Chapters Author's Note
Hello there dear reader.
Arrival
"What's going on?", "Where am I?", "What's all that noise?" is what went through Twilights head as she opened her eyes. When they were fully open she took in her surroundings. In the distance she could see the lights of her homecity Canterlot and the castle that the lights illuminated. She also felt the wind on her fur and could hear the hoots of a nearby owl. This confused her a lot, but when she turned her head the other way she immediately realised what was going on.
She saw a group of masked ponies who were running and one of them was carrying her.
She wanted to scream and run, but soon she realised she was tied and had her mouth covered. Her activity attracted the attention of the pony who carried her. "Hey Dark she woke up!" the stallion called out to another pony. The others slowed down a bit, while the one who was in the lead came next to the carrier. "Hmmm ... It seems the knock-out spell wore off already. Wouldn't expect nothing else from the princesses prized pupil, she is quite resilient." Dark Step said. The first stallion asked: "So, what do we do with her now? Do we knock her out again or ...". "No need," Dark replied: " we will soon be in range to teleport to our hideout anyway, so why not let her enjoy the trip." He smiled and sped-up to the front again.
Twilight couldn't do much, but cry and think why this happened to her. "Mom, dad, Shiny, someone please save me." then she blacked out.
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Chill Wind hesitated a little: "Ummm, boss are you sure she will be fine with that thing down there?"
"No worries, I made sure it is well locked down, if it does happen to get her it will be entierly her fault if she dies, but it would be a shame to loose such precious subject." Dark said with a malicious grin. "Now get going," he ordered: "and little miss for your own good you better behave."
Twilight couldn't say a word because she was so terrified. Chill then placed a ring on her horn and she could feel her magic draining away. Then Chill put Twilight on her back and they began to go towards a set of stairs. When they came to them they went down and Twilight could slowly begin to hear different voices. When they came to the bottom of the stairs she couldn't belive her eyes.
She saw numerous cells and in them were different ponies of different ages, from kids to elderly, as well as beings of other races such as griffons, diamond dogs etc. But what shocked her the most was the state they were in. Nearly all of them looked malnourished, some were missing limbs, while others were covered in bruises and bandages. She began to thrash again, but it was still futile. The more cells they passed the more Twilight wanted to throw up. They continued untill they came to a dead end.
The mare pushed a stone in the wall and a hidden passageway opened up. They went in and Twilight could see more stairs heading down. "Ugh, why did that whacko had to build his lab on a freaking mountain and why for the love of Celestia did he had to install so many stairs?" complained Chill and went down.
As soon as they came to the bottom Twilight could see only a single cell. The mare then took out her keys and unlocked the door. Then she undid fillies bonds and threw her in. Twilight quickly scrambled to her hooves and removed the rag that covered her mouth.
"Why are you doing this to me, who are you ponies, where ..." Twilight rambled out but cut short by the mare: "Shut up foal! I won't tell you a single thing so save your questions for the Doc, he will gladly tell you everything you want to know." She turned around and was about to leave when she stopped. "Oh and be careful you don't go near it , the last guy who went too close got his hoof bitten." with that said she left.
Twilight sat there confused at what she said. "Don't go neat what?" she thought. She looked around the cell to see what the mare meant. As she looked around she realised her cell was a lot bigger then the upper cells and the only source of light was the barred window on the wall. She could that it was night and that moonlight seeped through the bars. Her eyes then fell on a weird shadow slouched in the corner of the cell. At first she couldn't make out the details, but when her eyes adjusted she screamed and jumped away. There sitting and leaning on the wall of the cell was a creature Twilight has never seen or read about in books. It looked kind of like a minotaur only smaller and skinnier. It also had no fur safe for its face and on top of its head. It had four long limbs which both ended with weird claw like digits, and its face is flat and had small beady eyes.
The creature looked up at the filly when it heard her scream nad Twilight could see the predator like stare it gave her. She continued to back off until she hit the bars of her and the creatures cell. "Sweet Celestia that thing is going to devour me, please don't let it end like this." she thought.
She then heard the hoofsteps coming down the stairs and soon two figures appeared. The first one was a black furred unicorn stallion with a lighter toned black mane. He had dark brown, almost black like, eyes and his cutie mark were three spiraling stars. The other was an older unicorn stallion with a light green coat and grey mane. His eyes were light blue and he also wore a labcoat and a pair of glasses. For his cutie mark he had a scalpel cutting a strand of DNA.
"Ah, I see you met your roommate, or should i say cellmate." the green pony snickered.
Twilight ran to the door and began to bang on them and shout: "GET ME OUT OF HERE! THAT THING IS GOING TO EAT ME!" The green pony laughed and said: "You don't have to worry about it, it has been shackeled up and restrained to that wall. But still we didn't completely bind him to that wall so he can still move around a bit, so be careful you don't get too close to him."
