Short Goodbyes

by Elkhorse

Rating: mature
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Tragedy
Length: 7442

Going with the "Mysterious creatures are attacking Ponyville."

{<WARNING>}
GRIMDARK AND PLENTY OF DEATH, HERE BE DRAGONS!
{<WARNING>}

~SG~

Deep within the kingdom of Equestria, magic has failed us. Something snapped within one of the most powerful ponies alive without warning or reason, and now the corruptive power has been cast, only so much time remains.
Twilight was doing what she did most every day, hanging out with her friends and getting into trouble and having grand adventures. Then Cheerile goes missing. The whole town looks for her, searching far and wide for the missing school teacher until something starts to happen. Ponies begin to disappear.

The Nightmare has started.

Silence reigns.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-02-20 09:25:40 UTC

The Silence

~[SG]~

Twilight huffed, the sudden gust of air pushing her bangs from over her eyes for the shortest of moments before it fell back exactly into place. She examined the hairs for a stray quaver, but ultimately found not a single disturbance. The lecture continued on magical safety as all of the young fillies took their turns copying Twilight, one or two only getting as far as the huff rather than the examination stage that came shortly after. She leaned back into the big plush pegasi down cloth chair and gave a face hoof as one of the many fillies in the classroom asked about changing the color of their horn.

"No, sorry Snails, I do not believe that is possible." The retort came from not Twilight, but rather the aging teacher a feet meters in front of her. They had been going over some base rules for a demonstration of magic today by none other than the element herself, mostly irrelevant as only Twilight would be the one casting anything. Eventually, Cheerilee finished the formalities and stepped aside so that Twilight may have the center floor. She sighed lightly before pushing off of the furnishing and walking over to her position, the space relativity small in comparison to the rest of the room that was crowded by desks.

"Well, good afternoon class!" She called as clearly as she could muster, forcing a meek smile. The class grumbled something in response, far gone from the rather obnoxiously long lecture.

"Right...anyway, who would like to tell me what basic premise of telekinesis is?" She questioned, this time forcing an overtly energetic tone in her voice to perhaps rouse a response. No takers. She suppressed the urge to rage quit.

"Well, basically its the magical currents channeled through a unicorn horn compressing air to push around physical objects." She tried again, left fore-hoof nervously rubbing against the hard off white tiles. Still no response.

"Fine, let me show you!" She shouted suddenly, gaining the pert attention of most of the class before she sent a light burst of magic through her horn into the surrounding air, all of the desks in the classroom very suddenly taking on the token purple aura of her magic, only giving the fillies a seconds warning before all of the desks slowly and methodically lifted into the air. They squealed in delight, laughter clear through the once quiet classroom as she slowly worked the pattern and alignment of the desks to a far more compact pattern before setting them down gently. The new pattern gave her a little more half the room, much to the annoyance of Cheerilee who gave her a 'nice, but don't do it again' look.

Twilight merely smirked before turning back to the class, the whole population now alive with chatter, ideas and other odd things flying around at random. She cleared her throat, ripping the attention of all of them back onto her. "Well, now that we know how the easy stuff works, lets go for something a bit more, aha, as my good friend Rainbow Dash would say it, 'cooler'."

~[SG]~

Twilight sighed, tiredly lifting one hoof in front of the other as she eventually made it back to her front door. That presentation was not anything too hard, but repetitive and mentally draining nonetheless. She pushed the door open gently, finding herself inside of her brightly lit library once more after a few paces forward. She sighed heavily before tapping the door with her back hoof, sending the wooden contraption back into place with a resounding 'click'.

She sighed heavily again before blindly stomping up the stairs and flopping into her bed without thinking. Food, cleaning and bathing could wait until this headache died down...sleep seemed nice.

Twilight ga...d in ho...r at the abomination as it slowly sta.... over to her, a cruel ...r pasted onto it's lips. It se...ed to be a sick parody of a ...si, yet much more horrific than any ....al being. It's wings w... claws, sharp ....ugh to sing th...h the thick, putrid air ...long en...to cle.... most... pony in two with...e effort. I... coat had ....allen out to reveal slick, horribly ...ilated...in with several ...s and mu...s stic...g out at ra....m. She screamed in a voice that was not her own, not remembering starting...

Twilight awoke with a hard gasp and scream somehow occupying the same space within her slack jawed mouth, doing very little to drown out the hard knocking on the library's door. It was frantic and seemed to be accompanied by a panicked yelling of her name. She groaned heartily before rolling out of her messy bed, the whole top sheet damp with sweat. She felt like she was freezing. She attempted to compose herself for a few moments before trotting down the stairs and pulling the door open with a magical tug. She blinked hard.

