Twilight fled through the dark of the forest with pursuers snarling in her wake. They were wolves—but they also weren't. They had been taken and changed. Their skin had turned to charcoal and large patches of fur had fallen out their coats. Along with their bodies had gone their minds. An insatiable bloodlust now filled their eyes.

They had become darkened.

Too many foes chased her for her to keep track their number. What’s more, her lungs grew raw. Her legs felt made of iron. As sweat stung her eyes, the whispers hissed in her ear, a building pressure in her skull.

Hate. Fight. Kill.

Lessons had taught her about the magic intoxicating the outside air, but nothing had quite prepared her for its pull. With time she had learned to dull its edge so as not to be cut, but she could never be rid of them completely. As she ran for her life, the first voice urged her to face her foe. Face them and kill and kill until she fell killing. The second voice was a low weeping moan, telling her of the futility of her struggles and that she should simply lay down and die.

But to the fear it brought forth, the third voice, she listened. Fear quickened her blood and spurred her legs. Fear might yet keep her alive.

Her ears swiveled to a sound at her side.

A pair of darkened wolves had gained on her left flank. To her right, the forest gave way to a field filled with shoulder-high grass. Inside it her stalkers would be hidden, and so they likely meant to force her to run there.

She was pinched. In a moment they would be on top of her. With little choice, she veered into the clearing. Grass whipped her shoulders, and behind her she could hear the rustle of the wolves entering the grass. The only way to track them now was by that sound and by the movements of the grass.

At the far side of the field, cliffs bordering either side, was a ruin. Its moss-covered stone buildings were lit brightly by the naked moon. Twilight's eyes widened. In there she might find a place to lock herself in so she could buy some time to come up with a plan.

Movement came from the corner of her eye. She looked to see the grass stir to her right, only to hear a rustle behind her and see the same on her left. A pair of wolves moved into position to take her down.

She summoned her magic. A white-hot light emanated from her horn and illuminated the field around her.

One of the wolves leaped and opened its maw, exposing rows of razor-sharp teeth. Anticipating its motion, Twilight turned to it and let forth an explosion from her horntip. A great combustion struck the wolf in the forefront of its chest, and it released a howl of pain and fell to the ground as Twilight jumped clear over top of it.

Her hooves met the ground running, her eyes darting to the second wolf. Reacting quickly to seeing the other fall, it snarled at her and lunged. She reacted just as quick, and with another burst of air and fire from her horn, the wolf was blown back and left to burn among the grass.

A smirk nearly crept up Twilight's lips, but a biting ache in her horn turned it to a grimace. She couldn’t cast many more spells like that, not while her legs sapped what energy she had left. She glanced behind her. There had to be at least a dozen wolves still after her.

As Twilight got closer to the ruins, she saw they were built over a gorge, which meant there was likely a bridge to the other side. With any luck, there wouldn’t be any more darkened over there.

The grass shortened and gave way to the cold stone of the stairs. Crumbling walls passed her on either side as she galloped up onto a cracked street. The ruins were empty—save the wolves behind her. She turned left, then right, then left again, weaving through the ruins in rapid search of safe haven, but at every sharp turn the darkened wolves’ snapping jaws drew closer to her heels.

As she rounded another building, she spotted what she’d been looking for: a narrow stone bridge without rails, leading across the gorge. It was barely two ponies wide and with a thin and crumbling base. With an end goal in sight, she forced herself to pick up the pace.

Teeth snapped shut near her rear leg, falling just short of it. The bridge wasn’t far. She spurred herself to go faster, ignoring the pain in her muscles.

Turning onto the bridge, she stumbled, her momentum nearly carrying her over the edge. The misstep froze her on the spot for a split second as she stared at the black chasm below. Air burned her lungs. She couldn't breathe, but she had to keep going. Her heart pumped fast enough to burst as she started, her running sluggish, but she had to make it. It was by an effort of will that she made her body cross the final stretch, sprinting as fast as her legs could carry her. The other side came within reach. Only two steps more.

A snarl came from behind her. She glanced back just in time to see the darkened wolf at the front of the pack leap at her. She drew magic to her horn. Its teeth had nearly closed over her face when she managed to release her spell.

