Better Left Buried

by Shahrazad

Chapter 3

HIIISSSSsssss

The static crackled and popped for a moment but slowly faded until it was a tiny sound. Little white dots flickered across her vision.

cough-cough

Twilight cracked an eye open but couldn’t see anything but darkness. She was so tired from applebucking, her hind quarters were still on fire. It made her feel strange and lightheaded to have worked so hard, but she liked it. So why couldn’t she sleep? Why did the air smell like...

WAHHHHH

crack

POP

Twilight bolted upright in her bed. Adrenaline rushed through her veins. She didn’t know it was possible for her heart to go from a snail’s pace to its maximum rate in less than one second. She smelled smoke and an orange, flickering light could be seen reflecting on her window pane. Applebloom’s cry had woken her up, but the smell of smoke made something in the primal part of her brain kick into overdrive. Twilight didn’t so much roll as explode out of bed.

SNNNIFFFFF

Her breathing accelerated. Her blood felt like hot oil. Everything slowed way down.

Everything became hyper-real.

The static was gone. Her lungs burned. Smoke filled the room. It was pouring in from the crack under her bedroom door. Her pupils grew in the dark. Her sheets were in a funny looking heap, almost falling off of the bed. Her saddlebag was at the foot of her bed, the zipper had missed the last six teeth. She saw a quill she was missing hiding almost out of sight under her bed. Her armoire was closed but she could see the scratch her hooves had left on it when she bucked it closed several months ago. She could hear Applebloom crying and the crackling of what sounded like a campfire. There was a dull roar, like the waves of an unseen beach. And of course the smell — that acrid smell of ashes.

CRASH-CRUNCH

“MA HIP!” Fear was laced into those words.

“BOY GET YOUR GRANDMA OUTTA HERE NOW!” She had never heard her father shout, not like that. His voice was clipped and the words carried with them a weight that almost forced one to obey.

BANG

She didn’t think about opening the door, she didn’t think about anything. Something in her brain simply took over and ran everything on autopilot. Whoever or whatever was doing it, they were very efficient at it. Twilight blinked and she was across the room with the door open. It happened so fast, but to her everything was in slow motion. Every detail burning into her eyes.

Wake up.

“GIT OUTTA HERE AJ!” Her father thundered past her down the hallway. She could see him gallop past in slow motion. Yet he must have been moving quickly, cinders swirled in the air behind him; caught in his turbulent wake. It was incredible that something that size could move that fast. He was still wearing his harness. His body was covered in a fine layer of ash, little black smudges all over him.

The autopilot decided to follow him.

She charged down the hallway after her father, tearing through a nightmare of smoke. Heat blasted into her face and hot red cinders floated in the air. She darted past her Granny’s room at a speed she didn’t think was possible. The door was bucked off of its hinges and split into two lengthwise halves lying on the floor. Although she was galloping at full speed she could see Li’l Mac had shimmied under a massive beam of wood. It had pinned their poor Grandmother into her bed, crushing her leg. That beam of wood should have weighed more than five times Li'l Mac. She could see the look of pain and fear on her Grandmother’s face, and the look of determination on her brother’s. She could see all sorts of little details in the room, like the floral pattern of the quilt her grandmother used as a comforter. She could see the pictures on the wall of the family, whole and smiling. She could even see the individual splinters from the single hoof strike that had popped the door in two like it was a twig. She could see Li'l Mac stand like the beam was made of air. And then all she could see was the hallway speed by as she kept charging.

Wake up!

So much memory, so much information, so little time. “Candy! Where are ya?!” Big Mac shouted down the stairs. When he heard the crash from Applebloom’s room, it made him turn and charge back down the hallway. The autopilot blasted her after Big Mac.

“MAC! IN HERE!” Candy’s panicked shout came from Applebloom’s room. Big Mac high stepped and knocked the door open without breaking his stride. Twilight was right behind him. Inside, the foal’s room had been transformed. A chunk of the floor had fallen away, heat waves shimmering in the air from the gaping hole. The crib was half falling into the hole. The pastel paint on the walls bubbled and peeled, revealing the wood underneath. Candy was bent over in the crib but Twilight couldn’t see what she was doing. Candy screamed as the crib lurched dangerously, and fell into the fiery chasm.

