Everfree Ventures

[ZomBrony 347]

I am going to do two things here. One: I am going to post my story. Two: I am going to ask for a proofreader. The story has very little formatting right now and before I submit, I need some help in breaking up the story, ya know what I mean? Like, making chapters and such.

 

Intro
I’ve been running for a while now. I still haven't decided what it is that I saw. I barely notice the many shades of green darken as I unknowingly run into the Everfree Forest. I can't hear anything except my hooves slapping the ground and I'm starting to get tired. The second I slow down I hear the rustling that I’ve been running from one more time then I'm tackled to the ground and everything goes black.

Chapter One
I wake up to an incredibly uncomfortable and painful feeling around my flank area and an immense pain in my sides. I must have hit my head or something because my vision is blurred when I open my eyes. Even so, when I raise my head to look around I recognize that I am in the Everfree Forest. That realization snaps my vision back into focus and the pain in my rear becomes more apparent. I hate being violent but I don’t know what else to do so I pull up my legs and kick out behind me. The two resulting sounds worry me: One is a deep guttural thing that I have never heard before and the other is a sound I know all too well; the sickening sound of bone smashing into a hard object. As I pull my hind-legs back into place I notice a strange and uncomfortable feeling of wetness that seems to actually be inside my flank. I have never felt anything like this before and I hate it: I whirl around to get a better look at whatever attacked me. I have never seen anything like it before. It’s this massive, tall, creature and there is some weird flap of skin hanging out of its pants which I have also never seen before. What kind of pants are they? Seeing the flap of skin I can feel my brain whirring and something I’d read came to mind. This giant creature that attacked me is called a human. Upon remembering this I sat down to concentrate on the memory more. I don’t know how long I was sitting there thinking but I tend to get lost in my mind when I really get thinking. The feeling I get when I got lost like this is almost like entering my own mind, so when I finished thinking and thought I had remembered something important I noticed it was a lot darker, I wasn’t sure why at first because I had completely forgotten about everything but my heart was pounding. Wanting to understand why, I have to look around for a bit. There are so many trees that growing so densely… I still don’t recognize this place so I stay where I am for a while admiring the many shades of green. If I weren’t sitting here looking at them I never would have thought there could be so many variations of such a dark shade of green. I look to the sky trying to relax and clear my mind except for the things I need to study. But it’s so dark and there are so many trees that I can only see little patches. In fact, it’s so dark that the sky actually looks pitch black instead of its usual purplish tinge. I suddenly remember where I am and jump up on all fours. I hadn’t noticed them earlier but now, as I was galloping away at full speed I seemed to hear terrifying, unnatural sounds coming from all around. I’m sure it’s just because I’m so scared but the sounds seem to intensify as I reach an opening. I really don’t run enough as I’m panting and gasping as I slow down and actually collapse when I stop moving. I think, as I look to the sky once again; Darn, now I’ll have to remember all those things about humans and how to navigate using the stars to find my way home.
The suddenly apparent loudness of my voice startles me as I speak aloud to reassure myself “Calm down, Twi. You know you can easily remember both those things and more. You just have to calm down.” Listening to my books and Spike, I take many long breathes as I try to calm myself. “Okay,” I say aloud again as I try to remember my lessons on stars. I’d never really thought about it before but as I’m sitting here doing it again, my ability to reach within my mind and search for information is really quite astonishing. Maybe this is one of the reasons Celestia sees that I have so much potential.
Come now, girl. Concentrate. What do you remember about stars?
“The Northern Star!” I yelp as I yell out, startling myself again.
“I’ve got to stop doing that,” I whisper to myself.
“Now then. What was it about the Northern Star? I remember that it can lead me home but I’m not sure how.
Come on, think just a little more.
“Aha!” I cringe slightly but I’m starting to get used to my breaking the silence.
“All I have to do is follow the Northern Star and I’ll eventually get home.” I hate to have to do this but I was already pretty tired when I left. Spike and everypony else tried to tell me not to go out to the Everfree Forest at night but I really needed those recipes from Zecora and I thought I could defend myself. I’ll have to spend a night in Everfee Forest. Worried that I won’t be able to sleep with all the sounds, I cast a sleeping spell on myself and settle into a pile of leaves for the night.

 

My head is pounding with thoughts and worries even through the spell as I try to fall asleep. There are so many things I know and so many things that are believed about humans that are refusing to leave me alone. I think of things like: “Isn’t bestiality illegal for humans?” “Can a different species impregnate another species?” “Even if I can’t get pregnant from another species will I feel the side effects?” “What if I can get pregnant but I’m unable to give birth to the creature?”
I am also very worried about my friends and can’t help but feel a bit selfish. “Will they miss me?” “Do they already miss me?” “Are they even worried?” “Will they do anything to try and find me?” “Will I ever be able to find my way out of the Everfree Forest?” “What if I can’t?” I am thinking about so many things that I actually can’t fall asleep. Keeping my eyes closed, I try to remember what Celestia told me about making my spells more powerful.
I just have to concentrate.
So, keeping this in mind I keep my eyes closed as I rise back onto my hooves. I imagine a bunch of my friends and other ponies that I’ve seen sleeping and concentrate on these images as hard as I know how to. I start reciting the spell in my head and I fall asleep instantly as it’s casted. I think of one last thing before everything fades away: Sweet Celestia how long will this last?

 

As usual with sleep it only seems to last a few seconds and my spell was so effective that I didn’t even have any dreams, at least not that I remember but I have no idea how long it’s actually been. I am pretty sure there’s also some way to tell time with the stars but I don’t remember how and I’m pretty sure that that only works to tell which time it is, not how much has passed. Once my mind is clear of the just-waking-up fuzz I am happy to realize that I still remember the things about humans that I want to study when I get home but I also realize that it’s daytime and the Northern Star might be visible during the day but I don’t remember for sure and it would be hard to see. Looking around I also remember that I’m still in Everfree Forest and I’m preparing myself for the burst of adrenaline that I would have to experience to start running again but I am surprised to see that it actually looks quite nice here during the day. Especially since Celestia’s Sun is at its highest. The many dark greens that had seemed so menacing the night before I slept for a still unknown time look beautiful now. The sky is a vivid bright blue and the sun seems to be shining brighter than ever.
Who would have thought anything could look nice in a place like the Everfree Forest?
I shake my head to try to regain my concentration.
How can I find my way home without the Northern Star?
I am just about ready to give up and start aimlessly wondering when I manage to remember something else that I had read about the Northern Star. It is visible during the day but is very hard to see because of the intensity of Celestia’s Sun’s glare. Disorientated from sleeping for I assume a very long time I have trouble remembering which way North would be so I just walk around in circles squinting into the sky. It seems like a very long time that I am searching but I eventually find what is unmistakeably the Northern Star and start walking towards it. Entranced by the unexpected beauty of my surroundings and trying to focus on walking towards the Northern Star I almost walk into a tree but  step aside just in time and fall into a small body of water. The water feels very nice on my body that is overheated from sleeping for way too long but its greenish tint turns me off and I rush to get out.
“Why couldn’t you be a nicer colour, water?”
“Actually no, I’m so hot I feel sick. This water is probably clean anyways and even if it isn’t I can easily clean up later. I need this.”
Feeling reassured after talking to myself, I walk back a bit then run forward and dive into the pond. The second my hooves leave the ground I think to myself I should have checked the depth first.
Bracing myself in case the water isn’t deep enough I close my eyes but the fear of getting hurt is too strong and they pop open the second I go underwater. There is an amazing-looking cave system underneath this pond that I can barely see and am very tempted to explore but I remember that I have to get home. My friends are probably worried and I don’t want to be here too long. I decide that I will try to remember this pond for later exploration and swim up to the surface so I can enjoy the water more safely. I lose track of time in the water because I’m enjoying myself so much but I still notice that Celestia is starting to lower the sun and it has gone down a noticeable amount. I hurry out of the water and quickly locate the Northern Star then start heading in the direction again. It is noticeably cooler now and I regret staying in the water for so long. I start hearing more and more unnerving sounds as it gets darker and the forest is starting to seem scary again. I quicken my pace and continue heading North listening carefully for the rustling that I heard before I was attacked so long ago. It doesn’t take long for a rustling sound to start but I’m not sure if it’s the same sound the human made so I cast a light spell and start looking around as I continue heading in the direction that I’ve memorized as North. I spot a silhouette even bigger than the one the human must have made and I break into a faster gallop than I’ve ever managed to do before. As I gallop onwards, not even sure if I’m still going North, I notice that the silhouette starts following me. I didn’t even think it was possible but I start galloping even faster. The trees are merely blurs and I can hardly even make out any details. I’m swerving through trees as if I were trained to this but I never was, I think it must be adrenaline. I have no idea how long I’m galloping but my breathing becomes very rapid and my legs are starting to hurt so I slow down to a canter, observe the area around me and upon seeing that all seems to be clear slow completely down. As soon as I can hear clearly again I swear I hear that same rustling but desperately tell myself that it’s just a haunting, unpleasant memory so I stay where I am and rest. Thoughts quickly consume me again.
“What will happen to me if I don’t find a way out?” “What if all I know about the Northern Star is wrong or a lie?” “What was that creature I saw earlier?” “What if I see the human again?”
“Stop it, Twi!”
“You have to concentrate.”
Is there any way for me to get around faster?
What about that spell I used on Rarity? Sure it was complicated but I think my life is worth a difficult spell.
I guess I’ll try.
Did I really just do this?
“Snap out of it! Just cast the spell and get out of here. This place is creepy.”
I try to remember the spell but it seems I’m too tired. I think I may have to rest longer.
Just don’t cast that stupid sleep spell again and continue walking North.
After having another small argument with myself I start heading North again and I get pretty scared when the shades of green seem to get even darker. More thoughts barrage me but I’m already learning how to ignore them. (I never thought I’d do such a thing). I try to admire the scenery some more but the darker colours and atmospheric night-time-feeling don’t allow me to enjoy it anymore. I only seem to notice the shadows and pure darkness further in the woods now and the glow of my horn seems very insignificant in the density of the trees. My only other source of light is the pale one from the moon which I find makes everything even creepier sorry, Luna and the faint glow from the Northern Star which also just adds to the creepy atmosphere. Taking in all these different things I feel a chill run down my back and start feeling scared. I barely even notice as the tears start rolling down my face. I’m starting to lose hope but I think back to Discord. Back then, too. I was just about ready to give up when I was reminded of how powerful the friendship between Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and I really is. I just need to reflect and my hope will be renewed. I dig deep into my mind and bring back my most precious memories of everypony. Defeating Nightmare Moon, defeating Discord, saving the Crystal Empire, the picnic when everypony found out about Shining Armor’s Wedding, times at the spa, when I first met everypony. Happy tears now sting my eyes and the feeling I get from remembering such precious moments is amazing. I feel almost as if I’m floating. This is even more powerful than when I remembered other times before turning my friends back. That seems so long ago. Feeling much better the glow of my horn brightens immensely. I can see almost as clear as if it were day and I don’t even feel affected by the powerful light emitting from my horn. Feeling almost happy in a place such as Everfree Forest is quite strange and I use this feeling… almost a high to quicken my pace. I trot through the Everfree Forest as if it were just a walk in the park. I barely even notice the dreaded rustling in the distance. The second I hear it though: The snapping of twigs, the scratching of branches rubbing together, the swishing of moving leaves. It can only be that sick human or the giant creature from earlier. I remember the horrid feeling when I woke up that first day and how much scarier not knowing what the other creature is than if I did know what it was. As I remember these things I freeze up. I plead to myself to keep moving but my legs refuse to cooperate. The rustling grows louder and the human enters my aura of light. I start preparing a basic stun spell but the human must have noticed because he started yelling. I was surprised that I could understand their language. It also excites me a bit because I doubt anypony else knows we can understand them assuming other ponies even know of humans but I’ll save that for later when and if I ever get home. I decide to listen to the human for a bit but as soon as he says “I can explain” I snap and start yelling back.
“How can you explain something like what you did?! I know about you humans! I know that what you did is called bestiality and that it’s illegal! Even if you didn’t know you have no right to rape a random mare! Especially not when I’ve been knocked unconscious by you tackling me! What the hay were you thinking!?”
The human begins to stammer: “I-I do know about those things but you have to understand-“
“No! There is no acceptable excuse for rape, you freak!!”
“Pl-please just give me a chance to-“
“NO! Get out of here or I’ll do worse than kick you in the chest! Much worse!”
When I finished yelling, the human fell back and landed on his behind, he appears to be crying but I don’t care. My mind is still a jumble of random thoughts and some human trying to justify his raping another species would not help with that. After walking for a long time I almost feel bad for the human but I remind myself of what he did to me and my sympathy for him quickly fades. My “high” also quickly faded when I saw the human again as well. I was almost feeling discouraged now, actually. The thoughts of interspecific pregnancy came to mind again and that just got me feeling worse. I keep trying to tell myself it isn’t possible but the truth is I have no idea. I’ll have quite an interesting talk with Celestia if I ever see her again. Deciding that I was lost once again and actually starting to get used to the Everfree Forest I snuggle into a comfortable sleeping position and begin trying to fall asleep. The more negative thoughts are becoming less common but there’s still some: I used to wonder how Zecora could live out here but I think I understand now. Once you get used to everything the seclusion is kinda nice. It almost reminds me of before I moved to Ponyville, when I still lived in Canterlot and didn’t have any friends. Those times seem so dismal now. Realizing that those times were actually pretty bad and thinking of how similar I feel now just makes everything worse. I feel more stinging tears as I fall asleep and I hope I’ll make it home soon.

