Have You Ever Dreamt Of Dying?

    A white earth pony with a pale blond mane had entered the scene, looking at Trixie with eyes that were positively sparkling. Her mouth had went open in a smile so wide, Twilight thought it must’ve hurt. It was like she was expecting Trixie to fulfill that wish of hers, not that Twilight had ever heard of ‘hands’ before.

    “Thanks for ruining the show, Lyra,” Trixie said with so much venom in her voice that Twilight shrank together. She also shrank because she loved to huddle herself up beneath a warm blanket, but that wasn’t the main reason right now.

    “Can you do it, though? Can you? Can you? Can you?” The earth pony spoke, bouncing up and down, not even trying hide her excitement. Her grin was the most spectacular thing, mostly because, unlike Trixie, her face wasn’t messed up and her teeth seemed to be intact.

    The mightiest magician only sighed, “No, Lyra,” Twilight was amazed just how much spite Trixie put into that one name, “I can’t:”

    The smile didn’t fade from Lyra’s face, instead she just hopped, yes, ‘hopped’, over to Trixie. “Well, don’t you worry. Maybe one day you’ll be able to do it,” she told the unicorn with a bright smile, “I mean, you’re still a fully functia-, funtio-...working unicorn, right?” She gave her friend a nudge. Trixie however only rolled her eyes.

    “Anyway, Lyra-” Really, Twilight asked how much hatred Trixie was able to fit in that one word and Lyra seemingly not even noticing. The fully functional unicorn couldn’t finish her sentence, as one newcomer spotted another.

    “WOAH!” Lyra shouted and pointed at Twilight, “Who’s she?”

    “That’s Twilight Sparkle, I met her in the hospital.”

    Another weird stranger that was exciting. The moment Trixie had finished speaking Twilight’s heart pushed against her chest, again and again. It felt like somepony was playing drums in her chest. She remembered however and tried to breathe slowly, maybe it’d help. Lyra looked at her and then at Trixie.

    “Why were you at the hospital?” Twilight asked. Trixie just looked down and for a moment there was silence. For a second, Twilight could have sworn she had heard Trixie whimpering. Lucky for her, the earth pony took charge of the situation.

    “So you’re Twilight,” she said and stepped up to her, the smile bright and welcoming, “I’m Lyra, Lyra Heartstrings and no, I can’t play any kind of instrument, even if my name might suggest so.”

    “Oh,” was all Twi managed.

    “Yeah, I know, everypony reacts the same. You should’ve seen Tavi when we first met, she was like ‘wow, you make music?’ and I was like ‘No I totally don’t even know what music is,’ and she was like ‘Whaaa-’ and I was like ‘yes, I am totally unaware of what music is, what I do know however is, that you look like you might know how I get hands,’ to which she replied-”

    Twilight looked over Lyra’s shoulder, the small filly with the cape and the hat was groaning as Lyra spoke. She went on and on and on, sometimes stopping to breathe, it was really very funny to watch, especially since it seemed like her sentences never stopped. Twilight immediately concluded that Trixie looked weird and Lyra was weird. Not in a bad way, though. While the words seemed completely meaningless to her, the voice itself was beautiful. There was something about Lyra, something melodious, in her voice, in her movements. It felt weird, but the assumption that she had something to do with music came easier the longer the filly talked.

    The heartbeat had slowed down, she had completely forgotten about the excitement and the stress. She simply listened to the strange filly in front of her and noted everything about her. Lyra’s mane, for example, was a tangled, wild mess of hair that had never seen a comb before. Twilight only noticed that now, because it drove the point further in just how different the filly looked compared to Trixie. That one had a not-so-good looking face but her mane was well cared for. Then she noted how Lyra was constantly moving, as if she couldn’t stand still for even a second. There were so many details she saw and Lyra only talked. It was quite staggering but also nice.  Halfway through she closed her eyes, lulled in by the talk.

Tell me, little filly. What *do** ponies dream of?*

    Her eyes flung open, “What?”

    Lyra had her hoof raised to the sky and seemed like she was about to make some kind of world-shaking speech when Twilight posed her question loudly. “What?” she asked in return.

