Chapters “Spike, hurry up with the preparations! They said that there will be a lot of shooting stars on the night sky!” Twilight was yelling up the stairs in the library, waiting for Spike, who looked for her telescope as well as her book about astronomy. She heard a rumbling upstairs and went looking. Spike was lying on the ground, buried by a pile of books, which fell out of the shelf. “Uh … Spike? Are you okay?” She was a bit worried as she was asking, but felt the relief as the baby dragon climbed out of the pile of books. “Yes, I am fine. And I found your telescope!” He said, as he held up the telescope with one hand, while he held a book in the other one. “And here we have your book about astronomy! I think you’re ready to stargaze now. But are you really sure about it that you want to be all alone this time?”
“Yes, Spike, I am sure that I want to be alone. This time, I really want to study the celestial phenomena and I don’t want to be distracted. There is nothing you would need to worry about.” Twilight smiled as she realized that Spike worried about her plans to watch this event alone with her telescope and her astronomy book. She went downstairs again, helping Spike with carrying the telescope and the book and putting them into a cart. After the preparations were done, Twilight was looking out of the window. It was a wonderful evening, the sun just went down and colored the area outside of the library in golden and red colors.
But Twilight just couldn’t wait for the night and the stars to come, no matter how beautiful the evening was this day. She was just standing there, watching the sun going down, and the night coming. She lost the track of time and was sunken in her thoughts, as Spike tipped her on the shoulder. “Uh, Twilight … It’s time to go.” He reminded her. “You wanted to be at your spot early so it won’t be occupied when you come, remember?” Twilight smiled and nodded. “Thanks for remembering me, Spike. I should better be going now!” Twilight went over to the cart. “And you really don’t want me to come with you?” Spike was asking his friend another time. “Or at least tell me where you want to go?”
Twilight just shook her head. “No, I want to get my studies done, and I prefer not to be disturbed while doing so. Well, what will you do tonight, Spike?” The purple dragon put a finger on his mouth. “Well … let’s see … I will hang out with the others and watch the shooting stars. You know that Pinkie made some cupcakes just for this occasion?” He was asking, as he was packing his own stuff for the night together. “No, I didn’t know that. But it still won’t change my decision to study tonight.” Spike just shrugged. “Well, when you change your mind, the others agreed on meeting up in Sugarcube Corner. If you want to come, we will be there until the event begins.” He was shouldering his backpack and waving goodbye to Twilight as he left the library.
The unicorn was looking after her friend, as he went down the street into the direction of Ponyvilles sweetshop. She used her magic to pull the cart with the telescope and book after her, as she left the library and walked to a hill outside of the city, just out of the range of sight of anypony who might stand at the border of the city. Also, the hill was covered by a group of trees, which made it the perfect spot to gaze at the stars and doing her studies on them. Soon she had passed the border of the city and stood on top of the hill she picked for this night.
Twilight placed her telescope on the top and checked, if the lenses are clean and if it was working properly, for about the hundredth time now. She placed the book next to the telescope and sat down in front of it. She looked to the sky, which had a dark blue color now and the first stars were appearing, and the moon started to rise. The trees around the hill were silent and rustled as the wind was rushing through them. Yet Twilight felt like she was being watched by somepony around, but she couldn’t see anypony. It was already too dark to see between the trees.
She shrugged, even if there was somepony, he or she probably picked the same spot to stargaze as she did, so she didn’t care about it anymore and waited for the stars to show. Her patience got rewarded as she could spot the first shooting star flying across the dark night sky, followed by another one. And then another one followed the first star. Twilight watched them for a moment, forgetting about her studies. She remembered them and opened up her astronomy book and looked through her telescope, until something caught her attention. It was an almost dark shade on the sky, which she wouldn’t have seen without her telescope. But now, that she saw it, she could follow the shade without her telescope with ease. Whatever it was, it went down to earth somewhere beyond the Everfree Forest and Twilight could see how a blazing light lit up for just about a second.
She couldn’t say how far away it came down nor what it was, but she knew that this event needed further investigations. It must have been almost directly to the southwest. She would have talk to the others to set up an expedition into the southwest to check what had happened there, but for now, Twilight kept on to gaze at the stars. After all, this was still a unique opportunity for her. She kept on with her studies until the last shooting star disappeared, but she didn’t have any success with her studies. She could have spent the night with her friends, but then she probably would have missed how that dark shade on the sky appeared and crashed down. She just needed to know whatever this was, or if it could be a threat to Equestria.
She was walking back to the town now, but the feeling of being watched returned. Twilight shuddered, as she went on. The pale moonlight just lightened up the path she was walking on, but it wasn’t bright enough to show much more. She wished she would have thought of a lantern or any other source of light right now and hurried up to reach Ponyville. It was a relief for the unicorn as she could recognize the dark silhouettes of the houses in the pale moonlight. She threw a look behind her, but couldn’t see anything there. She decided to take a longer route back to the library to check on the Sugarcube Corner. The windows were dark and Twilight just guessed that everypony already went home, so she headed directly to the library now, not risking anymore delays.
