The Forgotten Prince

Chapter II: The Essence of Fear

As the inhabitants of Ponyville woke up, they too would be found standing perplexed and shocked by the windows or doorways of their homes. It would not be long until a large group of ponies was gathered outside on the streets, either exchanging questions that nopony was able to answer or exclamations of concern and awe.

Twilight had just finished writing a letter to princess Celestia, asking her mentor if it was everything alright at the Canterlot castle, and if she knew anything at all about this strange phenomenon, as she could not stop worrying and assuming the worst.

Could this unexpected absence of both sun and moon mean that something terrible had happened to the princesses? And should she assume that the celestial bodies’ disappearing was, somehow, connected to the blinding haze and the freezing air? In a more deep concern, well buried in her conscious, her mind dwelled with the possible meanings of the dream she had the previous night.

Shrugging away her clouding thoughts, she rolled up the parchment very quickly and handed it to a still drowsy Spike for him to blow some magical fire on it, thus sending it through the air and to its respective destination. In the case a response from her mentor would not have arrived in the next few hours, she thought, she and her friends would depart immediately to Canterlot.

Before going outside, she remembered to get her satchel from the closet upstairs, and then rushed back to the library on the ground floor, where she began searching anxiously through the bookshelves and drawers, packing some things she thought could be useful in the case things got worse or a journey to the capital city was necessary, things the young dragon could barely discern through half-closed eyes due to heavy eyelids.

Only then did Twilight hurriedly walk over to the front door and open it, letting an unpleasant chilly blow of air get past her and inside the house.

“Hurry up, Spike! We can’t stay here and do nothing, we have to figure out what’s going on!”

Once outside, she noticed some ponies passing close by at a nervous pace, all heading towards the same direction. She could hear some of them mentioning that Mayor Mare was about to give a speech in the city hall, concerning this whole situation. Twilight though that, maybe, she had been already informed of some important news. She hastened her trot and followed the crowd.

A few minutes later, she found herself forced to stop, for right in front of her was a big, compressed throng of scared and wondering ponies. She wanted to listen closely to the speech, so she had to push through in order to reach the first row. Spike always followed behind, even at a slower pace, but found it much easier to get to the front by simply crawling under the many legs, given his small size.

After a while after reaching the front row, despite all the noise, Twilight was able to hear a familiar squealing voice calling her name nearby, so she turned her head in that direction. Her gaze immediately landed on was an unmistakable pink and curly mane, bouncing in the middle of the crowd, and quite noticeable even through the mist. It was Pinkie Pie, followed closely by Rarity and Rainbow Dash, the latter hovering above them, Twilight could state as they drew closer.

“Hey, girls!” Twilight greeted them, though without hiding her concerned expression, which was quite evident to them.

“Hello, Twilight...” Rarity was the first to respond, giving a clearly upset sigh “what an unpleasant surprise to wake up to, huh?”

Pinkie bore quite an un-Pinkie-like annoyed expression on her face.

“Speaking of surprises, I had just prepared this super-duper-amazing special surprise to show you guys at the party this morning, and now I don’t even know if it is morning at all! This is so confusing...”

Rarity turned again to Twilight.

“I just hope that all this isn’t a sign that something terrible happened to the princesses...”

“My thought’s the same, Rarity. I’ve sent princess Celestia a letter asking if it was everything alright, but she hasn’t responded yet.”

Still floating in the air right above them, Rainbow Dash was the one that looked the most displeased.

“And what’s with this stupid fog? I couldn’t dispatch it, not for anything I tried! Ugh... I just KNOW they’ll be on my back about this one!” she grunted while looking away, cross-armed, swollen in her own pride to be the fastest and most efficient weather patrol worker.

“Does any of you know where Fluttershy and Applejack could be?” the purple unicorn inquired.

“Fluttershy must’ve bunkered with her animals inside her house as soon as she took a peek outside the window” the cyan pegasus replied.

“As for Applejack, she’s coming over there!” Pinkie pointed away “I can see her hat already!”

Twilight turned aroung to see the orange farmer pony on her way to meet with them. She also looked quite unsatisfied.

“Hey, gang. Ah reckon by this amount of ponies here that y’all are as concerned about this whole mess as Ah am.”

