they knew that the Denizens were walking.
The Rainbow Dash Denizen approached Pinkie, while Twilight was tasked with confronting her look-alike, with the Applejack and Fluttershy Denizens trailing behind her.
"Applejack?" Twilight asked tentatively, even though she knew that she would not get an answer. The Applejack Denizen was now silent, just like the rest of them.
"Thought so," said Twilight as she pooled her magic into her horn. She was about to throw a ball of sticky magic at the Denizens in front of her, until she suddenly felt herself growing lighter.
"What the-?" she gasped as she felt her being lifted off the staircase. The last thing she heard was the sound of a cannon firing, before she realized that she was being shaken awake.
"Pinkie!" Twilight yelled as she bolted upright in bed.
"Pinkie's fine," said a familiar voice, which sounded unfamiliarly tight with emotion. "But Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy-!"
Twilight turned her head to see that Spike and Rarity were standing before them, both of them openly crying and tears openly streaming down their faces.
"Twilight, darling, it seems so strange that you were asleep for so long, especially for somepony like you, but it's even stranger that you slept through their tragic deaths. Listen, dear, I know this might come as a shock to you, but-"
"Rarity! Spike!" Twilight yelled suddenly. Both of her friends flinched at the sudden volume of her voice.
"Now, Twilight, darling, I know this might come as a big shock to you, but I just want to let you know that we're all here for each other, and-" Rarity said, before being interrupted by Twilight again.
"Rarity! You don't understand! Pinkie could be in danger! I got to go back and save her!" Twilight yelled.
"What? What are you talking about? Pinkie is asleep in bed at Sugarcube Corner. I checked. I didn't want to wake her, though. Her mane was straight again, and I didn't want to sadden her any further, and-"
"Ugh!" Twilight yelled in frustration. They clearly would not leave her alone until they understood what was going on. She got out of bed, went over to the bookshelf, pulled out the book on dreams, turned to the page on Lavender Ponyville, quite literally shoved it in Rarity's face in frustration, went back to bed, said, "Don't bother me again," then passed with one quick glow of her horn.
She floated down back into the dreamscape when she fell asleep, floating gently back down into the location which she was previously located. As she floated down, she saw Pinkie Pie being dragged back up the stairs by the Denizens. She saw the look of desperation and fear that was clear in Pinkie's eye as she struggled to break free of the holds of the Denizens.
"Pinkie!" Twilight yelled. Her voice caught the attention of the Denizens, who turned around and stared, insane eyes seeming to sparkle in the half-lit darkness of the tower. Pinkie's fear-filled eyes then became filled with hope.
Anger coursed through Twilight, rage and fury which she had no idea that she was capable of feeling. She closed her eyes, took the rage and fury and pooled it into her magic, which she focused into her horn. The emotions gave her magic much more power than she ever thought was possible. She concentrated the magic into a single, extremely focused point of light, barely visible on the tip of her, but still there. She took every droplet of magical power that flowed within her and focused it all into her horn. Then, without warning, the the tip of her horn stopped glowing. She opened her eyes again, and they were glowing purple. Years of magical training and study had refined her skills, and it would all add up to this point. She had already lost three of her precious friends to the tower. She wasn't going to let one more die. Not one more.
"PINKAMENA DIANE PIE!" Twilight roared at the top of her lungs. "You do not die! Not today!" Twilight aimed her horn, then let loose a slight blast of magic. At least, it felt slight, but when she saw the huge blast of light flash before her, and the magical harpoon struck one of the Denizens and stuck them into the wall behind them, she know that she had finally reached her magical peak. She was pushed towards the very edge of her magical limits. She was going to be very exhausted after this ordeal, but for now, she had to rescue Pinkie. She had to.
She let loose two more harpoons, one for the other two Denizens, which stuck them to the wall, freeing Pinkie, who leapt to her hooves and jumped to Twilight's side.
Twilight smiled at Pinkie, who smiled back, then she turned to face the Denizens again.
