Chapter One: Into the Dark
It all began with that book...
Every. Awful. Thing.
Which was odd, as Twilight could scarcely imagine a book leading her so very astray, before now.
Nevermind that incident, when she had gotten her friend's destinies shuffled about and caused all that heartache. Really, that had kinda worked out alright, all things considered.
And then there was that incident just a couple of months ago with that magical comic book. That had been a surprisingly harrowing experience. Though, she hesitated to count that incident against books as a whole. She was happy that it was getting Spike to read more, but all-in-all she kind of found comics a bit silly for her tastes.
And really, in an indirect way, the latest Daring Do book had stirred up some trouble for Twilight and her friends, even though she had gotten some great experiences out of it all.
On the other hoof, that incident where Rarity had beautified the entire town had been apparently been kicked off by some sort of forbidden tome that Spike had found...
...Ok, so her experiences with books have been a bit mixed. Still, the great majority of the time, when Twilight cracked open a book, nothing bad happened. At least, not as a result of anything related to the book.
But that book, that stupid, evil book, was at the heart of her current troubles, she knew.
Though, really, the book had been anything but stupid. No, what it contained had been absolutely brilliant. A glorious melding of science and magic, with concepts rarely found in either field. It had absolutely enthralled Twilight with it's bafflingly original ideas and lovingly precise diagrams of devices, whose purpose Twilight could only barely theorize. It had been like Twilight was a filly again, taking her first peek into Quadratic Wand's Treatise on Magical Geometries. For so long, even the most advanced of texts only took a relatively modest effort on Twilight's part to grasp.
This had been something tantalizingly new.
And bizarre.
The ideas and theories put forward within those pages had forced Twilight to stretch and bend her mind to even grasp them. She had been forced to drop ideas that had seemed almost inherent to the world. Things like causality and space she had been forced to re-think. She would have dismissed most of it as the musings of a madpony...but for the fact that the math checked-out. Even when it shouldn't have. Granted, it wasn't so simple as plugging in a value here and there, but Twilight knew magic like few others, and what she found in the book had meshed so easily with magical theory as she understood it, filling in the gaps and opening new paths.
At first, she couldn't understand why this book had just been tucked away beyond sight, in her little country library-tree. Twilight had found no author's name in the book, but surely anypony that could have penned this book, would have told others of his or her ideas. Right?
She was starting to suspect that the original author had not had the opportunity to share their notes, assuming that the pony that had penned the book had done what Twilight had done.
Twilight had built the Machine.
It's what all the notes and theories had been pointing towards, every mind-bending concept had been but a lead-in for the construction of the Machine.
Twilight now suspected that this was intentional.
The book had merely been the bait to lure her down this path. Oh, it started out innocently enough. Simple little creations, with no purpose. A bit of hammering, a bit of soldering, and you had these peculiar little gizmos. Devices with no apparent function, that would have you turning back to the book to try to figure out where you went wrong. And every time you would find something more to build. You would need to go just a bit further to satisfy your curiosity.
It had gone on like that for one very sleep-deprived week. Ending with the gargantuan, apparently, pointless contraption sitting in Twilight basement.
There had been no more notes, nothing more to add, no more answers. Just a switch, and a burning desire to know...
Sanity and scientific good sense had prevailed at the time. Twilight wasn't going to just randomly turn on some device whose purpose she couldn't even begin to fathom, but surely involved powerful magics. She would study it, take her notes, take proper safety precautions...
...really it came down to the fact that Spike had finally managed to drag her out of the basement and demand that she get some rest.
The young dragon hadn't liked what had been going on from the beginning.
Twilight supposed she should have trusted in Spike's instinct at the time, but nothing seemed particularly odd at the time. Twilight had spent many nights picking away at some magical tome or bit of academia, till finally collapsing into the sweet embrace of sleep as the sun began to rise. It's not as if she had shunned her friends during this time, and they knew Twilight well enough to not find anything odd about Twilight running a few experiments. It's not as if she had forgotten that the Equestria games were only a couple of weeks away.
That had been half the reason for Twilight to dedicate so much of her time to her work. She had to get everything to a reasonable stopping point, before her days became too busy. She couldn't very well afford to have it sitting on her mind, while she was trying to attend and pay mind to such an important event.
Twilight now suspected that intellectual curiosity hadn't been the only factor in driving her frenetic construction of the Machine.
She had come up with quite a few solid rationalizations for everything. That was a bit of a drawback of having such a keen mind; too easy to convince yourself of what you wanted to believe. In this instance, Twilight had quite handily convinced herself that nothing was wrong, until she had crossed the point of no return.
That last night in Equestria.
For the first time in days, Twilight had gotten to bed at, what most ponies would consider, a reasonable hour. After installing the last pieces of the quasi-magical creation found within that odd tome, Spike had finally put his foot down. The young drake had practically dragged Twilight out of the basement by her tail, despite Twilight's protests.
Even when they had made it back into the library proper, Spike had not relented, telling Twilight that if she didn't get some food and sleep he was going to go tell Princess Celestia. Or Luna. Or everypony, if that's what it took.
At the time, Twilight hadn't understood why Spike had been so upset and anxious at the time. One could chalk that up to sleep-deprivation and a lack of food. One would be wrong in assuming that was all that was wrong with Twilight at that moment.
Even so, she had quickly acquiesced. Her work was done for now. Nothing else needed to be done, except for actually turning on the machine. And that would require a whole slew of preparations and work, which could wait till she had fulfilled her responsibilities as 'Princess Twilight Sparkle'.
And the responsibilities of 'Regular, Everyday Twilight Sparkle' to her loved ones, Spike in particular.
The young dragon had almost deflated with relief when Twilight had listened to him. His spirits rose as Twilight ate the dinner he had made and she chatted with him like normal. Even though this wasn't the first time Twilight had gone on some sort of Studying Marathon or Science-Bender, this one had left him anxious.
Feeling things going back to normal had allowed the young drake to easily curl up and go to bed, safe in the knowledge that Twilight was doing the same. Instead of lurking in that creepy basement.
Twilight hadn't been able to sleep so well. All the worse, while she was nicely tucked into her covers, her thoughts kept turning back to the basement and what lay therein.
She did not slip into an easy sleep, as she had expected. The young alicorn had tossed and turned throughout the night, and not just because of her wings. Twilight had mostly gotten the hang of sleeping with those, some time back. She just couldn't sleep. Even as she lay in her bed, surrounded by darkness and quiet, her mind would not let her drift to sleep. Formulae, magical theories, and niggling curiosity fought one-sided battles with common sense and exhaustion, for hours, before Twilight forced herself to be still and closed her eyes.
Her sleep was light and dreamless, fraught with a sourceless anxiety that left her constantly on the edge of waking.
It was a crack of lightning that woke her from her fitful sleep.
It was still dark out. Very dark.
And it was raining quite fiercely, with the sound of heavy raindrops beating against her window being the only sound Twilight could make out, apart from the rumble of thunder and the sound of her own breathing.
Twilight was sweaty, confused, and her heart was hammering in her chest. It felt as if she had just awoken from a nightmare, but she could recall nothing of the sort. All that lingered in her mind, was the thought that her sheets were wrapped a bit too tightly about her body for her comfort and the darkness was a bit less relaxing than it should have been.
Another flash of lightning briefly alleviated the darkness issue, though it did little to sooth Twilight's nerves.
There were no storms on the weather schedule for this week. And even if there had been, there would be no reason for the Ponyville weather team to schedule it for the middle of the night.
