Twilight Sparkle knows what had happened. She caused it, and now guilt had taken its toll. But the sounds won't stop, they never do. She asks herself why they continue to speak and the sound only gets louder and louder. To her, its a prophecy.
Thanks to my awesome, awesome, awesome mate! Dark Avenger for helping edit this story!
Twilight Sparkle: the mare who had committed a crime for which most would despise, and some would outright banish her.
But they did neither. Once news began to spread of what had passed, all of Ponyville was shaken to its core. Its inhabitants were confused, some of them even angry, and all were filled with sorrow. As they still mourn the loss of a dear friend, no one had decided to take charge of the situation. None of them could even begin to try and decipher the events while their pain is still so unbearable.
Twilight is lost, heartbroken, and all alone. Guilt and fear are taking their toll on her, and the sounds just will not stop. The noises never stop...
It's time for her to make a decision.
A Piece Of The Sky: Your Song Is Ending Now, But The Story Never Ends.
She blew her nose once more with another tissue, then grabbed another after it.
She kneeled down in front of the grave. The words marked on the stone over it taunted the very soul inside her.
She raised a forehoof over the stone. They trailed along the words engraved in big letters. The year they were born and the year they passed on. The writing haunted her.
The wind began to howl into the forbidding night. The rain that passed a few minutes ago had drenched her coat into a muddled mess. She was struggling not to cry.
She was trying to feel normal, but it felt impossible. Not after what had happened. It was an accident, but it was also something that nopony could ever forgive her for.
The sounds cackled and whispered thoughts inside her head. The disjointed feelings of old and new mangled together in a big spread.
Why her of all ponies? Why the young Twilight Sparkle?
Revisiting those daunting memories and revising certain events to convey her own ending was all she could do. All she could hope for.
Not now, though. Magic wasn’t going to save her, nor could the power of friendship overthrow what has been bestowed upon her. Envy played the ace, while guilt toyed with her emotions. Only Spike stayed by her side, and even he felt betrayed by this turn of events.
She wondered how he could forgive her as well. No one has bothered to talk or make contact with Twilight since the accident had occurred.
The sound of drumming circled around her skull, the tapping, the beat, and the ominous sound that dribbled back and forth screamed redemption. Her soul was longing for forgiveness as she stood inches away from the freshly planted grave.
More tears streamed out of her eyes. Not even the damp tissues could hold down the overflow of pain. The tissue box was no more than a wet pile of mush as the cardboard fought to hold its own, but it proved no match when the rain trickled out of the gray clouds. Rainbow Dash must not have told Twilight of the sudden weather change. Then again, she wasn’t the least bit surprised considering the recent events that passed.
The rain turned into hail, and the hail doubled as the sky darkened and the clouds packed together around the gravesite. She glanced at the graves around her and wondered why nopony was here mourning over this one. If not for her, then at the very least they should show this mare some respect.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her throat choking up. “I don’t have words... I don’t know what to say, but…”
Twilight broke down in front of the grave. Tears streamed down her face. It was flushed with red. Her eyes stung. None of that aggravated her as much as having to mourn over a friend.
“Goodbye,” she choked before standing over her dead friend again.
She began to walk away slowly, but when she took one final look back, it was all she needed to stay a little while longer.
Where am I going to go? Home? Home is practically dead, and soon everypony in Ponyville will know it.
She stroked her mane ever so lightly. It kept her from thinking about anything else related to her deceased friend or her other friends.
How could I forgive myself when my friends won’t forgive me? Celestia doesn’t know, but soon she’ll figure it out…
Spike still cared for her, and he always will. That was what she thought, and it was all she could hope for now. The previous days have not been best for her and her friends.
She looked at the grave and the engravings once more. Twilight was afraid of what Celestia might think, and even more of what her brother and her parents might think. She didn’t mean for any of it to happen, but no one would understand. Maybe they were repressing their sadness, turning it into anger and blame. She didn’t know, and it was something that haunted her every step of the way.
Twilight was shocked to the core when Spike almost disowned her and belittled her by saying she is a liar. Spike left the library and went to find somepony who could tell him if her story was true. When he came back hours later, his soul was cold. He couldn’t believe Twilight was serious, but most of all he couldn’t believe that it was her that caused it.
Twilight gave a muffled apology once more before departing into the night.
Out in the cold, she looked up at the sky and saw the gray clouds mourning. At least they felt like mourning for the loss of her friend.
The sun was sewn tight, while the moon glared with its frantic yellow color. The wind grew hastily. Thoughts swirled around in her head. She just wanted to go home. She just wanted to be left alone now. It would only make everyone happy. Running away wasn’t something she was used to doing, but she was willing try anything now if it could make the pain stop.
Twilight noticed the rain had died down. The wind had stopped as well. Her coat was drenched and her mane was wet. She knew she couldn’t stay here any longer, so she quickly ran back to the library and prepared for what she knew would be her swan song.
The sound of the drums pulsed once again, becoming more and more frantic. The light on her horn beamed. Her mind was bleak, and her body was a frivolous shell. Her soul felt torn apart and asunder from everything she once enjoyed in Ponyville.
For three years, she lived, slept, ate, bathed, laughed, and cried in this library, and now she felt that she was overstaying her welcome.
Celestia and Luna would know soon enough. Shining Armor and her family would know soon enough. Cadance would know.
What has she done to deserve this?
“Spike?” Twilight called out. Only an echo answered her.
She looked around downstairs, but all she could see was her books, scrolls, and notes, as well as various machines that once served a purpose in her projects. Twilight sighed before walking upstairs. She turned on the tap in the shower, hoping to purge her body of the dirty rain. The hot water soothed and relaxed the bones in her body. The thoughts cackled and screamed for her attention, for her attentiveness about what she had done. The sound of the drums rattled and thrashed her head again. The loud crashes and thumping were causing her a migraine.
Why are the noises so loud? Why won’t they stop and be nice for once?
She sat in the shower, hunched over, whimpering soundlessly. Twilight’s hot tears mixed with the hot water. Her mucus kept flowing out of her nose. She badly needed a cloth or tissue, but couldn’t bring herself to grab one.
Twilight couldn’t hold it together any longer. She let out the loudest cry she had ever given. She didn’t care. She didn’t give a damn what would happen next. It was only her and her thoughts and the water bouncing off of her back.
Reliving the event over and over again was something she was prepared to live with for the rest of her days. But the drums, the damn drums just wouldn’t stop. It was like a chase scene where the poor victim is about to be killed by some predator. She rubbed the tears out of her eyes while trying to relax, but the light above was irritating and her migraine didn’t feel like it would let up anytime soon. At least she knew what had to be done.
Twilight turned the tap off with her magic before exiting the tub quietly. Her paranoia of Spike unsettled her as she dried herself. Despite the refreshing shower, she was still trembling with fear and denial. She was certain the rain had stopped now, but it wouldn’t have mattered either way. She knew what to do even if it hadn’t.
Twilight Sparkle quietly walked down the stairs, hoping she wouldn’t run into Spike. She had to keep up a steady pace if she was going to do this. She went into the kitchen and opened the cupboards to find any candles sitting there. A few of them lay in the far corner, for emergency in case the power ever went out.
She picked up one and whisked away a pack of matches resting beside them. She closed the cupboard and trotted back to the floor above. As she passed the shelves lining the walls, she checked all of her well-organized books, feeling that sense of pride creep up her shoulders again. Twilight was in glee momentarily.
She dragged her forehoof from one end to the other. The distinctive smell of old paper was almost ecstatic for her. The rough feel of each book she passed by reminded her of the days of old, back when she didn’t have to deal with such issues in life. The long study hours were tormenting, but it all paid off in the long run.
Or, at least, she thought it did.
Twilight let out a deep sigh as she looked around the big room again.
So much knowledge. So much time to spare. But it wouldn’t have lasted. Not anymore.
“But... I’m worth something… I’m worth something!” Twilight called out into the room. She was calling out to her books.
“AM I?!” she yelled out into the empty darkness. Candle and matches in forehoof, she chucked them onto the wooden floor.
In blind rage, Twilight Sparkle flung out book after book from the shelves, tossing them all over the floor, scraping and bending each precious piece of literature. One by one, they tumbled over each other in a rough pile. She kept throwing them while her veins pulsated with pure excessive hatred. She was mad. Angered and torn by the events that passed and the memories that have trailed her every step.
