Nothing Like Home

Chapter 11 + Epilogue

Chapter 11

Twilight rushed down the stairs, full boar. She dashed into the caves and around the giant crystals.

“Where are your friends?”, Luna roared. She appeared from the darkness running alongside Twilight. Luna noticed the blank rage in her eyes. She sighed and focused ahead of her. “I’m not sure what you went through, and I can’t tell you how to take this; but Chaos stuck me in the shadows to watch my sister be eaten alive. I’m determined to kill him.”

The two crashed through every rock, boulder, and crystal that lay before them. They weren’t in the mood to let anything stand in their way.

As they ran, they noticed the cave getting warmer, as well as changing a frozen blue. The air thinned out, making it hard to breath, making the two ponies gradually slower. They glanced at each other to see if the other had a clue of what was happening. Their sprint was reduced to walking. Luna caught movement out of the corner of her eye.

“What the hell was that?”, she barked, stuffing her hooves into the frosty luke-warm floor. Twilight stopped ahead.

“It doesn’t matter right now, it could be threatening, maybe it couldn’t. But I can’t let the sacrifices made go in vein. We need to save Fluttershy.”

Twilight’s boat of confidence surprised Luna.

“I’m impressed, Ms. Sparkle. Maybe my sister did get through to you.” She smiled and trotted to Twilight. “We should keep a steady pace then.”

The two took off again. The farther they went, the thinner the air got. The frosted blue walls were crawling together as they proceeded, the path to walk on becoming cramped. Their shoulders and flanks pressed together as they ventured. Luna chuckled and remarked “I will take the lead, young one.” She raced ahead and stood her ground as lead. Lying ahead was the end to the cave’s walls. The blue cold crystals closed in to one point where a hole, scorched with what appeared to molten lava, was settled.

“Looks like we are here!” Luna screamed, over the sounds of what appeared to be the walls colliding with one another.

Twilight and Luna jumped over the thin line of molten rock that rested on the floor into what looked like a dark room. To their surprise, it was a gorge. The two were thrown towards the cave floor at great speeds. Twilight lit the gorge with her horn to see Luna spiraling, trying to gain use of her wings.

“My wings won’t move!” Luna squealed. She flailed in the air, trying to get them to flap even once for closer. Twilight gasped looking at Luna’s back. There was a dark pony shaped shadow grasping onto her wings tightly and not budging with all of Luna’s movements.

“Luna! There is a shadow o-”.

A shadow exhausted the light from Twilight’s horn. The sounds of Luna freaking out disappeared. All she could hear was the sound of the wind brushing against her ears. She swatted at her horn and tried to focus her magic to create light again, but it was no use. When she swatted, there was nothing there. When she tried to draw magic, she didn’t feel anything other than the clenching of her teeth.

Twilight relaxed and smiled faintly. “So this is how it ends”, she mouthed, not a sound exiting. She imagined her friends and the fun and triumphant times that they had. Images of each of them crossed through her head. Celestia’s smile melted and bubbled into a green acid. The thought of Spike’s eyes being plucked from his skull tainted her good memories of him. Applejack’s joyful greeting turned sour seeing Doc’s face behind hers. Rarity’s beautiful dresses were now made of organs and colored with blood. Pinkie Pie’s party cannon leaked blood laced with pink hairs and confetti. And Rainbow Dash’s “Sonic Rainboom” ended in her limbs being torn off. When she fell, Doc hovered over her and force fed her the limbs and... Wait. How would she picture that? That didn’t happen! But if it did, how did she know about it? She realized that all of her friends’ eyes were fading out. They were fading out altogether, but their eyes were significantly faster. They all melted into a rainbow of shadows and she was left in darkness.

She awoke in a daze to find the dark red Alicorn sitting next to her and Luna on his other side.

”You were stirring with sorrow, so I thought I would make your dreams a little more pleasant”, he said, smiling a large evil grin. He patted her head with one of his specters. “Welcome to my home.” He stood up and nudged Luna. “Wake up, dear sister.” He mumbled into her ear.