"Now I belive you want to know where are you, why you are here and so on, right?" he asked. Twilight only nodded. He then began: "Well I belive the first we should do is introduce ourselves." "My name is doctor Gene Slice and my associate here," he pointed to the black stallion: "is Dark Step, I belive you met him already, although he was masked at the time."
"Now for why you are here. You see miss Sparkle in this facility here we conduct very important experiments which will benefit for making a better world for the ponykind. We go from town to town and pick up valuable subjects like yourself, who ˝voulenteered˝ themselves for the greater good. But we only pick those who have intriguing abilities, like incredible durability, awesome speed or astounding magic capabilites, like you." he gave her a devious look.
"Then when they get here we accomodate them until the time for experiments come." he continued. Twilight looked at him scared and gulped. "What kind of experiments?" she asked. Slice smiled and answered: "Oh nothing major. Just some physical and arcane test to make sure they are healthy." his smile then turned manaical: "Afterwards we cut them open to see how they work and see what makes them so unique. And if possible make them even better or we impliment their uniquness into other subjects. But alas even after four years we still haven't been able to succesfully impliment one subejcts genes into another without them dying of excrutiating pain."
Twilight turned pale and she began to shake violently. She began to back off from the door: "A-are y-you going to d-do the s-same thing to m-me?" she asked. Slice shoke his head and said: "No, no, no. Well not yet at least." Twilight looked at him confused. " You see your magic still hasn't quite ripened yet, it still needs some time before it will be powerful enough for me conduct any experiments or tests on you. It will probably take another few months, maybe a year at most."
Twilight fell to the floor semi-relieved. She again looked at the doctor and asked: "But why would you do this to innocent ponies? You said you did for the better of ponykind. How is this beneficial for anyone?"
Doctor just smiled and looked at her amused: "Great question young one. You see what we are trying to achieve here is to create a being whose intellect would outshine any others, a being who won't fall ill to diseases, a being who would be able to conquer any challenege, a being who no one would dare oppose, not even the princesses. And when that being is created we will recreate the procedure that created it and use it on everypony else. And just like that there will be no more threat to the ponies, every other being on this planet would have to bow down to us and we would then bring utopia to this planet for all ponykind."
Twilight just stared at him speechless and slackjawed. She finally uttered her words. "That is insane, you're insane. What about all the other species, what will happen to them?" she yelled. Doc just shrugged and said: "I don't give a fuck about any of them, all care about is my kind because we are greater than any griffon or even dragon. They should respect us and bow to us from the very beginning."
"Celestia will stop you." Twilight spoke. At that the stallion just began to laugh. After he setteled down her gave her an aggravated look and said in a venomous tone: "If you think that bitch has any chance of finding my hideout you have another thing coming kid. That whore is the very reason why I am doing all of this. She keeps saying we should try and understand eachother be friends. Well she's wrong, what we should do is make the others submit to us and kill all others who resist."
Twilight again began to shiver and the black stallion looked pleased with that.
"Oh, before I leave I guess I should tell a little bit about your friend there." he said looking at the creature. "We wouldn't want you two bicker now would we." he said while Dark snickered. "I don't know exactly what it is," doctor continued: " but from what I gathered from it I can speculate that it belongs to the ape family and it's omnivours. I found him while I was searching through The Everfree Forest for any potential specimen for my experiments. When I discovered him he looked a lot better than he looks now, he was also scared and lost, at least I presume."
"When we brought it here and after I did some experiments on it I found out it has high resistance to magic and it also lacks any himself. Which leads me to conclusion it may not even be of this world. It also shows slight signs of intelligence, though after we brought it here all it did was growl, ate, slept and bang on the wall behind him with a rock it found." the doctor said.
"Athough any time we try to approach it, it begins to act highly violently. He already bit a hoof of one of my assistants. Unfortunatelly we had to cut it off due to the infection this thing caused him with its bite." the satllion explained.
"Now I belive that covers everything you need to know about this place. Enjoy your stay while you can and try to get some sleep. You will need it." he said turning around.
As both stallions left Twilight fell on the floor where she began to cry until her tears ran dry and then she fell asleep. All the while the creature looked at her with look of intrigue.
Author's Note
Hello fellow readers Solaris Night coming back at you.
Getting To Know You
"It's meal time." yelled the stallion.
Twilight slowly looked towards the door, seeing the maroon coated earth pony with brown mane and a crossbow cutie mark. She watched as he pushed her tray to her through the open slot in the door. Then using a long stick he pushed the creatures meal towards it. Afterwards he left and Twilight jumped towards her food and chowed it down in the matter of seconds.
It has already been three days since she was brought and locked in her cell. During that time the only thing she could do was cry, sleep, talk to herself like a crazy pony and eat her meals. If you could them that. She only got three meals per day and they all consisted of a jug of water and a sandwich, though each one had a different filling.
After she ate she went back to her corner and slumped against the wall. She then proceeded to watch as the strange creature ate its meal. It ate slowly and looked like it savored every bite.
