Where we fear to tread
A lilac alicorn was climbing up the stairs to the Tower of the Moon where Princess Luna spent most of her time. Night had fallen over the Equestria, and Luna would be preparing for the night court after raising the moon. The alicorn glanced out of a window on the way up the tower: far below were the lights of the city shining bright and beautiful. She slowed her pace to take in the vista and wondered what everypony would be doing down below.
Suddenly she snapped back to reality, remembering that she still had a message to give to Luna. Someone else could have given the message to the princess but she was happy to do it. Besides, she had an ulterior motive: she had never been in the Tower of the Moon and was curious about what would be at the top. The moon had moved across the night sky as she reached the pinnacle. In front of her was a large set of double-doors, each carved with crescent moons. She walked up to them and knocked on the door with her hoof, and waited for a response. A minute passed. Nothing happened. Twilight knocked again. Another minute passed and still nothing. She checked her surroundings to make sure nopony else was around and proceeded to gently open the doors.
She poked her head in and called out,
“Princess Luna! Are you in … ”. She was cut off before she could finish, transfixed by the sight before her. At the end of the room, stood an archway leading off towards a balcony where Luna would raise the moon. It was silent, her curiosity took over; forcing her to take a closer look inside. Beautiful stone work lined the walls and set among the carvings were murals of stars and moons. Twilight sat in the middle of the room distracted by the enchanting decor, she tried to pluck up the courage to investigate one of the three doors leading off from the antechamber.
“Which door should I try?” she quietly said to herself. Picking the door closest to her left, the alicorn moves forwards and slowly opens it. “Luna?” she called, but there was nopony there. Instead what she saw was something rather odd: the room was empty. Empty that is apart from a large stain glass window made up from numerous colours of purple and blue standing in an arch, carved from stone, in the middle of the chamber. Upon closer inspection the window appeared to be moving, each piece of glass seemed to be in a state of flux as small lights shifted inside them. Twilight was caught in a trance; the only word she could find to describe the object before her was “wow ...”.
She reached for one of the pieces of light with her hoof. The moment she touched the glass, she disappeared...
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Twilight slowly became aware of herself and her surroundings. She was no longer in the room or the tower, in fact she had no idea where she was. All that was around her was an empty void.
“Hello, anypony there?” She shouted into the darkness, “Luna, where am I?”
She thought back, remembering the time just before she became an alicorn. As she did so, she noticed small specs of light coming into view like stars in the night sky.
“Princess Celestia? Hello?” Still nothing. Twilight was beginning to panic: she had no idea where she was or what to do. The stars around her seemed to be getting closer to her. She yelled “If this is some kind of a joke, it's not funny!” No one answered.
She then worried that she might have changed. Last time something like this happened, I got wings. A horrible thought crossed her mind. What if I get another pair of wings? I’d be… some kind of freak! As she turned around to look at her wings, she was relieved to find only the two. Though this calmed her nerves for the moment, Twilight noticed the stars had gotten even closer and it became clear that they were not stars at all. They were shards of glass moving slowly through the void around her.
The glass shards seemed to be in flux just like the window in the Tower ; however these had moving images inside them. All kinds of different scenes were playing out in each one. Ponies she had never seen before doing all manner of activities: playing, dancing and others beyond count. Looking around there must be thousands of them… tens of thousands even!
Twilight found it hard to take in: so much was going on around her. Since what had happened when she touched the window, there seemed to be no other way out of whatever chaotic place she was in. The mare decided to pick a shard. She must have stood there for a good ten minutes before she noticed one that stood out. Inside the shard of glass was what looked like the inside of a palace. She thought about it for a while but with a lack of any other ideas, she moved towards it and placed her hoof on it. Her surroundings flashed and disappeared.
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Everything became black and empty again, she felt maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea. Then slowly starting from where her hooves met the ground, the black void began to roll back like fog on a cold morning. This fog was replaced by what appeared to be marble flooring as it spread out, columns and walls started to be revealed. This continued for a while, until the void had disappeared. This left Twilight disappointed. She thought that the architecture was grand enough to be the palace in Canterlot, but if it was, she had no idea whereabouts. She sighed to herself. Looking down to the end of hall was a large open room, which she headed towards.
Upon entering the ornate room, she saw racks of the most fabulous dresses lined along each side. A white alicorn with a familiar styled purple mane walked out of a back room.
“Twilight, you do know we are closed?” She calls over with a smile.
“Rarity....?” The lilac pony said after hearing her voice, her jaw dropping in shock.
“Yes dear, is everything ok?” Questioned Rarity, looking a little confused that her friend might not have recognised her.
Poor Twilight: the whole ordeal was getting a bit much for her.
“NO I’m-not-ok-I-have-no-idea-where-I-am-or-what's-going-on” she blurted out all at once, after a quick breath she continued, “Since-when-were-you-an-alicorn? ...Not that you don’t look lovely. But I'm really confused, I don't understand anything that's going on. First I was in the Tower of the Moon, then some kind of void; now I’m here!”
Rarity stood there with a worried look on her face before saying, “My coronation was last week. You were there dear. And this is my Canterlot headquarters for my fashion empire.”
The lilac pony had been running her hooves through her mane trying to take in all the information and it was starting to look quite a mess.
“Does this mean I’ve travelled through time?” She said quietly to herself.
Hearing this Rarity spoke up, “You really must stop worrying yourself like this: your mane is becoming quite a state!”
