//------------------------------// // 1: Denial // Story: The Twilight Lands // by tryingmybest1111 //------------------------------// Fluttershy squinted in the evening light. Well, it would be both a lie and the truth to call it the evening. The sun hung at an awkward position in the horizon, plunging the world into an eternal state of twilight. Forever was the sky stained purple and red with the beginnings of a night that refused to set upon the earth, enrapturing even the heavens above with the same melancholy that had swallowed up the rest of the world. The only trees which still lived in the forest were evergreens and pine trees, the others long turned into twisted fingers of rotted wood. Precious few animals scampered about, most of their kind rendered dead by the sun’s impaired movement. The only thing not utterly alien about the landscape which Fluttershy walked through were the clouds above. Even through the half-end of the world, they still hung there as constant as ever, puffy reminders of a saner era. She drew the cloak around her tighter as if to hide from something. Both paranoia and coldness were her reasons for wrapping the garment about her; what few rays of sunlight managed to reach through the sky and touch her brought no warmth, but only a pathetic memory of the heat of summertime. And there was reason enough to hide her face, one never knew what abominations lurked just beyond the trail’s path, to drag her into the woods and devour her. Her hair bobbed as she walked, streaks of grey showing through the pink. There was much stress to be found in this new world and like every other pony, the struggle to survive had hit her hard. Regret struck her heart suddenly as she remembered the things she had to do for survival. Instinctually, she reached a hoof up to caress the crossbow at her side. It was a hard thing, hewn from wood and interlaced with metal machinery. Beside it on her side was a quiver of bolts, waiting to be fired. She mostly used the device for hunting, yet there was much cause for self defense in these lands which were once so homely to her. The Everfree forest. The name shot through her mind as an ember of a memory, a memory of a better world that she wished to return to. A world ruled by Celestia and filled with her friends, a world where things weren’t so scary and the days weren’t so dark and filled with mystery. Even if she was a timid thing in that place as well, she at least knew the way the old world had worked. This world was a far...stranger place. And here, night never fell, nor did day ever come. She put her thoughts aside and focused on the path ahead. Through the gaps in the trees which lined the winding stone path reaching into the depths of the forest, she could see vast expanses of foliage through which no indication of civilization made itself known. A strange, stunted animal scampered in front of her and she overlooked it with a passing curiosity. The creature bore two heads and six eyes, its body faintly resembling that of a squirrel. No skin hung from its bones and a hazy aura of animating energy surrounded the skeletal animal. Creatures such as this had become the bane of her existence, foul, hungry things that raided her stores of food while she slept and pestered her on her travels. Its teeth gnashed together suddenly and she reached for her crossbow, but before she could load a bolt the creature dashed off into the woods. A sigh of relief that she wouldn’t have to kill escaped her lips and she continued on her travels. ********** She looked to the twilight skies and remembered every detail of the purple alicorn; the color of her mane, the warmth of her smile, her gentleness and yet her sternness that shone underneath. She remembered everything Twilight had ever been to her, every word the alicorn had ever spoken to her. And as she remembered, a fire blossomed in her heart and her motivation grew tenfold. She looked to the object in her saddlebags; a glowing blue crystal that brimmed with magical energies. It was the stone of resurrection, a sacred artifact that would revive any pony that the bearer wished to be revived, when it was placed into its receptacle within the depths of a forgotten castle. She took it out and overlooked it with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes. With this device, this crystal, she could bring her friend back to life and make many more memories with her. Fluttershy almost began to sob from happiness at the opportunity which the artifact granted her and put it back into her saddlebags. With that, she drew a worn journal from her bags. Flipping through the pages, she surveyed a series of crinkled maps and torn pieces of parchment, ensuring that she was headed along the right path to her destination. Her eyes flickered over the words of an old fairy tale in the middle of the book and she read through the tales of the friendly stone giant that would come to ponies in their hour of need. Smiling, she closed the journal. The wind pushed her mane around and she took in a breath as she looked around her. The orange light of dusk showed through the branches of the trees and dead leaves blew about, some becoming tangled within her mane. Long grasses blew in the fields below the hill she sat on, tangled weeds growing throughout their midsts. The clouds above were thin and wispy like strands of hair that stirred around in the surrealistic heavens above. Fluttershy could not decide what it was about the scenery around her that gave her so much hope that her friend could be revived. Perhaps it was the way the wind blew, as if to represent the force of change that she wished to enact. Perhaps it was the way the leaves fell to the ground, completing their own cycle of life, just as she was to change that cycle. Perhaps it was the way the sun refused to set, to represent how Twilight’s fate was frozen on the brink of death, with only Fluttershy to bring her back. She reached out to these things and many more in her surroundings as she tried to grasp the feelings twisting deep within her heart. When the scenery faded away and all that was left was the insides of her soul, within the recesses of her mind, she felt nothing but hope and a strong force