After one day, of being locked up, Twilight slowly gained a bit more courage and began to observe the being more closely. She found out that it wasn't completely furless as she thought at first. It had small patches of fur on the lower parts of its fore and hindlegs as well as a bigger patch on its chest. She was also able to discren the creatures eye color, it was dark green colored. But what really bugged her was that even after all that the insane doctor told her about it, how dangerous it was, she never saw the being lash out at anyone even when she tried to get a closer look at it one time. All it did was growl a bit then it settled in an instant. The only thing that even closely resembled any violent act was that every day it would pick up a nearby rock and began to smash it against the wall behind it.
"Is this thing really that dangerous?" she thought. "If I remember correctly, the doctor said it has shown signs of intelligence."
She directed her gaze towards the thing and it instantly locked eyes with her. She could detect signs of distaste towards her.
"Yeeeeeeah, I don't think I wanna find out. Too risky." she said aloud.
She decided she should go to sleep since it was already dark and she had nothing else to do. She turned her back towards the creature and began to cry herself to sleep once again.
"Mom, dad, brother please come soon." she pleaded to no one.
As she was falling asleep the creature looked at her with a look of concern and pity.
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"Ugh, how do they expect anypony to satisfy their hunger with the kind of food they serve here." she complained.
She averted her eyes towards the window and saw it was still the middle of the night. Realising that she tried to fall back asleep, but her hunger kept her awake.
"How in the name of Celestia am I supposed to sleep like this?" she thought.
Then she felt something hit her back and she heard a soft thud as something hit the floor next to her. She got up and turned around to see what hit her. As she looked her eyes fell on piece of bread lying next to her. She picked it up and ate it with haste. Then something clicked in her mind.
"Who threw this?"
Immediately her eyes went towards the only other occupant of the cell. It was still lying in the same spot as it was before without any sign of movement, the only thing she could hear was its soft snoring.
Twilight only looked towards it then she decided to try and fall asleep again.
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Twilight slowly opened her eyes as she got up. Before her was a small daisy sandwich and, surprise, a jug of water.
"At least I won't get dehydrated." she said sarcastically.
As she began to eat her eyes inadvertently fell on her cellmate. It was eating its meal with its slow pace as always. Twilight looked at her sandwich and ripped off a part of it. Then she slowly made her way towards the creature. It caught her moving towards it and began to growl.
Twilight stopped for a moment, but quickly regained her compsure and continued her way towards it. The being decided to scre her off so it stood up to try and intimidate her. Twilight again stopped, but yet again gathered her courage and proceeded. As she got colse enough she presented her piece of sandwich lifted it up to the creature.
It gave her a confused looked, then Twilight said: "I want to thak you for sharing your meal last night and also to return the favor." She then bowed her head.
The creature seemed to understand the gesture and took her sandwich. But what it did next sort of surprised the filly. It took out all the daisies and ate only the bread, then it gave her daisies back.
"You don't eat those?" she asked.
The creature shaked its head and the unicorn gasped. "Can you understand me?" she asked. It waited for a bit looking a bit confused then it decided to shake its head yet again.
"Oh, then you must have been speculating what I was saying, huh?" she asked. The creature said nothing as it stared at her.
Twilight then got an idea. She pointed one hoof at her and said: "Twilight."
Then she pointed her hoof at the creature: "You?"
It only gave her confused look, so she decided to repeat the notion a few more times. Finally it seemed the creature got the idea and pointed one of its claws to its chest and said: "Eric."
Twilight looked at it with astonishment and confusion. "Ehis, what kind of name is that?" she asked.
The thing chuckeled and shook it's head: "No Ehik, Eric."
Twilight understood she got its name wrong and tried again.
"Ehik?"
It shook its head again.
"Eric?"
This time it nodded and pointed one of its claws upwards. She saw in her books that griffons and minotaurs used that gesture to say good job, ok and few others.
She smiled and squeaked. Then she pointed her hoof at the being: "Now it's your turn. Try it. Twilight."
It narrowed its eyes and made funny faces as it tried to say her name.
"Fiyliy?"
She only chuckeled and shook her head.
"Tailay?"
"Thaileit?"
"Tweileit?"
Again and again she shook her head and got increasingly annoyed.
"Twilight?"
Her eyes immediately grew to size of plates and she began to jump: "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."
Eric seemed pleased and happy. Then all of sudden its face turned to one of thought. It turned around and picked up the rock it kept at its side. Then it began to scratch something on the wall beside the one he usually banged on.
Twilight just look at Eric with intrigue and confusion at what it was doing. When it was done she saw that there were 26 different symbols on the wall.
"What are these for?" she asked and looked towards her cellmate.
Eric saw her confusion and began to hum a melody. When twilight heard it it seemed familiar. Then it clicked.
"Twinkle twinkle little star. This is your alphabet isn't it?" she said. It only gave her a blank look. Twilight smacked her face with her hoof.
