//-------------------------------------------------------// Lost Twilight -by Broken Dreams- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: Escape //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: Escape An unfathomable smell was assaulting the senses. Rising up from the ground was none other than Twilight Sparkle. Dazed and confused, she could not get a good hold on her surroundings. There was only the marching step of somepony coming for her. She nudged herself forward to find that a chain had been locked around her neck. There was no possible escape from the darkness of the room she was in. Twilight had no choice, but to light the room with a spell. It charged through her horn and lit up the small room she was in. Two corpses beside her, their eyes gouged out from their sockets. Ponies she did not recognize, even worse from that fact that they were skinned and had terrifying expressions on their faces. Realization hit her head in a second. This was not a happy and positive place. And she had to get out as soon as possible. Terrified and disgusted by such a display of gore and violence. She almost vomited before she covered her mouth. Even worse was the smell that emanated from the dead. Twilight blasted the chain from her neck, a sudden “chink” came forth from the broken chain. Suddenly, the door far in front of her screeched open and she scrambled to get to somewhere to hide. Seeing nowhere particular that one could easily conceal themselves, Twilight had no choice. She squirmed under the corpse on the left, blood spilled over her as she tried to renovate herself under the dead pony. She eyed the creature that was coming for her. It was a tall specimen, short legs with massive long arms. Had a bag over it’s head that was covered in splotches of blood. Grey fur covered in an amount of blood as well, smudged against the hairs giving it a darker reddish hue. He looked around and dropped his massive cleaver onto the ground angrily. It seemed his prey had disappeared and now he had to go looking for it. Twilight awaited and tried her best to fight off the revolting blood slowly covering her. Terror was beyond the power of her disgust, and she preservered forward while the creature started running back into what corridor was left. With the steps slowly losing sound, Twilight left the corpse hiding place and emerged in rancid fluids. She tried to collect herself, attempting to remember what had happened in the first place. A memory revealed itself to her and everything began to pick up. She had gone to meet with the Buffalo for a better communicative understanding. One moment, she was resting around the campsites after a delegation with them. The next being blacked out while resting in her own tent. Twilight opened the only available door, it was darker than anticipated from the entrance. But, she did not want to be around for that monster to find her again. There was only one option, to move forward. She tiptoed through and fell to the ground. Her mind burning from the inside of her skull. Something was off, and in desperation she tried to teleport with her magical power. It instantly fizzled from her horn. She gasped as something was disrupting her. This monster certainly knew what he was doing. Panic almost set in at that she couldn't use her magic. There was no time to dawdle at the low chance of survival. There was only thing left to do and that was to escape and find help. She took a deep breath, the stench of the dead unwavering her resolve. This wasn’t going to be the end of Twilight Sparkle. Now ready, she went forward into the darkness. And the door closed behind her. She kept walking silently, the pitch blackness losing it’s power as she went forward. There were a couple of stairs, and she climbed up them continuously before she forced the pair of doors at the end to her freedom. The first thing she saw was the moonlight sky over the darkness of the moon. An endless forest for miles could be seen. She got out of the hell hole she sprung from and tried her best to cast a spell. Nothing of note came out and she suddenly became desperate. “Oh no… w-what can I do, what do I do?”, she stressed. “I-I’m not p-prepared for this”. A sudden grumble from behind her and that monster appeared. He laughed as he slowly watched Twilight for any sudden movements. For a short while, they stared at each other. Twilight frozen from the sight of her pursuer. And then she instantly moved. Her hoofsteps digging against the dirt as she ran for her life. She went into the forest and reacted to the thrown cleaver that almost snapped her backside in half. Running so fast, she dared not look back from fear that her end would be at hoof. Then, she went inside one of the tree trunks when far enough to not hear his steps. For a while she waited, and the lumbering beast went forward right next to her. He started chopping trees down angrily with a loud battle cry. Twilight clenched her eyes, tears dropping from her as the monster cut down the tree she was under into a stub that she somehow could still hide in. It lasted for a while, but the creature was finally gone. She emerged and bolted the opposite direction to which it went. Non-stop running to the point that she finally couldn’t run anymore. She was stopped by a metal chain wall that stretched on for miles. Breathing from such a strenuous exercise. The very sight of the wall made her lose an inch of hope within herself. She could not think, she could not understand at what was next, she only knew that there was still a chance she would become pony meat. The very idea frightened her, almost spiraling her to an insane mental condition. Yet, she breathed and realized her fate. She had to confront that thing to be free of this nightmare. She stood up from the ground, and resigned herself to her gamble. Twilight Sparkle walked back, it was the only choice left to her at this point. As she continued, memories of all her friends swarmed her brain. Spike all by himself without her. No more parties to have with Pinkie Pie. No races with Rainbow Dash. Not even a single time left to be with Applejack. Rarity would be destroyed. All of them would be completely decimated. All because of that thing would kill her. Completely obliterating everything Twilight has ever achieved and done. “No, this will not be the end. Not even by a long shot”. