Chapters "Princess Celestia! We need to talk." Twilight said bursting in.
"Twilight, what is it?" Celestia asked with concern.
"My wings, make them gone. I can't take it anymore. The others treat me strangely like they don't know how to act anymore, and- and..." Twilight suddenly collapsed on to the floor. "I just don't want to be a princess anymore! Just- just, let me go back to being a normal unicorn like i was before. Please, please..." she said sobbing.
Celestia leaned down and nuzzled her, as Twilight suddenly jumped back.
"No, this time i want them gone. One way or another." she said with a sudden fierceness in her eyes.
"Twilight, they are a gift not a curse. The others will eventually see that your still the same as before, give it time." Celestia replied.
"No, no, no, no... I'm done." Twilight said as she suddenly jumped through the stained glass window of Cadence and her brother.
She landed on the outskirts of the woods. Then she just ran.
"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!! COME BACK!!" She heard another crash of glass as Celestia apparently came charging after.
Twilight silently stepped back in to some foliage and used a spell to camoflauge in to it. Celestia came galloping past moments later still yelling her name. As Celestia disappeared, Twilight began to walk on towards the mountain peaks. She didn't know where, nor did she care where she was going, all she knew was that this might be the last time she ever saw Equestria or her friends again.
She recalled the last few weeks in her mind. After the intial awe wore off of everyone they became gradually fearful of her. Ponies stopped by the library less, and less to the point that books were becoming dusty and Spike got the new chore of dusting the books off. Her friends became awkward around her, and seemed to stray away, always seeming to have some project, trick, or something that needed to be done. Eventually even Spike began to leave her more and more often, till she only saw him for chores, meals, and for sleep. She had begged Celestia and Luna to remove her wings, but they only said that she would get used to them. She was fed up with it, and if running away was what it took to remind them that she was still alive, then so be it.
It began to rain, then pour. Twilight shivered as each icy drop hit her, soaking her to the bone and dampening her spirits further. Her head drooped as she cursed herself for not bringing a cloak, or something to protect against rain. In fact she had nothing on her.
"Guess i'll just get something in the next town..." she said unhappily.
Celestia shoutings became less and less frequent until they disappeared altogether. It made her laugh slightly to think about Celestia going back and trying to explain the broken window and why she was all wet.
Twilight then realised that she had reached the top, and had a beautiful view of the stormy valley beyond her. She saw the very dim glow of a town ahead of her. Suddenly the ground underneath her gave out, and she began hurtling down the mountainside on top of the rock.
"AAAHH!!" Twilight yelped as she tried to levitate herself up.
Just as she was going to be hit by a pine tree she caught herself, and managed to levitate herself safely down. She looked through the dark pine trees, and saw only utter darkness. She began the trek through the woods.
Hours later, she saw a dim light up ahead. The town! A burst of energy came as she galloped towards the light. She came in to a shoddy old town, any mirth she had quickly left. Twilight walked up to an old stand with a skinny stallion behind it. He was wearing a large hat and hat some wheat sticking out of his mouth as he read the paper. He sold cloaks, and socks. Lots of socks.
"Uh excuse me sir?" Twilight cautiously said.
"Hmph." He replied.
"Um could i get..." Twilight said as she realised she had no bits. "Never mind..." she said walking away slowly.
"Wait 'ere little girly. Where you goin'? Don't care if you got no bits, you can provide something else..." he said grumbling and looking at her.
"This would be..." Twilight asked skeptically, fearing the worst.
"Your magic ain'ts ya?" Well see that building behinds me? Light 'er up for me will ya?" he said looking lovingly at the old building. Then critically at the stands lining the road and the dark buildings. "Yeh see, this 'ere building used to light up the town, but recently our last unicorn up and died. So we have no power, so if you'd kindly power 'er up then you can have anything at my stand yeh see." he said looking at Twilight.
"I can do that i guess... can you show me how to make it work?" Twilight asked raising an eyebrow and heading to the building.
"I don't see why not..." he said putting down his newspaper, and getting immediatly soaked as he walked towards Twilight.
"Um, thanks..." she replied.
They walked in to the crumbling building. Odd machines, and tesla coils stood around. A small box was in the center with a small hole.
"Yeh, put your horn in there and summon yer magics." he said leaning against a wall.
Twilight glanced at him and then sat down in front of the box. She put her horn in and summoned her magic... at first nothing happened, then the tesla coils suddenly lit up and created a complicated ring around her of energy.
"Holy smokes, girly! Packing a pretty bit of magic aint's ya!?" he said suddenly working machines, and glancing at a meter.
