Exiled From Equestria

It's only lunch time by the time Twilight takes her first steps on sand that is not part of a desert.

"Day four of being exiled from Equestria," Twilight murmurs to herself while sinking her hooves in the nice warm sand. The sound of ocean waves crashing on sand is music to her ears. She trots up to the shore. The feeling of cold sea salt water brushing up against her skin feels even better.

Twilight sits down on the dry sand and pulls off her saddlebags and sheath. She opens up the flats with her sandy hooves and looks inside. Amber Eyes has kindly given her 15 bits to spend. On the way out, she had also stuffed one of her saddlebags full of apples so she shouldn't go hungry or thirsty soon.

Twilight closes her saddlebags and slips them back on, as well as the sheath. On her left, the ocean splashes against a large line of rocks. On her right is a marketplace.

A bell chimes when the purple unicorn opens the door to a small shop. Shelves full of various objects line the walls. In the middle of the cube-shaped room is a rack of knickknacks. In the very back of the room sits a silver bat pony with sapphire blue hair and neon yellow eyes sitting behind a counter. She looks up at the new customer and smiles, showing off her fangs.

"Welcome to Pearl Bay's Gift Shop. How may I help you?" she says from memorization over the years of saying it.

Twilight wanders up to the counter and smiles back. "I was just wondering if you knew what country is east of here? And if you have a map of it, I would be ever so grateful."

"East, huh?" The bat pony stares at Twilight's horn. "Where ya from?"

"Equestria."

"Equestria? Really?" Twilight nods. "I've never heard of anypony from Equestria visiting this small country."

"Small?" Twilight giggles. "Sorry, but Trica seems awfully big to me after how far I've traveled.

"Well, it's definitely small compared to Equestria. In fact, Equestria’s the largest country in the entire world. Certainly the most known, too." The bat pony reaches under the counter and pulls out a bundle of scrolls. "Now, there's in fact three countries directly east. Akdulsun, Polosthia, and Scramptra." She lays down three maps. Each country is only about 1/8 the size of Equestria, except for Polosthia which is about 1/3. "Next to those countries are two more, Kalbure and Warthro, then four more countries, Cralacro, Asbact, Spactra, and Fabtric, then finally Equestria." The bat pony pulls out eight more maps, including one of Equestia.

Twilight observes the 11 maps laid messily on the counter. "I suppose I'm trying to get through Equestria from the Frozen North, which is apparently the far north part of Equestria and away. So I probably want to travel northeast, since Equestria is surrounded by oceans on the east and west sides."

"Then I suggest going north of here to Scramptra, then travel through through Kalbure, and lastly Equestria. If you stick north, you will arrive in the Frozen North. Sound good?"

"That sounds absolutely perfect," Twilight replies, levitating her only 15 bits from her saddlebags. "How much will it be for the maps of Scramptra, Kalbure, and Equestria? And a compass if you have one?"

"Let's see..." The bat pony glides over to one of the knickknack shelves and grabs a compass from it. Then she returns back to the counter, shoves all the other maps back under the counter, and stares at the three maps and compass. "That'll be 27 bits, please."

"27?" Twilight gasps. "B-but I only have 15 bits!"

The bat pony shrugs. " You can buy the compass and one map with that much."

Twilight puts a hoof to her forehead. "No, no, no!" She starts hyperventilating. "I have to have these maps. If I don't get them, I can't return to Equestria, and if I can't return to Equestria, then Discord might take over, and if Discord takes over—"

Twilight's obnoxious rambling is interrupted by a bell chime over by the door of the shop.

"Welcome to Pearl Bay's Gift Shop. How may I help you?"

A lemon-colored dragon with crimson spikes twice as tall as Spike walks in. He stares at twilight, grunts, then marches up to the cashier bat pony. "Got any gems?"

"Gems?"

"To eat," the dragon grumbles. The bat pony smiles nervously as she ducks behind her counter. There's the sound of bits clinking together. She emerges with two rubies, five emeralds, and one sapphire.

"That'll be 40 bits, sir."

The dragon turns behind him at a suitcase he brought it. He unzips it. Twilight peers inside over the dragon's shoulder to find the case filled entirely with hundreds upon hundreds of bits.

He grabs a large clawfull an dumps them on the counter. "How much is that?"

"That is only 31 bits, sir."

As the dragon reaches for nine more gems, Twilight lightly taps him on the shoulder. The dragon turns around with a glare. "What do you want?" he spats.

