Ponyville was a nice, serene little town founded and build over seventy years ago by a traveling caravan owned by the Apple Family. Since then the settlement has grown into a small town. But not all was peaceful. The residents quickly learned of the dangers presented by living so close to a large forest, known as the Everfree Forest. However, the dangers that wandered the forest rarely left their home in the dense woods. That was until a certain unicorn came to town, and together with her friends put a stop to an ancient evil. Since that day, the town has been prone to monster attacks and catastrophes on a nearly weekly basis. For over three years the residents have never found out why such events target their fair town, until now.
Twilight Sparkle, town librarian and personal student to Princess Celestia, tossed and turned in her bed. In her dream, she was running from the darkness. There was something after her in the shadows, something terrible and evil. She was running as fast as she could, but it was no use as the darkness flowed over her and drowned out her cries for help.
She jerked awake with such force she was thrown off her bed. She groggily sat up and rubbed her head where it hit the floor.
“Uh, what a dream.” She said with a yawn. She gave pause as she tried to recall the nightmare, but it soon faded beyond her reach. She let out another yawn as she began her morning routine. She washed up, made her bed, put Spike’s empty basket back from where it was supposed to- “Wait, where’s Spike?”
She headed to the lower levels of the library. ‘That’s odd, I’m usually up before he is. Where could he be?’ she thought. When she reached the lower floor she was met with a strange sight. Drawing strange shapes and runes on her doors and windows was none other than Pinkie Pie, who was also covered in these strange markings.
Pinkie quickly took notice of Twilight standing on the stairs, “Twilight! This is bad! This is really, really, really bad!”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, “Pinkie, it’s too early for your silly pranks. Where’s Spike? When he finds out you drew all over the walls he cleaned yesterday-”
“This isn’t a game or a joke! Spike is gone, so are the others and your next Twilight!” Pinkie yelled. She turned away to look out the windows, scanning everything with a critical eye for anything out of the ordinary.
“Pinkie, what are you talking about, what do you mean ‘gone’?” Twilight was beyond confused and was beginning to worry. Her happy-go-lucky friend was never this antsy, “Just what are you going on about?”
“It’s the Nightmare, Twilight! I thought we killed it with the elements but it must have fled to the Void at the last second. It’s been regaining its strength to re-take Equestria, and before it does it’s trying to get rid of the Elements of Harmony and their bearers. That’s US Twilight!
“I felt it take the others, so I did what I could to lose it’s scent. Then I realized that you haven’t been taken yet so I came over as fast as I could to set up this barrier, but when I got here they already had Spike! I’m sorry, there was nothing else I could do!”
Twilight took a moment for all that to sink in, “So Nightmare is back, has our friends, and is now after us? And you know all this how?”
Pinkie sighed, “There’s no time for that, we need to get out of here NOW!” She darted out the front door, Twilight close behind. As soon as Twilight stepped out into the open she saw a large monster looming over the Everfree Forest.
It turned its gaze directly to her and let out an earth shaking roar. “Twilight,” Pinkie said, “That’s a Hunter, it’s a terrible monster that’s stops at nothing to catch its prey, to catch you.”
“Pinkie! I still don’t-!” Twilight cut herself off as the world around her broke and crumbled, parts and pieces of buildings broke off and suspended themselves in the air, the ground cracked, letting streams of red mist shoot into the air as the sky darkened to swirls of red and black. A black crystal seemed to grow over the buildings and what remained uncovered began to peel and bleed crimson blood. Ponies that were wandering around faded into the air, leaving nothing but blotches of black, ink-like shapes of ponies.
She turned back to Pinkie Pie, who was now more like a ghost than a pony. “Pinkie? Is that you? What’s going on?!”
Ghost Pinkie turned back to Twilight, “You were pulled into the Void by the Hunter, and I’m still here in the real world. Listen, I’m going to get you out but we need to make it to the rift on the edge of town on the way to AJ’s farm. On the way there you are going to be attacked by horrible monsters. They can be killed and you have to take them down or they will kill you or capture you like our friends. Use your magic!” Ghost Pinkie ran off, disappearing after a few feet.
“But-but I can’t… PINKIE!” Twilight yelled, but there was no answer. Left with no other option, she began to make her way through the streets of the nightmare version of Ponyville. Street signs, posts, even walls seemed to crumble and crush themselves before her eyes and hundreds of huge spiders scurried about everywhere. ‘Better than snakes…’ Twilight thought to herself as she picked up a group of spiders in her magic and tossed them aside.
