Twilight Sparkle giggled as the whip cream slid down her face. She rubbed some away from her eyes to get a look at her friends. Pinkie Pie was the only one still moving, but was covered from mane to hoof in whip cream. The creamy white substance was all over to the floor of the library, and Twilight's friends.
"Pinkie wins this round." Twilight announced, licking some of the sugary cream off her hoof.
"Delicious victory!" Pinkie shouted, hopping up in the air. In midair she pulled herself back, leaving a Pinkie-shaped whip cream pony. When the cream pony hit the floor, it fell into a gloopy mess. Pinkie landed softly, completely clean.
Rarity was also covered with the cream, making her whiter than usual. She levitated a towel over to herself, wiping the cream away. Once she was finished, she tossed it to Applejack. The earth pony did the same (though not as thoroughly) and hoofed the towel over to Fluttershy. The shy pegasus took it and giggled with joy, very happy to have played this game instead of sitting in the corner like she had been planning to do.
Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, shook the cream off like a dog. "No way! Pinkie was way more covered in whip cream!"
"But you dropped, it was supposed to be the last pony standing, Dashie." Pinkie said.
"She's right, Dash." Twilight agreed. When she saw Rainbow was going to protest and not wanting another fight, she levitated a can of whip cream over to her and sprayed it in her face. The pegasus broke out in laughter as well as everypony else in the room. Fluttershy even gave a weak chuckle.
"Best. Sleepover. Ever!" Pinkie shouted. She licked up the glop of cream that had once been pony-shaped, somehow swallowing the whole thing in one gulp. She then proceeded to lick up other big piles of the sweet tasting cream. One time, she felt something in her mouth besides cream. She spit it out to find a book, something had once been covered in cream, sparkling clean. "Huh, 'Constellations and Creatures: Monsters of the Sky'. What's this, Twilight?"
Twilight trotted over, hooves squishing in the layer of whip cream on the floor. She took the book in her magic and looked at it. It was a relatively large volume with a fake leather cover, in perfect shape as almost all books in her library were. She recognized the bold text and picture on the front. "This is one of the books that I read when I was trying to learn more about the Ursa Major." she said. "I wonder what it's doing down here. I thought I put it upstairs."
"What's on the cover?" Pinkie asked, pointing to the picture. It was a lion that appeared to be composed of stars, and it was laying across a pitch black background it its tail curled around itself. It was bearing its sharp, white teeth and its bright yellow eyes in a menacing manner.
"That's Leonis, the lion star monster. He's a very strong Constellation Monster, but he hasn't been seen since before any of our grandparents were born." Twilight explained.
"Looks simply terrifying." Rarity commented, trotting over and looking at the cover of the book over Twilight's shoulder.
"I could take him." Rainbow stated smugly, also trotting over to look.
"You know," Twilight opened the book and flipped through the contents. "There is a section of this book with short tales from famous authors involving the Constellation Monsters. I think there's one about Leonis in here."
"Ooooh, read it!" Pinkie sad excitedly, bouncing. As she was standing in a bunch of whip cream when she bounced, she caused a splatter of the white substance to fly out in a wide circle. This resulted in everypony getting covered in cream again, not that anypony except Rarity minded.
"Found it." Twilight pointed at a page of the book. Everypony gathered around her in a half-circle, ready to hear the tale. Fluttershy wrapped herself in her mane and tail, appearing to be a pink lump instead of a pony.
"I'm sure it won't be that scary, Fluttershy." Rarity assured her. The unicorn cleared a place in the whip cream next to the pegasus and sat there, ready to calm the timid pony down if she got too scared.
A long time ago, there was a grand village filled with all kinds of ponies. Big and small, mare and stallion, red and green, unicorn and pegasus and earth pony. They lived happily in their village next to a dark forest. They never ventured near it, for it was rumored to be full of dangerous creatures. This proved to be true when these dangerous creatures decided the forest was not enough for them.