There surrounding her house was a good portion of the population of Ponyville, all staring at her silently. Not moving. Twilight, unnerved as she was, stepped out onto the porch and looked around. The world seemed to twitch, colors suddenly smashing into one another with an impossible white and black static filling in the gaps, and then just as suddenly as the apparition had appeared, it dispersed. The illusion fell. Everypony now stood as the exact same pony. An orange and red mare. Twilight blinked hard again before stumbling backwards as the nearest pony slowly walked forwards.

"No, no no no..." Twilight meekly whimpered as the thing drew closer, her expression quickly changing from shock to objective horror, her head shaking from side to side. The mare however still walked towards her, unabated. Twilight screamed and lashed out with a powerful telekinesis spell, sending the mare sailing over the crowd.

The world twitched again, colors slamming into one another in a whirlwind before settling into a gray tint covering the land. The crowd had turned back into their original forms, this time with their heads cocked to the side like a confused dog. All were smiling. A low, deep whine reminiscent of a diamond dog in agony and anger wormed it's way through her head.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Twilight screaming in shock as they all took a step forward, the unanimous movement unnaturally quiet, as if it were coming from only one set of hooves. Twilight tried to turn around, but the purple mage's hooves were sluggish, slowing her movements to a crawl.  She jerked hard on her uncooperative limbs as the crowd grew closer and closer, their respective smiles growing. Twilight began to sob silently, hot tears running over her cheeks she her head slumped in defeat, the crowd only meters away. Drawing closer.

"...Twilight..." A soft, harmonious voice echoed through her ears as if it were coming from several ponies at once from behind a wall. The sound repeated in her head for what seemed like hours, giving her the blindly cold sensation of mental violation each time.

Her eyes slipped shut. Now they were just toying with her. A hoof touched her shoulder, gently as if to wake her. She squeezed her eyes shut tighter, believing that just maybe if she ignored them for long enough they would disappear from the nightmare that they came from.

"...Twilight....wake up!..." The voice came again, stronger this time and far more focused. It almost sounded like...

A nightmare they came from...?

"Spike?"

~[SG]~

Spike sighed heavily as he hefted the large kettle off of the stove and carefully balanced it in his claws, tipping the nozzle over slightly just so a steady stream would trickle into the large white cup. The fluid abides by gravity's will and flowed gently, a light gurgling sound coming from the point of impact from somewhere near the bottom of the cup.

He sighed once more before setting the kettle back down onto the stove and jumped down from the counter, taking the cup with him. Upon impact, around half of the contents of the cup splashed upwards into a perfect vertical liquid pillar. He quickly maneuvered the container around, allowing the precious cargo to land back into his original position.

"Now, don't be shy, you must tell me what you were dreaming about Twilight, it seemed simply dreadful!" A familiar voice echoed from the door, the wavelengths giving him a relaxed state of mind. Mostly everything was going well. Mostly.

"No, Rarity really, its fine. It was just a bad dream." Another familiar voice echoed, not quite as calming as it's predecessor but relaxing nonetheless if not a little bit worrying to the dragon. He wobbled into the room with cup in hand, a translucent warm mist rising off of it and around his head, carrying with it the soothing scent of mint leaves.

Sadly however, none of these properties could touch how highly strung he was from seeing Twilight screaming in her bed earlier that night, seemingly sweating several gallons a second but unnaturally cold. He eventually made it into the library's main room where Rarity was attempting and failing to coax an answer out of Twilight from where they both laid on the couch.

"Seriously Twilight, just tell us! You're making me kinda scared here..." Spike interjected as he came around the couch and offered the cup to Twilight who graciously took it in her magic's hold after looking fairly startled at his sudden appearance. She sighed heavily before taking a sip of the special concoction that was given to her, a light smile playing on her features from the warmth given by it. The assorted chemicals of caffeine and equivalents probably helped too.

"No is no Spike, I-I really don't want to talk about it!" Twilight snapped suddenly, the very next moment looking ashamed and a little more than frightened, Spike backed away with an apologetic smile, both claws up in abject surrender. Rarity glared at him for a moment before turning back to Twilight, smiling worriedly at her when she began to frantically gulp the drink down. It looked painful. A  pert knocking at the door brought all of the three animate entities' in the room attentions over to the wooden contraption, or more specifically the inference of the noise.

"Twilight!" A muffled mare's voice yelled through it, seemingly very worried. Panicked even. Setting the now empty cup down with a deep, regressive sigh Twilight hopped off of the furnishing before trotting over to the door and flicking it open with a bit of magic. There in the doorway stood a panting and very worse for wear Rainbow Dash, wings extending and pupils shrunk.

