Ch1: The Sleeping Horror (v1.1.0)
Author’s note:
A fair warning: I’m dyslexic and English is my second language. I don’t say this because I want anyone’s pity but rather to warn people that can’t stand bad spelling and poor grammar.
This story is something I’ve been writing during my many lunch breaks at school, but as I started to grew on the concept of the story I eventually uploaded it from my school laptop to my home PC and gave it a finishing touch :) but damn, I find it really hard to describe environments right… definitely not one of my strongest sides :|
But that’s enough of me rambling about, I hope you’ll enjoy it!
EDIT: A special thanks to RainbowsCrush for helping me out with spell checking. Hopefully this will make the story more reader friendly :D
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Chapter 1:
Twilight Sparkle was barely able to trot through the dark forest’s muddy soil and as she fought her way through the harsh wilderness she wondered, how the former star student of the god empress Celestia herself could have sunken so low. She had been on the run from one of Celestia’s fireteams (a small military unit of infantry) for days, which were still in hot pursuit of her. She hadn’t had a thing to eat and only had occasionally gotten to take a sip from a lake or a muddy water pool along the way.
It was raining heavily and the poor lavender mare had a hard time seeing where she was heading, the forest on its own was unusual dark and it didn’t help much that it was now the middle of the night. She was so cold, she had no time to bring anything along with her as she made her escape and right now she wanted nothing more than to just stop, tilt her neck back and just open her mouth until it was full of water she could gobble down. But she dared not to stop, not even for a moment, she had heard them more than once, they were close on her trail and she was losing hope and distance. She was merely or at least had been a student at ‘Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns’, she was no warpony unlike those, who were in pursuit of her, they were all presumably well trained killing machines and right now their only goal was to take down the lonely and broken mare.
So Twilight had to move on, she must move on! She knew there was no other option, if she didn’t she would get killed for her heresy, probably by being executed by the goddess of night and day herself, her now former mentor, Celestia, she thought with an overwhelming sadness in her little pony heart.
Why had she not seen it all earlier? All of the signs, all of the lies underneath it all, she thought Celestia had loved her, but she was wrong, oh so dreadfully wrong she had been. The kindness in her eyes had been nothing more than a shade to hide her true self.
She suddenly lost her footing as she fell to the ground, but she didn’t stop, she began to slide over the slippery watery grass. She went through bushes which branches cut into her flesh, not deeply but just enough to make her new wounds bleed. As she slid over the ground and through one bush after the next, she could feel that she gained more and more momentum, she tried to catch onto something but her efforts were in vain. Even with leafs and branches hitting her across her face, her eyes caught the sight of what could only be described as ‘the end of the road’. Twilight was heading towards the edge of a mighty cliff!
Panic attacked Twilight as she desperately tried to get hold onto something to save her from the ever closing edge and in turn her ever closing death, but she was without luck. Just as she slid over the edge she managed to turn her body around so that her belly was facing towards the cliff rather than away from it and then she caught something in mid air, a root!
As she was hanging there from the edge of the cliff a very bleak thought entered her mind: Why did she even bother? Her life lay in ruins and she could never return to what she had lost, everything she loved had been taken from her. Everypony she ever cared about had turned their tail to her, Twilight had nothing to fight for, so why should she? The power of friendship was as much a lie as Celestia herself! Twilight closed her eyes and gave into her thoughts, this would be for the better she convinced herself with a smile, no longer shall I be in pain, no longer do I need to feel the sadness of loss. She relished her grip on the tree root and let herself drop into the abyss into what she thought would be her sudden death.
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Abruptly Twilight sat up with a small yelp, rubbing her forehead as she looked around. It was hard for her to see where she was in the vast darkness, but she was definitely in a cave of some sort, the only light that could be seen came from above, presumably where she had come in from. “Is this what life after death is like?” She asked herself stupidly, not even believing the nonsense that she spoke. She most have hit her head or something on the way down and passed out, she wondered for how long she might have been out cold. She was surprised nonetheless, she truly had expected to die from that fall, but she felt fine! Well besides her tired limbs, her rumbling tummy, her unquenchable thirst, the many cuts in her flesh and of course the many bruises all over her skin that she had acquired from her little misadventure. But beside all that she felt fine, she would have expected at least a broken limb form such a fall.
As she looked around trying to make hoof and tail of where she was, she discovered a small cave lake with much joy. She jumped right into the water without a second thought, bashing around in it like she was some sort of little foal wanting to show her parents how great a swimmer she had become. Twilight became still in the water as she thought of her parents. Twilight let out a soft sigh and her little joyful moment died out, recalling that she was truly alone, she didn’t even have her parents anymore either, she truly had lost all. She slowly got out of the underground lake and used her magic to drain the water from her coat and her mane before she turned towards the lake and drank as much as she could hold in, but even then she still felt thirsty, it would probably take some time before the liquid would refuel her body, after all she had been close to dehydrate more than once.