Twilight brought a light glow forth with her horn, as the thunder caught up with the lightning flash, from a moment ago.
Glancing to one side of her bedroom, the soft light of her magic showed Spike's outline, the young dragon still snoozing away in his basket. It brought a brief smile to Twilight's tired face. Few things could wake her Number One Assistant once he had put his mind to getting some sleep.
The smile quickly fled, as Twilight turned her attention back to her window. Untangling herself from her sheets, the young princess' hooves quietly alighted on her bedroom floor, before taking Twilight over to the window.
The rain was really hammering things outside.
Twilight was briefly amazed that she'd been able to sleep at all amidst all the racket the rain was making against her window. The howling of the wind through the tiny cracks around her window seal and the frequent lightning made it seem all the more improbable.
'Maybe it had moved in from the Everfree?'
It wasn't unheard of, for all manner of meteorological phenomena to blow in from the strange woodlands near Ponyville. She had heard Rainbow Dash complaining about all the extra work it put on her weather team's plate on more than one occasion.
Still, it was rare for such a severe storm to drift over Ponyville of it's own accord...
Twilight found herself nearly jumping out of her skin as a terrible metallic sound echoed from down below.
Glancing around as she tried to force her heart to slow it's rapid beat, it took her a moment to realize that it wasn't some terrible monster about to grab her.
'The basement...'
Taking several calming breaths, Twilight soon noted that Spike had managed to maintain his own repose. Twilight briefly considered waking him; just because she was a bit jumpy, was no reason to interrupt his rest. She could check things out on her own.
“Something probably just came loose on the thing...” Twilight muttered to herself, referring to the huge machine resting in her basement.
Within a minute, Twilight had managed to light a candle before heading to her bedroom's exit.
She'd just look into things downstairs real quickly, and then get some rest...
A few minutes after Twilight left, Spike started to stir, when a particularly loud crack of lightning forced the young drake to wakefulness.
“Uh, sa-wha's it?” Spike babbled through his own drowsiness, as he looked around the room and finding himself it's sole occupant.
“...Twilight?” He called out anxiously, seeing her empty bed before glancing towards the door to the room.
Twilight had taken a couple of moments to make sure that everything was in order on the ground floor. Making doubly sure that the library's door was locked and that the sound she heard hadn't been something else, like pots and pans in the kitchen or something.
Predictably, everything was in order.
After making sure that the windows were closed and keeping out the rain, Twilight cantered over towards the door leading to the basement.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
The stairs creaked in all the right places. As the flickering candlelight reached down she could see all of her other research equipment carefully placed to one side of the basement, where it should be. She had needed a bit of extra room as her little project had gone on. The various tools and bits of material she had put to use over the last week were all, more or less, where she remembered leaving them.
And there was the Machine, occupying the lion's-share of the cleared out space in her basement.
She easily approached the large construct, after stepping off of the stairs, looking for anything amiss. With how much noise she had heard, anything out of order should have been readily apparent. But, as she stepped around her creation using her telekinesis to shine the candle's light along every bit of the Machine...
Nothing looked out of place.
From it's thick base, to it's gears and pistons, to the large metal wheel jutting from the top of the Machine, everything seemed in order.
She was sure she had heard something...
Furrowing her brow, Twilight moved the candle towards the rest of the basement, causing shadows to dance across the rest of the scientific equipment she kept down there.
Like the Machine, everything was in order. Literally, everything was just as she had ordered it when she had started shifting things about the basement, to make room for her project.
Considering this for a moment, Twilight moved over towards a nearby worktable covered with notes, sketches, tools and tomes. Setting down the candle, she began to rifle through things until she pulled out a particular sheaf of parchment.
Her checklist.
If anything was out of place the checklist would jog Twilight's memory.
Alternating between perusing the list and glancing about the basement for a few moments, she was about to just give up on this and chalk the noise she heard to her imagination.
That's when she found herself ducking down out of reflex, as she heard a particularly loud crack of thunder, loud enough to be heard clearly even from the basement. Powerful enough to cause the contents of her worktable to tremble and shake with the aftershocks, it must have been almost directly above the library.
Glancing about as the thunder receded away, her eyes rested upon the Machine once more. She was starting to wish she had taken the time to light the basement's lamps; in the flickering light of her pitiful candle, it seemed rather menacing. The shadows seemed to paint themselves across it's form making it seem to...move, like it was more than just another scientific apparatus. Like it was alive.
...Twilight decided that she had lingered long enough.
She began to take a step back, back towards the stairs, when she felt her rear hoof brush against something.
Bringing the candle's light about revealed the book. The strange tome filled with even stranger ideas seemed to have fallen from her worktable sometime during the night. Setting the candle back down, Twilight slipped her telekinesis about the book before setting it back down upon the worktable.
She had lost her spot in the book.
Twilight distinctly remembered leaving the tome opened to one of the last pages detailing the construction of the Machine.
A few moments later, she was turning through the pages of the codex, trying to find where she had last left off. Twilight might have intended on taking a break from her research, on account of the Equestrian Games, but she did intend on coming back to it. It wouldn't do to lose her place, so it only made sense to at least put in a bookmark while the material was fresh in her mind.
Only, she couldn't find the page she was looking for.
Glancing past page after page, she couldn't find the section she was looking for.
Furrowing her brow, as she reached the back cover, she held up the book to the light. It was the right book, as even with the bland, featureless covers she could spot the little details that told her it was the same book she had been studying for weeks.
Opening the book again, she moved at a slower pace, skimming along the pages under the assumption that her eyes must have tricked her. It's not as if a book could just rewrite itself...Maybe some of the pages were stuck together...
She almost sighed in relief when she turned to a page featuring a sketch of the completed Machine.
Setting the book down, Twilight gathered up a piece of scrap paper to serve as her bookmark. Turning back, she inserted her improvised bookmark, and was about to shut the book when something caught her eye.
The sketch was wrong.
Most ponies wouldn't have noticed it at a glance, in the poor light of her candle, but Twilight had perused countless texts in her life. And while she couldn't claim to have them perfectly memorized them, the words of the books she'd read or the pictures she'd seen, she could certainly recognize when she had seen something before.
She quickly flipped through the tome once more, looking for anymore diagrams or sketches of the Machine, before coming back to the same page.
The picture was wrong, but decidedly familiar...
Turning towards the hulking Machine, she raised the tome up comparing the reality to the picture found in the book.
Twilight rubbed her eyes with her hoof briefly, concerned that perhaps her mind was playing tricks on her.
The picture matched what she was seeing perfectly. Which might not seem so odd, until one started taking in the details of the picture. The sketch had not only every detail of the Machine in place, but the shadows, the indistinct shapes of her lab equipment in the darkness, and the scattering of tools and pieces in front of the Machine were mirrored perfectly.
That should have been impossible. Or at least, so improbable as to be unbelievable.
But every glance towards the sketch showed the same thing. A perfect recreation of the Machine sitting in her basement.
Maybe she had set this all up subconsciously? Twilight was notoriously tidy and a perfectionist, of this she was aware. Maybe she had done it without thinking.
Maybe she was just dreaming? This had been on her mind all week, and she really did need to take a break.
Maybe she really did need to get some sleep...
Another metallic shriek echoed, causing Twilight to drop the tome in utter fright.
The Machine had moved.
It had only been out of the corner of the eye, but the large wheel-like portion of the device had definitely moved. And she had definitely heard the noise of metal grinding against metal, that time.
She quickly, almost frantically, retrieved her candle, shining it's light upon the Machine once more, looking for any sign of activity.
The Machine was utterly still.