"What is it Das-"

"CHEERILEE IS MISSING!"

~[SG]~

Twilight cleared her throat in an attempt to gain the small crowd's attention, but it only served to add to the worried buzz of noise from it. Anything from conspiracy theories to horror stories chimed through, one voice even mentioned something about an 'Eldritch'. She sighed again in resentment before nodding to her assistant. He nodded back. He stepped in front of Twilight from the side and took in a deep breath, chest expanding from the added air capacity granted from the effort. He exhaled a massive plume of green dragon's breath. The crowd jumped in surprise and gave their full, albeit annoyed attention to her.

"What exactly is going on here?" She called loudly, giving each and every single pony present a second of eye contact. They all shrunk and looked at the ground in worry and obvious fear. A brown earth pony with a darker brown mane and a golden hourglass as a cutie mark stepped forward and cleared his throat, the stallion gaining the admiration of the seemingly cowardly crowd.

"The school teacher was supposed to come to a doctor's appointment earlier tonight, and when she did not show they started to ask around. Turns out, no one has saw her since classes went out." The stallion spoke clearly and with a purpose, maintaining direct eye contact with her.

"We checked her house, and it looked perfectly fine until we noticed the door was left open slightly. A puddle of blood was in the middle of her kitchen with no splatter or smudges." He continued, seemingly getting deeper and deeper into thought as his tempo of speech increased, growing on the verge of frantic.

"Something is deeply wrong here Twilight Sparkle, this should not be happening."

~[SG]~

Celestia raced through the halls, a vapor trail following closely behind her as she leaped over yet another confused looking guard. She had felt a massive magical burst from somewhere on Luna's end of the castle, but something was wrong with it. Not at all like it was normally as it seemed to be much more powerful and unstable.

Familiar but foreign, and she did not like where she remembered it from in the least. She flared her wings just before she turned the last corner, giving them a massive sweep through the air to maintain momentum before turning one hundred eighty degrees and bucking down her sister's massive, dark doors. She whipped around fast enough to make her mane crack like a whip against the door frame. She gasped, eyes wide with horror as she attempted to scamper backwards from the room.

Silence reigned.

"Sis~s...ter..." Came the draconian hiss from the abomination, the mere tone enough to freeze her in place. There in front of her stood not Luna, not even nightmare moon. She would have preferred that. Instead what glared at her with a literal freezing expression was a sick parody of both. But only if that were it. It had six dragon like wings, all laced with a brilliantly gleaming silver aura. It stood on it's back legs with what should have been hooves, but instead were some sort of armored eagle's claws ripped through the normal flesh, dark congealed blood seeping slowly in spurts from the broken veins around the appendages. Celestia's eyes bulged as they followed the figure upwards, tracing over every breakage in the laws of nature.

It’s stomach was riddled with many pulsing tubes weaving in around around the normally blank space, therein being no obvious order or reason for their existence. Several seemed to move with their own volition. The main torso look like a compressed pony's body with a smaller and wider rib-cadge that was pronounced through the dark grey-blue coat. The torso split off to two appendages that seemed to be normal enough legs until the elbow that bent backwards and led off to some sick interpretation of a dragon's claw with five talons branching off, massive tendons clearly visible through the thick grey hide. The worst part was the head. The head of what used to be her sister was twisted into something different, something evil.

The skin was pulled tightly against the skull to reveal a wide, toothy permanent grin with the teeth being a mass network of terribly sharp and perfect straight white needles. The horn was the only thing left untouched, the only metaphorical island in the sea of horror. The eyes, if only she could look away from the eyes. Her mind clouded over, a cold sensation creeping up from her heart. It slowed in her chest. It's eyes were infinite, she felt she could stare for thousands of years and lose herself in them. She could not see nor comprehend what they looked like, her mind simply blanked around the edges.

She did not remember it being only inches away, bent down to maintain eye contact.

Maw open wide.

She did not remember when she started to scream, only that she had yet to stop.

~[SG]~

"Has anyone found her yet?!" Twilight all but screeched, eyes wide with panic as she scanned the room, only meeting sad gazes to the floor. Nothing.

"Rose Bud is gone!" A sudden interruption to her panic called from the doorway to the town hall, the feminine voice carrying with the wind that blew in with it, accompanied only by the echo of the slam the door produced when the mare burst in. A stunned silence. The brown stallion trotted in from behind her, seemingly not even acknowledged anything around him.

Just a cold, burning glare directed at the downtrodden floor-boards. More voices suddenly joined in from outside, informing more and more ponies had gone missing from the area. A pin dropped, the resonating noise nearly deafening. Ponies started to scream and panic, galloping outside at full tilt.

