We rested for a few minutes, the howling outside began to lessen which we took as a good sign, or at least a sign that the mare had moved away from us. I was getting restless, I knew I wasn’t supposed to be here, Celestia was somewhere down there, I could feel the rhythmic pulse of powerful and ancient magic coming from deep beneath us, far deeper than the basement of Sugarcube Corner could possibly go. I reminded myself that the laws of physics and metaphysics that I had learned weren’t all necessarily intact in this place though, I didn’t want to go downstairs, I didn’t want to be any closer to the thing that the princess was keeping caged in the basement than I had to. Fear was becoming a natural part of me though, after the harrowing I endured in the castle I was beginning to learn to control it, to use it. I was determined that it would never overcome me again, I wasn’t going to let that happen, I was going to protect my friends.

“Mac, we should go, Sweetie Belle and Spike are waiting for us,” I said, breaking the silence that had sunken into the air since we had arrived, Big Macintosh just nodded in agreement. “I think… we should go out this way,” I gestured with a hoof to the window that hung over Pinkie’s headboard.

“Uh, Miz Twa’light, why exactly would yew want tah go out tha’ way?” He asked, I looked down in response as I tried to decide whether or not to tell him about what was beneath us. I decided that if I could trust anypony, it would be Macintosh.

“Beneath the floor of this building is where everything started, the curse, the deaths, everything, and right now Princess Celestia is down there containing whatever it is that woke when she sequestered Ponyville from the rest of Equestria.”

“Ah, an’ I reckon she toldja tah stray off from this place if’n yew could manage it am I righ’?” Big Macintosh ventured.

“Yea, something like that… I just don’t thi-” my words were cut off by a sound like a thunderbolt, like a building being cloven in two, it took a moment for me to orient and realize it had come from…

“THE LIBRARY!” I shouted, standing up far too quickly, my ribs screamed in protest as pain shot through my body, I flinched and nearly lost my footing before shaking it off, “Mac. The window. NOW!” I commanded, to my surprise he didn’t even nod, he just lifted to his hooves, turned about, and kicked. The window exploded in a hail of glass and splintered wood from the frame, I looked down, there was an awning, I knew it would hold my weight but Big Macintosh was an entirely different matter. I looked back at Mac and opened my mouth but he just shook his head.

“I’m going down Mac,” I wasn’t going to wait, not if Spike and Sweetie Belle were in danger, ribs or not I was going down. The rest had done me a world of good, I could feel the whispers of magic flowing back into me, with a small effort I translocated from the bedroom down to the ground floor. I started to move in the direction of the Library when everything shimmered. I’d never seen a heat mirage before, Ponyville is in a pretty temperate area, but I’d read about them, it was how I’d imagined them to be, everything at a distance was distorted, I could taste a coppery tang in the air.

No, not now, not here.

I whipped around and shouted up to Mac, even then I could see the changes start to warp the town around me, “MAC! GET TO THE LIBRARY! HELP SWEETIE BELLE AND SPIKE! I’LL-” I cut off, I caught a glimpse of Mac’s surprised face before the whole world flickered around me and he vanished. He couldn’t hear me anymore, there was no point in yelling, it would probably just attract the attention of one of those… things. I stepped backwards, my hooves no longer as cold as they had been a moment before, in fact, it wasn’t all that cold at all… it was kind of warm. I looked around, snow was still falling, the ground was still…

No…

That wasn’t snow, I lifted a blackened soot-stained hoof and grimaced, it was ash. Ash was falling from the skies, I pulled the scarf up over my mouth, I knew the dangers of breathing in ash, the scarf wasn’t much but it was better than nothing. I moved towards the direction of the Library, it wasn’t far from the Corner and even though it wouldn’t be the same here, maybe when I… came back… I could do it there…

Twilight

I felt my blood run cold; that voice cut me to the bone, for as long as I live I will hear that voice in my nightmares.