As Twilight reached the library and went inside, she found Spike sleeping on a pillow. She tried to walk as silent as possible, trying not to wake the baby dragon up, and went upstairs to her room without causing noise successfully. She spent the rest of the night lying awake and thinking about what she had seen during the starfall. And how to find possible answers to it.
When Twilight woke up the next day, she immediately asked Spike to prepare a longer journey, as well as some journals and her saddle bags, while she went outside to look for her friends. Her first destination was a lonely cloud over the town square, which had a rainbow colored tail hanging from it – which belonged to a certain pegasus. “Hey, Rainbow! Wake up!” Twilight was yelling up to the cloud, without any reaction at first, until Rainbow Dash lifted her head, looked around confused at first, but then she finally was looking down on her friend. “Oh, hi Twilight.” She said, still a bit sleepy. “Why do you wake me up that early in the morning? Is it important?”
“Well, did you see something crashing down on earth beyond the Everfree Forest during the starfall last night?” Twilight could see how her friend thought about it and tried to remember. “No, I don’t think so. We all were in Sugarcube Corner and went outside late to star gaze a bit. You surely missed a fine party there.” Twilight pointed her hoof over the horizon. “Well, something came down, and I want to investigate what came down there.” Rainbow had suddenly a sad look on her face. “Well, if you want to do that, you will have to do it without me. You know, work and all that. No time.” She waved with her hoof through the air. “Somepony in Cloudsdale got the weird idea to register every single pegasus in Cloudsdale and Ponyville, and they’re really going to pull it through.”
Rainbow was annoyed about this, and not just a little bit. “This means just waiting for hours in some office or whatever. I would rather travel with you through Everfree Forest than doing this stuff. But I have to pass.” The pegasus shook her head. “Sorry, Twi.” Twilight nodded. “I can imagine. Well, I guess I’ll go ask Pinkie then. See you!” Twilight waved at her friend on the cloud, who saluted shortly as a goodbye. "See ya around, Twi!” Rainbow said, spread her wings and took off into direction of Cloudsdale, while Twilight went into the direction of Sugarcube Corner.
The doorbell rang as Twilight opened the door and entered the sweets shop. Mrs. Cake was standing behind the counter. “Well, hello Twilight. How can I help you?” She was asking as soon as she saw the purple unicorn entering the store. “I wanted to ask Pinkie if she would come on an expedition with me into the southwest. Do you know where she is?” Twilight just had said the last few words, as she already could hear the pink pony working in the kitchen of the sweets shop and could see her through the door behind the counter how she balanced a baking tray fully loaded with muffins and cupcakes on her head over to a table.
As she left the kitchen to tell Mrs. Cake that she had finished another tray, she just noticed the unicorn in the sales room. “Hi Twilight! Do you want a muffin? I just made some!” The pink pony was euphoric as always. “Uh, not now Pinkie, thanks. I actually came here to ask you if you would want to come with me on an expedition into the southwest.” Pinkie looked at her friend in a silly manner. “I’m sorry Twilight, but I have so much cupcakes and muffins to make right now, it is a large order, no time, no time!” The pink pony rushed back into the kitchen again to make another tray of goods. “Well … see you then … I guess.” She waved goodbye to Mrs. Cake and left the store. No Pinkie, no Rainbow. She crossed Applejack off the list directly since it was applebucking season. She surely wouldn’t have the time to go with her on a long journey into the southwest. That left Rarity and Fluttershy on the list.
Twilight firstly went to Raritys house. It took Rarity a while until she opened up the door as Twilight knocked, and she didn’t really talk to Twilight, even as she opened up the door. “Twilight? You? I don’t have time now, I have a lot of dresses to create! No time!” And then she slammed the door shut in front of Twilights nose, who was standing confused outside of the house with widened eyes. Sweetie Belle suddenly came walking by the unicorn. “Don’t worry, Twilight. Rarity is just really busy because of that big order of dresses she got.” Twilight shook her head and shrugged. Guess that his leaves Fluttershy as companion for the expedition.
When Twilight arrived at Fluttershys cottage, the pegasus couldn’t be seen anywhere around. She knocked at the door, and Fluttershy opened the door after a moment. “Oh, Twilight. Uh … What brings you here today?” Twilight just sighed and told the story once again. “Well … Uhm … you should probably just go with Spike … I’m surely not the one you want to come with you on such a long journey …” Her voice faded more with each word. Twilight tried a last time to talk her into coming with her. “Come on, Fluttershy, it will just be a fast check of what happened over there and we will be back in no time, you’ll see!” The pegasus just gave in to her friend. “Okay … I’ll come with you. Just let me pack my things.” Twilight waited patiently as her friend was packing her saddle bags, and came out of her cottage again.
“Well, then let’s go! Spike is waiting for us at the library.” Fluttershy didn’t say anything and just followed her friend to the library, were Spike waited with a backpack and Twilights saddlebags, everything packed and ready. On Twilights question about the backpack, he shrugged. “I won’t let you go on such a long journey without coming with you myself.” Twilight nodded as a confirmation, and the purple dragon climbed on her back. “Well then, let’s go then into the southwest!” Twilight said to her friends, as they started their journey into the direction of Everfree Forest.
