"Luna, please hurry!" Celestia shouted. Her heart raced as she looked out into the small Forest that had slowly crept up around their castle in the previous years. Her eyes darted left and right, frantically making sure nothing was lurking in the dark.
Above them, the moon watched silently, barely illuminating the woods around them. It had forsaken Luna, turned to the one in the woods.
"I'm trying! Give me a few more minutes," she said, her voice panicked. Her eyes were shut violently and beads of sweat dropped from her face as she forced all of her energy into the spell she was focused on.
Celestia jumped and backed away from the doorway as leaves crunched only a few feet away. Yet, her eyes didn't recognize anything out of the ordinary. Her chest played a rhythmic beat as she slowly peered around the corner. Not even twenty feet away, a large bank of fog was gathered. Inside it was the form of a dark figure, one that chilled Celestia to the core.
"Luna, it's right outside!" she yelped, her voice breaking as tears began to flow from her eyes. Each torch on either side of the wall flickered, faded, dimmed, then died out. Pitch black nothingness surrounded the two, the only light coming from Luna. Outside, the wind completely died down. Nature didn't speak a whisper. The only audible sound was Celestia's heartbeat and panicked breaths.
Luna yelped in pain as she placed every bit of her being into the spell. She was but a minute from completing it. It was a spell only she knew, one that Celestia didn't even know she knew until just moments before. It was powerful... dangerous. There was a chance she would open herself to a great evil, but there was no way it would be worse than what waited outside.
The moon blinked. Except it didn't reopen. Darkness was the only thing above them. Nothing surrounded them.
Celestia stared at her sister, surrounded by a ghostly dark blue, the aura of her magic. She could feel the pain her dear sister was in and wanted to step in. But she knew it was their only chance. If they didn't do it now, they would no longer be of this world, and Equestria would be the plaything of whatever lay outside.
Their magic did nothing to it. Celestia had tried every spell in her arsenal against it, each one to no avail. It simply faded into the fog. They weren't even sure Luna's spell would work. But in the end, they had to try.
Celestia looked outside once more, back to where it had been standing. A sigh of relief, but at the same time, fear, escaped her throat as she noticed it wasn't where it had been before. It calmed her a tiny bit to not see it, but it brought insurmountable fear to her to not know where it was.
Luna grimaced as her brain seemed to snap from the pressure on her mind. Spasms erupted through her body, forcing her to stiffen directly up. Each muscle tensed to a point of snapping; each vein worked hard to push blood throughout her body. Fear, pain, anxiety, stress... everything piled up on her at once. But only a fear of death kept her going.
"Come on, Luna," Celestia whispered to herself. She started to turn around, but stopped as she noticed that the floor around them was now coated in a thick fog. Celestia looked down, her hooves faded completely into it. The thickness was so great that she almost felt she'd not be able to move even if she tried. A quick test, however, revealed she could indeed move. Celestia shivered as she looked up, the fog feeling unnaturally cold.
Shadows danced around Luna, a great gala of specters gathering to watch the two sisters bathe in their fear. Celestia wanted to run, to just leave the Forest, Equestria, everything behind. It scared her to the core, crushed every bit of courage she had ever had. She felt like a small filly, afraid of a monster in her closet. She couldn't explain it, even though she knew exactly what it was. She couldn't fight it, even though she had more power than any other living creature.
Luna wanted the same thing.
Celestia gasped as she looked across the room. Slowly making its way towards Luna, it crept silently. Celestia wanted to scream to her sister, but her throat slammed shut. She was painfully aware of her inability to even take a breath. For just a moment, it stopped and stared at her.
Black eyes, more like sockets than anything, stared at her. She couldn't make out anything but that because of the darkness, but she knew what the rest of it looked like. As she stared back, she couldn't help but feel she was staring death itself in the face. Every fear in the world stood right in front of her, taunting her as if to say, "Save her." It wanted her to try and save her sister, so it could make her fail. It wanted her to see it kill Luna as she lay dying. It wanted nothing but to bring pain.
Celestia's eyes widened, her muscles locked up. She was paralyzed. It slowly turned away from her and looked back at Luna. Even in the pitch black, she could still make out those eyes. Even in the darkness, they reflected... something off of them. Not light, rather it was a blackness beyond the darkest of colors. So black that it could be seen fifty feet away when one couldn't even see their own hoof in front of their face. They were unnatural. Then again, nothing was natural about what was slowly advancing towards her only beloved sister.
Luna yelled out in pain, terror, and urgency as the spell reached a ready stage. She only needed a few more seconds...
Celestia stared as it stepped right up behind her. The light from her horn didn't even penetrate the deep, dark fog. But even still, Celestia could make out a sinister grin. The fog began to wrap around Luna, a blanket of misery, horror... and death.