Twilight… Come… Come back…

The voice was coming from inside my own head and yet… still I could hear it issuing from the building behind me, whispering up from a great depth. It spoke with the voices of many ponies, the cold clear tones of Nightmare Moon, the arrogant sneer of that phantom rainbow dash, and many more…

Twilight…

“NO!” I shouted, denying the voice, turned to face the building but back-pedaling away from it.

TWILIGHT. YOU WILL RETURN.

Suddenly the air heated up and burned, I started hacking, tasting smoke and blood, it felt like the entire town was ablaze. I could feel it scratching at the walls of my mind, laughing and screaming ceaselessly, as I muttered, “No no no no no no no no no no…” I huddled into a ball, heedless of danger and spoke the word over and over again as I shook.

“You are responsible for EVERYTHING…” the hateful yet regal voice of Nightmare Moon cut through my thoughts, I looked up and saw her standing over me, she was almost… insubstantial.

“Yea, and we mean everything,” from my other side the voice of Rainbow Dash, tainted with malice and contempt, I looked over, I couldn’t help it, she was just as I remembered in my dreams; covered in old scars, cuts, stitches, and medical staples, seemingly barely held together. More shadows started to approach, indistinct and blurred, but they were ponies; Earth Ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns…

“You failed Twilight Sparkle, and this is what you have wrought,” Nightmare Moon said, stepping closer and leaning down to whisper into my ears. “Every victory you thought you won, every disaster you thought you averted, it was all tainted by failure.”

“And you know the best part?” Phantom Dash said, barely contained laughter choking her voice, “She doesn’t even realize it yet!” she said it like it was a punch line to some horrible joke.

“HAAAHAHAAHAHAHAAA…” their voices rang in my ears, the laughter was sickening and horrible, I felt a burning in my horn, I could wipe them out, banish them, go help Celestia. I could do it… I knew I…

“Teeheheheehheheehee!”

The sudden and completely incongruous noise jarred me out of my darkening thoughts. Laughter, real laughter, tinged with insanity maybe, but… I looked up, they were gone, all of them, I was alone, the echo of the malice in their voices slowly fading. I shook my head clear of the specters that had filled it moments before, I couldn’t lose it now, not here, I had to get to the Library. I took one last glance at Sugarcube Corner before leaving. “I’m sorry, princess… keep fighting, all of us are depending on you,” I whispered as I turned away from Sugarcube corner and took off at the closest thing to a gallop that my aching ribs would allow.

+=+

I made good time, all things considered; the Library wasn’t too far from Sugarcube Corner anyway. I braced myself, even though it had only been my home for a year I had made more memories in it than in any of the archives in Canterlot, I certainly wasn’t looking forward to the state I would find it in. As it turned out my fears were well-founded, I turned the corner to face the Library and choked back a gasp, I felt an ache in my heart as I approached the ruin gingerly wary of any more phantoms. The massive tree looked as though it had been split by a massive lightning bolt, the eastern wall torn open, the rotted wall of the tree hanging loose. I began to wonder if my first impression wasn’t far from the mark as I surveyed the damage, whole sections of the tree were blackened as though by fire. The door was hanging partially off of its hinges I avoided touching it, still wary of the creaking noise it might produce, and entered the Library. I couldn’t help a few hot tears welling up as I looked around my old home, I knew it wasn’t real but seeing it, feeling it, smelling the old scents… It was difficult to see a place I loved so much reduced to a wreck. The bookshelves were shambles and the books they once held were moldering on the floor, ruined through exposure. I swallowed softly and stepped inside fully, a glint of color caught my eye and I turned, the wall was smeared in something like paint, I didn’t think too hard on it. I backed up to get a wider view of it, my eyes widened when I realized it was a message.

I HEARD THE WHISPERS. SHE MADE ME LOOK DOWN.

I shivered slightly, the message unnerved me in a way I couldn’t quite put my hoof on. I still wondered what it meant though, I looked over the floor but all I saw was the mess of old ruined books and shattered shelves. I shook my head before a thought came to mind, “The basement…” I whispered to myself, I looked to where the door to the basement had been.