“What took you so long to get here?” Rarity inquired.

“The rooster didn’t cluck. The poor thing must’ve been confused by the lack of light... Ah’d be too, if Ah hadn’t got up and looked through the window and saw this... sorry if y’all were waiting for me.”

“It’s okay, Applejack” Twilight said.

“Thanks, Twi. And Ah wanted to ask you: has princess Celestia told you anything about what’s goin’ on?”

She shook her head negatively as a response “Mayor Mare should be here any minute to tell us if she has received any information.”

“Ah see...”

After some more minutes, the tall doors of the city hall opened side to side, and through them exited Mayor Mare, who was being flanked by two Canterlot royal guards, both their expressions as stiff and cold as the heavy armours they wore. Everypony ceased the murmurs when the mayor approached the podium and cleared her throat. Twilight and her friends perked up their ears in full attention.

“Citizens of Ponyville, by now you all must have noticed that a bizarre phenomenon has befallen over our town. I have received information that this exact same event is happening over many other cities, if not, I am afraid to say, throughout all of Equestria, as I speak.

Despite the fact that the sun hasn’t raised yet and the moon, too, has gone missing from the skies, I can assure you that the royal sisters of Canterlot are perfectly safe and sound. They’ve sent messengers to all corners of Equestria to assure their subjects that this is no matter to worry ourselves about, and that they will try to resume the normal cycle of day and night as soon as possible.

As for the strange weather, it was first though that this was a lapse from the part of the pegasi weather patrol...”

At that moment, Rainbow Dash could not hold her indignation anymore and felt the need to let it out. She hastily dashed through the air until her face met with that of the speaker.

“Now wait just a minute, if there is anything I won’t stand is somepony accusing me of being an incompetent worker! I take my job very seriously, ma’am! I could clear the skies of Ponyville and surroundings in seconds, but THIS, this was just out of my reach!”

Mayor Mare simply closed her eyes, her expression as placid as ever.

“Do not worry, miss Rainbow Dash, we all know very well that you are an excellent worker. In fact, we also know that if you couldn’t dispatch some random cloud, haze or storm, whatsoever, nopony could. And I’m afraid that’s the case: word from all over Equestria is that this awful mist and sudden lower of temperature are all connected to whatever terrible force has managed to take control over both the sun and the moon. It cannot be dispatched because it is from a... magical source.”

The whole crowd burst in noisy murmurs, and Twilight just had her suspicions confirmed. If it was true that some mysterious force had taken control of both day and night, and was spreading this cold, thick haze throughout the land, then they would be facing a whole new threat, perhaps even bigger than Nightmare Moon, Discord, king Sombra, or any other, she though, for it could clearly rival the powers of princess Celestia, the most powerful pony known to her.

Mayor Mare cleared her throat once more, subtly calling everypony’s attention one last time as she concluded her brief speech.

“So now that you have all been informed, I would advise everypony to resume your daily routines, and pretend none of this has ever happened. The royal sisters assure us they’ll have this all taken care of before long. Just remember to be careful on the roads, since they’re very slippery and hard to see.”

All the other ponies began to leave to different directions. Though slightly calmed down, they were all still a bit apprehensive. Twilight and her friends, on the other hoof, remained there.

“There’s something wrong here, girls...” the purple unicorn stated “whatever’s causing all this is clearly a menace to princess Celestia’s powers; so why would she just send messengers everywhere, and not tell us anything in the first place?”

Nopony was able to answer, though they all understood Twilight’s preoccupation.

“I mean... we ARE the elements of harmony, aren’t we? She has called our help in several other occasions. So why would this one be any different? It just doesn’t make sense!”

“You heard Mayor Mare saying that the princesses would solve this themselves, Twi!” Applejack remembered her “Though I understand your concern, maybe they really just wanna try to fix everything alone this time. Ah mean, it’s their sun and moon, after all. If somepony or something is trying to take them, it’s only natural that they want to be them alone to bring them back.”

“Yes, darling!” Rarity assured her “You have to trust princess Celestia if she says she is able to take care of this herself.”

Her friends had a point, but she still wondered why her teacher would not notify her at all of something like this. Twilight just sighed impatiently.

“What other choice do I have, right?”

That said, they all prepared to leave to their respective duties, like the mayor had recommended.