Everypony seemed to be moving in slow motion, except for Candy. Big Mac was still two full strides away from her. Twilight couldn’t do anything but watch. Candy leapt after the white sheets that tumbled out of the crib, her mouth open as she dove for what looked like a thick roll of towels. Big Mac was a single stride away. Twilight blinked past the smoke that was stinging her eyes, her brain a complete blank. Candy dove after the bundle with a cry, only her hind quarters were visible now. Twilight could see the sharp, jagged edge of the boards that formed the hole. Big Mac stretched his own head forward and with a single snap, clamped his teeth on Candy’s tail. Twilight took a step into the room.

There was a long second where Big Mac didn’t move. With two swift strides he backed up and pulled two ponies with him. Candy lay on the floor at the edge of the hole, a bundle held in her mouth. Her stomach had a nasty slash on it, blood seeping out, leaving a trail from a jagged edge to her. But she didn’t seem to care, her eyes were squeezed shut. All she did was wrap both forehooves around that precious bundle of cloth. Big Mac spat out her tail and stood over her. “We need ta go, NOW!”

THUD-CRUNCH

Twilight whipped her head around to see the doorway become blocked by falling debris. Another huge beam had fallen across the doorway along with a good chunk of slate roofing tiles. Only the lower right corner of the door was clear now and it breathed smoke like a sleeping dragon. Big Mac knelt by Candy and urged her again to move. Twilight stood next to him, her heart racing, when Candy opened her eyes. Bloodshot and crazed, they were not the eyes she recognized. They held a fire all on their own as she looked at Twilight. “Take Applebloom and git out!” She thrust the bundle of cloth into Twilight’s chest in one swift motion, their noses almost touching. Candy grimaced, Twilight could smell something like copper tinge the air along with the acrid fumes. Candy wrapped her limbs around Twilight and squeezed her tight. She idly realized just how tight this embrace was. It should have been painful and bone-crushing but she just closed her eyes and nuzzled into Candy’s neck. “I love you, sugarcube,” Candy whispered.

Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.

Candy released her and she slumped back onto the floor, hesitating. Big Mac tried to lift Candy, but she winced when he tried to move her. Blood pooled in a sticky red puddle beneath her. Big Mac lifted her anyway and slowly moved her towards the doorway. He saw Twilight standing there, the bundle hanging from her mouth, with a blank expression. “Bahabuha,” Applebloom’s voice cooed from inside the bundle. It was the buck to the head that Twilight needed to start moving. She darted to the doorway and sank to her stomach. The floor felt rough and dirty, splinters and wood digging into her soft underbelly. She pushed the bundle through the gap first. Then hoof over hoof, she squirmed through after it. She pinched a corner of the cloth in her teeth and stood to face the doorframe, waiting for her parents to follow.

“GIT OUTTA THE HOUSE AJ!” She blinked, smoke and tears stung her eyes. “We’ll be right behind you.” Big Mac lowered his voice, but his eyes darted down the hallway. Twilight turned and galloped down the stairs.

CRACK

Twilight recognized the sound of her father’s buck hitting wood. It was a sound she had heard thousands of times before. She hit the bottom of the stairs and entered the family room. It was transformed into a hellish landscape. Fire clung to the walls and ceiling. Angry red cinders popped and spat at her from every direction. Ashes floated in the air, and smoke rose from everything. The couch was a blackened husk. The pictures on the walls had fallen and were burning in heaps. Granny Smith’s rocking chair was a crackling pile of tinder. Ironically, the fireplace was unharmed. The front door was an inferno, a solid wall of fire. There was no getting out that way. She swung her head to the kitchen and darted inside, narrowly dodging the grandfather clock falling across the archway. The pendulum inside crashed into a dissonant gong, the rest of the clock playing host to curling flames. The kitchen wasn’t much better; the drapes were replaced by ashes and the table was a bonfire. Twilight darted around the blaze, keeping low out of instinct. Fresh air wafted into the room, making the fire dance and reach for the exit. A cool wind blew into the room from the back door. It had been bucked open and was hanging askew, the bottom hinge splitting the wood. She barreled through the opening, her heart still trying to explode out of her chest.

Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.

cough-cough-cough

Twilight stumbled into the fields outside of the house, sucking in great lungfuls of fresh air. Red flashing lights were racing to the farmhouse from far down the road. She was galloping away from the farmhouse in a daze. She saw her brother kneeling over the prone form of their grandmother. She was lying on her side, her barrel rising and falling like a pair of bellows. Her right hind leg was bending in a way it should not. Firelight illuminated the fields, her brother, her grandmother, and the pair of carts barreling down the road towards them from the town proper. The wind had settled to a breeze that carried with it the smell of a burning home.

pishhhhHHHH

Little white spots flickered across Twilight’s vision. The sound of static started to rise, muffling her grandmother’s words. She set Applebloom into a gurney along with Granny Smith. There were firestallions there, and her brother was saying something. It was all just sound and fury. She trotted as close to the farmhouse as the firestallions would allow her to. All sights, sounds, smells, even thoughts, just slipped into the black hole inside of her. The only thing she could focus on was the back door. Big Mac and Candy would emerge from that door any second now. Big Mac would have bucked that beam into splinters. He wouldn’t need to worry about the smoke because he was so big and strong. Candy would help him. They would both get downstairs, nothing would stop them. They were so big, strong, and smart. And they had each other. Candy was wearing her lucky cowpony hat. There simply wasn’t room for any other thoughts.

CRASH — FWOOSH

No

Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.

The static cleared away, Twilight could focus again on the farmhouse. The firestallions had doused the house with water. The fire spat and sizzled when the water hit. That was when the whole structure just fell apart. The roof and most of the guts of the house fell into itself. The back wall still mostly stood but the front and roof had totally fallen. The structure spat fire and smoke into the sky like a dying dragon, desperate to keep the fires of life going. Tears welled up into her eyes. Her parents were still alive in there somewhere, she needed to find them. With a cry, she darted past the firestallions and dove head first into the charred bones of her home.

“Get out of there! It’s not safe!”

With shaky, desperate hooves she plowed through the remains of the house. Charred wood and dripping water created a hazardous mush of ashes and embers. Her hooves tore through it like a hot knife through butter. She spun and bucked a large beam, charred and blackened by the fire. Her hooves crunched through roofing tiles, kicking up dust while she dug. She was almost blinded by tears when she found them.

“Mama, Papa!” She choked on the fumes and slammed both hooves into the pile of ashes. She knew they were there. Her father’s plow harness was poking through the heap of ashes. She latched onto what she was looking for and pulled.

Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.
Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.

The firestallion, that annoying voice behind her, finally grabbed her and hauled her away. Great wracking sobs shook her frame. Little white dots popped into her vision. She had her father’s harness in one hoof, and Candy’s cowpony hat in the other.

Their owners were not attached.

The sound of static rose again. Twilight couldn’t see much beyond the snowcrash that filled the edges of her vision.

When it cleared, she could tell she was in some sort of medical setting. She was inside of a carriage, but everything was white. Her grandmother was on a gurney, her brother hovering over her. A firestallion was pressing a breathing mask over Granny Smith’s muzzle, pumping pure oxygen into her. Twilight held Applebloom in quivering hooves, as exhaustion threatened to force her to sleep on the spot. The jostling of the carriage kept her awake at least until they stopped at the hospital. She trotted inside, numb.

Static covered her eyes for a moment. When she could see again, she was in a hospital room.

beep - beep - beep

The slow tone of the heart monitor was the only thing keeping her awake now. Granny Smith was asleep; the doctor had given her sedatives and painkillers. Applebloom was checked and was in perfect health. Still, the doctors wanted to monitor her for a day just to be sure she hadn’t inhaled too much smoke or something. Twilight wasn’t really paying attention. She was just staring at her father’s harness lying against the wall in one corner of the room and her mother’s cowpony hat which was lying on top of it.

Twilight felt as if she were crying. I’ve failed. I’m going to die and Applejack is going to be a vegetable. I don’t want to feel another pony’s pain. I don’t want to hurt her. I don’t want her to hurt. I don’t want to die. I just want to wake up.

Wake up.

WAKE UP!