Twilight stomped on several of her books, then grabbed one with her teeth and threw it against the door. She pouted, then lifted another book off the ground and fired it through the window using her magic. Her horn surged and pulsed with magic, waiting to wreak even more havoc in its wake of destruction.
“Not you... Not you!” She shook her head before continuing. “I can do so much more! SO MUCH MORE!” she screamed as she punched her chest hard.
Twilight Sparkle walked all over her books and lightly placed both of her forehooves on the table. A single tear trickled out of her eye. She held back any further ones from appearing. “And this is what I get…” she growled to herself.
“IT’S NOT FAIR!” Twilight yelled once more. Her magic blasted apart every window of the library. The papers lying on the table were swept up by the breeze and drifted outside. Lighting shone and crackled among the clouds in the distance. The thunderous sounds of the sky echoed around Ponyville, driving her back into reality. She remembered what she had to accomplish now.
“This world’s infrastructure can’t support what will happen in the coming decades…” she joked to herself. A little smile flickered across her face, followed by a light blush on her cheeks.
Twilight Sparkle was ready.
She lifted the candle and the box of matches. She lit the candle with her magic. Her tail flicked back and forth across the floor. She walked upstairs into her and Spike’s bedroom. Twilight gave a short grin when she looked at her brother’s little bed. Spike was probably off either mourning for their friend or crashing at Applejack’s again.
It didn’t matter. She had a job to do.
Twilight walked over to the foot of her bed and found her brother’s comic lying beside it. Her sheets were still untouched and were good as new from their last washing.
The wind was still at its peak and blew out her candle, so she had to relight it. Twilight had to work quickly because she didn’t know when her brother would show his face again. It could be anywhere from minutes, to hours, to days, to even weeks.
She didn’t care anymore. Twilight had made her choice. She decided this was the best for everyone involved with her.
She lit her own sheets, then did the same to her brother’s bed. The fire was having trouble to start with the wind blowing in. Twilight now regretted her latest burst of anger. She would have held herself back had she known that it would break all of the windows.
Twilight decided that the candle was useless, so she chucked it out the window without a second thought. She ran downstairs. The fire was now beginning to grow. The light glimmered so vividly that it made Twilight stop for a moment and watch in amazement.
She walked over to her books to finish what she started. She lit every match in the box before placing them around the big room. The air became tighter as the smoke grew more and more thick. She shuffled the books into a small pile quickly and threw a lit match upon it, then watched the fire envelop it, tossing it into extinction.
All that history just burning away...
Twilight galloped around downstairs, using the remaining matches to light every corner, as well as whatever pieces of furniture she could find. One by one, the rooms of her home rose up in flames. The kitchen, the hallway, and all of the walls of surrounding her were slowly being consumed. The smoke was suffocating, but Twilight shielded her face with a magic spell that kept it from entering her lungs.
She slowly entered the bathroom. All the pain she felt was because of this bathroom. Why the bathroom? she thought. It was supposed to be one’s private therapeutic haven, a source of spiritual rejuvenation when no one else was around.
The room still looked as pure as she left it. Unscarred by the fast-approaching flames that burrowed into and consumed everything outside. More determined than ever, she was about to light up this room with one of the three remaining matches. The sound of drumming encroached on her once more. The thunderous beat thumped and crashed inside her head, violating what was left of her sanity.
The fire was now completely out of control. The main room glowed in a bright assortment of orange, red and yellow. The walls were starting to degrade, and frame of the roof was weakening as the fire burned through it. Holes were starting to form, which she realized once she was able to peek outside through them.
Why is it still beating?
Twilight was trying to block out the drumming in her head. She dropped the matches and started bashing her head repeatedly.
“Make the noises stop! The noises… must… STOP!” she roared as her magic smashed the mirror and cracked the wooden walls around her. Twilight gave a deep sigh before regaining her composure. She had to exit the burning tree quickly before it was too late.
Twilight decided to leave the bathroom as it was, but just as she tried to get out, the burning wooden walls started tumbling over one another, and within moments she found herself stuck halfway between the kitchen and the bathroom.
Twilight began to panic, struggling to move the pieces of wood out of the way before the bottom level caved in completely. She had to stop casting the magic bubble around her head that allowed her to breathe in order to have enough power to move the burning remains.
The thick pieces kept piling onto each other. Just a few paces away, the kitchen was becoming less and less visible from the intense fire all around her. Twilight worked frantically as her lungs filled with smoke. She lifted log after log, now simply tossing them through another half-destroyed wall. The effort and lack of clean air drained most of her strength. Once the final pieces were hurled out of her path, her legs gave out, and she fell to the ground, coughing frantically. Her airways were stuffed with smoke. She tried to start up the magic process and place the bubble over her face again, but the task was now too much for her diminished strength.
Twilight coughed uncontrollably as she realized that she would have to crawl blindly through the thick smoke. Keeping a level pace, she tried to breathe slowly and not panic as she placed one hoof in front of the other. Her heartbeat was accelerating at an alarming rate. She picked up the pace as she passed the hallway. One look at the kitchen was enough to make her avert her eyes. A sight straight out of a horror novel welcomed her there. The fire had eaten away most of the walls and slowly stripped the kitchen itself clean, distorting the objects inside into malformed and blackened husks.
The ground beneath her began to give away. Twilight hurried her rump across the room and made a jump for stairs at the last moment. A loud crash followed right after, and when she turned to look, she saw that the entire ground floor had caved in. All the machines in her basement were either crushed under the debris or were slowly being consumed by the flames. The upper floors didn’t fare any better either. The walls and the floor have been eaten through completely in several places, allowing Twilight to see the leaves of the tree and the blue sky outside, shortly before both were obscured by the thick smoke.
Twilight pranced in place nervously. She had to find a way out right now. At first she tried to go for the front door, which was still relatively unaffected by the inferno. She stopped dead in her tracks, however, when she heard the inhabitants of Ponyville shouting right outside her home.
Among the panicked voices, she could make out those of Mayor Mare, Scootaloo, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, and even Ms. Cheerilee. All of them sounded thoroughly shocked and confused. What Twilight Sparkle had done was unthinkable, but none of them could imagine why somepony would decide to burn down the public library, not to mention her house.
Twilight Sparkle quickly jumped off the stairs and bolted for the far end of the room, careful not to fall into the newly formed hole in the center of the floor. The wall here had been reduced to all but cinders, so it easily gave way when she turned around and bucked it with all her strength.
The ponies struggling with the flames outside caught a glimpse of something emerging at the far side of the library, then running off into the distance. A few of them tried to chase after the potential culprit, but just then one of the large branches of the tree broke off and fell to the ground, almost crushing them in the process. A searing wave of heat washed over them as the wind began to pick up, quickly convincing them to focus on the fire instead, which was the more immediate threat.
Twilight Sparkle ran as fast and as far away as she could. She kept sprinting until she was completely out of breath. Stopping for a moment, she glanced back one last time, and was surprised to see just how far her legs managed to carry her.
Tartarus, she thought and almost giggled. I could probably have matched the leg-power of Applejack if we had ever raced.
In the distance, she could see the growing storm strike the library, while the ponies surrounding it struggled to douse the blaze with buckets of water. The wind was being helpful so far, as it kept the fire from spreading to any of the nearby homes. For now.
What some didn’t realize was that the wind would be the inevitable downfall of Ponyville. It was going to be the animal that kills all.
The drumming harkened back, but Twilight held it off for a bit longer by reminiscing about better days. The days when things didn’t get so complicated, and when she and Spike were the best of siblings. Those days she wished she could go back to.
Not anymore, she thought. She was either going to have to live in exile, or end her life here and now, but she couldn’t stay here any longer. Not anymore…
Twilight sucked back whatever tears she could and stood proud for both Ponyville, her friends, and herself.
No. Not today.
She wondered what she could do now. No doubt they would come looking for her once they searched her home and found no body inside. Celestia would want her head if word got around that she did it. They would notify the authorities, organize search parties, start with all the major settlements, then move on to the villages, plains, forests, deserts, and then...
