A Time of Twilight

Before I begin I want to quickly thank SquareZack for helping proof read the first section of
this chapter.

Unfortunately due to busy schedules we weren't able to get through all of it. Not wanting to
keep those of you following me waiting too long, I decided to go ahead and put it up as is
and will be sure not to keep you all waiting this long again for the next chapter.
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Twilight walked along behind her captor and kept opening and stretching her mouth. At the
beginning of the journey they had been traveling along, both in cloaks with hoods up. When
a small caravan had appeared farther up the road, heading their way. Twilight had made the
mistake of trying to call out to them; she should have known that her travelling companion
was expecting that. No sooner had her mouth opened, it was snapped back shut by his
telekinesis and wasn't released till the caravan was in the distance.

For the rest of that morning and partway into the afternoon, she'd had a ball jammed in her
mouth held in by a strap around her head, while her hood was pulled far down so nothing
could be seen in its shadows. After getting her to promise to not try anything like that again,
he had taken it out and put it away in his saddlebags. As it disappeared into the bag, she
glared after it wondering where he had gotten it and why he had the vile thing, but decided
she probably didn't want to know.

She now felt better with her mouth's liberation and only wished she could have the same
happen for her other limbs. Tied to both her front hooves with a length that allowed her to walk
only short paces but nothing else, was a rope, her back legs were bound the same way. The
last of her current equipment, was of course the cloak, which completely hid her whole body
beneath it, that annoying bit of metal around her horn and a pair of brown saddlebags on her
back, which were filled with various canned foods. None of it felt too bad; the weight of the bags
was quite manageable and the weather was kinda brisk making the cloak kind of comforting.

They topped a hill and were looking over a few more plains of green grass, with a few trees
here and there along the road, and a town coming up. As they got closer, Twilight sighed, as
a white cloth was levitated out of her captor's saddlebag. She'd known there was little chance
this time would be different. Twice before they had come upon towns and each time he had
blindfolded her, then led her off the road, where she would feel a slight chill, and before she
warmed up again they headed back to the road. A little ways on he'd take it off and she'd find
the town was no longer ahead, but now being left behind them as they continued on.

She was full of curiosity as he tied it on again, plunging her into darkness. "Is this really
necessary?" She asked pleadingly and as she expected, got no response. She gave up
trying and instead concentrated on the feeling she felt as once again they left the road
and she felt the familiar chill. She didn't think it was teleportation, but somehow they were
skipping right over the towns and she wanted to know how. Frustrated and bored having
walked all day in silence, she began muttering and talking to herself out loud on her theories
of what he might have done, 'who knows' she thought quietly as she rambled,'maybe he'll
respond to something I say'.

As she expected, he ignored her chatter, only paying attention to her briefly to take back
the blindfold and put it away again. She rattled on and on with her theories and hypothesis
to his back, watching him for a response and partially prepared to shut up quick if it appeared
she was annoying him too much, causing him to pull out that accursed ball again. He didn't
seem to care and as they continued on, her ramblings moved on to other magic topics, and
whatever came to her head that seemed interesting enough to take up her time and fill the
silence.

"After it was discovered by Starri Knight, Star Swirl the Bearded, soon perfect-"

"Star Swirl was an egotistical show off! Always bragging about what Celestia was teaching
him, only half of what he claimed, was he actually able to accomplish! When he was needed
most, you could count on him to drop the ball!" The black unicorn said in an angry rant.

Twilight stopped talking, in shock at the sudden outburst, then she stopped walking and
stood rooted to the spot in surprise as what he said finally registered in her head. Her
captor had stopped too head slightly turned back towards her. Beneath his hood, she saw
that he seemed surprised too, as if he had just now realized he had spoken out loud.

"That sounded like a personal opinion of somepony you actually knew, not something you
got from reading about a pony in a history book. Did you know Star Swirl the Bearded?" she
asked him incredulously.

He just stared at her for a minute, he then turned his head forward again, continuing down the
road. "Wait! answer me, did you know him? But that's impossible, he's been dead for hundreds
of years, please answer me!" Twilight asked, begged, pleaded and even demanded her captor.
He remained silent and she eventually gave up, unable to get a peep out of him.