The trio wandered on the path leading through the Everfree Forest and beyond. It was an old path which usually wasn’t used anymore, since nopony wanted to go through the Forest. But since Fluttershy was the only one who could fly over the trees, they had to take the ground route through it. “Uh … Twilight … do we have to go through Everfree Forest?” Fluttershy was the one who asked, and Twilight turned her head to her friend, who was walking next to her. “Well, Fluttershy, this is the fastest route to where I think that thing came down. And the route around Everfree Forest will take some months, and you know that aswell as I do.” Fluttershy just whispered something, what neither Spike nor Twilight could understand at all.
They didn’t ask what she said and just kept on walking – until they reached the borders of Everfree Forest. The dark trees of the forest reached high in the sky before them, and it seemed like the sky turned from a bright blue into a dim grey where the borderline of the trees began. They stood a while in front of the trees, before Twilight was starting to walk ahead of the others, until Spike grabbed her tail and pulled her back. “Do we really have to go through the Forest? I don’t want to go in there!” He was trying to explain as Twilight looked at him furiously. “Either we go through there or we will spend months wandering around. Come on, what could possibly happen?” Twilight turned around and kept on walking ahead.
Sure, the Everfree Forest wasn’t really inviting to take a walk between its trees, but as long as they stay on the way they should be safe from whatever lives in this dark forest. Twilight assured herself that her friends were following her by turning her head over her should and looking behind. Spike just followed her, while Fluttershy was looking around anxious. It probably was not a good idea to bring her here, since she is so fearful and shy. But Twilight knew that she would keep by her side. Also she felt a bit fear as they walked through the dark and silent forest, but she suppressed it. Twilight thought she could see some shades dancing through the shadows of the forest, but she was sure that they were just imaginations of her winds, caused by the dark look of the forest around and the quiet, yet audible rustling of the leaves above them, as the cool wind was rushing through the leaves.
They reached an old, wooden bridge over a lake. The water was dark green and dirty and full of dead leaves. Twilight was the first to step on the bridge, which let out a loud creak as she put her hoof on it. She stepped back and looked closely at the wooden bridge. She didn’t trust it, but the sea was too large to walk around it. Carefully she was stepping on the bridge, which let out another creak. And even more carefully she walked across it, reaching the other side safely. Spike, who was much lighter than a pony, followed her immediately without even causing the bridge to creak. The last one who had to cross the bridge was Fluttershy, who didn’t think about using her wings to fly over the bridge instead of risking crossing the old, wooden bridge. It once creaked loudly, and then the pegasus broke through the wood, hanging on the edge with her hooves. She did not even had the time to scream.
Twilight didn’t think twice about using her magic as she slowly walked back on the bridge, carefully so she wouldn’t break down too. She almost reached Fluttershy and caught her in the last moment before the pegasus would have lost her grip. Twilight pulled her up onto the bridge again, which creaked dangerously. They crossed the bridge carefully, so none of them would break through the rotten wood again. As they reached the other side where Spike waited for them, Twilight just turned over to Fluttershy. “Do us all a favor and just fly over the bridge next time, ok?” Fluttershy blushed and remained silent, but nodded.
They continued their way through the forest, occasionally meeting small animals that crossed their path. At dusk, they started… to look for a shelter for the night and soon found a small cave. “Fluttershy, you gather some firewood, I will check the cave to see if something is in there.” The pegasus nodded and immediately started collecting small sticks. Meanwhile Twilight lifted the next larger branch she could find with her magic and let it hover it in front of Spikes face. “Spike,” she said, “Fire!” The baby dragon took a deep breath and spat fire on the branch. Twilight then went into the cave, checking to see if anything was hiding in there. It turned out that the cave went deeper inside the earth than she expected. There was possible a tunnel network below there, not that she cared much about this. They just need a shelter for the night.
As Twilight stepped outside again, Fluttershy and Spike had gathered a good amount of firewood and piled it up to a small stack. It was mostly some sticks and branches, and it would burn down pretty quickly, but it was the best they could get, as it was already getting dark. Twilight lifted the stack with her magic and carried it into the cave, where Spike lit it up with a small flame. The fire lightened up the cave and spread nice warmth around it. While Spike and Fluttershy rolled up and tried to sleep, Twilight was lying awake and watched the dark forest outside of the cave, but she could see nothing but darkness.
But when something moved out there, Twilight got alarmed. Whatever it was, it probably was not as nice as the wild animals back at Fluttershys cottage. They traveled already deep into the forest, and it was night. Nopony really knew what could be lurking through the shadows outside of their cave. Twilight threw some more wood into the fire. The fire crackled as it got fresh material. Twilight hoped that the fire would keep most wild animals away from their shelter, and that she and her friends would make it through the forest without major problems. She kept staring into the darkness, she registered a small shade moving outside of their cave, standing in the shadow, but couldn’t tell if it was a pony or a wild animal. She tried to look closer, but then it fled. It probably was just a harmless animal.
