Twilight's Escape

Time spent in Tartarus, thirty years

The landscapes of Tartarus were bathed in the light of a blood red sun which burned fiercely and constantly in the heavens above. For as long as Twilight could remember the sun had never moved, never given way to a moon or a night sky it simply hung there illuminating everything with its crimson light as far as the eye could see. The only sense of time she had, was when, every twenty four hours the sun would slowly change from dark fiery red, to dark electric blue. The safest time to leave the sanctuary and protection of the library was at noon when the sun was burning its brightest red. It was also at this time of day that most of the creatures and demons of Tartarus hid in whatever holes they called home, as they waited for the dark cooling blue light of the night sun. It was also the perfect time for Twilight to put her escape plan into action as she wouldn’t have to deal with any major demons, but more importantly it was also the time of day that her mentor and guardian, Darklight, would be sleeping. She shuddered at the thought of what he might do if he found out what she was planning.

Twilight scanned the landscape outside her window once more making sure that there weren’t any demons waiting in ambush for her and once she was relatively sure it was safe to proceed, she pulled the curtains closed over her window and began working by the dull light of the dying coals in her fireplace to collect all the items she would need for her journey. These items included several books on advanced spell casting, a large wooden box filled with dozens of small jars containing various powders and liquids for potion making, a black hooded cloak, and the final item she placed in her satchel bag was a large book wrapped in leather and bound with a silver chain.

The leather bound book was the very book Darklight had been searching for, for the last decade. He had finally found it only tow days ago buried in a nest filled with giant Camula spiders, and when Twilight had found out what he planned on using it for, she had stolen it and was now running away with it. She knew Darklight was capable of many things, she had witnessed first hand just how far he would go in order to achieve his goals. But while she didn’t care about most of the things he did, she couldn’t allow him to achieve the plans he had for the book.

Once Twilight had her satchel bag packed she pulled open her closet where she stored her amour. The armor was a dull black and completely featureless except for a swirling pattern of silver runes on its left shoulder which perfectly matched the rune branded on her left shoulder. Twilight’s horn glowed and the armor split apart into its various pieces which she began levitating to the appropriate parts of her body. The armor had been an essential part of her survival in Tartarus as she had inhibited most of her dark magic into it and without it she couldn’t perform the really advanced magic she needed in order to protect herself. It was both a blessing and a curse. With each piece of armor she put on, a sensation of icy cold water would spread throughout her entire body and once she was fully dressed in the dark armor, she felt as though an entire ocean of icy cold water was raging throughout her body.

She was now prepared for her journey out of Tartarus and into other unknown realms. Twilight moved back to her window but before she left, she took one last final glance back inside of her room and felt tears burn behind her eyes as thirty years worth of memories and experiences flooded through her mind. Some of them were good, most of them were bad, but no matter what they were, they were still a reminder of who she was and everything that she had ever accomplished. A scowl formed on her face as she realized she was only wasting time with all this sentimental crap, and she flared her wings before flying out into the scorched landscapes of Tartarus.

(Four hours later)
Twilight’s lungs and wings burned fiercely with intense pain as she flew as fast as she could through the Fire Wyrm fields of Tartarus in a desperate attempt to escape her pursuer. She knew she wouldn’t have had long before Darklight discovered what she had done and hunted her down, but she hadn’t expected him to find her so fast. The only chance she had of surviving him now would be to slow him down long enough for her to find one of the weakest points in the walls of Tartarus and break through it before the day was up.
Suddenly ground below her cracked open sending a massive geyser of flames and lava into the air which twisted and morphed into a giant serpent like creature. Twilight cursed at the sudden appearance of the Fire Wyrm and she had to bank violently to the left to avoid its flaming mouth striking at her. She began flying higher into air to escape the Fire Wyrm's reach, but a bright flash of blue light blinded her as Darklight teleported in front of her, and spear tackled her to the ground.
They hit the ground with enough force to crack its surface. The Fire Wyrm took this opportunity to descend on them both and Twilight kicked Darklight away from her, before rolling to her feet, thrusting both her hands forward and sending a massive stream of dark shadows to extinguish the fiery creature.
She then sent the shadows flying towards Darklight who teleported out of their deadly path, and reappeared in front of her. A stream of dark blue energy erupted from his hand and struck her in the chest with enough force to send her flying backwards several hundred meters.

Twilight flared her wings and landed gracefully mere inches away from a cliff edge that fell into a deep ravine filled with molten lava flowing through it. Twilight rubbed her chest where she had been hit. Even though her armor had absorbed most the impact, it still hurt like hell.

Shadows swirled in front of her and Darklight stepped out from them. “Give me the book you stole, Twilight!” he said, with a voice as soft as silk, and colder than ice. Twilight remained perfectly still not daring to make a move that could be perceived as a threat. “I won’t ask again.” Darklight drew his sword and pointed it at her throat. “Give me the book! Now!”