 

My third day spent conscious in the Everfree Forest. Again, I’m stricken by the beauty of Everfree in the daytime. It seems surreal compared to how creepy everything appeared last night. The images of the human and the ideas I’ve had about the other creature still haunt me and I’m very cautious as I continue North. My ears perk up at every little sound I hear because I keep expecting to run into the human or that other creature. I almost relish it because I feel a very powerful urge to get revenge and I try to come up with reasons of why getting revenge would be wrong but I can’t seem to. Feeling defeated by my own mind I decide to continue following the star. I’m noticing more things as I venture forth, like all the different types of animals and plant-life when I managed to see them. I used to wonder how Fluttershy could bear being here too but knowing how much she loves nature and seeing that there’s so much of it, I think I understand. I regret thinking of Fluttershy as soon as I do so because once that thought has passed I start worrying about my friends again. Seeing nothing else to do I prepare myself and break into a gallop again. By now, I’ve learned how to almost completely block out all the sounds of the forest and those that I can’t I tell myself could be friendly. Feeling reassured by my finally positive thoughts I decide to try to interact with a small frog-like creature when I run into one. It doesn’t seem to be able to understand me but I watch it hop away and see that there is a lot of them living in a nearby pond. Once it was back in the water I tried to see underwater but noticed that I couldn’t. The substance actually wasn’t water as I first thought it was and once I realize what it is I feel my entire face light up.
My voice startles me again as I yell with happiness: “This is Froggy Bottom Bog!”
“I remember this place!”
I begin calming down and preparing myself for a trek through the muddy substance but then I remember why we were here. All of us had been chased through here by a Hydra. I feel unsure of myself as I start into the bog. I’m not sure why by I feel this weird sort of happiness when I look up to the mountains and see the remains of the pillar-like platforms of land. I guess for two reasons, one: I’m almost home and two: I remember that despite the chance of getting badly hurt my friends and I had fun running away from that Hydra. Thinking of it now, it seems even longer ago then it actually was. I almost don’t notice as I start sinking into the mud and remind myself that it will be too deep soon and I have to get to land that’s still in the right direction. I continue sinking and I’m starting to feel my heart-rate increase as I almost desperately look around. The murky, sticky, brownish bog-water is almost up to my neck. I finally spot some land off to my left and I start trying to swim towards it but in my panic I had forgotten how viscous this mud is and that moving faster in any substance like this just makes you sink faster. The mud is up to my snout as I start swimming towards the land more slowly. I keep sinking and I start worrying whether or not I’ll make it when my fore-legs bump into the part of the land that is under the surface. Slowing pulling my fore legs up I hear a horrible squelching sound as they pop out and start pulling myself out onto the land. I collapse once I’m sure that I’m out of the mud and lie there on my side feeling my heart pound and taking deep breaths as I calm down. I must have passed out from fear or something because when I open my eyes later it’s dark again. I feel better but I’m still covered in mud which is very uncomfortable. It almost reminds me of- No. Don’t even think about that. Just find a way out of this bog. Do you remember which direction everypony came from? I cast the same light spell I has cast the night before and start looking around. The mud looks menacing in the darkness and everything else around me, the trees, bits of land, and everything all look bigger and darker. It’s very intimidating. My gaze comes to a rest on a ledge I see not too far in front of me. I resent having to do so as I get up on my hind legs and start shuffling along the ledge. I never was as good as everypony else that does this but it’s the only way home I know of for now. Two or three times I almost lose my balance and fall down into the mud but I keep pushing up against the land above which works as a great wall to save myself. Relieved to be able to walk on all fours again I lower my fore legs and look around some more. It’s so hard to tell if we were here when it’s dark but I think I see the cliff I remember having to jump off of to escape the Hydra. It appears to be on the other side of the bog and I can’t seem to work out a way of getting there. I look down at the mud and try to calculate the distance. I don’t come up with a specific answer but I think it’s too far to try swimming again. I suddenly have a brilliant idea. Use your telekinesis to make a bridge!
So I start looking around. I see some rocks that look like they might be big enough to jump onto but levitating multiple heavy objects is difficult and I know I wouldn’t be able to put them down because  the bog is too deep. I start looking around for some tall, strong, dead trees because I don’t want to kill a living tree. I spot one and I still think it’s too small but I have to try something so I levitate it over to myself and carefully try placing it across the bog. It is long enough but I’m still worried that it won’t be able to support my weight. Having no other option except to test it I walk over to the edge and look to where I’d fall if I’m right about my bridge. There’s another small expanse of land below the first bit I’d have to cross so I could get really badly hurt if it isn’t strong enough but I still don’t know of any way home so I timidly stick out my right fore-hoof and push down. I feel the tree bend under that little bit of weight and it worries me severely. Just as cautiously I do the same with my left. The tree bends some more. I’m beginning to think that even if this tree can hold my weight I’ll have to walk on my hind legs which also means I won’t be able to move very fast if it doesn’t. I take a deep breath and stand up on my hind legs to start crossing the tree. How much the tree is bending worries me but it seems to be holding. I inch forward ever so slowly straining to listen to any signs of weakness. At about halfway across I realize my mistake. The tree thins out at the top and I just so happened to place it so that its thinnest point is at the top. My heart beating faster than it has the whole time I’ve been crossing I’m almost across when I hear the cracking sound I’ve been so worried about. I look down and back up really quickly to see that I’m at least above some of the muck but still not wanting to fall I jump and lean forward to land in a roll. I land on my back with my head hanging over the ledge behind me and see with a dull horror that the tree is now broken. Still suspended but cracked enough that I would have fallen anyways. I roll over and lie on my stomach as I stare at the tree waiting for my heart to stop racing. “That was way too close.” In my panic I notice now that I must have stopped casting the light spell and I cast it again. The night that had seemed so dark it looked opaque is pierced by the glow of my horn which seems so intense after it being so dark that I got disoriented because of the sudden light. Okay, focus Twi. You’ve been here before. Which way is home? I stood there for a while trying to recall when I suddenly remembered. We had crossed the pillars, but how could I ever manage that now? I had jumped off a chunk of land from one of the Hydra’s necks and still didn’t make it. Erosion has worn the land even worse and I don’t think a galloping jump would even be enough to make it across the gap. I’m going to have to think about this one too. All the trees in this area are too tall. Maybe those rocks I saw earlier?
I don’t know…
It’s worth a try.
So I look over to the rocks I saw earlier. They’re harder to see from this angle but I see one and begin levitating it over. I leave it hovering a jump’s distance away and decide that I’ll need two more. I feel the strain coming from deep within my mind as I levitate the three rocks to make a stair case. I say under my breath: “I don’t know how long I can do this. I’ll have to hurry.” I feel the strain increase as I jump onto the first boulder. This is the first time I’ve ever used my telekinesis in such a way and I hadn’t anticipated having to support my own weight. I start trembling as I continue to stand on the boulder. I definitely can’t do this for long so I jump to the next one. Feeling the strain change as I do so it one of the most interesting things I’ve experienced. I can’t even describe it. As I jump to the third boulder my horn starts fizzling again and if I don’t jump soon I’m going to fall again. I can feel the magic stop flowing as I take my fourth jump and hear the tremendous splash of the three boulders landing in the water below. The sudden lack of solidity beneath me is incredibly scary and my heart stops as I start falling. Expecting the worse I let out my air in a burst when I collide with solid ground. I look up from a daze and relive the memory as I stare at the wall. My short conversation with Pinkie Pie and the way she bounced away afterwards. Not remembering the area well but knowing it will take me home eventually I aimlessly wonder the multiple paths. I have no idea how long I’m wondering or how I’m so tired as I don’t feel it but I collapse into an instant sleep in the middle of the path. I wake up to an irritating but comfortable nudging at the same time but when I see it’s the human touching me I jump up and turn around so I’m facing him. Barely holding back tears and hardly managing to control my voice I ask him: “What do you want?”
“Listen, I promise you, I can explain-“
“There’s no excuse for what you did. And if you want to explain yourself so badly, why did you leave when I was thinking earlier?”
“It’s hard to explain but I know about your kind and the area you live in. I know what the Everfree Forest is. You of all people should know how dangerous the Everfree Forest is with how often you visit Zecora.”
“How do you know these things?”
“Like I said, it’s hard to explain but if you give me the chance I can explain everything.”
“Are you kidding me? Since you apparently know about this place, you should know I’m almost home and you might be able to begin to understand how much my friends miss me. You’re lucky I don’t… fight back. You should also be happy that I’m warning you to leave. When I get home and-“
The human grabs me around the neck “Listen, Twi. I’m sorry to do this but I need you to listen to me.”
I cast a force spell and knock the human back. He looks surprised. “Don’t you DARE touch me again! Now you stay RIGHT there and let me leave or I’ll cast a much more powerful spell.”
I catch a look of desperation in his eyes but he stays put and actually crawls a bit further back into the forest.
“That’s what I thought. Now don’t follow me.”
With that I turn around and start heading towards a bit of light I can see in the distance. I hope it’s the right way. I hear more rustling coming from behind and spin around ready to stun or disable the foolish human but I regret doing so the second I do. All I can see is a giant foot. The foot of this beast alone has to be at least five times bigger than the human. Scared enough as is my fear only escalates as I look up and realize I can’t even see the beast’s chest. I feel the ground shake and hear the trees shiver as the best roars. I feel nothing except a desperate need to escape but when I turn around to do so and start running a giant paw comes crashing down inches from my snout and my legs buckle. I’m so scared I don’t even feel fear and I can hardly think. What’s the most powerful spell I know? My mind blanks when I ask myself and I can’t think of anything else to do except a basic beam spell so I start charging my horn. I’ve never been happier to feel the magic surging through my body and hear the sound of a spell charging. My horn’s glow intensifies as the spell powers up and even though I can’t see its head I almost expect it to look towards me because the glow is so bright. I don’t think I’ve ever charged a spell for so long so I’m not really sure what it means when I feel the flow of magic cease. Not knowing what else to expect I assume it means my spell is fully charged so I cast it. Opening my eyes to see what will happen my jaw drops when the beam simply bounces of the beast’s leg. I know basic spells aren’t very powerful compared to some others but this was fully charged! The fear racing inside that had faded through the adrenaline rush reasserted itself when the beast stopped roaring. I watched the twigs and branches that made up the beast’s legs bend as it crouched down. The beast’s -which having clearly seen it now, I know is a Timber Wolf- body never seems to stop descending and seeing it stare into my eyes with its massive wooden head when it finally becomes visible, I find myself paralyzed with fear. It utters a sound that starts out as a low growl and slowly builds up into a terrifying roar. The Timber Wolf continues staring at me as it stands up and I am helpless to watch as its head disappears back into the sky. The eerie green glow of its eyes is so bright that I can see them through the clouds. I see another green glow appear in the clouds in the shape of a cruel smile and I can only assume it’s the Timber Wolf’s mouth. I’m lost in my fear as I see the Timber Wolf raise a giant paw and swing at me. My paralysis fades just in time for my brain to register that I’m about to be smashed by a giant paw when I feel a sudden grip around my sides and get tackled to the ground. The wolf’s giant paw flies over my head and I can hear it cutting through the air. I can even feel it graze the tip of my ear. I can’t do anything except stammer:
“Bu-bu-bu… I… Wha- what happened?” The shock of surviving the attack is too much for me to register what had just happened but when a familiar voice speaks up, I think I know and I resent it.
“What happened? I just saved your life is what happened.”
“Well... Thanks. But you still are not forgiven.”
I hear trees crack and break as the Timber Wolf swings for another attack and easily dodge it then counter with an explosion spell. The Timber Wolf howls with what I assume is anger and raises his right paw out of sight. I stop moving and listen with extreme concentration to hear where the faint whistling is coming from and step aside just in time to see the paw coming smashing into the ground. It leaves a small crater. I notice as the Timber Wolf starts trying to pull out it’s paw from the crater it left that it appears to have gotten stuck in some very thick mud. I try to take the opportunity to run away but two things stop me. One, I see the Timber Wolf coming  in for another swipe with its other paw and two, even with what he tried to do to me, this human saved my life and I noticed he was unconscious. I owe him. So, deciding faster than I thought possible, I drop to my stomach and roll underneath the arc of its swing. I feel something tickle my back as I do so but it doesn’t occur to me what I’ve just done. When I stand back up and run around to get behind the Timber Wolf where I saw the human, I notice something is definitely not right but I’m still not sure what it is that’s wrong. I grab the collar of the human’s shirt in my mouth without thinking and through some hesitation at the taste of its material retreat towards where I think the entrance (or I guess the exit, technically) to Ponyville is. As I follow the path that I thought would lead me home I realize that I can’t be right. The shades surrounding me darken again. The path is about as brown as freshly rained-on mud and the plants and leaves are such a dark green they’re almost black. As it is still night-time my heart slows as I realize that I literally cannot see anything because the colours blend so well with the darkness. The sound of the Timber Wolf following me is even scarier now as I am slowed by dragging along the human. In my panicked state I couldn’t think clearly and just continued dragging the human with my teeth. I quickened my pace a bit but the increase of the ground’s shaking made it obvious that the Timber Wolf was catching up with me. I suddenly snapped out of my inability to think and thought:
Why don’t I just levitate him along behind me? But then I remembered dodging the Timber Wolf earlier at that moment and the tickly feeling I had afterwards. I stopped in my tracks, dropping the human and literally skidding across the ground as I thought about running back to make sure that what I thought had happened didn’t, but regretted that just as my skid ended. During that skid I had managed to spin around and I saw the Timber Wolf now even closer. I quickly spun around again and continued running. I could tell I was almost out of the forest because the grass and trees were getting brighter, the trees were also becoming sparser. In that moment I thought of what I was about to do. I’m running back to Ponyville, I thought, being followed by a colossal Timber Wolf. I could be endangering the entire town for my own sake. For the third time in a few minutes I stop moving and skid to a stop. Remembering how I had tricked the Hydra, I hoped it would work on the Timber Wolf. Unfortunately more agile than a Hydra, the Timber Wolf simply jumps and turns around almost instantly as I run in between its legs. I just keep running, now more out of fear than determination, or anything really. I hear the trees crash behind me as I run back towards where I remembered the crater to be. I slow down slightly as I pass so I can actually see and as sure as the sky is blue; I had unintentionally rolled through a patch of Poison Joke and once again it had taken an effect that affected my magic use. This time I could feel that my horn was still stiff but I seemed to not be able to use my horn anyways, as if I just lost the ability to use magic. I also manage to catch a glimpse of a pale blue bag in the small patch and I experience a strange change of emotion. My fear evaporates into anger. I am angry at the Timber Wolf for chasing me, angry at myself for not noticing the poison joke and for coming to Everfree Forest in the first place, angry at the human for what he tried to do me and just feeling angry in general. I look around in a dull horror as I start running even faster and realize that anger, although I never knew this, seems to be a better source of adrenaline than fear. I am almost tempted to try and attack the Timber Wolf again but thankfully my mind is still rational enough to know that that could not end well. So I instead concentrate on running, forgetting how good it can feel to do so, I seem to enter almost a trance. The sounds of the forest never fading as I run but all other sounds seem insignificant to the clip-clopping of my hooves and I feel amazing. With how awesome just running feels I can only imagine how much better it must feel to actually fly. Thinking of flight I find myself thinking of Rainbow Dash and the rest of my friends again. The anger I feel that was just starting to diminish when remembering my friends just anger me all over again. I charge forward dodging around tress not even through fear or determination any more but working purely on anger. Once my adrenaline rush finally lessens enough for my hearing and vision to return to normal the last bit of anger remaining quickly fades as I hear that the Timber Wolf is still chasing me. Why does it even want me so bad? I decide to slow down to a bit of a quickened trot so I can keep a decent speed without getting too tired and start evaluating my situation. There is an unconscious human somewhere that saved my life but did try to rape me, an angry and very persistent Timber Wolf, it’s dark, I’m lost, and my magic isn’t working. What can I do? It occurs to me so quickly that I feel stupid for a moment but I remember that my brain must be working really hard with how scared I am. I feel another little flash of anger as I think for a moment that it’s her fault I even wanted to come here but I know that it isn’t really anypony’s fault except my own. I slow to a complete stop and try to look around to get even a vague idea of where I am but it’s so dark that I can barely see a thing. The only clear objects are shadows and the ever-present sounds of the forest. I decide to start walking in a random direction. As if I would know any directions with how dark it is… It doesn’t take very long for me to give up and lay down for my fourth night in the Everfree Forest. I close and my eyes and feel the energy leaving my body almost instantly as I start going to sleep but quickly remember that I’m being chased. I listen for a few moments before I decide that it’s safe to go to sleep after all. Sleep always passes quickly but time seems to go by even faster tonight as I wake up almost instantly. I crawl up from the ground and find that I feel sick. I stumble forwards in a daze and keep losing but saving my balance. If anypony were to see me walking they would probably assume that I had too much cider. I’m so lost in my daze that I didn’t even notice the visual difficulties I seem to be having right away. Everything is so blurry and seems too bright. I feel my brain and memory start working right away. They must be trying to find out the same thing I am: What the hay is going on? I start hearing an echo-y thumping sound, and my vision seems to clear a bit. I also realize that I don’t seem to remember anything besides the fact that I’m in Everfree Forest and running away from something. In my dazed state I hardly notice that the thumping sound is getting louder but I just keep stumbling along, still wondering why I can hardly walk. At once point I fail to regain my already-poor balance and fall into a small body of water. I spring out of the water partially assuming and hoping that the shock would kick-start my senses but it doesn’t seem to have. At least not very much; I can walk slightly better now but everything else is still weird. I think my sense of time must be messed up too because I suddenly realize that I’m bouncing and my first thought is it has something to do with the big thumping sound I’ve been hearing. Almost sure of that first thought I start dazedly looking around and find that I was right. I am in between the legs of some giant creature. In my state, I can only hope that it’s friendly but I seem to be wrong because just a few seconds later I see its giant paws and they seem to be trying to hit me. I can’t think of why or how because I’m not doing it but I can feel my body dodging around it. I start hearing a tiny voice from somewhere deep within the nothingness I feel. It’s saying “Come on Twi, you can make it through this! I can’t do this without you!” I slowly start realizing what is happening. I’ve read about this. It’s called an out-of-body experience. In control of my seeming-to-float spirit now, I observe what my body is doing below and the sensation is incredible. All of my symptoms now make sense and I think this OBE must have been induced by the physical exertion of running away from this Timber Wolf. I think I should probably go back to my body now. I start flying down to the ground still feeling very dopey in my spirit-state. I wonder how I got so high in the air in the first place since I remembered trying to walk not too long ago. But then a thought occurs to me. What if I’ve been in this state longer than I thought and I was just seeing through my body somehow? This idea bothers me but for now I must concentrate on re-possessing myself. The feeling of regaining all my senses at once is overwhelming and I have just enough time to feel terribly scared as I lose consciousness. It seems almost as if I’m paralyzed because I can still hear the stomping but I try and fail to reassure myself that I’ve just fallen asleep. I draw from all my remaining strength and force myself back to my hooves. I still feel some of the dopiness from my OBE but I force myself to start running. The sound of the Timber Wolf seems to be everywhere as I start running again and my heart is racing. Paying very little attention as I run, I trip on an above-ground root and realize as I crash to the ground that I’m unable to move again yet I can still feel my heart beating, feel the ground, and hear everything around me. The Timber Wolf sounds horrifyingly close now and I suddenly feel great pressure on my back. Sweet Celestia… Am I getting… ugh… crushed alive? I can feel my body shaking under the pressure and each bone cracking as my skeleton starts breaking under the pressure. My brain –no my entire body is nothing but pain. The darkness I see starts brightening and quickly changes into a blinding white through which I can hardly make out the last thing I see: the sun setting through an opening in the roof of the forest. It would be beautiful if I weren’t dying as I saw it. At this point I can hardly even feel anything but I do faintly feel a liquid running from underneath my body. I’m not sure if my bladder has failed me in fear, if I’m bleeding from the crushing of my body or both but this is not a comfortable position to die in. My ears pop and the white fades back to black as the final signs of life fade from my body. I have some theories on death and this doesn’t feel right. Nothing happens, I’m just lying here, still faintly aware of what’s going on around me. I feel my senses slowly start working again and I begin to think of the possibility of something amazing. I’m now fully aware again and I feel the faint spark of hope start to grow larger as what I’m thinking seems to come true. The… revival progress rushes forward as I hear the stomping again. I don’t know how long I was asleep or how I managed to get far enough ahead from the Timber Wolf to sleep for however long I did but it’s still dark so I couldn’t have been out for too long. It felt so good being awake again that I actually felt a level of happiness for a bit as I continued running. I don’t know why I’m doing so but I look around as I run from the Timber Wolf and recognize something from earlier. It’s the pond with the cave system that I found when I went swimming the other day. But I have to think about this. Without my horn it’ll be really dark underwater and my eyes will take a long time to adjust on their own. If I don’t, my nightmare could come true. With that second thought I quickly dive into the water and swim into the cave nearest to the surface. Inside the cave I cautiously watch the Timber Wolf approach my hiding place and concentrate entirely on staying quiet. and. still. The Timber Wolf seems to look at me but doesn’t act on it if he sees me. I don’t think it’s actually very long but it seems to take forever for the Timber Wolf to move on. I think to myself right away that I’ll stay in the caves for a while anyways. Trying to keep an open mind I tell myself I might meet some new creatures to document or a cave-dwelling pony tribe to make friends with. Still scared I just sit in my spot in the cave for a while before I decide to go deeper into the cave. Wishing now more than ever that I could use my horn I push further into the darkness. I try to remember another time I’ve ever had to travel in the dark without assistance from lights or magic and can’t so it’s actually pretty cool when my eyes start adjusting to the dark.  I have read some fictional books where ponies say this but I never understood it until I could see it happening: I literally don’t believe my eyes as they adjust better and better to the dark. I can almost see perfectly now as I turn around another corner and the tunnel-like walls expand into a full-out cavern. I know ponies don’t come to Everfree Forest often but I can’t help but wonder how these cave systems were never found. They’re at least twice the size as the Diamond Dogs’ caverns. I freeze in my tracks as I think this and remember my friends and I working together to save Rarity, I feel tears coming to my eyes again. How long have I been here now? I remember falling asleep four times but I still have a suspicion that I slept for more than a day casting that spell the first time. I find it harder to see in the darkness with tears stinging my eyes so I sit down and just wait for the tears to stop running. I’ve never been the kind of pony that can just turn tears on and off like a tap. I let out a pathetic little giggle at my joke and continue sitting there. I allow myself to remember other moments hoping to gain some more hope to get of here as I’m starting to feel low on it. I have no way to tell what time it is down in these caves but it feels like a long time for me to finally stop crying and be able to move on. Experiencing it earlier I had hoped my eyes would just continue adjusting but they seem to have reached their limit. I come to a fork in the cavern, I can go left, right, or straight ahead. I look around the three branches trying to see any difference between them but without any light all three just lead off into more darkness. I think back, trying to remember which way I ran from Ponyville earlier because I wonder if one of these caves will come out near or in Ponyville and I remember that I ran sort of on an angle that I think would be Northeast so I decide to take the left branch. I start walking near the walls of the cavern towards the branch when I suddenly notice that this cavern drops out in the middle and I’m suddenly scared. I start to push up against the walls and use the friction to guide myself as I stare agape into the pure darkness in the centre of the cave. What kind of creature could make a hole that deep? It doesn’t look natural. I almost fall into a hole further along the edge due to not paying attention. I’m still thinking about the hole as I look ahead and see that there’s actually multiple holes like this one that don’t seem to be natural either. I crouch forward and lean on my forelegs to slow down as I approach the edge to see if these little holes are as deep as the one in the middle of the cavern and they are. Sort of, at least: These holes are definitely not natural because the walls of the cave beneath them actually curve to drop into the middle like a bowl. It almost seems like some sort of trap and I don’t want to figure out what for so I jump to the next ledge very carefully. Looking ahead I manage to spot four more obviously visible gaps but I do think there could be some more because the branch seems much further having to go along the edges of the hole. I jump across the second gap and notice that the third seems to be wider apart; wide enough that I’ll have to take a running jump, so I back up as far as I can on the ledge then surge forward and run until my fore-hooves aren’t even touching anything and jump only with my hind legs. Fearing like nothing else that I would over jump, I watch the ground below whizz by with horror. I manage to land on the fourth ledge on a single hind leg and fall onto my back, my heart racing. I start to roll onto my stomach but quickly notice that all four legs are dangling over the edge so I roll back onto my back and lie there unsure of what to do. I think of rolling the other way, that way I could roll into the wall and I would at least be on my side, then I could just get up. I decide I don’t have to roll as far as the wall and just roll onto my side then get up. Two more gaps. The fourth gap is still wider than the first two but not the third so I jump across it without much trouble but when I land on the fifth ledge I hear it crumbling and see the cruel idea of the next gap that I couldn’t before. The gap and ledge are both very short so the need to run from this crumbling ledge would make me over jump and fall anyways. Knowing that a running jump would kill me I just try to stay calm as I trot across the crumbling platform. I increase the speed of my last four steps before jumping to get a little momentum but still fear horribly that I won’t make it and say a quick prayer in my head. I don’t quite make the jump and I’m hanging over the edge with just my forelegs keeping me up. I feel a sudden urge to look around as I try to pull myself up and barely see some ledges and gaps on the opposite side of the cavern that are perfectly aligned and exactly the same size. I’ve thought this a few times but I think it again; whatever this cavern is it definitely isn’t natural. Nature isn’t symmetrical. Once I manage to pull myself up I realize another problem. I didn’t notice in the dark or through my panic but the cavern is on an angle and I was getting further below the left branch with each jump I made. Looking up from where I am I can only see the bottom of the ledge that the left branch is on and I know what I have to do. But how will I do it with the fifth ledge gone? The ledges I was jumping on simply ended with this sixth one so the only way I could go was back. Can I make this jump without the fifth ledge?  