Twilight broke her train of thought with an “Oh sorry Rarity”, whilst trying to stop fidgeting with her hooves.
“How about a cup of tea to calm your nerves, or perhaps something a bit stronger? I think I still have a bottle of white wine out back”, said the white pony, smiling cheekily as the alcohol was mentioned.
The lilac alicorn nodded “I think a glass of wine would be for the best”.
Rarity motioned for Twilight to follow her and they both walked into the back room of the rather grand boutique. Twilight went and sat at the table while Rarity looked in a cupboard.
“Ah here it is” Rarity said, she pulled out a bottle and two glasses and began walking back to the table. Placing the three items on the top she then poured some of the wine into each glass and took the seat opposite Twilight.
“So you don’t remember anything?” Rarity began.
Twilight didn’t respond as she was distracted by something moving inside her glass sitting on the table. Moving closer, she could see what looked like a forest in its reflection and a cyan pegasus with a distinctively coloured mane running through the trees.
“Rainbow …. Dash?” She said in confusion. Thinking she was losing her mind, the mare went to pick up the glass to take a drink. As soon as her hoof touched the glass, she was enveloped by darkness.
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As before, she was stood in a void of darkness; the black fog surrounding her slowly began to roll back. Under her hooves was cold, wet dirt and as the vale moved further from her, trees came into view. “Where in Equestria am I now?” She yelled. Looking around she couldn’t help but get the feeling that she was being watched: the trees were mostly dead though still very dense. She couldn’t tell if it was day or night from the amount of light coming between the branches. Everything smelt damp and she couldn’t hear a sound, no birds, not even the wind. It felt rather ominous. Looking around, she had no idea where to go or what to do.
“Hello? Anypony there? … Hello?” She called out in desperation, but was met with no response. She was just about to throw herself on the ground in defeat when suddenly she was hit from behind.
Springing to action she was about to use her magic against her assailant, but held off upon noticing it was Rainbow Dash. Her face filled with terror.
Rainbow’s face lightened as she looked at the lilac pony “Twilight! You're ok? I was sure it got you!” She said, trying to get the words out between heavy breaths.
“I’m so glad to see you!” Twilight responded “I was worried, I was lost... wait what do you mean it got me? What got me?”
The cyan pegasus yelled “The manticore! Where have you been? It got you and Applejack! I wanted to help, but I just ran!”
“It got Applejack? Why didn’t you help her?” screamed Twilight, beginning to get upset.
“I don’t know, I just ran. The manticore clipped my wing so I can’t fly.” Her terrified expression returned, showing her left wing missing a good portion of feathers.
The lilac pony was on the verge of tears and wanted to tell Rainbow Dash that wings or no wings, it was no excuse to leave a friend behind, when one of the trees next to them came crashing down, almost crushing the two ponies under it. At the far end of the fallen tree was the largest manticore Twilight had ever seen or even read about. It was easily four times the size of the manticore they had faced, when she and her friends were trying to get the Elements of Harmony. Its fur was scruffy; the remains of a stetson and cyan feathers were caught in its claws.
It gave a terrifying roar that made the forest around them shake. Rainbow just screamed “RUN!!!” bolting it in the opposite direction. Twilight followed a moment later.
Fortunately they seemed to be getting away putting distance between themselves and the beast. This was mostly due the manticore's size: it was having trouble getting through the dense forest behind them. Ahead of them they could see a faint light in the distance, to which Twilight called “over there” and gestured towards it. They both made their way over to the light and, as they got closer, they saw the light was coming through the window of a small log cabin in the forest.
They both ran inside closing the door behind them. There was no one inside the cabin and Twilight quickly extinguished the fireplace with her magic in the hope of concealing their position.
Rainbow whispered “do you think we lost it?”
“Shhh, be quiet!” Twilight replied motioning for the cyan pegasus to zip it with her hoof.
As they sat there next to the door, they could hear trees falling nearby and wondered if the sounds were getting closer or further away.
Twilight was wondering to herself if this was some kind of time travel. If she could avoid these events, maybe she could find some way to save Applejack and even herself. She then remembered the Time Swirls spell and no matter how hard she had tried previously, events had played out the same.
Her concentration was broken as a tree right outside the cabin came crashing down.
The next sound was of claws scratching the walls of the cabin. They both knew at that moment that they had been discovered. They both pressed up against the door to brace it from the beast on the other side. Twilight used her magic to reinforce the wall.
BANG
The manticore smashed against the front of the cabin - the sound mixed with the cracking and splintering of wood.
Rainbow Dash, with tears beginning to form in her eyes, turned to Twilight “I’m sorry Twilight. I was too scared to save Applejack and I’m too scared to do anything now. I wouldn’t normally say this but since we are about to … you know”.
BANG
“I get scared a lot. I know I don’t show it. There was nothing I could do and I’ve let everyone down.”
Twilight looks into Rainbow’s eyes and forces a smile “everypony gets scared Rainbow....”
BANG
This time, the window smashes, the door and wall buckle throwing the two ponies into the middle of the room. Twilight flips herself over in mid-air to get a look at her attacker. But instead of her adversary, she sees the glass from the shattered window flying toward her. Just before she closed her eyes to shield them from the assault she notices one of the shards turning pink and beginning to glow. She hits the floor of the cabin hard, all she can hear is the sound of breaking wood and the roar of the beast. Then everything goes quiet.
Author's Note
This is my first fic constructive criticism is welcome but please don't rip it to shreds.