She stopped suddenly as the ground in front of her surged upwards, something was clawing its way to the surface. She backed up as a rotting hoof grasped the edge and pulled the rest of its mutilated body out of the ground. It stood there as the dirt refilled the hole it came from. It stood on three legs, instead of a front right leg is had a long, curved blade stained with blood. The head was crushed in on the left side and the muzzle was broken off, allowing Twilight to see into its head. Instead of a regular tail, it had a long whip that snapped the ground in front of Twilight.
It made an un-equine sounding howl and screamed a shrill, blood curdling cry as it began to stumble forward to Twilight. She tried to run, but the ground and more black crystal sprung up and blocked her path. Undeterred, she teleported to the other side of the barrier. Time seemed to slow down as she began to fall into the black abyss below her. The town, some of it anyway, was floating through the empty space, gone was the road she once ran on. She craned her head back and saw the only bit of ground, the one with the monster that wanted to kill her. Deciding she might live longer than falling to her death, she quickly teleported back to the enclosed area trapping her with the monster.
It seemed like it was waiting for her, as soon as she appeared the monster was right in front of her, it’s bladed arm coming down with intent to kill. Twilight quickly dodged to the side, using her magic to help push her along faster. She watched as her opponent struck the ground with its blade, but it didn’t turn around. Instead it whipped its tail at her, binding her legs together. It began to slowly stumble towards her again, but its tail kept her hooves bound together.
With no time to think, she lashed out at the tail with raw magic. The magic seemed to take a form of its own as it slashed through the tail, freeing her of her bindings. The monster either didn’t notice the damage to its tail or simply didn’t care.
“Please! Don’t do this!” It paid her words no heed, instead it raised its blade once again, forcing Twilight to dodge to the side. “Don’t make me do this!” It swung again, but this time Twilight was too slow. The blade came down on her side, opening a long gash from her back to her belly. She cried out in pain as she collapsed to the ground, a pool of her own blood quickly forming under her.
In that instant she knew she was done for, she had failed everyone and could only wait for the final blow to finish her off. However, the pain went away a moment later. Confused, she risked a look back at herself. The blood was still there, but the cut was gone.
“It’s the power of the Elements when you’re in the void, instant regeneration! But you’ll still be killed, the effect is limited. Now come on, finish it off and get to the rift!” Pinkie’s voice floated through the area like a ghostly echo.
“I don’t plan on dying here…” Twilight said under her breath. She leveled a hardened glare at the abomination looming over her, then lashed out with her magic like she did to its tail. The monster was pushed back and stumbled, but it gave no signs it was injured other than the large gash in its chest leaking ichor onto the ground.
With a fierce cry of determination she charged the monster, slashing with magic and punching and kicking with her hooves, shrouding them in magic as well to better cut and smash her foe. Soon the abomination exploded into a cloud of red mist. Twilight sat on the ground, panting from the exertion. She cast a critical eye around, daring anything to try and attack her. Instead, the wall of dirt and black crystal blocking the road to Sweet Apple Acres broke and crumbled, revealing a number of floating houses, rocks, and other random parts of town floating in the air.
Twilight cautiously stepped forward; she noticed each piece was easily within jumping distance to one another. She backed up a few steps before rushing forward and jumping to the first platform. She kept running and jumping until she landed on a much larger platform. The smaller blocks behind her fell away, leaving her trapped. The air shimmered, then a pegasus the size of a foal appeared. It too was grotesque, it had a large number of growths all over its head and body, making it look sickly and diseased. It’s legs were far too short, ending where the first joint in the leg usually is.
It fluttered around erratically, and then spit something at Twilight. Without thought she dodged away from the object. She saw it hit the ground and just sit there, doing apparently nothing. She raised a skeptical eyebrow and was about to voice her thoughts when it suddenly exploded in a ball of fire. She turned back around just in time to see the pegasus hack another explosive at her.
This time she grabbed it in her telekinesis and tossed it back to the flying monster. Instead of dodging like any sensible creature, it let the explosive hit its body and stick to it. It kept flying around like nothing was wrong and was once more about to spit out another bomb when the explosive stuck to its body went off in a ball of fire. The flying monster survived, but was stunned and laying on the ground. Twilight ran up and finished it off quickly, whatever these things are; they were as dumb as a box of rocks.