Eventually only Twilight, a dull green colt with a white mane, the brown stallion and a light grey unicorn colt remained in the building. He looked complacent with a very dark brown mane, almost black and had a weird cutie mark. It looked to be some sort of black and dark red Gothic stylized eight on it's side.

The brown one sat down on his haunches and elected to merely stare hatefully out of the window nearest to him whilst the grey one seemed to stare off into the distance, deep in thought laying on top of a pile of boxes. The green colt sat at the foot of the pile, looking scared out of his wits. Twilight sat in the corner irritably glaring at the walls.

A while passed in silence before it was punctured by the green colt shifting around slightly before twiddling his hooves and mumbling soft securities to himself.

A scream shattered the silence, yet suddenly it was cut short.

Then another.

And another.

Eventually the air was filled with screams cut short, the harmony unsettling as is was beautiful. The brown one gave a short glance to the grey one, who in turn nodded back and jumped off of the pile, landing with practiced ease with little noise before he cast a spell, horn lighting up only momentarily before cutting short itself as a dull grey bubble expanded from him. Soon it expanded over the entire room, all of the windows and doors shutting quietly shut as the screaming was drowned out by the spell, apparently noise cancelling.

Silence overtook the room as the grey stallion walked over to the brown one and whispered something, the brown one apparently agreeing as he nodded quickly before getting up and nudging the dull green colt with a fore-hoof gently, indicating for him to follow as the group walked over to where Twilight sat.

“Twilight.” Came the emotionless call from the grey colt, drawing her attention upwards to him. He nodded to the brown one.

“Something has been taking ponies through the night and they are getting bolder and bolder, my guess is that they are attacking anypony stupid enough to walk the streets.” The brown one stated in an equal monotone, shocking her slightly.

“Attacking ponies?” She muttered weakly, a good amount of blood draining from her face.

“Slaughtering would be a more appropriate term, we need to get out of here.” The grey one clarified, looking warily to the large doors on the other side of the room. He glared at it for a moment before clearing his throat, putting on his best smile which turned out to be more of a practiced looking stage smirk.

“But I’d think an introduction is in order, my name is Iso Barrier.” His demeanor changed completely, going from blank and aloof to a sort of faux expression of Pinkie Pie as he extended his hoof in greeting. She gingerly shook it as his sudden personality switch raised her spirits slightly, the good mood infectious to those around him. She chuckled lightly before turning to the brown one.

“Call me the Doctor.” He deadpanned, gazing towards one of the closed  windows for a moment before snapping his attention back onto her. She laughed awkwardly before turning to the dull green one and cocked her head to the side.

“It’s none of any of your business as to who I am.” The colt twitched as another muffled scream managed to pass through the barrier erected by Iso, almost shaking the thick air of the room.

“Err... I mean. My name is Fleet Hammer...” The colt muttered awkwardly and quickly, glancing side to side as if worried the walls were plotting against him. He began to mutter something about ‘cupcakes’.

A low, deep whine reminiscent of a diamond dog in agony and anger resonated through Iso’s barrier quite clearly, jerking all of their attentions towards the door. The Doctor glared at it before backing up and turning to the group of four ponies. He cleared his throat.

“We need to leave, now.” He informed them, giving a curt nod to Iso who merely gazed back, at militaristic attention. The Doctor then directed his gaze back onto Twilight who had to restrain herself from shrinking back under his calculative and uncaring metaphorical cross hairs.

“You can teleport us, correct?”  He prompted, sweeping his fore-hoof around. Twilight shook her head slowly in a negative.

“I can only move at most two ponies other than me at once, any more and the stream collapses and it becomes instantly fatal. Even then, we’d still be injured on the other side and I’d need to rest for a while...” She began to explain before Iso suddenly flinched in pain as a dull impact was heard from outside. He chuckled wearily.

“They’re knock, knock, AH! Aha...knocking..” He mumbled painfully as he braced himself against the wall, hissing slightly in obvious pain. He gave a pained glance to Twilight before the sudden thuds grew, screams of rage now audible. She shut her eyes tight and cast the spell. Brilliant colors flashed by, indefinable yet simplistic. Then it was over.

~[SG]~

The flashing receded as abruptly as it began, withering into a mere glare before finally dying out with a whimper. Twilight coughed a few times before managing to stumble onto her feet, wobbling side to side from the effort as she shook her head side to side. A wet splatter jerked her attention behind her, giving her an all expense view of Fleet’s mangled body, indistinguishable mangled innards laid around his scorched body, blood wreathing his form in a large perfect circle. He was still breathing. Twilight reeled back in horror, tripping over something heavy and falling flat onto her back with a dull thump.