"Do you happen to have 14 bits I could borrow?" she asks in the most polite tone she can muster. The dragon snorts.

"Borrow or spend?"

"Spend, I guess."

The dragon glares. "You expect me to just hand over my precious cash for nothing in return?"

Twilight gulps. "Maybe?"

The yellow dragon searches Twilight. He stops when he sees her sheath and points a crooked claw at it. "What's in there?"

"Oh, my sword?" Twilight glances at it. She smiles awkwardly. "I'm afraid that's not for sale."

"Hmm..." The dragon rubs two of his claws under his chin while he thinks. "You unicorns can use your magic to track gemstones, right?"

"Gemstones?" Twilight’s eyes widen. "Of course! I can just find a bunch of gemstones and pay with those."

The dragon doesn’t have time to reply as Twilight races out the door as if she’s being chased. As soon as she reaches the shore, she trades her gallop for a slow trot along the shore. She tries to remember the gemstone spell that Rarity had taught her many moons ago. Her horn starts to emit a glow that should be a sparkling magenta. But, while Twilight trots along the shore, casting her gemstone-finding spell, she doesn’t realize that her horn is slightly red and glowing purple with green sparkles.

It isn’t until she has collected 25 gems that she bumps into another gray bat pony. Before Twilight can apologize, the pony screams and zooms through the sky.

A puzzled face perches on Twilight. A few moments later, she trots up to the shore and looks at her shifting reflection in the ocean waves. No, Twilight thought. She stopped using her magic. Her horn went back to normal. I thought I pushed the dark magic away. How is it still there?

When she comes to dead ends on all her questions, she gathers her gems and places them in her bag (with her hooves, since she’s too scared to use her magic right now). A bell chimes as Twilight enters the shop once more and sets down the rainbow of jewels on the counter. She can’t help but notice that the dragon is gone.

“I’d say that’ll just about do it,” the shop owner says, grabbing the gems and bits and shoving them under her counter, then nudging the three maps and compass to Twilight. So caught up in her accomplishment, Twilight forgets not to use her magic and levitates the objects into her bags. Sure enough, her horn glows dark magic for that while.

“Oh my bats!” The bat pony shrieks. “D-dark magic!”

Twilight’s eyes grow wide. She laughs uncomfortably. “Yeah, um, about that…”

A loud ring suddenly reverberates through Twilight’s head. Through her blurry vision, she can see the bat pony shaking a large golden bell. It only takes minutes for a bat pony population as big as Ponyville to come bursting through the door.

A teal pony with a bouncy yellow and white mane leaps from the crowd up to the store pony. “What is it, Knickknack?”

“That unicorn harvests dark magic,” Knickknack exclaims, pointing to Twilight’s horn. the crowd of ponies gasp and back away. Twilight glances around worriedly.

“I’m not using it for anything bad, I promise. I don’t even want it, it was Discord who gave it to me. If I knew how to get rid of it, I would, honestly.” The purple unicorn doubts that anybatpony will listen to her. Each time she makes eye contact with a pony, they cower away in fear. She thinks back to Nightmare Night when Princess Luna was having a similar problem.

Her stomach clenches with homesickness.

Soon enough, five bat stallions wearing pointed lavender armor around their heads, necks, chests, backs, and hooves leap from the crowd. They surround Twilight.

“Evacuate!” One of the stallions exclaims. The ponies don’t hesitate to push each other through the door and escape. Once everypony is gone, the store doors click shut. Twilight sits in the middle of a circle of guards like a mouse surrounded by hungry cats. It becomes so quiet that her ears start to ring.

“Please, you have to understand. I won’t hurt anypony. In fact, I was just about to leave, so…” Right as Twilight is performing a teleportation spell, a stallion slips a magic-proof collar around her neck. She’d try to pull it off if the didn’t hoof-cuff her next and start dragging her out the door. “Where are you taking me?”

“A place.”

Twilight begins to resist fiercely, even though she makes no match against five stallions. “I’m not evil. You don’t have to imprison me in stone, or lock me in a dungeon–”

“Funny thing you mention dungeons,” one of the guards says.

Twilight is dragged down a long spiral staircase made of cold, wet stones, then is thrown into the only room down their–a cell. A stallion pulls out a ring of keys and locks her door.

“Wait! I didn’t even hurt anypony!”

The only response is fading hoofsteps on stone, accompanied by silence other than the occasional drip of water from the wet stones.

