Equinox Chronicles I : World of Shadows

Twilight Sparkle sat in her chambers in the Canterlot Castle indulged in some evening recreational research. A practice she was both accustomed and partial to, there was something about reading novels and spell books by the candlelight or perusing through text by Luna's beautiful moon. There was something about indulging in the literary elements when wreathed in the the divine nighttime luminescence that seemed so appealing to the mulberry mare. It just struck her as a tranquil way to prepare for slumber, tranquil indeed, apart from that purple dragon's intense snoring.

"oh Spike..."

she muttered to herself, rolling her eyes at her scaled assistant and childhood companion. Granted, in her previous adventures, Spike was nothing more than a little salamander that possessed an insatiable apatite for any precious stones, a romantic obsession with a debutante friend of hers, Rarity, and the ability to act as an instant messenger with that mystical fire breath of his. Alas, those days were past. Spike has grown out of his adolescent stage and now is trudging through the process of adulthood.

"and I thought the pubitary cycle of ponies was bad."

Twilight retorted as her assistant continued his snoring undisturbed, a small cloud of smoke flaring from his nostrils with each exhale he made.The Princess then decided that it too was a proper time to be asleep. As she closed the novel she was reading, she pondered all her past experiences with her friends from Ponyville: discovering the Elements of Harmony, Fight and eventually reforming the spirit of Chaos, Discord, Stopping the Changeling Queen Chrysalis from taking over all of Equestria, Restoring the Crystal Empire from King Sombra's rule, Traveling to an alternate universe via a magical mirror, and restoring the Tree of Harmony by relinquishing their Elements of Harmony.She sighed as her recollection of her good and bad memories drew to a close while she placed the novel back in its place on the  rotunda-like bookshelf that covered the vast majority of wall space in her quarters. Soliciting a exhausted yawn, the mulberry mare threw herself on to her queen sized bed, swaddling herself in the lavender covers, and telekinetic levitating her Smarty Pants doll over to her to ensure a well rested night. As she closed her eyes, she pondered what royal duties would await her in the morning.

Twilight Sparkle drifted quietly into a heavy sleep, and in her slumber, awaited a forewarning to what would lay on the road ahead.The mulberry mare had entered her subconscious, the dimension where dreams are forged from memories and emotions and cognitive thought, as well as instinct and hormonal influence, reside. Although this self concocted mirage was not one of usual occurrence. She was in a void, no light or darkness just nothingness. Then, as if by an unseen magical force enacting itself on her while she slept, caused the world to materialize around here. However, this was not a place she was not familiar nor in the slightest comfortable with; the walls and floors were coated with a ghastly rusted metal color and was caked in a thick layer of dust from lack of maintenance. The air was poisoned with a vile and audacious odor that made the princess gasp for air then almost vomit for breathing in the foul stench. The smell that permeated Twilight's nostrils was a ghoulish combination of burning flesh and rotting corpses. The architecture was deplorable, the steel re-bar was visible throughout various spots of the deteriorated concrete floors, and the walls were rusted steel diamond plated that had blood splatters on it written out in an archaic language that to Twilight seemed like nonsensical etchings of somepony whom has clearly lost their sanity melinia ago.It was quite clear, that this was NOT her own dream but a message to her sent from an unknown author. As she walked further and further into the corridor of the phantasm she was forced to being subjected to, the steel walls faded from their dilapidated orange hue to what seemed to be streaks of reddened tan stitched into the metal background. Soon the princess realized that the streaks of tan was flesh, alive tissue that had somehow composed itself onto the walls of the corridor. She had look down at her hooves to discover that the floor was also covered in the flesh; her stomach twisted and contorted itself to the sight of the gut wrenching horror that lie before the lilac alicorn. As she stepped on to the fleshy surface a loud wail was heard that not only pierced Twilight's ears, but her very soul itself. As she continued to hear the the tearful wailing of what sounded to be like a mare, she galloped faster and faster, making an attempt to space her self from the imploring cry that came from unknown origins. As she galloped swiftly, the mournful wail was coupled with a gargling vomit as if the mare that had been screaming was now coughing up blood in extremely fatal proportions. Eventually, after what deemed like an eternity to the Mulberry mare, the shrieks of pain and the gargled vomiting of blood subsided.as she stepped into a chamber that made the auditory torture seem rather inviting, the walls were and floors remained to be covered in the flesh but were in worse condition than ever before. Gashes had exposed living tissue that caused blood stains to appear in a radius on the fleshly surface, minor cuts and scrapes were patched up poorly with surgical sutures that did nothing but make the situation worse. Sores, boils, skin tags, and other blemishes were spread unevenly throughout the room; and along with the exposed tissue, broken bones had pierced through the skin in a circular formation of pillars, exposed severed arteries spiraled around each bone pillar tethered only by another artery, they pulsated, causing rivers of blood to gush out from their openings and trickle down unto the flesh as if water traveling down a spider's web. Twilight almost fell unconscious at the sight that words dare not describe the horror that impaled her very soul; all she could muster out from the tears that flowed freely from her eyes was a loud scream,