“Well, that’s the first time I’ve been used to trip someone...” An obviously forced cheery voice came from the object that tripped her, followed by several grunts in pain before a light patter of hooves alerted her to another pony’s presence. She took a quick glance at him, breath and heart still at an abnormally high latency. He was perfectly unscathed. That meant...

The stream had chosen Fleet Hammer as it’s victim.

~[SG]~

Armored Core galloped as fast as he had in his life, the wind resistance stinging his eyes as he raced through the halls. The elite royal earth pony guard was flanked by several more guards of various races, all with the same look of terror spawned by the horrified female screaming coming from the lunar princess’ room.The convoy eventually reached the entrance hall to the room, the kicked open doors unnerving him slightly but before he could make heads or tails of it, they entered the room and skid to a halt. They all froze at once. Silence.

The room was evenly pained with a perfect coat of shining red blood, a fine dusting of finely cut organs laid strewn around in the corners with scraps of skin and red matted white coat plastered onto the walls. The bed was the only furnishing left untouched by the coating of life fluid. On it laid scrap of hide, torn perfect at the edges. On it was something that should not have existed. On it was a white coat, stained slightly in red. On it was a stylized yellow sun.

“I-isn’t...t-t-t-that....Cel-l-lesti-a-a’s...cutie mark?” A young pegasi fresh out of boot camp asked in a quaver, attempting and failing to sound indifferent. Armored Core walked slowly up to the seemingly innocent scrap before prodding it slightly. It was warm. He whipped his head to all four walls to eventually come face to face with the window that had been left open. He drew in a breath.

The window shattered suddenly, a black blur screaming through in it’s place directly into him. Or rather, through him. The remaining guards stared in blind horror as their idol and commanding officer managed to occupy traveling in thousands of directions at once. Dark chuckling filled in the silence after the mist fell with dull splatters.

“Welcome...to...hell...” A draconian hiss forced it’s way into their heads, silencing coherent thought completely, leaving them to shiver meekly under the thing’s gaze as it stepped silent towards them.

“My little ponies.”

~[SG]~

Twilight sobbed openly as she buried her head into Iso’s shoulder, her entire body quaking with the tearful spasms. She mumbled something about it being her fault, to which he only cooed reassurances back in response. The Doctor had stumbled his way into the stone antechamber and had been for the last few minutes conversing quietly with the dying colt in a faux cheerful tone, talking about all of the things they would do when they got back to Ponyville.

Fleet Hammer coughed one last time before his eyes finally slid shut from behind bottle cap glasses. The Doctor sighed heavily before turning the corpse over onto it’s stomach, standing up and walking slowly over to Iso and Twilight. The colts sighed. Twilight sobbed.

“We need to get moving, Twilight, where are we?” The brown colt prompted, walking past the both of them before giving them a deadpanned glance. Twilight stifled a sob before turning to him, red rimmed eyes laced with tears.

“W-we’re....in the old castle...” She mumbled just loud enough for them to hear. They blanched.

“T-t-t....the Everfree?” Iso sputtered, eyes wide as he quickly whipped a cursory glance around in panic. He was shivering.

“Oh calm down you insipid foal, listen.” The Doctor hissed at him, effectively silencing the scared grey colt. Silence echoed through the room. Absolutely no sound. Deathly silent. In the Everfree.

“Nothing...in a forest filled with untamed life...” The Doctor’s eyes widened, and took his turn to look completely terrified before a dull swooping noise abruptly ended the silence. Really big wings are the only thing that could make that particular noise.

The silence was completely destroyed by a nearby window suddenly attempting to occupy the same space as a very large bird like thing. The window and surrounding area of the wall imploded, showering all present in small stones and dust. The debris cleared to allow everyone a clear view of the perpetrator, a dull gray Pegasus with blond mane.

“Derpy!?” Twilight cried in a panic, rushing over to the unmoving mail-mare's side as the two remaining colts stood stock still.

“I...brought...you...” Derpy attempted to say, but she was cut short by several wet heaves that sent a spray of blood over the floor, causing Twilight to flinch back. Instead of saying anything more, the injured pegasus merely pulled a large looking grey envelope from her saddle bags and jabbed it at Twilight a few times who eventually took the hint and gingerly slipped the parcel from her grasp. Derpy coughed a few times more before she eventually fell silent against the cold stone floor.

“The death of a Mail-Mare...” The Doctor snorted in disgust of the whole situation as he sat down beside Twilight as she stared at the body.