Raising a hoof to her chest, as she tried to get her breathing in order, Twilight found herself backing away from the massive construct suddenly not so sure of her own safety.
She was ready to turn away and scurry back up the stairs, when something caught her eye.
The switch.
Bringing her candle closer, Twilight could see the switch resting between the Off/On positions. Steadily approaching the device, she brushed her hoof against the lever trying to lift it back into the fully 'Off' position. It was loose.
Twilight had to sigh a bit, as a bit of her anxiety had left her. The switch was loose. She must not have properly tightened some of the screws and bolts as she had been building the device.
Setting her candle down again, this time on the floor, Twilight briefly looked over the apparatus, before trying to push the lever into it's correct 'Off' position. But she couldn't seem to get it to lock back in place. A part must have come free.
“...This can wait.” Twilight told herself. She couldn't very well spend all night hunting around for missing pieces and screws or dismantle the whole Machine over such a minor thing. Not this late.
It was time to go to bed.
Taking a step back, Twilight yelped in brief pain, as her hoof brushed against her candle knocking it over. Quickly brushing away the hot wax that had made it's way onto her coat from the brief contact, Twilight muttered irritably as she watched her candle come loose of it's holder and roll away to one corner of her basement.
Fortunately she kept the place rather tidy, meaning the candle's flame had little to set ablaze.
Taking a moment to rub her forehead, Twilight cantered over towards the still-lit candle, before using her telekinesis to retrieve it. Sighing as a bit more wax dripped off of it, the alicorn resolved to deal with it in the morning.
Casting her gaze across the basement once more, her eyes fell upon the tome once more, where she had dropped it.
Cantering over, she prepared to simply close the book and set it back on her table, quite thoroughly done with trying to look through it in the middle of the night.
Twilight froze as her eyes rested upon the pages of the open book.
-Pull the Switch.-
Taking up two whole pages were the messily scrawled words.
Her breathing quickened as her eyes ran over those three words over and over.
This isn't right.
Reaching a trembling hoof forward, Twilight turned the page, not knowing what she expected to find.
-Pull the Switch. Pull the Switch. Pull the Switch. Pull the Switch. Pull the Switch. Pull the Switch. Pull the Switch...-
The same words were scrawled over and over along the next pages, in the same jagged, messy letters.
Twilight quickly backed away from the book, now thoroughly frightened, before she felt herself back into something, causing her to lose her hold of her candle once more.
Twilight turned, before going pale as she realized she had backed herself up against the Machine, the device now terrifying her as she looked upon it.
She quickly turned back, ready to run for the stairs, before she caught sight of that damned tome once more.
It's pages were fluttering about of their own accord, as if caught in a breeze that Twilight knew was not there, the light of her fallen candle casting terrible shadows along the walls and floor of her basement.
None of this was right.
Twilight slammed her eyes shut.
“Wake-up...Wake-up...Wake-up!” Twilight chanted to herself desperately hoping that this was terrible nightmare.
Cracking open her eyes once more, the shadows had stopped there dancing and the book's page were still. All that was left was the steady flicker of her candle.
Twilight hesitated for only a moment.
'Too late.'
Twilight stumbled away from the Machine as a heavy noise issued from it. Setting her horn aglow, she bathed the Machine in the steady, cool glow of her magic.
The switch had been thrown.
The Machine rumbled and loosed metallic shrieks, as it came to life, before suddenly seeming to unfold and grow in size.
“No! I didn't-” Twilight didn't get a chance to say anymore, as she was taken aback by the change in the Machine, as it's parts shifted and whirled. The light of her magic faded away as she lost her hold on the magic.
In the flickering light of her fallen candle, she could almost see a visage leering down upon her, a horrifying grin cutting through the shadows.
“Twilight?” A familiar voice called down from the top of the stairs, prompting Twilight into motion again.
“Spike! Run!” The princess called out in terror, as she tried to scurry away from the horrible Machine.
“Twilight!” Spike came running down the stairs, his concern outweighing his fear by a fair margin.
Twilight saw him at the foot of the stairs, looking back at her with same terror she now felt. She was almost there, almost away from this thing, when she felt one of her back hooves get pulled out from under her.
Twilight struggled to get her hooves back under her to no avail, before finally turning to see what had caught her.
She saw nothing but shadows.
She looked for anything that might have been holding her down, in confusion. It took her a moment too long to realize that it was the shadows themselves that had a hold of her.
“Twilight, look out!!!” Spike shouted at her, causing Twilight to look up.
A great wave shadowy hands had risen up from every dark corner of the room and was now surging towards her.
Amidst it all, she could still see the book sitting calmly in the candlelight, as the Machine rumbled and and shook the entire room.
It was Spike's claws wrapping around her front hooves that broke her from her mindless terror, as the little drake tried with all his might to pull Twilight free, prompting the princess to re-double her own efforts.
“Come on, Twilight!!” Spike shouted, even as Twilight grunted and strained to pull her hoof free of the shadowy bindings.
Digging her forehooves into the floor she pulled as hard as she could, flapping her wings in an effort to get just a bit more power.
She didn't look back, refused to look at anything other than Spike.
It didn't stop them though.
She felt them, the shadowy hands, wrapping around her, pulling with an otherworldly power. She was dragged back towards the Machine, her hooves carving furrows in the floor, even as Spike's claws sank into her skin in a desperate effort to hold on.
She saw the shadows working there way down her forelegs, having already encompassed the rest of her form, steadily crawling their way towards the desperate Spike.
“Spike!” Suddenly terrified of what would happen if they reached the baby dragon, Twilight suddenly jerked her hooves away from Spike, causing the drake to lose his grip and fall backwards.
With no more resistance, the shadows quickly re-doubled there efforts, swiftly pulling Twilight into the darkness.
The last thing she saw before the shadows consumed everything was Spike desperately reaching a claw towards her and calling her name.
Then there was nothing but darkness and fear.
And then...
“Say, pal, you don't look so good...”
Author's Note
Right, sorry to anyone that was hoping for an update on one of my other two stories. But, I've had this idea sitting in my head for a couple of weeks now and felt the need to get it out.
If it wasn't clear already, this is a Crossover with the game Don't Starve. I'll try to make sure that those that haven't played the game can enjoy this story, as well, though I do recommend trying out the game. It's quite nicely put together.
Also, this story has no ties with my other stories, and will not impact them in anyway. Lastly, it will be taking place late in Season 4, but before the finale.
Please feel free to ask questions or offer criticisms in the comments section, and I'll try to address any that I can. Enjoy.
Chapter Two: Strangers in the Dark
The first breath she took in quickly flew back out as a sob of terror and pain.
Twilight soon could feel herself slipping back into consciousness, she could feel herself curled up in on herself, could feel new aches and pains coursing along her body.
Then the memories of what happened struck her like a lightning bolt.
Twilight's eyes snapped open and her body whipped around, as the memory of those terrible, shadowy claws, gripped her thoughts.
“Ah, good...could of been pretty bad, if you stayed like that much longer, pal.”
Twilight quickly turned her head around towards the greasily-cultured voice, even as she tried to force her unresponsive hooves under her.
She saw it.
That terrible grin, that horrible slash of pearly, gleaming teeth against the dark. Even in the dark, she could see black, beady eyes hanging over that toothy smirk. She remembered it so clearly, flashing across her mind when she had stared in terror at the Machine, when it trembled to life and...leered at her.
Twilight briefly found herself unable to think, paralyzed by the sight, when she saw a small cherry glow. It came with the sound of somepony taking in a deep breath, revealing it to be a lit cigar, being chomped down upon by those almost luminescent teeth.