Twilight shook her head. She wasn’t going to waste her time calculating her future like this. For once in her life, she felt free from everything, even if for just this moment. Just this fraction of time that she can have to herself without worries. With a sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, she can be something other than Twilight Sparkle. Something other than the Princess’ protégé. Something other than...
Twilight’s tears burst forth once more when she remembered the friend she had lost. How could I have done that? she thought. It was only once, and it didn’t seem like that big of a problem...
The look on everypony’s face on that day would haunt her for the rest of her life. Twilight Sparkle: the pony that did nothing but good was now damned for being a pony that could only do wrong.
She wondered where her friends were. They should have been there once everypony noticed the fire. Why weren’t they there? she thought. Where was Spike? He should have been there! Why wasn’t anyone there during my time of need?
Twilight Sparkle couldn’t think about that right now. She could only focus on what was ahead of her: a solid path on an open field, and a great emptiness stretching out all the way to the horizon.
As Twilight began walking in the dark cold, she could hear the citizens of Ponyville screaming. She didn’t have to look back. The sounds were enough to judge what was happening. There was a loud rumbling and crackling as the tree finally collapsed in on itself. More screaming came as the flames were picked up by the wind. They finally managed to travel onto the house next to the library, followed by another one.
Twilight closed her eyes and continued forward, not wanting to look back, not wanting to think about what could have been.
Rainbow Dash went to visit her deceased friend at the cemetery, she fought and cursed under breath to hold whatever tears that may come. She traversed through the cemetery slowly to not interrupt the dead, Rainbow never had to deal with something like this before. In flight school, things were different. She had a different set of friends and most were all the more competitive for it, except possibly her friend Fluttershy. She liked Fluttershy, Fluttershy was nice. Gilda was more of an eye-sore but she often wondered what could have been if she hadn’t been chosen as defender of Equestria or the entire world for that matter.
Rainbow’s legs were heavy and her hooves attempted to be dead-locked with the ground. Fearing each step she took would overwhelm her brain, she tried to wrap this around her head. As Celestia as her witness she fought to treat this as any other day, but how could she? How could she go back to it? No one knew that some pony would commit a crime so vile that it result in her disappearance days after. Rainbow can hear the wind humming and the sound resonated a deep pillar of sorrow in her heart. She wanted to weep and wallow but couldn’t, she and everyone else kept their distance from Twilight after what happened. Spike would come by to Rarity’s often enough that he ended up living there almost. Rainbow would visit them and usually the others would either be there or tag along with her. They had to mourn over the loss of their friend, each shared a tear on their own time but maybe a good cry as a group could help ease the burden?
Rainbow met up with her friend and she kneeled down to stare at the once freshly made grave. She wished she got to look at the coffin once more, just a quick glance. That’s all she could’ve asked. She played her colorful mane to pass up the time, before offering it a few strokes then ruffling it up. “This is too weird.” She choked.
“I don’t even know what to say, I mean. I should know, but…” glancing at the letters carved on the stone. She felt her forehoof over it, the stone had a rough feel to it, seldom but nice. A fitting farewell for her friend. She wanted to touch the grave, the soft moist ground. She wanted to rip it up and steal her friend forever but couldn’t. Rainbow Dash could never do that, no matter how much she thought, it would be useless. Her friend was never coming back.
Those words, when staring at them, she couldn’t help but feel a sharp twinge in her back. It caused her wings to arch up like she was almost offended by this mishap.
A single tear rolled down her soft pudgy blue cheeks, she rubbed it off, then another, and another. She rubbed them off one by one, hoping to win against the heated tears that soon overfilled her eyes like a dam about burst. She didn’t want to feel pain, she didn’t want to lose. Rainbow had always came out on top, against past threats like bullies, ponies at school, her work mates and obvious foes like King Sombra and Nightmare Moon. She always won against everything that blocked her path. But how could she not beat this? How could she not have known what was staring directly at her for weeks prior to this incident. Was it intentional? Was there a reason behind it? She didn’t know, she was just a mare that liked a competition, she was just a pony that was loyal as the next gal. She was just a mare that seemed perfect on the outside but was the most vulnerable on the inside. Bottling all her feelings up through another playmate or through isolation. Or through substances, she usually found some way to steer her emotions aside from important obligations. Why couldn’t her friend do it then? She was always the responsible mare of the group, she didn’t look like the thieving or repulsive type.
Rainbow Dash shrugged it off, not wanting to face anything unorthodox or discomforting with her self-esteem today. She sniffled quietly and kept her head lowered. Her wings no longer hanged up high but instead followed what her emotions were going through.
Grief.
She no longer could stare at her friend with an unsure or blank expression anymore. All she wanted to do was mourn. Either cry right in front of her friend or cry alone up in Cloudsdale. She knew that it was going to be for hours, maybe until the night had passed, but she couldn’t stay here much longer. Rainbow sucked up the tears and snorted violently, shrugging off whatever feelings there were. She had to be strong for her friend, she had to be strong for the rest of her peers and she had to be strong for Twilight Sparkle. Wherever she may be, Dash was going to kill whoever destroyed her friend’s home. She wanted to get her friends riled up and go find Twilight before she was either killed or tortured, as strange as the anomalies were, anything seemed entirely possible now, once you’ve lost two friends. Your surroundings start to feel unhinged around you, you’re reality becomes trifled and your mind becomes inconsistent with everything that has happened. You try changing things, you try distorting whatever facts that have been laid in front of you in hopes of not believing. You’re life becomes caught in a crossfire between reality through fiction. Fact or the unexplained, it’s all a theory until you’ve given up on what you want to perceive as real and simply accept what has already happened.
Rainbow Dash was still caught in the crossfire but one day she’ll come to grips and make it back from this temporary feeling of despair because she has to. Rainbow Dash has to make it back if she can ever hope of being normal again.
“See ya…” she whispered, touching the stone again before departing.
Rainbow Dash fluttered her tail across the ground, ready to leave but couldn’t. She had to believe that she was ready, she had to believe that this was it. Rainbow Dash had to fight back whatever negativity that weighed on her shoulders if she was going to find some comforting at her home tonight.
She envisioned the substance in front of her, she licked her lips in determination. Wanting to feel that rush go down her throat, her wings felt uneasy and the fur on her wrist stood up. Her mind seemed aggravated of not receiving its daily medication. Rainbow’s wings lifted up, hanging high over her back, the weight of her wings felt nice, it was a good distraction from what was to come in the next few moments. She locked her eyes and her vision checked for anything in the sky, maybe she wanted to liven up Ponyville by initiating the sonic rainboom, having not fully decided between which one mattered more. She knew that both would equally cause a lot of pain either way, but for this second, Rainbow Dash had unlimited options.
She flared her wings and shot right up for the sky, whatever happens or what was going to happen soon she would be choosing between personal needs and personal satisfaction. Impressing ponies was always her strong virtue in life, but being alone with her thoughts was an almost definite win. Whatever it may be, whatever it can come to, she had all the time in the world.
Her wings sliced through the clouds effortlessly. Her determination was going to make big impacts on whatever side she chose but whatever she chose was going to have negative effects in the distant future. She knew it, her friend knew it and fate knew it.
“Come whatever may…” she whispered before fate chose her final act of redemption.
Twilight Sparkle traversed through the thick terrain inside the forest, with big vines peeking out in the open of the ground, old ruins degrading as the year washes by, and the moss feeding off of its remains.
Huge trees hang high in the air with a beautiful green to even out the moody colors down below, the trail she was walking on was overfilling with nature at its finest and it was hard to distinguish the two. Birds sounded off and the younglings that waited for their parents returned taunted and squawked at Twilight Sparkle into the night. The wind began to screech and halt the process every so often with its off-beat nature. It was going to be a cold night and she had to find somewhere quick.
The trail looked like it was never going to end, every few minutes it looked like a bright light would shine out in a distance and as soon as she ran to it and turned the corner, it would be pitch-black and unlike what she had previously perceived. Whenever she looked off in the far corner of her eye, she swore she could see some pony following and waiting to pounce her and when she turned around it would be a still silent forest. Twilight Sparkle couldn’t help with the smelly coat around her body, it had patches of brown and dark spots from the mud and grass. Her hooves haven’t fared better either, big sticky mud she had to slosh through the entire night and into the next.
