"I won't be gone long Spike, even if it is the Everfree Forest. I can handle myself perfectly fine." Twilight spoke with great confidence. So what if this was the certain forest where the darkest reaches may hold death itself?Don't think like that! You're gonna scare yourself!. Now Twilight sighed, which in turn uneasesed Spike even more.
"You're sure you wanna go in there alone? Even for you it may be a...challenge." Spiked concern wasn't hidden in his speech. His words oozed with worry, even though his dear friend had a great deal of powerful magic in her.
"I have to Spike," Twilight emitted compasion in her words, she was trying to ease Spikes mind. "You know that the material I need for my experiment on flammable gases is only in that Forest." Twilight could still see unease in the baby dragon and truth be told, her own words didn't really comfort her as well.
"I know you're dedicated and all to your work but please reconsider this time?" This was Spikes last blow to try and stop her. Twilight's dedication overwhelmed her. "Sorry Spike, but I must do this, for knowledge!" And with that, Twilight exited the library, possibly for the last time for all she knew, and trotted towards the Everfree Forest.
There was to be no visit to Zecora today, Twilight wanted to get in, get what she needed, and get out before anythign bad did actually happen, and it has. Twilight has been pranked by poisonous plants and frozen in stone in this forest, she didn't want to add injured or dead to the list. As she entered deeper into the forest it thickened in foaliage. The lights began to dim more and more. It was almost like night time, only it was one in the afternoon. Twilights nerves began to rise a bit at the ever increasing darkness. This part of the Forest was rarely ventured due to the likely nature of bad things happening. The forest dotting the edge of ponyville was nothing compared to the vile things that supposedly inhabited this deep, dark corner of it.
The darkness now was so intense that Twilight now had to utilize her horn in order to make light. When she ould see again and continue forwards, her worries lowered a bit. She knew she was almost to where she needed to be. Of course, she brought a map. All she needed to find was this de-formed rock shaped like an arrow in a way. "Aha!" Twilight had found the rock, along with deciding it didn't really form an arrow, it was more of a pointed spike. And behind the rock layed.... "Nothing?!" screamed Twilight. All this way for nothing? No, there was in fact a strange glowing behind a rock a little further on. Could this be the item Twilight needed? She carefully trotted over to the rock. When she looked behind she found a most perculiar thing. It was a glowing thorn bush."Weird..." Twilight approached the strange plant and examined it. She had never heard nor read anything about this type of plant life. Nothing looked wrong about it, aside from the fact that it was glowing a strange hue of green. Twilight leaned forward to touch a leaf on the bush with her hoof. When she did...."Ah!"....she slipped on some mud below her. When Twilight looked up at her foreleg, she noticed she had scratched herself with one of the thorns while falling.
Twilight began to feel woosy. This shouldn't happen when injured by a thorn bush right? Twilight thought that only a bit of stinging would come out of a scratch like that. She began to worry. The world around began morphing in her vison. It was melting and contorting itself like crazy. She began to freak out. "Help! I've been injured! Can anypony hear me?!" The Darkness around her began to close in at an alarming rate. Was she going to pass out? Possibly.....die?! Thoughts of horror began to rush through her mind. Her legs began to numb. Sweet Celestia, what was this plant?! Twilight fell to the muddy ground as her numbed legs could no longer keep her on balance. Darkness still enclosed around her. Twilight suddenly became very cold. It felt like ice was running down her spine. Right before the darkness took hold of her she was severely twitching. Twilight believed this was the end. She succumbed to the darkness and fell unconcious.
................
Twilight woke up. Not only was she surprised that she might possibly still be alive but she was surrounded by white. Nothing but....the color white for what looked like miles. Is this a dream? Am I dead? Thoughts once again rushed through her head. Was she actually still alive? If so, where was she and why is it....white? Where ever she was, she felt...free. She felt light and as if she could fly. She felt safe. Was this a good or bad thing though? It didn't look like there was anypony else in this bizzare....wasteland maybe? She then saw a small flash due north...or was it south? Were there directions here?