Some part of her mind took hold, the part that always tried to guide her when she was in the heart of danger and forced her to take in the details and think. It was the same part of her, that saw the vague outline of the tall, lanky form speaking from the shadows, and told her that it was a pony.
Or, at least, something like a pony.
She could see by the light of the cigar the stallion's pinched, sneering face and the horn sitting over that face, even as the cigar floated into the air. A unicorn. A moment later, some force shook the tip of the cigar, loosing the burnt ash from the tip.
That keen part of Twilight's mind, couldn't help but note that the stallion's horn had no glow to it. Nor did the cigar, despite its clear defiance of the force of gravity. He wasn't using his magic.
The skinny, creepy stallion, loosed a dark chuckle, before setting the cigar back between his teeth “You're looking a bit confused.”
At these words, Twilight steeled herself, forcing herself to stand up straight, and face the stranger fully. For some reason, she felt it in her gut that he wasn't on her side. There was a cruelty to him, hidden just below the thin veneer of sophistication. Taking a few calming breaths, Twilight met his gaze head on “...W-where am I?”
The stallion tilted his head, before turning his gaze upwards, inviting Twilight to do the same. She found herself looking through a tangle of trees, a long shaft of disturbed and broken tree branches leading to a leafy canopy.
No wonder she felt so sore.
Her gaze wandered about the shadowy surroundings, catching just the barest bits of light peeking through the dense forest. There was a menace to this place, to the trees and the air, not unlike what one could find in the most dangerous parts of the Everfree forest. The trees themselves were gnarled, and seemed to loom over her, daring her to approach them.
“This place has no name, girly. And without a name...well, it might not even qualify as a place, then.” The stallion's voice called out, managing to carry a strength to it, even as it slinked through the air like a snake.
Twilight furrowed her brow, as she again focused her eyes back upon the stallion's face, it still being faintly illuminated by the light of his cigar. The stranger was utterly condescending, and didn't seem to care a bit about her distress “Who are you? You act as if you know something about this place, so why am I here? Where's Spike?”
“Who am I? Now there's a useful question to ask. I might even tell you, if you can survive your first night here.” The stallion noted, unperturbed by the alicorn's annoyance. He just kept puffing away at his cigar, not paying any mind to her.
Twilight scowled. Everything about this individual told her that he knew what was going on, that he was connected, maybe even responsible for whatever had happened the night before.
“What do you even want with me? Why did you bring me here?” Twilight demanded, hoping to get the stranger to let something slip.
The stallion seemed to consider her for a few moments, his beady eyes raking across her form. His ear suddenly twitched, as if he had just caught a distant sound, causing him to tilt his head to glance back.
“You're going to have a rough first night, girly.” The stallion observed, even as another grin cut across his face.
Twilight couldn't help but take a step back, as he bared his teeth at her once more, reminded again of that horrible Machine. Shaking her head to clear those images away, she marched forward several steps “What is that supposed to mean? Is this some sort-”
“I'd love to chat some more with you, really I would, but I'd rather not leave you too distracted for what's about to come.” The stallion interrupted, tipping his cigar forward again, to loose another chunk of ash from it.
“What's coming? What-” Twilight began, before she was cut-off, at the sound of distant howls cutting their way through the air. She froze briefly, as she heard more and more howls and barks call back to the first.
Wolves. Or something like wolves.
“You might want to fit in a quick snack, before the festivities begin.” The stranger observed.
She flinched back, as she heard a distant crashing sound, followed by a chorus of sharp yips and snarls. Turning back to the only one that could give her any answers “What is it?! Why is this-”
He was gone.
Twilight hadn't heard him move, hadn't seen him leave. He had just vanished.
“I'm a sporting fellow, and I do have you at the disadvantage. You don't even know the rules of the game, yet. So, here's a friendly tip...” The stallion's voice called back from the shadows, causing the young alicorn to cast her eyes about for its source. She couldn't see him, and even then, the next words seemed to echo from all around her “...don't let the darkness catch-up with you, girly.”
The baying of the beasts off in the distance continued to approach, even as the light that peeked through the forests trees continued to fade. There was a brief moment, where a high-pitched squeal of pain overshadowed the sound of the approaching racket. Twilight started backing away, sure that she should flee, but not knowing enough to know which way she should run.
Every direction there was noise and menacing shadows, twisted plant-life, a blood-thirstiness that seemed to permeate the air. She desperately wished her friends were here with her...
Twilight whipped her head to one side, as the heavy snap of the foliage under something's step drew her attention. In the distance, she could still hear the sound of howls and snarls; she didn't think they had gotten that close yet.
This wilderness was not like what she knew. It wasn't the beautiful peace of a land that was carefully maintained by the works of ponies. It wasn't the brutal apathy for your welfare, that the wild Everfree sometime displayed. No, she could feel in her bones that she was at odds with the very land itself.
She had no friends here.
Twilight pointed her horn in the direction of the sound, ready to menace any being that might come her way. As the seconds wore on, her mind caught up with her body, and reminded her that she still wasn't helpless.
In the next second, she called forth her magic, looking to bring the comforting glow of her own power to bear.
She gasped at the sudden sensation that gripped her, even as she brought her hoof to her head. In that brief moment, the light of her horn had flared to life only to gutter out, as her mind was assaulted. Not exactly a pain, but a feeling of being drowned in a cold, murky pool engulfed her mind.
This brief moment of distraction was an open invitation for the beast to strike.
It was a sudden rush of dark fur and a maw that was filled with jagged teeth. In the split second that Twilight caught sight of the creature, she could see its eyes filled with an eager and malicious cunning.
Countless adventures and near-death experiences saved her, as her body took hold while her mind was still processing what she was seeing. Her hooves moved, throwing her to land on her side, so narrowly avoiding the creature that she could feel the beast's bristly hair brush past her.
Twilight's mind quickly started to catch up with the situation, leading her to roll with the momentum of her dive. She was quickly rising back to her hooves, even as she turned towards the creature.
For the hound's part, its own landing was significantly less graceful, as it plunged mouth-first into the ground. Its body rolled over it''s own head, landing the creature on its back, though it too quickly rolled onto its feet with a snarl.
Twilight had been right to think the noises being made in the distance had come from some manner of canine, as she quickly spotted the canine attributes the beast sported. Though the creature was a farcry from any dog or wolf she had ever seen.
The creature's jaws were massive, almost to an impractical degree. Its legs were short, but sturdy. And its fur...It looked not unlike some unholy amalgam between a warthog, a wolverine, and a wolf.
And it seemed to resent the fact that Twilight hadn't been polite enough to let it bite her head off.
Its blank, white eyes quickly locked back upon her, as the hound briefly sidled back and forth, drool slipping through the gaps in its fangs. Only a few seconds passed, before it again charged her, loosing a snarling bark as it did so.
Twilight was a bit better prepared this time, and quickly crouched down, before tensing the muscles in her legs. Before the creature had even closed half the distance between the two of them, she leaped upward, punctuating the take-off with a strong flap of her wings. As the beast pounced towards her, she found herself rising into the air...
Though, not nearly as quickly as she had intended.
Nor did she reach the heights she had hoped for.
A brief panic took her as she saw the hound course through the air towards her, only to collide mid-air into her own stomach. In those brief seconds, she was sure she could feel the huge teeth of the creature brush against her skin. But as they hit the ground in a tangle of limbs, it quickly became evident that her assailant had been as thrown by her haphazard leaping into the air as she had been, albeit for different reasons.