"Don't worry, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy..." Twilight said sincerely. "I promise I'll get you out of there." She then released all the magical pressure from her horn, and all the rage, hate, and fury all came loose in one giant white laser, which physically forced Twilight back several feet, her hooves actually causing cracks in the brick floor from how hard she was struggling to stay still. Several bricks flew past them as the laser pierced the wall and knocked them loose.
When the laser died down, there was no sign of the Denizens, but there was a massive hole in the wall where Twilight's magical laser had hit, a perfectly circular hole, which revealed empty blackness. A few seconds later, the wall seemed to heal, sealing the hole.
"Twilight...I had no idea you had that kind of power..." Pinkie's jaw lowered in awe.
"Years...of training...." Twilight said, right before she collapsed from exhaustion.
"I thought I was done for." Pinkie had held an exhausted Twilight in her arms, who would have been unconscious at this time. Had she not already been unconscious.
"I thought I was going to lose another friend," Twilight said in response to Pinkie's statement. "I wasn't going to let that happen, though. No. I won't let that happen. Never." Twilight smiled weakly at her friend.
"Can you stand?" Pinkie asked Twilight after they rested for a while.
"Yeah." Twilight stood up, slowly, and nearly fell back down, but she managed to keep her hooves firmly planted against the ground. Her head was throbbing, and the world seemed to be spinning, yet at the same time, remained rock-solid.
"Are you sure you can stand?" asked Pinkie.
"I'm sure." Twilight tried to smile reassuringly at Pinkie, but they both knew that it came out weak and feeble. They ignored it, however, and kept moving.
They descended the staircase until they reached the bottom. At the bottom was a single door floating in black space. They opened the door and stepped through.
The door slammed shut behind them. They were in a small room with a large, wide ramp that extended upwards at an incline.
"A ramp?" asked Pinkie. "After we just got done walking down stairs?"
"Well, no point in complaining," said Twilight. "After all, we've got our friends to save." She placed one hoof on the ramp, right before she felt her momentum suddenly shift, and she was sliding upwards on it.
"What the-?" Twilight stammered, before she slipped and fell down, still sliding upwards on the ramp.
Pinkie was next to start sliding up the 'ramp.' She, herself, started sliding.
"What is this?!" Twilight yelled as she tried got back up on her hooves, all the while still sliding.
"I don't know," said Pinkie. "I also don't know whether I should be enjoying this or not."
"I know I'm not." said Twilight.
They slid upwards on the 'ramp' for a while. Time seemed to drag on as their hooves slid across the smooth surface of the 'ramp.' Finally, though, they reached the end of the 'ramp' and it was over for the moment.
"I did not expect that," said Twilight.
"Neither did I," muttered Pinkie.
There was a long, dark hallway in front of them from where they stood, dimly lit by torches that periodically dotted the walls. The hallway was long and uninviting.
"Shall we?" asked Twilight with a modicum of playfulness.
"We shall," Pinkie replied with the same tone of voice.
They walked down the dark hallway. Eventually, they reached a point in the hallway where there were no more torches. Twilight used her magic to hold a torch in front of them, but her grip on it was weak. She was still exhausted from her magical burst from the previous encounter with the Denizens.
Come to think of it, unleashing her full magical potential upon the Denizens was pretty much useless. They couldn't die and they would just come back and try to kill her again. Granted, her emotions took hold of the situation, but even at the moment, a part of her that wasn't wracked with fury knew that she was wasting her magic. Yet, she still unleashed her magic anyways.
She gripped the torch as tightly as she could with what little magic she had left and continued along the length of the hall. Was it just her, or were her breaths becoming more and more laboured as they continued walking down the hallway?
She took a deep breath, but she couldn't seem to get enough air into her lungs. This didn't make sense, though. She was dreaming. She didn't need air in a dream. Her sleeping body was breathing plenty fine by itself. Wasn't it?
Wait. Her body. Her actual body. Was there something going on with it?
She stopped in her tracks and collapsed to the floor, her chest growing tighter and tighter with increasing pain.
"Twilight!" Pinkie exclaimed in fear as she knelt before her friend. "Twilight!"
"Unless you got a heart virus, this really isn't the time for you to start dying on me, Twilight!" Pinkie said in desperation. She struggled to think of a way to help her friend who was in pain, but she came up short. Just what was going on?