The floor was made up of the maroon fog that came from Chaos’s body. His tail sank right into the ground. Wherever they were, he was part of it. The cave had disappeared into thin air. The area was open and the moon lit everything around. There were a few street lights, but they looked old with broken glass. Twilight noticed that everything was real but the ground. It felt like a cloud from Cloudsdale, but was tinted that horrid red. A short distance away was a beautiful aged castle. It didn’t seem just aged though; it looked like it was mercilessly beaten to rubble in certain spots. Houses leading to the castle were burnt down and charred. Some even collapsed altogether. She couldn’t break focus with the castle garden though. There were scorch marks in a circle and that circle was surrounded by a bigger circle of blue and purple shadows.

“My brother. He is Discord, the one you sealed in stone. He brought the downfall to my life, and that circle was where I was sealed. My life was reborn there.”

Chaos sulked as he helped Twilight up.

“I’m sure you are furious, so we will finish my game inside.” He winked and vanished, as if being sucked into his tail and into the ground.

“Is she still alive? You might never know, young filly!”, he called to her travelling through the fog.

Her determination sank back into her mind. She nudged Luna, who was still half asleep.

“Luna, we’re alive. I’m not sure where, but we are alive and we still have a chance to save Fluttershy!”, Twilight screamed into her ear. Luna opened an eye and pushed herself to her hooves.

“What happened?”, she asked. “I-I-I couldn’t use my wings. My horn, n-no magic. And you… Something jumped on you while we were falling.” She shook her head.

“No matter! We are still breathing, so that means our duty to Equestria is not yet done!”

The two took off running into the castle, Twilight leading. Air was easier to breath and seemed not to be an abnormal temperature. The fog was easy to run on and the smell of the charred houses sent shivers down her spine. Luna spaced out looking at all of the houses; she remembered those who lived in them, watching them scream in terror when Discord gave his going away gift to himself. He slaughtered the ponies before he left, silencing the progression of Alicorns.

Luna shrieked and tripped over the blue shadows in the garden.

“How…” she asked, hoofing the ring. Twilight glanced at Luna and stopped a few feet ahead.

“Princess, what is wrong?... And what is this place?” Luna dismissed the blue shadows and beamed a smile at Twilight, her cheeks wet with tears.

“Just, memories.”

She wiped away the tears and started running again. They dashed through the castle, following the trails of blood on the floor. It seemed that the fog was gone, inside the castle made of bricks and rugs.

The blood made the shape of hooves along the floor, sometimes the shape of wings along the walls and busted doors. It was dried and some chipped away. Dust covered the castle, with some walls scorched, others busted through, reduced to stones upon the floor.

“This was the land of the Alicorns. Before Celestia and I arrived in Equestria, we lived here with many like us. Chaos and his brother Discord ruled over it. Long story short, they turned evil and for some odd reason, Chaos surrendered his qualities as a pony before he left. They contained his power which we used to stop his brother before he could do anymore damage”, Luna explained. She could tell Twilight wasn’t satisfied with the answer, which she answered with a “You don’t need to know more.”

They came up to a busted set of doors slathered with blood, this blood fresh.

“I think you need to go on alone”, Luna remarked.

“What do you mean? I don’t think I can do this alone, you can do this to me!”, Twilight screamed, whipping her head around to Luna. Before the princess stood the black shadow of a pony. He wore Applejack’s hat smiling like a small child. She looked for the sorrow in his eyes, only to see Rainbow Dash’s sitting in a pair of Pinkie’s joke glasses.

“Like them? I got them on sale!”, he snickered. He wiggled his tongue out of his mouth taunting the two.

“Doc, You son of a-”

“It’s ok Twilight, take care of Chaos, I believe in you. I know whose eyes those are… And I tend to reclaim them”, Luna said. Doc bit his lower lip and turned his head.