Twilight seized her window, as her briefly scattered senses reasserted themselves, she quickly began kicking the beast from her using her hooves. Twilight didn't hold back, as her panic lent her strength and speed, and she soon disentangled herself from the creature. She was back on her hooves in less than a second, and quickly broke into a gallop away from the creature.
The hound, now having been frustrated and bludgeoned by the princess' hooves, quickly set after her, smashing through the brush as it trailed her.
Twilight didn't look back, only letting her ears swivel back every second or two, to let her know how far the beast was behind her. She focused her eyes solely on running, picking out the safe ground to follow as she tried to set some distance between herself and the hound.
She found herself disheartened by the difficult progress she was making, as she had to weave her steps around thick roots, and duck her head through brush and branches. The terrain was slowing her down. Judging by the sounds coming from just behind her, the hound wasn't sharing in her troubles, instead using its bulk to burst through every obstacle.
The primal part of her mind screamed in terror, as the thought of it catching her triggered her deeply buried pony instincts.
This thing was going to kill her.
When it caught her, it was coming to tear and bite and rend, until she was dead.
Her magic wasn't working and she could barely get into the air.
She couldn't fight this thing.
This nightmare that she had been pulled into wanted her dead. And in these brief terror-filled seconds she was at a loss as to how to prevent that.
The tears slipped from her eyes, as she briefly slammed her eyes shut, even as she put her all into her galloping.
She opened her eyes, as she felt a jerking sensation from her tail, as the beast snapped its maw at it.
This saved her life.
In that split second, she saw it stretched out along the ground in front her, illuminated by the pale light peeking through the canopy above.
A length of rope, hanging taut a few inches from the ground.
Her mind was briefly taken with the possibilities it presented, but she was saved these thoughts by the instinctual part of her that guided her steps.
It wasn't elegant.
Her body was straining, her mind was clouded, and she had less than a second to alter her course. But, she rose her front hooves just high enough to step over the rope. The break in her momentum caused her to stumble, her back hooves catching along the edge of the trip.
She collapsed forward, her face being driven into the dirt, as she heard the sharp whistle of something moving past her head.
There was a wet thud and then an ear-piercing yelp of canine pain.
Twilight didn't put any thought into what that sound might have implied, as she clambered back to her hooves. So, when she turned around to see what had occurred, she couldn't help stagger back a couple of steps.
A thick, supple branch had evidently been held back by the rope she had spotted, and had been allowed to whip forward when the trap had been triggered. Numerous sharp objects had been driven into the branch, facing the direction the branch would careen towards when released. At a glance they looked to be a collection of fangs and claws, some of them perhaps coming from this same sort of hound-like beast that had decided to pursue her.
Wherever they came from didn't really matter, as much as where they were now; deeply buried into the hound's own mid-section.
Blood was already leaking from the creature's wounds and running down the trap's bony protrusions, like red streams. One particularly large spike, seemed to have punched straight through the beast and its tip was protruding out its back now. Even now the creature was thrashing in agony, bits of drool, bile, and blood flying from its mouth, as it yelped and screamed in pain.
It was another horrifying sight to be added to the list.
Twilight couldn't help but stare, as the creature's motions became less violent. Her rudimentary knowledge of medicine told her that, the spikes imbedded in the creature were likely keeping its blood from spilling out too quickly, keeping more of the vital fluid in. Not that the beast seemed to appreciate that fact.
When the creature slumped forward, its breath ragged and uneven, the part of her that held compassion for most living things spurred her to approach the pained creature. After not even taking a few steps closer to the beast, the hound renewed its attempts to tear itself free. It clawed at the ground, as it tried to drag itself towards Twilight, even as it continued to snap its jaws at her. In that few seconds, it didn't seem at all concerned about the wounds it was tearing open in its body.
Twilight quickly stumbled back, as the hound raged at her, thrown by its persistent desire to kill her. Some part of her was tempted to flee in terror once more...
But another part of her asserted itself, and forced her to stop.
As horrible as this was, panic wasn't going to serve her. Being blinded by fear could have just as easily led to her being impaled by this brutal trap. And who was to say there weren't more traps like this one.
“As if things weren't bad enough...” She said aloud. And while the only one around to hear was the creature that was still killing itself in an attempt to reach her, the snarking seemed to help center her mind.
She had faced danger before, and not been so consumed by panic.
Twilight had faced monsters before, like the timberwolves of the Everfree, which weren't so different from this creature in some ways.
She'd faced down a hydra. Yes, she ultimately fled, but she hadn't lost her cool.
Nightmare Moon, Discord and the Changeling Queen, as well.
'But not alone...'
That thought briefly stymied her, before she scowled at the notion. There were points where she had willingly faced each of those opponents when she thought she was utterly alone.
With King Sombra, she had explicitly been told to deal with him on her own, and he was arguably worse than any other opponent she had faced.
Twilight knew how to control herself, to marshal her fear into order and rein it in...
There was something wrong about this place.
There was something about the air that set her teeth on edge, where every step set her nerves alight with tension. Her magic wasn't working, and she couldn't seem to even get up the strength to properly fly. It was like she was breathing in fear with every moment she was in this place.
All the more reason to get home.
This place might unsettle her on some deep level, but fear was something she could control. And she didn't need to let it dictate her actions.
Twilight stared down at the hound, even as it again fell into exhaustion.
Her ears perked up at the not-too-distant sound of more hounds baying, drawing her gaze, more or less, in the direction she had come from.
“A-alright...first thing's first. I need to get some distance from these...dogs. That's priority number one.” Twilight said aloud, her voice uneven at first, but hardening with every syllable. Keeping her gaze upon the skewered hound, her caution for it still real, she began to back away and turn to leave.
Twilight felt a hoof brush against something.
There was a sudden explosion of leaves right next to her, along with a sharp, wooden creaking sound.
The young alicorn was frozen in place, her eyes locked upon the row of jagged implements sitting a few inches from her eyes. She could still see their tips vibrating from the sudden motion and their abrupt stop. This was a different sort of trap, one that snapped up from the ground, hidden by leaves and foliage, but it worked on the same principle as the other one.
If Twilight had turned her head just a little bit quicker, those same principles would have jammed several spikes into her brain.
Forcing herself to take a deep breath, and take a careful step back, Twilight began to turn her gaze towards the ground.
“N-new priority number one...watch out for more traps.” Twilight said to herself, in a breathy whisper.
Twilight was shaken from her re-prioritization by what sounded like another of the hounds bursting their way through the underbrush, no doubt lured her way by its fallen comrade's cries. She spared one more glance for the skewered creature, only long enough to note that it was still weakly struggling to get at her. No further doubts in her mind, she sidestepped the second trap and ran.
Not a second too soon, as she quickly caught the sounds of pursuit, coming from behind her.
“And that brings us...back to priority...two!” Twilight shouted between breaths, cutting a quick glance behind her, at the sound of the snarling barks. She wasn't sure why she bothered, but it seemed to help center her mind. Trivializing the life-or-death situation did wonders to clear her thoughts. Something about reducing the problem down to a frustrating obstacle, made the whole thing a bit more approachable.
It let her think.
About the book.
The Machine.
The shadows.
The mysterious stranger that had greeted her just as she awoke.
It let her catalog what she had at her disposal.
Her magic was acting strangely. Not a good option for right now. She could barely fly, and like her magic, she could only guess why that was. There was a trap-infested forest, filled with the brutal creatures that were even now hunting her down.
'Don't know where traps are. Who made them. What-'
That line-of-thought was cut-off as she leaped over a particularly suspect patch of forest floor.