Suddenly, a cold and howling gale rose up without a warning, almost making Applejack’s hat fly away, if she had not caught it with her hoof first.

The wind was quickly growing stronger, so much that Rainbow Dash had to land on the ground and Spike was nearly knocked down from his tiny feet. It blew through their manes in a disagreeable way, as the air seemed to be getting chillier than before, while the sound of all sorts of things being thrown to the ground or the loose shutters banging was heard among the incessant whistling, creating an incredibly harsh atmosphere.

Many other ponies could be heard screaming and running to their homes from all directions. The six friends, too, felt they had to find cover somewhere quickly.

Before long, they found themselves forced to half-close their eyes in order to prevent getting flying dust on them, but carried on their difficult pace against the tempest. Through semi-shut eyes, Twilight noticed that the fog was getting dimmer, until it was practically pitch black.

An ear-splitting thunder was heard, and they all got scared and shot open their eyes with a collective gasp. The haze seemed to be lifting a little, but only enough for them to become aware of some darker, massive clouds forming in the sky, shooting some very bright blood-red bolts of lightning, followed by other deafening thunders.

At some point, one thunderous bolt hit the middle of the street they were on, only a few meters in front of them. What they saw next made them freeze where they stood and agape in panic and terror: from the scorched hole in the pavement emerged the dark, shadowy and ethereal-looking figure of an earth pony, though much skinnier and taller than any normal, healthy pony they had ever seen; its mere sight sent chills down their spines, for it had no eyes, no mouth, no face at all; yet, they knew it was somehow looking at them.

It got out from the hole and began walking towards them very slowly. They wanted to scream out of pure horror, but their mouths would not let them, and it kept walking in their direction, while emitting a bloodcurdling sound that got louder and louder as the distance between them narrowed, very perceptible even through the howling tempest and the shrilling thunders. It sounded like a mixture of static noise with the heavy and painful respiration of a dying pony, spitting a torrent of indistinguishable words between breaths in a demonic, shrieking voice.

At some point, Applejack finally managed to come back to her senses, and took the lead of the group, starting by turning around on her hooves.

“Run guys! Follow me this way!”

They scampered as fast as they could away from the thing. Applejack led them inside the first door she found, after taking a few twists and turns in order to lose it, without noticing that it had not even tried to run after them.

She hurriedly closed the door behind her. Inside was pitch black, occasionally lit up faintly by the red lightning storm, flashing through the windows in the form of unearthly and frightening crimson beams, but at least the tempest would not get them there and, hopefully, neither would that horrible figure.

“What the hay... was that thing?!” Rainbow Dash asked, while still trying to catch her breath.

“Don’t know...” Applejack said in a serious tone “But let’s hope we don’t run into that again... or that there aren’t more of those out there!...”

“We have to find Fluttershy!” Pinkie reminded “The poor thing must be so scared, all alone in her house... and what if there ARE more of those things, and they manage to get her? What would they do to her? Aw, this is terrible!”

“Calm down, Pinkie!” Twilight stepped in “I’m sure she’ll be safe as long as she’s inside her house. What we need to do now is stay indoors as well, at least until the storm is gone. Meanwhile, we should figure out whose house we’ve just invaded.”

That said, they began searching for a light switch. Pinkie Pie found one, but unfortunately the power was out, probably because of the tempest, so Twilight had to improvise and lit up her horn.

The dim magical source of light flickered like a candle of white fire. It was not very bright, but it would do for a small, circular beam.

She walked slowly and carefully further inside the house, followed closely behind by the others, while muttering silently to herself “Princess Celestia is REALLY gonna have to explain me this one.”

With all the doors and windows closed, the inside of the house was immerse in a strange, deadening silence, interrupted only by the sporadic muffled thunders outside and sound of their hoofsteps treading on the wooden floor.

After walking a bit further into the shadows, they all started noticing a bizarre and alarming change in their surroundings and in the atmospheric pressure. Their hooves were suddenly treading over a harder, noisy surface, which the beam of light revealed to be a rusty metal grill. Through its holes, they could see an unfathomable hole in the ground, where the light could not find the end, giving them the frightful sensation of standing above a bottomless pit.