“I’m actually going to miss her, tad exhausting but she was a good friend.” Iso retorted before taking his spot on the purple unicorn’s other side as she took deep breaths to seemingly calm herself. She cleared her throat and tore open the package to reveal a large sheet of paper with writing on it.

“Ahem... To anyone that gets this message, consider the world dead...I’m writing this from a relatively safe location in former Griffin territory and have been observing the attacks made by the ‘Silence’ as they had been nicknamed by a friend of mine before he himself was ‘Silenced’.” Twilight trailed off, staring off into the distance in horror, her mind blazing through thousands of calculations a second until she came to one final conclusion. The Princess had not sent her a letter. The Princess is dead. Tears began to flow as Iso looked over at the letter and resumed reading the scratchy text.

“I have no idea how the dragons are faring, probably not well but better than any of us. Magic seems to have little effect as a weapon and only serves to deter them...” A large splotch of ink ran down like the user had suddenly dropped their quill before the text resumed.

“...I just saw from outside a unicorn fighting those things off, needless to say he did not do very well but I got a good hint at what they look like. They seem to be almost a black blur when moving and only stop when in the shadows cast by our lights...” Another large splotch interrupted the text, signifying the user had indeed dropped the quill again.

“That is their weakness, I just saw another unicorn cast a sun spell that was really bright...the things avoided it until it faded.” Iso stopped reading to catch his breath before nodding over to the Doctor whom cleared his throat and took his turn.

“All you have to do is wait until sunrise and anyone left should be able to regroup or get an especially powerful unicorn to do that sun thing, I have no idea how or why it works. I’m going to try continue sending these letters as I find out new things but I only have around thirty good pegasi and griffins  in this place that are willing to fly...” The Doctor stopped momentarily before trotting over to the dead mail-mare and inspecting the large gashes on her side. They were very deep and if one were to look closely enough, they would see the mutilated organs that seemed to be falling apart. He examined them for a moment before prodding the side of the corpse. It fell apart, decaying into a red mist near instantly.

“A deconstructive magic commonly used in waste disposal. Normally only works on inorganic material, she probably got nicked from one of those things when she left and it had been getting worse and worse since then...” The Doctor explained in monotone before he turned back to the other two. He shook his head before he resumed is position beside Twilight with a deep sigh.

“I have around a two hundred strong headcount of ponies and Griffions in here and we plan to make a blue streak for Dragon territory when day breaks. Signed....Gilda?” Twilight finished, blinking hard at the signature a few more times before shaking her head back and forth.

“Someone you know?” The Doctor sighed as he took the letter from her grasp and looked it over a few times, mumbling to himself about various implausibilities and duplication spells.

“Yeah, she terrorized Ponyville a while ago before we made her mad and storm off...” Twilight muttered as she turned away from the still very dead Derpy with a sniffle. Iso followed, leading her off towards a nearby doorway that looked to contain a stairwell. The Doctor sighed before following, the sound of three sets of hooves the only company to the silence.

A low whine went ignored as it echoed evenly over the many cracks and crevices of the grey stone halls before it decayed into nothing once more.

Silence Reigned.

~[SG]~

Rainbow Dash beat her wings as fast as the muscles responsible for them would accept nerve impulses, sending her faster and faster through the silent air. A vapour cone eventually formed, and after a frozen moment the familiar and comforting deafening explosion of her name stake rebounded off of the dark hills. She growled, going faster and faster as her body wore itself out, running away from screams cut short. Away from the dull red moon. Away from them.

Lights danced in her eyes as she continued to gain speed and altitude, the familiar rush of ridiculous speed calming her slightly as city-lights began to form ahead of her. She was going to make it, she would find the shelter mentioned in the letter she found and they would run to the Dragons. They would be safe there, nothing could hurt dragons. At least, that is what she had been telling herself.

A low whine went ignored.

No longer than a half hour passed before she was within the city’s limits, the brilliant lights momentarily blinding her as she ground to a halt mid flight and hovered several hundred feet above ground, slowly scanning the area with her sensitive eyes. Then she heard it, the sound sending chills down her spine as her body readied itself for running.

A scream cut short. The pain and horror filled scream silenced mid way. The splatter. The whine. Dash panicked again and began to pump her wings forwards, gaining speed. More whining. Soon the air was filled around her with the noise, surrounding her. Eventually all color was left blurred into grey as she raced away as hard as she could, faster and faster. Suddenly a whine came from directly in front of her, giving her mere nano-seconds to flinch out of the way. A terrible pain flared up from her left wing, paralyzing it and leaving her to fall into a blindingly fast death-spin.

