Twilight's Memories

Twilight ran as fast as she could; the noise of her hooves hitting the cobblestone echoed loudly through the alleyway. Taking a glance behind her, she tried to catch a glance to the thing chasing her. When she saw nothing, she slowed and just trotted along. Her wings itched painfully as they bled from many of the feathers having been violently plucked from her flesh. Resisting the urge to stop and scratch, she pressed onward.

Windows and doors on the decrepit buildings were either boarded up or broken. Most plants were dry and brown. The only green from some of the ivy climbing the cracked stonework of the buildings and the street. The sky was dark and full of clouds. This didn’t look like the Ponyville Twilight remembered.

Twilight shouted in pain and dropped to the ground. Her head was violently pounding. She couldn’t remember why everything looked this way. Why couldn’t she remember? With her eyes clenched shut in pain, she gasped for breath. It took a few minutes before she could wrench her eyes open.

Getting up on shaky legs, Twilight scanned the surroundings in fear that something heard her shout. Sighing in relief at the lack of movement, she went onwards. She knew she had to get to the castle; there had to be a clue or something there. There was still a small pounding in her head, flaring every time her hooves hit the ground.

The once grand castle stood crumbling. Twilight felt a few tears burning the corners of her eyes as she gently brushed her hoof down a crack in the wall. Swallowing her grief, she pushed open the doors. The rusted hinges squeaked loudly, echoing down to the dilapidated town below. Once she entered, she closed the doors. She had to barricade the doors. Her horn sparked a few times as she tried to levitate over a bookcase. Not matter how hard she focused, she couldn’t seem to muster up enough magic to levitate even a small book. She had to opt to manually push and drag a couple bookshelves over to the door to hold them shut.

The air inside reeked of mold and dust. Racking her brain, she tried to pull some memories from the interior. No matter how hard she tried, there was nothing. With a deep breath and a sigh, she moved through the halls. There was a small glimmer of hope that maybe someone was in the castle. ‘There had to be,’ she told herself. Spike. Starlight. Anyone.

But there was no one.

Entering the map room, she sat down in her chair. The map glitched a few times on the table before sputtering away. Twilight screamed in frustration. Nothing was working. She couldn’t fly, she couldn’t use magic, and she couldn’t use the map to find her friends. Slamming her hoof onto the table, dust shot up from the contact.

Hours passed as Twilight paced the room. She had gathered what lore books and medical books she could find. There had to be something that caused this. The first thing she did was open one of the lore books. A small note fell out.

Twilight,

As you have probably already noticed, nothing is the way you remember it. I promise that the reason for it has saved your life. But now it is up for you to stop it. I have left a few notes here and there to help you out. Places I know you will search to find answers. I knew you’d open this book first. Look at the page I marked for you. I know it’s dog-eared but I didn’t have a choice. I hope you can save use before it gets too far.

Twilight

Twilight stared with her mouth agape. It was her writing and her signature. She did this? Slowly lowering the note, her gaze shifted to the book. Opening it, she waved away the dust. Flipping through the pages, she found the one with the folding over corner. She smoothed the corner as she read the contents of the page.

She poured over the words. Unnamed beasts of old, ponies twisted by their greed and forced to wander Equestria, feeding on flesh and turning those who had just as much greed in their hearts. The was a small drawing of the creature. It looked quickly scribbled, but what Twilight saw looked like the creature that she previously ran from.

But what did this have to do with her memories? There had to be more than this. This book states that all of these creatures were either killed or banished to Tartarus. There just had to be more. None of this made sense. Skimming through the rest of the books, there was nothing else on the creatures.

Maybe there was another note hidden somewhere? Twilight had to look to make sure. She searched every nook and cranny of the castle but came up with nothing but dust. Why couldn’t she have just told herself where to look? ‘That would be too easy,’ she told herself. Whatever this was, it was obvious that it was big and dangerous. Even worse than the monster she just ran from. Shuddering at the thought, she sat down.

Twilight absentmindedly scratched the wounds on her wings. She felt so alone; the company of books, which normally sated her, did nothing to quell her feelings. She stewed in her thoughts, going over every place she could’ve placed another note. A wave a panic went over her as she realized that every place she thought of meant she had to leave the safety of the castle. She took a deep breath and stood on shaking legs. An empty pit formed in her stomach. It hurt. It took her a moment to decipher what the pain meant. She was hungry.

Twilight wasn’t expecting to be hungry. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten and the fear and panic of being chased had faded, leaving her to feel other emotions and senses. She was starving. Running to the kitchen, she threw open cupboards and cabinets. Everything she found was either moldy or eaten by rats and bugs. There was nothing to eat in the castle.

Another reason to go outside was added to the mental checklist. Twilight took another deep breath, trying to calm her fears of going outside. She was going to run to Sugarcube Corner. It was the closest place and had to have something in it. Running through battle plans and trying to think of a way to barricade the doors of the bakery, she walked to the door of the castle. She looked at the bookshelves in front of the door and gulped in fear. She slowly took down her barricade.