“If you want a pair, take hers! She looks awfully scared and I worked really hard for these!” he pouted. Luna flicked her horn and she dispersed into a blue fog, leaving the echoing command, “Twilight! GO!”.

She left the two to their affairs and pushed open the door.

“Ah, welcome my dear Twilight!”, Chaos cheered.

He was sitting in the throne, throwing rocks at ponies made out of fog gathered at the bottom of the stairs, leading to the throne. He vanished and reappeared next to Twilight.

“You may not believe it, but I was in the same place as you a long time ago.”

He swept to her other side. “Grant it, I wasn’t sure what was going on, and you do, but that is no matter. Those fake ponies over there were all good friends of mine. They were enslaved by my brother for his own selfish needs. And I, being a young pony, tried to stop him.” His face dropped to a frown, “And we saw how that turned out.” He re-appeared at the throne and smirked at Twilight. “What would you do if you were betrayed, sweetheart?” H

He shook his head and chuckled. “Let’s just play the game.”

“You keep talking about this game Chaos… What are you planning?”

A shadow jet through the wall and bucked her side, throwing her across the room. She got up, brushed off, and ran at Chaos only to be hit by another shadow. Twilight stood up again and again, charging at him only to be thrown. She got closer to the stairs where the fake ponies were pretending to chat with one another. Twilight crawled to the stairs with her horn snapped off and her back leg dislocated. She cried softly pushing through the shadow ponies looking up at Chaos.

“I will kill you”, she muttered.

A shadow pony bent down to her, handing her a knife that shined a gleaming white with the colors of the rainbow displaying on anything the light hit.

“Take it”, the pony mumbled. “You might need it.” He returned to his spot amongst the others leaving Twilight to her work.

She climbed the stairs, one at a time. The shadows had stopped attacking her and Chaos leaned over the side of his throne that he was lounging on. He stomped on the floor with enjoyment.

“You are alive? Good! I’m ecstatic! Please make it before you pass out! I want a good hoof to the face to wake me up darling!”, Chaos chanted, watching her crawl, still crying. He started to stomp louder.

“I demand you don’t give up! You have come this far! Don’t give it up!” The Alicorn started laughing maniacally, prancing in circles around his throne.

Twilight reached the top, panting and spitting out blood from ruptured organs.

“You won!” Chaos squealed. “You won the game I just made up now!” His smile faded and it morphed into an evil smirk. “You don’t really think I was having that much fun, do you?” He propped her up with his shadows and popped her leg into place, while he put his face closer to hers and whispered,

“None the less, I am a pony of my word. Punch me in the face. I want to wake up from this dream.”

She then took out the knife and jammed it in between his eyes. He screeched and stumbled backwards, his body slowly denigrating.

“You fucking bitch! How could you?!?” He fell to the floor and exploded into smoke leaving an unconscious Fluttershy in his place.

The room fell dark and Twilight walked up to Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy, how could… were you?”, she leaned over her friend and cried.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you sweetie”, a whisper came from behind her. Fluttershy snapped her eyes open that were now the color of blood.

She jumped up and bit Twilight’s head, cracking her skull. She ripped out her eye in one fluent movement.

Epilogue

Twilight awoke hours later outside of the castle next to a large caldron. She was strapped to a large rock that posed as a table.

“She’s awake father!” Doc yelped running past the table. Chaos walked to the table looking over the small purple shaded pony.

“Good. Welcome home, Twilight. That is my home.” He waved over someone and walked away.

“I did good Father?”, a sweet and quiet voice spoke to Chaos.

“Yes darling”, he responded. “I think you deserve to finish the stew as well.” Fluttershy hovered over the table, gazing into Twilight’s remaining eye. Twilight tried to scream Fluttershy’s name in anger, but only spit blood, for her jaw was already gone.

“Goodnight Twilight. Father says when your other eye is gone, you will see the world in a whole new way!”, she squeaked, commanding her pet Angel to take out Twilight’s eye.

The world began that day, or maybe it ended.

Twilight would never know.

“The end is always at Nye

When you still have a remaining eye”

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