    “There-” Twilight began, looking around, “there was a voice.”

    “What are you talking about, Twi?” Trixie asked as she stepped towards the both, ending whatever she had been doing, neglected in the middle of the room.

    “There was a voice, like from an old stallion. Is one here?” Twilight asked, looking around frantically. Both ponies looked first left, then right, then shook their heads in unison. Twilight was dazzled, “But I heard it.”

    Had she been dreaming? No, she couldn’t have slept in, she hadn’t been that tired, she-

I hadn’t expected for you to hear me. You’re the first in quite a while to hear my voice.

    Twilight’s eyes widened, her heart began to pound. “Wh-What?”

    Trixie and Lyra looked at each other, a bit weirded out. Twilight didn’t know what to say, what to tell them, there was a voice in her head. Fear came, and with the fear, the pain began to sting again.

Such a talent, so young and already so filled with magic that she can actually hear my voice. Well, that’s good enough, my little pony. Don’t fret, I’m a friend.

    “Where are you?” she asked loudly.

    “Who?” asked Lyra

Sad to say I am everywhere. Think of me as the ghost of Canterlot and you’re the only one I can talk to to. . . so please, don't stop breathing.

    The voice talked calmly to her and that was the weirdest thing. She didn’t know how to respond to that. She didn’t even know what exactly was going on. She looked at Trixie and Lyra. Maybe she should tell them.

    “There’s a ghost here.”

I doubt they will believe that

    “What? Does that mean Trixie’s ritual worked?” Trixie asked, excitement filling her, “Praised be Trixie!”

    At the same time, Lyra answered: “Wow! Really? I didn’t know you could talk to ghosts, that is so exciting. Tell him ‘hi’ from me!”

And I stand corrected. . .

    For a moment only silence remained, Twilight didn’t know what to say.

Wait, we can make this work. You’ve got a lot of raw talent and you three are unicorns. Put your horns together and...believe...yeah, *believe** that’s the right thing to do.*

    Twilight looked at Lyra, “You’re an earth pony, right?”

    She grinned and shook her head, “Nope, my parents just didn’t want a freak of nature to run around their house.”

Oh...right, I forgot. Even if you have the talent, you can’t use magic.

    “There is no such thing as magic,” Twilight said and immediately followed up to the others: “He didn’t know unicorn horns are merely decorative.”

Heh, don’t tell me you believe that? Little filly, always reading stories, always drawing pictures of knights and mighty princesses who can move the sun.

    “What do you mean?”

Twilight Sparkle. That’s a good name. A very good name. Twilight, listen. Stand up, take your friends. *Go*. Run. Don’t look back. Go to the old castle plaza and from there take a dive. If you don’t-

    The voice said something else but at that moment, the ground started shaking heavily. Like a roar from below it erupted. Things fell down, a mirror shattered on the other side of the hall, somewhere outside, in the distance thunder roared. Twilight cowered beneath the blanket, clutching her legs. There hadn’t been any earthquakes in the last few months, everypony said they had gone completely. She closed her eyes again and just listened and felt. Everything shook. Everything did. Somewhere in the distance the ground must have moved with such strength that it tore down a building. She heard it, the falling stones crashing unto the ground, the screams of the ponies around it. Something like that wasn’t missed, even here. Then it stopped.

    Twilight came out from beneath her fortress.

    It was Lyra who asked: “Everypony alright?”

    “Trixie is always fine;” Trixie answered between sobs but didn’t came out of Lyra’s embrace, instead hugging the hated filly as tight as she was able to, clearly crying while doing so.

    “This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Twilight said, “I wanna go home.”

    Lyra looked at her, “Yeah, that’s probably for the best. We could all go to the hospital. It’s safe there.”

    “Can I take the blanket?”

Lyra was too busy aiding Trixie, despite minor protests, so Twilight decided that she was good. The unicorn then got to the task of stuffing Twilight’s medicine in the pockets of her cape, meanwhile Lyra looked upside and told them to hurry. Twilight looked up once to see why, there were cracks in the roof and now she even noticed it creaking. They got everything together as quickly as they could but of course, Twilight fell again, her legs grew weak and she grew weary of her weakness. As tears came down her cheek Lyra and Trixie both helped her up and together they moved outside.