I’m terribly scared that I can’t but I have nothing else to do so I have to try. Just then I noticed something about this sixth ledge; it’s slightly longer than the rest. I doubt it since I already checked but I decide to go back to the edge of the ledge to see if it drops. It actually does. I wasn’t expecting a smooth slope but there are no slopes. It’s just a straight drop down to another ledge, also longer than this one and I can barely make out another ledge that the second one drops to. I hate falling but getting slightly hurt is a lot better than possibly dying trying to make an impossible jump. So I drop down and it actually doesn’t even hurt that much but before making the next jump I look up to make sure I can jump up because I’ve already found out what these ledges are for. It looks like it’ll be difficult but possible. I noticed something strange as I dropped down to the middle ledge. It seems to be getting even darker. I lower myself to the ground slightly and take a crouched running jump to launch myself and create momentum and it works better than I expected. I land on the next ledge with a bit of a wobble and look up to the next ledge which confirms two things: One, it had definitely gotten darker down on the middle platform and two; these jumps are very difficult. I worry that the next ledge is even higher and again that I won’t make a jump so I decide to rest for a bit. Even though I don’t feel very tired I slip off into a bit of a doze and dream more about times with my friends. I also start to dream about my Library and Spike, I didn’t realize it but now I felt bad. I’ve been thinking more about my friends than Spike. It feels like I’ve known them forever now but I’ve known Spike for even longer. I hatched him! How could I not be thinking of Spike too? He’s probably more worried about me than my friends have and I have been about him. Waking up with fresh tears in my eyes and possessing some extra energy from anger at myself I make the running crouch jump again and make it no problem. Now I have to calm down because I remember that these ledge jumps require extreme caution. I look over to the other ledges and try to remember exactly what I did so I can just hop across them but decide against it. I do remember however, that the first jump will be a collapsing ledge so I’ll have to jump fairly quickly. I make the first jump but nothing happens and I have an idea. I jump to the second and third ledges in quick succession without much difficulty and notice that the next gap is wider and think that my assumption may be correct. I jump to the fourth ledge and find out that it wasn’t as the ledge starts crumbling, I quicken my pace and start for a jump across the longest gap to the fifth ledge which also starts crumbling and the general fear combined with my panic about not knowing something cause me to run even faster the edge collapsing all the way across. I come to the end of the ledge and frantically look around, horror pulsing through my veins, time seeming in slow motion as I finally spot somewhere to run. Without even looking first I run up a gently sloped hill in the cave. I slow down to catch my breath but the platform and bridge start collapsing too so I jerk forward back into my gallop and see that I’m almost to the left branch that I’ve wanted to get to the whole time. Seeing what could possibly be my way home I suddenly feel a lot better and gallop faster. What I thought to be the bridge abruptly ends a fair way before the entrance to the second branch and I jump without thinking. The distance seems much further once I leave the ground and the darkness below seems much more intimidating. I lose the momentum from my jump and start falling what seems to be way too soon and expecting that I am correct about starting to fall too soon I squeeze my eyes shut and wait for whatever could be waiting in the darkness below. I’m so overwhelmed with fear that I don’t even notice as I barely land on the ledge outside the branch. I sit there for some time keeping my eyes clenched shut but finally calming down at some point I realize that I haven’t been falling for quite a while and I open my eyes. Normally they’d probably sparkle with happiness as I realized where I am but I’ve been through so much the past few days that the sparkle’s gone dull. I sit up and start venturing off into the passage. I start wondering about the last cavern, I can’t shake the feeling that it isn’t natural. I mean, I know it isn’t but why and how could somepony make such a thing? It has so many dangers, no traps in the first cavern. This cave must be a sick pony’s idea of entertainment or a testing facility or something. It just doesn’t feel right. I continue to worry about what I could be lost in as I walk through the passage. I wish so much right now that I had Spike, my friends, anypony to talk to. I’m starting to get so lonely here. Even back in Canterlot, I at least had Spike. Thinking of Canterlot I remember something that could really help me. I remember when I was sent to the caves beneath Canterlot by Chrysalis before my brother’s wedding. There were too many crystals for me to see if the cave I woke up in was connected to any others but those caves could be my only way home now, because if I managed to find my way out of the caves in Canterlot again I could go tell Celestia what happened and head home. All my negative emotions shatter as I think of this and I start running through the passage. I’m running for some time manoeuvring the passage through nothing except dodging darker shades of black, suddenly I notice the current section of the passage abruptly ends. I fear that I won’t stop in time to not hit the wall but I do manage to, my hooves skidding as I do and I still only narrowly avoid smashing into it. While I skid, I start slipping backwards and by the time I came to a complete stop I find myself lying on my back. I roll onto my side and stand up then start looking around. I know I don’t want to go back the way I came but the left and right of this passage are just more walls. I don’t understand why a passage in a cavern would just end so I look more carefully and notice a small gap in the bottom of the wall I’m facing, a very small gap. Would I even fit? I’m not sure if I will but I have nowhere else to go so I start squeezing into the gap. I realize my mistake pretty quickly but not soon enough. I tried crawling through head-first on my stomach so I get stuck. How are you going to get out of this, Twilight? I know it will hurt a bit so I don’t want to but it needs to be done so I start leaning to the left. I can feel the wall digging into my skin as I turn and am very grateful that it’s as smooth as it is. Once I make it onto my side I lie there for a while waiting for the pain to fade. Once I feel well enough I slide a little closer to the left side of the gap and push through to the other side of the wall. I think I can feel my back bleeding a bit but I ignore it and feel my determination fade slightly as I realize I’m in another cavern now. I can feel my brain whirring away the second I take everything in. I’ve already come to the suspicion that each of these caverns are different kinds of traps, which is exactly why I find it unnerving that I don’t seem to see any sort of trap here. There are no holes or anything. My confusion quickly turns to suspicion as I remember the first cavern. It had the giant bowl-like hole but the edges seemed perfectly normal until I almost fell into the first gap. I try using my horn to light up the cavern a bit in the excitement of recent events I had forgotten it wasn’t working. I surprise myself when I curse under my breath. I want to check for symbols on the floor like in the Daring Do books but can’t see any in this lighting, or lack of lighting I suppose one could say. I giggle a bit at my little joke then stick my head to the floor to look more closely. Hardly thinking, I start moving forward and scrape my nose on the rough floors of the cave. I quickly pull my head back up somehow not expecting to hurt myself. My nose twitches and I feel a sneeze coming on: A-A-AH-CHOO! The volume of my sneeze in the silence of the lonely cave seems intimidating. I shrink down to the floor slightly and push my head back down to the ground, squinting while I look about scrutinously. I see no symbols. In fact, I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. I suddenly remember some lessons on using different kinds of magic for specific tasks but quickly dismiss them. I guess I’ll just have to risk it. I really think something’s up though. “Aha! Up! Maybe there’s a hint on the ceiling!”But my excitement quickly fades because when I look to the ceiling all I can see is an intense darkness. So intense it almost seems unnatural but the only solutions that come to mind involve the use of my magic which still isn’t an option. Feeling dejected I start making my way through the cavern and for some sick reason, I find the rumbling sound I hear immediately afterwards exciting. I was right! But my celebration quickly ends as the first suspicions of what the rumbling could be come to mind. Craning my neck to look behind me my first thought and one of my worries becomes reality, the floor starts collapsing behind me and I quickly burst into a gallop. Realizing only too late that there’s a pattern to the collapsing floor, I barely manage to dodge away from a collapsing section in the cave floor and have to dance up  onto run on my hind legs. Going back down on all-fours as soon as I can, I continue galloping unguidedly across the floor but in my panic I still haven’t been able to find the pattern. I begin to wonder if there even is one when I suddenly have to dodge around another part of the collapsing floor. The section in front of my falls away and I skid to a stop. Slipping onto my side and rolling, I end up on my back and only about half-way on the suspended floor. I can’t feel anything underneath myself except an unsteadiness in my balance and I’m so scared I can hardly breathe. After laying still with my eyes closed out of fear for awhile I finally manage to reassure myself and I notice something about the ceiling; it’s lighting up in certain areas. I knew there would be a hint on the ceiling! But I still have a problem. I can’t tell if the lights are showing me where the pattern collapses or where the pattern stays suspended. I seem to be in awe as I’m not even sure how long I’ve been stuck in these caves but the light is so beautiful in contrast to all the other things I’ve seen. It seems to flow almost like a liquid and it is an entrancing golden colour with stripes of an almost-white yellow with sparkles in them. I find myself wondering if it has any sort of source but remind myself that getting out and getting home is a greater priority. I also remind myself that I might be able to come back someday. So I get back up on all four legs and I realize something else: The floor has stopped collapsing. The traps must only work when movement is somehow detected and that brings me back to wondering who made this place. Are they watching me right now? I force these thoughts and others into the back of my mind and concentrate on the light. I cautiously take a step into the light, listening scrutinously for the slightest sound and the seeming infinite darkness below. Slowly, oh so slowly I lower my front left hoof to the cold stone and timidly put some of my weight onto it. I let out a huge sigh of relief when nothing happens. I was right! Follow the light. Having solve the puzzle, or “pattern” as I called it earlier, the going becomes much easier. Allowing my curiosity to take the best of me once getting across I turn around and study the path I took. In doing so, I definitely notice a pattern. That, or some kind of symbol. Maybe this is the signature of the sick pony who made this place? I’m not sure but I sigh again once I turn around and face the next maze-like cave systems I have to trek through. After maneuvering the caves uneventfully for awhile I notice what I assume to be a trap that is just way too obvious to be of danger to me. Even so sure that I won’t come to harm from making this decision I hesitate before moving towards the orange-yellow light coming from around a bend that I assume is lava but am I really that far underground? With that thought in mind the idea of the light coming from a lava trap actually seemed kind of scary, so I was actually relieved when I came around the bend and saw that the light was coming from some candles on a table but my relief was short-lived because I soon began to wonder; why is there a table here? This table wasn’t even at a dead end or anything, it was literally just a random table in the middle of the caves. I look around feeling my never-extinguished but very dim spark of hope ignite. The spark quickly faded again after some careful examination which yielded no results. There was no possible origin for this table. But I never give up and the spark soon re-ignites when I think of my friends and come up with another idea. Somepony might me down here with me! Somepony that might even know their way around! The smile spreading across my face feels amazing as I run through the cave ahead, it grows even more when I think of the possibility that Zecora might be the character who left the table. She knows the Everfree Forest better than anypony I know! It would make perfect sense if she knew these caves. She could even lead me home! But my smile quickly vanishes when another possibility comes to mind. What if Zecora is the one who built all this? I didn’t know her very well even after my training with her. Trying to keep a positive attitude I decide to risk it and explore the caves continuing to look for her. This third set of caves is worse than any of the others I’ve been through, there’s so many twist and turns that I begin to wonder if this is one of the traps; a maze. What happens if I find a dead end? I decide to stop moving and look around. I’m standing in the middle of a four-way corridor and suddenly forget which I came from. In the same moment that I forget where I came from, I remember an old trick about mazes I was told about when I was younger. Always stick to the sides. But should I stick to to left or right? Both the left and right turn off into a direction out of my sight and ho opposite ways. The left passage goes straight then turns to the right and the right passages goes straight then turns to the left. Wait... Is this a trick? Wouldn’t that mean the paths intersect? I eventually decide to try the right passage and surprise myself by seeing that the paths don’t intersect. The wall must be very thin though. After the left turn, I come to an incredibly long hallway-like passage. I can see nothing but a darkness that seems to stretch on forever and I decide I want to try taking the left passage but when I turn around the only thing I see is a wall. The fear that has been lingering and grew slightly at the sight of the dark passage intensifies. I never even heard the walls shifting! What’s going on here? Having no other choice but to face the endless darkness and suddenly realizing how tired I am I decide to get some sleep. But as I try to do so, I start thinking. I realize that I’ve once again lost track of time. I don’t even remember when I last slept. Was it outside? I am also tortured relentlessly by the memories of my friends back in Ponyville. My world finally fades to sleep as I feel tears slide down my face.