Then she took the rock from Eric and began to scratch Equestrias alphabet. When she finished she saw that both of them contained the same amount of letters.
"This is amazing. A whole new different way of writing and so familiar to our own." she said with excitement
She was thrown out of her admiring when Eric coughed. She looked at it and it just pointed at the rock it now held. Then it began to scratch some more words on the wall, though this time with Equestrias letters. When he finished the word on the wall read 'rock'.
"No. Way." Twilight gasped: "It can't be real."
She took the rock back and looked at Erics alphabet. She looked for the spots where the letters from her alphabet matched with its. When she found them she wrote out her word. Eric smiled at her and nodded. At that twilight just screamed of joy.
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"Be glad the doctor allowed this, otherwise you would have gotten shit." he grumbled and left.
After that their 'talks' went a lot smoother. Twilight learned a lot from him, like he was from another world, he was from a race called humans, he was male, that he was in his mid thirties and a lot of other things. Eric also learned how to say a few of Equestrian words so he could respond to her without having the need to write and he got used to hearing and understanding some of the words Twilight told him.
They also began to grow very close to one another. Twilight wasn't afraid to go near him anymore and she also slept in his lap when night fell. He was so warm she wasn't shivering when she went to sleep anymore. He also seemed to enjoy her company a lot.
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Twilight and Eric looked up to the door and saw Dark and doctor with a group of other ponies. They were also carrying rope and weird shaped metal sticks.
Eric quickly got up to his feet and pushed Twilight away from him. She just looked at him and saw his terrified expression.
"What's going on?" she asked as the ponies came into the cell.
"None of your business brat." said Dark.
They cirecled Eric and he got into a fighting stance.
Dark smirked and said: "I see you still have your fighting spirit freak. Good. That will give me some fun."
Eric lunged towards a pony when he got close enough, but right when he grabbed him, one of the other ponies lunged one of their sticks towards him. He could only cry out as he was suddenly shocked. He fell to the floor, shaking from being electrocuted.
"NO, LEAVE HIM ALONE!!!" Twilight yelled as she jumped up on Dark.
He only shook her off and then kicked her so hard she hit the opposite wall. She fell on the floor gripping her side and crying from the pain.
"TWILIGHT!" everypony turned towards the human and looked at him with shock.
"So doc wasn't lying. That thing really can talk." Dark chuckled.
"And you had the gut to doubt me Dark. That is why I like to have you around." said Gene. "But even if he does talk that doesn't make him any better than he was before. All I really want from him is his near immunity to magic and nothing else."
He then turned to the group and said: "Well, what are waiting for? Celestia to come and kick your flanks in gear. Get him to my lab already."
The ponies nodded and began to lift the human. Twilight, when she saw them dragging him out of the cell got up, ignoring the pain, and tried to run towards them. Dark saw that and got ready to give her another kick. But then Eric lifted one of his arms: "Twilight. Stay."
She stopped and looked at him. He pointed towards himself and gave her a thumbs up as he said: "Eric. Safe. Twilight. Stay. Come. Back."
Dark looked between the two and laughed: "Hahahahahahahaha, oh ain't that sweet, the freak is playing the hero." He then turned around and left with the group.
Twilight could only watch as they left her behind in the cell. She then ran up to the door, began to hit them and cry: "Bring him back! Bring him back! Bring him back!" She continued until she had no energy left and she fell asleep.
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"Eric! By goddesses I thought that you were killed and used for ..." words got stuck in her throat when she got a closer look at him.
He had several wounds which Twilight recognized as injection points, he also had several bandages on him which had blood spots on them.
"What have they done to you?" the filly asked as she yet again began to cry.
She then felt Erics hand on her head as he rubbed her head. "No. Cry. Twilight. Happy. Eric. Come. Back." he said in hoarse voice and then hugged her back.
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"Sure thing, what is it Twilight?" Eric replied.
It has been three days since they took Eric away to experiment on him, since then he has recovered enough to move around a little, but he was still badly wounded.
"The doctor said that you are near immune to magic. Is that true?"
"Hmmmm, I might be. They tried to use that weird light from their horns a few times but nothing seemed to happen. Why do you ask?"
"I think I might have a way to get us out of here."
The human looked at her dumbfoundedand wrote "Really? How?"
"See this ring on my horn?" Eric nodded. Twilight then continued "Well this ring prevents me from using any of my magic. And it can't be removed unless you know a certain magical wave to unlock it. But that doesn't mean it can't be forcefully taken off with enough strength."
"Ok so you're saying I can take off by force, but won't that hurt you or me? I mean something like has to have a failsafe otherwise it would be too easy to remove. And also with the current state I'm in I don't think I'll be able to get it off anyway."
"You're right there is a failsafe, if somepony tries to remove the ring by force they will be blasted by a powerful magical blast. Powerful enough to kill anyone in your condition." Eric looked at her nervously and gulped. "But don't worry you are immune to magic so you shouldn't be hurt too badly, as for me The ring is designed so it doesn't harm the one who wears it."
