Transcendence
Written By: Vessel
Categories: Dark, Tragedy
Rated: T
Summary: Twilight Sparkle wakes up in the middle of the Everfree Forest beside a campfire. Without any idea why she is there or where her friends are, she sets off to find her way back to Ponyville. But what she stumbles across along the way may end up turning her towards a different location.
If such a feeling existed, Twilight Sparkle was sure that she was feeling dead.
Even in the immediate wake of regaining consciousness, her nervous system seemed to be in a state of total shutdown. Her legs were stiff and immobile, their functionality nullified by the cold and numb feeling that was constant within the rest of her body. She couldn't even feel her own heart, rhythmic as its beating was within her chest. All in all, it felt like she had just been revived from a coma or some other death-like state. What had she been doing to make herself feel like this?
Had her brain been functional, she would've gladly jumped on the question right away. As it was, she would have to focus on getting both her mind and her body back under her control. So, the first thing she did was test out her voice.
The first sound that escaped her was a moan that would've made any zombie tear up in pride and shame. It was enough to provoke an aching reaction within her head and throat, and she instinctively dragged the flats of her forehooves to her temples in an attempt to soothe the complaining of her skull. This seemed to start a chain reaction, as the dead feeling within her person was starting to fade little by little. As her mind regained control, she could feel dirt and grass underneath her back – a sensation which brought about confusion and bewilderment.
She opened her eyes, seeing right away that she was not staring at the ceiling from the safety of her bedsheets. Instead, she was looking into a starry night sky from a prostrate position on the ground with a thousand twinkling lights staring back at her. The top of her head felt the heat of a fire nearby. Her ears picked up the sounds of embers crackling and popping, cementing the presence of a campfire set up beside her. All of it left one simple and unanswered question at the top of her thoughts.
Where was she?
Slowly, she rolled over to rest on her stomach and get a better view of her surroundings. As her vision drifted from point to point, she could see nothing but trees and various species of fauna surrounding her. A swivel to the front confirmed that the crackling was indeed from a fire – a campfire, to be exact. This, along with the chirps and clicks of various insects and animals within the depths of the foliage, confirmed the exact nature of the location.
She had ended up in the middle of the Everfree Forest.
But how? And why?
It slightly disturbed her that past events that could've possibly explained the situation coincidentally left her thoughts. She sat herself up, placing a hoof to her temples as if trying to physically conjure up the memories. But no matter how hard she thought, it simply was not enough. Between the memory of her within the confines of her home and her current presence, there was nothing but a void. The only plausible explanation for the lapse was that she was suffering from amnesia, which could've only occurred in the event that she was afflicted with head trauma. After all, doctor checkups confirmed that there was nothing afflicting her mentally in order for any of the more psychological types of the disorder to occur.
But then again, she couldn't remember the cause of it either.
She let out a frustrated sigh, slowly bringing herself up to stand on all fours. Worrying about the specifics would do her no good in this situation. She knew where she was, so it was all a matter of finding her way back to Ponyville. Everything could be figured out once she was back within her home, safe and sound. With that in mind, she decided to push thoughts of her blank past out of the way to focus on what was happening now.
So to start off her retreat, she turned her attention towards the campfire. She pointed her horn towards it, closing her eyes and concentrating. Pulses of magic energy rippled through her body from rear to front, channeling into the foundation of the horn. Once it was at full buildup, a flowing aura of indigo surrounded it. At the same time, a similar aura surrounded the flames in a spherical formation. With a look of concentration, she slowly contracted the ethereal sphere and smothered the blaze bit by bit. It only took about thirty seconds before the fire was completely pacified, leaving the unicorn in darkness. But that was quickly remedied when she summoned her magic to her aid once again. This time, a small sphere of light with an indigo tint to it materialized at the tip of her horn. Bright enough to illuminate her way, this would serve as her lantern as she ventured into the depths of the forest.
Opening her eyes and taking in a deep breath, she took a step forward.
Something caught her eye immediately afterwards.
In surprise, she reflexively jerked her head just in time to see the hint of a familiar grayish olive and red-banded tail dart out of sight. Her eyes widened in alarm and recognition.
“Applejack...?”
Quickly, she pushed herself out of her standing position and broke into a brief gallop, stopping once she was at the spot where she saw the tail disappear. Turning her head, she could only catch the silhouette of a mare vanishing out of sight within the nest of trees. In the darkness, she couldn't make out specific details of a visage. But the outline and shape of the silhouette was too familiar for mistaken identity.
“Applejack!”