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: Shadows //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: Shadows It had gotten incredibly dark, the night sky watching over the earth without question. Twilight guessed that it was around two in the morning. A lot of thoughts were wrapping around her mind lately. Though, she hasn’t been able to particularly find a way to express them in a coherent manner. She was just too afraid, after all that she has been through, there was probably more in store for her in this unknown place. She could only keep walking with a trail of blood leaving hoofsteps behind her. She probably knew that the creature would stalk her without end and use that to find her. But, she didn’t care, she had not the energy or the strength to cover her tracks. She could only run and/or see what she could do before she could actually calmed down. And even that was proving difficult. Twilight stuck in thought, suddenly noticed the massive cave entrance before her. It was just sittin there this whole time as she walked. She didn’t even notice it at the time she had been walking this far. It was a huge hole, though with little candles strewn across the walls as if slammed into them with a hammer. The first thought that came to her mind was if she could go in there and maybe find an exit. There was still the matter of what she would find inside that place, but a little exploration couldn’t hurt at this circumstance. “Ah, if only Spike was here to give me an answer for this”, she whispered. She crept into the large cave hole and continued forward. As she went through, it seemed the cave walls had been made naturally. No artificial smoothing or anything, a weird creation of nature. The cave hallway spanned for a while, before she suddenly found something that frightened her. She stepped back in shock, and found another corpse in this Celestia forgotten place. Twilight went forward a bit more with a little indignation. The blood wasn’t fresh, it had stained the stone ground for whom knows how long. The corpse itself looked like it had been dead for several days. But, there was something it held between it’s hooves. A sort of parchment that she took very quickly from it’s cold dead hooves. The dead joints on the poor creature cracked as she tried her best to take it. She looked into the parchment, it’s words so solemnly drawn out in blood. Dear Whomever, I am dying, I have not much time or life left in me to keep going. That thing, it’s a Diamond Dog that has an insatiable hunger for hooved creatures. Once it would hunt down Buffalo for it’s hungry needs, but now it’s found it’s eye towards ponies who have been coming into the territory as of late. To whoever finds this message. RUN BEFORE HE FINDS YOU. I’ve have so little power in my legs, so much blood loss, so much….. The message steered into a line that drove into the edge of the parchment. Twilight felt a sheer terror crawl up her spine. To which she could not easily bring down. The sound of the creature was nearby, his grumbling came, and Twilight scrambled to the depths of the darker reaches inside the cave as to not be seen. With heavy stomps, the big thing still had the paper bag on it’s head. It’s massive cleaver had fresh blood on it’s frame, dripping down into the cave floor. He stepped up to the corpse, took off his bag, and Twilight saw the monstrous face of a bulldog who had a massive scar across his face. With his large claws, he picked up the corpse and ripped off it’s head with one powerful bite. Crunched on it and threw the rest of the body into the darkness, it almost slid onto Twilight’s hooves. She yelped a tiny cry from herself, and the creature stood like a statue at the sound. He turned around, surveying the area with his phosphorous yellow eyes. Then, he went on his way. Twilight stood motionless, too scared to even attempt to move. Several minutes had past, before she took a breath and made a step forward. She went back a bit from the corpse she stepped on and hit the wall, a candle fell down to the floor and rolled down to her position. She almost shrieked when she saw all the corpses strewn all over the place behind her as the candle rolled down. So many dead bodies all over, skeletons were outclassed by the fully fleshed bodies that sprang all over. Red tinge sprayed across the walls in what could have been violence incarnate. She could not speak. She could not even breathe at the sight. Her hooves shaking and her breathing frantic. All of their eyes gouged out from their sockets. Twilight sprinted out of the cave as fast as she could. There was no exit out of here that way. Twilight continued onward, her fate would be sealed if she didn’t do something fast. She had to get out of here as soon as possible, but there was no way to exactly find a way to escape such a gruesome end. Without thought or remorse on her end, she had no choice, but to do the illogical. A trail of blood that wasn’t from her hooves existed that went onward for a while. She took one step forward, and another hesitant stomp. She continued onward to what best courage she could muster. In the end, she couldn’t run anymore, and she was getting fatigued. This was the only way out. And even if it was against all her instincts, all of her judgements. This was probably the only and final way to survive. There had to be something that could free her from her fate. She continued forward, the previous experience, but a memory to what survival entailed for her to do. She could only hope that her friends will be beside her up onto the end.