The Hub

Hushed whispers get passed among the populace milling about in one of the numerous markets of The Hub. They're rapid-paced and passed around like the money they used. Haphazardly and without a single thought. But the rise of new rumors and secrets aren't the only thing rising within the hearts and minds of the citizens of The Hub. The secrets and rumors are nothing more than a means to get their fear up. They must be made aware of some of the truths.

Death would come for them all.

And it will not be denied.

But that was for later. The now is simply raising awareness and allowing those that wish to escape their fate have a chance. Of course, there are those here that can't escape anywhere knowing that their world is either dead or about to die. Many Twilights have passed through, many have stayed, and many have left and never returned. The one thing that has never happened is the destruction of a Twilight within this world.

Not until yesterday.

"Did you hear? An entire section was completely erased! It was like nothing was ever there in the first place!"

"They say the death toll is at least over 300 Twilights! That could've been one of us! What are they gonna do to protect us!?"

"I hear there wasn't even a fight. It was just taken and nobody did anything about it."

"Could Grand know something about it?"

"Maybe I should just go home..."

Reaper moves silently through the streets hearing all the rumors she can possibly hear. She keeps them locked away into the back of her mind to report into the right people later but first comes her duties. Behind her are Forestlight and Necron. Two fairly useful Twilights when it comes to a situation involving chaos and death.

Forestlight has a fairly small evergreen tree growing out of the top of her head with roots lacing in and out of her neck and back. Her ears have branches growing out of them and most of her mane and tail are laced with vines and leaves. Her irises are a mix of sickly neon green and the usual purple of most Twilights. She's full-on equine with the difference being the tree stumps for hooves.

Necron's features are mainly hidden away by the large enchanted robe she wears down to the bottom of her hooves. What's mainly known about her is that despite being equine, she walks on her hind hooves as if she's anthropomorphic or a human. She doesn't seem to be hindered by this and is thought to have been one of the two creatures before being turned into an equine. Or perhaps she died in another life and put her soul into the body of an equine. Her steely purple eyes can still be seen glowing despite the void like darkness emitted by the hood she constantly wears.

Everybody they pass by seems to go quiet and begin to shudder from the pure necrotic and chaos energy they put off. By no means, they are not the most powerful of their arts but they are one of the ones that are most cooperative with it. They come from vastly different worlds, but their bonds have grown strong over the years of working together and making headway after headway. Not that anybody would know outside of the Guards.

Which brings them to their current situation of having to deal with something that falls directly int heir district. The means of death in this world have always been unknown. Many have attempted to kill one another and nothing has ever happened. It's just one of the many truths of this world that Twilights can not kill Twilights.

Of course not without the proper means.

The problem with telling everybody you'll be safe is that that isn't always the truth. It's easy to tell a little lie in order to keep a populace calm and collected, but such a little lie becomes a big truth to them. And when the truth of something that's the very ground of all of them is broken, where do they stand? The carpet had been pulled and everyone is falling over.

"Hey!" A passerby yells stepping into the path of the three creatures, "Where the hell is our safety! I was told that nothing would happen to me as long as I was in here! That I couldn't die by any means!"

"And you haven't," Necron says staring past the random Twilight.

"Not today... but what about tomorrow! What about a couple of days from now! How the hell do you explain what happened yesterday! They just up and vanished! With everything else and nobody can explain anything to us! They're no eyewitnesses which, by the by, is even crazier than everything else! What sort of shit are you trying to cover up!"

"Yea! He's right!"

"Where's the truth! What have you lied about!"

"Where are my friends!"

"We want the truth! We want the truth! We want the truth!" They begin chanting with fevered repetition and growing numbers.

Forestlight takes a deep breath of air before the tree on top of her head begins to glow. Four large green foliage appears around the three before closing them off to the rest of the world. It sinks into the streets before appearing elsewhere.

The three begin walking away still hearing the chants a bit away.

"You know they won't like that, dodging the question, we'll just be adding fuel to the proverbial fire," Necron speaks out in whispers overlapping one another.

"That's why we have a PR team. They'll clean up our mess and we'll make sure they don't bite the dust too early." Reaper replies, "We have a mission and we can't let civilians stop us from completing it."

"I suppose so," Necron says a hoof sliding into themselves and producing a book from it holds.

Necron flips the book several pages before stopping and looking around, "We should prepare ourselves. We'll be getting close soon."

"The ground around us is tainted," Forest speaks out suddenly before stopping.

"It'll be coming back then. Whether soon or later, we'll have to wait and see." Necron says putting away the book back inside of the robes.

"Just don't die," Reaper says trying to keep a vigilant eye out for whatever caused the problem they're having to deal with.

"You say that like it was ever an option." Necron chuckles in many estranged voices.

"Survivor stop!" Clergy yells blocking said pony's way, "Will you just listen to me for o-"

"No! We can do something about this! We know ponies affected by this and I-"

"This goes far beyond just us we"

"Need to work together! But you won't do it! I-"

"It's suicidal! You'll never make it through something of that magnitude! Pinkielight wo-"

The crack of a hoof against face brings the rapid argument to an end.

"Don't you dare use her name to persuade me. Survivor says tears brimming at the edge of her vision her hoof pulling back to back at her side from silencing Clergy.

Clergy just stares off at the side the two of them not saying anything for a moment before Clergy steps out of the way of Survivor.

"Fine. But I'm coming with you. I've enjoyed my time with you too much to just let you die off without proper rites."

Survivor throws her body against Clergy and holds her tightly before pulling back with a cocky smile and misty eyes, "I'm called Survivor for a reason."

"Yea, well. They should've called you cockroach instead."

Grand slams her hooves against her desk snapping it in half as the pony before she shakes her head.

The pony in questionnever mattered and will never matter.

"Get.... out..." She growls at the creature before her.

My words are only meant for her

"I'll be damned if I let you do as you pleased."

This story was never meant for them.

Grand's horn lights up and her crown begins to glow a bright neon teal as power flows through her body. A beam of energy is fired into the creature sending it nowhere as is simply moves out of the way of the beam.

She always had such a bad temper.

"i'll kill you."

She couldn't. No one could. Maybe you, but you're not here.

The creature dissapates without another word leaving her with thoughts and questions. Grand tosses the destruction of her desk out the nearby window shattering it before yelling and proceeding to destroy the rest of her office space smashing pictures, rewards, and busts.