This time, she did not stop her gallop.
She pushed herself forward, running down the silhouette's path and chasing it with extreme diligence. Every ounce of energy was pushed into her leg muscles and all of her effort was put into catching up. Anything less would have rewarded her with certain failure, for not only did Applejack outmatch her in terms of physical prowess, she also had a headstart. It would've been simpler to perform a teleportation spell to intercept her, but that would've taken crucial time for concentration. By then, Twilight would've lost her target completely.
“Applejack!”
Why wasn't Applejack responding to her calls? She wasn't that far ahead of Twilight, and the unicorn knew she was shouting loud enough. But there was no reaction or acknowledgment, direct or otherwise. The country mare simply continued to weave through the nest of trees, somehow oblivious to her name being shouted out. It was here that Twilight began to feel like her friend was deliberately ignoring her, and despite whatever possible justification there was for it, she was beginning to feel frustrated.
“I know you can hear me!” Her voice continued to yell out, expressing irritation at the lack of response she was getting. “If this is some sort of a joke, it's really not funny! Cut it out and tell me what's--”
What had cut her off was the feeling of something sliding past her head, grasping her neck, and pulling hard.
Her eyes dilated, and she let out a strangled wheeze as she felt her windpipe pressed in. In that brief moment, she struggled against the bind around her throat as it tightened. As she pulled against it, she found herself rising to her hind legs. Her back was bending as it attempted to push against the unknown force. But pulling only served to increase the crushing weight on her airway. As she fought for balance, her forehooves clutched at the material of the bind in an attempt to pull it off. But when she felt straw, she stopped herself out of surprise. In turn, her struggling loosened the grip the material had on her throat.
“A... rope...?”
Slowly, she slid her forehooves around her neck in order to confirm.
Yes, it was indeed a rope that was slackened against her collar bone and not some actual living thing trying to kill her. Delicately, she slid the loop off of her head and held it in front of her in order to inspect it. Upon allowing her eyes to trail upward and her magical light to scan, she could see the rest of the rope hanging from an overhead branch. At first, she believed it to be a bizarre lasso mishap left behind by the apple farmhand. But when she spotted a total thirteen coils above the neck loop, her blood ran cold.
This was no lasso.
This was a hangman's noose.
With fear and confusion pecking at her, she released the loop and took a few retreating steps back from it. When they were used in fashions such as this, nooses were signs of death ahead of the ones who saw them. Whenever there was one in front of a certain area, it was a clear indication not to enter. Starting off as an intimidation method of old used by criminals in ancient times, it became one of the most prominent and wide-spread symbols of fatality. No sane pony would've dared to step past them. Yet, she had seen the silhouette of Applejack dart past it without so much as a second thought. Under normal circumstances, she was sure Applejack wouldn't have taken such a warning for granted.
But then again, Twilight hadn't spotted a light source near Applejack.
What if she hadn't seen it at all?
Alarm washed over Twilight, and she immediately snapped out of her fear of the noose. Knowing that the alternative would be letting her friend risk dying under unknown circumstances, she sprinted past it and continued her race down what she assumed was the path Applejack had taken. She swiveled her light around, shouting once again in the vain hope that she wasn't out of earshot by now. But this time, the desperate pleading could be heard within her tone.
“Applejack! Please wait! You don't know what you're... heading... into...”
When her mind took a moment to actually see what was around her, she suddenly regretted not paying attention.
Nooses. All of them were identical to the first one she found, possessing the standard thirteen coils. The only difference was that they were hanging from a height far above her head. They surrounded her from all sides, with each one hanging from one branch. Even in very tops of the trees, she could see the ropes hanging as clearly as day as she shone the light on them. It was a bizarre, ridiculous, and terrifying sight to see for the purple unicorn. But it was enough to clarify one thing.
She wasn't even in the Everfree Forest.
“I have to find her, right now...!”
Without warning, the unicorn sprinted off into the darkness to continue after the earth pony. But it was already clear to her that she was shooting for false hope. Because she had spent so much time immersed in the atmosphere of the nooses, she had allowed her target to gain too much headway. Applejack had successfully evaded her, leaving her alone once again. Not even the faint sound of hooves trotting away from her graced her ears. All she could do was run blindly in the vain hope that she would somehow run into that silhouette again.
It was all she could do to prevent herself from feeling the helplessness of her situation.
“Applejack...”
Although there was no way to tell the time, Twilight felt as if she had been walking for hours.