Twilights eyes suddenly began to glow white. Her magic increased and the tesla coils began to glow a bright purple.
"GIRLY, LAY OFF YER POWER!! SHE'S BEING OVERWHELMED!!" The stallion yelled.
Twilights wings flared as she struggled to control her power. She just managed to get ahold of it. The glow faded from her eyes, and the tesla coils dimmed. She hadn't noticed before but her mane, and tail had been whipping around and now settled.
"Wooo, girly... wow, thank you so much! Take my entire stand if ye want too! Ye just powered the town enough for the next hundred or so years! I can't thank ye enough!!" he said jumping up and down like a little colt on Hearths Warming Eve.
"Eh-heh, no problem..." Twilight said removing her horn which gave off a slight purple smoke.
The stallion jumped up and down in circles yelling "WHOO-HOO!! EEEHEEHEE!!" like a maniac.
He looked like Pinkie Pie on a sugar rush. Twilight almost laughed but then remembered that she probably wouldn't see Pinkie for a while... suddenly the stallions hat fell off. To reveal a mare about Twilights age.
They stood mortified for a second. Twilights jaw dropping and the other stood there cringing.
"Ummm..." she began. "I'm... uh, Exlaa. The dragon mare..." she said sitting down and rubbing her head. Suddenly her sides shook as makeup fell off to reveal two cleverly disguised wings that resembled a dragons.
"Woah..." Twilight said.
"I'm also an alicorn, sort of..." she said shaking away her hair to reveal an odd misshapen horn.
They stood there silently when outside a cheer was heard as the town lit up. A pounding was heard at the door.
"Ah, crud! Come on!" Exlaa said dragging Twilight away and down a corridor.
"What is it?!" Twilight asked panicking.
"Stallions."
"Why's that bad?"
"Later, right now we have to get out of here..."
"Okay..."
Twilight ran down hallways and eventually came to a door that Exlaa quickly opened and pushed Twilight inside and slammed the door. She locked with extreme speed all the twenty two locks there were, as a pounding was heard on the door. She flipped the lightswitch. It was a room made of concrete walls and smoothed stone floors. Another pony was there.
She was purple, and had a hat on. Her cutie mark was a star that had a wing with four feathers that were tipped either red, orange, yellow, or purple, and had a line of smaller stars down her flank. She was also horribly scarred, and breathing heavily.
"Starflight!!" Exlaa ran over to her. "I got the power going!!"
"So i see, good job guard. Now whos- ooh my..." Starflight said as she sat up and looked at Twilight. "Well, Twilight Sparkle, the new princess of magics. What are you doing here of all places?"
"You know me?" Twilight said with surprise.
Outside Equestria she didn't expect anyone to know or care. So this was rather odd.
"But of course. I was once... nevermind. Either way Twilight you shouldn't be here. This place is full of scum, and disease. So what are you doing here?" Starflight asked again.
"Truly? I don't know. i ran away you could say..." Twilight said looking down at her hooves.
"Well, you sure picked a spot. The stallions around here have gotten some disease. This disease makes their eyes glow and go all zombpony. They've dragged the mares of the town to a hole they've dug. Me and Exy here don't care to think about what they're doing down there. All we hear is screams, and shouts for help..." Starflight said shuddering as Exlaa put a wing sround her. "Exlaa, wants to make a rescue attempt. For her friend Popper, the fool got too close to the hole and got dragged in. Since she's Exy's sister she wants to save her."
Exlaa looked at me. "I'm going to! Nothing will stop me! Popper..." she said casting her gaze down.
A single tear rolled off her muzzle.
"Starflight? Do you mind if i ask how you got those scars?" Twilight asked trying to get off the subject of Popper.
Starflight looked up with a saddness in her eyes. "I made them my self... i was once someone quite special. A few are from battle but most are from me..."
Twilight's mouth opened as she gasped, her wings flaring out. a pony cutting herself was almost un-heard of in Equestria! But what this creature had done to herself was shocking!
"You had wings. Didn't you?" Twilight asked looking at the two scars in the exact spot wings would be on her back.
"Yes... They were my torment." Starflight said looking distant.
"Sounds oddly familiar..." Twilight said looking at her wings with disgust.
"You don't know what use they are yet. You don't know what they truly mean. Twilight your wi- STALLIONS!!" Starflight shrieked as the door suddenly fell down.
A stallion with skin falling off and muscle exposed crashed in. His eyes glowed a sick green, his hair was messy and muddied, and finally he was drooling a green slime. He looked towards Twilight and lunged at her. Twilight screamed.
Exlaa suddenly jumped a pierced the stallion through the head with her horn, dragon wings aiding her.