Twilight briefly had to struggle to find her steps, as she reconnected with the ground. Turning her head to let one eye look behind her, she could see the hound still on her tail. It had been a false-alarm, a pile of simple leaves, that the beast had recklessly trod over.
That was a bit of a disadvantage for her.
It was costing her speed, keeping her eyes darting along the ground looking for potentially deadly traps. But could she afford not to? Speed up, and potentially run headfirst into a booby trap? Or keep up her careful progress, and eventually let the incautious animal behind her catch up and wrap its teeth around her?
Not great options. Needed something else.
Can't do magic. Can't fly well enough to get away.
'Well, I know what Applejack would do in this situation...'
In the next minute, she found herself bursting through some bushes into a small clearing. She didn't get the opportunity to take in any more detail than that, as she quickly leaned forward onto her forehooves, transferring as much of her momentum as she could into what she was about to do. Twilight could hear the hound tear its way through the bushes, and used it to perfect her timing. The creature pounced through the air, ready to give pursuit.
And was met by two pony hooves slamming into its face.
'It's worse than bucking an actual tree!'
Twilight didn't have the years of bucking experience that her apple-farmer friend had, but she hadn't thought it would have been that rough. It felt like her whole body was shaking from the impact as she fell forward. She was briefly satisfied by the crack of her hooves against the creature's skull, the yelp of pain, and the sound of it hitting the ground.
That satisfaction quickly drained away, as she turned to take in the sight of the hound picking itself back up out of the dirt.
It was hard to tell, but it looked angry.
Twilight couldn't help but let out an aggravated sound, that was somewhere between a snarl and a sigh “...Of course.”
She couldn't waste much time on that aggravation, as the hound shook itself back to its senses, dismissing the blow to the head as a minor issue. Meanwhile, her hindlegs were buckling, still trembling from the strain the buck had put upon them.
She started to back away from the creature, ready to resume her run when she stumbled, her back leg giving out beneath her.
The hound let out a snarl at this, letting slobber slip through its teeth, as it planted its feet. In the next moment, it was charging towards her, its fangs bared. She managed not to flinch back, as she leveled her horn towards the beast, ready to try to use her magic again, if only out of desperation.
Just as it looked as if the hound were about to begin its pounce, she heard a snap.
And then suddenly, the direction the hound was moving abruptly changed, as the beast was suddenly yanked to the side.
She watched, stunned, as the angry creature zipped along the ground on its side, before being yanked high into the air.
Some part of her mind wondered if some manner of miracle had just taken place. At least, until she caught sight of the rope that the hound was dangling from in the air, wrapped tight around one of its legs.
Twilight blinked, as she realized her good fortune.
The hound had been snapped up by another of those mysterious traps, perhaps saving her life.
Turning her gaze upwards, she saw the hound haphazardly swinging from the end of its rope, its jaws snapping and its eyes still fixed on her.
Twilight exhaled, as she let herself catch her breath. She'd need to, as she could still hear the distant sounds of more hounds.
She began to turn away, when she heard a distinct snapping sound from directly below her, “...Perfect.”
She felt the noose tighten around one of her back legs, before it suddenly ripped her off her hooves. She couldn't help letting out her own yelp, as she too found herself suddenly being dragged along the forest floor. That experience didn't last long, as she felt another jerk and found herself pulled up into the air, much as the hound had.
Still a bit stunned, Twilight found herself staring down at the ground below her, as she gently swung through the air. She let out a brief groan, at the strain that had been put on her back leg. Some part of her was surprised that it hadn't been pulled from its socket, though the rational part of her mind helpfully pointed out that it would take significantly more force to do that.
Twilight's gaze wandered, as the swinging of the rope caused her to spin towards the hound sharing in her predicament. She couldn't even muster up the wherewithal to be afraid, as the canine futilely tried to snap at her, not understanding that it wasn't making any progress towards this goal.
“Well, this could be-” Twilight began, before she stopped herself, casting her gaze to the clearing below at a sound.
Several more of the hounds suddenly burst into the clearing down below, each briefly looking about in confusion before they turned their own eyes upwards. Somewhat predictably, they too began leaping and snapping their jaws at Twilight, even though none of them could reach her from there.
“...Of course.” Twilight said to herself, realizing her folly.
Still, it could actually be worse.
She was out of their reach, for the time being.
Twilight gave a heavy sigh, before glancing upwards. She could trail the line of rope wrapped up around her hoof into the canopy above, where it looped over a thick branch. Twilight took a moment to note, that she could just see the light of a full moon peeking through the leaves up above.
She'd have to figure something out. But she had the time for that now.
Letting herself look back down, Twilight could see the hounds below had stopped their frantic attempts to leap at her. It now seemed they were now circling and pacing below her in as menacing a fashion as they could, frustrated by their inability to get at her.
Much like her comrade-in-dangling-amongst-the-trees.
The hound that had been snared by the rope trap now seemed to be putting some active effort into getting out of its own predicament. Twilight watched, as the beast curled up on itself in an attempt to bring its teeth up to the rope wrapped around its leg. After some attempts at gnawing at the rope, it seemed to notice her scrutiny and take exception, as it quickly began gnashing its jaws in her direction. It even seemed to briefly get the idea of how to swing itself towards her, though she couldn't bring herself to worry yet, as the hound was still too far off to reach her this way.
Then the hound's rope snapped.
Its thrashing about mixed poorly with its attempts to chew through the rope around its leg, leading the abused rope to break. Twilight could admit to some brief amusement at the shocked look that overtook the creatures features. That quickly faded, as the creature crashed head first into a knot of thick roots down below.
Twilight found herself flinching at the crunching sound and pained squeal that accompanied the sudden impact, momentarily feeling some sympathy for the creature. A few moments later, the hound slowly rolled onto its side, as it tried, and failed, to get back to its feet.
As sturdy as the creatures were, smashing headfirst into the ground seemed to be enough to stymie them.
The other hounds below didn't seem especially concerned with their ailing brother, sparing only a few glances and the occasional snuffle in its direction. For the most part, they kept their attention focused upon Twilight, evidently hoping that she might fall, as well.
Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing, being up here.
Taking in a few deep breaths, she tried to recollect anything she could recall about how to climb ropes. Twilight was fairly sure that she had read a guide on the proper way to practice a number of physically intensive activities.
Being careful of the rope that was serving to keep her out of reach of the creatures below, she worked her abdominal muscles as she started to pull herself upwards. After several practice attempts, she took a deep breath, before she began to drag herself up in earnest.
Several seconds later, she was huffing and puffing, as she clung to the rope with her forehooves, right-side up again.
There was some unpleasant strain coming from various parts of body, but she still took the moment to gather herself. Sparing a look for the agitated hounds below, she renewed her efforts to climb her way up the rope.
It was laborious, at first, her hooves not being well-suited for this task. Twilight quickly began flapping her wings, not able to catch much air beneath her wings, but still able to gain some much needed lift. Soon, she added her teeth to the process, gripping the rope in her mouth, between each pull of her hooves.
It was a bit on the undignified side, and she had to pause several times to catch her breath, but she made steady-ish progress upwards.
With her muscles burning and sweat slipping into her eyes, Twilight finally was able to wrap her hooves around the sturdy tree branch. Blinking the sweat from her eyes, she finished pulling herself onto the tree branch, letting her straddle the branch.
“You set...manageable goals...and you can make manageable...progress.” Twilight said to herself.