    Canterlot itself wasn’t pretty. When somepony walked through the alleys that was especially true. Beneath one’s hooves were stoney streets full of dirt with puddles with origins a pony never wanted to ask of. The whole city was filled with the stink of motorized carriages and trash that only was taken away once a month, if at all. Rats housed in the trash cans and on dry days the stink could become unbearable in certain places. A pony could easily wander off into the alleys and get so lost they’d never find their way out again. There wasn’t even any means to actually navigate in Canterlot. If you weren’t on a big street, it was highly unlikely that the sky could be seen. There were pipes and clothing hanged to dry, leaving little to no room to look through and if there was, chances were the sky was covered with smog.

    Canterlot still was one of the prettier cities in the republic. It had the castle garden and a few trees on choice streets. Most of them were dead but there were some at least. It didn’t compare to the mule cities, which had endured for centuries or the artful camel cities of the far east but it was something. That what her father had told her.

    “And for the little bits of beauty your mother loved Canterlot, Twily,” he had said.

    There were cracks in the walls and the ground. Somewhere in the distance smoke was coming up and somehow, Twilight knew it had nothing to do with the local industry. She heard screams, too.

    “Why was there an earthquake?” Trixie asked. She looked pale, incredibly pale.

    “I dunno, but we’ll be safe at the hospital,” Lyra answered and gave a reassuring smile. Trixie wasn’t even looking, but Twilight was. It made her happy that Lyra could be so positive about this.

They walked on, some dried clothing had fallen down on the ground and one of the pipes from above had crashed into a window during the quake. There was no pony here, though. That was when Twilight noticed that they were in one of those places she had read and heard about. Those places in the city where only those could go who knew their way. She was right in the middle of the maze called Canterlot, somewhere in the distance parts of the city had been destroyed and ponies were screaming. They were here and if not for the far-off sounds, she would’ve said they were the last ponies in Canterlot. That thought scared her and she was quite happy that they’d return to the hospital. It was good her two new friends helped her trot, too, otherwise she was sure to be lost here forever.

You’re going in the wrong direction

The voice was lying, she knew. Nurse Redheart was in the hospital, the doctors, too. They were mean, of course – but still, they only meant to help. They might even find a solution to this entire situation. Twilight could only hope.

“Do you think the others are alright?” Lyra asked, looking at Trixie on the other side.

“I-I don’t-”

“Right, stupid question, of course they’re alright. Derpy’s probably even the cause for this, considering her record,” Lyra laughed. Twilight of course had no idea who this Derpy  was and how she could have been responsible for this entire situation but she didn’t ask. She just wanted to reach the hospital.

They took the twists and turns of Canterlot with ease and with every step, Twilight felt herself growing stronger.

“I can walk on my own now,” she said after a while and then confirmed it by trying.

You’re really going into the wrong direction, Twilight.

     They moved, slow at first but then sped up, Twilight felt her legs growing stronger with every meter. Then the trot transformed into a canter. Twilight just moved her hooves and it felt right, they suddenly felt better, as if she had done this all her life, as if she had never stopped. . . galloping. The other two could barely keep up so Twilight slowed down a bit again. Alone, she would’ve never been able to move through the maze of the Canterlot alleys. It took them quite a while before they reached the street before the hospital. Motorized carriages were standing in the middle of the road while ponies hurried around. As the trio stepped outside they looked upon sheer chaos. There was smoke coming from a distance. Twilight couldn’t make much out but some ponies were yelling something and it seemed to terrify and anger them. She didn’t know why but somewhere down the road one pony was attacking another, shouting angrily.

     They had just come out of the alley and then Twilight saw something else, to their left the road had a huge cleft. She saw doctors hurrying around, directly from the hospital. motorized carriages were turned upside down and she saw some ponies, lying unconscious. She had felt the rumbling but still it looked so much worse than she had thought it would be, but then, that’s how all the earthquakes in Canterlot ended.