Her purple fur needed a warm bath, she would have done whatever to retreat back into Ponyville to swipe a five minute shower but couldn’t risk the obvious.
The trees clung closely together and arched over her in one straight line throughout the entire trail, they resembled something you would see in a city like gargoyles staring at you. Twilight Sparkle mind was set however, she was going to find somewhere new to lay low for a little while. That is if Princess Celestia doesn’t issue a nationwide missing ponies report. It was a useless ploy to conjure up publicity but nevertheless, it was an evident outcome.
Twilight had to stop every few minutes to catch her breath and focus her vision just so she can trudge through the thick black forest. She wasn’t in the Everfree Forest she believed, but each stop only showed that she was clearly hallucinating. A whole day and a half without sleep, no food, water and completely exhausted from walking all day and night. She was suffering from a classic dose of hallucination. Maybe insomnia even, but all Twilight knew was that there was a constant light that beamed right into her face before flying up in the sky and dancing with the clouds before flying back down into the furthest corner of the forest and rinsed and repeat. It scared the poor mare and she tried not thinking about it, but there wasn’t anything else that comes to mind besides burning parts of Ponyville and destroying her friends’ lives.
The birds cackled even louder, they’ve even begun to laugh and speak with Twilight Sparkle and this only enhanced the experience that would ultimately haunt her for the rest of the night. They asked her why she created the problems that she made, to which her only reply was cursing back at them. They refuted the claim before continuing the long struggle of her journey across the forest. The noises grew louder and the sound of drums started beating away at her head, this infuriated her and only caused her more grief than she needed.
Twilight sought sleep, but she couldn’t sleep with this nonsense so she started running, just running to whatever direction so long as it was straight. She smacked her hooves on the thick grass and kept her head forward, the night was pure black at this point. The trees were so tightly knit together that it covered most of the sky and whatever that wasn’t covered was already dark. She used her horn to light up the way but the energy she had to make for it was too much for her beaten up body that to it would only cause her downfall. The noises had gone out but restarted every few minutes, it was like she was going in circles throughout the tortured event. The drumming stayed consistent but only matched the power of a loud cannon when the birds started laughing again.
She even stopped sweating because she was so dehydrated, Twilight tried to keep a leveled head but the noises never stop. They never want to stop, her heart rate grew faster and she begun to experience a minor anxiety attack. Twilight had to stop soon before she fainted, she was panting heavily but continued onwards with her quest.
Twilight Sparkle stopped dead in her tracks and slightly twitched before craning her head around her body. When she did, she was mortified to say the least, the noises grew closer because it was following her, literally following her the entire time. The trees looked a lot bigger than before and the birds were closer than ever. The noises howled and joked like demons of Tartarus, and the bellowed laughter of the birds screamed attention but she resisted and screamed before blasting off back into speed mode. She stomped and smashed whatever was in her path, she didn’t even know if she was still tagging along with the trail but it didn’t matter, whatever that was out there wanted her dead. She honestly believed that whatever was following her had a mindset to kill her.
Twilight scraped her knee on a bundle of thorn twigs and that only furthered her hallucination before trying to shoot magic out of her horn to stop the noises. Every instinct of her body told her to book it out of there and she thought it was going better than before, but all hopes and dreams of escaping this dreaded noise ended when she heard the loudest booming sound of her life. The indescribable noise petrified and shook her body to the core, when the noise sounded off once more. She stopped and her heart pounded faster and faster the entire way. The moment sounded like one great big monotonous drone that only heightened of what was to come.
Twilight Sparkle turned her head and what bestowed her was the drums itself, big loud thundering sounds crashed its way at her. She was shocked that this might be it. She might die right here, right now, and no pony would ever know.
She relaxed and for the first time she felt that she was ready, that maybe this was it. Maybe this was her way of bidding a final fitting farewell. The loud drumming sounds showed her prophecy and it declared that she was going to die, not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today.
Twilight asked one question and that was all she needed before it replied back.
“Is it my time? Am I going to die…” she asked in the quietest voice ever.
The drums stopped, two beating eyes opened up and she stepped back but kept her position firm. It looked around for a moment and got suited with the accompanied dark below. The drums were high in the air, and it didn’t have two but several eyes layered throughout in one big circle all staring at Twilight Sparkle.
The drums gave off a very faint growl before it made the biggest noise she has ever heard. The loudest sounds of her life rang four times, and the cycle repeated in her head. She blinked and it was gone. The drums were gone, the noise was gone and the cackling birds all left in its wake.
But it still never left her head she thought, she knew it would be back and whether it was going to come sooner or later. She didn’t want to be in this forest anymore, not ever again…
Twilight continued on walking back, not sure where she heading anymore but it still felt straight in her mind. She still saw the light occasionally playing with her and it would sometimes come right for her before stopping and fluttering off to the sky.
Her prophecy had waited, and it would wait until it was ready she thought. Twilight didn’t know how much further until that day arose, but until then. She was going to find civilization and try to start a new with or without the noise…
Spike walked back and forth in circles, he had been playing with his emotions for over an hour now, pondering over what happened last night. What was the cause of the fire? What were the reasons behind it? So much information, but so little time. All he knew was that things were about to get messy, quick.
Spike observed the wreckage of his beloved home, and took note of anything and everything that would have caused the fire. He knew that it started inside, but so many different avenues to go on that only made him wished more of his sister.
The whole event itself was almost a blur to him, he was sleeping and he woke up to get some water because his throat was extremely dry. After he struggled to reach the sink, he sought a different area of expertise and would ask Rarity for some water. This provided him a chance to wet his whistle and to see her precious face once more, though she hasn’t been exactly herself since the accident occurred. All seemed well until he smelled this thick smoke burrowing under the front door and fogging up the windows around the house. He then forgot about the water and decided to go outside himself, once out there he heard faint shouts and some screams that can be heard from all the way across town.
He instantly became frightful and was about to retreat when the brightest light occurred from the sky, Spike stood there in awe as he saw the amazingly vivid colors stretch out and corrode the thick clouds with its impressive layering of hot air, the light looked so beautiful that he watched it forever, his eyes stuck in a gaze. He sat down and watched it expand and expand until it couldn’t anymore, then it looked like the light was beginning to thin out and move back and forth with the sky, almost like northern lights up in the arctic. It danced and moved ever slowly that you couldn’t blink unless you wanted to miss the whole event. A drool trickled out of his mouth but he didn’t mind. The light was finally beginning to decrease and the dancing light fought to hold its place up in the air but quickly the clouds thickened and they became black with smoke. The night started to become darker than originally and that’s when he realized the screams again. The screams and cries bounced off the streets and echoed along the walls, the sounds were so conflicting, so disturbing and not of this world. He couldn’t understand why every pony was screaming, the noises demanded attention and attention it was going to get with or without its approval. The scales on his body stood up, the goose bumps on his purple skin hardened and some pony or something was yelling at him without his acknowledgement. It was Rarity and Sweetie Belle, they’ve been yelling and telling him to get up and find Twilight Sparkle because the fire was coming from their house. Sweetie Belle stayed behind his sister’s leg and watched him in a frightful look. She was so scared of Spike’s non-existent expression that it sent shivers down her puny spine. Rarity was afraid also because of the haunting look he portrayed.
He hadn’t even noticed that tears were filling up his eyelids, he finally snapped back in two when Rarity repeatedly shook his body back into reality. He looked into Rarity’s eyes and was horrified at her frightened expression, when he looked at Sweetie Belle cowering beside her, she too had that same look. Spike saw her dress looking not so perfect anymore while her mascara was beginning to run down her cheeks.
‘Had she been crying?’ Spike thought for a moment, he looked closer into her eyes and she nudged on Sweetie Belle to take one step back, “Spike…?” her voice trembled.
“Spike, a-are you…okay?” Rarity’s voice dropped.
Rarity shook her leg for Sweetie Belle to take another step back, she didn’t know what was up with Spike but he didn’t look like himself.
Her voice echoed throughout his ear canal and he tried memorizing the line every single time, it was as if he wasn’t in his body and that it was just a shell while he heard the screams from a distant becoming increasingly noticeable.