Luna didn't have enough time.
Celestia whimpered and looked around as she regained the ability to move. Every inch of her body told her to run, to save herself. And that's what she did... but not away from it.
She charged the horror before her, intent of sacrificing herself if it meant saving Luna and Equestria. As she ran through the darkness, she couldn't help but feel she was running towards death. She was, in a sense.
With a leap, she flew towards it, her body ready to hit it. She expected to feel a blow against her body as she made contact... but she didn't. All she felt was a extreme amount of cold, followed by a sharp pain as she landed on her side on the floor. Standing up, she noticed she wasn't in the lobby of her castle anymore. She was nowhere, actually.
A single tear dripped from her eye as she realized that she no longer felt fear, pain, anything. As soon as she had stood up, she had realized she felt disconnected from her body. Now, as she looked at her hoof, she realized she could phase right through it. She was nothing but fog. She had died.
"Goodbye, Luna..." she whispered as she felt a gust of wind. Even though she shouldn't be able to, she felt herself being blown away. The wind carried her away, separating her mass of fog that formed her body into nothing but a fine mist. As her legs dissipated, she wondered what afterlife awaited her. If Luna was successful, maybe she'd finally be granted peace after such a long life. But if not... she didn't want to think about it.
She felt a strange sense of relief as her neck faded away, followed shortly by her head. The last thing she saw was the fog all around her seeping into the ground, while she floated away in the air.
"Celestia!" she heard Luna yell. It seemed close, but it echoed. Again it rang out, this time even louder. As it called a third time, she became aware of a sense of feeling again. It was dull, but it was there. Before she could react, a force of wind blew her back to the ground. Her body repaired itself, forming another foggy mist of a body. Yet this time, it seemed more solid. In front of her, only two feet away, it stood. The two stared at each other, and it nodded to her. With another eerie smile, she was blinded with a bright light.
"Celestia, wake up," Luna pleaded, shaking her sister. Sunlight seeped through the window, birds chirped, the wind blew, and happiness once more ruled over the land. Luna felt her heart jump as Celestia opened her eyes, a confused look on her face.
"Luna...?" she asked, her voice weak and gravely. Luna couldn't help but look at her eyes. They seemed... foggy. At closer examination, she deduced it was only a reflection of a cloud. She was just paranoid.
"It's alright, it's over. I completed the spell right after you dived at it. I was so scared... you wouldn't wake up and you were so cold..." Luna sniffled, her eyes slowly draining tears. Celestia faked a smile and embraced her sister in a hug.
"You did it, Luna... I'm proud of you. I'm sorry to have scared you," she whispered, her own eyes filling with tears. She was afraid to blink; she still saw the grinning face of it in her eyelids. It had said something before she woke, but she couldn't remember.
"I'm just happy you're okay."
"I am too, Luna... I am too." The two sat in silence staring out at the morning sun. Both found it hard to imagine the previous night, but they knew it was over. As Celestia stared, she tried to remember what it had said to her. Shrugging it off, she went back to consoling her sister.
Later that night, in a nightmare, she remembered what it said.
"Return..."
The streets of Ponyville lay quiet. All houses remained closed, and not a single pony walked the streets. Twilight peered from her window, her eyes focused intently on the Everfree Forest.
The previous night, a large amount of fog was seen misting away from the Forest. Many took it as a bad omen, deciding to not go near it, or even outside while the fog still crept.
Sure enough, Twilight could still make out a hint of fog, percolating gently from the boundaries of the forest. She had never seen anything like it, and somehow, it just didn't seem natural. Nothing about it did.
Even more disturbingly, all usual reports of sounds from within the forest have completely stopped. Usually, when close to them, one could hear the animals and other wildlife inside. But now... all that accompanied the dark forest was a dark silence, one that sent shivers down ponies' spines. Twilight didn't like it, not one bit.
"Twilight?" Spike asked, aware that Twilight had not blinked in a good two minutes. Her focus jarred, she blinked multiple times and turned to her faithful assistant.
"Sorry, the forest just has me on edge. What could it mean, Spike?" she asked, her tone dark. Even though the sun was shining brightly, the day seemed dark. The air was heavy, even though a light spring breeze came in through the window. Overall, the entire home seemed depressed; dark and sad.
"It's probably nothing. There's been fog in there before, hasn't there?"
"Sure... but not like this. This... it seems wrong. Unnatural in so many ways... Don't you feel it in the air?"
"Yeah, but I just assumed it was because I'm groggy," Spike replied with a yawn, his eyes droopy from lack of sleep.
"Maybe, but I got a good amount of sleep last night. If that was the case, I wouldn't be affected. No, this is something to worry about."