It’s dark in Twilight’s cell. Past the bars, all she can see is the dimly lit spiral staircase. The walls are cracked and spiderwebs hang from every corner. When she hovers her hooves in front of her face, she can barely make out the outline. Why does everything outside of Equestria have to be so different? I didn’t even do anything wrong!

“Hello, Twilight. Enjoying Trica?” comes a voice behind Twilight. She leaps onto her hooves facing the one who spoke, who turns out to be Discord.

For a few moments, Twilight repeatedly opens her mouth as if to speak words, but none come out. An unexpected tear falls from her eyes, splashing onto the ground and melding with the sounds of the other water drips in the moist air of the cell.

“Why?” Her voice is soft like a whisper. “Why did you do this to me?”

“Because you deserve it for imprisoning me in stone one more, as if a thousand years wasn’t enough!” Discord shouts. At other times, Twilight would shout back. But she is too sorrowful to raise her voice. Instead, she slumps to the ground. More tears spill from her eyes. “And,” Discord continues, “it’s part of my plans.”

Twilight’s sniffling stops abruptly. She stares up at him. “Plans?”

“My plans involving the destruction of Equestria, Twilight, what else?”

Four clanking sounds echo through the cave as Twilight rises to her hoof-cuffed hooves. A fresh, stern glare fixes on Discord. “Equestria is stronger than you could ever imagine. Do you know why?”

“I don’t really care.”

“Because Equestria has friendship and love,” she replies. By now, their faces are only inches away from each other, both full of glares of hatred.

“But there is one thing that is stronger than those.”

“Nothing is stronger than those.”

“That’s where you are wrong.” the Spirit of Disharmony smirks. “Darkness defeats the light, Twilight. Hatred and fear are the most powerful things.”

“That’s not–”

“But it is true. For you see, the dark magic I have casted upon you is slowly manipulating your mind. you may think you pushed it away, but by the time you reach Equestria, you will be thirsty for power.”

Discord’s words are so stern that Twilight almost gives in to them.

Almost.

“Never.”

“Alright.” Discord springs backwards and crosses his arms. “Think what you like, Sparkle, but my plans are working perfectly and I don’t expect them to change anytime soon.”

“I don’t expect myself to change anytime soon,” Twilight retorts. Discord shakes his head.

“Dark magic is more powerful than you could ever imagine, Twilight. Even more powerful than good.”

With a snap and some sparkles, he’s gone. The fear swimming in her heart thickens more than ever before. Her glare fades. She tosses her head from side to side.

Drip. The leaking water droplets now sound like deep drums in her ears. Drip. Twilight collapses to the ground. She wails in agony, but still, all she can hear are the drips.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Twilight can feel it rising inside of her. The frustration, the fear…

The rage. She tries to keep it bursting, she tries to stay calm, but the drips are too loud.

Drip… DRIP… DRIP…

Then, it comes. The burst of emotions. She screams at the top of her lungs. Her eyes flash green and purple, her horn red, but only for the while her anger is being released. She can feel unsummoned magic pouring from her horn, just like the time when she earned her cutie mark.

Her vision turns white. She doesn’t realize that she collapses to the ground, unconscious, from the overload of magic.

Dark magic.

***

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie huddle close together, wrapping their forelegs around each other in the way of a tight hug. Their eyes are squeezed shut as they try their best to block out their surroundings.

It’s another simulation. This time, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are in one together instead of separate ones. Instead of helplessly watching their friends die, now they watch a scene of a dragon burning all of Ponyville. Everywhere you look, there’s flames and screams. At first, the two forgot it was a simulation. Now they remember, but the scene is too real to bare. The heat of the flames on their hides, the screams of fear in their ears, the taste of ashes, the sight of death and destruction, and the smells of ashes.

They’re all too real.

Nightmare Moon, who can see inside the simulations, realizes that they’re not actually afraid of the illusion surrounding them and brings them out. When all their five senses change, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy open their eyes to see the inside of the Canterlot Castle and Nightmare Moon.

“Please…” Fluttershy’s breaths are ragged. “No more…”

“You dare beg me for mercy?”

“Please…”

Pinkie Pie dries her wet cheeks. She glares at Nightmare Moon.

Nightmare laughs. “Fools! You dare think you are stronger than me?”

“We never–”

“We know we’re stronger than you,” Pinkie interrupts her friend. She lets go of the pegasus’s tight grasp and trots directly underneath Nightmare’s eyes.

“If you’re stronger than me, then go ahead.” Nightmare Moon sits on her haunches. “Prove it.”

“Gladly. What do you have in mind?”

“Hit me.”

Pinkie doesn’t move.