“Spike listen to me,” Rarity cooed. “You’re house is on fire and Twilight might need help, so could you stop with the staring!” she stomped her hoof into the ground, her expression quickly changed from frightened pony to the strong mare she was.
The noises were swirling around his head from all three sources; the fire, Rarity and the Ponyville citizens.
“SPIKE!” she yelled once more, Sweetie Belle feared that her sister was about to wreck her vocal chords with that pitch, but she didn’t say anything and kept her mouth shut.
The final word, his name, distorted and twisted around into a thousand sounds sounding slower and slower, the voice that implicated it finally broke up his long repetitive gaze that he slapped his face violently before asking them what’s happening.
Rarity and Sweetie Belle looked at him unsurely. Before Sweetie can reply, Rarity walked up in front of him and told him that his house was on fire. Spike eyes widened, without saying a word he arched forward and ran off to save his sister. Rarity and Sweetie Belle were about to tag along and that is when the fire arose over their roof, Rarity called back for Spike but he was long gone.
Just then two Pegasus ponies flew by, carrying their large pales of water and signaled support from other fellow Pegasus ponies nearby. They told her to stay out of fire and keep on all edges of the town like everyone else.
Spike kicked a rock across the dirt ground, the dust rose up in the air before descending back down. He was agitated by what was to come pretty soon, he didn’t know when. But he knew Princess Celestia was coming, he wished she could’ve known the day after it happened instead of procrastinating. Because that didn’t get them anywhere and now the Elements of Harmony could be forever broken. That was the least of his worries though, he was more worried about his sister Twilight. Things haven’t been going there way and now the rift between them was evident.
Every pony was stating that some pony had invaded and torched the library before they captured Twilight Sparkle and retreated outside of Ponyville, but where was the reason behind it? What was the motive he questioned time and time again this past day? He sighed before walking back to Applejack’s. He decided to stay one more minute and just let his mind drift, as if that hasn’t helped the situation but maybe thinking can ease the burden. Maybe, just maybe. He didn’t want to say anything to any pony but he wondered what if there was no home-invader, no thief, and no serial killer out there except Twilight Sparkle herself. What if she caused all of this, the great fire, the death, the isolation, the running away scheme? What if she orchestrated all of this for a reason, maybe something she hasn’t told any pony. Spike tinkered with that peculiar theory but was flabbergasted by thinking something so preposterous, so unorthodox, and so hurtful that if he ever mentioned this to any pony it would bring in a wave of rejection and possibly tears.
Whatever he thought, however. Whatever he had constructed outside of his head for hours, days, weeks and months, whatever it could be. It would just be a useless attempt to try because every pony around him would think nothing more of him than just some silly dragon.
“Twi-light…Twi-light…” a voice called out to her. Twilight struggled to open her eyes, unsure of what was calling out to her but the voice sounded familiar. She hesitated but was resilient on staying silent forever, if some pony knows she is here, than this might be it. If she were to go so soon, she’ll at least won’t have to hear the noises anymore.
“Twi-light…” the voice called once more, it sounded distinct, like she knew the mysterious pony from Ponyville. She had to, it seemed too obvious of a pony to not notice, and how could she possibly not forget this particular mare.
Twilight opened her eyes and there was a small bright light shining out in front of her. This beam of light was godly in its own way, the light shined out against the darkness that shrouded around the two ponies. She took a closer look and her legs and arms began convulsing, they throbbed, ached, felt absorbed by the lengthy exercise of the last two days, she was so dehydrated beyond this point. If there were any source of liquid nearby she might had to risk it, she sought to drink her own piss because she had read up before that it was completely healthy in its own fruity way. Nevertheless, the pain that convulsed throughout her body was something unimaginable and almost equally as unbearable. She couldn’t believe some pony like Applejack can get used to this sort of exercise, at least she wasn’t on the run for her life. Twilight was laying on her side throughout the entire ordeal. The voice called out once again, this time it was persistent.
Her surroundings wasn’t the most settling place be at, the trees arched over her while the thick green vines wrapped around the branches like monkeys swinging from tree to tree. This raunchy smell of bladder plugged her nose, the smell was atrocious that she tried investigating for the smells location but when she tried to steer her body upward a sharp pain pierced her upper spine. She groaned and tried to fight it off mentally but the pain was so unbearable that she made a low gurgle before cussing loudly as possible. Every fiber of her body told her that whatever was shiny out in the open was not the sunlight but in fact it was something created by magic, it had to have been.
“Ow! Ow! Ow!” Twilight faintly muttered, “why me…” sneering through her teeth.
She lifted her legs and finally sat upright, her mane was filled with clumps of dirt and mud, she felt her forehoof over slowly and it felt rough as gravel. Twilight felt uncomfortable between her knees as they sloshed through this cold liquid. Once she came to, she realized that it was her own piss, she must have unnoticeably emptied out her bladder after falling down from extreme exhaustion. Prior to this she knew where she was, or at least she thought she knew. Twilight heard the voice call out again, she snapped back in too and asked who it was.
“Twi-light…” the volume in her voice rose up and she said her name almost like she was in tune with music.
“What is it?” she stammered.
“Don’t you know?” the voice asked, almost insulted by this response.
“Why can’t I see you?” Twilight tried looking over and around the bright light, “Who are you, what do you want…”
“I’m really sorry this had to happen to you, I wished I could’ve known how you felt.” The voice lowered, feeling hopeless to the great Sparkle.
“Wait, wished?” Twilight asked, unsure of herself. “What’s going on, who the Tartarus are you anyway?!” she struggled on her hooves but soon got up and walked closer to the light.
“I wouldn’t do that, not for a second even…” the voice hummed, the light shifting backwards.
“Why am I hearing this noise?” Twilight finally announced, raising an eyebrow.
“So now you admit that the noises are real. Wonder how your friends would take it…”
“Hey, you don’t ge-”
“Even Celestia…” the voice whispered.
“That’s ENOUGH,” she shouted, struggling to hold back tears.
“What? Afraid, afraid of the inevitable, afraid of what is to come, oh Twilight, Twilight, Twilight. You should be ashamed of yourself,” stopping momentarily, realizing Twilight wasn’t going to reply, she merely just stood there and watched, not even blinking at the slightest.
“Now you’re not talking anymore? Your big fat gums had enough of your repulsive, witty, snide and sheer agony of an attitude.”
Twilight was still as a statue, unsure of what to do or how to respond. Her chest lowered and her shoulders no longer stood high and mighty against this unknown creature, instead she felt frail and weak as some emaciated pony. So many emotions traveled back and forth around her head, refreshing each time but never changing, she fought back the oncoming tears once more and simply gave the creature a wry look of despair before lowering her head.
“Good, very good, you need that. You’re going to need all the revitalization you can hope to achieve because if you venture out there, there, into the real world. Into whatever outside of Equestria goes through on a daily basis that doesn’t base its entire existence on love and harmony except they take life, they, the real ponies, the poor, the sick, the sickening, the vilified and the weak. They take life as real as it gets, unlike your one minded country called Equestria. The things your government, your princess, hides from you is so vast and enormous that if you were still the prissy, isolated, unnoticed student that you were, you, Twilight Sparkle. Could take all the knowledge and study it through your thick skull day by day and not notice a thing. Well you’re going to notice something now, because fantasy world is over and your life is going to begin. Whether you enjoy it or not, know this. Whatever is out there; Europonia, United Ponydom, Germaney, Ausponia – all those places. They live and breathe reality, and it’s something you’re going to have to do if you want to make it out of here.” The voice heavily breathed as it laid down its final words of reasoning.
“What…are you talking about?” Twilight asked, lifting her head back up, her violet colored eyes shined so innocently.
“You know what I mean!” the voice pierced.
Twilight and the light stood there in silence. Both weren’t keen to break the silence, but neither weren’t ready to stay here all day. The voice sighed, getting its composure together, the light grew brighter briefly before it dimmed. “I’m coming back, Twilight Sparkle. This won’t be our last chat, not even.”
“Wait, but when will we meet up again, tell me what’s all this about! Tell me why am I hearing the noises and tell me about my incident!” Twilight begged the mystical being for a legitimate response but to no avail, it procrastinated.
“All in due time, I can’t reveal all the facts that have already been out in the open far too long…” the voice soothingly addressed.
