Seeker

"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..."