Twilight’s P.O.V.
"Come on girls, we have to find Spike and get somewhere safe!" I yelled over the roar of the flames all around us. Fluttershy and Rarity were holding up an unconscious Applejack over their shoulders. Rainbow Dash was in front of them with me while holding her 'trusty sword of awesomeness' in both hands as she frantically looked around our surroundings, making sure those...things* didn’t jump us again. I, myself, had my magic ready in one hand while I held my family spell book tightly in the other. Pinkie was behind us with some needles in her hands; her normally poofy hair was straight with a serious look on her face.*
The six of us moved as quickly as we could through the burning town trying to find my little brother and dear friend. The screams of other people being burned alive or being attacked had died out. The only noticeable sounds that remained were the occasional screams of pain followed by abrupt silence. We neared the edge of town when we heard something coming from one of the burning buildings. Rainbow, Pinkie and I got ready in case we had to fight while Fluttershy and Rarity backed up in case it was one of those things. One of those things flew through the flames and landed on its back in front of us. It was small, about the size of a dog. The thing had pitch black skin with shoe-like feet, three-fingered claws, and had a large head with yellow eyes and two curled antennae. It suddenly disappeared in a burst of black smoke.
Out of the fire came a boy a year younger than myself. He had green spikey hair with snake-like eyes of the same color. His clothes were ripped and burned. He also had a snarl on his face that showed off his mouth full of fangs. In his hands, with claw-like nails, were two wooden swords. Suddenly, another one of those things jumped onto his back. The green-eyed boy dropped his swords and reached for the thing. Once he got a grip on it, he slammed it into the ground and jumped up and down on it until it disappeared as well. All the while yelling out curses that a ten-year-old boy shouldn’t say or know.
"Spike!" I called out as I ran to the boy and gave him a hug. "Thank goodness you’re okay!"
"Urg, mah head." I heard someone groan behind me. I let go and turned around to see that Applejack had woken up, rubbing her head. "What in tarnation happened?"
"You hit your head when those disgusting things attacked us and knocked you out, dear." Rarity explained.
"That would explain the headache. Ya’ll can let go now. I can move on my own." Applejack said.
"Are you s-sure?" Fluttershy asked out worry for the cowgirl.
I started running towards the edge of town with the other girls behind me. "Come on! We have to get out of here!"
"No, wait! Twilight!" I heard Spike yell at us. As we neared the edge of town, we slowly came to a stop as our minds tried to understand what our eyes were seeing. Spike finally caught up to us as we stood in our spots like statues, staring directly ahead along with us.
Darkness.
Nothing but soul crushing darkness.
It was as if everything but the ground we stood on and the burning town behind us was erased from existence. And the endless void gave me an uneasy feeling. Just looking at it made my hair stand on end and a cold, dark shiver ran up and down my body. We just stood there with our mouths hanging open as minds tried, and failed, to make sense of what we were seeing.
"H-how?" I whispered to myself.
"I don’t know." Spike replied in a surprisingly calm tone. "When I was fighting off those things earlier, I noticed it was like this on the other side of town, too."
Fluttershy was able to snap out of her shock to quietly ask, "So w-what do we d-do?"
"I say we jump." Spike answered. He slowly started to make his way to the edge.
"WHAT!?" The girls and I yelled.
"What are you thinking Spike?!" I yelled at him. "There has to be a better way!"
"Yeah Spike," Rainbow Dash yelled, worried about what her friend was going to do. "Don’t be an idiot!"
"What other choice do we have?!" He asked as Spike turned towards us and spread his arms out. "Look around! In less than an hour almost everything disappeared! Even the freaking sky is gone! This rock is going to disappear, probably with us along with it! And that is if those things don't get us first! If you guys have a better idea, then let’s hear it!"
"How about you come with me without giving me any problems." An unfamiliar voice catches our attention. We turned to see what looks like an adult male, from the sound of his voice, wearing a cloak in front of us.
"Who the heck are you?" Rainbow asked as she pointed her sword at the stranger.
"It doesn’t matter who I am, you brat. What does matter is that I can lead you all to safety." The man answered back harshly.
"I don’t trust this fella," Applejack whispered. "He feels about as trustworthy as a scorpion with an attitude problem."
"I know what you mean," I whispered back. Everything about this person is setting off every alarm in my head, and from the looks of my friends’ faces, they feel the exact same way. "Thank you, but I think we’ll be just fine on our own." I told the stranger.
The cloaked person chuckled at my response and said, "What makes you think that you have a choice in the matter?" In a blink of an eye he disappeared and reappeared in front of us. He grabbed me by the neck and lifted me into the air as I tried to get out of his grip.
"TWILIGHT!!!" The others yelled as they charged to help me. Out of nowhere a dome appeared keeping me and my assailant inside while keeping everyone else out.