Her mind was abuzz as she followed him quietly; her thoughts were all focused on what he said
and what it implied, she kept looking at him with a knew eye for detail. From all she'd seen of him
and how his body was and how he moved, she would of guessed he was only maybe ten, or fifteen
years at the most, older than her. She desperately wished he wasn't wearing that cloak now, but
even if it was off, she knew his body probably wouldn't shed any more light on the questions she
wanted answered.

That night as they stopped to spend the night a little ways from the road under the trees, Twilight
was still deep in thought, barely paying attention as he secured her legs under her again and
went to sleep on the other side of the trunk. So many thoughts and questions popped up in her
mind, she thought she'd never sleep, but eventually she passed into dreamland.
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The next few days seemed to just blend together as they were all pretty much the same. They
walked, she talked, trying unsuccessfully to cause a repeat of the first outburst, but nothing she
said caused a reaction again. Frustrated, she followed obediently and pondered the riddle, that
was this strange black unicorn, the fourth night though she was given a new and surprising piece
of the puzzle.

The night was colder than the others had been, even with her cloak pulled tight around her, Twilight
was shivering. To her surprise, the stallion came over to her and laid down, their sides pressed
together under the cloaks covering them. She blushed a bit as she felt his body heat against her,
but he didn't seem to notice. Placing his head down, he was soon asleep. Laying there, listening
to his steady breathing, Twilight realized something didn't feel right.

Squirming a bit, her coat shifted against his and that's when she realized what she was feeling.
Although very close to feeling like it, his coat was not real, well it was, but it wasn't natural. He
was wearing a bodysuit, one extremely well crafted, that fit his body perfectly. Now that she knew
what it was, Twilight started to remember slight oddities, that her mind had dismissed, like when
he talked, his coat would sometimes show the slightest sliver of something beneath it as the coat
pulled back ever so little. The same seemed to happen around the eyes, now his lack of a cutie
mark made complete sense, because she had yet to see his true coat.

As new questions of why he always wore it built up in her head, Twilight laid her head down and slowly
drifted off to sleep.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

He didn't react when she revealed she knew about his fake coat, just got up and got moving again.
Their journey once again resumed, with Twilight's only cures of boredom, her thoughts and constant
attempts to get him to talk.

"C'mon, why's it such a secret, just tell me something, anything, please. I'll................what's that?"

They had reached the top of another hill, he stopped to turn and look at her in response to her
suddenly blurted question. She indicated with her snout, since her bindings were too short to use her
leg, a growing dot up in the sky, that seemed to be growing bigger. He turned and saw it too.

"Trouble." He muttered.
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"Why would Trixie want to help that trol-, ahem, unicorn"

Dash glared at Trixie, "because she's in trouble and you could make a difference. It's the right
thing to do." Dash shifted a bit, they were both in Trixie's wagon, sitting across from each other
at a table, set up by a window near the center of it.

"Right thing, wrong thing, it doesn't matter, the great and powerful Trixie is much too busy to help,
especially a pony that made Trixie look bad." Trixie declared haughtily.

"Look bad huh? you know on my journey here I heard lots of stories going around about you, but
there always seemed to be one missing," Trixie's eyes began to widen in horror, "I wonder how
many ponies would like to hear about the time Trixie wet herself from the mere sight of an urza
minor?" Dash said with an evil grin.

"I thought no one noticed that!" Trixie gasped.

"You were right, It was just a guess, thanks for confirming it." Dash gloated. "Now how about you
help me find my friend and no pony, will ever need to hear about what happened, sound good to you?"

"Fine," she snarled,"what do you need the great and powerful Trixie to do?"

"We need to find her, you're always bragging how much magic you can do, if even half of it is true, I'm
betting there's a spell to find a pony."

Gritting her teeth at the veiled insult, Trixie thought for a minute, "There's a tub in the back and a
hose on the building to my left, go fill it up and meet Trixie by the front of Trixie's wagon."