“All in due time, okay but tell me the noises, why do they keep at it?! Why am I still hearing them? I thought I was done with it all.” Twilight asked, walking even closer to the light.
“Don’t get to close if you know it’s for your own good.” The voice meekly replied.
“Why?! What are you, who are you, why do you have to be so anonymous.” She stuttered, trying to get out much information as she could.
“My, my lady. Don’t you know the meaning of all in due time? I’m guessing being clever was not always your strong virtue, but you’re Twilight Sparkle! Shouldn’t you not be the best at these things?”
“Cut out the sarcasm, I know what the meaning of clever is but you’re just stalling! So tell me. What. Are. Those. Noises…” Twilight transmitted everything perfectly from her own head, anxious on the being’s reply she took another step closer, cracking one ear wide open to not miss anything.
“I said stay back, look all I can say is that you have a good future, well, try to anyways. Nothing is ever going to be easy now, not anymore. You’ve given up that right once you did the things you’ve done. All I will say is that you make the best of it and we shall see each other sometime in the distant future, goodbye.” The voice finally cut out and the light was now shutting down.
“NO, no, no wait! Stop!” Twilight Sparkle squeaked as she jumped at the dying light, failing to connect she just fell onto the ground.
“No! No, no, it’s not fair! Why! WHY ME! WHY ME!” Twilight shouted before jumping off the ground and discharging magic from her horn at all angles.
“WHY HIDE! WHY! What’s the use you stupid, dull light, you stupid thing.” Twilight shouted out to the wilderness, not caring for what was or could be out there, ranting to nothing but the pitch black, spitting out anything that related to an insult at lightning speeds.
Tears were dripping down her sweated face, the smell of her coat all tarnished with dirt and mud, and stank of her body and the stress of not knowing had brought Twilight Sparkle to her lowest point ever.
She shot at the trees, the large green vines that had once draped over the tree branches were now torn apart by her powerful magic, the ground she rested her hooves on shook and the magic surging from her horn bounced all around the forest. Short flashes of purple ricocheted off the ground and pierced her skin, she screamed as she fell onto the ground, whimpering. Twilight coward backwards and watched as the razor sharp color coated the entire forest with its raging assault. The colors moved so violently that she couldn’t take her eyes off of it, watching aimlessly at the wonderful lights, all that raw power she ejected from her body, all that anger and stress was finally being rid of her for the time being.
The pain in her bones was faint, her muscles no longer felt stricken, and her arms and legs weren’t convulsing as much anymore. It’s like her entire body was finally having a moment to herself, she even shot a small blush at the marvelous colors bouncing in front of her. Twilight laid her head down on the ground, not even minding the slightest issue of the smell emitting around her body or the rough ground scratching at her neck. Twilight watched without worries, she stared at the sky and looked into the stars that scattered across space and time, wishing she had her telescope still, she glanced at the moon, the moon where her first real threat came from, the moon that her threat was banished from to only return a thousand years later. That moon sparked a lot of fond memories in her life, meeting new friends, moving into a wondrous town and appreciating the little things in life that didn’t involve weeks of study instead of just living in the moment like Celestia and her family constantly nagged at her for.
Twilight couldn’t think about that now, she began to wonder when she was ever going to find civilization again, it’s only been two days since her departure but it felt like months now. ‘Is this what really moving away feels like?’
For what seemed like forever was indeed only minutes since she sparked that jolt of purple energy. Twilight didn’t know how tomorrow was going to fare since she had absolutely no idea where she was, come to think of it, she really wished that she planned this out more. But being away from reality, being called out by the noise was what distracted her from thinking of important things like trying to find out where she was going to go. In this place, she was truly alone and there wasn’t anything she could do about it. But Twilight Sparkle knew this, soon, if she couldn’t find any sort of safe shelter that distanced itself from possible threats she was either going to die by the exhaustion or by the wilderness. Not entirely sure of what tomorrow was to come, she had to reserve her energy if she was going to make it out of here alive.
Twilight placed her forehoof over her head noticed that she no longer was sweating anymore, she stopped sweating. She knew it could mean that she was probably overheating and if that was the case, she needed to cool down fast. Twilight couldn’t have cared less anymore, she was so exhausted and more exhausted than she had ever been in her entire life. No pony should be cut out for this work, she debated on whether or not that she can possibly find any small patch of water on the ground or a pond nearby but it was so black out and her magic wasn’t going to be on forever, not to mention on how unpredictable it was becoming. The purple hail wasn’t even in her radius anymore, instead it had bounced away and the light was getting dimmer by the second.
Twilight made the conscience decision to sleep and wait until tomorrow, or today, or whatever this day was heading towards, be it tomorrow or in fact still today. She didn’t care, all she wanted was sleep and all she could’ve hoped for was a better tomorrow or today. She closed her eyes and turned over, she rubbed her arms vigorously to warm her body up as she soon got settled in her place. Twilight’s brain finally subsided with the ambiguous thoughts and her subconscious was melding into a perfect soundless sleep. Her imagination began running wild, she pictured her brother, her friends, and her all sitting around in an open field talking and watching Rainbow and Applejack going at each other’s throats on some zany competitive scheme again. The sun was beating sweat down their faces but that didn’t seem to bother them in the slightest, she remembered the picnic blanket they’ve always used, the simplicity of the checkered pattern colors reflecting off against the sun. Red and white they were, she envisioned the multitude of memories they would share together, their hopes and future dreams, their past mistakes that some were more willing to share than others. All of that was more worthwhile than the stack of books she usually reminisced occasionally when she was out with them.
Twilight finally washed up into the clouds with her wishful thoughts and dreamt of that wonderful day that would cease to ever exist again…
“My home is gone! My work is gone! All my magnificent work is gone, perished in those damn flames! I’ll rip anypony into pieces for whomever had done this to me!” Rarity stomping her muddy hooves over Applejack’s clean floor, Sweetie Belle took a few steps to the side of the kitchen to give her sister some space. Apple Bloom bursts through the kitchen door panting, her legs rundown by the lengthy jog she had just went through.
“Sweetie Belle! A-are…ya…oka-okay. Woo that was fun, ah mean…the…run,” Apple Bloom struggled to hold her breath, she placed her forehoof on her friends shoulder, panting and wheezing. She lowered her head and continued to breathe slower, the cramps in her body were becoming unpleasant.
“I’m fine. See,” she grabbed her friends head and revealed herself to her, body was fine, and arms, legs, and hooves were fine. Her mane still had that glossed shine that reflected against the sun.
“Are you okay? You seem a bit…tired.” She raised a wry eyebrow, and cocked open her ear to make sure she heard everything.
“Tired, Ah’m beat. How’s ya sister?” Apple Bloom asked kindly only to see the ugly side of Rarity across the room.
“I’m fine! Marvelous, and I’ll tell you something Apple Bloom! When somepony burns down your life and everything in it, come back to me and I will personally give you a life lesson on what I am going through right. This. Minute.” Rarity fumed before disparaging them as noise and faced the other end of the kitchen, forehoof over her face.
“A bit harsh, sis,” Sweetie Belle frowned, letting go of her friend before facing her uncontrollable sibling.
“Sorry, but when you’ve lost something you worked so hard to maintain, the integrity of that place, our home, our business, our life shall not be left under the rug and forgotten forever. If I seem rather upset, don’t think of it as negativity, think of it as something a mare needs to wallow about before she can begin the healing process.” Rarity responded before muttering under her breath, “the long, droning process of never forgetting…”
“Ya know, school’s out now!” Apple Bloom squeaked. “They closed it down and ah reckon it ain’t going be back up for a long time.” Giddy with excitement.
“Really?! I can’t believe it, crusading for the rest of our days now!” Sweetie raised her forehoof in the air for a hoof bump.
Apple Bloom cheered. “Now all we need is Scootaloo, she should’ve been here by now,” she looked over her shoulder and saw no pony through the open door that resembled her.
“You told her?” she asked.
“Yep, and ah thought she was right behind me, weird.” Apple Bloom scratched her head, ruffling up the bow that sat on top of her mane.
“I heard Sugarcube Corner is gone also?” Sweetie Belle whispered, nudging her friends arm.