She spared another look down below, before she turned her attention towards the rope dangling from her hoof. At some point early in her climb, the rope had started going slack. After a few moments of consideration she started shifting her hooves about, before managing to get a loop of rope around a front hoof. From there, she worked it between her hooves and her mouth, gathering up as much of the slack as she could.
With the loops of rope hanging from the branch now, she checked on the hounds below. It helpfully reminded her of the long fall that awaited her if she fell from this height.
“I guess, this is as good a spot to rest as any other. Rainbow Dash's always sleeping in trees...” Twilight muttered to herself, before she began looping the slack around herself, securing herself to the tree branch. Twilight paused after several minutes of struggling.
Her magic could be a big help with this. Twilight's mind quickly went back to the strange sensation that overtook her the last time she tried to use her magic. Swallowing down with a touch of anxiety, she focused her attention on the lengths of rope wrapped around her, and began concentrating.
It wasn't too bad at first, but it was still there. As the glow of her magic danced over the rope, it felt as if...something was pouring its way into her head. Like every bit of magic she put out was being replaced by something thick and...slippery. As the rope danced about in her magic, it felt as if this sensation was dancing about in her mind.
Twilight let her magic fade, before shaking her head, to clear away the odd sensation that was left behind.
It wasn't clear what was going on, but the lingering feeling was decidedly...unpleasant.
She'd have to use her magic sparingly, till she could figure out what was going on.
Twilight was broken from her thoughts, by a pitiable snarling sound from down below. The hound that had been dropped onto its head, was drunkenly trying to rise to its paws, even as it snapped its jaws at its brothers.
She followed its uneven progress, as it stumbled away from the other hounds. Again, she felt a pang of sympathy for the creature's plight; not that Twilight planned on helping the creature, but still. Even in its suffering the creature still seemed eager for blood.
A grumbling bark drew her attention towards another of the hounds. The princess was startled to find the creature's eyes fixed upon her, its blank eyes raking over her, even as it restlessly gnashed its teeth.
It seemed so...focused. It was like it was actually considering the problem of getting to her. A snarling yelp from its injured comrade, drew her attention back, to see another of the uninjured hounds nipping at the heels of the other.
Twilight swallowed anxiously.
She glanced back towards the hound that had been so focused on her, to see its gaze still resting on her. This didn't last as the hound let its gaze fall to its wounded brother.
She could feel it. Something terrible was about to happen.
The other hounds were pacing around the wounded beast, as the one that had been so intent upon her approached. Twilight didn't turn away, at first, not understanding what was taking place.
Then the hounds pounced as one, upon their brother.
She averted her gaze, as she saw them start to sink their teeth into its flesh, each coming from a different angle to keep the beast from defending itself. It twisted and turned and thrashed and bit at its assailants, but it couldn't stop the others from tearing at its flesh and breaking its bones.
Twilight forced her face into the wood of the tree branch, her eyes screwed shut, and pressed her hooves against her ears. She tried not to listen to the sounds coming from down below, the pained squeals and the gleeful snarls. She tried to keep the bile from rising in the back of her throat, at the audible crunching of bones and tearing of flesh.
Her eyes snapped open, at a particularly loud snap of bone, one that was punctuated by an abrupt end to the beast's pained cries.
She didn't know what she expected to see, when she peeked down below.
The still-living hounds were all staring up at her hungrily, with no mind for the gore hanging from their mouths or the shredded mess that was one of their own.
The cool, rational part of herself had no way to reassure her, no way to rationalize this, as the horror of this place crashed down around her once more.
Twilight wept in horror, even as the full moon's light reached down through the canopy above her.
Twilight wasn't sure just how long she spent in the boughs of the trees, letting her tears flow. It was still dark, and there were still a great many terrible sounds echoing through the forest, by the time she managed to recompose herself. As time wore on, she became increasingly aware of something.
There was something else in the forest killing the hounds.
It was an uneven occurrence, the shrieking yelps that took the place of the snarling barks. The pack that had been waiting below her had dwindled down in numbers, as they broke off to enter the woods. After only a few hours, her small grove was empty.
Twilight didn't come down.
These creatures were cunning enough, that she couldn't put it past them to be waiting just a short distance away for her.
She would wait.
She didn't sleep. At least, not much.
Along with the baying and yelping of the hounds, she heard distant booming noises, whose orgins she couldn't begin to place. There were times when she heard great creaking sounds in the distance, not unlike the sound of trees bending over in a harsh wind.
She worried when the scent of smoke reached her noses. Shortly after that, Twilight could make out the distant glow of fires in the dark. She had to consider abandoning her tree, but held her place when it became evident that the fires were still far off.
All of these sounds, were accompanied by the hunting hounds cries and barks.
Twilight tried to put her mind to good use, while she was left sitting idle in the trees. But she knew too little to draw many conclusions, and quickly found her thoughts repeating themselves.
She didn't know nearly enough, to guess at the identity of the menacing stallion from before. Never before in any of her readings, had she learned of any creatures quite like the beasts that had harried her this night.
The Machine. This place. Her magic. The shadowy-things that dragged her here in the first place. It was all connected, but she didn't know enough to tie it together yet.
Twilight tried to pass the night, by getting what rest she could. Even so, by morning she was exhausted.
There were bits of gray-white ash being carried on the wind, when she finally opened her eyes to see the light of day. No doubt a result of the fire that had been set the night before. There was still no sign of the hounds and the whole of the woods seemed to have been overtaken by an oppressive silence.
Her mind briefly railed at the thought of coming down from the safety of her perch, but the grumbling of her stomach reminded her that the beasts of this place weren't the only danger she needed to concern herself with. She needed food and water. She needed answers. She needed to know that Spike hadn't been pulled to this terrible place with her.
It turned into quite the ordeal getting down from her tree branch.
After some struggles, she came upon the notion of using the same rope that had strung her up to, at least, make her way closer to the ground.
It worked out reasonably well...until she needed to close the remaining distance to the ground, in a way that wouldn't net her a broken leg or worse.
Ultimately, she ended up hitting the ground pretty hard, though came through intact. Her wings, while only barely capable of holding her in the air for even a few seconds, had managed to slow her fall. She stumbled for a bit, but quickly managed to vacate the grove.
Twilight had to work very hard to keep her gaze from wandering over the sight of the dead hound.
It seemed like a wasted effort, as she started to come upon evidence of the events that had taken place last night.
Twilight was careful to watch where she set her hooves, leery of anymore traps, and now able to take the time to be cautious. It was very evident that the hounds hadn't shared her concerns at any point.
Twilight fought back a bit of nausea each time she came across the body of a hound caught in one trap or another. Some traps were clearly triggered, but empty. And quite a few of the traps had held no corpses but showed signs that they had wounded those that had triggered them, with strips of flesh and bits of blood being left behind.
Other times, she found dead hounds featuring deep puncture wounds, that ended up spilling their blood and innards onto the forest floor. Most of these seemed to have been caught separate from their...pack, each one alone where they fell.
The eerie quiet and the light coating of ash upon everything gave the place a sense of other-worldliness. Everything seemed even stranger than before. And there were some things that she couldn't explain.
At one point she thought she might have been wandering into another clearing, but soon found a place where at least a dozen trees had been toppled. There was a single large fir-like tree swaying in a non-existent wind, at the center of this spot.
Surrounded by the corpses of several hounds.
Twilight was sure, that the tree turned towards her. That it looked at her.
Her mind told her that it had to be the wind, but there was no wind.
She left that clearing behind, and tried to ignore the sight of the tree turning away from her, as she left.