     Then she felt a drop of water on her nose. She shook her head bewildered, looked up, felt another. There were black clouds above them. She had the blanket, though, so even as the rain started to pour down on them, she felt little and less. Plus, she felt stronger than ever, even her heart didn’t give her any problems. Yes, she didn’t even feel it beat as she normally did and that was probably the best thing. Water came down from the sky, small, greenish drops that felt bad on the coat and skin of a pony. Her father had always liked to remind her not to drink it, since it was dangerous. Some drops had a shade of grey she noted, they had probably wanted to take some dust back to the ground.

     That was the moment one of the adults finally noticed the three fillies. A male pegasus, wearing a black uniform with golden buttons on it. It was the same one she had seen before with ‘RD’ and this time actually had time to see that his coat was as black as his outfit and his mane just added to the monotony. From what her mind could remember, he was the complete opposite of RD with her six-colored mane.

     “What are you doing here?” he asked loudly, “Go home to your parents where it’s safe.”

     Twilight wanted to open her mouth, wanted to answer something but the sight was too much. There wasn’t really anything to say about. She could see it, right behind the pegasus, whatever it was. It looked like a tower of mud with thirteen black sticks for arms, atop it’s crown was what looked like an eyeball. What should’ve been white was blood red and it appeared cut, with more mud leaking out of it. It moved and even that wasn’t natural. It was like the actual motions were missing, like she was blinking and the arms had moved in between. Then she noticed the ends of the arms, scissors.

Twilight Sparkle, this is important. Look at it and then tell me: Have you ever dreamt of dying?

     “What?” she asked.

Because you’re about to die. So do as I tell you...Twilight–

     “RUN!” she yelled, not even daring to look away from the creature.

The pegasus stood there, bewildered: “What?” he asked and raised his hoof, “You don’t need to-”

There was a noise. A snip. The hoof went up before his face and he looked at it, didn’t understand. His arm was flying. Then Twilight screamed, turned and ran. By then it was far too late.

She stood in an open field, rainbow colored grass waving in the air, mountains of gingerbread with sugar on top of them rose in the distance, and pink clouds of cotton candy were above her. That sight wasn’t enough to stop Twilight, in fact she didn’t even notice that the ground beneath her was made of solid chocolate. She just galloped with all her strength, she just galloped and cried. The stallion hadn’t even had the time to scream, to alarm anypony. Now he was gone and she was in a field of candy. She saw a blue and an aquamarine unicorn in the distance, the blue one wearing Trixie’s coat. That one suddenly stopped and turned around. She must have seen her as she immediately ran into her direction.

She herself didn’t know how to react to this whole thing, she wanted to close her eyes, look down and gallop horn first. That was when she noticed her own coat was a mulberry color. It was pretty, too. Still, she hadn’t time to question it as a screech sounded behind her. An otherworldly howl that made her head hurt immediately. That was how she knew that thing was coming, with its thirteen stick arms with scissors for hooves.

Around them the clouds were falling down and stood up again on small stick legs, growing moustaches and top hats of chocolate, by then the azure filly stood by her side. Stood, because now they were surrounded...by cotton candy clouds with moustaches and top hats.

“Please tell me this is a dream,” the blue filly asked, Twilight took one look at her face. The black eye and the other bruises gave Trixie away immediately.

“Sadly it’s not.” They both heard the ghostly voice. Trixie looked up.

“You two are either very lucky or incredibly unlucky but you’re the first to see that thing since the princesses.”

The thing stood behind the cotton clouds, one arm on it’s belly, shaking violently. Twilight figured it was laughing.

“What is that, what is going on? Where are we?” she asked, for once affording the panic.

“Oh, Twilight. You’ve stepped into the first phase of this world’s end, of what will happen when magic isn’t brought back. My little pony, that thing is the embodiment of chaos.

Both ponies stared at the thing, but Trixie turned around as those fluffy clouds started moving towards them, their every movement as eerie as the one from the beast itself.

“Discord named it: Magia.”