"Gonna...try to wake up......stay....safe, Pinkie...." Twilight wheezed. She tried to focus her magic, but it seemed hopefully. She had officially drained herself on the Denizens earlier. It seemed hopeless, but she had a very strong feeling that her physical body was in grave danger. She had to wake up. Or at least try. She had to try.
Twilight snapped her eyes shut and grunted with the effort. How hard is it to wake up, anyways? Rarity had done it so easily....wait. Rarity had woken her up so easily and effortlessly when Twilight herself couldn't even so much as cast a waking spell. So maybe it wasn't her physical body in danger. Maybe it was still in-dream.
"Pinkie....!" Twilight yelled. "Nevermind! I think....problem....in dream....!" Twilight then started coughing. She hacked and coughed and coughed until she felt as if she would cough her own lungs out.
"Twilight!" Pinkie yelled. "Please don't die on me! Please!"
Twilight stopped coughing, and then her eyes closed slowly. "Pin....kie...." she muttered. Her eyes then closed all the way.
Twilight's eye snapped back open, much to the relief of Pinkie Pie. Twilight stoof back up slowly, almost deliberately with how slow she was moving, as if testing out her body and seeing how it felt.
"Oh, Twilight!" Pinkie exclaimed as she embraced Twilight. "I was so worried about you! Are you ok?!"
"Oh, I'm just fine, Pinkie," said Twilight, her voice monotone, and somehow threatening at the same time. "I'm just fine and dandy."
"Are you sure about that?" asked Pinkie as she released Twilight from her embrace. "You sound different."
Twilight shook her head a few times, then looked at Pinkie and gave her a tight smile, which looked weird to Pinkie. Since when did Twilight's lips curl up in such a way when she smiled? And why did her eyes look a little more...wild?
"Do I really?" asked Twilight. "I feel just fine, though. Juuuuust fine."
"Twilight..." Pinkie mumbled. Twilight was scaring her. She honestly was.
"Yes, Pinkie?" asked Twilight with malicious sweetness.
"N-nothing. Um. Let's go." said Pinkie as she gestured for her to walk down the hall.
"After you," said Twilight.
"Oh, no, Twilight, I'm really scared of dark hallways. Besides, you dropped your torch on the ground." The torch, which was still burning.
"Oh, we won't need that anymore," said Twilight. She stomped one hoof on the flame, putting it out and leaving them in the dark. "Now, after you."
"But-" Pinkie stammered.
"Pinkamena Diane Pie!" Twilight growled through gritted teeth.
Pinkie jumped from this sudden outburst. Twilight never raised her voice at her without a valid reason. Just what had happened to her?
Twilight took a deep breath, then released it. "After you, please?" Twilight opened her eyes a ltitle more widely. They sparkled a little bit, almost exactly the same as the way a begging dog.
"O-ok...." Pinkie reluctantly went in front of Twilight and walked slowly down the hallway.
"T-twilight," said Pinkie. "What exactly happened to you earlier?"
"What? What happened?" asked Twilight, perplexed.
"Wait? You don't know? But it just happened not too long ago. You were having trouble breathing, and, and..." Pinkie trailed off mid-sentence.
"Oh, that?" Twilight said playfully. "Oh, that was. That was. Heheh. That was nothing. Really. It was nothing. Nothing at all. Heheh. Just fine. Nothing at all. Fine. All. Heheh."
"Um..." Pinkie muttered. Twilight was really scaring her at this point.
They finally reached the end of the hallway, which resembled a brick-floored balcony with a ladder that descended into an endless void. If they looked upwards, they could see a moon. A moon that looked as if it was being sucked into a black hole.
"I hate voids. Don't you?" asked Twilight.
"Yeah. I guess." Pinkie replied, still confused from Twilight's newfound coldness.
"I hate them so much, I could just die. Couldn't you, Pinkie?" Twilight grinned.
"W-what?" asked Pinkie.
"I said..." Twilight's grin disappeared and was replaced with cold fury. "Couldn't you??"
"I...I...I don't want to die. I want to live." Pinkie stammered. Twilight's demeanor was terrifying her, now.