"DIE! YOU SLIME MUTANT!!" Exlaa screamed as she repeatedley stabbed him.
Twilight looked away, and saw Starflight move quicker than lightning next to her.
"Twilight! Get your horn ablazing and cast a protection spell! I know my si- Celestia taught you that!" Starflight spat as more stallions began to amble in.
Twilight quickly cast her spell over the three and pulled Exlaa and Starflight near. Twilight walked forward, as did the other two. They walke flank to flank through the horror show. Twilights purple magic slightly obscuring it. Twilight shut her eyes and cried. Starflight and Exlaa guided her through the maze of horrors.
"Looks like the whole mass came. This was a boom town, now it's a ghost town..." Starflight muttered.
"Twilight how long do you think you can hold this spell?" Exlaa suddenly asked.
"Pf! Third spell i learned! i could hold it forever." Twilight said.
"Hope you can, cause we're saving Popper next." Exlaa confidently replied.
Twilight traveled outside, the rain was still pouring, her spell still on, Exlaa, and Starflight still with her, and the lights of the town on. The stallions slowly followed them slowly.
"Frickin, Stalliox..." Starflight muttered.
"What's Stalliox?" Twilight asked.
"The disease that made all the stallions go loopy, and zombie mode. Our doctors, and Nurses tried, and failed. Stalliox claimed all of the male genus. The creepy part is the fact it jumped species. Basically, only eat meat that was female." Exlaa replied.
"M-MEAT?! WHO EATS M-MEAT?!" Twilight said startled.
Her spell suddenly faltered. A young colt launched at the group. He bounced off with a fizz, and fell in front of the others who simply stepped on him, crushing him. Twilight shuttered. Starflight, and Exlaa didn't even bother to look.
"We eat meat. When you are starving, Twilight, you WILL eat anything. Besides, it put's some muscle on you. Which you could use..." Exlaa said glancing at Twilights thin legs, making Twilight blush slightly.
"Ex, hole up ahead." Starflight said nodding towards a large hole in the ground. Green ooze flowed in to it, a sudden scream was heard. Some mares...
"Here we are. Ooh, i'm excited just to be on the edge! I can't wait!" Exlaa said looking down.
The stallions behind them had stopped about twenty feet away from them, they seemed unsure of what to do.
"You sure it's not fear!?" Twilight said looking in the hole,it went about four feet down, and then sharply turned. A low moaning was heard.
"Positive! Let's go!" Exlaa said jumping in as she grabbed Twilight, and Starflight's legs.
Twilight shrieked a little at being dragged in. When she hit the ground, her magic suddenly felt incredibly weak. Her spell flickered.
"Just as I thought. They have a magic barrier up, to stop the unicorns and such. Twilight, don't stress out, and focus on that spell. Without it, we are dead, there are no re-do's." Starflight said grimly, as she touched her small hat lightly where she would have had a horn.
"I'll... I'll try... I feel... so tired..." Twilight replied. She focused all of her energy in to the spell.
Exlaa stood beside her, letting Twilight rest on her. The three walked forward. As they did they heard thumps behind them of the stallions coming in. An eerie green glow came from them.
"Ignore it. Look ahead, it's brighter." Starflight said keeping her head down.
"enough with the bits of wisdom! We- oh. Eh-heh, hey! It get's bigger, it looks like a large cavern..." Exlaa said, hurrying Twilight along.
Twilight did her best to comply. The spell was becoming very taxing for her. Wait... this wasn't a magic barrier... This was the work of a... Oh, Celestia! Why couldn't she remember the creatures name!?
They came to the end of the tunnel, and stepped in to a wide cavern. A large hole was in the middle, full of the strange green ooze. Green ooze was on the walls, floors, and ceiling dripping slowly down on to ponies. The mares! They were chained to the walls with metal chains, hopelessness in their eyes. Most looked as though they had given up. Stallions walked around in their zombie states.
"Hey Exlaa?" Twilight muttered.
"Yah?" Exlaa asked distractedly looking around.
"Why don't you use your magic? And what does Popper look like?"
"My magic is only good for healing, breaking, and lending. Speaking of which... this should help." Exlaa said as she pressed her odd horn against Twilights, a crackle of magic going between them, Twilight suddenly felt okay again. her magic seemed to have returned, because her spell suddenly brightened, and quit fading. She stood up, and looked at Exlaa strangely.
"What..." Twilight said in confusion. Magic lending was relatively unheard of, due to the problems it inflicted on a magic creatures mind. Eventually driving them to insanity, but Exlaa seemed fine.