The city lights formed a cocoon around her, details indistinguishable from one another. Nothing was true, not even the horrible wind deafening her. All of it was a lie. She was going to wake up from this nightmare, perfectly fine. The crunch of wood separating around her was her last thought.

Silence reigned.

~[SG]~

“So, Twilight...” Iso paused, not coming up with anything to say. Instead, he sighed and continued staring out of the large broken window at the oddly red tinted moon as he sat on his haunches on the large broken pillar nearest to it, leaning on the still standing base. The Doctor did much the same on the floor, but instead of staring however he slept silently with even breathing against the pillar. Twilight huffed and glared back at him.

“What?” She snarled, narrowing her eyes at him. He sighed.

“It’s nothing really, but aren't you an element?” He asked with another sigh as he turned himself to her, glancing momentarily over her laid down form before resuming eye contact. His purplish red eyes held a spark, determination for once rather than nothing but survival instinct.

“Yeah, magic, why?” She hissed bitterly, laying her head back down onto her fore-hooves.

“I-if...Celestia really is dead, can you raise the sun?” He hazarded, wincing as he said it and obviously not liking the idea of the solar goddess being dead.

“...I don’t know...” Came the much softer and sad response, it echoed through the dark halls and through the silent forest and carried with it the very horrifying aspect brought on by Nightmare Moon. A low whine responded. Everypony froze.The whining grew louder.The Doctor shot up, bounding over to Twilight and ushering her back up onto her hooves.

“C’mon we need to leave. Now.” He whispered harshly, nodding his head towards Iso. Twilight nodded numbly as Iso hopped back down. The light flashed. Nothing. Twilight huffed before the light came into existence again, much shorter this time. Again, nothing.

“That is very bad, isn't it?” Iso muttered as slow taps began to echo through the staircase, almost like a Manticore’s claws would, yet a gentle hiss accompanied it. The purple mage tried several more times to teleport the group but failed in each instance as her breathing quickened, borderline hyperventilation.

Slow clapping, it breached the silence in deafening booms, seemingly enveloping the entire world withing their wavelengths.

“Twilight Sparkle...” A slow hiss came from the staircase, hollow and deep. Draconian.

“It’s been a long time since...we’ve m~et...hassen’t is?” The hissing continued, accompanied by the ever louder thunderclaps of claws on a staircase. Twilight’s eyes bulged. She began to mutter impossibilities, that she had destroyed ‘her’ with the elements and eventually it seemed she came to the conclusion it was not 'her'. Iso bristled for a moment before casting a fast spell, the sharp light enveloping them for a second before it disappeared completely. The Doctor seemed to glare at the stairway, breathing slowed. Focused.

The world twitched.

There in the doorway stood the abomination, standing at least four pony heights tall. It seemed to be a vague representation of a pony standing on their hind legs and somehow keeping balance, yet horribly twisted clawed appendages on the ends of the legs sealed the fact it indeed was not natural. It walked with more of a saunter, swaying lightly back and forth as it approached with a frankly terrifying grin, the needle like teeth gleaming in the redish moonlight. All six of it’s wings seemed to twitch in an endless rhythm to keep the thing’s balance, reminiscent of a clock. Even going as far as keeping time.

Wide cerulean eyes, laced with malice. Intent to kill plainly stated, for the mere joy of blood. Cold intelligence, unnaturally focused on death. The Doctor snarled, a light growl breaching his mouth quietly as he glared directly into the thing’s eyes.

The world twitched.

The thing was suddenly squatted at eye level with him. He did not blink. The snarling continued, rage plain for all to see. He wanted this thing dead, immediately. The staring contest resumed until, eventually the thing blinked and laughed deeply, scratchy and insane. It stood back up to it’s full height and turned towards the window nearest to it, seemingly contemplating something before it slowly turned back to the bristling colts and shivering Twilight.

“State your reasons for existence, abomination.” The Doctor deadpanned, deepening his glare as he tensed his jaw. The thing laughed again.

The world twitched.

The Doctor disappeared from the side of Twilight, leaving the both of them to look helplessly for him until they found him at the window. Being held by his neck by the thing, a disgusted look of apathy replaced the rage as he struggled against the impossibly strong claws.

“None that should worry you. Doctor.” The thing spat in a sudden, perfectly clear voice that Twilight recognised instantly. She had heard it only once, in this very stone citadel yet it was all too clear as to who it was. Nightmare Moon.

“A righteousss.. causse you have committed yourself to, but alasss it has failed, goodb~ye....Time...lord...” The thing hissed as it brought it’s claw up to The Doctor’s exposed stomach as he merely glared back, unmoving. Twilight turned away. A horrible ripping sound echoed through the room, followed closely by several wet splatters before a deafening crunch and dull thud replaced them.