"OK, that solves the failsafe trouble, but there is still the matter of me even being able to remove it."
"You don't have to remove it, just loosen it up enough so I can cast a spell."
"And what spell could get us out of here?"
"This spell won't get us out of here, but it will bring help to us." she explained and Eric just looked at her with even greater confusion then before. "Let me explain. My mentor, Princess Celestia, taught me a spell that allows me to send her letters directly to her. We will send her a letter telling her where we are and to come and save us."
"One problem. We don't know where we are."
"I know where we are and before you ask I know because of the osition of the stars, and before you ask again how I know how to coordinate by stars, remember that I read a lot."
"Alright then lets get to work."
Twilight smiled and began to write her letter to her mentor. When she was done she folded it up and stepped to Eric.
He breathed in to prepare himself for possible pain to come. Then he placed his hands on the ring and began to pull it off. The ring began to glow and it shot a beam at Eric, but it didn't seem to affect him too much.
"Just a little more." Twilight said. Eric began to pull with all of his might and the beam intensified.
Then right before let go off the ring, the letter was enveloped in purple aura and it dissappeard.
They both fell to the ground exhausted, but smiling because they succeded. They then smelt a disgusting stench. Eric looked at his chest and saw a small burn and also most of his chest hair was burned.
"Well there goes the lady magnet." he thought.
But their fun didn't last long. Suddenly down the stairs came Dark and Gene and they headed straight for the duo.
When they came into the cell Dark kicked Twilight as hard as he could so she fell to the floor immediatelly.
Eric then got up and tried to help the filly but was again electrocuted by the doctor.
"What did you two do?" yelled Dark as he hit Twilight again. "How did you remove the ring?" he hit her again. "ANSWER ME CELESTIA DAMMIT!"
Doctor stopped him before he could land another punch. "Now, now Dark no need to be so upset. Look at her," he pointed to the shivering and beaten filly: "she will die if you continue like this and also don't you see she still has the ring on her horn. Whatever they did it quite obviously didn't work or we might have had to chase them around or something. Now come we have more pressing matters to attend to."
Gene turned around and walked out while Dark just looked at both of them and spit in the direction of the human. Then he left with the doctor.
Twilight and Eric slowly crawled towrds each other and once they were in reach they hugged. Twilight began to cry in his chest, while the human also shed a few tears. But they weren't tears of saddnes for himself, but for the little filly in his arms, also they were tears of anger towards the two stallions, but most importantly they were tears of hope.
Twilight was lying on her belly and using her crayons to draw some pictures of herself and her human friend.
*THUD*
She was already done coloring in the humans colors and was about to begin to fill in herself.
*THUD* *THUD* *THUD*
The noise made her loose concentration and she went over the line. The unicorn could only sigh in frustration at the constant distraction Eric provided.
*THUD* *THUD* *THUD*
"Ughhh, seriously what are you doing?" she asked and gave him an annoyed look. The human stopped and looked at her with a questioning face.
"Oh, right." she thought. She grabbed a violet crayon and began scribbling. "What are you doing?" she wrote.
Eric looked at her musingly and replied: "Art."
Twilight knew that her cellmate was, before he was dragged to their world, an artist, with less than favourable popularity. At first she thought that the reason for him being unknown was due to people not appreaciating art, like he told her, but looking at his current creationshe began doubting his claims.
"That is art? It looks nothing like any art I've seen or read about." she said. "You sure you are actually talented."
Even though he didn't understand anything she said he could read in her eyes and her face that she didn't understand his creation. He extended one of his arms and called her towards himself.
Twilight tilted her head, but still got up and came to his side. When she got close Eric alid on his back and prompt Twilight to do the same. She did what he asked her and when she looked at the art, she only gasped. The picture suddenlly gaining sense.
On it was a human locked behind bars, with one extended towards the sky. A little further away from it's hand was, what Twilight discerned a dove wirh a small twig in its beak.
"This is absolutely beautiful. You weren't kidding when you said you were good." she said in amazement.
Eric smiled. "Yes." was his only reply.
Twilight continued to admire the creation, until her mind wandered to other matter. She got up and went to fetch her drawing/communicating equipment. When she got back to Eric she began to write.
"Do you think they got our message?"
Eric took one of her crayons and began to write her back. "I'm certain they did. What makes you think they didn't?"
"Well it's already been a day since we sent it and they still haven't come, so I began to think they didn't get it or they don't care what happens to us." She looked at the ground and began to shed tears.
Eric just snapped his fingers to gain Twilights attention and quickly began to compose his reply. "Don't you even dare to assume such things. You said your family loves you, right?" Twilight nodded and he continued. "So don't be afraid they won't come to get you. If it was my little brother who was kidnapped me and my parents would go to Hell and back to save him."