I must have continued crying for quite awhile after falling asleep because I wake up to an uncomfortable wet feeling throughout my face. I drowsily climb back up onto my legs and start braving the passage. I feel scared the whole time but even more so as I continue through the tunnel because the intensity of the darkness seems to be increasing. What could possibly make darkness darker? This cannot be natural. I notice something else. It starts getting colder as the darkness intensifies. Where am I headed? The chilly air envelopes me as I enter the cavern and the quality of my vision does not improve as my eyes are already adjusted to their best. I do notice some sort of fog though. I don’t really understand why I can see it so well and decide to investigate because of such. I lower my head since the fog is very close to the ground and find that I can see a bit better. I look straight down and notice that the floor actually appears to be illuminated. This fog is emitting dim light! I get an idea to try to capture this light but the idea reminds me that I lost my saddle-bag some time ago and don’t have any kind of container on-hoof. I sigh with frustration and decide that I’ll just wander. Chills keep running down my back and my hooves have become tender since walking so much. A few times, I even bump into walls a few times. Not often or hard enough to hurt but it’s still pretty disorienting. Even so, I finally manage to feel an upward slope. A sudden thought occurs to me. Could this be where I came from? I’m pretty sure I felt a descent on my way here. Not wanting to risk going back, I turn around and continue wandering. Walking straight is a lot harder than you might guess when you’re practically blind but I manage to keep fairly straight and a sick feeling washes over me as I almost trip on a pressure plate. I hear a whirring from deep within that chills me to the bone. What in Equestria could this be doing?! I’m still not able to see but the shaking in the floor gives me a pretty good idea. One sarcastic thought passes through my mind before fear takes over; walls closing in? Really? What a cliche. I maintain no control over myself and simply feel it as I gallop in a random direction. My instincts also apparently improve because I can see well enough that I notice I would have run into a wall if I were in control but instead I feel myself curve away from the wall with ease and make it to the slope just in time to hear the walls crash together behind me. I barely manage to swish my tail out of the way in time. That would have hurt. Still unable to see I simply feel around with my hooves and find out that this slope actually goes further downwards so my only guess is it must be the right way. I look ahead and barely manage to see my path split off into three directions. Through the darkness I can see that the left and right passages seem to be straight and the adjacent passage appears to gently curve to the right but thinking that that wouldn’t make sense I guessed it was an S curve and would continue going straight afterwards. I decide that I’ll take the S curve and find out, I’m happy to have assumed correctly once again. With a flat surface once again the intensity of the darkness doesn’t seem to be as bad and I can see a little better. The cave widens up ahead and I begin to wonder if I could already be coming to the next cavern but it seems like I haven’t gone far enough. A sudden thought comes to mind and the feeling of happiness I experience at it seems to overwhelm my senses. Could these be the caves beneath Canterlot that Chrysalis mentioned? Thinking about Chrysalis brought many memories and I remembered finding the real Cadence in these caves. The great feeling of happiness about being right about the “Cadence” in Canterlot, the extra happiness from seeing Cadence again after so long, the nostalgia from doing our little rhyme. And upon remembering all these things I also remembered some of the features of the cave and started looking for them. Squinting, hoping that it’ll help me to see better, move more carefully, and watch for any reflections. In the poor lighting I thought I saw another pony approaching me but I quickly realized that it was just a reflection. “That means I am where I thought I was!” Now, I just have to find the way out that Cadence and I used. I sit down and concentrate on remembering. I close my eyes tight and try to recall all the events of our escape. I find myself in a horrible place. Dark. Cold. I raise my head weakly, hoping it will help me to see. It doesn’t. I hear the haunting echo of the imposter’s evil laughter and quickly jump up onto all fours. Using my horn to light the way, I see the doppelganger appear before me and quickly charging up my horn, send a blast of magic towards her. The magic bolt ricochets off the surface and shoots off somewhere into the darkness. She continues taunting me, telling me that she has “plans” for my brother. As soon as she mentions Shining Armor, anger overwhelms me and I blast bolts of magic at every bit of movement I see. Through my fury I end up shooting one crystal, larger than the rest that shatters and reveals a very dishevelled looking Cadence, I charge towards her and she takes me by surprise by pleading that I don’t hurt her. I stand over her, now hesitant but still prepared to finish her off. She tells me that the “Cadence” that sent me down here is an imposter but I refuse to believe her. She surprises me again by reciting something that only the real Cadence could know: “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves-’ I recognize the phrase right away and join in for the final part of it; ”and do a little shake!” Happiness and nostalgia washes over me as I jump into Cadence’s open arms. I enjoy our moment together but when the imposter’s laughter suddenly echoes through the cave again I take charge and tell Cadence that we need to get out of this horrible place and stop the imposter. She gallops off ahead and I follow closely behind. A little later on we slow down and Cadence sing-tells me about what she was planning on doing at her wedding. Speeding up again we run through the crystalline caves, so many passages that simply flash by as we gallop onwards.The many reflections are awe-striking yet confusing and fear-inducing. We seem to be running forever when we finally see an old run-down mine track. Cadence tries to push the minecart but she’s been prisoner longer than me so she isn’t strong enough. Now understanding her story, I already feel bad for her and the sorrowful tones in her singing make me feel even worse. I suddenly realize that I’m able to help her and I use my magic to levitate away the rocks blocking the track and lift Cadence into the cart. Standing behind and pushing the cart, I’m unable to climb in beside her in time and I get carried along behind it as it rushes down the spiraling tracks. A short track, it abruptly ends at a train stop at the bottom of the track. Going incredibly fast, we’re launched from the cart as it collides with the stop. Clinging onto Cadence as hard as I can I look down and watch the ground, so far away as it rushes by in a blur. The fear resonating through my body increase as we lose our momentum and start falling. Terrified, I close my eyes tight and brace for crashing into the ground when I suddenly feel the pull of gravity lessen and peeking through still-mostly-closed eyes, find myself looking right into Cadence’s wings. How could I have forgotten she was an Alicorn? I close my eyes and let the feeling of the light breeze wash over me as we slowly glide along. Such an amazing feeling. I feel more than hear it as Cadence lands on a higher part of the cave. I step off of her back and open my eyes to look around. I really didn’t notice it as we ran by it all earlier but these caves are really quite beautiful. So many shades of pink and purple in the crystalline walls, the blueish colour of the smooth, reflective floors. I also suddenly notice that it’s kind of cold down here and a chill runs down my back. Overcoming my awe, I look towards Cadence and over her back. I can see more large crystals and crystal walls protruding from the floor to the left and a steep hill whose destination I can’t see to the right. I ask Cadence if she agrees that we should head further upwards to make it back to the castle and she nods as she starts walking towards the left split of the two passages on my right, I decide to take the right split. As I walk up the slope, I regret choosing to go on my own. It’s been so long since I’ve been with Cadence and despite their beauty, these caves are really kind of creepy. At this point I was actually starting to hope that our paths would cross over at the top of the slope but they don’t. I find myself in a narrow hallway that narrows further as I proceed. By the time I reach the end of the hallway, the walls are actually rubbing against my sides and I can even feel small crystals digging into my skin every now and then but I press on. The hallway finally ends and I check my sides for blood. It looks like there aren’t even any scratches. How strange... I look ahead again and see that the left split actually wasn’t too far separated, the two paths merge into one here and lead off into darkness. I have a small self-debate about whether I should go back to the left and look for Cadence or continue forwards. After much hesitation and thinking I finally decide that I’ll press forward. For all I know, Cadence has already done so. Suspecting that the new tunnel would go straight I’m surprised by its curve to the left. Another smooth curve to the right and I already find myself in an open cavern. One wide enough that I thought I would be able to see Cadence with ease so my face drops when I don’t and I start calling her name, cursing silently at myself for leaving her at all in her weakened state. When she doesn’t reply I decide to run back to the split and start making my way down the left-now-my-right split. It doesn’t surprise me when the path narrows out. These two paths are literally identical. I grit my teeth as I feel the crystals dig into my skin again but keep going. It seems to take an eternity in the narrow passage but it finally opens up again and I can move comfortably. I see something that disproves my assumption of identicalness, unless I just failed to notice it on my side but that isn’t very likely. There’s a large turn-off on the right side of the tunnel. Cadence must have gone this way... right? I’m not really sure but I have no other choice so I go through it and resume calling her name. I finally hear a faint sound that I can’t quite make out. Was that a scream? I perk up my ears and listen more carefully. They’re very, very faint but the sounds I’m hearing are undoubtedly screams. I pause and think for a bit causing another internal debate; What if it’s the fake Cadence playing more tricks on me?
True, but what if it really is the real Cadence and she’s in trouble?
Well... I haven’t seen her anywhere else
That’s right. And where else could she be? Have you seen any other directions she could have gone?
I suppose...
I frown on myself, I usually disapprove of such redundant things as self-debates. But deciding to listen to the points I showed myself, I start heading towards the screams. I start to feel less concerned as I get closer because it’s becoming more clear that the sounds I’m hearing is singing. I let out a sigh of relief as I come around a corner and find Cadence continuing her lament. “
Thank Celestia, Cadence! I thought I’d lost you!”My happiness is short-lived as I realize we’ve come to a dead end and can hear Celestia stating the vows above. Cadence, her voice heavy with grief states that we won’t make it in time but I already know what to do. I saw the sunlight coming in earlier. There’s a higher cliff and sunlight coming in from above us and I teleport both of us up to it. But we encounter a problem. I still don’t know what kind of magic it is but I can see the effects of the imposter’s magic in the eyes of the zombie-like Ex-Bridesmaids. I’m not sure what they’re going to do to us but in my panicked state I get the impression that I have to think fast to get by them. We start backing away and before I can even think of anything, Cadence levitates some flowers out of nowhere and teases the bride’s maids with them. Once it’s clear that she has their attention, Cadence throws the flowers off somewhere. The exit that the Bridesmaids were blocking still wasn’t quite the way out though. The cave came out on the side of a mountain, the sun is almost blinding after being in darkness for so long and my eyes have to adjust. Once I can see clearly, even though I’ve seen Equestria’s nature plenty of times, I’m overwhelmed by the beauty. It must just be because I was trapped in the caves for so long but I pause to take it all in. We’re a fair way up the mountain so I can see down into a beautiful valley filled with sky-blue water and luscious bright-green trees. In one of the larger bodies of water I can actually see a reflection of Canterlot. We’re so close! “Cadence! Canterlot is just around the corner of this mountain! Let’s go!” I gallop off, up the rails, around and around the mountain. I can finally see Canterlot and the huge purple-pink forcefield it’s amassed in. I stop and turn to Cadence. “Cadence, I don’t think these guards will let me in. I suspected that the Cadence in there wasn’t you and I tried telling everypony but none of them believed me. Do you think they’ll listen to you?”
“Well, we can only hope they will.”
We approach the forcefield, stopped by the guards just as I suspected and Cadence starts trying to reason right away. “Please, guards, I know there’s been a lot of commotion here but I assure you, I’m the real Cadence!”
The guard on the right looks to his buddy and he nods. “Do you really expect us to believe that?”
“Please! Do you think I’d sound so desperate and look so poor if I were lying? You have to believe me!”
The guard on the left laughs and waves his hoof dismissively. “Yeah, sure.”
This is when I speak up “Please you two, I don’t want to have to hurt anypony.”
Both guards look at me for a second then crouch and hold their faces in mock fear. “Oooh, we’re soo scaaared!”
“If you insist...” I smirk and simply teleport into the forcefield then yell behind me: “Thank you for your cooperation, sirs!” Then I look ahead and start galloping towards the massive double doors.

