Darkest Equestria

It was getting hard to write.

Twilight wrote to her lost mentor. She wrote letters of lessons long since learned, of old memories, and eventually of the daily occurrences of her life. Words flowed until they could flow no more, and Twilight had nothing more to write. There was no point to this, Twilight knew. The letters she wrote would never be delivered, for there was no pony to send them too anymore. There was no more Princess Celestia, her beloved mentor.

The letters were stacked on her floor and desk alike. Piles and piles of letters. Written with hope, written with despair, and written with yearning. There was a time she could have sent these letters to her mentor. A time ten years ago. Before all of this. Before the Summer Sun Celebration. Before... before the world she knew began to die.

Twilight sealed her pointless letter and set it on a stack with the others. Blankly, she stared at them. Her wandering mind captured her, and she began to think back.

Friendship didn't fail that fateful day; it never even had a chance to flourish. Killed in its iron-wrought cage of a crib, it died a silent, unseen death. The elements of harmony probably never existed. That fateful journey into the Everfree to best the supposed Nightmare Moon... it never would have even mattered. For it was not just Nightmare Moon that appeared that night. It was something far darker...

Twilight Sparkle sat in her cold tower in Canterlot. When princess Celestia disappeared, ponies started looking for answers. They turned to her of course, the student of the princess, and for once, she had no answers. All she could do was point in the direction of the Everfree. The direction of that dreaded forest.

She stood up from her seat, her legs lethargic with disuse. The stacked letters on her desk fell over, gliding across the floor. The doors to the outside of the tower remained locked as always. A mountain of books was piled up in front of them, blocking exit and entry. Tomes and scrolls scattered the floors, a mess borne of frantic research, and then a slow forgetfulness as answers refused to make themselves known.

In her pouring over all the tomes she could get her hooves on, Twilight had found no answers for what had occurred that day.

Her hooves unconsciously carried her to a window. Outside, gloomy clouds dragged in the air. The Pegasi could no longer remove them, there was not enough magic left to fuel flight. Near the Everfree, what magic remained was tentative in its function at best. There was no choice but to let the weather do as it pleased.

The shrouded sun was up now, as it would be for the next two days. With groups of unicorns having to move the celestial bodies at the cost of all the magic in their bodies, Equestria had shifted to a three days and three nights schedule.

She looked further, over fields of green and brown grass, then over the crowning canopy of the Everfree. Sequestered inside of the ever-expanding forest was a town. The town of Ponyville was not what it once was. It was a squalid mess of dilapidated buildings, some still standing, others not. It was nothing like the vibrant town she had seen all those years ago. The new council in charge of Equestria refused to fund anything more into it, close to the Everfree as it was.

They also had other things to worry about. War in distant lands had erupted. What funding there was would go there.

And then... surrounding Ponyville... was the Everfree.

It was always a darker place, an unknown machination of the powers that be, but its past self was nothing like it was now. It didn't look much different from this distance. It was still made of the same gnarled old oaks, the creeping vines and mired swamps. But now... it felt different. Where one would look at it with fear or apprehension, its shadowy embrace now spoke of dread, spoke of things beyond comprehension. A thousand secrets were laid bare before the watcher, and not a single one could be understood.

And then there was the Castle of the Two Sisters. Rising over the forest like an ancient monolith, the ground had seemed to push it out of the canopy of the forest overnight. Those ancient stones had not been trodden on by pony hooves in hundreds of years, and she could feel it. Something dwelled there, something that lurked between the unknowable phantoms of reality. It was the place where princess Celestia vanished, and its presence was a poison to this land.

"Are you alright, Twilight?" Spike made himself known with a yawn, rubbing his eyes as he crawled out of a pile of books. "You're staring into the distance again."

Twilight said nothing for a moment. Her expression was grim, her eyes hidden behind the long shadows cast by lantern light. "Do you think we could have done more?"

"What can we do? This is just the way things are now." Spike joined her at the window.

"Remember that first day in Ponyville?" Twilight said. "I made so many friends so quickly. I had never felt so happy in all my life..."

"You can still make friends!" Spike said.

There was an unsaid current in the air. That was a lie, and they both knew it.

"I wonder if any of them are still there?" Twilight placed a hoof on the cold glass. "Maybe in another time, another place, we would still be friends."

"At least you have me, right?"

Twilight grabbed him and pulled him close. The heat of his draconic body warmed her lavender coat. "At least I have you, Spike. You are always there for me."

The two watched the gloomy clouds, taking a moment to enjoy each other's company. Then, Spike coughed.

"Is everything alright?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, just... getting a little stomach ache." Spike coughed again. "I... I think I-"

Spike stumbled away, then shot a breath of green fire out of his mouth. It swirled up into the air, the flames coalescing into a slender form. A moment later, a browned piece of parchment fell to the ground.

"Is that a letter?" Twilight asked.

"It looks like it." Spike wiped his mouth and took a closer look. "It- It has the royal seal!"

"What?!" Twilight grabbed the parchment with what magic she could muster. Her horn sparked with a purple glow, and the paper began to shakily float off the ground. She looked at the front of the letter, and sure enough, the royal seal of Celestia stood bold, embedded in the red wax.

"But... she's..." Spike's words died in his throat.

"Gone or dead. Yes." Twilight felt something blossom within her. Hope. "But this! This could change everything!"

"Then, are you going to open it?"

Twilight stared at the seal, a thousand thoughts weaving through her mind. Then, her eyes narrowed, and she nodded. She unraveled the letter and began to read.

"My most faithful student. If you are reading this, then it means I have failed. I am sorry, it was my mistakes that led to this. I can see it now in my fleeting visions, the dark future of Equestria, and I am powerless to stop it. I know you are scared, hopeless, lost, but Equestria needs you now more than ever. When this letter reaches you, the evil will still be in its incubation stage. I beg of you, return to Ponyville, take up arms against it, and destroy it before its pestilence reaches a terrible threshold.

Found enclosed is the deed to Ponyville and all surrounding lands. They are yours now, and you are bound to them. Everything and everypony within now officially belongs to you. There is a reason I called them my little ponies after all.

Deliver us from this seething evil. Remember Twilight, as long as you harbor it in your heart, friendship and hope will never die.

With hope, Princess Celestia."

The letter was clearly written by her quill. Those elegant flowing lines, that dark ink, it was something that seemed almost like a misty memory on a summer's day. Fleeting in the mind, but unforgettable by the eye.

"What does it say?" Spike asked.

Twilight stared at the parchment. It almost didn't seem real. How was she supposed to cleanse that evil? Her magic didn't work well near it, everypony had all but given up on doing anything about it. The world had moved on. Everypony had moved on.

Everypony besides her. For whom else would not have given up on a world like this?

"Spike. Pack your bags. We are going back to Ponyville." Twilight stalked off, determination smoldering in her chest. "Princess Celestia might be alive, and it's time I do something about it."

"What?" Spike asked. "Are you serious?"

Seeing that he had been left alone, Spike cursed and chased after Twilight.

In the distance, lightning flashed, backdropped against the Castle of the Two Sisters. And if there was a watcher, they would have sworn they saw grasping tendrils reaching out from the shadowed depths...

of a Darkest Dungeon.