The concrete walls and ceiling were utterly covered in slimy, dripping mold, and the stench of humidity filling the heavy air around them was nearly unbearable. The disquieting intermittent silence only interrupted by the occasional thunders from before was now replaced by a constant low and grave whooshing, like water rushing through large pipes behind the concrete. None of them would say they were even in the same world anymore.

At some point, Twilight felt a painful sting in one of her front hooves and let out an audible shriek, stopping immediately, followed by the rest of the group. She pointed her light source to her still aching sole, only to find out a shattered piece of glass jabbed in it, not too deeply, but enough to cause some blood to spurt around the wound, and, on the floor in front of them, more broken shards were scattered, some utterly covered in crimson, fresh blood, still dripping, which was not of any of them, but there was so much of it that they all gasped in dread at the sight.

It was then that the six friends’ noses detected a different and exceptionally foul scent in the air, right before the purple pony’s beam caught something large and moist lying still ahead of them, which contrasted with the absolute dull nothingness on that infinite pitch black corridor.

Upon approaching it with caution, they all came to the immediate realisation of what it actually was, and some aghast squeals and whimpers were heard, in a mixture of horror and disgust, for they had stumbled across the corpses of two fully grown-up ponies. Both of them had their whole bodies burnt beyond recognition, with whatever remaining skin tissue as dark as a piece of charcoal, and an odd gap on their chests, from which some smoke was still coming out, suggesting the bizarre conclusion that they had combusted from the inside out.

While Pinkie and Rarity turned their faces away, both because of the shock of such a horrific sight and the nauseous reek of burnt flesh, Rainbow Dash and Applejack simply stood there staring confused, with the latter covering the innocent eyes of the young dragon with one hoof. The librarian pony, however, went a bit further in examining the bodies, and found out another possible cause of death, as their necks appeared to have been sawn deeply.

In their already completely baffled minds, the six friends shared now common questions: who could these two unfortunate souls be? How did they get here? Or better yet... where is “here”?

All of a sudden, a sad and stifled weeping became audible, coming from the far end of the dark hallway. Twilight looked back to her friends, who, by the looks on their faces, shared the same bewilderment and curiosity to find its source, so they pressed forward, with even more caution in every step.

The more they walked, the more the incessant sobs increased in volume, echoing throughout the corridor, repeating themselves, and creating such a disquieting scenario that one’s very sanity could be felt slowly weakening. Eventually, Twilight and her friends started catching glimpses of shadows changing or moving from the corners of their eyes, and so the mystification gave way to unease, and the unease was slowly giving way to pure dread.

Soon, they would all find themselves scampering, with their hearts beating incredibly fast from both the rush and the alarmed state of their minds. They did not want to be in this place anymore.

“There’s a door!” Twilight exclaimed from the front of the group, noticeably relieved.

On the side wall was an ajar wooden door; a red shaft of light passed through the gap for a split second and spread on the floor of the hallway, accompanied by an ear-splitting thunder, followed immediately by complete obscurity.

The corridor prolonged much further past it, but no amount of foalish curiosity would make them want to spend one more second in there, neither did the circumstances of what followed: the petrifying static noise and high-pitched whispers had returned, coming from amidst the darkness in front of them. Their pupils narrowed as they saw the head of another figure coming out of the shadows, treading patiently, knowing exactly where they were despite having no face and being made of black smoke.

There was yet another one, coming from behind; how it got to them so quickly, given that they had been running and not being followed for minutes, while those things were apparently so slow, nopony knew, nor did they care at the moment.

The purple unicorn hastily pushed the door open, led all the others inside and closed it, while Applejack and Rainbow Dash struggled to move a nearby weighty piece of furniture to bar it, hoping it would give them some time. Twilight focused her faint beam of light on her surroundings in order to inspect which division they had entered.

It was somepony’s bedroom. On one side, there was a tidily made bed, with comfortable-looking sheets and bedspread, and one bedside table with a lamp and a box of tissues on it. On the other side was a closet and a tall, broken mirror, which caught her attention instantaneously, since the rest of the room, seemed very clean and organised. There was only a major problem: with the two silhouettes standing outside in the hallway, they were trapped in there.