"You're just overreacting, Twi. I say you just have a lazy day, take a nap and a well needed break. You work and worry too much," Spike said, his voice that of compassion. With a slight shove, he pushed Twilight to her bed and made her lie down.
"I would like to lie down, Spike... but it's my duty to make sure nothing befalls Ponyville. I'm going to walk around town, see if anything seems unusual." Spike shrugged and settled into his bed besides Twilight.
"Do whatever. I'm going back to bed," he yawned.
"Go ahead, I'll be back soon," she promised. Spike was asleep before she had even stepped outside.
Oddly, the air outside seemed much like it had inside. The day was bright; not a cloud in the sky. Yet, at the same time, everything was darkened. Invisible shadows lingered over everything, and the shadows that were visible seemed dark, unholy places that contained her worst fears. It made her shiver to even think how odd it was.
An image quickly flashed through her head, one that felt strangely familiar to her. Almost as if she was trying to remember the face of somepony she had seen in a dream. It was there, but she couldn't put a name or details to it. All she could tell readily, though, was that it was dark. Scary, even. Maybe she had had a nightmare at some point that she had pushed to her subconscious.
The streets, as expected, were completely empty. Nopony wanted to be about with such a strange omen in a already taboo place. Ponies could be very superstitious when it came to stuff they didn't understand. Oddly enough, even Pinkie wasn't anywhere to be seen. Deciding to see what she was up to on such a boring day, Twilight made her way to Sugarcube Corner.
Not surprisingly, the shop was closed. No doubt Pinkie was upstairs, probably involved in some sort of mishap or another. She knocked twice, a little unnerved at her unreadiness to answer. For a moment she thought maybe she was somewhere else and was about to leave. Before she could even get off the step, the door hinges creaked and out came Pinkie.
"There you are, Pinkie. How are you doing-"
"What are you doing out here?"
"Just seeing why everypony is inside. It's a nice... enough day."
"I know you've heard about the forest, Twilight," Pinkie replied. Strangely enough, she spoke in a fairly serious tone of voice. Twilight also couldn't help but notice her eyes were darting side to side, almost as if she was nervous.
"Yeah, I did. What's wrong with you, anyways?"
"I don't know. Every since I woke up this morning, I've felt like somepony is watching me. It's scaring me a little bit."
"Pinkie, Nopony is watching you. You just got carried into the bandwagon pulled by the Everfree Forest," Twilight reassured, a little unnerved at Pinkie acting so erratically. Sure, she almost always acted that way, but this... she actually seemed scared.
"No, somepony is watching me. I know it, Twilight. Last night, I had a dream... I was in the Everfree Forest, lost beyond all hope. Yet ahead of me, a path, marked by fog on either sides, led me somewhere. I can't remember where, but..." Pinkie trailed off, her eyes focused on something behind Twilight. Curious, she turned around.
Near the edge of town, on the Everfree Forest side, stood somepony. They were too far to see who it was, but they didn't seem to be local. Twilight started to call out, but stopped as the pony looked their way, smiled, and faded into the fog in the forest. Twilight looked back at Pinkie for confirmation, and shivered a little as she looked back towards the forest.
"Twilight, could you go check on Fluttershy? She lives right next to the forest and her own shadow scares her."
"Sure, I can do that," Twilight said, a fake smile on her face. The pony that smiled at them haunted her mind, made her think of where she had seen them before. Maybe they were one of the various ponies around town that had made their home there recently. She’d probably seen them somewhere and forgot about it, that was all. But that still didn’t answer why they had entered the forest, especially when everypony else avoided it like a batch of Applebloom’s cupcakes.
“And Twilight... get indoors. Something’s not right, I can feel it. Not like my Pinkie sense either. Twilight,” Pinkie whispered, her face low, “ I’m scared.”
“What for? I assure you, Pinkie, It’s probably nothing.”
“I hope so, Twilight,” she shakily replied, her eyes focused on the forest. Every bit of her usual personality seemed to be hidden behind a sheet of fear.
Giving her friend a hug, a small sign that everything was fine, she waited ‘till Pinkie had re entered her house before making her way eastward to Fluttershy’s shack. As she walked, she thought about the pony that entered the forest, and of Pinkie, who was unnaturally scared. She had proven to be brave, so her fear showed that the fog was really getting to everypony.
Twilight gasped as she stared down the road at Fluttershy’s shack. Usually it was colorful, happy... but not then. Fog surrounded it in a thick blanket, making the shack barely visible through it. It was as if the fog wanted to claim it, but that was impossible. Fog wasn’t alive, and there was no way it could ever live.
Taking off in a full sprint, though she knew not why, Twilight reached the border of the thick fog within a few moments intent on charging through to the door. However, despite her best efforts, she stopped just short of entering the fog. At first, she had no idea why. Then it hit her...