As soon as I’m sure I’ve remembered my route, I open my eyes. The darkness seems to hit me like a hoof to the chest after remembering the light so vividly in my memories and I actually fall backwards in surprise. I can’t even use my horn. It’ll take forever for my eyes to readjust! Even barely able to see I squint and take in what little of my surroundings I can make out. The cave is still quite open where I am and I remember it being much narrower where I awoke in my memory. I lower my head almost to the floor looking around for some noticeable differences in the crystals everywhere to no avail. The small amount of happiness I felt just earlier is crushed by the realization that I’m still lost. Aimlessly wandering and trying to find any resemblance of the route I took in my memory I finally notice an opening that can’t be natural. It looks like the remnants of a shattered window. I look up as far as I can see with the little visibility I have and can easily tell that this crystal is much bigger than any other. This must be where I found Cadence! I pass through the opening realizing now that Cadence was actually trapped inside a crystal. My spell was so powerful that it broke through two layers of crystal. No wonder she was so scared. I head through the second opening and find myself in a rather open cavern. Eyes having adjusted a bit better, I can make out two passages ahead and remember that Cadence and I took the left cavern. I’m about to take a step forward when I hear a sound that stops me in my tracks. Even the beat of my heart slows. I hear a horrendous roaring and a sound that I can only describe as a half-screech-half-cracking-sound. My jaw drops as I look towards the source of the horrible sounds and see that the crystal walls are actually cracking and breaking apart. Instantly light starts flooding in and I close my eyes knowing that such an intense light could blind me after being in darkness for so long. I peek through my hooves into a pure white light and my worst fear becomes a reality. The Timber Wolf is back. I watch in awe and horror as the beast tears away the walls with its teeth and throws it miles away with a toss of its neck. Temporarily paralyzed by fear I take off before I can even feel my hooves slap the ground. Back in control of my own legs I gallop off into the left split and never look back. Judging only by my rapidly moving reflections I dodge around seemingly random crystals sticking out of the ground everywhere. I worry that I’ll run off of course but my subconscious must have been working on instinct because when I slow down to catch my breath I see the old mine track. I have a problem though. The rails are badly worn and extremely dangerous to use without a minecart, which must still be at the bottom of the track. I hear the Timber Wolf smashing crystal into tiny pieces behind me and start working my way along the tracks stepping only on the metal tracks as I work my way down the spiral. I reach about the third spiral when the Timber Wolf attacks again. Its massive paw swipes overhead completely incinerating the rails above me. The force of the impact also makes me lose balance and I fall off the tracks. Managing to twist around to look below me mid-air I see that the floor seems impossibly far away. I watch the ground growing ever-closer and close my eyes as my life begins to flash before my eyes. I always wondered if this actually happened but I never wanted to find out through experiencing it. Trying to break the trance of reliving my life I force my eyes open and observe how close the ground is. My brain hardly works as well in full-out panic mode but I manage to remember something I read; when falling a great distance, it’s best to land on your flank. I look down again wondering if I’ll have the time to twist into a different position and decide that whether I do or not, I have to try, so I put all four legs out and lean back. There can’t be a much better feeling than rapidly moving air cutting around your body. I doubt it will help but in the last second I also curl my tail down to cover my plot and put it in between my back legs. I brace for the impact just as an indescribable pain shoots through my body. Thankfully I can’t handle the pain and black out. I have no idea how much time passes but as always with sleep, and probably any other form of unconsciousness, it seems to pass quickly and when I wake up, I can’t feel anything. I can’t even move. I lie there trying to remember what happens when a familiar sound makes that obvious; a merciless roar from somewhere above me. It takes all the strength I can call upon to simply move my neck and the movement is met with an excruciating pain. I almost black out again from that simple movement. Whatever happened to me must have been horrible. But I see the source of the sound. I can’t make it out very well through distance, darkness and my weakened state but it appears to be mostly brown and I can see a green glow. I fall into unconsciousness again and I seem to be more aware the next time I awake. Unfortunately, that also means I’m starting to become aware of the immense. Movement comes more easily to me now but it hurts to do so. I look up again and see that whatever was there seems to be gone now. I can feel the blissful world of unconscious approach again and embrace it. The third time I wake up the pain is so great I think it may be the whole of it this time and I also remember reading about concussions. If I keep going back to sleep, I might not wake up, so ignoring the pain I drag myself into a standing position and collapse right away. It’s a struggle just to speak but I manage to say to myself; “I’m not giving up that easily legs.” So again, I climb onto all fours and take a few steps before collapsing again. Through gritted teeth: “No.” I stand up and collapse multiple times before getting used to the pain with every movement and start limping towards a ramp I see by a wall of the cave. Every step I take shoots a new sensation of pain throughout my body and I never un-grit my teeth as I start making my way up the ramp. I don’t know how long I can hold out against the pain or have any idea where I need to go but I know that it’s up. A steady ascent. After making it about half way up the hill the pain starts becoming less noticable and I trek onwards. I finally make it to the top of the hill and look around. I can see some sunlight flooding in from way above and somewhere off in front of me and know that that’s where I’ll have to go. I follow the rays of sunlight to an expanse of open space in front of me. And start looking for any platforms that will get me there. My horn is still useless from the poison joke so I won’t be able to teleport there. I try to remember the Bridesmaids again. There were some rocks off to left of where we stood that I remembered because of Cadence throwing the flowers. I look at my immediate surroundings. I’m standing on a round platform whose edges have small crystals growing out of them that make a pleasant border. I suddenly feel woozy and experience a powerful urge to lay down and sleep. I start falling forward when I shake my head to keep myself aware. As aware as I can be with an unending pain resonating throughout my whole body and blurred version. I start limping towards the next pillar-like platform. I can’t see them all yet but it seems like all the platforms might be connected by similar ramps. It seems too coincidental to me. Could this be a setup? But how could anypony know I’d find my way here? A relentless feeling of unease now joins the lingering pain and little determination I currently feel. I keep pushing forward until I make it the top of the third pillar. The floor already seems so far away again but the ceiling also seems too far. I feel like I’m at an impossible height. This pillar has two bridges. Each go to another pillar but my wavering vision is too poor to tell which is the right way. I decide to try taking the left bridge and I randomly start hearing a faint call. I can’t even tell where it’s coming from. I look every which way, my movements would seem frantic if I were conscious enough to move that quickly. I find that the control of my legs seems to falter as I start walking towards wherever my mind thinks the faint call is coming from. No longer in control of myself, I start walking to the right pillar. My futile attempts to pull back to the left turn to fear as I realize I possess no control of myself whatsoever. My body is looking straight ahead, seeming to move mechanically towards the voice calling me. In my mind, I’m jerking my entire body to the to left, now desperately but I just keep walking to the right. I begin screaming at myself Why won’t you listen to me?! I want to go this way! Where are you even going?!
My fear intensifies as a second voice, sounding much calmer, almost tranquil. It reminds me of Celestia, creepy as Tartarus though. It says Remain calm, Twilight. Trust me to guide you.
Why should I trust you?! I don’t even know who or what you are!
Allow me to tell you what I’m really doing. If I weren’t controlling you right now, you would be dead. Is that clear?
Fine. I don’t believe you but I’d rather not be proven wrong.
I sigh in my head as I let this non-physical bring control me. I notice something though, since allowing this spirit or whatever control me, I haven’t felt the pain.
Excuse me, miss... whatever you are, can you tell me a little more about yourself? I’d love to know what’s going on.
I am sorry dear Twilight. I cannot tell you yet but please believe me when I say: I can be trusted.
Well, not like I have a choice here.
Again, I am sorry.
I sigh as she continues to lead me. I can still see through my eyes though I can’t control them and we seem to be about five pillars up now. I never got a chance to count how many there were.
Could I at least have partial control of myself? I’m sure you know what you’re doing but I’d like to look around.
I trust you have already realized I also take away the pain, are you sure you want to experience that?
Well. That depends. Would all the pain be dumped back onto me or just a little since I only have a little control?
Twilight, I cannot give you control and limit your pain at the same time. It would be all of it.
I would suck my lips at making this decision but I still haven’t resumed control so I can’t. Instead I just think with what little bit of brainpower I still control. Do you really want to feel like that again? You could barely walk, hardly see. Is looking around that important to you? Yes, I respond to myself yes it is. I still don’t think I can trust her. What if she takes me to some sort of trap or something? The other half of my mind agrees that I could deal with it. I could earlier.
Twilight, you do know I can still hear you thinking, right?
I suspected as much but you must understand my distrust.
Yes, I can. But you failed to consider what would happen. The only reason you weren’t overwhelmed with total pain when you first awoke is because I’ve been watching you all along. If I return control to you, all the pain with come with it at once. Could you withstand that?
I guess I can only hope.
If you insist...
My mind blanks for a moment and I nearly collapse as the pain comes rushing back. I try to look around and as promised, it works. Thanks, spirit-thingy. But what was with that near-collapse? Is this pain so intense that it affects even you?
Yes... Twilight... It also... takes a great amount.... of magic for my.... species to transfer control to our subjects.
Subjects? Now I’m really curious as to what you are.
I promise, I will tell you in due time.
I look around, feeling joyous even through the debilitating pain at having any ability to control myself. I also look towards the sunlight again and feel bad for not trusting the spirit as we continue towards it. Excuse me, miss spirit. You can see what I see, right? Are we heading towards this light?
I am not a spirit, Twilight. But you may continue to address me as such until I tell you. Yes, we are.
I try to continue enjoying my re-found ability to control my head but I quickly get used to it and simply observe as the spirit leads me onwards. Upon reaching the seventh pillar (we are now very closely nearing the ceiling) I feel my body collapse before me. Hay, spirit, what gives? I wouldn’t have assumed you were tired. Can I not feel your emotions?
No, Twilight, you cannot. If you were to burden the many emotions I carry upon myself, you would certainly die. You are not my first subject and some ponies would not allow me to give them their emotions back. I have a very high tolerance to this as it is a duty of my species but I can still only take so much and it is very tiring.
Sorry to hear that. How long shall we rest?
As long as need be.
And so we lied there. It didn’t take long for me to grow bored of looking around so I lay my head down as well and prepared to fall asleep.
Twilight, wait! The assumption you made earlier was correct! If you fall asleep you may not be able to wake, and since I am currently bound to you, both of us could die!
Is it still safe for me to lie still? I suddenly feel oh so tired.
YOU FOOL! THAT IS A SIGN! YOU MAY NOT!
The spirit forces my body to jump onto all fours and we start crossing the bridge to the eighth pillar.
Curse you Twilight. Unlike you I was able to count the twelve pillars and if you had allowed us to rest longer I could get us out of here sooner. Now I will have to rest again. And soon.
I’m sorry, Spirit. I just... I feel so tired all of a sudden.
I know. I am barely able to keep you conscious right now. You have no idea how weak you currently are. It’s amazing that you were able to move at all before I took control. You are a very powerful young mare indeed.
Barely able to keep me conscious? I thought I would regain control of my consciousness with my emotions as well.
Normally you would but I could tell that even you, THE Twilight Sparkle, would not be able to stay conscious with such great pain. That is another reason  I was left so weak transferring control of your head. It  takes even more magic to hold back mind states.
THE? Am I so renown that even your mysterious and powerful species has heard of me?
You, Twilight. Have no idea.
I try asking the spirit some more questions but it stops responding. I am left once again to do nothing but look around. The spirit slows down and starts limping as we cross the bridge to the tenth pillar. I try to tell it that it can rest at any time but it seems to be completely ignoring me now so I start to panic as my vision blurs and I feel my body start to slump. We just make it onto the tenth pillar in time for the spirit to collapse and my vision blacks out with it. When I awake it seems to me that I am now feeling even more pain and I have the strangest feeling. I barely notice this new feeling over all the pain and I can only describe it as a null presence. Almost like an unused part of my mind and I have a terrible thought. Did I just kill the spirit that had been keeping me alive? I manage to stand up but stagger to the left and almost fall again. I feel a combination of thankfulness and anger at the spirit for not giving me all my emotions back and continue to stumble towards the bridge to the eleventh pillar. I’m walking like a drunkard through all the pain and sensations of my entire body and thanks to the blurred version but I manage to make it up to the eleventh pillar. As soon as I do so, I collapse onto the flat surface and drag my crippled body to the second-last bridge. I attempt to reassure myself by saying “almost there” through gritted teeth but there is no way I can continue. The pain is still coming back to me and I can barely move as is. Can I survive this? I snap at myself; ”Of course you can! Just keep going!” I find myself unable to stand but continue dragging my limp body up the bridge, my vision fading in and out with every movement. It takes every ounce of my little remaining strength to drag myself all the way up to the twelfth pillar and something scary but amazing happens. I suddenly feel fine, hyper even. I jump onto all four legs effortlessly and run up the last bridge the the final pillar leading outside. The adrenaline burst is extremely short-lived as this was my only goal and I was so weak before experiencing it. I just manage make it outside of the cave and collapse barely off the train tracks outside. I try to call for help but I’m not quick enough and black out again. I wake up to darkness, and not night-time darkness. This is pitch black. Have I gone blind? My first impulse is to open my eyes but I realize that they are already open as I try to do so. Next I try to move my neck and feel the restraints that are preventing me from doing so. I try all four legs and they’re all numb so I don’t know if I can move them or not. I try lifting my back and find my mid-section is restrained too. The only two movements I can make are twitching my ears and swishing my tail. I try to speak, hoping that I will somepony will hear me but realize at that moment that somepony has put a gag in my mouth. My only other option would be to yell or cast a spell but I don’t have the energy for either and judging by the feeling of my horn, it’s still useless. I lie there swishing my tail in rhythm with an unknown sound coming from somewhere near by. Swish, swish. Swish, swish. Swish, swish. The ringing in my ears fades and I recognize the sound. It’s the ticking of a clock! This means somepony has found me and taken me in! Or so I hope... After some time, swishing my tail in rhythm with the nearby clock I fall asleep again and have some pleasant dreams. Waking up in a sunny field having a picnic with my friends, spending a day at the spa with them, studying with Spike. I realize that most of these dreams are actually memories and I enjoy reliving them. So much that I actually feel frustration when I’m woken up by chattering voices. But I reassess the situation and I’m thankful just to have survived another nap. None of these voices are familiar but my ears are still ringing a bit from waking up so I can’t really be sure. I try to speak again but I’m not loud enough to be heard over the gag. Why would they even put a gag in my mouth? This better not be what I’m starting to think it is. I try to forget my feelings of anger and disgust in case I’m misjudging and concentrate on listening. One of the voices seems to be coming from my far right and I wonder if I could reach them with my tail. I lift my tail and swing it to the right. I feel something for sure. I’m not sure what though, so I start tickling it. I feel the object I was tickling jump away, assumably in fright then I hear just the words I was hoping for: “Holy hay! She’s awake!” But I also hear a little extra that worries me; “Somepony do something! We have to stop this!” A terrible realization occurs to me and despite not having the energy to do so myself I start screaming into the gag. “Mmmph! Mm mm mmmph!”
“She understands what’s about to happen! Why aren’t any of you doing anything?!”
I hear a frantic clip-clopping of hooves and I can feel panicked ponies grabbing me from all sides.
The same voice I heard the first time: “The restraints you feather brains!”
The ponies surrounding me seem to calm down and I feel the restraints loosening and being taken off. Just as I feel somepony undoing the gag I hear the same voice yell to keep it in. The hoof taking out the gag moves behind my head and seems to hesitate. I imagine him looking to the voice that’s been telling everypony what to do and that pony, I’m assuming the leader of whatever this is, nod his head as I feel the pony behind fumbling around behind me head. Did they really need to blindfold me? The light comes as a surprise to me and I blink a few times before I’m able to open my eyes completely. I’m in a small room with white tiled floors, yellow-painted walls with green trims and some different-textured white tiles for the ceiling. The type you only see in schools and hospitals. Did somepony take me to a hspital? I look towards to voice that was giving everypony commands and see that he is a yellow unicorn with a brown mane wearing a lab coat. I frown at him and point at the gag in my mouth. He blushes and laughs then tells me that he won’t take it out because he’s scared of me. I growl “You should be” and glare at him but it comes out more like “Mm mmph mm” He laughs again then  nods at the controller he’s holding and point to the ceiling directly above me, the one spot I didn’t look and I see that there’s a massive saw-like contraption bolted to the ceiling. My look of anger melts into one of horror and I look towards the yellow stallion wishing to Celestia that my horn would work. I decide to to trifle with the pony holding the key to my death and nod at the restraints all over the table. He repeats a series of actions that I’m beginning to already despise. A slight blush and sarcastic laugh. He tells me that everypony thought I was dead and that I would be the first test subject for an organ harvester that he had constructed himself. He also told me how lucky I was to have woken up when I did. I send him another glare of hatred and nod towards to restraints more pointedly. The labcoat-pony laughs his aggravating laugh again then as sarcastically as ever says “Oh those?! They’re just precautions. There’s nothing I can do for the subjects if the operation has already started and if they’re not kept perfectly still the harvester and be really messy. If I weren’t wearing this gag, I’d have spat at him to express my disgust. I make my best pleading face and point to the gag again. “Mmph?” I suppose we could. Boys, remove the gag. I feel their grabby hooves behind and use all of my willpower to not smack both of them. Once the gag is out I hold my mouth shut with my hooves so I don’t blurt out a million things at once. Calming down, I remove my hooves from my mouth.
