Losing it. Third draft

A purple mare sat in a large library in Canterlot's castle tearing through yet another overly large book for answers. Her eyes were slightly dried out, her mane was frazzled from lack of care. She was barely going through the motions of reading through another history book regarding Equestria when she finally collapsed. It was for this reason that when her dragon companion popped into the room shrieking her name, she didn't respond at first.

"TWILIGHT!" The baby dragon cried, running towards her. He went a bit too fast and stepped on an overturned paperback and slid out of control, the scroll in his hands flying through the air and whacking Twilight in the back of the head.

As you can imagine, she woke up immediately. She turned around and rubbed the injured area of her head slowly, still more than half asleep. “Spike...?” She grumbled out.

“Uh... Twilight? You don’t look so good. Did you decide to stay up all night again?”

Twilight’s head dropping down to hit the desk was more than enough of an answer for the dragon.

“I’ll take that as a yes. And wake up! I got a message from Celestia!”

Twilight’s ears perked up and she slowly cracked her eyes open again. “Celestia? The Princess?” She paused for a moment, the information brewing like fine coffee. Speaking of coffee, she could use some. “The Princess!” She stood and turned to face him.

Spike nodded. “That’s right. The Princess wanted you to have this scroll.” He pointed at Twilight.

Twilight walked over to him. “A scroll?” Her hoof managed to step on the scroll case and she slipped on it, landing on her side. “Oh. A scroll.” She heaved herself upright.

Spike ran over to her. “Are you ok?” He picked up the dropped object and handed it to her.

The purple unicorn looked at it and popped the end of the scroll case. The scroll fell until she caught it with her magic. She unfurled it. “Dear Twilight, thought I’d send you some extra paper. Sadly, in regards to your question about why we moved to Canterlot, I can only tell you that the old castle had far too many memories attached to it for me to remain there.” Twilight growled and tilted the case over again. Fifty or so sheets of paper fell out and slid through the air in an almost imitation of a waterfall over Spike's head.

Spike parted the waterfall then shrugged. “I guess she thought we were out of paper?”

Twilight frowned. “That’s not an actual reason to switch entire capitals.” She gritted her teeth and grabbed the history book that she had been reading with her magic and threw it against the nonfiction section. The entirety of the E section fell out.

Spike ran over to it. “I’ll get that!”

Twilight followed her assistant. “I’ll help, I knocked them off.” She smiled faintly. “I guess I just have more books to read if I want that answer.” Her horn glowed and she began to sort out the books and reshelve them.

The dragon groaned. “Twilight, I think that if you read anymore you’ll turn into a book. And where would I shelf you at?”

Twilight laughed. “Oh Spike, you’d put me with the encyclopedias in that case.” She nudged him. “Did you mail her my other request?”

Spike looked at her confusedly. “There was another one?”

She looked him in the eye. “You know... about the summer solstice? About how the mare in the MOON IS GOING TO BE RELEASED?” Her sleep deprived eyes twitched in their fatigue.

Spike winced and tried not to look at her face. He kept his gaze on the floor and began to admire the quality carpeting the library had. "Woah. That's creepy." He scuffed the floor with a clawed foot.“That one. Yeah, I sent it Twilight. Don’t you think that’s kinda silly? It’s just an old mare's tale.” His stomach growled.

Twilight smiled. “I’m sure that that is her reply."

Spike seized up, his eyes and stomach widening until he released his pressure in a tongue of green flame. The expected letter fell at her hooves. She cancelled her magic spell on a particularly large edition of 'Equestrian history, a complete edition' and the multiple myriads of pages hit the ground with an audible thump.

Spike jumped straight in the air and whirled about. "Don't do that!" He landed unevenly on his feet and swayed a bit.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Don't be such a drama dragon." She lifted a gem from her previous study area and dropped it at his feet.

The purple dragon immediately perked up and chowed down on the garnet. "Thanks Twilight!"

She smiled slightly. "Now back to more important things..." She lifted the letter into the air with her magic and shut her eyes for a moment. Doing too much magic before she was all the way awake sapped her concentration. The envelope slit itself under her careful application of magic and she lifted the response out of it.