She was terrified. As if just coming into close proximity to the fog had set off something in her. She wanted to run, to just get away from the thick, menacing fog as quickly as she could. The door to Fluttershy’s cabin sat only three feet away, reachable in just two steps. Yet Twilight couldn’t bring herself to enter into the fog.
“Fluttershy!” she yelled into the fog, hoping to garner her friend’s attention. “Fluttershy!” she yelled again. For a moment, despite all logic, she thought that maybe the fog somehow stopped all noise at its edge, sort of a force field.
Twilight paced back and forth, not sure what she should do. Fear, insurmountable to anything she had ever felt before, tore at her heart and mind. If she was this scared of it, even knowing it was nothing but fog, she couldn’t imagine how terrified Fluttershy was.
She stopped dead in her tracks, a cold chill running up her spine as she heard something inside the house clatter. Before she could even recognize what it was, something else fell. Whatever was happening inside, it wasn’t good.
Her heart beating faster than she ever thought possible, her lungs depraved of a good breath, she gulped and charged through the fog. The moment she stepped through the boundary of the fog, she felt she had entered a different world.
Her vision was reduced to a small bubble around her, one that gave her no time for reaction should something, whatever it may be, charge her. She had an impending sense of doom, as if she was walking a path that could only lead to her death, but it was the only available path. If ever a feeling to describe it, she felt like she was literally in death’s cold grasp.
Only as she opened the cabin door did she notice that she was shivering. The panic had kept her from feeling it, but the fog was cold. Real cold, as if she was standing within a blizzard. Her eyes stung as she tried to blink away tears that felt like they would freeze within moments of leaving her eyes.
“No!” came a yell from the rear of the house. Twilight jumped at the sound of it, but she managed to keep a straight head and run towards it. Paranoia seeped in, causing her to shiftily look around as she made her way through the fog. She couldn’t help but feel she should have reached where the yell had come from by then.
Finally, as she was certain she was stuck in a never-ending loop of walking, she tripped over something on the ground. The exact moment she did, it yelled out and darted away from her. It was Fluttershy; she was terrified, panicked.
“Fluttershy, it’s me!” Twilight yelled, her attempts to calm the yellow Pegasus a vain action. Fluttershy sat in a corner, her hooves over her eyes, rocking back and forth in a form of a ball. She was shivering heavily, as if she had just climbed out of a frozen lake after being in it for hours.
“Fluttershy,” Twilight whispered, afraid to startle her friend, “it’s me, Twilight.” Twilight jumped as she heard something clatter behind her. She braced herself to attack whatever emerged.
Twilight braced herself as something cluttered again, this time just outside of her viewing range. The fog seemed thicker than it had previously, to a point of being unnaturally thick. She was sure that if she tried to walk through it, she’d simply bounce off of it like a Pegasus does a cloud.
A sigh of relief escaped her throat as Angel emerged from the cover of the fog, his eyes wide with fear. Twilight stepped aside as he moved to Fluttershy and cuddled with her, both shaking in fear. Twilight wished she could join them, but knew she was the only one of her wits at the moment.
Careful not to startle Fluttershy, she charged a teleportation spell with the intent to get them out of the fog. Within a matter of seconds, she cast it. Ready to leave, she began to turn away, but stopped.
Fluttershy and Angel still sat on the ground.
Twilight stopped and stared at them, unsure as to why the spell didn’t work. She’d done short range teleportation spells since she was a small filly and hadn’t messed up for at least five years. There was no explainable reason as to why it hadn’t work. No natural reason, anyway.
Afraid to see what the two were so scared of, Twilight quickly began to push Fluttershy towards her door. It wasn’t hard, really. Fluttershy was completely paralyzed from fear, so she couldn’t stop her. Two minutes later, Twilight had managed to push Fluttershy to the front door. With a final hefty nudge, she knocked the yellow Pegasus out of the door and exited, slamming it behind her.
The edge of the fog in sight, she pushed her yellow friend a bit further, finally sighing in relief as they stepped out of the fog. Sunlight splayed over the both of them, but it didn’t warm them. It didn’t even make it brighter in her eyes. Sure that she was safe from whatever was inside the cabin, she sat beside Fluttershy and slowly moved her hooves away from her eyes.
“Fluttershy, it’s okay. I’m here now, alright?”
“T-Twilight?” she shakily asked, her eyes still wide with fear. Without any warning, Fluttershy tackled Twilight in a fierce hug and began to cry. “Why won’t I wake up, Twilight? Why can’t I wake up!” she cried, each word stuttered by heavy breaths.
“This isn’t a dream, Fluttershy.”
“No, it’s a nightmare!”