The young alicorn froze, at the yelping sound that ended up breaking the quiet. Twilight had heard enough of their cries over the course of the night, to recognize the sound, and found herself briefly fearful. What if there were more of those things still around? What else could be out there?
There followed a snarling bark, that again broke down into pained squeals. If there was another of these things out there, it sounded like it was badly hurt.
Twilight was cautious as she picked her steps among the brush, her profile kept low and her ears swiveling in every direction as she followed the sounds to their source.
It was a hound.
The first one Twilight had encountered, in fact. It was still skewered by the trap that had saved her life, and she had assumed ended its life. Its movements were feeble, and it looked to be on death's door. She was genuinely surprised to find the creature still alive, even more so when she saw how much of its blood had drizzled out of its body over the course of the night.
Twilight was stricken, as her ears turned.
She heard something.
The nearly-dead hound didn't seem to notice her, but she wasted no time in backing away. Twilight was soon crouched down amidst some heavy foliage, just barely able to peek through the leaves.
Twilight had to force herself to be quiet, as she gave a sudden intake of breath.
It was a pony.
Their form was hidden beneath some manner of crude armor, made up of a combination of leather, bits of wood, and some sort of orange scales. Beyond that, this stranger seemed to be carrying all kinds of hoof-crafted tools, in various slings and hoops. And on their head, was a helmet of animal skin, fitted with two glass lens over the eyes. And just above these lens was a grayish-white horn.
A unicorn.
Here and there, one could spot a coat of that same pale color peeking through, where the armor had been torn and rent.
Twilight nearly leaped from her hiding spot, but only barely restrained herself.
The mystery pony seemed to be glancing about, as they steadily approached the trapped hound, not seeming to pay any mind to the pitiful snarls and struggles that came from the beast. The pony tilted their head at the beast, seeming to consider it for a moment. With a nod to itself, the mystery pony turned its head and wrapped its teeth around a wooden pole hanging from their side.
When the masked pony again faced the hound, it held a spear in its teeth.
With a methodical detachment that unnerved Twilight, the pony lined up the spear-tip with a point at the base of the trapped hound's skull. Not even a second later, the pony drove it home.
The hound barely made a sound as it died.
Which was more than could be said for Twilight.
It was a quiet gasp, one that she had almost choked down into silence.
But, the mystery pony looked up, its ears peeking up through its headgear and swiveling towards Twilight's hiding spot. It was too late to act, as the pony quickly turned its gaze upon Twilight, the opaque lens fixed upon her. There was no way they didn't see her, as Twilight found herself staring right back at the armored pony, her breath held. The seconds continued to pass, as she waited for the mystery pony to act, and then...
The strange pony shook its head, and turned its attention back to the dead hound.
This came as such a shock, that it wasn't until Twilight noticed the strange pony using the tip of their spear to prop open the hound's limp jaws, that she started thinking again.
She watched, as the pony seemed to scrutinize the creature's fangs in an appraising manner. Twilight only began to figure out what was happening when the strange pony retrieved a sort of crude mallet from its large collection of tools.
Twilight averted her gaze briefly, as the stranger began knocking the dead hound's fangs loose, paying little mind to the mess that occasionally spattered their form.
...Well, now she knew where the pointy bits for all those traps came from.
Twilight didn't know how to take any of this, but...it was another pony. One that didn't fill her with the same sense of dread that the suited stallion from before did. This pony wasn't conspicuously pristine in their looks, having numerous scrapes and small gashes where the armor had been punctured and a fine-layer of ash coating their body. She quickly found herself suspecting that this strange pony was the agent behind the demise of so many of the hounds. Which, while a terrifying thought, had been a boon to Twilight.
The stranger had looked right at her, and didn't seem to pay her any mind.
Twilight swallowed down her anxiety, before she stood up fully.
The pony's ear twitched towards her, but this didn't distract them from their grisly work, as they knocked free another large tooth.
That seemed like a good sign. The other pony was aware of her and not-hostile. Yet.
Twilight slowly started her approach, watching where she stepped, while not trying to make her steps too quiet. As she cleared the brush, she tried to clear her throat to get the other pony's attention. Twilight ducked her head a bit anxiously, when the other pony didn't seem to react. She might have to try a bit harder.
“...Hello? Are you-...My name is Twilight-...” The princess drew to a pause, as the air was punctuated by the sound of another blow from the mallet. Turning her gaze a bit away from that sight, she continued “...-Twilight Sparkle.”
No reaction.
The pony seemed almost stubborn in its desire to disregard her.
“I-...I was hoping you could help me?” Twilight asked, as she drew a few steps closer. Her steps slowed, as she approached the pony's side, till she stopped within a hoof's reach.
The other pony finally stopped their hammering, and seemed to just be staring ahead with the mallet sitting in their teeth.
“...P-please, I just need-” Twilight began, reaching towards the still pony with her hoof.
The pony seemed to explode into motion, the moment her hoof brushed against their side, rearing back onto their hindlegs with a feminine scream. Twilight, terrified, quickly stumbled away, as the pony seemed to do the same, throwing themselves away from her.
Various odds and ends, tools and weapons went flying, as the stranger pony crashed onto their side. Quickly the stranger was forcing themselves to their hooves, and just as quickly forced their gaze upon Twilight.
“...No. No, you can't!...You can't...” The strange pony rasped out in a feminine voice, between ragged gasps for air.
“I'm sorry! I-...I'll go...” Twilight quickly replied, backing away from the apparent mare, her fears for this pony suddenly blasting away all of her other considerations. She tried to take a step back, but the armored mare seemed to notice, fixing their gaze upon her hooves. Twilight froze, afraid that any more movements from her could set off this mare.
A moment later, the armored pony rose a hoof up to her face, furiously wiping away at the lens protecting her eyes. She quickly snapped her gaze back upon Twilight, before the young alicorn could think to run. Twilight watched, as the other pony raked her gaze across her, before being cast towards the ground.
Twilight wasn't sure, but it seemed as if the mare's gaze lingered upon the hoof marks Twilight's steps had left behind.
“I...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you...” Twilight began again, holding up a hoof in the hopes that the other pony wouldn't think she was going to attack. This seemed to get the other pony's attention, as she focused back upon Twilight's face. Twilight couldn't help but hold out some hope for this situation, as she noticed the other mare's breathing evening out.
“Can we-” Before Twilight could finish that thought, the other mare suddenly reached back amongst her tools, before pulling back what looked to be a small stick.
Adroitly using a hoof to adjust the implement, the stranger set the tool between her lips. It took Twilight only a moment to note the hole coming from the tip of the device, and another still to recognize it for what it was.
She had seen something similar in Zecora's hut.
Twilight had even had the privilege of having Zecora demonstrate how to use the item for her.
“Wait-” The princess began to call out, before she heard a distinctive whistling sound. A moment later, she felt a small stinging sensation along her neck, followed by quickly spreading waves of numbness.
Twilight raised a hoof, trying to feel for the blowdart that she had been hit with. But the poison acted fast, and she soon found that she lacked the coordination to stand on only three hooves.
She fell forward, her eyes clouding, even as they settled on the stranger in front of her.
Darkness took her once again.
Author's Note
So, this story has been lying untouched for far too long.
Not much to say right now, as it's a bit late, and I need to be up in the morning. I likely have answers for any questions that might arise, so feel free to leave them in the comments section.
Here's a trailer to give an idea of what kind of things went down in the first chapter:
And here's a pic of one of the eponymous hounds:
Criticisms and questions are welcome, as always. I'll likely be editing this over the next few days, correcting typos and the like. I hope everyone enjoys this one.