"What the fuck is this place?"

the mulberry mare implored in shocked disgust at the ghastly apportion around her.

"Twilight Sparkle! Such Language, that is no way for a princess to speak!"

a voice billowed out from the distance. Twilight snapped out of her episode to gaze upon her former mentor standing tall in the center of the room behind the Tree of Harmony.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight beamed as she witnessed the only relief she had felt in the course of the hellish nightmare she was experiencing. "Am I ever glad to see you."

"Likewise, my child." replied the sun goddess in a soft and motherly tone as she comforted her fellow alicorn princess in a warm and affectionate embrace. The two stepped back to give each other space, then Twilight, ever curious as to why and how she was here, queried

"Celestia, why am I here, am I dead? Am I in Hell? No ,that can't be, because how would you be here if this was Hell. And..." the rambling Twilight Sparkle was cut off by the oracle of light with a hoof gently pressed against her lips. Before Princess Celestia could answer she was interrupted by a low billowing voice that seemed to come from the shadows.

"Oh, you are very much alive, Princess Twilight Sparkle." said the ominous voice as a cloud of shadows assimilated behind the two alicorn mares. A figure emerged from the shadows, he was a tall dark purple coated alicorn with a long but formless midnight blue mane (much like that of Princess Luna's apart from the fact that it lacked the twinkling stars in the non translucent strips) that covered one of his cyan blue eyes and his tail flowed behind him like a river's current. His cutie mark was that of an upside-down black pentagram, and the stallion was clad in ebony armor that covered the majority of his body: a helmet that was a mixture of the one Nightmare Moon had worn and those adorned by the royal guard (in place of where the plume would have been, there was an opening in the headdress, about 3 inches wide and 8 inches tall, so that the stallions mane could flow through), a crown the bore a striking resemblance to Princess Celestia though it was welded to the helmet, a breastplate resembling those that were worn by Luna's personal guards, body plating (which included the sleeves) like that of the captain's armor, and the horseshoes like the kind worn by Equestrian royalty though these were more edged than the those smoother ones adorned by the princesses. "Did you miss me Celestia, I missed you." the voice spoke again with a devious smirk plastered on his muzzle, manically chuckle he said

"13 years is really a long time since we last spoke, we really must start writing again."

"Black Luster," gritted Celestia starring daggers at the stallion, "why are you here, why now ?"

"Now, now 'Tia, let's not get to hasty, you remember what happened the last time you became unpleasant with me. Or has healing and time's poisonous venom made you forget." Black Luster retorted.

Celestia snorted at the stallion, mumbling under her breath "Cocky bastard." so that Twilight could not her her former mentor swearing. The mulberry mare looked up at the ancient alabaster alicorn quizzically, Twilight was curious as to what the stallion meant by

  the 'last time'. Celestia, her fixated gaze of disdain still centered on the alicorn stallion, said

"Black Luster was a former student of mine, he left two years before Sunset Shimmer and 3 before you were enrolled. I taught him for 6 whole years, everything he knows about regular magic he learned from me."

"Oh, my dear sweet Celestia, you say that as if dark magic is an abomination of nature." Chided the midnight violet stallion shaking his head as he slowly cantered around the two mares in a circle.