“What is? The fog?” she asked as she looked back at the fog. Somewhere within it, she thought she heard another noise.
“Yes, and...”
“And what? What else was it?”
“That thing,” she replied. Twilight tried to get another response from her, but to no avail. Even though she wanted answers immediately, she knew there was no way if she was that scared. Intent on finding out what was happening, she helped Fluttershy to her feet and lead her to her house.
“That fog ain’t natural,” Applejack said. The six friends were gathered in Twilight’s living room, trying to console a frightened Fluttershy. She had calmed down for the most part, but it was obvious that she was still traumatized.
“Tell me about it. You should see the forest from the sky,” Rainbow said. “I’ll be honest; I’m even a bit scared,” she admitted.
“Fluttershy, can you tell us what was there with you?” Twilight asked, still wanting to know what it was that scared her so badly.
“I don’t want too...” she whispered. She had stopped crying, but was now instead overly paranoid. Tiny movements made her jump, and when she wasn’t jumping, she was staring straight ahead as if deep in thought.
“Please, Fluttershy. I know it’s hard to think about it, but I need to know what you saw so I can put it in my letter to the Princess. She has to know what’s going on,” Twilight said, her hoof on Fluttershy’s back.
“O-okay...” she submitted. “I remember I had woken up from a nightmare. In it, I was in a dark room, one of which I couldn’t see anything in. In what looked like the center was a strange light, but I couldn’t tell what it was. To my left was a large doorway; outside was the Everfree Forest.” Before Fluttershy could continue, the for friends of Twilight’s and her’s spoke up.
“I had that same exact dream last night,” all four said in unison. A cold chill passed through the bodies of all in the room.
“All of you had the same dream?” Twilight asked, intrigued by the chances of such a rare happening. While it was interesting, it was also worrying. First the fog, then this?
“Yes,” all five replied.
“What about you, Twilight?” Rainbow asked.
Twilight thought of the night before, of the dream she had envisioned, all to no avail. It was one of those nightmares you forget about, traumatized too horribly by it. Intent on staying away from the question, she simply allowed it to pass through her head and instead turned back to Fluttershy.
“Anyways, what did you see when you woke up?” she asked, hoping nopony would notice her dodging the question. Indeed they did, but they didn’t say anything.
“I... I don’t know. It was in the corner; I thought it was a shadow. I didn’t even notice the fog. At least not until the shadow moved,” she explained, her eyes showing the horror as she spoke. “At first, I thought there was a fire. Then, as I got out of bed, I realized it was cold; poor Angel was wrapped up in seven blankets,” she softly said as she looked at the bunny sleeping soundly on the floor.
“Fluttershy, why did you yell?”
“That... thing, the shadow. When I got up to see why it was so cold, it slowly moved in front of the door. I was so scared that I knocked a shelf off the wall when I jumped back. That was when I saw what it really was...”
“Fluttershy, I know it’s hard to think about, but this is important, okay? What was it?” Twilight reassured as Spike jotted down what she had just told them.”
“It was a nightmare,” she shuddered.
“Uh... okay, that’s obvious. I mean what did it look like?”
“It looked... like a nightmare,” Fluttershy whispered, barely audible to Twilight. Upon hearing it, Twilight grunted in frustration. “It was black, completely.”
“Okay, so it was black. What else?”
“Oh, wherever it was, the fog seemed to thicken beyond seeing even a few centimeters around him. And...”
“And what?”
“It...” Twilight leaned in as Fluttershy stammered, the whole thing a suspenseful moment in a book to her. She didn’t mean to be like that, especially after something that terrible had happened to her dear friend, but when it came to something that endangered the town... she put that at the top of the list.
“Yes...?”
“Its eyes. They... they weren’t there. Or at least I don’t think they were. Even through the dark fog, I could see them. They were dark as the rest of him, but they had a certain look to them... you could tell where they were, clear as day.”
“Okay, I got enough information. Thank you, Fluttershy. You’re welcome to stay here until the Princess arrives to take care of this, okay?”
“Thank you, Twilight. I just hope Celestia doesn’t get scared...”
“Who? Celestia? Please, the only thing that could scare her is a shortage of cake,” she said as she rolled her eyes.
Celestia sat in front of her desk, her gaze diverted out the window into the nice october day. A cool pumpkin filled breeze wafted through the open window, enticing Celestia’s sweet tooth. Wanting for a nice delicious piece of pumpkin pie, she stood and hummed as she neared the door.
A puff of magic smoke appeared near her. Instantly she recognized it and levitated the scroll before her. A letter from Twilight, which wasn’t the least bit strange. Intrigued to see what she had sent her, she retreated back to her desk and opened the letter.