“Heh, if this is all it takes to save my friends, I’ll have them saved in no time.” Twilight said with a smirk. She spoke far too soon, as the ground suddenly erupted all around her, spewing more of the bladed ponies and the sky was blocked out with a cluster of the pegasus bombing ponies. “Uh oh…”
With a chorus of screeches, the monsters lunged towards her. She acted purely on instinct and reached out with her magic, tracking the movement of all of the enemies. She seemed to dance around them, avoiding blade and whip alike. To her pleasure, the bombs spat out from the bomblings also affected the blade ponies, blasting them into the air.
Twilight struck quickly and precisely, timing her attacks perfectly to cause as much damage as possible. She dodged again as another bomb found its way to her. The blast propelled her target into the air, she teleported up to it and unleashed a devastating combo, using her magic to keep her aloft and maneuver her body to inflict devastating attacks on her enemy, resulting in it bursting in a cloud of bloody mist.
She teleported to each of the bomlings, swiftly dealing with each one before landing back on the ground. Another burst of magic and she finished off the last blade pony by crushing its skull under hoof. Twilight never felt so alive as she searched for any more that might dare to challenge her. Instead she was rewarded with the path to continue onwards.
After another bout of floating stepping stones she was greeted with the ghostly image of Pinkie. “Oh good, you made it this far, come on, the rift is just over here!” She took off down the road, Twilight close behind. However, their journey was cut short as a massive claw struck the ground in front of them. It pulled the ground up as it retracted, the ground itself formed another blockade with black crystals growing around them to form a massive arena.
“Shoot, I was wondering where the tracker disappeared to.” Pinkie said worriedly.
“Can’t I just fight him like I did with the other monsters?” Twilight asked.
“No, he’s much stronger than them, you won’t stand a chance! Unless…” Pinkie trailed off and began to rummage around in a pack she pulled from somewhere.
“Pinkie, what are you doing? It’ll be here soon!” Twilight said.
“Aha!” Pinkie yelled triumphantly and she held aloft a wine bottle with a bit of cloth sticking out of the end. “This should weaken him enough for you to take him out!” The ground shook as a massive, hairless diamond dog with an open wound for a face climbed out of the ground on the other side of the arena. Pinkie lit the end of the cloth on fire and threw it at the monster and struck it’s head, catching it on fire. It howled in fury, extinguishing the flames.
It roared and charged at Twilight, swinging a massive blade as it did. She dodged and teleported behind it and lashed out with her magic, but it wouldn’t pierce the thick hide of the monster. It spun around quickly and lashed at her with its blade, Twilight tried to parry the blow but the monster was too strong. It flung her across the arena, she hit the ground hard and tumbled a ways before she slid to a stop. Her regeneration took care of the broken limbs and the gashes that covered her body and repaired her punctured lung, but she could feel that a few more hits like that would be the end of her.
Instead of charging head on she took a moment to study her opponent. The hunter crouched low and prepared to pounce, she dodged effectively when it did and sent some blasts of magic at it to find a weak point. All along its back the shots bounced off harmlessly. Is turned to face her again, so she aimed at its face. Her shots hit and small bursts of blood shot into the air. She didn’t know if it was Pinkie's concoction or if it was just vulnerable in the face, either way, the hunter was going down.
She teleported up to its face and began a relentless onslaught of powerful kicks, punches, and magical slices that she learned from her previous encounters. The hunter wasn’t going to sit there and take the beating, so it swung up a massive claw and smashed her out of the air. Her wounds healed, but she fell to her knees and coughed up a bit of blood. She was reaching her limit. She wiped the blood from her muzzle, smearing it into her fur, and began her attack again.
This time she was ready for the claw and kicked off the hunter’s face into the air. As she hung above its head, she charged her hoof with as much magic as she could, then as it looked up at her she shot down like a cannon. Her hoof collided with its head like a freight train, smashing its body to the ground hard enough to make a crater.
She stood there panting heavily, watching and waiting for the hunter to get back up. Its breathing was labored and its head was caved in, blood was quickly pooling the area around them, she had won. It opened its eyes and started at her, before speaking in a deep, rumbling voice, “WE HAVE FOUND YOU, SPAWN OF SOLARIS!”
“Solaris?” Twilight questioned.
“WE WILL RIP OPEN YOUR CHEST AND FEAST ON YOUR BEATING HEART!”
“I don’t think so.” Twilight said as she slashed at its head one last time, ending its life.
The body dissolved into a blackened ash as the world around her twisted, quickly returning to normal. Twilight turned to see Pinkie as her usual pink self, grinning ear to ear.
“Pinkie,” Twilight said, “Just what in Equestria is going on?”
Author's Note
DMC: Devil May Cry crossover
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