Silenced reigned.

Twilight slowly turned back to the thing, finding it had ceased it’s movement and merely stared off at the moon that had grown in size and red hue, now silhouetting it in a hellish aura. She closed her eyes. The worst thing by far about the Doctor’s death is that he never screamed, never begged, never insulted, never put up a decent fight. He wanted to die.

Iso nudged her side, pulling her attention towards him as he nodded his head towards the thing, or more specifically what it was doing. It held both fore-legs splayed open  towards the moon with a dark purplish aura emanating from it’s abnormally long unicorn horn. The moon grew further in size, raising in the sky slowly. Twilight’s eyes widened. This thing was Luna. Was.

The fallen alicorn princess eventually turned back to them as the moon overcast nearly the entire skyline.

“Call me Nightmare.”

The world twitched.

A blood curdling scream of agony ripped it’s way from Iso’s throat as he stumbled backwards, the Nightmare clawing at the barrier that flashed in brilliant greys and whites, interlacing and mixing over one another as they churned. Iso stopped screaming and slowly winced his way back to where he was standing, snarling at the Nightmare as it giggled. The wall of magic flickered. Iso smiled.

“Run.” He whispered, casting a pained smile to the frozen Twilight. He screamed, this time in rage as he simultaneously dropped the shield and shoulder tackled Twilight out of the way, causing the Nightmare to stumble and lash out to where he stood not moments ago as Twilight went rolling away. He took a defensive stance against the Nightmare as it regained it’s composure and laughed manically, taking it’s own offensive posture.

Silence.

The Nightmare slashed diagonally, but instead of killing the colt instantly they were reflected off a quickly erected barrier with a harmonious musical note. He smiled. It giggled madly before dashing forwards, sending strike after strike against the colt whom blocked each blow with a perfectly timed field, each hit adding to the notes of the melody until eventually the soft sound rang through the air loudly without form or reason. The Nightmare picked up the tempo, slashing faster and faster, note after note, beat after beat.

He began to tire, forcing him to dodge physically and block only when necessary, the movement creating a faux dance of claw and barrier, the notes forming a waltz. Iso began to join in the laughter, a wild look in his eye as he ducked under a slash and playfully rolled under another before deflecting a jab with another barrier.

The Nightmare giggled harder, placing more speed and power into every hit as it’s claws screamed through the air like a badly played violin added to the waltz. It added it’s legs into the fray, spinning and kicking to keep a combo of strikes going.

“One, two three four!” The colt began to chant loudly, timing his movements as such. He was laughing hard now as he gasped for the much needed air, his lungs barely up to the challenge as he dove to the side to avoid an uppercut and sprang up on his back hooves in an effort to dodge the low sweep of a leg, sending himself into a back flip.

The world twitched.

The song ended with a scream cut short and a short splatter.

Twilight blearily forced herself back onto her hooves as she turned away from Iso and the Nightmare, squeezing her eyes tightly shut as his scream of agony was cut off. The Nightmare ceased her giggling as the mare stood, turning towards her as she did the same. Another staring contest began, this one, Twilight lost.

The Nightmare laughed inanely before extending it’s arms out wide, a rush of wind accompanying it’s laughter. Mist began to form. Twilight dove for cover behind the fallen pillar as a pitch black beam incinerated the space she once occupied. It was silent. The wind picked up, forcing her to brace herself against the stone beam for support with her fore-hooves before she started to notice something. The world was bending towards the Nightmare.

Not even light itself seemed free as it bent to the abomination’s will.

Twilight steeled herself against the solid surface, recounting the long days of peace that seemed so long ago that she took for granted. She smiled at her blunders, at her friend’s exploits of the strange world around them. She closed her eyes and sighed happily. This was all a bad dream, it would all end soon. She would wake up to Spike being worried, to Rainbow Dash crashing through her window, to helping Fluttershy with her animals. She would groan in exashperation as Apple Jack took on something too big for her, smile at Pinkie’s anticts. Giggle with Rarity about girlish things and gossip. She laughed.

It did not have to be true, it was just as long as she believed it.

It was easier that way.

She threw herself from her cover and redied her one spell Celestia had taught her how to preform but never to use, an old archaic spell with consequences beyond even her. A failsafe. She had to lean with all of her weight onto her back hooves to stay standing, even then she slid as her colors began to flow into the Nightmare, her mane whipping wildly about. The ancient magic began to form into indecipherable ruins that spun impossibly fast yet stayed still, the red circle of the symbols growing nearly to the size of her before it suddenly stopped. Everything stopped. A flash.

Silence reigned.

~[SG]~