Spike watched with more than a little excitement.

Twilight read through the letter, her face starting out as highly excited and happy and ending with more eye twitching and a look of abandonment and dejection. "Wha... Bu..." She released her grip of the paper and Spike picked it up.

"Princess Celestia thinks you should stop reading so many books?" He snickered under his breath. "Gee, that sounds familiar." He kept reading on. "Wants you to go help with the summer solstice celebration? Where in Equestria is Ponyville at?" He looked at Twilight's sad face. "Cheer up! This would be a great time to try and get some friends!"

Twilight was understandably, at least from her perspective, less than enthusiastic. "But... I... She..."

"She told you to make friends and not worry about stuffy old books. Please Twilight? Will you at least try for me?" He smiled at her and walked over to her side.

She glared at him for a second until her eyes softened. "Fine... I'll try to make a friend."

Spike jumped in the air and cheered.

"But only one. And if I don't make it I'm not going to try again."

Spike sighed. "But Twilight..."

"Just once." She finished, throwing the letter away from her and shoving the last of the books back onto the shelf like an angry book warrior.

"Fine..." He grumbled.

My eyelids felt like they were full of the sands of time, taking ages upon ages to release their hold upon one another to allow me to see the world. I groaned at the release from sleeping and felt how stiff and sore everything was.

"Doused with sleeping drought." A voice said to me, echoing faintly through the walls and somehow winding to my ears. "It's a wonder you are awake right now. They've had to feed you by hand for almost a week. Getting you to take fluids was a bigger problem..." The voice had a rasp to it, like whoever had it hadn't used it in a long time for anything but high pitched silly voices or the like.

I twitched an arm experimentally in an attempt to try and work out the kinks in my muscles. Clearly, not a good idea. Or rather, it was made clear after the chains clanked loudly and a sharp stab of pain echoed through my being from around my arms.

My eyes finally adjusted, allowing me to see what I had not previously. I was bound like someone bound to be killed in a movie. Looking up, I half expected to see a laser of some sort about to split my down the center. No suck luck.

The chains around my legs seemed cushioned by bandages. I had probably cut myself open on the metal shackles while sleeping; something sticky broke around my legs in a manner that I recognized as being of blood. I wanted to go back to sleep.

In my dreams, once all of the death and war had been long gone and almost forgotten, there was only me and the sky flying high over everything else. Occasionally, though infrequently, there was another welcoming presence with me, a mere blur, the form not actualizing. With a voice like slick sliver, and a feeling of warmth that sank into every pore. The flying... was beyond anything else. Like pure freedom in my soul unleashed upon the world.

Chained here, beneath stone mortar with my only company being the strange alien voice, my dreams seemed far away. The air was filled with the musty smell of decay and the smell of old things. There had been something of history here.

It frustrated me. I had spent days in the dream just savoring the taste of the wind and feeling at ease. But now I was here, imprisoned in these chains, imprisoned in a mortal shell.

Suddenly, Chicago seemed a far harder concept to grasp. The memories of what had happened were clear as crystal.

I had eaten a little bit of food at a road stop. It must've been spoiled. I woke up in a forest miles away from anything I had known... and it probably wasn't on earth.

Oddly, that didn't worry me. Of all the things that bothered me the most, the voice was it.

"Who are you?" My voice was raspy as well, but I had an excuse. If the other voice had been correct, that excuse was a valid one as well.

"I'm your savior. They took you in here against your will, correct?" He spoke from a different angle, with a different voice.

Admittedly, I had no idea if they had or not. Memories were a funny thing, after all. I almost felt like smiling after that, like even through the slight pain of the chains and the worry of knowing where I was that peace was still on the world. "Yes. They took me against my will."

My voice seemed to placate the other voice. "Oh yesss..." He hissed. "I'll have you out of there... soon. Tell me, any odd dreams?"

I smiled and lied smoothly. "Not a one." The dark room slowly made my eyes adjust to it. Blank rough stone decorated the walls and the ceiling. My eyes caught something strange, but I succeeded in not visibly reacting.