“If you are strong enough to hurt me, then I believe you.”

Pinkie bites her lower lip. She’s always been against violence. Peace has always been her goal for ponies.

“Pinkie, don’t,” comes her friend’s soft whisper.

“Well? I can do it.” Nightmare Moon lifts her right foreleg. Pinkie doesn’t even see it coming. She only feels the stinging pain spread throughout her left cheek.

Fluttershy gasps. Her eyes widen in horror. She rubs them, then stares once more, as if the scene is too unbelievable to be true. However, the scene stays.

“I am stronger than you.” Pinkie looks upon Nightmare Moon. She has fallen to the ground from the impact of a punch so hard that it bleeds.

Pinkie Pie almost regrets hitting her enemy. She ignores her thoughts that scream against her violent choice.

Nightmare Moon sits up. She feels her bloody cheek. Who knew that the pony of laughter and peace would bring upon such violence?

Who knew?

Nightmare Moon turns her gaze to floor. “Go.”

Pinkie Pie is taken aback. “Excuse me?”

“Leave here now before I change my mind.”

The pink earth pony turns to Fluttershy, hoping to share a confused glance. All she receives is a look of pure terror.

Pinkie stares at her slightly bloody hooves. She turns to Nightmare’s slightly bloody cheek. What have i just done?

None of them had noticed until now, the orange earth pony, the white unicorn, and the cyan pegasus, standing still as a stone at the entrance. The doors are broken down, the red carpet beneath their hooves is ruffled, and they all carry a sword. It was a rescue attempt, but now their friends don’t need to be rescued, because their host is letting them go for reasons unknown.

Fluttershy quietly hovers past Nightmare and Pinkie to her friends. She hugs Rarity. Tears spill out immediately. All you can hear in the dark and quiet scene are the sniffles of Fluttershy, soon joined by Pinkie Pie.

Applejack gallops to the pink earth pony, who only backs away with small steps. She skids to a halt only a tail-length before her friend.

Applejack had pictured the rescue much differently.

“Get away from me…” Pinkie Pie continues to slowly back up, even though her friend isn’t moving. “I’m a monster.”

“Pinkie, you ain’t no monster. Ah’ve seen some, and trust me, you ain’t nothin’ like one.”

“But I am, Applejack.” Pinkie’s mane starts to deflate the more she backs away. “I just punched a mare.” She trips backward over some stairs. She lands roughly on the ground, but she doesn’t stand back up. By now, her mane is as straight as her sisters’.

Rarity and Fluttershy hesitantly trot to AJ’s side while Rainbow glides across the hallway and lands roughly due to her lack of concentration on it.

“You were scared, Pinkie, that’s all.”

“No, Dashie…” Pinkie Pie hides her face under her hooves. “Pinkie is a monster…”

“Darling, please stop saying that when you know it’s quite the opposite.” Rarity looks sadly upon her fragile pink friend. She brings out a hoof to help her up, but she acts as if it’s a snake and scampers up the stairs. She begins to slowly back up.

Fluttershy gives Pinkie Pie a pleading stare. “Pinkie, please come with us back to Ponyville so we can find a different way to bring…” she glances nervously at Nightmare Moon who is staring up at the sky through a stained glass window of herself. “...you know who back.”

“No.” Pinkie shakes her head back and forth. Her eyes are squeezed shut and dripping salt water. Her mouth quivers as she continues to back up. “You want silly Pinkie, but Pinkie just gave violence. Silly Pinkie is now monster Pinkie…”

Pinkie backs up into the wall. Her sparkling eyes spring open. Her friends are inches away from her on all sides. She suddenly feels overwhelmed and gallops through the small gap in between Rarity and Fluttershy.

“Wait!” Rainbow calls as the last hair of her lifeless pink mane disappears behind the doors. No pony stops her from zooming after her friend.

But when she gets outside, Pinkie is nowhere. She searches all around the castle, in all the bushes, and eventually asks some of the (now timid) Canterlot ponies if they had seen her pink friend. All signs point to defeat.

After she receives the same defeated response from a periwinkle unicorn, Rainbow flops onto her hindquarters and hangs her head. A single tear spills from her eye.

A light hoof rests on her shoulder. Then another, and another. She turns around. Her three friends are trying their best to comfort each other in the sorrows, but it seems so useless.

“Twilight…Twilight’s gone…” Rainbow Dash whispers with a choked voice between sniffles. “And now...now...where is Pinkie Pie?”

No pony replies, for no pony knows the answer.