Twilight was lying down again and tried not to fall asleep, but she couldn’t help herself. It felt like she closed her eyes for just a second. When she was awakened by cracking of branches and the rustling of leaves outside of the cave, she first saw that the fire went out and then stared into the darkness around. She wasn’t sure if she could see anything, but as the rustling came closer, she thought that it would be better to wake up her friends. She gave her best to wake up Spike as silent as possible, and as he woke up, she gave him the sign to remain silent. But Fluttershy wasn’t used to be woken up in the dead of night and let out a small scream, which was stopped quickly by Twilight as she closed the pegasus’ mouth with her hoof, so she couldn’t let out a scream.
They hid behind a rock, as the pale moonlight revealed a dark silhouette of something large coming to the cave. It was shambling almost in front of the trio, but didn’t notice them yet. The creature let out a deep growl as it vanished in the darkness of the cave. Twilight was sighing, relieved that it didn’t notice them, as the creature went into the deeper parts of the cave. They waited a while in their hideout, and then they moved out again. Twilight looked into the shades of the cave. “Well, we can’t stay here now. We have to move on.” While Fluttershy was too scared to contradict, Spike wasn’t too eager to stay in the cave either. They moved on with their journey into the southwest, now through the darkness of the forest and the cool of the nightly air.
They moved as silent as possible, they didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to themselves, especially not in the dead of night, far away from any hideout. Luckily they weren’t encountering any other creature of the forest, but Twilight noticed that the shapes of the trees were slowly changing, the silhouettes of the trees, which reached high into the sky, were slowly changing into crippled versions of themselves the further the trio went into the southwest. Also they could feel the cover of grass and dead leaves below them change into bare earth. Also the nightly noises of the forest hushed away and an unnatural silence fell over the forest. A silence none of them liked really much, but they didn’t think about turning back. They kept on moving ahead, even now that they just got a bit sleep and still were tired.
Their journey was silent, none of them spoke a word until the dawn of the new day was breaking and the morning light let them see where they exactly where. Twilight examined one of the trees that were growing around them now. The bark was unnaturally pale and withered, as if the tree hadn’t received watered since a long time, but she didn’t recognize that kind of tree, and Fluttershy didn’t know either those trees. She never went that deep into the forest, by Twilights estimation they should be past the old castle already.
They didn’t care much about the trees besides that they looked kind of spooky and went on with their journey. Twilight also noticed another change: The further they went into the southwest, where that thing she saw during the meteor shower came down, the more the land became a barren wasteland. She didn’t know if this was a bad omen or not, but she certainly didn’t felt good about it. Spike was the first one to break the silence that fell over them since the night. “Twilight? When do you think will we reach our destination?” The unicorn just shrugged. “I don’t know. We will know when we’re there.”
“But when will we be there? I’m tired of walking!” Spike complained. He only stopped to complain as Twilight agreed to carry him also on her back. She wouldn’t turn back just because of a complaining baby dragon. They almost reached the end of the forest, as Twilight heard the cracking of branches again. They stood still and waited if something showed up, but nothing happened. Twilight shrugged and moved on. “I guess it was nothing. Let’s move on.” She said. The unicorn turned her head around to see if her friends were following her so she didn’t see where she walked. She walked past the last tree, not realizing she was walking towards a hillside. Luckily she turned her head to where she was walking in the last moment and stopped right in the same moment she could see the abyss before her. Spike was the one who pulled her back and risking an own look down. “Well, this is surely deep. If Fluttershy isn’t able to carry us both across this abyss, we need to find a way around it, Twilight.”
The unicorn turned her head to her winged friend. “So, Fluttershy … can you carry Spike and me over there?” The shy pegasus looked at the abyss. “I bet that Rainbow Dash could do it, but I doubt that I could fly Spike and you over there …” Twilight nodded. “Well … then I guess we will have to look for another way across this abyss.” She looked around and pointed to a path at the side of the abyss. “There is a path. Let’s follow it, it is not like we don’t have much of a choice anyway.” Twilight took the lead again and walked ahead of the others, following the unknown path without any idea where it would lead them.
They were walking on the dull path now for some hours for sure, but the landscape was always the same now: Grey rocks and a deep abyss beneath them. The sky had turned grey long time ago, and they had used up almost all their supplies. Anyway, they were close to the point where Twilight assumed that thing came down. The land around them wasn’t just barren anymore, it was literally a wasteland. It seemed like an eternity ago that they had seen a plant. Or, at least couldn’t spot a plant that was actually alive. All they could find were crippled and withered versions of plants which looked like they were dead for a long time. Neither one of them could imagine a plant or any wildlife who could live in a wasteland like this anyway. The path led downwards now, and they followed it, soon reaching the ground of the abyss. It was just like anywhere else, except for the bones lying around.
