Chapter I - No Going Back
They say those that enter The Divide, would be better off being tortured and beaten within the depths of Tartarus. For once you enter the great fissure of Equestria, not the Sun, nor the Moon can save you.
Twilight opened her eyes. The pain in her legs prevented her from standing up. She blinked slowly to remove the dirt from her eyes, only to have the wind blow more sand and pebbles into her face. She let out a cough as the dry substance entered her lungs.
She spit out a few drops of of blood onto the ground. The dazed unicorn lifted her head away from the red liquid as it spread and formed a small pool a mere inch from her face. She coughed again, kicking up the dirt on the ground and forcing the small cloud of sand to rise into her mouth and eyes. Twilight began to blink rapidly to clear her vision.
The unicorn attempted to look around her, but her neck wouldn't budge. Twilight must have injured it on the way down. When moving her head she would feel a sharp pain in one side of her neck.
Not going to be able to use that for awhile. Perfect
She felt a sharp pain in the side of her neck as she attempted to turn around. Her vision began to fade again as she began to slip out of consciousness. She rested her head on the ground, ignoring the blood soaking into her coat. She closed her eyes, and passed out.
"Twilight, please be careful. It's a long flight, I don't want you or any of your friends to get hurt. I'm not too trusting of those little chariots."
The lavender unicorn quietly chuckled. Princess Celestia needed to learn to ease up a bit. Twilight had been on plenty of these little expeditions, they were nothing in comparison to her battles with Discord, Nightmare Moon, Queen Chrysalis or King Sombra.
"Ok, Princess Celestia," Twilight said sarcastically.
The white alicorn let out a soft sigh.
"You and your friends leave tomorrow. Make sure that everypony is prepared," Celestia said calmly, not acknowledging her students obvious sarcasm.
Twilight turned around and walked towards the exit of the palace.
"At least she's learning to be a bit more independent. I remember when all she would worry about was pleasing me and following my instructions to the letter. Well, I guess it's a good thing. She's finally growing up," Celestia whispered to herself.
She smiled, and watched as her student exited the throne room.
Twilight lay silently on the canyon floor. Concealed from view by the dust being blowing around. The wind had begun to pick up, limiting visibility to no more than 4 feet. The blood on her face had dried up, causing her bright lavender coat to turn a dark burgundy, stained by her own blood, and the sand from the ground. Her body began to shiver as the wind gusted over her. She let out a cough, forcing out the dirt and sand in her lungs.
She was awake, but far past her physical limitations. Her eyes opened slowly, almost instantly slamming them shut as the sand from the ground was blown into her face.
The wind began to settle down as the sand and dirt flying through the air softly landed on the canyon floor.
What's going on? Twilight thought to herself.
A vision in her head began to form. She saw herself and her friends, flying in the chariot over Equestria's skies. The six ponies casually conversed with each other until they arrived at their destination, while the two guards worked hard, pulling the 6 ponies behind. It was no trouble at all for them, they prided themselves in strength, but the long journey was beginning to tax on their endurance.
The picture and Twilight's head began to fade.
No, don't go away. Please...
Her mind began to fade to black, as she began to hear the screams of her friends, followed by the sounds of chains tearing. Rainbow Dash screamed, followed by the sound of a chain wrapping around her wing. The cyan pegasus screamed again in pain, followed by the sound of her wing being slashed.
The scene had gone completely black, and Twilight began to drift off again, as she heard her friends crying in fear as they fell from the chariot.
Girls... Girls? Are you alright? Please be OK, Please...
Twilight felt herself slip out of consciousness again, as her vision faded, and the screams died down.
Twilight lay silent on the canyon floor, her body was stiff and her coat began to fade away from it's natural lavender color, stained by the dust of the large fissure. The wind had died down and the dirt settled on the ground, no longer being blown around the floor into the unconscious unicorn's face.
The unicorn's eyes suddenly opened wide with fear. Twilight began breathing heavily as she grasped her chest for breath. The shock of her previous vision combined with the dry dusty air in this area, Twilight could barely hold back a cough. She rolled over onto her back, to keep the pressure off of her stomach.
After gasping for air for what seemed like hours, Twilight relaxed her body, and laid her hooves on the ground. She moved her tongue around her mouth, attempting to wet her lips. No use, her mouth was completely dry. Without some water, she wouldn't last more than a few hours in this heat, combined with the dry air.