Twilight quickly calculated the odds of surviving a fall into a deep ravine with a lake of lava flowing along the bottom, they were a lot more higher than her surviving a fight with Darklight. She was mildly surprised he hadn’t just killed her yet and taken back the book she had stolen.

Twilight gazed back at her mentor eyes glistening with unshed tears. “I’m sorry for this, Darklight.” Twilight’s horn glowed, but before she could use magic to do anything Darklight swung the sword in a deadly arc towards her throat. With catlike reflexes Twilight flung herself backward into the lava filled chasm to avoid her head being decapitated.

Her armor protected most of her body from the intense heat of chasm, but the feathers on her unprotected wings were beginning to melt and Twilight teleported from the chasm before her wings were permanently damaged. She gasped in shock as the intense heat was suddenly replaced by the blistering cold of a raging blizzard. Snow was falling all around her forming a blinding landscape of swirling white, which she could barely see through. Moving as fast as she could, Twilight pulled the dark cloak from her satchel bag and slung it over her shoulders before taking off running. The only other weaknesses in the walls of Tartarus she knew of were in the caves of Garro, a twisting and treacherous labyrinth of caves located underground which stretched on for miles in every direction. The last time she had been in the caves, she had severely pissed of Garro, the fifth lord of Tartarus, who now wanted nothing more than to see her dead corpse trapped and rotting in his realm.

By the time Twilight had made it to the entrance of the caves, her whole body felt numb from the cold and she cupped her hands over her mouth and blew warm air into them, desperate to get the feeling back into her fingers. She was so cold she had to resist the strong temptation to use the Phenix Spell to warm up her body, as using magic would alert every demon in Garro’s realm to her presence. And if she had to fight off an entire realm of icy demons now, she wouldn’t have enough strength to survive against Darklight when he tracked her down later.

As Twilight entered the frozen caves of Garro, the noises of the outside world faded into an eerie silence so quiet even her soft breathing seemed to echo. She wrapped the cloak tighter around her body and began running as fast as she could further into the complicated labyrinth of icy caves. Despite the caves being located underground, there was no darkness as the very ice that made up the walls of the caves seemed to glow dully with light.

This was caused by the veins and arteries of magic flowing several feet behind the ice, keeping the walls of Tartarus strong enough to stop even the strongest demon from escaping into other realms. But on very rare occasions, weaknesses would form in the walls of Tartarus, weaknesses that could be exploited during a short amount of time before they fixed themselves. Twilight just had to find the proper weakness in the caves before it was too late and she was once more trapped in Tartarus for an unknown amount of time.
After several long moments of running, Twilight came to a fork in the caves and she had to stop while she figured out where to go next. Her horn glowed and electric blue ribbons of magic began swirling around her head before flowing into her eyes. Instantly everything in her vision changed, the cave walls were as clear as glass revealing the veins of pale blue magic flowing through them. Occasionally one of the veins would become duller than the rest almost disappearing entirely, before lighting back up again.

Twilight continued running using the pulsing vein of magic to find where the walls of Tartarus were at their weakest. It would be here she would break out of Tartarus and into a different realm. Hopefully it was somewhere she would be able to hide for a while. A piercing scream of enraged anger echoed through the caves causing Twilight’s fur to stand on end, and she began pushing her body to run faster. She had hoped the use of such a minor spell would have gone unnoticed, but Garro was the Fifth Lord of Tartarus, so he noticed everything in his domain.

The ice wall beside began cracking and Twilight cursed flinging herself forward just as the wall exploded in a massive shower of ice, and a massive ten foot long, five foot high, snow tiger pounced out at her. Twilight rolled to the side bringing her armor clad foot across her body kicking Garro in the face before teleporting to the end of the corridor. Now that she had been found out, Twilight wasn’t going to bother being stealthy, now it was all about speed. So she used multiple teleporting spells to follow the weakened vein of magic until she came to a dead end where the vein ended.

She knew she only had moments before Garro, and possibly even Darklight caught up with her, so moving fast Twilight pressed her hand against the wall and began pouring her magic into it. Dark blue energy crackled from her hands and began flowing into the vein of magic and once it was sufficiently weakened even further, Twilight dug both her hands into the wall of ice and began spreading them apart as though she was trying to tear the wall itself in half. But instead of the ice cracking, a black bottomless void began forming in the wall and Twilight strained harder to tear it further open.

Her whole body was now crackling with dark magic and she began pouring more of it into the void she was creating causing it to open a little further. The void tried closing itself, but Twilight began using her natural, and magical strength to keep it open and growing. The void’s opening was almost as large and as wide as her entire body, and Twilight could feel her muscles starting to tear as she tried to keep it from closing. She only had a little further to go before she could pass through it, she just had to hold on until then. With a desperate scream of pain Twilight tore the void the rest of the way open and stepped through it just as Garro came around the corner and lunged at her. Shadows swirled in the cavern and Darklight stepped through them, his sword flashing in the dim light as he threw it across the room towards Twilight’s heart. As soon as she was through the void, it instantly sealed itself closed trapping Twilight and Garro with each other in the same realm.