“Uh … Twilight … could we turn around and just … walk the way back we came here?” Spike was the one to ask what every single one of them thought – except for Twilight. “Spike, nothing could live in a wasteland like this. Those bones are surely very old. No need to worry.” Fluttershy kept quiet, but Twilight could see that the pegasus was scared, and Twilight could understand why. This place wasn’t very inviting, and she wasn’t sure if the bones were really old – she thought she could see a small bit of flesh on one of them, which gave her a queasy feeling. If the one who left the bones here was around them, Twilight just hoped that they wouldn’t run into it, as she pointed with her hoof on the other side of the abyss. “Look – there is the way up. It seems to be quite steep though.” She said, and the others were looking into the direction she was pointing. Twilight could hear Spike gulping behind her.
“Any chance you can carry me up there, Twilight?” He asked, but he just earned a smile of his friend. “You will walk with me. The way up will be hard enough even without the weight of a baby dragon on my back.” Spike sighed as he heard this, but wasn’t complaining about it. They started to follow the path. As they walked up, Fluttershy walked close by Twilight. ““Do you know exactly what we’re looking for?” The pegasus asked her friend. “No, I don’t really know, that’s why I want to investigate what came down there.” The unicorn turned her head to Spike, as she answered Fluttershy, before she spoke to Spike. “And yes, Spike, we should be there soon. I think it is somewhere behind this abyss.” After all, Twilight thought that it was too easy to cross this abyss, but she didn’t complain – why shouldn’t it be easy for once?
It turned out that Twilight was wrong. It was not even a second ago she had those thoughts, as the ground under her hooves began shaking and slid away. While Fluttershy fluttered up in a reaction of the ground moving below her hooves and Spike clung to one of Fluttershys hooves, Twilight was the only one who was sliding downwards, until the pegasus got hit by a rock and got also caught in the landslide. It was mostly just gravel and small rocks but Twilight could feel how she got hit by some larger rocks, not hard though, but it hurt. She closed her eyes and waited till the landslide stopped moving. She had the luck to end up at the top of the landslide, it didn’t took her much effort to stand up again. She looked around, but couldn’t see Fluttershy or Spike around. She walked around aimlessly and dug here and there some holes in the hope she would find her friends underneath.
She searched until she heard a soft cough from somewhere around. She tried to find the origin of the coughing and quickly found Fluttershy under some rocks, with Spike still clung to her leg. “Fluttershy, Spike Are you two okay?” She asked as she removed the little dragon from the leg of her friend and helped her to stand up again. “Are you injured or something?” Fluttershy just coughed again and shook her head. “I’m fine, but I think Spike got hit by some larger rocks, though.” The little dragon started coughing and stood up again, still a bit dizzy. “I’m still alive?” He was asking as if he couldn’t grasp his luck. “I’m still alive!” He almost yelled, before he noticed the both ponies beside of him. “And you’re too! Is anypony hurt?” Twilight just answered by shaking her head, and Fluttershy did the same.
“Well, I guess we will have to find another way to get up there. The path is no more.” Spike and Fluttershy looked at Twilight as if she made a silly remark. “What?” The unicorn asked. “You still want to get up there, even after this?” Now it was Twilight’s turn to look at her friends like that. “Sure, what did you think? This thing … this comet or whatever it was could pose a threat to Equestria, we can’t just leave it there!” Spike massaged his brows. “Twilight, there is no way we can get up there. It’s time to go back. We probably can come back later when Rainbow Dash gets some free time, don’t you think?” He said, but Twilight ignored his reasoning. “If you don’t want to come with me, I’ll just carry on alone then!” She spun around and walked away, feeling the sad looks of her friends on her back and felt sad. But she wouldn’t go back to them, her destination was near, she could almost feel it!
Spike looked after his friend, who left Fluttershy and him just standing around and sighed. “Well … Let’s go back to Ponyville then.” He was just about to go back, but he noticed that Fluttershy wasn’t following. “You don’t want to leave Twilight alone here, do you?” She was asking him with a pleading look in her eyes. “Please, don’t leave her here.” She could see that Spike couldn’t really decide. He didn’t want to stay here, but he definitely also didn’t want to travel back all alone. He let out another sigh and turned around again. “I guess I don’t have a choice. Let’s follow her then.” They both followed their friend on her way.
It turned out that not far away there was another way up, and this time there wasn’t a landslide or anything else. They were careful anyway; they couldn’t know what was waiting for them once they made it out of the abyss again. When they finally reached the end of the path, the sunset already came and it began to become dark. Twilight could feel that her friends were nervous, and she felt the same like them. Even on this side of the abyss the landscape was the same like before, even with the same crippled trees and plants they had seen before they crossed the abyss behind them. The strange shapes of the trees around them and the upcoming darkness didn’t really calm them down at all.
“Fluttershy, tell me … Shouldn’t there be some wildlife around?” Twilight was asking her friend, who had more experience with animals than she did. “You’re right, we haven’t seen a single animal since the cave. Do you think this got something to do with what you’ve seen?” The unicorn shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess we will see when we find what we’re looking for.” Fluttershy thought a while about it. “But what if it is dangerous? You know, the thing we’re looking for.” Twilight was just shrugging again. “For now we’re just here to look what has happened over here. So don’t be scared.” Even Twilight could hear how less convincing her words were, but it would have to do for now.