"Yeah? Well, guess what? You don't always get what you want. In fact. You'll get exactly the opposite of what you want!" Twilight turned her head towards the sky let out an unequestrian-ly howl. Her soundwaves seemed to reached the very moon itself. Her horn glowed and crackled with electricity, and a circular momentum-less magic burst erupted from her. It didn't affect anything physically, but it was effective in causing Pinkie to flinch.
"Twilight?!" Pinkie yelled as she backed up closer to the edge, nearly falling backwards in her attempt to get farther away from her. Had Twilight lost it?
Twilight abruptly stopped screaming and then looked Pinkie in the eye.
"Piiiinkie Piiieeee." Twilight said in a singsong voice. "Piiiiiinkie Piiiiie." She slowly stepped closer to Pinkie, each hoofstep slow and deliberate.
Twilight stepped nearer and nearer to Pinkie Pie, her horn crackling and glowing with energy.
Where did that energy suddenly come from? Thought Pinkie. She was so exhausted earlier.
"Why you so quiet?" asked Twilight. "Did you not hear me?! PREPARE FOR DIE, GOD DAMMIT!" Twilight fired a bolt of magic at Pinkie, which she very narrowly dodged.
"TIME FOR FACE GRAVY!" Twilight fired another bolt of magic at Pinkie, which she dodged again. "WHY SO MUCH DODGE?!"
"WHY SO LITTLE DIE?!" Another bolt, and another, and another. So many bolts of magic. All it took was for just one bolt to hit Pinkie, and it was over for Pinkie. She couldn't keep this up forever.
"YOU SUPPOSE ROSE GOT YOUR NOSE?! IS THAT IT?! HUH?! IS THAT WHY YOU SO LITTLE DIE?!"
Pinkie dodged one last bolt of magic before she dashed to the ladder and began descending it, nearly getting hit by Twilight's magic.
"WHY YOU LEAVE?! WHY NO STAY AND PREPARING FOR DIE DIE?!"
What had gotten in Twilight? Why was she acting like this?
Pinkie descended down the ladder, her hooves barely holding onto the sides as she slid down the length of it, hitting the bottom just a while later. From high above her, Twilight was firing bolts of magic down at her, but missing nearly every time. Her voice was abrely audible from this distance, but Pinkie could still hear the insanity in it.
She stepped away from the rungs of the ladder. Despite Twilight's many attempts at trying to hit her from this angle, she didn't make any move to descend the ladder and chase after Pinkie, for whatever reason. She didn't know whether Twilight would attempt to climb down sooner or later, but she didn't take any chances.
Pinkie turned around, away from the ladder and saw another long hallway that stretched for an indefinite distance. She began walking down the hallway, not looking back, but summoning a brick wall for good measure, in case Twilight did chase after her. As if a brick wall would do any good against the insane magical mare, but still.
She walked down the hallway for a good amount of time, before the sound of Twilight's voice from behind her finally comfirmed her fears, and she felt a chill run along the length of her spine.
"Piiiiinnkkiiiieeee...." said Twilight is a malicious sing-song voice. "Piiiiiiinnnkkkkiiieeeee......"
Pinkie began running, erecting brick walls every couple of steps. The brick walls did nothing to muffle the sound of Twilight's voice, however.
"Piiiiinnkkiiiee Piiieeee...." Twilight's voice seemed to be growing louder and closer. "PINKIE PIE! GET THE FUCK BACK HERE!"
Pinkie only ran faster, her hooves barely touching the ground by now.
"Twilight used Magic Dash!" Pinkie heard the sound of many brick walls being broken from. She dared to look behind herself to see a speeding Twilight Sparkle, coming towards her. She was cloaked in an aura of magical light, the same light which her horn usually emitted.
Twilight suddenly dashed to the side of Pinkie, then rammed into her, squishing her against the brick wall of the hallway.
A sickening crack was heard for a split second, and then Pinkie was lying on the floor, gasping in pain from the shock of having her ribs being suddenly broken.
"It's Super Effective!" Twilight said happily.