A pack of lions attacked the village at night, stealing young and slaying old. The once happy ponies were now terrified; all their friends and family were in danger of these lions. They sent a few brave pegasi out to fly over the forest and see if they could spot where the lions had taken the young fillies and colts. These pegasi, shaking in fear, brought back a report of a huge star lion who was leading the pack.
The star lion had claws sharper than glass, teeth brighter than the sun, a translucent hide stronger than metal, and eyes with more fury than Nightmare Moon. His name was Leonis, the star lion. They concluded that if Leonis was taken out, the lions would stop attacking the village. However, they were all much too afraid or weak to attack Leonis by themselves, so a few ponies were sent out to find somepony to help. They came back with three ponies, each willing to help.
The first pony was a pegasus mare, who was dying to kill Leonis with brute force. The second was a strong unicorn who knew many dark spells that could kill Leonis. The third was a tiny, weak earth pony who was going to ask him kindly to leave or stop attacking the village. The villagers, who had no confidence in the third pony, decided to send the pegasus first.
So, the pegasus flew through the forest towards Leonis' cave. When she was there, her wings were already tired from her flight, so she took a rest outside the cave. Before she could blink, she was surrounded by lions. She attempted to fight them off, but after her flight she was too tired to fight. She was carried into the cave and kept prisoner.
After a full day and the pegasus hadn't returned, the villagers sent the unicorn. The unicorn quickly made her way to Leonis' cave and got ready to rescue the pegasus and slay the beast. When she got there, the same group of lions came out to ponynap her. She easily tossed them away with her magic and trotted in towards Leonis. She stopped right in front of him and looked up at him, ready to cast her dark magic and slay him. However, the unicorn was stopped when the star lion offered her a crystal brighter than the stars in his pelt. Greed overtook her and she completely abandoned her task, taking the crystal and running off into the forest.
Now the villagers had no choice but to send the earth pony. She trotted slowly but confidently through the forest, eventually reaching Leonis' cave. As she approached it, the same group of lions surrounded her. "Do you wish to hurt our master?" they asked.
The earth pony replied honestly, "No, I am not going to hurt your master at all."
The lions allowed her to pass-sensing the honesty within her-, and she trotted into the cave. The first part of the cave was oddly dark, but she kept on going. She was not afraid of the darkness, she just bounced cheerfully through it. When she reached the chamber where Leonis was, the lion did the same thing he had done for the unicorn; he offered her a crystal. However, the earth pony denied the crystal, refusing to leave the villagers at the mercy of Leonis for her own gain. In the end, she kindly helped the lion find a new place to live other food sources. After she convinced the lions to move, she rescued the pegasus and returned to the village.
Twilight stopped as something occurred to her. All these things that the earth pony went through to make Leonis move... it sounded familiar, somehow. But what was it?
"Is that the end of the story?" Fluttershy asked.
"Did the pegasus seriously just get captured? Pfft." Rainbow said. "I coulda taken those lions on after flying all the way around Equestria!"
"Don't you see?" Rarity asked. "It was the pegasus' lack of plan and overconfidence that stopped her. If she had been more careful she surely would have beaten Leonis."
"You don't need a plan if you're awesome." Rainbow flew up into the air and punched at nothing as if it proved her point.
"Twilight, is something wrong?" Fluttershy asked, noticing how Twilight seemed zoned-out of the conversation. The unicorn shook her head to bring herself back into reality.
"No, I'm fine, Fluttershy." I can study to find out about it later, right now I have a sleepover with my friends. she thought.
~<3~
Twilight lay in her bed, her on one side and Rarity on the other. Applejack and Pinkie were sleeping on her spare bed, and Rainbow brought in a small cloud for her and Fluttershy to sleep on. All six were sound asleep, the only sound in the library being the occasional scratch of Owlowicous' talons and the soft snoring of Pinkie Pie.