It became darker and the sun was almost gone, as they walked up what they thought to be a hill, they actually stood on the edge of a large crater. They could not exactly see what was in the cause of it since almost the entire center of the crater was covered in thick darkness, but it was obvious that whatever Twilight saw during the Meteor shower crashed down here. “Well, we checked it out, we have seen what came down and now let us go back and tell the Princess, okay …?” Spike was asking, as he was about to turn around and walk away from the swirling clouds of darkness on the bottom of the crater. But he stopped immediately as Twilight was walking towards the object below them like she was being hypnotized.
“Twilight? What are you doing?” Spike was trying to pull his friend back, but without results. She just walked on, straight toward the dark clouds in the middle of the crater. “Twilight, stop! Don’t go down there!” The unicorn also ignored that. She just went straight down into the middle of the crater, and not even Fluttershy could hold her back from going downwards as she tried to stop her friend. As they went down there almost the half way, Spike and Fluttershy gave up trying to stop Twilight from going down there, but Spike took a last try to wake her up from her trance and threw his backpack into her face, but it didn’t do much other than making Twilight walking faster towards the darkness on the bottom of the cave. She still marched directly into the darkness, and left her friends behind. She just walked straight ahead and disappeared in the darkness. Fluttershy and Spike looked at each other. “Do we also have to go in there?” Spike was asking the pegasus. “Well … I think we will have to get Twilight out there … I guess so.” They looked at the other one a last time, seeing that they both weren’t convinced by this plan at all. “So … do we really have to do it?” The pegasus was hesitating for a moment, but then she nodded.
“She’s our friend, and you don’t leave your friends alone when they need you, do you?”Fluttershy asked Spike, who sighed. “No, you don’t. You’re right, but we probably should get the others. We don’t know what is waiting for us there.” The pegasus just shook her head. “It’s a long way back to Ponyville, we have to do it on our own this time, Spike.” Spike nodded at his friend. “Whatever this is, it can’t be good for anyone in Equestria.” Fluttershy was just looking at her little friend. “You’re right, but don’t forget about Twilight …” She said, and Spike nodded. “Well … Do we have a plan at least?” The little dragon was looking upon Fluttershy with hope in his eyes, but he just got disappointed when the pegasus shook her head. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.” They looked into the swirling clouds of darkness. Each second they stood out here and spent talking, Twilight was in there alone. They didn’t have the time to make up a plan.
So they just walked into the darkness, side by side, pony and dragon. But as soon as they entered the darkness, layers of shadows separated them from each other. Spike looked around, but could not see anything but darkness, unless he stumbled over something and fell on the ground. He turned around to check out what he was tripping over. He screamed up in fear as he recognized that it was the skull of a pony lying on the ground in front of him.
As nopony answered his scream, he suddenly wished that they never came here in the first place, he should have talked that idea out of Twilights mind as he had the chance. Or at least he should have tried to convince her to wait for the others and not to go here alone with Fluttershy and him. He looked up to where he assumed would be the sky, but he could see nothing else than swirling darkness, like everywhere around him. He suddenly felt dizzy and fell on the ground as he blacked out, and the last thing he could hear was a distant scream of a familiar voice.
A nightmare ... and the end of it
Twilight was screaming when she woke up as she couldn’t see anything around her but swirling clouds of darkness like she had seen in the middle of the crater. She stood up and wandered around aimlessly, since she could not see anything. As the darkness lifted, she suddenly found herself back in Canterlot Castle. She looked around, but she couldn’t see anypony and just started to walk around in the silent castle. Anything told her about the whereabouts of the people … the nobles, the princess … the castle seemed to be completely empty. Twilight could smell the disgusting smell of burned flesh in her nostrils. She didn’t even wanted to know where this came from, but she was drawn to it, she couldn’t resist. It was like something else was pulling her to the source of the smell. She didn’t pay much attention to where she exactly was, as she suddenly realized where she was going: The door to the library just appeared in front of here, the door to the place where she learned for years before she went to Ponyville.
She just stood there, as the door opened on itself. Twilight closed her eyes as she didn’t want to look into the library, but it was like something forced her to look into it. What she could see was almost too much for her to bear. In the library were books piled up to stakes, each one covered with a thick layer of ash. A spear reached out of each stake of books, and on each spear were impaled bodies of ponies, burned to nothing more than black bones. Twilight couldn’t bear it anymore and shook off the mysterious might that kept her here and made her look at it, as she ran through the emptied floors of the castle, she could hear a manically, evil, and dark laughing in her ears, which followed her until she found herself not far from the exit of the castle. She tried to open the large front doors with her magic, but they didn’t budge.
“Did you think I would make it so easy for you to escape, little Twilight?” It was the mysterious voice which was laughing before. “Who and where you are? Show yourself!” Twilight yelled into the empty floor, her voice echoing back from the walls. “Who am I, you ask? You’ve seen me coming down on your world. Such a nice world, so full of life …” The voice paused. “Where am I, you ask? Where should I be, where should I go? I’m just a lonely traveler looking for some company …” The voice changed from dark and foreboding into a more conversational tone.