Twilight stepped back from her handiwork and examined the situation closely. A badly injured Pinkie Pie, many broken brick walls, and Twilight, herself was aching all over from all the exertion she just performed.
"Well, then..." said Twilight. "Time to sacrifice you."
"S-" Pinkie coughed from her broken ribs. "Sacrifice?!"
"Eeyup," said Twilight.
Twilight grabbed Pinkie very roughly by the arms and starting dragging her down the hallway. Pinkie fought as hard as she could, but alas, broken ribs don't come without a cost. Twilight merely laughed at her feeble attempts to break free.
Pinkie then summoned an anvil to fall on Twilight. It landed on Twilight's head with a loud, sickening crack.
Twilight, the anvil still on her head, slowly turned to look at Pinkie, her eyes glowing with an intense fury that shook Pinkie to her very core.
"What. Do. You. Intend. To. Solve. With. That?" Twilight said slowly, spitting blood from her mouth with each word. "All you've done is piss me off beyond belief. Do you not realize that?"
Without thinking, Pinkie summoned a cannon from the side of Twilight, which fired and sent her flying while releasing her grip on Pinkie at the same time.
Twilight slid across the brick floor, causing a large burn on her back, while she was being crushed by the weight of the cannon ball at the same time.
Pinkie tried to focus on fixing her ribs. If she can summon objects into the dreamscape, surely she can fix broken objects as well, right? Right?
Apparently not, as Pinkie's ribs are still broken. She then decides to crawl away in a feeble attempt to get away from Twilight. Before she knows it, though, Twilight has already grabbed her again, and started dragging her more roughly this time. Her back had a large patch of raw, red skin and burned off fur from where she was sent sliding across the floor.
"This really fucking hurts, you know," Twilight said plainly, her voice ladened with fury. "But you know what? You're going to be sacrificed anywho. So, what do I care? Besides....I can heal myself." Her horn glowed, sealing up the patch of raw skin on her back. "And you can't. Bitch."
They reached the end of the hallway, which opened to a large, square room. In the center-back of the room was an altar, which chains attached to it.
"This is where we'll have loads of fun," said Twilight. "First, I'll strip your flesh, then I'll salt your wounds, then I'll take a picture of you and make a meme out of it on Ponechan. What do you think?"
"....Lame....." Pinkie groaned painfully.
"I applaud your pseudo-bravery, Pinkamena, but sadly, you're coming off as sounding rather weak and pathetic." Twilight smiled. "No matter. You're going to die, anyways."
Twilight dragged Pinkie over to the altar and placed her upon it. She then took the chains and tied her down with them.
"First, the stripping of the flesh." Twilight's horn started glowing, then she lightly touched Pinkie's chest with it. The muscles and tendons in Pinkie's legs came loose, and they literally curled up out, and her skin was peeled back along with it. Blood oozed from her wounds, and she screamed from agony at what Twilight was doing to her.
"Then, the salting of the wounds." Twilight's horn glowed again, and then a shaker of salt literally just appeared out of thin air, and she began pouring it on Pinkie. Funny how something so mundane could cause a party pony so much pain. Pinkie's throat started to hurt from all the screaming. Her eyes were snapped shut from the pain.
"Before we sacrifice, though, I must summon our friends. Oh, Fluttershy! Rainbow Dash! Applejack!" Twilight called out for the Denizens. They came out of the hallway and stood before the altar, their heads bowed, and eyes closed, as if in prayer.
"Fluttershy." Twilight acknowledged the yellow pegasus.
"Rainbow Dash."
"Applejack."
They didn't make any reply or sound. Their heads remained bowed.
"See, Pinkie? Our friends are here. Here to see you join us." Twilight grinned.
Pinkie opened her eyes to see the Denizens staring back at her. Their manes were still wild, but she couldn't see the insanity of their eyes, due to them being closed.
Twilight turned her attention back to Pinkie.
"Well, then. Time for the sacrifice." Her horn glowed, then a sword appeared, it's tip aimed at Pinkie. "Any more attempts at a quip? Any more attempts to make a witty remark, be defiant, or some other shit like that? Come on, Pinks, I'm allowing you one last chance to make me laugh, here."