The resulting flash of light blinded all those in the ruins who looked upon it. A thunderous boom and fire’s sucking hiss followed. Twilight’s body grew weightless from the floor crumbling beneath her. As gravity began to take hold, she watched the wolves that had been on the bridge thrash and twist in the air, nothing beneath them save for the depths of the gorge.

The sight was cut short as Twilight’s vision filled with grey. She had barely begun to fall before her hooves met stone. Her legs buckled immediately in surprise, leaving her chest to absorb most of the impact. What little air her lungs had was forced from them. The motion had all come to an end. She was left lying on a floor, her cheek pressed against the stone while she gasped for air.

Her chest rose and fell with her struggle. Body bruised, immovable, and in shock, she watched the hole she had fallen through, waiting for a darkened wolf to leap down and finish her off. A moment passed. Then another. Nothing came. There was only her: desperately gulping the dusty air of where she had fallen.

In the aftermath, everything was still.

With a groan of pain, Twilight opened her eyes and slowly climbed to her hooves. Her chest and legs were bruised, and the hairs on her cheeks were still singed from the spell she had just cast, but otherwise she was intact. She lifted her head and glanced around to see four cold stone walls surrounding her, the furthest of which had an iron-barred cell door.

The silence following her spell’s fallout was broken as a distant growling reached her ears. She stood with a stumble, wincing as her legs shook sorely under her weight. Managing to limp over to a wall with a window, she stood on her rear hooves and planted her forehooves against the wall just beneath the sill.

Looking past the window’s iron bars, she saw nearly a dozen of the darkened wolves stuck across the gorge. They paced restlessly, growling and snapping as they watched her, but it was all they would be able to do with the bridge gone.

Twilight limped over to the cell door and pushed it. It stayed firmly shut, whatever locking mechanism it had rattling inside its place in the wall.

With a sigh Twilight let herself collapse in front of the door and curled into a ball. Moonlight poured in through the hole in the ceiling she'd fallen through. It wasn't perfect, but hopefully it would be safe for the time being.

She closed her eyes, her exhaustion finally catching up with her, and sleep took her at once.

"Hey, psst!"

Twilight’s eyes snapped open and she looked up. A light blue pony was looking at her through the hole in the roof, her messy rainbow mane dangling around the sides of her face.

"You're not crazy, are you?" the pony asked with a tilt of her head.

Twilight stared at her blankly for a moment before realizing what was asked. She shook her head. "No."

The pegasus pony smiled. "Oh, good!" she said, then disappeared. There came what sounded like someone rummaging through bags, then the pony returned with a set of rusty keys between her teeth. "I got these off of one of the guards," she said, after dropping them into the cell. "Go on, see if one of them works."

Twilight rose hesitantly, her legs still aching. Slowly, without taking her eyes off the light blue pony, she walked to the keyring, picked it up, and approached the cell door. After a few moments and a couple attempts, one of the keys made the lock click. With a nudge, the door swung open, emitting a biting screech of rusted metal which echoed down the dark hallway beyond.

"Great! I'll meet you around the other side!" the other pony said, leaving.

Twilight stared at the hole until she could no longer hear the pony's hoofsteps. With the door now open, she entered the hallway, her glowing horn lighting the way forward. She walked cautiously, each step as gentle and silent as she could make it, her eyes fixed on the turn at the end of the hall.

As she drew closer to the corner, her ears perked to the sound of approaching steps. She killed her light and dropped to a crouch, inching her way up to the corner. The approaching steps were loud and showed no sign of stealth or caution. She took a deep breath. Her heartbeat stilled as the steps drew near.

Twilight leaped around the corner and knocked the figure to the ground, pinning them. Beneath her hooves was the pony from earlier, her eyes wide.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" the pony cried, holding a hoof out towards her. "Hey, it's me! I helped you, remember?"

Twilight snorted, putting more weight on the other pony’s chest. "What do you want from me?"

"Me? Nothing! I just saw the wolves chasing you earlier and thought I'd help you out!"