“Why are you even trying to fight me, my little unicorn? Why can’t you just give in like your two friends and give me your life?” The voice said. Twilight spun around as the door behind her opened. Just outside of the door were Fluttershy and Spike lying on the ground, without any sign of life in them. Twilight could feel the tears in her eyes. She couldn’t believe it, she didn’t wanted it to be true. Then she realized what was going on. This demon was playing tricks on her mind, trying to get her to give up and surrender to him. “Aww, look at that smart little unicorn. It almost looks like you’re too clever for me to trick you, but anyway … You won’t get out of this nightmare.” The doors slammed shut again, as the voice was saying those sinister words. “NEVER!” The voice echoed from the walls. Twilight walked over to the wall and touched it. She found it unbelieveable that it was a simple dream, it felt so real to her. Anyway, she had to wake up and she needed an idea how to manage to do it. “Think, Twilight, think …” She whispered to herself, burying her face in her hooves. “You have to figure out what to do …”
Spike woke up and looked around at first. He was still inside of the darkness, which was swirling in clouds around him. And he was still separated from Fluttershy, or at least he couldn’t see her somewhere around. He walked around in the dark, without seeing anything until the darkness cleared. He found himself back in the upper room of the library in Ponyville. He looked around, wondering why he was back here and why everything was empty in the room. He went down into the reading room of the library, but also here it was completely empty. Not a single book was left in the blank shelves. He looked out of the window, but he could see nothing than white. It was probably in the middle of the winter and it was probably a snowstorm outside.
He looked around again and spotted a certain purple unicorn on the other side of the room. “Twilight, I found you again!” He was happily yelling and ran over to his friend as fast as he could, but stopped when she disappeared. He didn’t understand what just had happened at all. Why was he here, why did Twilight just appear and disappear again? “Such a smart little dragon we have here. You’re almost asking the right questions, Spike, but still … almost.” A deep dark voice said within his head, with an amused undertone in it. “It almost looks like Twilight moved out of the Ponyville library, don’t you think so?”
Spike was looking around nervously but he couldn’t see anything but empty shelves around him. “Looks like Ms. Sparkle found another ‘Number One Assistant’, huh?” Spike, who was still looking around, didn’t answer to the voice. It would have been the wrong thing to answer it. “How does it feel to be replaced, little dragon? How does it feel to be left behind without a single word of goodbye? It hurts pretty badly, mh?” Spike tried to ignore the voice in his head and was pulling on the door knob to get outside of the library. “Oh, don’t even try that. You will be trapped in here forever; your so-called ‘friend’ took care of that.”
Spike could feel a sting in his heart; he didn’t want to believe that Twilight would just abandon him like this. He just didn’t believe it. There must be a way out of this nightmare, away from that voice, which was whispering those lies to him. He tried to break a glass window, but it didn’t even take a scratch from it. He sat down at the wall, feeling a hopelessness growing deep within him, and he didn’t know what to do. If Twilight just were here, she would surely know what to do … But this time he was on his own, and this time Twilight probably wouldn’t come to help him out of this mess. He just wished for some books which could help him to get out of here and back to his friends. He didn’t want to be alone in an empty library. He breathed out heavily. “Do you want something … like this?” The ominous voice asked and a small, golden key was floating before Spike’s eyes, but it was gone as fast as it appeared as he tried to grab it.
“Oh no, it is not that easy, my little dragon.” The voice laughed. “If you want that key, you have to give me a little something first …” Spike was trying to resist the voice, but not with as much success as he wanted. “You know, I’ve travelled for really long now … and I’ve grown hungry … If you want to wake up, you just have to …” The voice paused and Spike was holding his breath. “… Give me something to eat …” The voice paused again. This time, it was Spikes turn to let the voice within his head waiting for an answer. “Well, and what do you want to eat? Besides, could you show yourself and get out of my head?” He just received a maniacal laugh as answer. “I’m feasting on the energy of your life, little dragon … And the longer you are in here, the more I will feast on your life … all you would have to do is to abandon your friends like they abandoned you … Or can you see any of them here? All you have to do is to grab the key.” The little piece of golden metal was floating temptingly in front of Spikes eyes.
While Twilight and Spike had to fight with their own nightmares, Fluttershy woke up in the same darkness like her two friends before her and was walking around like they did. But as the veil of darkness lifted for her, she found herself in the middle of the Everfree Forest at night. She didn’t want to move at first, but then she realized that she had to get out of here, before any wild animal would find her here. So she started walking, first slowly and carefully, but then she took up speed until she just ran through the woods, in the hope to get out on of the sides. She ran until she saw the shade of a unicorn on a glade. The pale moonlight wasn’t shining bright enough for her to make out if it was a statue or a living pony, but she felt remembered at the one time Twilight went into Everfree Forest alone.
Carefully she was approaching the shade, and it turned out to be a statue – A statue of Twilight with Spike on her back. Fluttershy screamed and ran away from the glade, her eyes closed, she just rushed through the woods, ignoring the branches hitting her in the face and the scratches she got from them. “Well, it seems like your friends aren’t there for you anymore.” The dark voice she suddenly heard just made Fluttershy even more scared, and she even sped up, until she came to another, this time empty, glade. She felt exhausted from the running and took a deep breath of the cool air of the night.