She gave him a weak smile, but she was still worried. "Then why haven't they come already?"
The human sighed and smiled. "Twilight, this sort of thing can't be done in a matter of a few hours. This kind of rescue takes time and preparation, plus who knows where exactly in your world are we, so it might take them a little while to get here."
At that Twilight stopped to cry and gave a loud reply: "YEAH, THEY WILL GET US, THEY WILL!!!"
She looked at the human who was just nodding along to her and then her eyes fell on his picture again. "What does your art represent anyway?"
He looked between the two, a thoughtfull look on his features, and simply said: "Hope."
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He shook her and called her name. "Twilight, Twilight."
Eventually she began to open her eyes: " What is it? It's still the middle of the night."
But he only pressed a finger to his lips and shushed her to be quiet. Twilight just looked at him confused, still groggy from just waking up. Then she heard it. Sounds of explosion, screams and fighting.
"I don't belive it. They came, THEY CAME." she yelled and hopped off of Erics lap. "They came to save us, we're safe." she began to jump around smiling. The human just looked at her himself happy to finally be free from his imprisonment.
Just then they heard a set of hoofsteps come down the stairs. Twilight went to the door and began to scream: "We're here. Please save us."
But out of the shadows didn't come the familiar armor of the royal guard, but something that sent chills through her. There at the bottom stood their warden and torturer, Dark.
"Awww, were you expecting somepony else." he snickered. Twilight looked at him in horror, her words dying in her throat as she froze on spot. Eric looked at the pair with worry and began to call for Twilight. But she didn't hear him, still shocked at the persence of the stallion and the knowledge of what he will probably do to the duo.
"Let me guess, the reason why the guards have found our hideout was because of your little stunt two days ago. Isn't that right?" his face slowly began to change from amused to rage. Twilight began to back-off, as Dark continued: "I told the doc that whatever you two did would become troublesome, but did he listen. Nooo, what would I know, I'm just some hired muscle with no brain."
He slowly closed the distance between the two and Eric began to fight against his restraints, hoping that they will brake. No he knew they would brake, because beside the art he also used the stone to loosen the bars that held the shackles to the wall. The real question was if he would be fast enough, before Dark really hurt Twilight.
"Last time the doc stopped me from giving you your proper punishment, but this time" he said licking his lips "no one will stand in my way from breaking you." Saying that, he grabbed the filly by her mane using his magic and pulled her closer. When she was close enough he delivered a powerful blow to her stomach.
Twilight was gasping for air and trying to stand up, but the stallion was already on her. He hit her on her muzzle and used his magic to blast her in the back. That sent her flying a short way away from him nad she immediatelly began to crawl away from him.
Dark however quickly closed the distance and stepped on one of her hind hooves. Twilight screamed and tried to wiggle her hoof from underneath him. Before she succeded the stallion grabbed her by the throat, using his magic and pinned her to the wall.
"I think it's time I finish this, so I can give my attention to the freak, before the guards get here." he said as he began to tighten his grip on the filly. Twilight began to choke and struggle for her breath.
Then all of a sudden they heard a snapping noise and before any of them could react a fist connected to the stallions muzzle. Dark lost his concentration and dropped Twilight, who began to gasp for the precious air.
The stallion rubbed his muzzle and looked at the reason for his pain. There standing was the human fuming and baring his fangs at him. Dark wanted to say something, but before he could say anything Eric began to charge at him.
The unicorn tried to stop the human by blasting powerful spells at him, but Eric just shrugged them off.
"Dammit." muttered the stallion and raised a shield to defend against the assault. But Eric simply destroyed the shield with a single punch, Dark however was prepared for this, he turned around and delivered a strong buck towards the human.
The human took the full brunt of the attack, but didn't falter whatsoever. Before the stallion could retaliate, Eric grabbed him by the horn and snapped it off. Dark began to scream in pain, but the human got hold of his yet again and slammed it into the stone floor. He continued this assault, yelling words in his native language. He didn't stop until Dark seized to move. When he gave him a closer look he noticed his muzzle was all bloody and he stopped breathing.
Dropping the body to the floor, he turned to Twilight who looked at him with a thankfull and scared expression. Eric then went to her, hugged her and began to rub her head to calm her down. Once she stopped shivering he looked in her eyes: "You. OK?"
Twilight rubbed her eyes and nodded. She got on her whooves and the two friends headed towards the stairs and their freedom. When they scaled them they arrived in front of a stone wall. Twilight looked around until she saw what she was looking for. A small stone jutting out of the wall. When she pressed it the wall began to move and when it fully opened the two exited the chamber.
The two progressed slowly due to their injuries and exhaustion.
"C'mon we are almost free." said Twilight.
"Halt who goes there?" sounded off a deep voice.
Twilight and Eric stopped in their tracks and the human got i front of the filly to protect her from their possible assailants. Then from around the corner came three pony figures. One an earth pony and two pegasi. All of them looked the same with white fur, deep blue manes and tails and golden armour that covered their cutie marks.