Upon my chest, visible as only a faint scar, a single line of characters were cut and healed. The only reason I could see them was because they faintly twinkled to me, as if letting me know they were there. In a way, they were like the dreams. Oddly calmly, but alien and disturbing.

I shut my eyes again. "You are getting me out, aren't you?"

"By the end of the week, I promise." The voice answered from behind me.

I nodded, despite knowing he couldn't see me.

Nightmare Moon's return was just one of the many things that were perfectly planned out. As one cog turns another, and the master clock maker's key turns them all, the mechanics of fate slowly turned onward. The bronze gears of souls and the silver of the immortals, as always, just barely meshed together. Occasionally, a bronze piece will slip out. That one needs to be replaced. If more slip, get more gears.

Celestia closed her book and carefully hid it back in its proper place.

Celestia's country ran like a clock. Every movement was timed and ran, every silly bit of frivolity faintly forced to happen. Of the things that could force her order to decay, she had them tracked and ordered.

Every party tracked and counted.
Every apple was on time.
The feathers were not rounded.
Every horn would make a chime.

It was like this in Celestia's kingdom. Everything ran like it should.

Her sister would return tonight, and like carefully constructed clockwork, the elements would rise to defeat her.

She shut her eyes and let out a sigh of contentment. Everything was perfectly ordered.

Just as it should be.

The ritual was going perfectly!

The sacrifice had hardly moved a muscle while the cutting had began, the sharp knife that they knew he would bring making short work of the delicate tissue on his chest. Always plunging and cutting and knitting the wound shut.

The operation went through as a blur.

The moonstone was used as exacted by the ritual, the chest gone before they had even thought that they were through. It lasted anyway, and surely commendations would be showered on the one who had selflessly obtained it.

His mare friend smiled at him but he didn't look away.

A single feather, the threads gnarled and twisted, the faintest speck of blood on the tip, plunged into the alien's frame. It faded into magic and was sucked into him.

A few more feathers, infused with moonstone and glowing with unnatural splendor were soon added, the ritual going on and on.

The full moon, the primary focal point for the energies was in perfect position, the power of the other system guiding their less than savory task. They could almost imagine her smiling on them, gifting them with more of her unused and untapped power.

It was a minor delusion, of course, but Mindsplit could care less.

This night was the most planned out night in the history of the world. Thousands had tried their hand to make their plans around the summer solstice, and of the astronomer's, well, they secretly celebrated the closest the moon had been in a thousand years.

The land itself seemed happy with the sky, and indeed, the stars seemed to dancing happily.

Mindsplit chanced a look upwards just in time to see four stars move out of place and glide towards the moon.

Of the battalion that had been assembled, only a few remained. Nightmare moon's attack had devastated the castle that they had been sent to take. A few of them still remained.

They would take the castle with the reduced amount of troops.

The moons was clear and the sky itself seemed to revolt.

Ironguard let out a hearty chuckle and rallied his troops. "Our enemy is defeated!" He yelled to the heavens. "Their black god has done their job for us! Of the few that are left, one is guarding what we can only assume to be their weapon, and the others sacrificed themselves so their leader could flee like the coward he is."

The six or seven unicorns took their cue and walked into the ruined building and ignored the still falling bits of mortar. Their leader knew best.

Silverstream let her tears fall to the ground and wet the damp floors. "It's gone." She wailed. The crumpled form of her friend lay before her, his horn still sparking up a powerful shield to stop the ceiling from caving in.

"Leave me. I'll be fine. Take the human and escape into the forest. They won't find you." His vibrant smiled flashed at her.

"I love you..." She whispered, a wet tear splashing against his face.

"I'll be fine." He lied. They both knew that he was going to die. "Go salvage this. I'll see you soon." The large shield buckled, a hint of failing mortar falling through a single crack.

"But..."

"Go." He hissed, but it didn't reach his eyes. "I love you Silverstream."

The human lay where he had been before, his torso streaked with blood and his body slowly healing from the magic placed on him. She turned away from Sunburst and picked the thing up on her back. She dared to look back at him. "See you soon." She whispered, then disappeared into the passages of the castle.

My dreams were of nothing but flying.