She had walked nonstop in her search, scanning every nook and cranny of the forest for any sign of Applejack or an exit. But all her light uncovered was the bareness of the trees, the many nooses that hung from their branches, and the lack of any sentient life other than herself. If not for the sound of her hooves stepping on the grass, there would have been nothing but silence. All of it brought questions to the surface of her mind.
Why weren't the crickets chirping?
Where were the animals?
Why were all of the trees bare?
How and why were there nooses on every branch she saw?
The fact that she could not answer these questions right away disturbed her greatly. The most straightforward answer was that she was situated in a forest that had died sometime before her arrival. The animals had either evacuated the area or died trying to survive. But even if that was case, it didn't explain why she was here. There was no use finding out information about a dead forest, and there was no way she would come on her own volition to a place that clearly spelled danger for all. So why was she here? Why was Applejack here? Was it even Applejack she was following in the first place? Where were the rest of her friends?
All of it made her head hurt.
With a frustrated sigh, she brought herself to a stop. The continuous walking left her legs somewhat sore, and it was very clear she wasn't getting any closer to finding either Applejack or a clearing. She would have to simply stop and think for a more unconventional way to find her way out, lest she wanted to stay trapped within. So she decided to plop herself down on her haunches beside a tree she happened to be standing by at the time of her movement's ceasing. She closed her eyes and lowered her head in order to concentrate, shutting out any potential distractions.
Then there was a flash – brief, but bright enough to breach her eyelids and cause her to snap them open. Reflexively, she turned her eyes toward the sky.
What she saw was a phenomenon that shattered the very fabric of logic.
The sky that was once a shade of black had now taken on a variety of colors. All of these colors seemed to swirl around in a continuous blend, with each color dominant for a few milliseconds before switching to another one. They shifted from raspberry to gamboge to cerulean to light gray and then to a grayish gold before the pattern reset itself. It was as if a massive aurora borealis had converged on her area. For the first few seconds that Twilight lay her eyes on it, she had forgotten her situation in favor of becoming immersed within the hypnotic display.
Then the howling started.
At first, it was a low and ghostly whistle that would've made one think that the sound was nothing more than the wind stirring. But as it increased in volume and shifted its pitch in a constantly varying rhythm, the temptation to dismiss it vanished quickly. As it continued to probe her ears, it was joined by another set of howling, and then another. Soon, the entire area was filled with the haunting melody produced by the unknown source. But no longer was it simply loud whistling that would've been produced by the wind. Now, it sounded like a chorus of voices whispering the incomprehensible to her. The feeling of immersion was swept away by the sense of dread, and her momentary child-like curiosity was pushed aside by absolute terror.
Then, there was the sound of a tree's roots being torn from the ground.
She spun herself around just in time to see the tree she was sitting beside break itself from its earthly bindings. With a startled yelp, she retreated quickly and backed away before the roots could rise and smack dirt in her face. She watched in stunned silence as the tree slowly lifted into the air in blatant defiance of gravity. But it was only seconds after the tree found a spot to hover that another followed suit, and then another. It wasn't long before each and every tree around her was floating above her head like asteroids in a belt.
“This has to be a dream...” She whispered, all the power stripped from her voice. “It has to be--”
The sound of earth splitting apart near her location silenced her.
She looked down at the ground, spotting the telltale cracks of considerable size racing towards her.
She didn't need another hint.
With a heart threatening to burst out of its ribcage and horror controlling her movements, she broke into an all-out run. All of her previous exhaustion was pushed aside by the adrenaline coursing through her veins. Her breaths were on the borderline of hyperventilation, coming out in the form of heavy inhales and exhales. Sweat dripped down her face at an alarming rate, surfacing through her fur. She didn't dare stop, for she could hear the cracking of the ground batting away at her eardrums. But even in her fear-driven determination, she knew that all she was running to was more madness, more illogical happenings, and more questions that she just couldn't bring herself to answer.
What else could she do, helpless and trapped within a world that was going to hell around her?
But even so, fate would decide to strip even the ability to run away from her.
Upon what would be her final step, the ground seemed to act like grass upon her hooves' collision. Without warning, the earth she was on caved in and fell apart as it descended into a black abyss. Her eyes widened in horror, a startled gasp escaped her, and her front hooves flailed in a desperate attempt to hang onto something. But all she could do was paw at the air blindly before her body surrendered to gravity. From there, her gasp turned into a loud scream as she descended into the abyss. Death would be imminent upon her landing.
But before she could disappear into the void, her eyes caught the familiar silhouette standing above the hole freshly created. This time, there was one trait that confirmed its identity.
The glow of two sap green eyes.