Twilight walked over to the opposite wall, the one with the window through which they could gaze the horrendous sky filled with massive dark clouds and the unremitting blood-coloured bolts of lightning, while the others followed her with their gazes from near the barricaded door. She focused the light of her horn on the shatters of the mirror, scattered on the carpet, and noticed that some of them had what seemed to be more fresh blood on them.

Upon looking closer, she noticed a trail of small red drops along the carpet, leading to the darkest corner of the room. She turned her head and the beam of light in that direction. There, almost unnoticeable, sat the form of a female adult pony, facing the wall with her head down and her mane covering her face. It was her who was crying, for she broke the long silence and gave another desperate sob when the horn was pointed directly at her.

“H-hello...?” Twilight called quietly, hesitating a bit, but the pony did not respond, confined to her ceaseless crying.

Her coat, mane and tail were a total mess, unkempt and with blood stains all over them. However, Twilight was able to recognise her by her cutie mark.

“Berry Punch?”

After hearing her name, the pony lifted up her head in a swift motion and, though without turning to face her, answered between more sobs.

“T-Twilight?! I-is that you?” Her voice seemed more like an echoed, nervous whisper, barely resembling Berry Punch’s usual timbre as Twilight remembered, but a phantom’s lament.

“Yes, it’s me...” She began approaching her back slowly “Why are you crying here, all alone? And the blood... are you hurt?”

“I-I’m scared, Twilight! S-so scared! The others... t-they were scared too, but they’ve figured their own way to never fear anything... anymore.”

Twilight felt a bit frightened just to think of what those words could mean, freezing completely where she stood.

“What do you mean? Who are the others you’re talking about?”

“Lyra and Bon Bon... t-this is their house. When the storm came, everypony ran to their homes, b-but I was very far from mine... so they let me hide in here.”

“Where are they now, Berry?”

She let out another loud whimper, but after it all the remaining tears were swollen.

“They... they left me here, all alone. We thought we’d be safe indoors, but we’re not. N-nopony is safe... she comes anyway!”

The way she pronounced those last words was quite disturbing, not to mention that their meaning was absolutely senseless, almost as if uttered by an insane pony.

“Berry? Who are you talking about?”

“She comes through the mirrors... Lyra and Bon simply couldn’t bear feeling her presence growing inside their bodies, taking control of their whole being. So they ran outside with some mirror shards and... cut their own throats open!”

That last statement literally sent unpleasant chills down Twilight’s spine, as well as those of her friends, who had been listening to the whole conversation by the door.

“Who’s her, Berry?” Twilight tried to pluck a concise answer from her, as the mulberry-coloured pony’s state of mind was perceptibly shaken and fragile.

“You can’t fear what you cannot see, can you?” She continued, her tone of voice starting to fall into insanity with words that made no sense “The eyes might deceive you. But it’s alright! She’ll come either way!” She then started laughing maniacally.

“Berry Punch, you’re scaring me...” The purple pony hurriedly backed away, feeling her heart pounding faster than ever and cold sweat forming on her forehead.

“WHERE ARE YOU GOING, TWILIGHT?!” Her scream sounded like a possessed screech. And like a thunder, she stood up and turned around to face them, though she was not yet visible in the shadow of the corner. Twilight tripped in the carpet with the sudden alarm.

“DON’T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE AGAIN! NOT WITH... HER!!!”

As she finally stepped away from the shadows, they all felt their whole bodies shudder and the blood freeze inside their veins from the horrendous sight that was right before them: both of Berry Punch’s eyes were gone, leaving nothing but two black, soggy holes, and fresh crimson blood streaming from them and down her cheeks. Her mouth was fully open, allowing them to see that her tongue had been cut off and all the teeth pulled out, resulting in more blood pouring continuously down her chin. That was why the words managed to escape her mouth only in the form of echoed ghostly whimpers.

She limped in their direction slowly, leaving bloody hoofprints behind, as the shards of the broken mirror jabbed into her hooves when she treaded over them, forcing a cry of pain from her. Each breath she took sounded agonizingly difficult and heavy.

Neither of them could understand who or what could have done such a horrible thing to somepony, and that just added up to the perplexity after having heard her insane dander.

“B-Berry Punch?” Pinkie squealed pleadingly.

She did not seem to listen; instead, she rapidly dashed forward and rose up on her hind legs, preparing to attack them with her front, sore hooves, already high up in the air.