There was a soft crack and a flash as a blue mare appeared in the room. Nopony awoke; the mare's entrance had been very quiet for a teleportation spell. Her horn glowed slightly and lit the room, lighting up her light blue mane and wings at her sides.
She trotted to a center point, directly in between all six sleeping ponies. She closed her eyes in concentration and her glowed brighter, surrounding the mane six with her magic. Suddenly, there was a flash and all seven disappeared from the library. The blue mare opened her eyes to see they had teleported to exactly where she had wanted to be; a hallway filled with twelve doors. "Trixie's back, everypony." she whispered to her unconscious company. "And more great and powerful than ever."
"Princess!" a white unicorn stallion wearing pitch black armor raced over to her. "You made it back alright, thank the heavens."
"You did not have confidence in Princess Lulamoon's abilities?" the blue alicorn asked angrily.
"No! I mean, yes, I did have confidence in your abilities, Princess Lulamoon." the unicorn replied quickly. "Do you wish for me and the others to take these ponies to their rooms?"
"Obviously, I already told you to, why would that change in the thirty seconds it took for me to teleport them here?" Lulamoon swiped her tail at him. "Make sure no one hurts them. Any damage done to them, I want to be the one doing it."
~<3~
Twlight blinked her eyes open. She instantly felt freezing, and felt around for her blanket in the darkness. However, she felt nothing. She reached over to where Rarity should be and poked around, attempting to find her friend. However, all she found was mattress. Upon this she also found that neither her pillow nor sheet were there either. She attempted to light up the area with her horn, but found that no magic came.
"Hello, Twilight Sparkle. It appears you are awake." Twilight turned around to see who was speaking, but saw nothing but darkness. But the voice just seemed so... familiar, somehow.
"What is this place?" she asked.
A small purple glow came from the opposite end of the dark room. It barely illuminated the mare standing there, casting it. As Twilight attempted to comprehend what was going on and try to remember who this mare was, the caster of the light reached over to a wall and there was a small 'click' as she flipped a switch.
Suddenly, both were blinded by light. Twilight stood up quickly to defend herself in case the pony tried to attack her while she couldn't see. However, she ended up stumbling and rolling off the mattress and onto a hard, wooden floor. She looked up, now laying on her back on the floor. As her eyes recovered from the sudden light, she looked up to see the light purple eyes of her captor.
"T-trixie?" she asked, surprised. She had never thought she would see the showpony again, especially after the incident in which an Ursa Minor was brought to town.
"The one and only, Twilight Sparkle." Trixie said, smirking in a surprisingly evil fashion. "Although I'm mostly known as 'Princess Lulamoon' these days." She turned and flapped her newfound wings to show Twilight.
The purple unicorn's mouth opened with shock. "B-but... how did you-"
Trixie waved her hoof. "Now that's a looooong story, Sparkle. Maybe I'll tell you sometime. But in the meantime, I get to take my revenge on you."
"What?" Twilight rolled over onto her belly and stood so she was eye-level with Trixie.
"I'm more great and powerful than ever." Trixie told her. "And I have the power to teleport you here; to my world. And you can't fight me." She pointed at Twilight's neck. The unicorn looked down and saw that she was wearing a tight, brown collar around her neck with a wand symbol on it.
"And magic blocking collar?!" there was genuine fear in Twilight's tone now. She had no idea where she was, she was with a pony she was pretty sure wanted her to suffer, and she couldn't use magic. Now what? She couldn't fight; as an alicorn, Trixie would now have the strength of an earth pony, and Twilight barely had the strength of a school filly.
"There's no way you can stop me now, Twilight." Trixie's horn glowed with purple magic and so did Twilight. She floated up into the air, unable to move. She floated out the door and into another dark room that was barely lit. All she could make out after the brightness of the previous room was a door in front of her. The door flung open and she fell in.