When the two groups laid eyes on each other the ponies and the human got into battle stances. Then the earth pony shouted: "You, creature. Step away from the filly or we will have to use force."
Eric only tightened his fists and slid his front foot further forward. Twilight the ran in front of him and yelled: "No, wait. He's a friend. Please don't hurt him."
The ponies looked at her unsure what to do. Then she turned to the human and pointed to the ponies: "Friends. Help. Free."
Eric looked at her: "Friends?" he repeated.
Twilight nodded: "Yes. Friends."
At that Eric relaxed and with that also did the Royal Guard.
"I can safely presume you're Twilight Sparkle, daughter of Night Light and Twilight Velvet, student of Princess Celestia." asked the earth pony. Twilight only nodded and the stallion continued: "We received your message and made our way to your rescue as soon as possible. My name is Captain Lance Lunge. Now if I may ask what is that thing?"
Twilight looked to Eric and replied: "This is Eric, he's my friend, he kept me safe while I was here. Also he isn't a thing, he's a human."
Lance chuckeled: "Well any friend of yours is an ally of ours. C'mon we better get you two out of this Tartarus hole ASAP." He turned around and the filly and human followed along. As the went through the corridors Twilight looked at the cells and saw them empty. "What happened to the ponies who were in these?" she asked the captain.
"We got all of those who we could still move out of here already. Belive it or not you two are the last." answered Lance. "As for those who were in charge of this place, we also apprehended them."
Twilight looked relived at that and felt like a weight was lifted off of her back. The captain gave Twilight another look, somthing clearly bothering him: "How did you send that letter if you have that ring on your horn?"
Twilight looked at her forehead and explained: "Eric here is highly resistent to magic so he temporarily removed, just long enough for me to send the message."
Lance nodded and said: "Well that is fortunate and don't worry about the ring as soon as we get you home we will have it removed."
They soon came to another set of stairs and began to ascend them. When they got to the top they saw the exit about three hundred meters away.
"Just a little more and we will be truly free Eric." said Twilight as she looked at her friend.
Their gaze was then directed towards the sound of laughter. When they turned their heads their eyes fell upon the mad doctor and some of his lackeys. The laughter was coming from Gene and he looked like he was about to die from it. At the sight Eric nearly ran to him to beat him to a pulp, just like Dark, but Twilight put a hoof on his leg and gave him a look that begged him not to do whatever he was thinking. At that the human settled down.
"What are you psycho laughing about?" asked a nearby guard with his spear pointed to the doctor.
Gene just continued to laugh when all of sudden achain of loud explosions went off somewhere nearby and far away. Everyone tried to stay on their hoofs and feet as the whole mountain shoke with violent vibrations.
"What did you do?" yelled the captain at the doctor.
"You think I didn't take this scenario into account. For the princess bitch to find my lair, for her lackies to take it over, for you to capture me and my subordinates. No, I knew this would happen eventually and quite frankly I'm not very fond of the jail cells, and I also would hate if the bitch tried to get her hooves on my research to use it for her own purpose." he elaborated. "So I rigged this entire mountain with explosives, which will bury all of us." he finished and began to laugh manaically again.
"EVERYPONY RUN FOR THE EXIT! NOW!" ordered Lance and began to gallop. The others followed soon. No sooner they began to run the ceiling began to collapse and large chunks of rocks fell on the ponies.
Twilight and Eric were dead last due to their exhaustion, but they were still closing the distance between them and the exit.
All of a sudden Twilight felt an exruciating pain in one of her hind hooves. She screamed as she collapsed to the floor. Eric, hearing Twilights cry, stopped and turned around. He quickly ran to her and scooped her up. Carrying the little filly he dashed to their salvation, but more rocks began to fall on them.
They were just several meters away from the others, however Eric realised they won't make it, with his exhaustion and the injuries from the numerous experiments and the fight with Dark. A rock hit him on his shoulder and he stumbled a little. Focusing his gaze on the filly in his arms, his expression turned to that of determination.
With the last of his strength he accelerated and threw Twilight through the air. As he threw her though he lost his footing and he fell to the floor.
Twilight landed on her back on the other side of the entrance and she immediatelly got up on her hooves. She rose just in time to see her friend being buried under a pile of debris.
"ERIC NOOOOO!!!" she screamed as the rocks obstructed her view of Eric.
When the mountain finally settled Twilight ran to the once entrance and began to dig. Lance went up to her: "Miss Sparkle, please stop. This place is still dangerous it could further collapse if you continue."
"I don't care, I have to get him out of there!" twilight yelled as tears began to ran down her cheeks.
"With all due respect, your friend couldn't possibly have sur..."
"SHUT UP!" Twilight screamed stunning everyone in vicinity. "He is still alive, I know it. He wouldn't die just like that. I know it." she cried as she continued her digging.