“Why don’t you take a break and talk with me, dear Fluttershy?” The voice just didn’t stop. “Go away, go away, go away! I don’t want to talk with you!” She screamed, hoping that the voice would just remain silent or even better – that it just was her imagination. “Why should I? I have an offer for you, pegasus. I can show you the way out of this forest … if you just abandon your friends and leave them to me …” Fluttershy shook her head furiously. “NO! Go away!” But the voice didn’t go away. “I didn’t get much to eat since I came here, and the life of some ponies would just be right to fill my stomach – if I had one.”
The pegasus cowered onto the ground and ignored the voice in her head completely. “So, you don’t want to cooperate like your friends? Then I guess I should just leave you here in the forest … alone … with all the wild animals who live here … in the dark …” Fluttershy tried to convince her that his all was just a dream, until she just heard the voice screaming in a unnaturally high pitch. She tried to hold down her ears, but it didn’t help much since the voice was inside her head. She felt like her head was going to explode. But then, the wailing stopped. She stayed in her huddled position before mustering the courage to look around
She just could see the swirling darkness around her like before, but now the clouds were moving faster, almost aggressive. Fluttershy could see a small, white light through the darkness, but she was too scared to move towards it. Then the darkness faded away, at first it was slow, but then it went away faster and faster until it was gone completely. She could see how Twilight was standing in front of a black stone which emitted a dark aura and seemed somehow … alive. The unicorn was breathing heavily as she stepped back from the comet, then she turned it around and rammed her horn into the downside. The comet cracked and then broke into a million tiny parts, and it was like Twilight and Fluttershy could hear a distant screaming as the pieces fell apart.
Twilight then came over to Fluttershy and helped her to stand up. The pegasus’ hooves were still shaking in a conclusion of the events, but she could stand alone. Twilight said nothing at first, and she was still heavily breathing. She then picked up Spike, who was still lying unconscious on the ground, and was walking upwards the crater again. Fluttershy looked a while after her friend, and then followed her on the way back home.
Twilight didn’t say a word as she was carrying Spike out of the crater with the remains of the comet on the craters bottom, followed by Fluttershy, who was still thinking about what had happened. The unicorn reached the top at first and turned around to wait for her friend. She also didn’t say a word when Spike woke up again and was hugging Twilight closely; she just ignored him and walked ahead. Fluttershy stayed a bit back with Spike. “Why do you think she isn’t talking with us?” The pegasus asked her friend, and the little dragon just shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just happy that this stuff is over.” He pointed back to where they came from. “And I just hope Twilight will get better soon.” Fluttershy looked at her friend walking ahead of them. “Yeah, I just hope so too…” They just walked for a while side by side.
The landscape slowly changed again: The pale and dead looking trees were growing green again. “I think that comet had something to do with the corruption of this land. Look at the trees recovering.” Spike followed her explanations, and another idea came into his mind. “What about the wildlife in this region? If the plants come back, the animals will come back, too. Or am I wrong?” The pegasus thought a while about it. “Yes, you’re right, Spike. The animals will come back when the time is right, but it will take some time …” Spike looked up to the pegasus. “So there couldn’t be any dangerous things around, hm?” Fluttershy didn’t answer right away. “Well … There could be something around, but I don’t think so.” Spike accepted her answer and felt relieved about that nothing bad could happen to them anymore now.
They soon passed the abyss they came through on their way to the southwest, and went through it without any major problems besides of some snakes between the rocks that freaked Twilight out once more and her friends had some problems to keep up with her just running away from the snakes, luckily in the direction of the way up. Soon they entered the Everfree Forest again and went through it. The trees with the former, unnaturally pale color of their bark were growing again and the silence was gone since the animals returned into this part of the forest. “That was definitely the effect of that creature within that rock.” Those were the first words Twilight spoke since they were walking back to Ponyville. “Just imagine what had happened when they reached towards Ponyville. Or even across all of Equestria.”
“Are you sure that this thing is dead now?” Spike asked her, and Twilight just answered with a shrugging. “I don’t know, but I hope so. When we’re back in Ponyville I’ll write a letter to the princess about this. Maybe she knows what has to be done about this.” She was shaking her head afterwards. “I think it is dead, but I’m not entirely sure about it.” They passed the cave in which they encountered the first creature they saw on their journey. They didn’t stop and just walked on this time, eager to make it home. Each one of them was longing for a bed, some rest and probably something to eat. They soon were reaching Ponyville and were just felt happy that they went to investigate before the effects reached Ponyville and it probably would have been too late.
Shortly before they reached the Town, Twilight turned around. “Just let us keep quiet about what had happened there, okay?” She was asking her friends, who looked at each other for a second and then nodded. “Sure, Twilight.” They both said in a unison. They didn’t ask why, they knew that they wouldn’t tell anyone about what happened in the crater anyways. They all just hoped that it was over once and for all.