"You ruined me, Twilight Sparkle." The alicorn glared at the unicorn. "You made them all hate me. You broke me. Now I will break you, and all your friends." the door slammed shut, leaving Twilight in the middle of a dark, moonlit forest. The door disappeared, and Twilight was alone in the silvery moonlight.
"I-I need to get this collar off." she said to herself, starting to panic. What kinds of horrible things would Trixie use to hurt her? She couldn't take the chance that Trixie was bluffing. She had to get out of here and find her friends. She placed her forehooves on the collar and pushed as hard as she could, trying to slip it off over her neck. However, she barely had time to do this, because there was a glint in front of her.
She looked up. She nearly fainted. Before her stood a huge bear composed of stars. "U-ursa Minor." she whispered, backing away from the baby Constellation Monster. It lifted its head and roared. "A-angry Ursa Minor." she whispered again. Okay then, how do I get out of this situation safely? she asked herself. The Ursa roared again. "RUUUUUUUUUUN!" Twilight turned and galloped through the dead trees of the forest.
~<3~
On the other side of the door, Princess Trixie Lulamoon turned to her guard. "Turn on the lights, dolt." she snapped. "It's not spooky; it's annoying! I'd rather wake up the next one in the light. No more mouse-brained ideas." she turned and trotted through the darkness towards the next room.
To be Continued...
Fluttershy immediately knew something was wrong. She awoke in bright light, which was normal, but seemed unusually cold. She knew why this was; she wasn't surrounded by her animal friends. Her many pets usually came and curled up next to her to sleep, and she usually had to go back to sleep in the morning so as not to wake them by moving. However, she didn't feel or hear her animals friends.
I'm not at my cottage. she realized. She was about to panic when she remembered the sleepover. Oh, right. I had better get back to my cottage so I can feed my animals friends, though. I'm sure the others will understand why I have to leave early. She blinked open her cyan eyes and yawned softly. Once her eyes got used to the light, she looked around. She once again felt panic eating at the corners of her mind.
The room was bare; it was just a simple room with gray wallpaper. There were no windows; the light came from a small lightbulb on the ceiling. The only other thing in the room was Fluttershy herself; laying on a bare mattress. She heard the creak of a door and flew up into the air in fright. "Eeeek! W-who's there?" she asked.
A door on the opposite side of the room opened, revealing a familiar blue mare. "Trixie? W-what are you doing here?" she asked. Something was odd about Trixie... she wasn't the same as when Fluttershy had seen her last. But... the pegasus gasped when she spotted in wings on Trixie's sides. She was an alicorn! But how?
"Ah, the little timid Fluttershy." Trixie smirked in a strangely evil manner. "I don't think I need to go into as much detail as I did with Twilight Sparkle. Maybe we should just cut to the chase and introduce you to my world."
"Y-y-your world?" Fluttershy asked, flying as close to the ceiling as she could.
"You're not in Equestria anymore, scaredy-pony." Trixie told her. Fluttershy 'eeped' as she was surrounded by Trixie's light purple magic and she lost control of her muscles. The alicorn levitated her through the doorway in into a long hallway full of doors. There seemed to be twelve; six on one side and six on the other. Fluttershy had just come from one, and Trixie was levitating her towards the one across the hall. She saw that the two doors that were to the left of her's had faded into the wall, only a deep purple glow making them visible.
Trixie opened the door and flung Fluttershy in. The yellow mare rolled, head over hooves, in a pile of crunchy brown leaves. She looked back at Trixie, unable to make any sound except for fearful squeaks out of fear.
"It's time for me to take my revenge." Trixie told her, glaring through the doorway that appeared to be floating in nothing for there was no building behind it. "You yourself did not have a hoof in it, but your friends sure did, and what better way to torture them than to torture their friends as well?" Fluttershy was unable to respond, so Trixie continued. "You might get a bit bored while you're out here, so here's a challenge. Stay alive and find your friends. It's near impossible, isn't it? You see, this is the Midnight Forest that covers most of my world. It's about half the size of Equestria." she narrowed her eyes. "Have fun."