“Dear, Princess Celestia,” it began, “I’m not sure how to start this, since I’ve usually dealt with any problem in Ponyville fairly well, save for that one time with the parasprites... and the other time with Smarty Pants... anyways, we have a slight problem.
“Yesterday one of the ponies noticed it was really foggy at the Everfree Forest, which is normal on occasion, except this time she noticed there wasn’t a single sound coming from it, and the fog was especially thick.” Celestia felt her throat lock up as she read over the paragraph. Surely it wasn’t as bad as she thought it was.
“Today I went to Fluttershy’s cottage and found it covered in the fog. I don’t know why, but when I got close to the fog, I got scared. Really scared, and I have no idea why. I heard her scream, so I rushed in. Long story short, I got her back to the library.
“Here’s where it gets bad... All of my friends say they had the same exact nightmare last night. They were each in a dark room, and they said they were in the Everfree Forest with a light in the center of the room none of them could make out. I didn’t have the same dream, but I can’t really remember mine. I don’t know if the dreams are relevant, but they might be related
“And here’s where you come in. Fluttershy described what scared her. She said it looked like a nightmare. Wherever it stood, the fog surrounded it so thickly that she couldn’t see through it. The part she was really scared of was it’s eyes, though.” Celestia’s heart jumped as she tried her hardest to wake herself up. She was sure she was having a nightmare and would soon wake, just as she had all the other times she dreamt of its return.
“She said they were as black as the rest of it, yet they were still clearly visible. According to her, she could see them no matter the circumstances. Anyways, I think this is a pretty large problem, so as much as I hate to ask, we need your help. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”
Celestia sat staring at the letter, her eyes skimming over it again and again until her eyes hurt. Dread crept through her like a bad cold, making everything in her body ache. The cool breeze outside suddenly grew colder and the smell of pumpkin smelled sickly, upsetting her stomach. Fighting back and urge to vomit, she stared out over the Everfree Forest, deep into the center. Somewhere in that unnatural place, stood her castle.
Picking up a quill, she quickly wrote three words on a scroll and sent it to Twilight, hoping that Twilight heeded the letter with the utmost haste.
Twilight paced back and forth in her room, waiting for a response from the Princess. She had only sent the letter five minutes ago, but it wasn’t exactly a long letter. Maybe the Princess thought she was overacting. Maybe she had overreacted. As the fear of having messed up blazed into her mind, she stopped as Spike got the look of having a letter come from within his stomach.
Spike burped loudly, sending a cloud of magical smoke into the air, which materialized into a letter. Before it even had time to clatter to the ground, Twilight snached it up in her magical aura. Opening it, her heart sank. Inside was three words, written hastily.
Urgent. Meet me.
Twilight looked at the letter, at the impetuously written words. She began to wonder if this was as big a deal as she made it out to be. Not wanting to keep the Princess waiting, she quickly began to grab a few things for the trip.
Before she could even open one of her drawers, she felt a warm aura wrap around her. Within seconds, she was teleported from her bedroom. Looking around, she immediately noticed that she was in Celestia’s chambers, a place she’d only been a few times before.
Six magical pops exploded into her ears, one for each of her friends and Spike to be teleported next to her. As soon as everypony was there, Celestia opened her eyes and looked directly at Twilight.
“Twilight, is it true? What you said in your letter?” Twilight stared dumbfounded at her mentor, offended by the implication of having lied to her. She had never once lied to her before, so to be accused of it now...
“Princess, I’d never lie to you.”
“Then it is as I feared...” Celestia turned and closed the curtains on the window.
“Princess, what is this?” Twilight asked, worried by the strange behavior of her mentor.
“It’s a long story... but it can have only one conclusion. Twilight, you and your friends..you must leave Equestria.” Twilight and her friends all gasped loudly in unison.
“B-but why?” Twilight asked, her body shaky from panic.
“It’s not your fault, if that’s what you’re thinking. You’ve done nothing wrong. It’s... it’s for your safety, Twilight. All of yours.” Celestia said, small puddles forming in her eyes.
“Surely there is something we can do, isn’t there?” What is this thing?”
“Like I said, Twilight, it’s a long story... one that we’ve no time for. If what you say is true, then it’s already far too late for us to do anything.”
“We have to try!” Twilight yelled, slightly annoyed at the Princesses swiftness to give up. “Tell us what it is and how we can stop it. With the Elements, we can-”
“Forget the Elements, Twilight. They’d have no effect...” Celestia revealed, her voice down to a mere whisper.
“You can’t expect us to just leave with this... thing threatening Equestria!” Rainbow exclaimed, not angry, but highly annoyed.
“There is no time for squabbling. You all must leave now... the dreams were a warning. If you get out of its reach, out of Equestria, then you may all still have a chance to survive, to escape its grasp.
