There had once been a time where she had found everything around her was something rather repetitive; most of the things Twilight had come to experience were hardly anything that she hadn’t already known. There were a few things, however, that yearned at her mind from the corner of her eye. Whether it was noon, or midnight, that ever lasting feeling of the unknown pulled at her, but it rarely held any real value. It was abstract, lacking the concrete elements for the scientific study Twilight would delve into. It never felt real, or was it always a simplistic dream?
Many stars twinkled overhead, far above the canopy of the trees. The soft shimmer of the moon across the lakes and fountains in the dark of night gave a beautiful glow across the land, accompanied by a gentle wind. Ponyville was a quiet town during the night, more so than the bustling cities of Manehattan or Canterlot, where there was almost always a pony here or there, no matter the time. Somepony was always up, trotting along the streets; a common occurrence to hear footsteps along the cobbled streets. Up inside a tree, or more of a treehouse, rested the Apprentice of Celestia herself, Twilight Sparkle. Sheets were tucked in tight around her body, fending off the freeze that would often enter her home during the night. Spike Lay in his own little basket next to the bed, fast asleep with his own green bursts of fire warming him ever so slightly.
A bit of frost was forming along the wooden seams of Twilight’s window, the moon’s glow slightly distorted. Rolling in her sleep, Twilight whispered, “No... Please, no... anything but... that.” Her eyes began to twitch and crimp, her lips pursing as her nose wrinkled and a bead of sweat formed upon her forehead. Chanting mumbled slurs to herself, Twilight began to toss about before suddenly sitting up in her bed. A slight outline was formed from the sweat of her body in the white sheets, her breaths fast and shallow; almost choking on each breath she took.
After a few minutes, she put her hooves to her face and softly rubbed her eyes, asking herself “Why that dream... why again...?” It was a question that Twilight had become accustomed to, but it was one that never should be asked. Some dreams are too horrid to those who conceive them, and they only know what it means to dream of horrors that strike fear to the bottom of their souls. Between her breaths, Twilight heard the faint clop of hooves against the street outside of her home. She just sat there, silencing her breaths as she intently listened to the hooves to try and deduce who it just may be, based on the depth of the sounds. Just as Twilight had thought she knew who these mystery hooves had belonged to, they stopped. Closing her eyes slowly, she focused on the sounds around her.
Crickets, the faint chirping of their midnight tune, leaves swaying and brushing against one another.... and then an eerie silence through the deep night. A single, hefty, knock against the front door pierced the dark of the night, and the clopping of the hooves started again, growing faint with each moment Twilight had waited. Standing from her bed, the sheets loosely falling to the floor below her. She half-hazardly made her way downstairs, slightly stumbling as she tripped on the stairs, and walked towards the front door. Placing a hoof onto the knob, she gave it a twist and turned it gently; pulling the door open slowly. A cold, frozen breeze blew across her body as the door opened. There was no pony near her door, with the exception of a dark figure who stood a few hundred hooves away glaring at her from the edge of the Everfree Forest.
Twilight raised a hoof, and exclaimed in a slur, “Do-don’t go in there now night... It dangerous...!”
The figure turned sharply as it began to run off into the night under the cover of the brush. Reaching her hoof out farther, Twilight wanted to yell at this mysterious pony but ultimately decided against it as for every other pony that was sound asleep. Setting off into the night, Twilight partially closed the door behind her as she sprinted towards the Everfree, the cold winds nipping at her body.
Rushing into the Everfree probably wasn’t the smartest idea that she had ever partaken in, but somepony who would go to as much trouble to lead her into the Everfree must have some logical reason, or so at least she hoped. Adrenaline was pumping through her body, as Twilight woke more and more with every step, as she passed from the border of Ponyville to the Everfree, some of the bushes and thorns kissing her flank, leaving the slightest of scratches across her body. The roads ahead of her were dark, and most likely plagued by many of the terrors of the night, but something told Twilight there was something out there, something watching over her, a guardian angel of sorts.
Trotting along the improvised roads made by the little creatures of the night, and the day as well, Twilight could hear the slight crackling in the bushed around her, some faint and barely audible. Where others were much more profound, in which she would stop and stare for a moment in the fear something would jump out at her. Even with the fears that plagued her mind, Twilight did the best that she could manage to push them to the back of her mind and persevere into the deep of the forest. Pillars of light shone through the leaves, the small amounts of dust in the air giving these invisible pillars a shape and some sort of definition. After trotting through the forest for roughly half an hour, Twilight came across a small clearing in the trees. There was not a single pillar of light that shone through the canopy, and all was still around her.
In what seemed to be an instant a dense smoke formed around her, and as it entered her lungs, Twilight began to cough. She gagged and coughed, the unworldly smoke filling her lungs as she desperately gasped for air. The world around Twilight began to blur as she began stumbling around, the lack of fresh air taking a toll on her mental and physical state. Tumbling over in a soft thud, she landed among the weeds that lined the clearing. Every breath she took turned into a soft wheezing, the dark figure slowly coming into focus through the dense smoke. It knelt in front of her, placing a hoof on her artery softly, checking that she still had a pulse.
The figure above her was silent, not even the sounds of its own breath were audible. A clicking in the bushes behind her began growning louder; the shadowy figure taking notice as it glared off into the dark just behind Twilight’s body, as a foul stench slowly became more prevalent around them. Whatever stood over her body removed it’s hoof from her neck, slowly stepping backwards as the rattling grew louder, the rotting stench of wood and moss hanging heavy in the air. The figure that had just been there had disappeared into the night, running away from the new threat that had presented itself in the night.
The rattling and the foul breath had drew near, and Twilight could feel the warm, damp breath on the back of her neck as the world around her began to slowly fall apart, the darkness and smoke fading around her to nothing more than that of another lonely, dark night.
Twilight arose from her bed in a deep sweat, her pillow case soaked and her blanket lying on the floor not far away. Her throat burned with each breath, and her eyes fared none the better. A slight breeze wafted through her house, as she could see the front door to the home open just outside of her peripheral vision. Twilight placed her hooves on her flank, rubbing the sore joints softly. It stung more than she would have anticipated and looking down at her hooves, they were dotted with blood. Slowly looking down at her flank, she noticed the scratches that lined her body; not very deep, but enough to sting for a few days.
Was it... a dream? She asked herself, going into a light coughing fit. It all felt so... real... Twilight told herself as she looked out the window coated with the morning frost.
Just outside, near the edge of the Everfree, two pairs of toxic, malachite eyes glared back at her.