Water however was the least of her worries. Twilight lifted her head and observed the area around her. She moved her head around a bit, her neck didn't hurt quite as much, it was enough that she could look around at least. She squinted her eyes, trying to see as far as possible, in hopes of finding something. Nothing. Nothing but sand, and towering rock walls trapping her in this canyon. She looked up, hoping to ease her pain with the view of Equestria's beautiful blue skies. It would at least give her some hope at this point.
"......."
Twilight's mouth hung open as she looked up.
"It can't be. That's not possible."
Instead of Equestria's bright blue skies and white fluffy clouds, above her, was a dark blood red sky nearly concealed from view by a raging sandstorm overhead.
"How far down could I possibly be. There isn't any place in Equestria this far under..."
Twilight stopped herself.
"No. It can't be."
Hoping to shake away the thought in her head, Twilight stood up, and took another look around her. Still nothing but sand and rock. The lavender took a step forward. She shrieked in pain and fell to the ground. She looked down at her back left leg. Her leg was twisted nearly 90 degrees to the left. There was no way she could walk on that leg.
She lifted her front hoof, and poked the mangled leg. She gritted her teeth, trying hard to hold back a scream. A tear escaped her eye, and slowly ran down her face.
Twilight stood up again, wobbling as she rose attempting to keep her balance. Slowly, she began to walk again, making sure to keep pressure off of her bad leg.
"Well, at least I have three more that work," Twilight joked to herself.
She tried to laugh at her little attempt at humor, but instead she just coughed up more dust that she had inhaled before.
After catching her breath again, Twilight picked her head up and peered into the distance. She noticed a white figure just beyond the cloud of dust ahead of her. The unicorn took a deep breath, and started walking again.
For a walk that would take a healthy pony 2 minutes, it felt like hours. The rapid changes in light and wind didn't help at all. As soon as the wind would stop and the air became clear, the heat would increase and completely erase the pleasure. Or maybe these changes weren't as dramatic as Twilight made them out to be, but the excruciating pain and the fact that her brain was barely functioning made them seem much worse. The temperature may have only changed 1 or 2 degrees and it felt like a heat wave to a blizzard.
Twilight stopped as the figure was no longer shrouded by the dust. She cuffed her mouth with her hoof.
"Oh dear Celestia," she said, muffled by her own hoof.
Twilight laid down and buried her head in her hooves. She took one last look at it, and put her head back down. She couldn't for herself to look at it. The mangled boy of one of Celestia's guard. He had landed on a rock not far from Twilight. The fall must have had broken his neck, as his head looked as if it had been screwed on backwards.
No matter how hard Twilight closed her eyes, the image would not leave her head. She pictured Owlowiscious turning his head all the way around like that as if it was nothing. But then, the horrifying image of the guards twisted neck and mangled skull found it's way back into her mind. The unicorn gagged as she tried to force the picture out of her head.
She stood up, but kept her head down, to avoid looking at the poor guard's body. What had gone wrong during the flight? What had caused them to fall? And that's when Twilight's worst fear became realized.
Where were her friends? It was a miracle that Twilight was alive, but had Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie all suffered the same fate as this guard? Her teeth began to chatter as she pictured her friends broken and bloodied, left to rot across the canyon floor.
Keeping her head down, Twilight continued in the same direction she started in, walking down the vast pathway that this fissure had laid out. She closed her eyes, holding back tears as the images of her friends began to roll back into her mind.
"Stop it Twilight. They're OK. We'll be fine, and we'll all go back to Ponyville together. I just need to." Twilight was interrupted as she felt herself begin to fall.
Her eyes shot open and looked in shock at the steep hill in front of her. Time seemed to slow down as she felt herself falling over the edge. She heard her bad leg make a loud cracking noise as she started rolling down. Like a snowball, Twilight rolled down the hill, increasing speed and consistently colliding with small rock, sending her a few inches into the air before landing again.
She stuck out her front legs, attempting to grab on to something and slow her descent. But to no avail, she pulled them back in as they slammed against the ground and the hundreds of rocks scattered across the hill. Twilight felt herself passing out again as she rushed towards the bottom.
The mangled unicorn flipped over and landed hard at the bottom of the hill. She turned her head around, looking at her surroundings. But everything was too blurry for her to see. Her legs wouldn't respond and she felt completely numb. Twilight put her head down, her vision began to go red as she closed her eyes.
"This... can't be happening."
Author's Note
This chapter is a short on purpose. I like to make the first chapter of a story short to see how well the idea is received and just to get some constructive criticism in before I continue with the story so it moves in the right direction. First story by the way, any and all constructive criticism is appreciated.