Dash didn't waste time arguing or ask why, just went off quickly to get it done. They were soon both
outside staring down at the tub, Trixie waited for the water to become completely calm, then her
horn started to glow blue and she gently touched it to the water. Dash watched interestedly, until
after a bit of nothing happening, she grew impatient.

"Well?"

"It appears conventional scrying won't work, somethings blocking Trixie"

"So what? that's all the great and powerful Trixie can do?"

"I didn't say I was finished," Trixie growled back,"I now have a clear image of her in my mind, how
could I ever forget that face, the spell uses magic leylines and nodes all over Equestria to find the
image I feed it and projects it on the water. Somepony or something is blocking that, if they have
actually used a spell to hide her from the leylines sight, then theres nothing I can do. However if all
they've done is blocked her from being seen by us, then I think I have a plan." Trixie explained as her
horn started to glow again.

This time after a bit, a view of fields came into sight and a road meandering through them. The view
then changed as if they were turning their head and looking around.

"What's that?" Dash asked excitedly.

"We're in luck, the magic just can't project her image. This is showing us everything around her,
does anything stand out to you?" a sense of pride crept into her voice as Trixie talked.

"Wait! go back, focus on that mountain range in the distance." Dash exclaimed,"I know where
that is! if we hurry I can get us there in under two days!"

"Us? Trixie doesn't think so, Trixie already helped you and needs to get back-, Hey! Dash what are
you doing!? Let go of me right now! this is fillyknapping!" The cyan pegasus had immediately taken
to the air and as Trixie rattled off excuses, Dash had swooped down and grabbed the blue unicorn
from behind and taken off. Quickly gaining altitude, Dash ignored the shouts and threats of her
unwilling passenger.

"Rainbow Dash put me down right now! this isn't funny." Trixie was getting frantic as she dangled
high up in the sky, watching the ground fly by below her.

"I'm not descending till we get there, so if you want me to let you go I will, but it's a long drop."

Trixie audibly gulped,"please Dash, I'm afraid of heights, please let me down, I already helped." Trixie
said in the nicest voice Dash had ever heard her use, it almost made her feel guilty, almost.

"Sorry Trixie, but I think, before this is done, you'll still be needed. Don't worry, I'll keep you safe and
you'll be back in your wagon in no time." Dash assured her.
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They made good time, stopping now and then to get a quick rest, letting Trixie use a pond or
other body of water to adjust their course. At first they were both rather quiet after Trixie stopped
her complaining, but soon boredom drove them to strike up casual conversations. Dash found that
Trixie was kinda nice and interesting, when she didn't have her nose stuck up and acted like the
world existed only to show off her greatness. Although they would still choose not to hang out with
each other given a choice, they at least had a certain understanding of each other, that let them
tolerate each other without feeling uncomfortable.

True to her word, around noon of the day after they left, Rainbow Dash spotted, with her exceptional
pegasus sight, a pair of cloaked ponies cresting a hill. "Is that them?" she asked looking down at
Trixie.

"Trixie can't see from this distance, can't you recognize your own friend?"She retorted.

"They're wearing hooded cloaks."Dash shot back.

"If there are no other ponies around, then it's definitely them."

"Great, if I drop you off down there, will you be able to catch up quick?"

"Oh don't worry about Trixie falling behind." Trixie said with a grin as her horn began to glow.

When they were almost to the ground, Trixie jumped out of Dash's forelegs and sped off down the road
as soon as her hooves touched the gravel. Despite herself, Dash found herself impressed at her pace.
But not by too much, after all it still didn't compare to her in the air. To proof this, she shot up in the air
and sped towards the distant ponies. They seemed to have stopped and she assumed it was because
she had been spotted, she didn't mind, she preferred the head on approach.

"Stop! don't come any closer or I'll be forced to do something we'll all regret." came a sudden shout
from one of the ponies on the hill top. Rainbow hesitated for a moment and stopped in surprise at the
sudden warning, hovering in place. Not for long though, she started towards them again and a brief
glimpse of a lavender nose under the hood of the pony on the left, let Dash know exactly who to charge
towards.