It will turn its attention to me and Equestria, but it would have done so anyways had it gotten to you first. If I can at least know that I helped save you all... it will be a bit easier on my conscience,” Celestia explained, her eyes filled with a dark sadness.
“Princess, please, tell us what it is. No matter what happens, we aren’t leaving. Not if this thing poses this great of a threat,” Twilight implored. Celestia looked up at them with a semi-prideful stare, but one that insulted their bravery at the same time.
“And so it is that you’re more brave than I, Twilight Sparkle. That will change soon, when it makes contact with you... but it is obvious that my attempts are fruitless. Fine, come with me...” Celestia sighed, defeated. She had been preparing for this ever since that night it came back to her in a dream, but she could have never been fully prepared.
Celestia lead the group down the halls. Twilight had walked them thousands of times before, but for some odd reason, they seemed to be warped from what they usually were. What was once a bright place filled with happiness was now a grim, lonely walk to a horror she couldn’t even begin to comprehend.
The guards in the hall didn’t even blink as they passed, as if they too were aware of what threatened their home. Knowing Celestia, however, it was unlikely they had been informed, so as to avoid any panic.
“Twilight, I warn you...” Celestia said as she stopped in the hall. “Once it makes contact with you, there will be no turning back. I’m an optimist, you know this... but for this, I fear there is no good ending. This is worse than Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, and Sombra combined... The Elements have no power, friendship has no power... I know it won’t change anything, but I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t warn you,” Celestia once more said, a final attempt to stop Twilight’s foolish attempt at fighting.
“Whatever it is... we can handle it,” Twilight said, hoping that she herself didn’t doubt her own voice.
Celestia sadly nodded as they stopped outside of a large door, painted a beautiful dark blue. Twilight recognized it as Luna’s room, although she had never once stepped hoof inside. It was always off limits to her during her stay, given Luna’s absence.
“Here,” Celestia said as she knocked on the door. From inside the voice of Luna answered the knock, a welcome into her sanctuary. Celestia opened the door and allowed the group to enter.
The inside was magnificent, better than Celestia’s room in every way. The entire ceiling was made of glass, with a magical aura surrounding it. Even though the day was bright, a beautiful night sky loomed overhead. It was no doubt Luna’s magic at work, casting an illusion of tranquility to Luna.
“Oh, hello there. Celestia, you could have told me we have guests,” Luna said, a cheery smile on her face.
“It was a last minute thing,” Celestia grimly replied. As if sensing something was wrong, the smile faded away from Luna’s face.
“Celestia, what’s wrong?” Luna asked. The group stared for what seemed like hours at Celestia, waiting for her to spill the bad news.
“Twilight sent me a letter... it was about the Everfree Forest.” Luna stared at her sister with an expression that pleaded for the topic to quickly take a turn for the better. “According to her, each one of them, save for her, had the same exact dream... When they woke up, a deep fog was coming from the forest.”
“Is it...”
“Yes, it is. I warned them to leave, to save themselves... but they want to fight it. They want to know what it is.” Twilight turned around as she heard the door slam shut and the lock engage. Luna stood from her bed and stared at the group.
“Noble, but foolish. I wish I could tell you to leave, but if my dear sister couldn’t even convince you... I suppose there is nothing but to tell you of it.”
“Please, anything you can tell us that can help us stop it...” Twilight pleaded.
“Twilight Sparkle, there is no stopping it. Where it came from doesn’t matter... but you must know of its power,” Luna started.
“The first and most obvious power it has is the fog. It’s not the fog we know, this... the fog it brings with it is a evil living thing. It is essentially part of the being Fluttershy saw. If anything steps into the boundaries of the fog, they reveal themselves to it. Not only that, but you will be stricken with a fear unlike any other you’ve ever felt,” Celestia chimed in.
“Why? Why does the fog make us scared?” Twilight asked.
“When entered,” Luna restarted, “it directly links you to the creature that commands it. It gains access to your very soul and torments it. But that alone isn’t enough to end you. You are theoretically safe until it finds you. When it does... fear will be the only thing you will feel. The moment you make contact with its eyes[i/], you will know the peril you are in.”
“Twilight, Luna and I...” Celestia began. “We had to face this thing thousands of years ago. We didn’t stand a chance... all magic simply faded into the fog, all attempts to flee completely futile. It hunted us because...” Celestia stopped and looked at the ground, an expression Twilight couldn’t name painted onto her face.
“It hunted us because we were closest,” Luna shakily said. Instantly, Twilight could tell that wasn’t the whole truth, but she figured it didn’t matter why it did hunt then.
“If it wasn’t for a powerful spell that Luna casted, Equestria wouldn’t even be here today. But even that spell was temporary and it caused something even more horrid...”