Celestia resumed gritting her teeth, the grinding clearly audible at this point. Being unable to bear being in the presence of the evil stallion, the sun goddess prepared to attack Black Luster with a ray of scorching light that matched by only the sun itself. Black Luster, in his prideful banter, failed to take note of Celestia's horn, engulfed in a golden aura of divine magic, pointing directly at him. ivory mare's eyes grew white with divine power surging throughout her body, without warning, Celestia fired a concentrated beam of holy light that sent the stallion of his hooves careening into the flesh covered walls. He quickly stood up again, golden lightning still arcing from his torso as a result of the immense amount of magical energy that he had been assailed with. A serpentine grin on his muzzle, Black Luster laughed as his pupils and retina turned a demonic blood red while the rest of his eyes went black and a jade tinted translucent aura surrounded his eyelids as he said,

"My turn!"

Gloss black tendrils sprang from the flesh draped floors and propelled themselves to Celestia. Binding the ivory goddess' mouth, neck, collarbone, legs, torso, horn and wings. Celestia could not break free of her restraints, she could not move nor speak only watch, wreathed in an ocean of suffering as the demonic appendages tightened than grasp around her. Breaking her bones within a matter of minutes. Twilight began to gallop toward the ivory alicorn but was met with a a sphere of slate grey energy shielding the princess from any assistance from Twilight and deflecting any spells aimed at it inside or out, Princess Celestia was doomed, even if she somehow contrived a way to emancipate herself from her incarceration. For what seemed like eons of cruel and unusual punishment to both of the mares, Celestia's body was broken, the audible snapping of her spinal cord echoed throughput the room as well as the loud it made when her rib cage was shattered, the ligaments were exposed by the increased pressure from the tendrils that caused her legs to be almost separated from the rest of her body, her wings were ingrained with indentations from the torture and her feathers were completely drenched in blood. Celestia's jaw hung loosely from its sockets and her horn was shattered like glass being hammered at by a rock. The Goddess fell to the ground with a loud thud while Black Luster toppled over in laughter. Twilight dashed over to her former mentor, eyes filled with tears, the only thing she could do was cry and listen with a heavy and broken heart whilst the ancient alabaster alicorn struggled to make out her last words,

"Twilight...use the Elements...You can stop him..you can kill Black Luster." Celestia finished as she laid her head down on the fleshy ground, her closing her eyes for the final time. Twilight shuttered, wiping away her tears as she collected herself before letting out a scream at the stallion,

"You," she pointed a hoof at the onyx armored alicorn, "you BASTARD!!! I'm going to kill you, in a way as every bit as painful as you murdered the princess, you son of bitch!"

Twilight was enraged by the atrocities that the stallion had just committed. Focused her magic on the Elements, plucking them from their rightful positions of the Tree of Harmony. Creating a vortex of Rainbows around the mulberry mare's her eyes resonating in the same manner as Celestia's did when she fired the sunbeam earlier.

"So assured of yourself, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Making an attempt to murder me, Black Luster, the effigy of darkness and master of all things serpentine. You have a lot gull Twilight Sparkle." Black Luster rebuttaled, "I like a mare with gull. It's a damn shame I have to kill you now, and we would have made such an adorable couple together." the Stallion chimed while he assumed his position once more, eyes continuing to glow with he ominous aura that they had done before. Demonic snake like appendages arose yet again from the ground, surrounding Twilight Sparkle, whom slammed her hoof on the ground with such a caliber that it caused the entire room to shake, releasing a radial wave of silver tinted light that scorched the tentacles and sent them back to the hole from wince they came.

"Well, hello!" retorted the slightly amused stallion, "Well this is new. No matter, I'll just have to work around that."

