Chapters Twilight felt the breeze run through her mane. “Rainbow! I think I’m doing i-” suddenly, one of her wings gave out. The Alicorn spiraled through the air. She ran into a tree with a sickening thud. Twilight sighed. “I’m never going to get the hang of this, Rainbow Dash.” Rainbow Dash put on a fake looking smile.
The friends bowed before Princess Celestia. “Twilight.” Said Celestia, “We are now the same rank. You no longer have to bow before me.”
“Why, what is that ghastly black wind?” said Rarity.
Celestia and Luna, along with the rest of the ponies, rode in a chariot pulled by two of the royal guards. They had been riding for a while, and now the land below them looked dead. The ground was riddled with cracks along its dusty surface, and there was not a drop of water in sight.
“So what is this ‘Zarta’ thang anyway? What’s it do?” said Applejack. Celestia answered this time.
A few hours of awkward silence later, the guard started their descent. Twilight looked hopefully at the land beneath them, but despite how far they had traveled, the land looked as dry and dead as ever. The black tendril snaking across the land seemed to have grown in size. With a loud thump, the chariot hit the ground. All the ponies jumped out.
A roaring come from outside of the cave. All of the ponies except for Celestia and Luna huddled together in fright.
Author's Note
I know it was a little short, but if I make these longer I would never update! Anyway, thanks for reading!
Twilight opened her eyes. She saw the rest of her friends trying to wake up. The Alicorn looked over at Luna and Celestia. Luna looked slightly sleepy, but relatively well rested under the circumstances, especially since she was the Princess of the Night. Celestia, on the other hand, looked exhausted.
Twilight and Celestia looked over at the cave entrance to see Luna removing the rock from the entrance to the cave. Luna peered tentatively outside.
“Instead of being a flesh and blood enemy, like Queen Chrysalis,” continued Celestia, “or even a shadow like King Sombra, Zarta is an embodiment of fear, just as Discord is an embodiment of chaos.”
Luna gazed at the ground.
The group of eight ponies came across a small forest.
“Princess! Wait!” Yelled Twilight. Luna yelled after her too, but Celestia kept flying away as fast as she could.
Author's Note
Sorry it's short. I wanted to upload this before I leave for 3 days. Apologizing in advance if there are grammar errors. Hope you like the chapter, thanks for reviews!!!
Twilight shivered as she stood under the shadow of the enormous mountain. She had walked all the way to the base of the mountain, but now it was obvious to her that the only way to reach the top of the mountain was to fly. Twilight had considered trying to walk up, but the dark overhangs and the craggy edges made it near to impossible to climb. “It’s a good thing I have wings now.” thought the Alicorn, “Although I cannot fly very well yet, at least I am able to fly at all!”
Twilight hesitantly unfolded her wings. She started to beat them slowly, but then quickly flapped faster. She rose off of the ground a few meters, but then she started to lose control. “No,” thought Twilight, “I have to do this, for the Princess.” She rose up higher, still a little crooked. With sheer force of will, the young Princess started to fly up the mountain. She hit some of the ledges a few times, as well as almost flipping herself over, but she eventually came to a much bigger ledge.
Twilight landed on the platform, and soon found that there was a cave in front of her. “Perhaps that is where the Princess has gone!” she thought excitedly. She trotted into the cave, noting that is was very damp and that there was a strong draft. Twilight shivered.
Celestia sobbed. “I will tell you, if you insist.”
Celestia sighed a heavy sigh. “Back in those days, I was mostly alone in the castle, except for a beautiful, earth pony mare. We were the best of friends. Her name- her name was Sapphire Dust. She had a gorgeous blue mane that seemed to shimmer like the jewel she was named after. Her coat was a royal purple. Anyway, we were best friends, so as soon as I realized that something was going wrong, she was the first I confided in.”
“Eventually, this ‘epidemic’ started to get out of control. Ponies left and right were hurting themselves and others. I knew I had to figure out what was going on. I flew down to Ponyville, and that was when I saw the tendrils. I knew they would lead to something evil; the question was, what? I told Sapphire it was too dangerous for her to come along, but she insisted on keeping me company, bless her heart. We followed those black tendrils for days, I sometimes walking with Sapphire, and Sapphire sometimes riding on my back. We followed them until the tendrils were so big they were taller than the trees. We knew we were getting close.”