“Horsefeathers,” I cursed under my breath, the basement door was collapses along with most of the section it was built into, my telekinesis spell wasn’t going to be enough to clear it, the attempt might even bring more of the building down. I dropped to the floor, exhausted mentally and physically, I was tired of all of the terror and the evil, I didn’t deserve what was happening, nopony did. I sat there quietly for a few moments, clearing my head before taking a deep breath… and started hacking and cough, the stink I had just accidentally assaulted my nostrils with overcoming all other unpleasantries I had encountered. It smelled like…

“Chemicals… smelled like lab chemicals, from MY lab,” I realized with a start, “but… where?” I started looking around the floor, checking the piles of debris; the stink was hanging low to the ground meaning it had to be wafting up through a hole of some sort. I used my magic to clear mound after mound of dirt, ash, and trash til I finally found it; beneath a number of fallen bookshelves was a hole in the floor.

“Ugh…” I covered my nose with a hoof, the stink rising out of the hole was legendary, I also reminded myself that the fumes might also be hazardous, I kept a few chemicals in there nopony would want to be caught breathing in heavily. I concentrated on a simple spell and a bubble of clean air surrounded my nose and mouth. I lit my horn and held it down to illuminate the darkness, most of the lab was in disarray like the rest of the Library though it was notably less so. The tables were still upright, the various paraphernalia were mostly intact, it was more a general chaos of a well-used lab that I had long ago become accustomed to. I dropped into the basement, cushioning my fall with a wave of magic, I didn’t dare light the torches on the walls, I knew for a fact a few of the fumes I’d smelled earlier were flammable in high quantities. I contented myself with pouring more magic into the light spell and illuminating the room, something I immediately wished I hadn’t done.

“No… nonononono…” I whispered as I spied what I thought had been a pile of trash in the corner, “No… please no…” I muttered over again as I approach the mess, it was a leathery mass of pallid scales, even after all the exposure from the fumes they still kept a semblance of their color, purple and green scales covered a much larger form than the baby dragon who was my lab assistant. “Oh Spike…” was all I could say as I let tears fall uninhibited. He was older, larger, and even now I could see how strong he had once been before whatever had happened to him in this horrible place. His scales were torn and ragged, rents and holes were open on his body as if he had been ravaged by something. He was curled in the corner, shielding himself with his wings which looked as if they’d been chewed through.

I staggered back from the corpse-thing and emptied my stomach on the floor, even if this place wasn’t real… seeing Spike like that was too much, it was too cruel. I turned away from it and looked around the lab, it was mostly how I’d left it, in a sort of orderly chaos. A section of one of the tables looked like it had been hastily cleared away though, I trotted over to it and saw why; someone had carved something into the wood delicately in a way that could only have been done by magic.

I woke to find myself here. I don’t know where I am. I fell asleep in my living room, and now I’m this place. I can’t stop hearing her. She’s whispering and whispering in my ears until it’s all I can hear. Sometimes she’s quiet, but it’s almost worse, I can feel her nearby. Even now I can feel her nearby. She whispers: I’m coming back, I’m coming back, and horrible things are coming too. I’ve seen her a few times, just out of the corner of my eye, that’s where she is right now, watching me. Smiling, she’s always smiling. She brought me here, I know it. She’s whispering again, she says, ‘don’t cry Rarity, I love you too’. Oh Celestia. Help me. Remember. The corner of your eye.

I suppressed a grim shiver at the message left carved into the hard wood of the table, Rarity was here too, why though? I couldn’t help thinking that there must be a reason. Rarity may not be the most powerful unicorn, but she’s clever. On a whim I closed my eyes and let them settle into soft focus before opening them, staring straight ahead I let my awareness drift to the right, into my periphery…

A flash of pink.

I whipped around, my horn blazing to intercept a razor-edged blade.