“Okay sir, I only want to know three things: 1. How long have I been out? 2. Where am I? and 3. Am I allowed to leave?”
He had that Manehattan accent that I despised. “Well, goily. Multiple doctors have been watching over you so I can’t say for sure how long you’ve been out. You are in a top-secret experimental science facility located in a pony-made cavern beneath Everfree Forest. You may leave on two conditions: 1. You tell nopony of your experience here and 2. You can find your way out. Good luck.”
I stare at him with my mouth agape. “You expect me to find my way out of a top secret facility on my own? No guidance whatsoever?”
“Yep. It’s that or stay here forever. Your choice.”
I infuse one last glare with all the hatred I can muster then jump off the table and huff my way towards the door. The unicorn doctor runs across the room and blocks the exit. “One last thing, broad.” You were given some medicine when one of our doctors thought you might have lived, its effects are only temporary. You’ll feel everything once it wears off and according to one of our boys that saw you coming out of the mines, you won’t hold out well when that happens. Are you sure you want to do this?”
I stare at him a moment with a semi-pouty semi-angry expression and politely ask him to get out of my way. He steps aside and lets out one last laugh that follows me down the hall and renews my anger and disgust all over again. I must have been a pretty big catch because everywhere I look, I see other ponies dressed in lab-coats wearing shocked expressions. I continue through the endless halls feeling whatever medicine I was supposedly given start to fade. It starts with my vision losing clarity. Everypony looks fuzzy and blurred out as if I should be wearing glasses. My vision worsens as I feel other ails coming back to me. The ringing in my ears worsens, my legs start to hurt. By the time I reached the A Wing, which was the closest to my exit if I had done my calculations correctly, I began to limp again and I could already barely see. I still managed to walk straight but not much else. I see a massive garage-like door at the end of the hallway and stumble outside through a smaller door in the bottom of the full-sized door. I collapse onto my back legs outside and start looking around. There’s even more out here. I don’t even see an actual exit yet. I see nothing but dark-coloured grass sad-looking muddy ground and a bunch of other warehouse-style buildings spread out amongst the residencies. Already knowing that nopony would help me judging by the way I was treated in my “testing room,” I decide to venture off once again on my own. Thankfully the walls are all perfectly straight rectangles and not hard to maneuver. I stumble onwards, the action of walking becoming painful once again. As I continue walking towards the light, I start finding that my balance is flawing again and I start staggering with every step. I’m about to start walking up a ramp that I assume goes outside when I begin to wonder if I should go back and ask the doctor for more medicine. I decide to do something slightly different than both first thoughts. I’ll go back to the facility, find the medicine, and get some on my own. I have already turned around and started limping back when the thought comes to mind He never told you the name of the medicine. How are you going to find it? Just as I think that the strange feeling from earlier suddenly reoccurs to me. The spirit! Are you waking up?!
Twi... Twilight. H...how?
You said it yourself, I’m an extremely powerful young mare. You sound really weak so I take it you won’t be able to ease my pain?
Nah...not.. yet. I know... what you’re doing...It’s... it’s in... the east wing. Number...four. Go! It will help both of us.
The pain seems to fade slightly as it get replaced with a new-found determination. I’m still not able to do much more than walk but I can almost see clearly and walk straight. As I re-enter the facility the shocked faces of the many doctors had returned to their work in the dreary yellow halls and I almost smirk when I see a few of them look up and shock themselves yet again. I recognize one of the doctors walking from hall B and laugh out loud when he drops his clipboard. “Hello, doctor.”
I smile as evily as I can at him and laugh with satisfaction when his look of shock turns to one of fear and he runs down the hall where he had just come from. I concentrate on my mind, cleared by determination and feel the relief as the pain diminishes. I break into a gallop and catch up quickly.
“Going so soon, doctor?”
He looks to me with an expression of utter horror and yells “You! It isn’t possible!”
“Well then, you’re looking the very incarnation of impossibility in the eyes.”
I curve my path to the right to get closer to the panicking doctor and smash him in the throat. I skid to a stop as the doctor falls to the ground behind me then turn around, make my way back to the doctor and pin him to the ground. My hooves on either side of his neck. “So. Mister doctor.” I lower my horn to his neck and poke him. “Tell me, are you going to show me where that medicine is or what?”
“I’m s-so sorry, mam. I don’t know where it is. I’m not the one who gave it to you.”
I push my horn down harder, drawing blood. “Are you sure about that?”
The doctor starts feebly trying to push my head away. “Y-yes. Please don’t kill me!”
I leave my head where it is. “I don’t plan on it, but I need some answers. Who did give it to me then or do you know where I can find it?”
“I don’t know where to get it but a new guy, Dr. Magicbolt gave it to me. Ask around to find him.”
I move off of the incapacitated doctor and look down at him. Resisting to both spit in his face an finish him off. I spit one last thing before I leave him; “You’re sick.”
I look around and see that all three halls are cut off from a crowd that I didn’t notice forming. I look everypony in my field of vision in the eye and declare: “Alright everypony! Where’s this Dr. Magicbolt?!”
One pony seems to be speaking for a majority of the crowd when he says: “What if we don’t tell you? We all know just by looking at you that you aren’t able to use your magic and there’s no way you could take down all of us without it.”
“Well sir, would you like to find out?”
“Sure. Come at me. Watch my friends come to my aide and finish you.”
“As you wish, sir.”
I gallop towards him and tackled him to ground while stabbing him in the neck at the same time. I feel my horn cut through his esophagus and relish it as I watch him bleed to death.
“Okay. I will kill every single one of you to find out where Dr. Magicbolt is. Anypony speaking?”
The crowd of ponies simply stands around and stares at their now deceased co-worker. A young-looking stallion steps forward and stammers “I d-don’t know exactly where he’s gone but I last saw him heading to the the D wing. You’re in B wing right now so go to the... right. I think.”
Twilight! Have you an idea what you’ve just done?! That pony’s blood is on your hooves now.
Look at myself, lady. Do you think I care anymore? If I survive this, Celestia might frown on it but I’m sure she’d understand my desperation.
I look at the nearest walls. B wing, C wing, aha! There it is. D wing. I simply look at the ponies blocking my entrance and smirk again as they step aside. My vision suddenly starts blurring again and I fall to my front legs. My vision blurs for a moment and when it clears up again I see a silhouetted figure approaching me. I squint as well as I can feeling so poorly and make out some green eyes on the face of the approaching unicorn. He grabs me by the sides and starts dragging me along behind him. I struggle but can’t seem to escape his grasp. “S-sir, why are you doing this?”
He seems to flinch at the surprise of hearing my voice. He stops moving and drops me onto the floor. “You have got to be kidding me. Twice! How can somepony nearly die and recover twice?!” The unicorn turns around and looks into my eyes. “I was just about to take you to another testing chamber. If you want to survive this facility, you’ve got to stop fainting lady.” I assume he’s making a joke and laugh weakly at it. “Excuse me, sir. I’m sorry to have misled your facility twice but if I could get my hooves on whatever medicine the doctor I attacked gave me, I’d be fine, right?”
“Why yes, that medicine that was given to you is my own special blend. It nullifies all pain and increases clarity of mind but as you’ve already found out, its effects are sadly only temporary.”
“Your special blend?! Are you Dr. Magicbolt?”
“Yes. I understand my associate introduced me.”
I let out a small laugh. “Yeah, sorry about that. You do understand though, right?”
“Yes. We become quite desperate when the possibility of death presents itself. Careless too.”
“Yeah... Well, could you give me some more of that medicine? I would love to make my way home.”
“Of course, but I must warn you. It’s still only a prototype. An issue I’ve noticed is the body will sometimes reject it and if that happens, its effects become weaker. Just be prepared for that.”
“I made it out of a massive underground cave without any medicine. I can obviously handle any lesser pain than this. Only way I’d be worried is if it can kill me.”
“Well, I can’t really guarantee that it wouldn’t. That hasn’t happened in any tests, but it is just a prototype.”
“I guess that’s something I’ll have to find out, then. Where do you keep it?”
“Oh don’t worry dear, I won’t make you walk in your state. I’ll get you some myself. Luckily I’ve already bottled a clean batch.”
I watch the kind doctor make his way to wherever he keeps the medicine and begin rolling around to get back on my side and stand up. Resisting the pain as much as I can I start walking to the exit I saw the doctor use. I’m currently in a very dark corner with some shelves on the wall to my left. The hallway walls share the same colours as those in the testing rooms.  Except the trimming is metal and vents instead of green paint. There is a large red six painted on the wall I’m facing and I turn into the room, seeing Dr. Magicbolt not too far ahead. I try to speed up to catch up with him but the pain is too great and I can only limp after him. A few doctors of the many I pass still seem to disbelieve in my survival but the majority of them seem to have accepted it by now. A few even nod at me. A way of congratulating me I suppose. The stallion takes another corner and I lose sight of him. By the time I manage to get to the corner, he’s nowhere to be soon. I look around but there aren’t any other doctors nearby either. The world starts to tilt before me and I feel myself falling into another faint. I manage to stop myself just before falling and stumble forward, crashing into a stretcher against the wall to my right. I decide to sit here and simply wait for the doctor to return. I fall into the strangest feeling I’ve ever experienced. I feel like I’m awake and asleep at the same time. I see somepony coming from my right just as I slump over onto my side. I wake up in the grasp of a strong stallion and find myself looking into the eyes of Dr. Magicbolt again. “You had me worried, girl. Fainting so often in such a poor state can’t be good for you. Anyways, I got you the medicine. I understand if you don’t trust me but I told you to stay where you were. You should have.”
“I know, doctor. I just couldn’t stand staying still for so long.”
“I wasn’t even gone that long.”
“You weren’t? It sure felt like it.”
“Did it? I’m sorry.”
“Oh it’s fine. Just me. Thanks, by the way.”
I grab the medicine from Dr. Magicbolt and stand up, preparing to leave when he rests a hoof on my neck.”
“Wait. I know we just met, and not under the best conditions. But I’d really like to see you again. Could you at least tell me your name?”
I smile to myself and say “You don’t know me? I was told just earlier today that everypony knew me. I’m Twilight Sparkle.”
“Twilight Sparkle. Nice name. I’m Mossy von Magicbolt.”
“Von Magicbolt? That sounds Dutch. Why don’t you have an accent?”
“I’m frankly not sure, Twilight. I guess my parents just liked it.”
I giggle and tell him where the address of the library. “I hope to see you some day, Mossy. Until we meet again.”
“Goodbye, Twilight!”
I open the container with my teeth and pop one in my mouth. They’re small yellowish capsules that taste very bitter but I can feel the pain fading almost right away and pick up my pace. I watch the dull white doors on every wall pass by as I trot. At the end of the hall leading into D wing I stop and look at my reflection in one of the windows. I look worse off than I thought. My mane is dishevelled, my fur ruffled, my tail stringy. I can even see bits of broken bone piercing through my thin skin in a few places. It really is amazing that I survived. I didn’t understand how anypony could mistake me for a corpse earlier but I now do. My greened face pales back to its natural colour as I turn away from the window and look at the intersecting hallways. To my left is A wing, directly across the hall is B wing, and to my right is C wing. I try to remember where I came from when I almost made it out earlier. Left unsure I decide to turn into A wing and hope it’s the right way. I don’t know how long I was out before the first doctor awoke me so I have no idea how long the medicine will last. I nod at everypony who notices me and reply to anypony who speaks to me as I walk through the hall. A wing turns out to be the correct decision because before long I see the bunker-like structure that works as the facility’s only entrance and exit and I notice something I didn’t the first time. There are massive hinges just above me that suggest the entire forest floor opens and closes to hide this facility. No wonder I never noticed it. I work my way around the forklift and other miscellaneous objects that seemed nearly impossible to maneuver around the first time and even the darkened skies of Everfree Forest seem so welcoming after being trapped in this facility for only hours.
As I work my way up the ramp I can already start to feel the change in climate. Inside the facility, it’s hot and stuffy. Outside in the Forest I see a beautiful breeze rustling the leaves and I can see the warm and comforting rays of Celestia’s sun. Nearing the top of the ramp now the breeze feels amazing. I’m tempted to just lie down and bask in the beauty of the surface and almost do so when I remember where I am. This is Everfree Forest! If I even survive my injuries a wild animal could kill me in my sleep. I look around and try to figure out where in the forest I am. As far as I know, maps have never been made for Everfree Forest but I’ve been here enough times to recognize some areas. This area in particular has bigger, more sparse trees and is dotted by beautiful purple flowers whose species I don’t know. I reflect on my various journeys through the forest and realize that I’m pretty far in. One of few things the forest is lacking are paths and so I start aimlessly wandering. The extra clarity of my mind from Dr. Magicbolt’s medicine makes me scare more easily and keeps making me think I hear the human or Timber Wolf. I flinch with every sound I hear and even collapse into the fetal position a few times. Eventually I find a worn, pony-made path in the forest floor. I take in my surroundings again and reflect on memories. I remember my steps almost perfectly. I always use this path when I come to the forest so I know I need to go right. Following my own path now I enjoy the nature around me. It’s scary at night but during the day, Everfree Forest is blissfully quiet. So quiet that I actually find myself thinking I might come here more often. It’s nice hanging out with my friends but they can be annoying when I need to study. And as long as I can assure Spike that I’ll be safe, I could probably come here more often. I finally come to an opening in the forest and look up to see that it’s starting to get dark. I’m not sure if it’s just been longer than I thought or it was later than I thought when I left the facility but I have to hurry for another reason. I can feel the pain snaking back, starting with a dull, lesser one in my hooves. I want to start galloping but I notice a problem. There are multiple paths in the opening. I find this unnerving as I know I only ever use one and I can’t remember which one is mine. I look further down the paths and they seem to perfectly mirror each other as they both snake gracefully down in between two hills ahead. It almost seems like they’ll merge but I decide to stick to the left on a gut feeling. As I gallop down the hills I can feel more of the pain returning and I almost trip on my own legs. The path now curves to the left and and up another hill. I don’t remember these hills and it’s starting to make me nervous.
Miss spirit, are you here with me?
Yes, Twilight. I can feel your unease. I think you should continue this way.
Well, okay. Can you at least give me a name if you aren’t allowed to tell me what you are yet?
Yes. My people know me as Angelicus Monarchi but you may call me Angelicus or Angel for short.
Okay. Thank you, Angelicus.
Listening to the spirit in my head, I continue along the path, watching as the the bits of sky I can see through the leaves darken and stars start to appear. I get lost in the sky for some time and don’t snap back to attention until I hear the howling of a pack of Timber Wolves in the distance. I look back down in front of me and the impact of the pain I was apparently ignoring when entranced in the sky is overwhelming. I fall to my stomach and struggle just to get back up on all legs.
I can still feel your pain, Twilight. Would you like me to take over?
No thanks, Angelicus. I’d rather be in pain than unable to control myself.
I continue limping down the path. It snakes around a seemingly impossible number of small hills and the identicalness of my surroundings is unnerving. All the trees seem to grown in circular and triangular patterns and are all the same height, thickness and everything. All is perfectly symmetric. If I weren’t in so much pain and so sure that the symmetry wasn’t a bad thing, I would have loved this organization. The hills finally stop sloping and smooth out into a prairie-like field full of the same beautiful flowers from before, now also symmetrical. This open field confirms my feelings of unease and doubt. The field stretches out infinitely and all along its edge, the mock Everfree Forest ends in a perfectly straight line. The field too, from what I can see and assume, is perfectly straight. I don’t like what’s happening but at least whatever’s doing it has good tastes. Far,far off to my left and right I can see a symmetric purple mountain range and figure that there would be a good place to head to.
Angelicus. Have you ever seen something like this?
No. Whatever has done this must possess great power to have the ability to do such a thing though.
Agreed. You probably felt or heard or however you experience my thoughts what I think though. Do you agree we should head to the mountains?
Yes. But I can tell you are very tired. Please, let me take control.
Go ahead. Am I able to sleep while you control my body?
Well, it might lessen my power over you but yes, I suppose you could.
Okay, thank you, Angelicus.
Already used to the feeling after experiencing only a few times, I prepare myself for the black-out I’ll experience when the spirit takes control of me. Right on schedule, my world snaps to black. But this time there’s a change.
Angelicus! Why can’t I see?
Sorry, Twilight. I kept control over your vision as well because you said you wanted to sleep.
And I will. I was just worried.
It feels so weird having no control whatsoever over my body. I can’t even feel, hear, see, smell. I can’t sense anything at all. Everything is just darkness. I don’t even know how to fall asleep without controlling my eyes. But then something occurs to me. What if I actually still control all these things, just not my body? I must be in spirit-form. I still control all my senses, they’re only my spirit’s senses.
Wow. You really are quite a smart pony too, aren’t you, Twilight? I had difficulty believing some of the rumours I’ve heard about you but you’re doing an excellent job of proving me wrong. Now that you understand, you need to learn how to see the spirit world. It takes much power and only very powerful beings are capable of such an experience. But as soon as you can see it, you will be able to experience it in all other forms.