"Stop asking yourself these questions, Twilight, focus on the flash. It may mean something..." She desperately hoped it meant answers, or at least something slightly helpful. She noticed where this flash ahd taken place it had started to get a bit darker. Twilight realized that this darkness was also heading her way. This made her uuncomfortable. What uneased her out of her mind now was that the darkness was not only coming her way, but at a very fast velocity as well. Twilight tried to run but her legs failed her. For some reason, her legs refused to move! "Oh Celestia, help me please!"
Her legs now began to drip blood. She could feel it running down her legs in small streams. Twilight looked down and saw what appeared to be....bite marks? From what?! Not only was she stuck and began approached by a haze of night, now her legs looked and felt like they were being bitten by a creature. All she could do was watch with horror as the Darkness came overhead and made everything pitch black. Twilight could not see, but she could still feel. She still felt pain in her legs but something new had come up. Woosiness again?! "Please, not again!"
This time it was different. All that happened is that she fell unconcious again. Before she went "dark" however, Twilight swore she heard a distant laugh. An evil laugh.
................
Her eyes slowly opened and closed. She was still in a daze from what appeared now to have been a dream. More like a nightmare.... When Twilight had fully regained her senses she looked around. It looked lik she was in the basement of the library. Did somepony come and find her? Wait, why was she in the basement? The pain in her legs had returned again, only real this time. She looked at her arms and screamed. She was being held slightly in the air by four demonic creatures spawning from the ground. Their teeth sunk deep into her legs to hold her there. "Heeeelp! Is anypony there?!" Twilight's screams echoed through the basement, but there was only one reply.
"Oh! It seems little miss Sleepy Sparkle has woken up! And how did we sleep my dear?" The voice had hints of teasing and sarcasm that angered Twilight a little bit. What scared her was that the voice sounded like.....her! A slightly distorted version of herself. How could that be? "I'm sure you are wondering where in the world you are." With that, out stepped a purple mare with a black and white cutie mark of a star or sparkle like Twilight's. She had all black eyes and a dark purple mane. The lower parts of her legs were black. She had very small neon blue pupils as well. "I am Dimmed Star and welcome to the realm of Equinox, or as you normal ponies would probably call it, Hell."
"Realm?! But, there is only one realm!" Twilight was really confused. This Dimmed Star not only sounded like a demonic version of her, but looked like a demonic version of her as well! "Your kind are really uneducated aren't they? Funny, we assumed you were smarter than this...hehe." Once again, more teasing. "What do you mean we?" Twilight confusion still hadn't resided. "This is an alternate dimension, we have known about yours. The rest of your friends have counterparts here. You could technically say that I am you!" "I am not you!" Twilight's anger was almost boiling over from the constant teasing. "Isn't that cute? The fleshling is angry! Hmmm, you haven't asked about those creatures yet have you?" Dimmed Star was treating Twilight like a dummy. "Anyways, I can control them. That's why you are in the air right now. I told them to sink their maliciously sharp teeth into your flesh and bone and hold you there. Hehe, painful isn't it meat sack?"
The pain from these creatures was indeed quite great but Twilight's anger almost over shadowed it. "What was that plant?" Twilight still had questions for her captor. "A portal. You see, our Princess wishes that your world was like ours. Sadly, we cannot go there, so we made a trap to, well, trap your kind and bring them here. We then infect them with the Equinox gas which turns them into one of us! It's so fun to watch them squirm!" Twilight was revolted by this....pony. This world was indeed Hell. "Are you gonna give me the gas too?" "Oh no! You see, I redirected the portal to land you here. The princess has forbidden me to interfere with the turning of the normal ones. I had a feeling the one like me was going to show up and I wanted to have some....personal time together." Dimmed Star grinned and bared pointed teeth.
Dimmed Star pulled up a table of tools. They were all covered in blood. "You and me both have interests in experimenting. The difference is I prefer dark magic and more morbid topics. For example, does pony flesh taste better with spices or not? That was a fun one! With spices of course though, heehee!" This mare was truly insane! "What are you going to do to me?!" Twilight tried to squirm the creatures on her legs off as she said this, she only worsened the pain. "Isn't it obvious? You are my lab rat today! Wanna play doctor?! Heehee!" Twilight eyes widened in terror. Was she about to be tortured?! Dimmed Star suddenly came to close for comfort, right in Twilight's face. The twisted mare began to whisper and growl in her face. "When I'm done with you your gonna be squirming like a worm and wishing you were never born! Let's begin shall we?!"