"This is the last time I'll tell you, stop now!"

"Dash! please stop, you don't know what he's capable of!" Dash almost stopped at the sound of Twi's
voice, but shook it off and continued on.

A sickly green glow started to show under the pony to the left's hood, Dash tensed ready to dodge
whatever was shot her way, but the pony turned and touched the glowing horn to the tip of twilight's
snout. She gave a surprised gasp and jumped at the touch, her hood falling back, her eyes suddenly
seemed to go blank, then they shut and she crumpled to the ground.

"TWILIGHT!" Dash screamed, eyes wide in shock as she witnessed her friend collapse. She veered
away from the cloaked stranger and put all her speed in reaching her friend. She touched down hard, but
it barely fazed her as she raced to her friend; grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her gently, but
urgently..

"C'mon Twilight, wake up! what did he do to you?" she looked up with fury in her eyes at the stranger,
"What did you do to her!?!" she screamed, but didn't wait for an answer, turning all her attention back
to her friend. Dash put her ear to Twi's chest, but couldn't hear anything. She was starting to feel cold
to Dash's touch and the pegasus got more frantic. She pressed her ear to her friend's mouth and
still didn't hear even the slightest sound of a breath.

"Dash, Trixie is here what's going o-" Trixie stopped her mad gallop as she reached the scene unfolding
on the hill top. Dash looked up from twilight, Trixie took an involuntary step back at the sight of Dash's
eyes, they were extremely red and seemed on the verge of tears, but they also were showing a terrible
intent. Dash's gaze swung over to the stranger and at that point her look was pure murder.

"You killed her." though only a few words, their tone spoke volumes and promised a world of hurt.

"I told you to stay away." he stated simply.

Dash got up and slowly stalking towards him, his horn started glowing the sickening green color again,
but Dash didn't care. Letting out a bloodcurling shriek, she lunged at him. She was drawn up short as
something grabbed her tail. In a fury she turned to look for what had interfered and saw her tail held in
a blue glow. "Let go!" she screamed at Trixie.

"No! get yourself together Dash, do you want to end up like Twilight?"Trixie asked out of gritted teeth,
straining to maintain her telekinetic hold on the cyan pegasus.

"Stay out of this Trixie, you didn't even want to come! now let me be, this bucking stallion killed my friend
and needs to pay!"Dash yelled back, tugging at her tail.

"I will not stay out of this Dash! killing yourself will not bring Twilight back and I won't let you make me
have to go tell your friends, that not one, but two of their friends are dead!"Trixie was practically shrieking
at the end.

At the reminder of her other friends, all the fight seemed to drain out of her and was replaced by, a sick
feeling in her stomach at the thought of what it would be like when they heard about this. The stallion just
stood and watched, content to just stay still and see what happened. In her new state of mind, Dash didn't
put up too much resistance as Trixie slowly started to drag her away.

"Dash you gotta snap out of it and come with me, we need to head back to Ponyville and tell you friends
what happened and get help, please Dash I can't drag you the whole way."Trixie grunted past her efforts of
pulling the pegasus, while glancing nervously at the stallion now and then to be sure he didn't make any
sudden moves.

As if in a daze, Dash turned around and after one last look at the body of her friend, started down the hill
after Trixie. Trixie led her down and away, till she came to a tree far enough away from the hill. She
could just barely see the pony on the hill top, a glow still shining under his hood. She stopped and started
to look all around the ground of the tree, stopping now and then to dig at some dirt with her hoof. Dash just
came to a halt behind her and just stood looking off into nowhere, not caring what was happening around
her.

"Ok Dash, Dash! just pull yourself together long enough to get us outta here, okay?"Trixie brought her face
right up to dash's, staring her in the eyes. Dash blinked, then shook herself and nodded, with a hesitant
running start, she took to the sky and looped around scooping Trixie up. Looking down at the landscape
flash by below them, Trixie desperately hoped Dash was strong enough to get them back to Ponyville.