PLEASE wake up.

~~~~~

beep-beep-beep

“Doctor, I think something is happening. Be a dear and check her again for me.” Rarity tried to speak with confidence and happiness, but something in her tone told the doctor it wasn’t a request.

beep-beep-beep-beep-beep

“Why? What’s happened?” The doctor trotted over to peer at Twilight. Her mother and father had arrived only minutes ago and he had to gently push them aside to do his job. The room was quite crowded now. Twilight’s parents had arrived last. This would be after the Apple family had arrived, followed by the mares’ friends. Including the nurse, doctor, patients, family, and friends, there were thirteen ponies and one dragon in the room. “What...?”

beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep

He looked at the patient. Tears were leaking from her closed eyes. He pried her eyelids back one more time and stared into her pupils for a moment. They darted about at hyper speed, like a rubber bouncy ball flung into a tiny room with the door closed. Her pupils were massive black holes. He allowed her eyes to close when he heard her snort. He glanced down at her nose.

beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep

Blood was leaking out onto the sheets. It stained the otherwise pristine whiteness a deep crimson. “NURSE!” He yelled and roughly shoved Twilight’s mother and father aside to check the monitor. What he saw caused his own blood pressure to rise.

beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep

“Call the surgeon,” he said, “and ask him to prep for a cardiac ablation procedure.” He tried to speak quietly but the room was crowded and everypony could hear him. “Tell him the patient has a rate of 243 bpm.” The nurse nodded and was out of the room in a flash.

beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep

Twilight’s father placed a heavy hoof on the doctor’s shoulder. “What’s going on?” He spoke clearly but his trembling hoof and voice betrayed him. The doctor turned to look at him — this was the part of the job he hated.

beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep

The doctor opened his mouth to speak, and everypony leaned in to listen, even Granny Smith. “Her heart is beating too fast, for too long. If this continues, there is a good chance she’ll enter ventricular fibrillation. At that point we’ll have few options; the best one is surgery. I’ll need you to sign off on...” the blank expression on the mother and father told the doctor they didn’t understand the medical jargon. The situation was getting dangerous, and he didn’t have time to explain the details because at any moment she could—

beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

The doctor’s eyes went wide, he screamed into the hallway, “CODE BLUE!”

“What’s goin’ on?” Applebloom asked as she hopped off of Big Mac’s back. She looked at the doctor with one brow cocked and the corners of her mouth pointed down.

“Twilight?” Spike said, running in between the doctor’s legs, nearly tripping him. He couldn’t quite see over the bed frame but began to climb up the sheets, tears welling in his eyes. “W-what’s wrong?”

Three nurses burst into the room, the third pushing a cart with a strange metal box and a pair of small metal plates attached by wires. Nurse Redheart tore the sheet away from Twilight and kept working without looking at the doctor. “The surgeon will be here in 5 minutes — he’s prepping his tools now.”

The doctor was past being polite at this point. “Get these ponies out of here — NOW!” he barked. “We don’t have time to wait for the surgeon. We defibrillate now or we could lose her.” The doctor snatched up the metal plates and vigorously rubbed them together.

Another pair of nurses entered and herded the friends and family out. Velvet fought against them to no avail. “What’s happening! Will my baby be alright?” she pleaded at the doctor.

A tinny, low tone crackled out of the room. The tone rose quickly, and as the door closed, the doctor pulled the metallic plates apart and shouted:

“CLEAR!”

~~~~~

Twilight sat up in bed, and found herself surrounded by white. White walls, white sheets, white ceiling. Only the curtains were an ugly green color. She found she wasn’t the only one in the room. Another pony was lying next to her, their beds were close together. She turned to see the earth pony was asleep on her side, facing her.

The moonlight was the only real light source in the room. Everything was quiet now that the doctors had left. They left her alone in this room, with her thoughts.

And with Applebloom.

Applebloom shifted and giggled in her sleep. Little white motes flickered across Twilight’s vision. Mama and Papa are gone. She stared across the beds and looked at the cowpony hat hanging on the bed frame.

Only minutes ago her grandmother was snoring in the corner of the room, but Li'l Mac... no, BIG Mac had wheeled her out. The doctors were worried about long term damage to her hip, but she seemed to take it all in stride. She had looked at her grandchildren the moment the doctors left her alone with them. She solemnly took the plow harness and placed it on Li'l Mac. She told him she was proud of him, and that he was gonna have to be Big Mac from now on. He was big for his age but he didn’t look very big at that moment. He looked like a scared colt with an oversized harness over his neck. She tried to put the cowpony hat on Twilight, but she shrank away. Granny Smith seemed to understand, and only said, “When yer ready, yer gonna wear this hat. It belongs ta you now.” At that point, Big Mac had wheeled her out so she could sleep in her own room.

No it doesn’t, it belongs to Mama. Mama is supposed to give it to me. It isn’t yours to give, Granny Smith, not anymore. You gave it to Mama, and Mama is gonna give it to me someday. Tears started to slide down her face as she looked at the hat. They dribbled down her face as her thoughts traced the same path they had traveled hundreds of times in the last few hours.

It’s not fair. Mama and Papa didn’t have ta die. They should be here. They were big an’ strong, an’ they could have got away easy. She looked at the foal in the bed, surrounded by white. If’n it weren’t fer you.