"First question: How much pain does a unicorn feel when I do this?" Dimmed Star's horn began to glow red. She then was levitating a bone saw in front of Twilight. Twilight braced for whatever was about to happen. The bone saw came up to her horn and began sawing violently. It felt as if Twilight's head was on fire! She could feel her bone grind away, blood started trickling down her forehead. Dimmed Star stopped at halfway through the horn. Blood and tears were in Twilight's eyes and she was screaming in severe pain. Dimmed Star then summoned another demon helper. It clasped its jaws on Twilight's loose horn. "Tear it off my darling." Immediately the creature began to yank on the horn. Twilight screams got even louder. Her head was being jerked side to side violently. More blood was rushing down her face. Blood was also splattered everywhere from her head being jerked as well.
Crack!
Twilight's horn lay on the ground in front of her. She was crying severely and could not form words. "It's not like your magic would've worked here anyways but it is an experiment after all!" Dimmed Star wore a sinister grin on her face. She was also spotted with blood here and there. "But we aren't done yet! My oh my you are bleeding, heehee!" The pain Twilight felt was almost to much to bear. Her legs and head were now throbbing severely. Why was this mare doing this? ".....why.....?" Twilight moaned. "I just wanna have fun and learn, silly filly! You of all ponies should know that, we are basically the same!" Dimmed Star now levitated a small sledge hammer. "How many bones do I need to break before a normal pony passes out?" With that, the blows came unrelentlessly. Twilight felt bones in her legs shatter like glass as Dimmed Star laughed. Twilight then once again passed out.
.............
When she woke back up she found herself strapped to a metal table. The pain from earlier was gone however. Was it all a dream? "Look who's awake again! You look battered and bruised dear....how cute, heehee!"" Twilight ran cold. The nightmare was continuing! "This time let's play with good old electricity. How many volts does it take to wipe out the pain killing adrenaline in your body? Yes, I relieved you of pain with a pain killer. Enjoy the comfort for the next ten seconds!" Twilight now realized that she was connected to a series of wires that lead to battery. Dimmed Star pulled a switch. All the pain from earlier came back and Twilight screamed. "Awww, that wasn't fun. It all came back at a low voltage. Hmmm, what else can we try?"
As Dimmed Star tried to make a new experiment, Twilight was just wondering how her life had led to this. Her poor friends are going to be devastated if she returns to them injured...or her body returns. She should've listened to Spike today. Now she was being tortured by an insane mare from a different dimension. Twilight began to cry violently. "Shut up! I cant think when you cry like that. Don't worry anyways, we're going to be done soon." Twilight's heart skipped a beat. Was she going to be shown mercy by this terrible beast? "I just need to get a few trophies from you before you...go."
Dimmed Star summoned fours demon helpers and nodded. They shot fotward and began tearing at Twilight's flesh. Her screams were slightly muffled by the growling of the creatures. Blood splattered everywhere. The creatures continued to feast on Twilight until Dimmed Star pulled them back. Twilight had a huge black right eye, she had lost two of her legs, both her cutie marks were torn off, and she had multiple lacerations and chunks of flesh gone. She was also bleeding profusely. "Now you get to go. When say go I mean die. Can't have you telling my princess about what I just did to a normal one. I will give you a gift before you enter the light though."
Another demon helper was summoned. This one flew into Twilight's chest, however it simply glide into it, not creating a hole. "Right now my helper has a hold of your heart. He will soon bite down on your heart giving you a quicker death. If there is one thing I can't stand its basically seeing myself bleedout. Have a nice trip Twilight Sparkle!" Twilight began to feel pressure inside her chest. It was painful but slightly relieving as well. As she was slowly surrounded by bright light she swore she heard a familiar song.
Hush now, quiet now
It's time to lay your sleepy head.
Hush now, quiet now
It's time to go to bed.