"I don’t know why my master wants you snot-nosed brats, but he always gets what he wants," the stranger said as his grip started to make it hard for me to breath. "Though he didn’t say whether or not he wanted you seven alive." I could hear my friends pounding on the barrier and shouting my name through the dome. I tried even harder to pry his hand off my throat, but nothing worked. In a last-ditch effort, I began building up my magic, focusing into one small spot as I gathered more. Once I couldn’t hold it any longer, I let it out in a massive blast of magic. It completely drained me of my magical reserves and the wind was knocked out of me when I fell to the ground, but it blew away both the barrier and, more importantly, the stranger away from me and my friends. The man landed face down on the ground. His feet were just over the edge of what was left of the ground.
"Twilight!" my friends yelled as they tried to help me up. We heard groaning and saw that the man was getting up on his hands and knees with a powerful, dark aura forming around his body that made my hair stand on end. The girls and I were starting to worry about what he was going to do to us when Spike grabbed my attention.
"Twilight, Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, I need you all to promise something," Spike told us. He had an extremely determined, yet somewhat worried, look on his face. "No matter what happens, you all protect and help each other. You’ll stick together no matter what and try to be happy. Okay?"
"Why yes, of course darling, we promise." Rarity replied with an uneasy tone. Everyone, including myself, nodded our heads in agreement.
"Good. Now you guys stay alive; I will find you. No matter what."
"Spike? What are you- SPIKE?!!" I yelled as he suddenly got up and charged at the mysterious figure.
"YOU LITTLE BRAT! I'M GOING TO ENJOY-" The figure yell as he stood on his knees only to be cut off by Spike slamming into him. Sending them both to the endless abyss below.
"SPIKE!!!" We all screamed as my brother and first friend fell from sight. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I realized that Spike sacrificed himself for me...for us. Though before I could shed a single tear, a massive orb of darkness appeared where the sky used to be. It suddenly sucked us and everything that wasn't nailed down into it. We each managed to grab onto something to keep us from flying into the orb, but one-by-one our grips slipped and we got sucked into it. I was the last one, losing my grip on a piece of wood in the ground. When my fingers finally slipped I screamed as I flew into the orb and darkness enveloped me.
"Twilight." I heard my name being called out through the darkness.
"Twilight!"
"TWILIGHT!"
"TWILIGHT!!!"
I groggily woke up to the feeling of someone shaking me and yelling in my ear. I looked around to see that I was back in my room and that Rainbow Dash was the one who woke me up. She was a few inches taller than myself with the build of an athlete. Her cyan, short-sleeved shirt, black, tight, track shirts, blue sneakers, and dark blue, fingerless gloves showed off her figure perfectly.
"Another late night of studying huh egghead?" Rainbow asked with a smirk. "Oh, you have a bit of drool on your face and a lot of it on the book you were using as a pillow."
I blushed as I sat up and wiped the drool from my mouth with my sleeve. "Yeah, I wanted to look over the information on all of the documented worlds again to make sure I didn't miss anything that could be important later on." I put the book away with the others in one of the suitcases I had laying around in my room. I changed my clothes for the day ahead. A pink shirt with a six pointed star on it under my favorite purple, light jacket and a simple pair of jeans. I strapped on my new shin-high boots I got from Rarity a while back. "Today is the day that we can finally go to other worlds for the first time since...that day, and I want to be prepared."
"I get it, but you have to stop worrying so much. We've been training for this day with Masters Celestia and Luna for like, eight years now. We can handle anything that comes our way." As usual, Rainbow had confidence practically coming off of her in waves. I couldn’t help smile at that. "By the way, what were you dreaming about? You kept on mumbling in your sleep."
The question wiped the smile off my face as my thoughts turned back to my dream. "I had that same dream again." Rainbow Dash must have realized what I meant as her cocky smirk was replaced with a serious look. "The day that we lost our world...the day we lost Spike." There was a sad moment of silence as Dash walked over to me and placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Don’t worry Twilight, we’ll find him. We all Pinkie promised that after we finished Celestia and Luna’s training that you, me, Shy, AJ, Rarity, and Pinkie would find him together. Besides, remember what Spike always use to say? 'I’m a survivor.' It’ll take more than a little fall to make him kick the bucket."
"Yeah, you're right." I said as my smile came back.
"You bet your Keyblade I am," she said with a smile. My rainbow-haired friend lets go of my shoulder and made her way out of my room. "Come on, Pinkie got breakfast ready and the others are waiting for us. Our masters got something to say to us before we leave."
"I’m coming," I said as I followed my friend. 'Don’t worry Spike,' I thought to myself. 'We’ll find you; and when we do, nothing will tear us apart ever again.'