"Again, half-dragon, duh. Popper is red, with a white, and red mane, and tail. Her cutie mark is a box of theater popcorn. She's an earth pony."
Exlaa said raising a hoof to her eye.
Starflight numbly stared at the ground. Strange pony...
"THERE SHE IS!!" Exlaa yelled as she pointed a little to the left.
There was indeed a pony matching Poppers description, sitting on the floor. She was smiling as she played with her hooves, when a stallion came by she snarled ferociously, oddly so for a pony. The stallion would quickly back away, as mares around her only seemed mildly enthused.
"THAT'S MY POPPER!! POPPER!! POPPER!! OVER HERE POPPER!!!" Exlaa yelled as she jumped up and down excitedly.
Poppers ears flicked up and she looked over, a broad smile on her face as she saw Exlaa.
"EXLAA!! OVER HERE, EXLAA!!" Popper said jumping up and down with equal enthusiasm, greatly annoying the mares around her.
Exlaa ran out of Twilights spell, and sprinted over to Popper. Knocking multiple stallions in to the giant hole. Their screams would haunt many forever.
"That fool! Is she trying to get herself killed! Exlaa! Free thy friend and get thy self back over here!" Starflight yelled, waving a hoof.
Thy? She sounded a lot like... Luna.
"Starflight?" Twilight asked, keeping her eyes trained on Exlaa.
"What do thy wish to speak to me... I mean, what?!" Starflight replied angrily.
"Were you close with Luna or something? You sounded a lot like her for a moment." Twilight inquired.
"Er... I mean, no! I've always lived out here in this town, with Exlaa and Popper! EXLAA!! GET YOURRUMP OVER HERE BEFORE I COME OVER THERE!" Starflight yelled as Exlaa broke Poppers chain and broke in to a run with Popper next to her, slashing mares chains along the way.
The mares just sat there, they didn't seem to care. What had happened? This was like when she had gone to The Crystal Empire with her friends. Twilight thought, everypony just seemed lifeless... Twilight quickly shook off thoughts of her friends, and family. I wonder if Rainbow made it in to the Wonderbolts yet...
Exlaa skidded to a stop in front of them, Popper crashing in to her. Suddenly the ground shook, and the ooze in the hole bubbled.
A giant black bug-like head emerged. It's mouth made a sickening crunching noise as it opened. all shrunk back in fear, the cavern becoming disturbingly quiet.
"Run." Twilight said horrified as she looked towards the tunnel. The stallions from earlier sat there. Twilights magic began to ebb again, the shield forcefully shattered suddenly.
"Twilight!" Exlaa said running over.
"I couldn't hold it any longer, that thing... it's the drain. It's called..." Twilights brain strained for the name, when it suddenly clicked. "A Ractog. They are incredibly rare due to their size, diet and habitat. Their diet is... oh, good Celestia..." Twilights eyes widened.
Starflight continued for her. "Their diet is mares. No one knows why, but they love to eat female ponies. They take over the stallions, get them to bring the mares and WHAM. Mare eaten, then they set it up so that they have a constant food supply..."
"I'M GOOD, WITHOUT ALL THE DETAILS MAN!" Popper said suddenly. "In the meantime, those stallions are a little too close for comfort and there's a giant bug trying to eat us. Help?"
"Ractog. And I don't know what to do." Twilights fear grew greater as she realized the almost-certain possibility of death.
The three mares huddeled together. Starflight suddenly stood in front of them and faced the threatening creatures. Everything paused a moment as Starflight raised her head. A brave smile on her face, her eyes narrowed as she took a deep breath.
Her mouth began to move but... Twilight, and co. heard nothing. Twilight raised an eyebrow.
The Raptor came to eye level. Starflight calmly looked in it's beady eyes, her stare unmoving, unblinking. The bug queen suddenly screeched and flailed, taking down part of the wall, crushing many ponies. Screaming, and chaos reigned.
"GO! NOW!" Starflight said running past the stallions who seemed to be coming out of their daze. Twilight quickly followed behind with Popper, and Exlaa in tow. Starflight stood at the side of the hole. "Use me as a boost. Exlaa, fly out and be ready to help."
Popper bounced out without any help whatsoever. Who was she? Pinkie Pie? Twilight shook the thought off, not the time. She stepped on top of Starflights back and found incredibly sturdy. Exlaa pulled her out then flew in and grabbed Starflight.
The earth kept shaking, a sink hole suddenly formed where the cavern would be. They wordlessly ran away, Exlaa flying ahead as a guide.
They ran until they hit the woods, adrenaline carrying them. Collapsing in exhaustion they fell asleep for the night. The earth still shaking many miles away...
