Azil

Twilight sat up, breathing heavily and panting as if she had just sprinted across town. The window beside their bed had been blown up yet again, the wood-framed glass panes crashing into the wall. Luckily, the force of the impact hadn't been enough to directly damage the glass. It wasn't the noise of the crash that had startled the poor unicorn awake however, but the fading tendrils of the nightmare she had experienced.

The fading, darkened halls.

The cruel, vicious laughter.

The tight, strangling hooves.

The gentle, flowing mane of pink, purple, cyan and light green that quietly kissed her tears away as it lapped against her face.

She shivered and shook, hugging herself tightly as the vivid images of her own gasping demise danced behind her eyes. It wasn't until she felt a rough hoof press against her side did reality quickly swim back through her mind, a hoarse voice murmuring towards her. "Hey...y'ok?" The voice asked, a shifting a blankets and a low groan indicating the owner of the voice had sat up, and was now draping a hoof around the shivering unicorn. "Was it the dream again? The prison?"

Twilight shook her head, groaning as she pressed a hoof against her head at the headache that was now forming "N-no...it was the school this time." She felt the body of her lover press against her, a gentle kiss falling on her exposed neck as she went on with a weary sigh "I don't know why this keeps happening to me, but I'm getting pretty sick of it."

"Well we can go see the doctor in the morning, see if maybe some sleeping pills will help." Said the groggy mare, trying to gently lead Twilight back down into bed and pulling in close for a warm snuggle. "It'll be ok...I promise. I love you Twilight."

The unicorn let out a quiet sigh through her nose, trying her best to get comfortable as she shut her eyes and attempted another futile attempt to get any sort of decent sleep for that night, mumbling quiet before she settled in:

"I love you too Rainbow."

~~~

"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!" Twilight screeched, galloping down the hallway as fast as her little filly legs could carry her. She didn't dare to look back, her ears turning backwards to take in the horrific sounds coming in from her rear. Loud crashing, shrieking, the flapping of two monstrous wings...and something wet slapping against the floors and walls. The darkness was chasing her as well it seemed, a nightmarish length of blackened tendrils growing rapidly across the walls, floors, and ceiling as fast as she was trying to outrun them. The looked like they were made of some sort of vile, black goo, but getting a closer look was an utter impossibility at the moment, lest she surrender herself to the monstrosity tearing in after her. The hallway led to several turns and corners, the tiny thing hurling herself around them into new winding hallways in her best attempt to break line of sight of the beast behind her. No matter how fast she ran though, it seemed like there was no losing it, and in fact, felt as if it was slowly closing in on her. It made sense to her, her tiny legs probably not doing very much to aid in her ability to outrun the long-legged demon. Still, she tried her hardest to flee.

Another corner, a dive over some ruined desks and a chair, and a quick bucking of some loose lockers to try and slow the beast down, all futile attempts as the beast roared in to near hoof's reach of her. A weak cry escaped Twilight as desperation kicked in, the adrenaline coursing through her veins giving her one last surge of speed forward as a heavy whoosh of wind hit her in the back of the head. The creature must have taken a swipe at her...and barely missed.

As Twilight pushed forward, turning left at the next fork, a gasp escaped her lungs. The darkness ahead seemed to end abruptly into a pristine-looking version of the decaying hallway around her. The lockers looked brand new, the floors looked polished, and there were even colorful posters and decorations hanging about. The broken-horned filly ran her little heart out, her lungs screaming and her body aching as he made one last push to what she hoped was salvation. As she neared the clean hall, she jumped towards and onto a table in the middle of the floor, taking a running jump off of the edge and threw her front hooves forward, reaching outwards as a desperate scream ripped itself free of her throat.

She tumbled onto the smooth tile, sliding a ways as a thunderous screech echoed across the walls. Looking back, she beheld the hellish nightmare in its full glory, watching as it tried to scramble back into the tendril-smothered abyss from whence it came. It stood nearly as tall as the ceiling, tufts of white fur stained black by the goo from the tendrils splotching a few spots across its burnt, cracked skin. It's mane was the color of the abyss, swirling about around its body like a living cloak. Where there should have been eyes was instead two unfathomably deep pits of darkness, its mouth open in a complete cry of terror.

Twilight's eyes swam with tears as the absolutely roasted form shrunk back into the darkness, turning tail and running back down from whence it came. The darkness swam after her, leaving the hallway behind it in as pristine condition as the space the small filly occupied. "C-Celestia...?" She whimpered as the form of what she assumed was her charred mentor vanished into the dark. She took a moment to compose herself, the adrenaline wearing off within her system as she laid her head upon the cold tile and took a few heavy, gulping breaths. It looked so much like Celestia, with the white tufts of fur and the mane...but the soulless pits of her vacant eye sockets, her crackled skin...it couldn't have been...could it?

Suddenly, the red stone amulet around her neck let out a soft dinging noise, the stone glowing suddenly as a familiar voice floated through into the air "Oooooh...well isn't that just a nasty little beasty you've found." Twilight groaned, rising shakily to her hooves as she continued to try and get her breath under control. She didn't bother answering, knowing her voice wouldn't reach the Librarian as the stone only worked one way. "I wondered where she got off to...the rascal. Before you go off and have yourself a proper worry, don't. That Celestia is not yours, but merely one from another of the dimensions Azil is linked to. Must have wandered through one of the doorways by accident when containment failed." The filly turned, slowly taking one hoofstep after another as she moved the hallway, looking around at the various drawings and pictures adorning the walls. The Librarian's voice continued to hover in the air as she surveyed the pictures of hoof-drawn landscapes and smiley-faces and trees. They looked like they were drawn up by other fillies and colts of a younger age, barely out of the earlier years of grade school.

"Hmmm, if I'm reading this right...you should probably head to classroom '2-F' as quickly as possible before you miss the lesson...or this reality crumbles under the weight of that nasty...'Deathlestia'? I don't know, it says here in the containment notes that this is what they were calling it...bit of a silly name." Twilight rolled her eyes, lightly trotting over to one of the lockers, trying to open it but finding it sealed shut. "Anyway, going through the notes still...seems like the Deathlestia emits a growing presence of decay that'll slowly become larger over time, with anything caught within it becoming automatically detected by her. It's as if the decay itself serves as an extra net of nerve centers, allowing it to detect and catch prey in a large radius around it. Gross."

The filly grumbled as she moved down the hall, shaking her head "That doesn't explain why I've been shrunk down into a filly...or why I've ended up here. It's a school, that much is obvious but...where, when?"