Pinkie merely snapped her eyes shut again and continued gasping in pain.
"No?" Twilight asked. "Well, then. Time for-"
"Deus Ex Machina," said a sudden voice from behind the Denizens.
The Denizen's, and Pinkie's eyes snapped open, and Twilight's curious gaze turned to the source of the voice.
Pinkie Pie saw the figure, but she was half-shrouded in darkess. She could tell it was a mare, due to it's body shape.
"And who, pray tell, are you?" asked Twilight.
"I am Twilight Sparkle," said the figure. She stepped into the light, revealing her features. Pinkie gasped at that moment, partially in shock, partially in pain, but mostly the latter. It was, in fact, Twilight Sparkle! After all, it was the same purple mane, the same eyes, the same coat, the same everything. Only her eyes had a rage and fury which Pinkie had never seen before.
It was Twilight Sparkle, the Deus Ex Machina to Pinkie Pie being tortured by....Twilight Sparkle.
"What.....going on?" Pinkie managed to say in between pained gasps.
"I'll tell you what's going on," said the torturous Twilight. "The switching technique is bullshit!"
"Switching? What" asked Deus Ex Machina Twilight.
"I used a spell which made me switch spots with you, without any noticable changes." said torturous Twilight smugly.
"Other than the fact that you made me gasp for air and become out of breath," said Deus Ex Machina Twilight.
"Oh well," said torturous Twilight. "No matter. Pinkie Pie is injured beyond any hope of healing. She's gonna die, and there's nothing you can do to heal her wounds-
Deus Ex Machina Twilight's horn suddenly flashed, and then all of Pinkie's wounds were healed. She jumped off of the altar and stood before the Denizens with her cannon in front of her.
"-....except for your magic which suddenly became much more powerful." muttered torturous Twilight.
"Well, then. I guess there's no more point in trying to hide it. I have no name. But you may call me Ulixes. I am the ruler of Lavender Ponyville." said Ulixes. She smiled, and then her mane grew wild. Her eyes were normal one moment, but became tainted with the same insanity that the Denizens had.
Ulixes smiled. "Ok, time to die." She stepped back, and then the Denizens sprang to life. and began converging upon Twilight.
Twilight's rage and fury-filled eyes widened, not in fear, but in anger. The Denizens all tried to rush her at the same time, but Twilight merely leapt into the air and fired a magical laser out of her horn. It burned a hole in the ground and sent the Denizen plummeting downwards. Twilight seemed as if she were also about to fall down the hole, but her horn flashed once, and the floor had reformed.
"Ok," said Ulixes. "I'm impressed. But still. That doesn't change the fact that I-"
She was silenced when Twilight suddenly winked out of existence and then reappeared with her hoof in her face.
"Argh!" Ulixes grunted from the pain. "Ok, I am really impressed. But you're starting to piss me off!"
Ulixes' horn glowed for a moment, before it fired a bolt of magic, which Twilight just barely managed to dodge. Ulixes jumped back, and was about to charge Twilight, unless a cannon blast could be heard, and then Ulixes was found herself between a cannon ball and the wall.
"Annoying runt!" Ulixes grunted. She jumped up and ran towards Pinkie, her horn glowing....before Twilight fired a bolt of magic at her, and she, once again, was thrust against the pain. She yelped in pain at being thrown against the wall a second time.
"You're really starting to piss me off!" Ulixes said. "Seriously! You don't want to piss me off!"
"Piss this, asshole," said Twilight. She fired a massive laser which completely enveloped Ulixes and burned a hole in the wall of the room. When the laser died down, there was a huge hole in the wall, which opened into a larger room.
"What is that?" asked Pinkie, who saw the room through the hole in the wall.
"I don't know," said Twilight as she stepped closer to the hole in the wall. "But it looks like...."
It was a maze. A large maze, the walls constructed out of large walls of hedges. In one lane, Twilight could see Ulixes running away.
"Come on!" said Twilight. "We have to destroy her, somehow! And I think I know how." She jumped through the hole in the wall and began chasing after Ulixes, with Pinkie following close behind.