“Ya, wait, ah thought ya knew already?” Turning to Sweetie Belle.
“No I didn’t. Me and my sister got outside of town before the fire engulfed our house with it.”
“Oh, well ahm sorry bout’ you’re home, ya can stay here as long as ya like.” Apple Bloom winced, cracking a smile for showmanship.
“Thank you Apple Bloom, so, uh, where do we sleep?” she asked.
“Ah don’t know, ah’ll have to wait until Granny says who can sleep where, ah think ya’ll be sleeping with me though.” Apple Bloom smiled.
“Awe that would be the best! Now with no school, we can have all the sleepovers we want!” boasting all the wonderful dreams that were sure to come.
“Sweetie Belle, listen.” Rarity brushed up against her sister, “Did you see Spike anywhere after what happened?”
“No, I didn’t. I hope he’s okay, though.”
“Was he with ya guys?” Apple Bloom curiously muttered.
“Yes, but.” Rarity rubbed her sister’s head before stopping still. “I wouldn’t call Spike off by any means but when we last saw him…” her voice went silent.
“He was, weird. Almost indefinitely.” Sweetie chipped in, moving closer to her sister.
“Girls,” Rarity kneeled down in front of them. “I have things to take care of in Ponyville, so I won’t be back for some time. You both be good now, alright?” lightly stroking her forehoof over Sweetie’s mane.
“We will.” Sweetie replied back.
“Okay then, bye girls.” Rarity sounded off before departing out the door.
“Bye Rarity!” Apple Bloom hollered out, waving her forehoof.
Rarity could still feel the hot air breezing over her white coat as she made her way into town. Despite what happened two days earlier, the events were a bit of sore in her eyes, unsure of who was to blame, undecided on what to do in Ponyville except being there for her friends. She was going to have to cancel all orders and requests now that her only source of income went up in smoke, she didn’t what she was going to do anymore. Maybe ask Celestia for a loan could suffice to her needs but she wasn’t entirely sure about making the deadline, though the alicorn has always been nice and wondrous to Twilight, maybe she can lean a bit of that kindness towards her own needs?
Rarity watched up at the fresh baby blue sky spreading as far as the eye can see, gray clouds were intruding on all corners of Ponyville and all she can remember from two days previously was the vivid orange colors flickering around the once tarnished black sky. It was cold that night, the rain had been beating down their roof hard and the shrieking sounds of thunder echoing through the walls was bleak and morbid in its own unique fashion.
She can remember the light beaming in the sky, Pegasus ponies zipping around it, trying to contain the fire. The screams became almost consistent with the shouts and curses from afar, they told her to get back to the outskirts where everyone would be safer. She watched as her home, her business, her life was being doused with buckets of water and storm clouds being puffed over it, but the smoke was too much, the clouds thickened and the sky grew dark so every Pegasus tried their best to maintain whatever they can but the fire soon grew to vast and expansive that the town turned into one great, big, ball of flame.
It took over a day and a half and almost every Pegasus pony around Equestria to eradicate that flame from spreading. The Ponyville Hospital had an emotionally difficult task to apprehend, daunting task in other words.
Rarity stood in front of her once prosperous business. So much memories and so many brilliant moments that went on in that place, memories that even photos can’t achieve with the same level of spark that her walls could. She remembered the many adventures that she and Sweetie use to conquer together, all those magnificent times and all their old bickering issues about work-related things brought a twinkle in her eye and a smile across her young face. The times she had with her friends were among the most splendid moments of her life, her encounters with famous artists and fashion designers throughout her tenure as a shop lady. She now contemplated on where her future was going now, limitless options pranced around her head and all she had to do was choose any particular one, but she was born to be a fashion designer, it was even what her cutie mark desired, and it was something she couldn’t turn her back on.
Rarity fixed her posture and raised her head up and took one more look at her home. The smell of burnt wood and the smoldering remains emptied out a single tear down her marshmallow cheek, she blew her mane away from her face and stood their proud of her achievements, proud of what she accomplished at such a young age and proud of the fact that she was able to do the things she did. Before walking off, she took a final glance at her furniture and her pieces of burned clothing hanging on a rack. She remembered the night when she designed those dresses for the girls before they set off into Canterlot for the gala. She wished she saved those before everything went in smoke, she wished for a lot of things that didn’t happen. She actually carried resentment for one of her friends now, something that seemed entirely impossible weeks ago.
Feeling a thick breeze, Twilight arched her legs up to her stomach, the jabbing feel of her kneecap was bearable enough. Gliding her arms forward she wrapped them tightly over legs, absorbing whatever warmth she could muster from her half-beat body.
She attempted to phase out the voice that had been confronting her before hoof; the only thing that matched the powers of this voice was the strong vigor of her odor. It had been a long couple days, and those days were beginning to feel repetitive. The thing that etched out quickly replied with the same hollow monotone voice and her spine tensed up at the cold wind gripping onto her skin. They felt like claws of a carnivore playing with its meal before ripping its prey from limb to limb. She kept her eyes sealed tight, her thoughts trickled around and about, and the smell of her stained scent was beginning to feel permanent with each passing minute. She had to hide, she needed a way out, but how? But above all. Twilight needed a way out of this forest.
‘You will see, the buildup is approaching,’ the voice snickered quietly, but just enough so Twilight could catch on to its rambling’s.
‘Will you get me out of here?’ Twilight bewildered, her voice scratchy, she manages to sit up and the claws finally release their tight grip on her spine. The wind dissipated, and she softly cracked open and eye before doing the same to the other. Afraid of what was ahead, she couldn’t hold out any longer, however. What she saw shocked her more than anything during her time in the woods, only, that it wasn’t the woods anymore. Where was she? Was she in a dream, was she hallucinating? Was she on drugs? This couldn’t be happening; only that it was? From where she laid, there was no dirt under her. There was no rocks pinching her from all sides and there wasn’t any tethered vines hanging on the century old trees from above. There was nothing? Nothing at all. Just a wooden floor, and a broken bricked house. From her position she was in the far corner of this room that looked like a two story building, because it felt like that it was off the ground. She struggled to her hooves, her stomach cramped up and she jerked back down once her muscles started tensing up. Where was this voice? This thing? She couldn’t see it anywhere; then again, the room looked like no one had lived in this building for decades. The walls were stripped off its old paper walls and peeks of the red bricked surfaced behind it. The wooden floor was a stripped mess, the center of the room was broken through and you could see the room below. She took several deep breaths while thinking up a solution to get out of this place. Why was she here? Who stole her? Some pony had come to murder her, or torture her? Or simply rape her. Probably hired by Celestia, Twilight Sparkle knew that this might’ve happened, after all, she did in fact, murder some pony.
A single drop of water blasted her back into reality when it splat on the tip of her nose before dripping down and onto her chest. She loosened up briefly. Unable to get her head straight, she stood on all four hooves and took another short glance at her surroundings. Candles rotted away on a table-stand, two wooden chairs placed on both sides of the velvet brown table. Traces of what appeared to be blood, or perhaps paint dragged in an irregular line across the room towards down the hall. The door smashed from outside, the hinges were bent back as far as it looked like it could go. Her back faced the windowsill behind her, but it was blocked by pieces of two by four all nailed tightly together.
Twilight began to move, but not before seeing piles of ripped open and closed letters splayed all over another table at the other end of the room. A single light bolted up above barely glimmered and it was what was keeping this room from going pitch black. She felt edged about those letters, blocking them from her train of thought she kept it one hoof at a time, making sure she didn’t fall through as her weight could collapse the floor below. She placed her right hoof outwards a little more and almost fell face first if it had not been for her cunning skills in magic holding onto a well-placed metal gray bar up above her. She exhaled a few deep breaths of relieve before soldering on. Twilight couldn’t give it a clear estimate as too how old this building and more importantly, this flooring was, but just from a quick decisive analysis; she assumed that this must have been at least a century old building. The design of it showed that it must have been built around the last century. So she knew that it could withstand a lot of weight, especially hers, but she didn’t know how much damage had occurred to this torn up building.