Black Luster braced himself again, a magenta ring appearing around Twilight, while he recited an incantation in an old and undecipherable language. The magenta ring surrounding the princess began to connect itself to form an upside-down pentagram with archaic hieroglyphs in each of the geometric figures openings. each of the five isosceles triangle that surrounded the pentagon was met placed with a surrounding golden ellipse also covered in unledgiable script. Finally, the cicumcenter of each triangle was covered in a neon green tribal marking that traveled from the triangles' circumcenters to the middle of the pentagon each following a line of symmetry. Twilight soughed at Black Luster's spell,

"That's it, an overly detailed geometric figure, that's the best you've got?" Twilight snickered, but Black Luster still maintained that smirk on his face that practically said 'Bitch please, you've already lost' "You're pathetic." she finished preparing to launch a full scale assault on the alicorn stallion but found herself unable to harness any magical energy in her horn let alone the Elements of Harmony.

"Spell Binding Circle," chided Black Luster, "works every time. Now to deal with that pesky jewelry of yours." He, once again, summoned dark shined tentacles  to appear from below. Grabbing the Elements of Harmony, grasping them tightly until the crystalline effigies shattered and dissipated into nothingness. Twilight stood there , frozen in fear with her mouth agape, as Black Luster closed the distance  between the two alicorns. Onyx formless chains spired out from the mystical magic-nullifying ring, clasping their restraints on each of Twilight's legs, forcing her to lay on her back with her hooves spread out while the repealed downwards back into the ground. Black Luster hovered over the incapacitated Twilight Sparkle clicking his tongue against his teeth while he prepared to finally end the fight.

"Tsk Tsk Tsk, such a shame that I'll have to steal life from those beautiful magenta eyes of yours. Though I suppose you do deserve it, after all, you did try to defeat me, Black Luster, and you failed even with your precious Elements of Harmony. Perhaps the magic of friendship isn't as strong as you suggest, Princess Twilight Sparkle." Black Luster snortted out before bring a hoof down to Twilight muzzle to crack open her skull killing her instanly. Right when Black Luster's hoof made contact, Twilight awoke from her slumber with a loud scream of terror as she flew out of bed. Causing a teenage Spike to awake as well and steel himself for a fight.

"Twilight what in the name of Celestia happened, and why are you screaming like a filly on Nightmare Night?" Spike asked concerned as he rushed into Twilight's bedroom to discover that he bed had been soaked in sweat and tears.

"It was just a dream, Twilight, just a dream." the princess assured herself whilst lying in a fettle position rocking back and forth with Smartypants.

"Twilight! SNAP OUT OF IT!" Spike yelled as he slapped Twilight's cheek to bring her around to her senses. Not realizing that he had sent her tumbling to the floor with the force he but in to his attempt of trying to steady her. "Oops." Spike cringed, "I'm so sorry Twilight I didn't mean to hurt you I just.." Spike was cut off by Twilight shushing her number one assistant "It's fine Spike, I needed that anyway. Its just, I had a really bad nightmare that's all, nothing to worry about." Twilight assured her assistant with a swag of her hoof.

"Well all right then," Spike replied,"but it's still pretty early, and you've got about another 3 hours til you have to sit in that boring old Congression with the Equestrian Parliament. I'd suggest you have a little read before the meeting."

"What a capital Idea, Spike!" Twilight said as she levitated a trashy novel in front of her, though she felt a little dirty for reading those old romance stories, she had grown to appreciate the erotic and passionate side of literature. Spike shrugged at his boss' choice of literature, after all she was an adult mare now and she had every bit of business to indulge in the more "Mature" side of reading as if her wish. So long as she didn't read on out loud or buy one for him as a birthday gift, Spike could care less whether or not she read porn instead of watching it like a normal pony would.

"Spike," Twilight looked at the dragon as he skulked away back to his bed, "would you...um ...like to sit by me as I read?" Spike looked a little startled  at Twilight's question, but he remembered that they used to do that all the time when she was just a filly and he was nothing but a salamander.

"Yeah sure, Twilight," Spike answered in a mellow mood "I'd like that." The lavender lizard laid down on his stomach, his head resting to Twilight's left side and his tail to the right. The mulberry mare began to lightly stroke the smooth scales on spike's head, as the dragon began to doze off, but not before speaking softly

"Just like old times, huh, Twilight?"

"Just like old Times, Spike," the mulberry mare answered continuing to gently pet her foalhood friend's cranium, "just like old times"