"Anyway," The Librarian continued, a slurping noise pausing her words for a moment as she sighed happily "Mmm...good coffee. Anyway, get to the classroom before the Deathlestia's decay grows too big. I was originally just going to contact you and tell you that not every door you walk into is going to have a stable realm or timespace waiting for you on the other side and that you'll -probably- die if you spend too much time in there...but the nightmare lurking in there sort of puts an even greater escalation of urgency on your mission...so uh...good luck."

The stone's light faded, leaving Twilight once more on her own, her head drooping slightly. Of course...more questions than answers, a deadly catch, and overwhelming odds....Azil's signature weapons. The poor lass felt the weight pressing in on her, her breath shaky as she took another long look up an down the hallway. There was a monstrous Celestia roaming about, and time was once again against her. Looking up, her eyes took note of the signs hanging above the doors which she presumed led to the individual classrooms. "4-B," she mumbled, staring down towards the next sign and quietly reading '5-B' off of its hanging plaque. She squinted her eyes, resuming her slow walk forward further into the school.

She paused from time to time to survey her surroundings, checking various lockers to see if any would give way to her hooves, or to try the other doors lining the hall. Sadly, nothing opened up to her. She tried pressing her ear to several doors en-route, seeing if perhaps she could overhear a class in session. There was nothing however, not a sound or anything. Twilight frowned, looking up the hall as she turned and trotted casually across the tile. If this was a school...where were the students? Where was the staff or the faculty? She took a careful look over her shoulder towards the way she had come, a shiver running up her spine as a dark thought crossed her mind. Could the Deathlestia have taken them? Ferried them away to their demise and left this realmscape barren of all life?

She swung her vision back forward. It was possible...but if that was the case wouldn't she have seen some signs of struggle or...or bodies? The Librarian also ushered her towards room 2-F, telling her a class was about go on that she really couldn't miss. Maybe this 'memory-scape' or what not was created specifically with this classroom in mind. She shook her head, picking up her pace as her eyes narrowed in determination. Speculating all day wasn't going to get her anywhere. She needed to get answers, and she needed them now. What better place to learn than a classroom anyway?

The signs above went by quickly as she trotted along, passing by 9-C and eventually 4-E, before finally coming across the F-Series of classrooms. 1-F was situated at the end of the hallway, turning right into another corridor to which Twilight quickly made her way down and around to. As she turned however, she froze in her tracks, her breath catching in her throat and her eyes widening in absolute shock and terror.

Bodies. Bodies upon bodies piled and crammed wall to wall in the hallway stretched onwards as far as her eyes could see. Bone and bits littered the ground in piles around a myriad of faces contorted in immense visages of pain and horror. There was no smell, oddly enough, but just the very sight of so much death and decay was enough to make the tiny filly lose her stomach all over the floor. Her belly heaved as her throat gurgled with sick, the faces of the dead sticking to her mind like a bug on flypaper.

She kept her eyes glued to the floor, her body shaking and her breath coming in short, ragged gasps. So many dead...so many obliterated. Hundreds upon hundreds of ponies must've been piled in that hallway, though as to what killed them she couldn't say. The Deathlestia was certainly the prime suspect...but she wasn't sure the crime scene fit the crime. The Librarian said the Deathlestia might have 'wandered into' this plane by accident and hunted ponies...but for so many to be dead here all at once, in one location. It didn't seem right.

Taking several more minutes to compose herself, Twilight put a shaky hoof forward, and then another, and then another. She kept her visage down, panting as she slowly navigated the minefield of gore and sinew. She tried her best not to look at the eyes...anything but the eyes. This way and that she turned and shifted, barely finding a path through but keeping to one all the same. Closing her eyes and lifting her head, she took a quick peak at one of the signs above the doors. 2-F came into view after a moment, the filly sucking in a breath as she bumped into something soft on her left. A squeak peeped from her muzzle as a damp feeling overcame her side, the fur on the back of her neck standing on end.

At long last, she reached the door, pushing down on the handle with a hoof and finding that it open. She pushed it open, taking a step within and finding herself present with a sight that she wasn't sure was worse or better than the one outside. There were thirty desks within the classroom, and at each was sat the dead body of a filly. Twilight couldn't breathe, the amount of death lingering around her tearing at the seams of her brain. One desk she noted, was empty. It was in the front row of the classroom, clean and orderly and ready to be taken by a resident.

A sudden scuffling sound at the very front of the room had her head whipping towards it, a gasp escaping her as she beheld a piece of chalk floating about in the air, controlled by a light aura of grey magic. A colt, elderly in age it seemed, stood facing her. His beard hung low from her chin, as grey and silvery as the rest of his coat. His eyes were a cat-like yellow, with black glasses hanging on the top of his nose. The wrinkles adorning his muzzle fit well with the scowl he was currently making towards Twilight, his hoof extending slowly to his right as he pointed towards the empty desk and in a calm, quiet demeanor said:

"Managed to barely show up on time I see Sparkle...no matter. Take your seat and we can get started on the lesson..."

He pushed the glasses further up on his nose, his eyes narrowing and his eyes flashing with a wickedness that made Twilight shake with fear.

"....We have a lot to go over today."