"I don’t need your help, and I didn’t back there. I was perfectly capable of getting out on my own." Twilight’s eyes narrowed once she noticed the other pony’s blue wings folded over the straps of her saddlebags.

"Yeah, yeah, you unicorns and your magic and everything," the pegasus said. "Why didn't you just teleport through the cell door, then?"

"Nopony has had access to that kind of magic for a thousand years."

The pegasus sat on her haunches, crossing her hooves in front of her chest. "Oh yeah? Then how were you going to get out?"

Twilight's horn glowed white-hot. She whipped around and shot a fireball down the hallway at the cell door. When the explosion cleared, the door and the stone around it were no more. There was only a gaping hole, black and slick with molten stone.

The other pony stared down the hallway at it, blinking. "Oh."

Turning back to the pegasus, Twilight glared and leveled her horn at her, its tip glowing.

"Hey, watch where you’re pointing that thing!"

"I don't need the help of somepony who hid until the danger was gone, and I most certainly don't need the help of a pegasus."

The pegasus stepped back, her focus back on the tip of Twilight's sword. "Whoa, what have you got against pegasi?"

"You abandoned us all when the night came, and ever since then you’ve been safe up there in the clouds while the rest of us have to run and hide in the dark," Twilight snapped. "Or do they not teach you that part of history anymore?"

"I didn't. I mean, not me, specifically. I'm down here right now, aren't I?" the pegasus said. "Besides…" She stretched one of her wings out, doing so slowly as not to antagonize her. "Look, I'm stuck down here now, just the same as you."

Twilight gave the pegasus a sidelong stare before turning to the wing she held out. A good deal of its feathers were missing, cut from it in a diagonal slash. "Blade wound?" Twilight asked.

The pegasus shook her head. "Animal."

Twilight took her hooves off the pegasus’s chest, backing away. "Sorry," she mumbled under her breath.

The pegasus’s ear flicked as she got back to her hooves. "Huh? I didn't quite catch that."

"It was nothing," Twilight said curtly. "Why are you alone out here?"

"I got split up from my squad. We were being chased by a darkened manticore." The pegasus rubbed her shoulder while staring at the ground. "Soarin distracted it so that me and Spitfire could get away, but now I don’t know if either of them..." She shook her head vigorously. "No, I definitely know they’re out there somewhere. They’re two of the best fighters in Cloudsdale—they must have gotten away."

The pegasus cleared her throat. "So how about you? How’d you wind up out here with those wolves chasing you?" she asked.

"I attracted too much attention while fighting a few of them off," Twilight said, the glow around her horn fading as she brushed past the pegasus. "More came and forced me to run."

"So you’re all on your own?" the pegasus asked. Twilight stiffly nodded. "That's great! Well, I mean, it's not great, but since we’re both alone out here and you seem pretty cool, what say you and I stick together until I find my squad? You could be my sidekick."

Twilight stopped and looked back to find the pegasus grinning. She snorted and continued walking.

Still smiling, the pegasus rushed to catch up to her side. "You came from the other side of the gorge, right? You heading back there?"

"No," Twilight answered.

"Then you could use somepony who knows their way around this side of the woods. Me and my squad flew over this side of the forest." She lifted a hoof and scratched her ear. "Or at least I think we flew over from somewhere in this direction. I sorta got lost when we got separated."

Twilight resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Wonderful."

"I'm Rainbow Dash, by the way."

"Twilight Sparkle."

"So Twilight, what else can that horn of yours do? Does it shoot lightning? Or maybe you can do stuff with wind or water or—"

Twilight rounded on her, releasing a flash of flame from the tip of her horn in the face of the other pony. Rainbow Dash jumped back, her eyes wide.

"Stop following me. I mean it," Twilight ground out, her horn glowing.

Staring at Twilight’s horn, Rainbow Dash swallowed. "But you're my sidekick, right? I'm supposed to look out for you."

Twilight stomped the ground. "I am not anypony's sidekick."

"Partners then?" Rainbow Dash asked weakly.

Twilight did nothing but glare in response.

Rainbow Dash sighed. "Look, I've been hiding in these ruins long enough for the moon to complete a cycle. My rations are basically gone and soon I’m going to have to go looking for food. I can't make it out there alone with a damaged wing. You're the first pony I've come across." Rainbow Dash stared at the ground, her ears drooping. "I just want to find my friends. I need to know whether they're safe."