Then she used but a fraction of her magic to lit up her horn so she could use it as a torch to find her way through the cave. As she had been wandering aimlessly for a short while she suddenly stopped dead in her track as she turned her head to notice an egg shaped rock with a small piece of paper on it, wondering what it was. Being the pony she is, she couldn’t fight the urge to explore as she found herself move over to it as if she had no control over her own body and were dragged there by an unseen force. Twilight felt an overwhelming need to study it further for some otherworldly reason unknown to her.
As she came closer she noticed a writing on the small piece of paper on the stone, it must have been ancient as Twilight couldn’t make a word of it, to her it almost just looked like random scribblings. She had however seen something similar in one of her books, it looked like an ancient sealing technique used over a millennium ago by monks to lock away evil spirits and ghosts. Twilight lifted her left foreleg and touched the note with her hoof and at the contact something most peculiar happened; the paper instantaneously was set ablaze, which in turn astounded the lavender mare. Twilight had taken a few steps backwards as she saw the note turning to ash. A crack began to spring forth, from where the piece of paper had once been, cracking the rock in two, from top to bottom like someone had just carved a sword right through the middle of it. The two pieces of the now split rock fell to each side, one to the right and the other to the left; creating a loud thump that echoed through the cave’s walls.
As the echo subsided Twilight found herself surrounded in a surreal, deathlike stillness, she could no longer hear the wind fly freely through the cave tunnels nor the water dripping from the ceiling. Twilight looked around herself in the darkness, as if she had expected more - after all she had just broken an ancient seal, or at least to her knowledge she had - so she was sure something would come out of the very walls and drag her away just like in one of those scary stories she wasn’t too fond of.
But just as soon as she had shoved the idea of something paranormal happening out of her head, something anomalous happened as the cave began to violently quake. The intense shaking made Twilight stumble and she fell on the ground. She looked up as her ear caught a loud cracking noise, she witnessed the wall behind the now broken stone began to split in between, just like the rock had done after she had touched the presumed paper seal and thus removing it in her ignorance.
A dim blue light making its way through the enlarging opening was all Twilight saw before she closed her eyes in fright and held her forelegs over her head to protect it from the anticipated debris that never came. As the tremors diminished into silence Twilight dared to open her eyes again, she looked towards the wall, that was now emitting a dark blue glow through a small hole in the former solid cave wall, one big enough for Twilight to easily fit through.
Twilight got back up on her legs, trotting towards to the newly formed hole, letting her curiosity getting the better of her. As she came closer she felt a strong sensation of magic coming from whatever was beyond the opening. As she looked inside, a mysterious sight meets her gaze, a deep tunnel lied beyond the hole or at least so she assumed as the bottom couldn’t be seen. She estimated that the tunnel must at least have something like a 30-40 degree slope downwards.
The floor of the tunnel looked as if it had been carved out, but the sides seemed to be completely natural. She noticed the sides were covered lightly with radiating fungi, which were apparently responsible for the light she had seen. The fungi was glowing dimly with something between purple and blue or perhaps both, actually when she looked closer it seemed more like they waved between the two colors.
“They must have been tainted by dark magic” Twilight thought, she could only wonder what kind of magic could make flora mutate like this. She would have loved nothing more than to take a sample and study it closely to see how the magic had altered the biochemical structure of the plants, she had wondered for a long time how plants would react to an extreme expositor of raw magic over a longer period of time, she had always theorized that it would have some sort of effect on their genetic makeup but she had never been able to undertake such experiments as it would probably take ages before the plants would have started to show any sign of change.
Even though the situation she found herself in she couldn’t help but to be excited about her discover, this just proved that she had indeed been right! These plants have obviously been affected by exposure of a strong magical force over a long period of time, Twilight thoughts came to a hold, what could possibly be responsible for the magic that made them change so rapidly? She looked down the tunnel again, “the answers would most likely be down there” she thought as she took a step forward, which was probably a bad idea. Her hoof skidded on the slippery ground which made her fall over; into the hole in the wall and down the tunnel she went.
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“Ouch…” Twilight said to herself as she slowly caressed her sore rump and back, how many times did she have to fall down of something today? She wondered as she put down her hoof to the cave floor after rubbing her back for a little while, it made a soft splash sound as it made contact to the floor and she then noticed that she felt wet again. “Great” she thought, she had just managed to dry off completely and now she was almost just as wet again.
Twilight let out a small sigh as she got back up. The water covering the even rock floor was only a few inches deep and it was glimmering with a soft glow, almost identical to the color of the fungus but not quite as strong. Twilight started to feel a little dizzy as she got up, she felt like she was being drained of her energy.
The air was warm and moist. Actually she had to wonder, it was much warmer down here than she would presume it would have been and it felt like something else were with her, she shivered at the thought of some kind of monster might be looming around somewhere. But even though the presence was dark and unfamiliar, it still felt gentle and caring somehow.