of denial screaming that her friend was not truly dead, that she could never die as long as Fluttershy herself was there to care about her. Standing up in the light of the dusk, she proceeded down a stone path that led to the bottom of the hill and continued her journey into the pits of the evening that would not cease. ********** Long after she had reclined on the hilltop, Fluttershy stood before a massive stone tower. Its bricks had long been cracked and faded into the same palette of grey, the banners which hung from them weathered and torn by the wind. Leafy vines snaked their way through the hallways of the tower, occasionally bursting from the side in a display of green that broke the monotony of the tower’s greyness. A tree sprouted from the top of the tower as a vegetative crown of sorts, its branches swaying in a gentle, evening breeze. Surrounding the tower was a graveyard and a chill worked its way down Fluttershy’s spine as she beheld it. Long, worn stones bearing the names of dead ponies sprouted from the ground. On many of them were emblazoned faces as silent and as still as the graves they were carved on. None of the eyes in the faces bore pupils and Fluttershy shook her head, trying to vanquish the eerie feeling that the eyes were staring into her. The tower was the same tower her mother had spoken of when she was a filly. It was a house where a friend to all ponies lived; a last resort for desperate ponies when there was nobody else to help them out with something extremely important. As she regarded the tower, it felt less like a house and more like a fortress, she thought. Regardless, here it was in the exact location that her books had said it would be. Fluttershy looked to the entrance before stepping into the quiet, beckoning structure. The underbrush of the forest ended abruptly at the entrance of the castle, giving way to the smooth stone of the entrance. The entrance itself consisted of a portal of stone bricks, beyond which was a hallway that faded off into blackness, the truth of its depths unknowable to Fluttershy.  From an upper window hung a faded flag bearing an icon that she suddenly recognized as Twilight’s cutie mark. Blinking, she realized that the flag was just a random mish-mash of colors. She shivered again as she noticed a large skull mounted over the entrance, its jaw opened to reveal lines of rotted teeth. In distant days, she would have turned around and fled in the face of such a grim reminder of death. Now however, it was an icon of fear to be tolerated as she proceeded forwards on her grim journey. Remembering the crystal in her saddlebag and the direness of her journey, she drew a lantern from her side and lit it, then proceeded into the recesses of the tower. ********** Long fingers of lantern-light crept along the darkened walls of the tower to illuminate her surroundings. There were no paintings or other items of decorations along the inner sides of the tower, but merely the same sea of grey bricks that adorned its exterior. An occasional spurt of green lichen showed through the edges of the bricks to provide a little bit of color, but beyond that all was grey and silent and dead inside the tower. A dank wind blew from somewhere deep within the structure, deeper than she had walked so far. She shivered and her mane stood on end. Drawing the crossbow from her side, she clung closely to the device, as if it alone could save her from all the unknowable dangers of the world. With the weapon pointed forwards, she proceeded into the depths, hoping that her memory was as clear as it needed to be. Finally she came to a stone stairwell that led to the lowest point of the tower. Along its sides were hung skulls and other bones that formed a chain of macabre decorations. Many of them bore long, crooked unicorn horns. The eye sockets of the skulls affixed her with an eternal, restless gaze that she could not escape from and she trembled in fear before them for a moment before forcing herself to march down the stairs. The stairs gave her a fearful march under the gaze of rows of dead ponies, but she conquered even that on her quest. She looked about as she stepped from the last step. The stairs had led to a large, mostly empty chamber. Several rays of golden dusk-light peered through a barred window, coming to rest on a stone golem. The figure had two legs and two arms and had once stood upright. Its face was a squarish thing set with two blue gems for eyes. On its torso were carved squiggly symbols long forgotten to time. She approached the stone statue and jumped as its head swiveled to face her. Then it spoke to her in a voice as ancient and gravely as the stones of its composition. “Why have you come?” “I...I…” she struggled to speak through her fear. Gathering her wits, she pushed out a sentence. “I need your help to get to Canterlot.” “My help?” The stone golem clambered to its feet and scratched itself for a moment with a massive stone hand. “For what?” “Well, it’s not so easy to get to Canterlot these days,” said Fluttershy. “After all, it’s guarded by a skeleton army.” “What do you seek in...Canterlot?” asked the golem. “I need to save my friend. And Canterlot is the only place where I can use, well use this.” said Fluttershy, drawing the crystal from her bag to show the golem. It suddenly snatched it from her hand and curiously surveyed it for a moment. After several seconds, it gave her the crystal back. “A gem of resurrection. How dire are things in this age, for you to need such a tool? And why do you seek me instead of your pony friends?” asked the golem. “Every since I was a filly, I heard stories about you.” rapidly explained Fluttershy. “Stories about how you rested in this very tower, to help out ponies in their time of need.” “Where are your friends to help you?” asked the golem. Fluttershy lowered her head and a few tears fell from her eyes. “They’re...gone.” The golem looked towards the mare beneath it and nodded solemnly. “Then I will help you fight the skeletons to save your friend.” Fluttershy uttered a quick thanks. “By the way, what’s your name, if you have one?” The golem stretched its arms out above its head and yawned. “I am Glory, the golem helper of the little ponies.”