Twilight stared at her, chewing the side of her mouth. She turned to leave, then turned back, then turned to leave again, and then turned back once more. "Fine," she said. Rainbow Dash's ears shot up, and a smile spread across her lips. "But only until we find your friends."

"Of course," Rainbow Dash said.

"And we go where I want to, not where you want to."

"Fair enough."

"And if you slow me down, I'm leaving you behind."

"I won't. I promise."

Twilight took a deep breath and started down the hallway again, trying not to dwell on the feeling that she was going to regret her choice. "Let's go. The dark doesn't wait for—"

Her ear twitched. She heard something, faint and coming from the end of the corridor.

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Doesn't wait for what?"

Twilight shushed her, trying to focus on the sound. There it was again: sluggish steps and the occasional sound of metal scraping stone. "Come," she whispered, creeping toward the sound.

Peeking around the corner, Twilight saw the source of the sounds further down the hall. It used to be a pony, perhaps a guard given its rusted helmet and sword, but its skin had become burnt, black, and dry. It bore the darkened curse. Whoever it may have once been was gone, their mind warped beyond recognition by sorrow and violence.

The darkened sluggishly stumbled toward Twilight, its blunt sword scraping carelessly against the wall.

Twilight walked around the corner and stared at it. She heard a sharp intake of breath behind her.

"That's the guard from earlier I found the keys on," Rainbow Dash said. "Crud. She must have followed me here."

Twilight looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "You didn't kill it?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "No, I just got the keys from her and ran."

Twilight turned back to the guard, her horn glowing.

"Hey, wait, what are you doing?" Dash asked.

"I'm going to kill it," Twilight said flatly, taking a step towards it.

Rainbow Dash ran in front of her to block her path. "Woah, woah! You can’t just kill her, she used to be somepony! Even if she’s all messed up by the dark, what if there’s still be some part of her left inside there?"

"You don't have any clue what you're talking about," Twilight said, giving her a stern glare, but Rainbow Dash didn't budge. She sighed, rolling her eyes. "When somepony goes dark, they lose their emotions. Sympathy, joy, generosity, all of them are gone. All they ever feel is hatred, sadness, and desire for violence. They aren't the pony they once were. You can't cure them if they’ve already been corrupted. Even if you remove the darkness from them, the second you take it away, they die."

Rainbow Dash took a step away from her. She glanced back at the darkened still stumbling towards them, then looked back at Twilight. "How do you know all this?"

Twilight glared. "I've seen it before."

The creature's sword scraped against the wall again. It paused in its sluggishness as its eyes fell upon them. The charred skin around its mouth tightened, splitting cracks in it as the darkened bared its lips in a snarl. When it started towards them again, its limping had hastened to a feverish shambling.

After a moment biting her lip, Rainbow Dash stepped aside, allowing Twilight past.

Twilight approached the darkened at a brisk walk. As she drew near, it swung the sword in its mouth, which Twilight ducked with ease. Stepping to the darkened’s undefended side, she conjured a needle-thin blade made of fire and drove it into the darkened's heart. The darkened merely blinked when the blade pierced it, a wheezing breath forced from its lungs.

When the blade of fire dissipated, the darkened collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

Rainbow Dash walked up to the body of the guard, stopping beside Twilight. She looked down at it and gulped.

Twilight glanced at her, then back at the body. "When all somepony can ever feel is sadness and anger," Twilight said, the glow around her horn fading. "They’re better off not feeling anything."

She began to walk away.

"Who do you think she was?" Rainbow Dash asked, causing her to halt. "Before this, I mean."

Twilight stopped and turned, giving the darkened on the ground another look. "Somepony who was too weak for this world," she answered, walking away again with her eyes downcast. "If only I were so weak..."

As she left, she looked back to see Rainbow Dash lingering by the body. The pegasus reached down and closed the guardmare's eyes. Twilight looked back ahead, and shortly after she heard the hoofsteps as Rainbow Dash raced to catch up to her.