Trixie slammed the door, and the moment she did, it faded away. Fluttershy was now all alone in the dark and scary forest. "S-somepony? Anypony?" she called out, hoping one of her friends was near. "Please help me!" she called hoarsely. Suddenly, she saw a young white bunny hop out of a nearby bush. She was excited to see a rabbit, especially since they could be friendly not murdery. However, instead of racing over to him and scaring him, she slowly walked closer, murmuring soft, kind words.
"Will you be my friend?" she asked the bunny softly. She held out a hoof to the rabbit, who first looked down at the hoof, then at her face. A smile crept across its tiny face and it hopped forward. It reached forward to grab her hoof and...
"Ouch!" Fluttershy jumped back as the rabbit sunk its teeth into her leg. The growled at her then fled into the darkness of the forest. The pegasus wanted to cry. Why not? she thought. tears poured from her face.
~<3~
"I'm already getting tired of this." Trixie growled as she walked over to the third door. "Why didn't I just toss them right into the forest to begin with?" she took note to make these next four quicker.
"P-princess?" a soft voice said. Trixie turned around to see a small, green earth pony mare donned in shining black armor standing behind her. "I-I just wanted to say that the foal is alright. S-she safely living in the w-warm chamber."
Princess Trixie's look softened. "Thank you, Miss Evergreen. Please watch over her and make sure nothing happens too her."
Evergreen nodded, not seeming all that surprised by Trixie's kindness but very surprised she had called her by her name instead of a random insult. She scurried off, and Trixie smiled after her, a strange warmness in her heart. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the white unicorn stallion watching. She faked a few coughs and turned her expression back to one of annoyance and anger.
She pushed open the next door. She trotted in and saw Pinkie Pie standing upside-down on the ceiling. "Hey, good to see you again, I'm Trixie, I'm back for revenge, I'm an alicorn now, I want to make Twilight Sparkle suffer so I'll make her friends suffer as well." she said quickly. Before Pinkie could speak, she was surrounded in light purple magic and thrown through another door that lead to another part of the Midnight Forest.
"But... but, but..." Pinkie said. "You gotta at least sound evil and spooky if you're gonna do this!"
Trixie shrugged. "I'm not in the mood now. Oh well, I scared the scaredy-pony and my main target, The only reason I'm including the rest of you is it will make her feel worse if her friends hurt too." then she slammed the door and and left Pinkie stranded in the forest.
The pink earth pony stared at the empty space where the door had been for a moment before turning around and bouncing away. "Gotta go find my friends!" she said in a sing-song voice.
~<3~
Trixie sighed as she went to push open the next door. She thought for a moment, then called over a guard. "You three take the last ponies out and put them in the doors, I'm going out for a bit." she told them.
"Of course, Princess Lulamoon." they nodded and trotted towards the doors. Trixie turned and flew out the door and to the outside world.
The first guard opened one of the doors. He nearly gasped; there wasn't a pony in this room! He stuck his head in and looked around just to make sure that she wasn't hiding behind the door or anything...
WHAM.
Rainbow Dash brought her hooves down hard of the guard's head. His helmet barely protected him from the blow, and he jumped backwards in shock. This allowed the cyan pegasus to fly out of the room and launch another attack on him. She slammed into his side, driving him into the wall. He fell to the floor, unconscious.
"Get her!" one of the last two guards shouted. Both charged at rainbow, who easily avoided them by flying up to the ceiling.
"Can't catch me!" she darted away from them, and they chased her down the hallways, Neither were pegasi, so they couldn't catch her in the air. Whenever they got near, Rainbow would simply fly up to the ceiling, just out of their reach. she flew back and forth across the hallway, taunting the guards with every lap.
"That's enough!" one of the guards growled. He levitated off his helmet with his magic and tossed it as hard as he could at Rainbow. The pegasus, not expecting it, was hit right in the wing. She fell to the floor and the two guards raced over to her. One placed his hoof on her chest to make sure she couldn't get up and the other retrieved his helmet.