She looked around herself; trying to figure out where exactly she was, but she could neither see the ceiling, nor the walls - she could only see the water glimmer and the hole which she had come from and there was no way she could get back up from there. It was as if she was in a vast space without confine and the glittering water was as if she was trotting around on aurora, but in the vast darkness something caught her sight. Not too far, in the middle of the ‘aurora’ floor rose a wicked light, like some sort of rectangle pillar.
Celestia’s once prized student started to feel weaker, she felt like just rolling over and let sleep claim her, but her curiosity was stronger as she felt an overwhelming need to discover what was emitting that ominous feeling and that wicked light, she could see and feel it coming from the rectangle shaped light. Besides she had a very bad feeling about falling asleep here, like she would never wake up if she did. So Twilight decided to carefully make her way towards the light, feeling in front of her with one hoof to see if the ground was solid before she dared to take even a single step, no more falling down today she had secretly decided to herself.
As she finally made it all the way over to the odd light she saw. It came from a rectangle carved out hole, around half a meter deep and something was lying in the large pool of water. Twilight gulped before she could tug herself a little closer so that she could peak inside. And what she found when she did both surprised and scared her.
Down there, there within the hole was lying a pony like creature, it had neither coat nor mane, it looked like it had been starved out, Twilight could easily see all of its bones under its thin skin, it looked like a corpse that had been laying there for some time but for some reasons unknown to her hadn’t rotten away. A mask was covering its face and a horn stuck through it, she also noticed it had something to both sides of it, well beside its legs of course, it looked like folded wings. Twilight caught herself surprised, it was just like the god empress! “An alicorn?!” Twilight wondered, “what could this possibly mean?!” Weren’t Celestia the only alicorn that exist? But it was just like her, it had both a unicorn’s horn and a pegasus’s wings.
The mask had the same markings as the paper seal had, Twilight wondered for a bit, would the same thing happen to it if she touched it? Curiosity saw to the demise of caution as Twilight leaned over the figure in the rectangle pond to take a closer look at it, she wasn’t too sure if she dared to touch the mask. But then unexpectedly her hoof was grabbed, Twilight screamed out in shock as the presumably dead figure had grasped her hoof.
Panic overtook Twilight as she now struggled to get free from the creature’s clutch. The creature sat up from its watery grave and then it dragged her closer so they were face to face or perhaps to be more exact face to mask. Twilight saw right into the eye sockets of the mask where a sudden turquoise glow sprang forth and for the briefest of moments Twilight couldn’t help but to think it was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen, like its eyes were some sort of flaming crystal orbs.
Their horns touched and Twilight let out a soft moan at the contact and felt her cheeks heat up as she on reaction closed her eyes like one often would do by a lovers kiss, after all a unicorn’s horn was its most sensitive erogenous zone and in particularly for Twilight’s case. It is said that when two unicorn’s horns touch they can see each other’s true self and feel each other’s feelings. But the only thing Twilight could feel was a great hunger for something.
Twilight felt even weaker, like her last strength was being tabbed from her very core, she slowly began to daze off. Twilight could just barely open her eyes again, she found herself looking into those wicked yet magnificent eyes again and she noticed movements; the creature lifted its other hoof and gently started to caress Twilight’s cheek. Twilight could have sworn she let out a purr by the touch and she felt something new in the creature’s blind hunger. Something Like a sudden spark of passion, self-control and consciousness. What had seemed so violent and molesting now almost felt as if they shared a moment of passion for each other, she felt care and more oddly appreciation? From the nightmarish creature.
Then Twilight finally snapped back to reality and broke the contact abruptly, apparently the creature had let go of her as their horns had touched, something which Twilight didn’t even notice for a second. She fell to her bum as she had yanked herself away from the monster, her buttock would never be the same again after this day!
The creature rose from the pool, water dripping off its slender and sickening form, the seal on its mask was now gone, probably broken when they touched their horns. And as it stood in its full height it spread out its featherless wings, which looked horrible! One could only see the bones like she was some sort of undead dragon. Twilight tried to get up and run away but the creature acted faster than her and was all over her before Twilight even got to stand on all four again.
Twilight wanted to scream as it stood over her, pinning her to the ground, but she couldn’t say a sound as something held her over the mouth, a pair of soft lips were pressed against hers. Twilight wanted to yelp and fight back but nothing came to her as she lost the last of her energy and passed out.
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Author’s note:
I really wanted to make a chase scene where the imprisoned alicorn would hunt down Twilight before it stole Twilight’s very first kiss xD but it would just make the chapter longer than necessary and it would also seem a bit silly because where would the little unicorn run to? So yeah, I decided to pass on that, I hope that’s okay :) Besides I really wanted to get onto the next chapter fast so I can write a bit of all that mushy I love and adore to write <3 Also can anyone guess the shipping yet? :3 and sorry about the poor describe of environments, I really need some practice on that >_<
Anyway, I hope you all have enjoyed the first chapter of yet another story of mine and please don’t forget to comment! <3