I listen to Angelicus and concentrate as hard as I can on my spiritual form. Having learned how to control my spiritual mind, I visualize myself standing in Ponyville Square. Slowly. Ever so slowly, I begin to picture a black and white world resembling my memories of Ponyville Square. I begin to feel to warmth of the sun on my fur and hear the unseen birds chirping away nearby. Soon I am able to hear the rushing water of the fountain and the chattering of faceless figures throughout the scene. Faces begin to appear on the ponies closest to where I’m standing and I start experiencing my feelings. The happiness I feel accentuates when I see my friends approaching. Unable to control my body yet I try to move towards but am unable to. I have another idea, I call out to them; “Hey, girls! I’m over here!”
The happiness explodes when Applejack calls back to me; “Hey, Twilight!” then she turns around, “this way girls. Twilight’s over by the fountain.” Pinkie Pie bounces ahead of everypony else and wraps me up in a hug. The rest catch up and we encircle each other in a group hug. Tears spring to my eyes and I start crying happily. Applejack is the first to notice and shes asks me what’s wrong, instantly grabbing everypony else’s attention. I reply “I’m not upset, girls. You have no idea how happy I am to see you.” They look questioning but I ignore their expressions and we simply talk about how our days have gone. I make up a ridiculous story about having a normal day and everypony starts telling me they have to go. Applejack has to get back to the farm to tend Sweet Apple Acres, Rarity has to get back to the Carousel Boutique because she’ll be opening up for the noon shift soon, Pinkie has to go back to Sugarcube Corner to take care of the baby cakes since her parents will be busy, Rainbow Dash says she has to work up the weather for a nice rain but she’ll probably only take a nap and come back later, and Fluttershy has to get back to her cottage to check on her animals. I’m left on my own with Spike and we both start heading back to the library. Once I realize I’m able to move I open my eyes and am greeted by a black and white world outside the perfect Everfree Forest.
Did you feel that, Angelicus? I did it! But why is everything black and white?
Astonishing, Twilight! You have no idea how much power that takes! I was born this way and I still didn’t learn how to control myself for years! The reason everything is black and white is because the spirit world has no colour. This is also known as limbo.
No colour? Unimaginable!
Not when it never existed, Twilight. Anyways, you should rest. If you’re not tired after discovering such an immense power, I have no idea how.
I actually am extremely tired. I never thought I’d have so much potential. Does sleep still pass quickly in the spirit world?
I have no idea, Twilight. I’ve never slept.
Never?! How is that possible?
It is natural to my species, Twilight. We don’t need sleep. Sometimes rest after taking on great burdens, but never sleep. Our job doesn’t allow it.
Well I can only hope it does then.
Yes. Enjoy your rest, Twilight Sparkle. I hope to reach our destination by the time you wake.
I close my eyes, the unreal black and white world fading to black. In my sleep I dream of the short time spent with my friends reliving a memory. I relive our most memorable moments together. Defeating Nightmare Moon, seeing Princess Luna as the cute young mare she truly was, the moment she spent with Celestia before we left.
Defeating Discord, the massive spherical rainbow that renewed Ponyville, strangely the moment I had lost faith in myself.
Fighting off the Changelings at my brother’s wedding, experiencing the power of love dispel Queen Chrysalis and all the changelings, my adventures through the Crystal mines.
The power of friendship forcing away the wendigos and bringing harmony to early Equestria.
The dreams eventually stop torturing me. I live through the last few moments I remember then see blackness for a few seconds and wake up. The black and white world comes as a surprise to me after reliving my memories in colour but I overcome the shock and start looking around. Everything is still just as it was but I could tell we were closer to the mountains, to achieving our goal. A tremendous roar that I’ve begun to recognize all too well.
Sweet Celestia! I can feel your recognition Twilight. What the hay was that?!
It’s a giant Timber Wolf that’s been following me the whole time. How can you not know that?
I lied. We remain an intangible feeling while we’re dormant until our subjects need us. I am not aware of anything that happened before you woke up on that floor. What did happen?
The same Timber Wolf heading towards us right now attacked me at the Crystal Mines, I was knocked off of some very high-up mine-tracks by its attack. This thing is massive. I suggest you take one of those pills we were given and run to the hills. I’ll watch behind us.
I watch Angelicus look around for the pills and realize that I must have lost them. I had nothing to hold them with.
Okay, Angelicus, how badly is my body hurting?
The pain is intense. Even for me. What should we do?
I don’t know. Is it possible for you to move any faster under such pain?
I think not, Twilight. How did you remove your own pain at the facility earlier? I might be able to do that.
I don’t know how to describe how I did that. I just... sorta did. I used determination. I’ve been taught from very young how to use positive emotions to channel energy. It’s one of the ways my magic is so powerful. I used that technique the channel the pain into energy. Do you think you’d be able to do that?
No. I have no idea how that could even be possible. Do you think you’d be able to withstand the pain if I transferred the control back to you?
Do I really have any other choice?
You are an amazing pony, Twilight. I know of very few others who are able to actually do anything necessary when left without choices. Most just give up or do nothing and try to come up with other solutions, you take action. Prepare yourself.
The world snaps black again and I almost flip legs-over-head to the ground at the sudden ability to control my running legs but catch my balance at the last moment. I look towards the mountains and picture Canterlot. The indescribable feeling that is determination presents itself and I channel the pain into it faster than I ever have before. The pain disappears completely and I start galloping towards the mountains even faster.
I will never understand, Twilight-
‘Nuff said! I can only do this for so long. Do you see the Timber Wolf?
Yes. It’s just coming out of the forest behind you. Its size is unbelievable!
Yeah, yeah, I’m already over the impossible size part. Can you predict the path it will take to get to me?
Do you even need to ask that, Twilight? We’re in a perfectly flat, rectangular field. It will come straight for you!
That’s not what I wanted to hear. There’s no way I’ll make it the mountains in time. This field is so long!
Well, I hate when I have to do this but our outcomes only leave me with one choice. I’m going to have to reveal myself to you. The reason I hate doing so is my species always has to leave all that is burdened on us behind. This means that you will be left with the pain and emotions of thousands. Most can’t survive.
I’m ready to try. This Timber Wolf has been nothing but trouble and I relish seeing it die.
Are you sure? You may be underestimating the pain.
Well not really but you said it yourself and I agree. It’s all we can do.
Final warning, Twilight Sparkle. Are you sure you’re prepared to take unto yourself, the pain of thousands of ponies who have died before you?
Yes. I am sure. Good luck, Angelicus.
I’ve adapted to the quick transitions between transferring control but everything is so much more intense this time. I feel everything return at once instead of you usual slow re-realization and so much more. The pitch black of being unable to see through the incredible pain darkens to red as the pain gets worse and worse. With my jaw gritted tight and every movement sending searing pain through my entire body I struggle to my forelegs and see something magnificent appear before me, I can’t even tell what she is through the blinding light of her magical presence and bright red searing pain. I grunt as I pull up my back legs and the red suddenly flashes to white. I feel so many things right now I don’t even know how to describe them but all of it is overpowered by the pain. I’m amazed I can stand at all and apparently Angelicus is too as her jaw drops when she spots me standing up beside her. I barely manage to tell her “I told you so.” then I turn around and watch as the Timber Wolf rapidly approaches us. The ground shakes with every tremendous bounding step it takes towards us and I notice a new light charging up out of the corner of my eye. Angelicus is casting some sort of spell. My vision clears back to normal as the light intensifies and I feel the pain, the many confusing emotions, everything drain from my body as Angelicus glows ever-brighter. The light being emitted from Angelicus’s body is almost blinding now and I feel a weird sort of twitch in my horn. By the time my pain is completely gone, I can’t even see Angelicus through the light and I watch as she launches the glow towards the Timber Wolf. I hear and feel a ground-shattering explosion as the light collides with the Timber Wolf. The entire sky glows with the same intense light from the spell Angelicus cast and when it fades all that remains of the Timber Wolf is a smoldering mountain of lumber. Angelicus looks to me as she says with satisfaction; “There. That’s the end of that.”
I almost laugh as she says that and simply watch as the Timber Wolf reconstructs itself. I fail to hold it back any longer and burst out with laughter as her jaw drops. “Do you not know about Timber Wolves, Angelicus? Do you know any sort of fire spells?”
“No. My species is limited to life and transferral magic. How can you be laughing at something like this?”
“I’m sorry. I can’t feel anything I did previously. I was left feeling blank when you cast that and knowing better than you just made me feel a horrible smug happiness. Why I’m not terrified of it yet, I don’t know. Can you tell me what you are yet?”
“No. I understand your lack of concern now but we still need to get away from this Timber Wolf first!”
“Well, let us continue to the mountains then. That looked like a powerful spell, are you able to run still?”
She answers my question by galloping off ahead and still feeling unconcerned I gallop along behind her. My lack of feelings suddenly disappears and my feeling of smug satisfaction is shattered, replaced by heart-racing fear. I yell to Angelicus telling her that I’m feeling normal again and incredibly scared. She calls back telling me that this is good and emphasising that I run. She also warns me that since the bones are still broken that the pain will return to me but lets me know she doesn’t know if it will be abrupt or gradual. I find out shortly after running painless that the transition is abrupt and fall face-flat to the ground. My body begins bouncing on the ground as the Timber Wolf’s giant paws approach my position. I start to cower, fearing that it will crush me but I realize to little relief that it’s begun chasing Angelicus. I feel its massive paw crush the ground just beside me and grab onto it. In the lifting motion I feel myself getting flipped up onto its massive paw and I hold on to the base of its leg as it chases Angelicus. I sit as still as I can on the moving limb and try to calculate the momentum at the paw’s maximum height and decide that it will be enough to launch me part-way up its neck. I let go of the leg as the Timber Wolf takes another step and get launched actually a bit higher than expected. I grab onto a loose stick in its neck and start the perilous climb towards its head. Even with my ragged breathing I can feel the air get thinner as I scale its massive neck. Knowing that that would make sense on only one condition I look towards the mountains and see the weirdest thing; they’re two dimensional. Beyond the mountains I see nothing. The world simply ends. Where are we?
I call to Angelicus but know she couldn’t possibly hear me. I look ahead again and continue climbing. Looking down again meaning to check on Angelicus, I realize that I’m so high I can barely make out the ground with my blurred vision. I notice that we’re getting pretty close to the two dimensional mountains though. I can’t believe I didn’t see that right away. I hope for Angelicus’s sake that the mountains are as paper-thin as they appear to be. I climb the rest of the way up the wooden beast’s neck and use its right ear to pull myself up onto it’s head. I think of casting a spell to calm it or something but remember the poison joke earlier. I also remember the twitch I felt after Angelicus cast her spell. The only time I’ve read about that happening is when a unicorn who had lost her ability to use magic for whatever reason was suddenly able to use it again.
Angelicus is more powerful than I thought. Realizing that I had some ability to use magic I stick my horn into the Timber Wolf’s head and begin casting a touch spell that allows me to control minds. I watch the glow of the magic that makes up a Timber Wolf’s life source fade to a white than stop glowing. The lumber begins to tremble but the glow turns pink just before the Timber Wolf collapses into sticks and its body jerks to a stop. I try tapping into the Timber Wolf’s vision but my magic isn’t strong enough. I start trying to make the Timber Wolf walk backwards but I’ve never used magic like this before so I find it very difficult and stumble. Randomly moving around I eventually learn which thoughts control which limbs and find myself able to control the Timber Wolf fairly easily. I make it turn around and start walking back towards Everfree Forest when I have an idea. Angelicus, can you still hear my thoughts?
I hear a very faint voice from the back of my mind reply, so faint I can’t quite make it out but because of the way I hear her voice I know what she’s saying. Yes, but only faintly.
Faint, obviously but am I clear?
Yes.
Okay, listen up Angelicus. I’m going to recite a fire spell. Listen very carefully and you might be able to learn it.
Whenever you are ready, Twilight.
Okay, it goes like this: From deep down inside, a fury it burns, with energy focused great magic you learn.
I feel the spell wash over me as it again teaches me all known fire magic. I can also feel Angelicus react to it below. An immense surprise as she experiences the same thing without prior knowledge. I can feel her eyes burn like fire as the spell finishes and she tells me to stop moving it and get off the Timber Wolf. I prepare to grab onto the dormant beast’s ear and swing my way down to its neck when I remember that I can control it, I make the Timber Wolf lower its head to the ground and remove my horn before jumping off. The second my hooves hit the ground, it wakes up and moves back into place, towering above us in a movement so quick that all I could see was a blur. I watch its giant legs as it instantly starts running again and freeze in terror. I watch the Timber Wolf as it lifts a single paw and moves it to the left in a wide arc. I feel my legs locking up through a new fear of death but see that it seems to be aiming for Angelicus. Rendered unable to move I see the paw go flying over my head and jump into its path at the last second. I thought that this pain couldn’t get any worse but I’ve just been proving wrong. My vision blacks out as the impact shoots through my body. Barely even aware of the change I weakly smile when I feel that my impact is sending the path of the giant paw off. I just manage to partially open my eyes and I see Angelicus as it soars over her head as well then I crash into a tree and everything goes dark once again. I wake up to a state of minimal consciousness and instantly feel the change of energy. It seems impossibly quiet except for an indescribable but somehow familiar sound. I open my eyes and find that my vision is blurred once again and tinted red. As I wake up more I become aware of an uncomfortable sticky liquid that I seem to be surrounded by and start trying to turn my head, my vision wavers and I’m surprised to find that the movement brings no pain. My head comes to a rest and it becomes clear what the familiar sound is, I find myself looking at a massive bonfire. The remains of the timber wolf. I try to stand but I have little strength from nearly dying yet again and find myself unable to. I also find that I’m not even able to roll onto my back and become aware of another new sensation. It’s a tight, crushing feeling that seems to be pushing on my sides from a blind spot. I start turning my head but feel another force keeping that in place too. An echo-y  voice comes from the blind spot as well and it sounds familiar but I can’t figure out why. I really don’t remember anything except waking up in a strange place just a few moments ago. The voice says to me: “Remain calm, Twilight. I can feel your fear and it is only I, Angelicus holding you in place. You have been under the influence of many serious injuries for a long time now and it is amazing that you are alive. I am holding you this way to cast a spell that will take the pain away, so just stay still, okay? It requires a great level of concentration from both of us and it still will not be able to heal your injuries, but it will allow you to get up and move.”
I try to speak but only manage a wet, disgusting-sounding gurgling sound. Suddenly I feel another change in energy and I can see the ground reflecting a bright light in front of me. The first thing to fade is my vision, next is the ability to feel all that is around me, third to go is my hearing. The last thing I can describe the absence of is consciousness itself. I wake up to a blissful lack of pain and the wondrous ability to recall my memories. I look to my right to see Angelicus in a crumpled heap on the ground. Until now I wasn’t able to really look at her since everything seemed to be happening so quickly but looking down on her she really is an elegant creature. She reminds me of an Alicorn with the size of her magnificent wings but she lacks a horn and I find myself puzzling over how she can use magic without one. I decide to approach her more closely to both check if she’s alright and try to find some device for channeling magic.
Angelicus, I don’t share the same ability to feel exactly as you do. Are you awake?
My physical form is not, it was exhausted by that combination healing-memory spell I cast on you but my spiritual form still is.
Will your physical from recover?
Yes. But my species has a kind of two spirits. My physical spirit needs to rest to be able to recover. The spirit I am communicating with you through is called my divine spirit.
Divine? So you’re like, a Goddess?
Yes. This is another reason we are usually told not to tell our subjects our species. I am sure you are aware that some ponies do not take well to divinity. We can never be too careful but we are still assigned to every kind of creature in Equestria.
Wow. That’s amazing. But let us get back down to business. What can I do with your physical from unconscious? I don’t want to leave your body behind.
Do not worry, Twilight. If you allow me to bind myself to your spirit again I will be able to expel myself into my physical form again, it will not matter where my body is.
Will the binding hurt?
I do not know. We always exist within our subjects before birth. I have never needed to re-bind myself. There have been times when I was never even needed.
Well, once again, I guess I’ll just have to find out.
You are a resolute pony indeed, Twilight. Brace for the worst.
I can only describe what I feel as an immense pressure coming from within my head that seems to be pushing the on the outside. The pressure feels skull-crushing but instead I just faint. When I wake up I find that Angelicus is controlling my body again.
Okay, Angelicus. Is this necessary? You should know by now that I really don’t like not being able to control myself.
No. It automatically happened when I rejoined your conscious. Judging by past experiences, I don’t think many ponies besides you would be able to endure this, Twilight. You never fail to amaze me.
Thank you, Angelicus.
Now, before I resume your control. I felt that my re-entering your body was quite overwhelming. Are you sure you’re ready for another change?
Yes. I think I’m getting used to it with how often we’ve had to.
My world doesn’t even black-out this time as I feel control returning to my body. I take one last look at Angelicus’s body before I shift my gaze back up towards the mountains. I look along the flat edges on the top of the 2D mountains and see that there is no way I could use the mountains themselves.

 

As you can tell, it's still very incomplete but I need some feedback.

Edited March 10, 2013 by ZomBrony