“It caused Nightmare Moon,” Luna continued. “When I banished it from our world with my spell, I allowed some of it to fuse with my very soul. It brought upon dark thoughts... I wanted only to see the world veiled in darkness. Why? I can only assume it was because the night was the most comfortable thing to me, even after that night in our old castle.”
“Old castle?” Twilight interrupted. ”You mean the one in the Everfree Forest, right?”
“The very same,” both sisters answered.
“Was that where we were at in our dream?” asked Pinkie Pie.
“Yes. You see, it has a connection to all of you...” Luna revealed. “It will hunt you six down first, but you, Twilight... you should have had the dream as well.”
“Me? Why?”
“Because you are the Element of Magic, the one that connects all the others. That dream... You were in a dark room in the Everfree Forest, correct?” Five of the seven nodded. “And each of you saw a light in the center of the room, one that you couldn’t make out, correct?” Once again, the five nodded to her.
“Twilight, that light was you. Luna and I... we went through this nightmare a long, long time ago. She was the light in the middle, and I was the one in the darkness. She always held the Element of Magic, where as I held the other five. That is why only she knew a spell powerful enough to expel such a great evil,” Celestia said.
“So, does that mean that I’m supposed to do the same thing?” Twilight asked.
“No, its too powerful to be stopped by the same spell again. Besides, even if you can do some of the most complicated spells in history, you’d never be able to pull this one off. It nearly killed me just to pull it off,” Luna answered.
“Then what did the dream mean? What do the Elements have to do with this? Celestia said they’d have no effect.”
“The dream... it was what the Elements saw. In the final moments before its banishment, the Elements were there. Not physically, of course, but they were there in theory. Twilight, everypony, its time that the true existence of the Elements comes out.”
“Luna, no. It’s not time,” Celestia pleaded.
“Celestia, if now isn’t the time... then there will never be a time,” Luna whispered. The two stared at each other for ten seconds. Finally, Celestia sighed and stepped forward. Celestia’s horn began to glow and the room slowly filled with six different colors. Looking up, they could see six happy smiling faces.
“Twilight, these are the Elements of Harmony. Long before our time, before... anything, really, these six mares happily lived in Equestria, before it was Equestria. They were the first living creatures in existence.
“Humanitas, the Element of Kindness, granted the beings of the world love and the good nature in each ponies hearts. Fidelitas, the Element of Loyalty, gave the beings of the world the ability to feel obligated to help others through any situation. Risus, the Element of Laughter, gave the beings of the world the ability to feel happiness and the joy of laughter. Probitas, the Element of Honesty, gave the beings of the world a conscience and guilt, as well as a satisfaction from always telling the truth. Liberalitate, the Element of Generosity, gave the inhabitants of the world the ability to let go of personal belongings and feel good about it.
“Finally, Magus, the Element of Magic, granted the world magic. Together, the six gave the world life, creating the first ponies the ever live. For the rest of their lives, they lived as the kind rulers of their new world, giving it more and more as time went on. Finally, near the end of their lives, they had given everything they could give. Their job was done and they could rest. But they knew, long after they were gone, problems would emerge, problems that would require their help,” Celestia finished, her face weary from exhaustion.
“So,” Luna continued,” they cast a spell on themselves, turning their mortal bodies into essences that drifted freely about the world. For a few thousand years, this continued. No problems emerged, so they began to think they might be unneeded after all. Just as they were about to leave our realm forever, an evil came forward. This evil was lost to the ages, so we know not what it was. All we do know is that it was stopped by a powerful magic user, who with the knowledge of the Elements, gave the Elements a means to enter into his body.
“He became the ruler of Equestria for a short while after his triumph and the creation of the gates to Tartarus. Unless the gates were penetrated, the evil within would never once again escape. One night, in a dream of his, the Elements spoke to him. They told him that they were ready to leave him. He grew angry, felt abandoned by the one that gave him power. With a single spell, he cursed them to this world. From that moment on, they became known as the Elements of Harmony, usable to those they saw fit.
Another few thousand years passed, how long, we don’t know. But that was when we were granted their power, as well as a power they hadn’t yet allowed anything else to harness. We were given power over the moon and sun, and with it, a power to live for an undetermined amount of years. With the Elements, we stopped Discord. The rest is history,” Luna concluded. Twilight and her friends all meditated on what was just told to them.
“So... the Elements are...”
“They are the creators of our world, our gods. For thousands of years, Luna and I have been revelled as the gods, the creators. But that was what the Elements wanted. That is why they are so powerful.”
“I see... but how does that relate to what is in the woods? Why can’t we use the Elements?” Twilight asked.
“Because,” Celestia sighed, “Twilight... that thing in the woods, it was created with the power of the Elements.”
