On her way back to her cold, drafty apartment, Coco bought some sleeping pills at the local pharmacy. She took twice the recommended dosage and soon fell asleep.
This time, when Suri was back in the darkened studio, she was greeted by Coco and Rarity. who both kept their eyes closed. She tried to say something sarcastic, but couldn't open her mouth to speak.
"Don't go, darling. Don't go, don't go, don't go." Rarity repeated.
"Don't go in the snow. Don't go in the snow. Don't go." Coco chimed in.
Shut up! Both of you shut up! Suri wanted to say, Wake up! Wake up!
"DON'T GO!! DON'T GO!! DON'T GO!!" both of Suri's tormentors shouted in unison, opening there eyes to reveal bloody buttons sewn to their sockets, matching the same color and style as the buttons on Suri's cutie mark.
"AAAAHHHHH!!!!" Suri screamed herself awake again, "Make it stop!! For the love of Celestia, make it stop!!"
Suri trotted around her room frantically, beating her head against the wall as her headache grew worse and worse. Blood dripped from her nostrils as the pressure increased and she galloped out of her apartment, slamming the door behind her. The cold air outside dulled the pain somewhat and she tried to trot it off. She ducked without thinking into the alleyway next to her apartment building and collasped into a snowpile that had built up outside.
Suri staggered back onto her hooves and to her horror she realized she was standing in the once place she was told not to go. But there are plenty of snowy corridors around Manehattan? Isn't Snow Alley one specific place? Did she have to stay out of any small space that happened to have snow on the ground? There wasn't anything or anypony there anyways, so what was the danger?
Suri managed to creep back up to her apartment door where a certain somepony awaited her. Coco had returned to torment her in her waking hours, to mock her, to belittle her, to condescend her.
"What the hay are you doing here?" Suri demanded, "How do you know where I live?"
"Your boss, Daily Grind, told me." Coco admitted, "She's worried about you, Suri. I'm worried about you."
"Worried?!" Suri retorted, "Daily Grind works me half to death and you sit around all day so prim and proper with Ms. Prim and the rest of your debonair buddies! That was supposed to me, m'kay, me!!"
"Suri...it was your choice..." Coco reminded her, "You sabotaged Rarity and forced me to help you do it."
"I know that you idiot, and you ruined everything!" Suri lamented, "You blabbed to that wannabe and her stupid friends and ruined my life! I'll kill you!!"
Coco saw a glint of pure madness in her former boss' eyes as Suri lunged at her and tried to strangle her with her hooves. Ponies didn't have fingers to wrap around others' throats but they could apply more than a bit of pressure with their hooves. Coco struggled to get the least bit of air as the veins bulged in Suri's own throat and the whites of her eyes tinged red.
The nightmares and headaches fueled Suri's rage and madness as she pressed down harder and harder as Coco's face went blue. Suri was only satisfied when Coco stopped moving, her muzzle stayed blue and her tongue hung out of her mouth. It was only the call of a passerby that broke Suri out of her trance.
"What's going on over here?!" a passing stallion asked.
Realizing what she had done, Suri quickly stepped in front of Coco's body and gave a nervous chuckle.
"We're...rehearsing a scene from a play we're doing, m'kay!" she stammered, "It's called...Snow Alley!"
"Oh yeah, Snow Alley, based on that novel." the stallion commented, "You see, in the book, the crazed mare kills her best friend and gets away with it but the in the play it's the other way around, the friend kills the crazy in self-defense only to find out that her crazed friend was already dead."
"Sounds...complicated..." Suri decided.
"Anywho, I'll let you get back to yer murderin', ya crazy broad." the stallion said jokingly.
What makes you think I'm not the best friend? Suri wondered as the stallion trotted away.
"Suri....Suri..." Coco said in a gutteral voice from behind her, "Suri...why did you kill me? I only wanted to help."
Suri stared in horror as a very much "alive" Coco stared back with her face and tongue still blue and dangling from her swollen throat.
"Wait! Stop! Stay away!" Suri begged, "You're dead!!"
"You went to Snow Alley." Coco warned, "I told you not to go to Snow Alley."
The undead Coco reached out her own hooves and grabbed Suri's shoulders.
"I told you not to go...I told you...wake up! Please wake up! Suri!! It's me, Coco!!" Coco shouted in Suri's ear.
Suri fluttered her eyes open as she found herself back in the alley, shivering from the cold, with Coco standing over her.
"Stay away! Get out!! Please!!" Suri begged.
"Are you okay? What happened?" Coco asked, "Your boss told me where you lived and I found you passed out here."
"That was just a dream?" Suri wondered, "But I killed you, and you were weeping blood, and you were dead but still talking and..."
"Was it the nightmares again?" Coco suggested, "Wait...what do you mean you killed me?"
"I....nothing...just a dream, m'kay." Suri replied, "Do you smell cinnamon?"
"Some annoying salespony sprayed cinammon perfume on me even after I told him I was allergic." Coco explained, "That makes twice in one day. These eyebleeds are driving me crazy."
Suri finally noticed that Coco's eyes were still bleeding and gave a bitter chuckle at the fact that she herself really was being driven crazy.
"Coco, my horrific omen inducing friend." Suri announced, "Would you like to come inside for some coffee? I promise no cinnamon this time, m'kay?"
"Sounds great." Coco replied, "But I wouldn't want to stain your carpet."
"Oh, I'm sure it's already been stained with fluids of every kind." Suri pondered and then shuddered.
The two mares went inside the ramshackle flat and Coco tried to smile at how tidy Suri kept everything but frowned internally when she realized it didn't hold a candle to Coco's posh studio.
"I love what you've done with the place." Coco surmised.
"It's nothing really, m'kay." Suri said, "How about that coffee?"