“Suddenly, we stumbled upon Zarta, although we didn’t know that was what it was called at the time, obviously. Anyway, Zarta turned out to be an enormous, black mass, punctuated with bolts of electricity. Those horrid black tendrils came out of all sides of that beast. Sapphire and I both agreed that Zarta must somehow get inside ponies minds; somehow push them into insanity. I decided to try to magically attack Zarta. I told Sapphire to stand back, and I used my magic to attack Zarta. My magic did nothing except attract that monster’s attention; it shot one of its tendrils at me, and I instinctively ducked. The tendril, h-however, still f-found a mark; it grabbed poor, dear, S-sapphire.”
At this point, Celestia completely broke down into tears. Twilight couldn’t believe the Princess was actually crying. She walked up closer to Celestia and tried to give her a hug of comfort. Celestia reacted by pulling Twilight into a tight hug, and not letting go. Twilight nuzzled Celestia’s warm fur.
“That brought me out of my trance. I raced towards Zarta, not thinking for a minute about what could happen to me. Sapphire had been encased in what looked like a black bubble, I tried to get through, but it was impossible. Sapphire kept screaming on the top of her lungs, obviously scared to death of what was happening in her mind. Then, everything was quiet. When I looked into her eyes, I could tell she could see me. ‘Sapphire.’ I said desperately, ‘I-I love you.’ Sapphire managed to smile through the pain. ‘I’ve always loved you too. Too bad it’s too late now.’ I panicked, telling her to calm down, trying frantically to find a way to get her out. Then, she started to scream again.”
“Her blood curdling screams continued for a few minutes, and then Zarta released her. I then watched in a sick kind of wonder as Zarta started to shrink, almost as if it was sated. As if it was full. It retracted its tentacles, and disappeared. I knew in my heart it would be back, but I couldn’t worry about that now. I walked back with Sapphire, but she didn’t talk. She was emotionless. Then, one morning I woke up to find her missing. I searched everywhere for her, then walked over to the stream we had camped by. There, I found h-her corpse floating in the water; she had obviously killed herself. I was broken.”
Celestia started crying hard, soaking Twilight’s mane.
Author's Note
Wow, that was a long wait. Sorry guys. Thanks for the favorites! Well, we finally get to see what happened to Celestia. It made me sad just writing this, but I hope you enjoy. Please review, I really appreciate it!
The next morning, Twilight woke up to a beautiful sunrise. You could see it perfectly from the cave entrance. “It’s so pretty.” murmured Twilight.
Celestia and Twilight landed a few kilometers away from the cave. They had been following the tendrils, and now Celestia had suddenly chosen to land. The white Alicorn bent down close to the ground, as if searching for something.
“It looks exactly like you described it!” said a frightened Twilight.
“Stand back.” said Celestia. Twilight stepped backwards as Celestia crouched down, her horn facing Zarta. The white Alicorn screwed up her face in concentration as her horn started to glow. The light grew brighter and brighter until her eyes turned white with magic. “Now!” yelled Celestia, and there was a huge flash. Twilight braced herself and felt the oncoming rush of the spell. Twilight felt her body being ripped from the ground.
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Twilight found herself back in a place that looked like Ponyville.
“Friendship!” said Rarity derisively, “Friendship won’t fix my reputation, FRIENDSHIP won’t make all my dreams come true!” The Unicorn looked away sadly, “I was so close, too.”
“It started a few days ago, when I was working on a new collection. I hadn’t told anypony yet, but it had been commissioned by Fancy Pants himself! I worked nonstop for days, until I had finally finished the line. I took the train to Canterlot and had the dresses shipped separately, and the next day the dresses arrived just in time. I went to Fancy Pant’s studio to show him the dresses, but when I unveiled them, I discovered (to my horror) that they were the wrong ones! Fancy Pants was shocked, even disgusted! I’m a l-laughing stock!”
Twilight was relieved that this was Rarity’s only problem, but also surprised that this was what the pod was torturing Rarity with.
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Twilight stood up from the damp ground. She looked up and saw she was once again facing Zarta. Celestia looked at her with concern. She was confused for a second; she had almost forgot that Rarity’s situation was not real.
“I just hope the others are that easy.” said Twilight. Celestia sighed.
Author's Note
Well, at least this update was quicker than last time. Honestly, I'm not sure how good this chapter was...