Lance just looked at the filly with pity filled eyes. "Stallions," he raised his voice "are we just going to let this filly show us up like that, get your flanks over here and put your backs into it, on the double."
"YES, SIR!" came the response of every guard and they moved to help with the digging.
Twilight looked at the captain and smiled: "Thank you."
"Just doing what's right miss." lance replied.
They dug for good ten minutes, all thanks to the unicorn guards, when they stumbled upon one of the humans hands.
"Over here!" yelled one of the stallions. Everyone else went to the one who shouted out and they concentrated on that spot. twilight sat in the back and waited until they saved her human friend.
When they dug out his upper half Twilight couldn't take it anymore and forced her way to the front. Her heart dropped at the sight.
Erics face was covered by blood and dirt, his right arm was pierced by a shard or rock bent and his left was missing from the elbow down.
"Is he still alive?" asked the captain.
"We have a weak pulse and shallow breathing." answered one of the unicorns, who scanned the human.
"Get the medical crew over here to heal him stat." barked out another stallion.
"Eric. Eric can you hear me?" Twilight asked the unconscious human.
He slowly opened his eyes and looked at the filly. He gave a small smile: "Twilight." As soon as he said that he began to cough up blood.
"No don't speak, conserve your energy. You're going to be alright." Twilight tried to calm him.
Eric just lifted his pierced hand and laid it on her head and began to rub it. "Twilight." he said again.
"Yes?"
"Twilight. Go. No. Stay." he said.
"What? Are you crazy? I'm not ..." she was silenced when the human shushed her.
"Twilight. Be. Happy. Eric. No. Come." He stopped to take a breath and he continued: "Eric. Free. Happy."
The fillys eyes began to water and she began to shake her head.
"Where is the healing squad we have a ..." a guard trailed off as the captain silenced him.
"This being is immune to our magic. We can't do anything to save him." he said with sorrow in his voice.
"Twilight."
She looked at him with tears already running down her muzzle.
"Goodbye." with those words the humans eyes closed and his arm fell from her head onto the rubble. Twilight just stared at the lifeless body of his friend.
The filly couldn't hold back her grief any longer and she let her tears stain the rocks benath her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~10 years later, Canterlot
The mane six have come to Canterlot to assist Twilight with her new princess duties and be there for moral support, as she was meeting with a few delegates from other countries.
When they arrived to Canterlot, they each went to their room until dinner. As the time grew near they began to gather. Soon they were all gathered, with exception of a lavender mare.
"Hey, has anyone seen egghead. She isn't in her room." asked Rainbow Dash.
They all shook their heads and they began to search for their friend. The mares looked through the entire castle, but found no clue of the alicorn.
"Now, where could that mare be. It isn't just her to not stick to a schedule." said Rarity.
"Yeah, that's like Pinkie not hyping for a party." said Rainbow.
They all nodded at that and began to think where she could of went.
"Why don' we just ask tha princess if she knows where she is?" asked Applejack.
The others agreed to her idea and went to the throne room to ask the Solar Ruler.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Somewhere outside Canterlot
Twilight was lying upside down on a small hill next to large pice of rock which had something inscribed on it. Her ears flicked when she heard her friends call her name.
"Over here." she shouted back to them.
When they all made it to where she was, they surrounded her looked at the rock. "Darling what are you doing here and why are you lying like that next to an ugly rock?" asked Rarity.
Twilight gave her a dirty looked and immediatelly answered: "For your information, this rock is art and was made by a very talented somepony."
"No offense sugarcube, but if that's art then ahm a bone legged weasel." reputed Applejack.
"That's because you're looking at it from the wrong perspective." Twilight replied. "Lay on your backs, like me and then tell me it's ugly."
The mares looked at each other, shrugged and did what Twilight said. Once they did they all gasped.
"Oh my, that is beautiful." awed Rarity.
"Oh, it's gorgeus." whispered Fluttershy.
"Meh, seen better." said Raindow.
All the mares looked at her and all Rainbow could do was shrug and say: "What?"
"But why in tarnation is this thing all the out here and not in some fancy museum?" Applejack asked with curiosity.
"Because this is also a tombstone for the one who is buried here." Twilight elaborated.
They looked at her with wide eyes and gasped. "A-A-A tombstone?" asked Fluttershy. Twilight nodded and pointed to an inscription on the bottom of the rock.
Here Lies
Rainbow looked at the name again: "Eric Lyne? That's a weird name."
"Judging from you being here I belive you knew this pony?" asked Rarity.
"I did." she answered. "Though he wasn't a pony."
"Then what was he?" piped in Pinkie.
"A friend."
Author's Note
And with that the story is finished. I apologize for the wait I was busy with school and I also had to help at home. But anyway, wow, I didn't think I could get so dark, I' m usually a great person, hell I don't even curse that much. But anyway like always comment if there are any mistakes or if I need to fix anything or you need some explaining.