"Get off!" Rainbow kicked out with all four legs, but at her angle she couldn't land any blow on her captors. The unicorn guard placed his helmet back on his head then trotted to the other end of the hallway. He came back with a rope in his mouth. He levitated it towards Rainbow and was about to tie up her wings when-
WHAM. SMACK.
Both guards fell, unconscious, Rarity and Applejack holding up their forehooves as they had just used them to hit the guards. They fell back onto all fours and helped Rainbow to her hooves. "Thanks, girls." she said. She turned to look at her wing. It was bent and several feathers were pointing the wrong direction. "Ow, they busted up my wing. I meant to catch the helmet and throw it back at him."
"Where are we?" Rarity asked, looking around the hallway. It was now empty except for them and the unconscious guards.
"Where's the others?" Applejack asked. She trotted up to the first door, one that was translucent with a purple glow, and attempted to open it. Her hoof went right through it, touching bare wall. "What the...?"
"Some sort of magical lock, I'd guess." Rarity said, trotting over and leaving Rainbow to preen her wing. "Twilight could probably break it but we don't really have her with us now, do we?" she looked down to the end of the hallway, the door that Trixie had left through a few minutes ago. "Is that the exit?" she asked.
"How should Ah know?" Applejack asked. The earth pony trotted over to the door and attempted to open it. "It's locked too."
"Well, that one should be just a normal lock, it doesn't show any signs of being magical." Rarity stated, walking up to Applejack's side and running one hoof through her mane. "I should be able to pick the lock..." she kept searching her mane for about another minute or so before giving up. "Oh dear, I haven't any manepins on me."
"The the only other option is through here." Rainbow spoke up. She had stood, her wing limp at her side, and was standing over by one of the doors. "It's not locked; let's go."
"But we don't know what's in there, Rainbow Dash." Rarity told her. "There could be something awfully dangerous just waiting for us."
Rainbow waved one hoof around the room. "Do you see any other way outta here?"
All three gave one final search around the small hallway. Rarity sighed. "No, I guess it is our only option. However, we should stick together. If there is anything that wants to attack us-" she stopped speaking when she realized Applejack and Rainbow Dash had already raced out the door. "Wait for me, girls!" she called, slipping through the door a second before it closed and darting off after them. Once the door closed behind her, it disappeared into thin air.
~<3~
Twilight felt teeth close firmly around her tail, and she screamed loudly. "Somepony! Anypony! Help me!" she screeched as the Ursa Minor dragged her backwards. This wasn't an innocently cranky Ursa; it was angry, and possibly hungry. Twilight struggled as she dragged backwards by the star creature. She claws at the ground with her hooves, attempting to escape the grip of the Ursa.
There was a chorus of loud roars behind the two. Twilight and the Ursa both turned to see a huge, red Ursa that towered more than five times the size of the Ursa Minor. Uh-oh. Now an Ursa Major? She felt herself fall deeper into panic when she saw that there were also three other Ursa Minors around the paws of the Ursa Major. An entire family of hungry Ursas. I'm so dead.
The Ursa Major walked over in her huge strides. She picked up Twilight's tail in her teeth and made a praising sound to her son that could be confused with a very loud purr. She turned and the family carried Twilight through the forest. "Hey, uh, Miss Ursa?" Twilight said nervously, tapping the nose of the great bear. "Do you think you could... not eat me?"
The Ursa ignored her, padding on through the forest.
"Please? Can you please put me down?" Twilight asked. "I would really appreciate it if-"
The Ursa growled loudly. Twilight couldn't understand it because it had her tail in its mouth, but it seemed to say 'If you don't shut up I'll eat you now.' Twilight shut her mouth and silent swayed upside-down, back and forth, as the group walked on through the forest.
To be Continued...