She picked up the cowpony hat and stood on the bed. She drew close to Applebloom, who sniffed and opened her eyes, but remained quiet. This here is all yer fault. Her blood boiled. It’s the honest truth! If you weren’t born, Mama and Papa would still be alive now. How could ya do that to ‘em? They risked everything fer you. You just take an’ take an’ take! You don’t give nothin’ in return. The cowpony hat slid off her head so it covered Applebloom’s face. It was so large the brim covered most of her body.

You wanna take the hat too, don’t ya! You took away Mama and Papa, why not take her hat as well! She’d be willing ta give it to ya. But not me, no. I had ta fight for it, earn it. You, you jus’ git whatever you want. She started to hyperventilate. Static popped in her ears and little salt and pepper dots raced across her vision when Twilight picked up a scalpel from the drawer.

Why? Why? WHY? Why did ya do it? She sat on the bed and raised the scalpel over her head. She towered over the foal despite her filly-sized body. Why did they have ta die? Applebloom wiggled and cooed, her limbs uncoordinated. “Answer me.”

Applebloom shifted and the cowpony hat fell into her hooves. She giggled.

“ANSWER ME!”

Twilight felt like a statue made of molten rock. She threatened to explode at any moment. Applebloom cooed again and fiddled with the cowpony hat, chewing on the brim.

“WHY?!”

It was both a question and a demand. Applebloom giggled, looking Twilight right in the eye. She felt herself boiling. The static had blood colored motes mixed into it. Applebloom reached up with the cowpony hat and set it on Twilight’s head. The touch set her off.

“AHHHHHH!”

She screamed and brought the knife down.

Applebloom put a hoof on Twilight’s cheek, opened her mouth, and said her first word.

~~~~~

Her body convulsed. Blood was leaking from her nose, ears, eyes, and mouth. The nurses and doctors were in a controlled panic. All of the friends and family members were plastered to the glass window. The curtain that normally gave patients some privacy had been torn down in the commotion.

“MOVE IT!” The surgeon and another nurse to assist her trotted down the hall. Doctor Honeycut was an expert at slicing ponies open and fixing their problems. However she prefered those on the operating room table over those who would talk to her. The nurse carrying her prefered tools was right behind her. The blades gleamed in the sterile light.

Spike gulped when he saw the surgeon's tools. He didn’t like the look of Doctor Honeycut, either. She had a severe look and her cutie mark was a heart like many nurses, but this one had a scalpel resting across it. “Will she be alright?” Rarity asked as the surgeon wiggled past the mob of friends and family. The herd looked on through the windows into the room. It was like looking into a fishbowl. If your fish were about to die.

“Please tell me why she’s still asleep.”
“What’s goin’ on,
“Why is she bleeding?”
“When will they wake up?”

Spike didn’t care about any of that. They were irrelevant questions. The only one that mattered was: “Will they be okay?” Why couldn’t every other pony see that? Why did they insist on knowing everything that was going on at every second? It would take the doctors longer to explain than it would to just do their jobs and fix them. They were going to fix Twilight and Applejack. They just had to — no other possibility was acceptable. Spike tried very hard not to think about the doctor’s reaction or the incessant questions the others were unloading upon the hospital staff. He stood on Rarity’s back and looked over the small crowd into the hospital room.

There was a flurry of activity around the two beds. The surgeon was scrubbing her hooves while the nurse set the tray of those scary tools near Twilight. Twilight was looking better than she was a few minutes ago, before everypony was herded out of the room, but the monitor still showed her heart rate at an astronomical rate. Spike leaned in along with everypony else. Don’t cry, you’re a big boy now. Twilight will be alright. Wake up Twilight...

Wake up.

Please wake up.

Twilight bolted upright in her bed. Everypony gasped. Her eyes were open but unfocused, and still flitted about in their sockets. Her hooves were even faster — in one smooth motion they snactched up a gleaming, razor-sharp scalpel the nurse had just finished cleaning. She raised it above her head over Applejack.

“AHHHHH!”

With a gut-wrenching cry she brought the blade down over Applejack’s throat.

Comments

[Shahrazad]

3286128

*sigh* Yes it does take quite a bit of time to edit. Honestly, Level Dasher and I spent so much time editing my work that I sometimes forget I'M the one who wrote it in the first place.

If you liked chapter 2, how about chapter 3?

To everyone else reading out there in the astral space we call the internet: the next chapter will wrap the story up. And like all my stories: it's already written and ready to go. Catch it next Sunday!

[ShadowWing09]

Hmm, there's an expression for this kind of situation, what was it again?

Ah, yes, I remember now.

OH. SHI-