After a few more slow movements, Twilight Sparkle made a one swift leap across the door and successfully made it completely unscathed. At least before she heard a pinging loud crash. Behind her, the opposite side of the room’s wooden floor began to cave in unto the floor below. The building itself shifted downwards, and without any hesitation she bolted it across the hallway. Her heart felt like spears wielded by the Royal guards at Canterlot were jabbing it profusely, it felt like her chest was tightening her lungs, and her breathe felt constricted by the pressure of her surroundings. Her knees wobbled irregularly as she trekked through this collapsing hallway, she exhaled deeply and kept on running; old portraits of once-prosperous ponies hung on the crimson coated walls that continued forever, and ever. The light bulbs lined up neatly in a straight line all fizzled out as she ran through in a hurry. The voice was no longer calling her name in a somber tone, wherever it was, at least she had temporary closed it out with her feverish thoughts of despair.
The building twisted to a point that it was almost fracturing completely from the inside. The walls shook and the dusting pieces of art bounced off the wall like a ball and were either dragged along the floor by the beast of this home, or was simply swept under miscellaneous debris. The ceiling made a splitting sound up above her and an antique chandelier marbled with crystals and glass, and precise metal pieces shaped in a upper-middle class fashion swung back and forth by a thick-bronzed chain, the crack of the ceiling divided the priceless antique to choose its maker; crumbling into the abyss or hold onto the remnants of the century old-building. Cracking like fine split wood before being tumbled into a furnace, the ceiling cut right in half, and what appeared to be a one-way ticket down into six-feet under, the building made a final fitting shutter and came to a dead stop. Twilight, who by this point was just as terrified as the chandelier had already kneeled down onto her legs and closed her eyes with one forehoof. Unable to fathom, or comprehend, or even make the slightest remark as to what has happened, or the chain of events that had been happening for a while now. She gritted her teeth and hoped that any move she made wasn’t going to mean the end of her final breath.
Slowly, but surely, she crept the lower end of her right leg forwards in small, but firm bursts across the hall. Keeping her back lined up perfectly with the wall on the right side of the hall, she lowered the forehoof just enough to crack open her left eye, looking at where her leg was approaching she jerked back with too much force and the hallway made another shift, causing her to scream out of fear, the hallway twisted and turned before coming to another abrupt stop. Biting her wrist, she frantically nibbled it until the rapid chops of her teeth connected with her train of thought. Unable to speak, she eventually stopped and continued on just looking around for what felt like hours, was indeed a mere few minutes. Twilight glanced to the right and noticed the bright gray clouds through the windowsill gleaming ahead of her, and to her amazement and utter shock of both fear and hallucination. She noticed the same bright glow from far away, and it none other than the voice. The thing. The monster. The renegade. The voice of truth, the voice of lies, and the voice of a professional con-artist. But deep down, she knew that this voice, and her were connected more ways than one.
Twilight Sparkle had no help of getting out of here on her own, wherever she was at anyways. Suddenly the anger bubbled beneath her skin, and her temper was about to rage a storm far severe than the lights of what this building could muster. No longer feeling any sense of hope, she used her horn and fetched a three by six portrait that represented a fine stallion in a business suit and swatted it towards the windowsill, practically slamming and downing it. She abrasively continued with more and more pieces of painting, and debris, and whatever else represented any sort of object. All the while screaming very hoarsely at the top of her lungs, “NO MORE!” she spat the words out. Unleashing the spears from her throbbing heart, unleashing the guilt, and using whatever fiber within her body left that hadn’t completely eroded away against the voice that wouldn’t stop answering her own pondering questions. Choosing denial over certainty, she instigated and gave the most horrific yell of her entire existence, “GET.OUT.OF.MY.LIFE!” and bellowed out a huge roar of terror before snatching the chandelier and charging it through the dozens of objects that had already buried the window. Little peaks of the outside appeared, but apart from that, the room was a dark, hollow, empty shell of nothing. Finally breaking down in a sea of crying, weeping and watery sorrow over the loss of her old life, her friends, and her victim.
Barely able to move, she laid there motionless for an eternity of minutes. Dark thoughts slowly relocating their position, and her tangled up thoughts of despair soon retraced its once embedded footsteps. She cycled the world of her old time and time again, refreshing the days of what seemed like an eternity of endless fun and adventure, now felt like some other mare was living her body, eating her favorite food, hanging with her own friends, and living with her personal assistant. In the flash of a naked eye her life drastically changed, and it was all her fault. Twilight Sparkle took a solid look at the other end of the wall when she first escaped, and saw the black hallway staring down at her, waiting to pounce on her but blocked by the last glimpses of the gray sky peeking through the mangled debris. Her eyes were sunken in and she couldn’t decide on what would make her death easier. Facing the private secluded darkness of pitiless regret, or facing millions with a noose hanged around her neck, condemning her as an incompetent traitor to all of Equestria. Capital punishment was never employed after the official assimilation of all parts of Equestria centuries ago, but for a pony that killed one of the elements of harmony, and potential candidate for the heir of throne, and as Princess Celestia’s protégé. Things could change, if need be, and both decisions will destroy Twilight Sparkle forever.
She laid down on the right side of her hips, hunched up and tried warming up the best she could. Then she released her bowels all over her right leg, it seeped and peeked through every crack and cranny of the torn wooden floor before dripping towards the dark side of the hallway. Then she once more drifted off into her own fictional world, and slept sound fully.
I hang myself, for you I kill myself, for you I bleed myself, for you I dismember my connections from you I reek of deceit from you I loathe everything about myself, for you I speak to myself from you I scream my lungs out, for you I taste my tears, from you I hate myself, from you I rein death on my personal life for you I speak of nothing that matters, from you I hanged myself, I will hang myself…myself…everything…myself….myself…everything…out…get out…everything…shout…cry…hang myself…everything EVERYTHING!
I…will hang myself, for you
Twilight shoots back to life, the adrenaline in her body uplifts, her veins churn her blood like the effects of speed splicing through and manipulating your brain into submission. She sucks in a huge chunk of air down into her nostrils where it pillows on her lungs before answering back by exhaling through her mouth. She slowly wiggles around the dirty red carpet, her purple fur weaving through the rough, dry and stained patches of the carpet. Desperately trying to get up, her body doesn’t seem keen on the idea since it becomes partially impossible at attempting this daunting task. She digresses, and continues anyways with little success. The stress that her entire frame had suffered these last, whatever amount of days now had been causing her to slowly drag through this demeaning, pitiful, and delirious state. It was more than that, however. Her brain has been toying with her very own emotions for so long now that she was dissolving into a numb-minded path and discovering her surroundings as fact, rather than fiction.
Twilight Sparkle finally stood up, her hooves already wanting to give away, she plods through the empty hallway - struggling to understand why was she here - and how did she appear in this slum.
Her hind-legs drag along with her hooves in an irregular fashion; if any pony had noticed her sly expression as she slugged her way down the hall, they would have condemned her as a mental patient nodded out on drugs. She seemed out of mind, but still kept a firm tug on her insanity otherwise she would have not lasted this long. Twilight slowly turned her frame around the corner, her spine ceasing to go on. She’s about to collapse at this point, her body refusing to believe any hope could come out of this ridden-squaller. Her shoulders twitched as if the muscles in them contracted and suddenly became tightened as a result. Convulsing now, it felt as if hot serrated knives stabbed through every inch of her fatigued limbs that it was like fire caressing her entire arm while the knives picked at them like s'mores on a stick diving into a bond fire.
It was pitch black, and that only fueled the many reasons not to do anything and accept that this abandoned home was her grave - and her tomb. A grave dug out only for her to fill up; life was slipping between the palms of her hooves, and reality was further being driven down into a spiral of a bleak, non-existent black entity that which. In her delirious state, was soon becoming her own self refusing to wake up from a dream far more severe than any capital punishment could fully exercise with complete discretion.
Twilight Sparkle could hear faint chirps of laughter's and pained cries cackling in her skull while the sounds of the heavy wind outside hollowed and barked it’s way through the empty walls. Hoping to shine indoors. Then, finally, she saw it. A little dash of light flowing through a cracked wall, submerging over and layering itself over the dead two-by-four’s nailed over the open crack; and the crusty carpet. A tear was about to drench her cheek while her face supplanted into perpetual shock as she realized that light could still shine through a dark wound.
Love of life, she thought, smoothly. Dragging her hooves through the wooden floor she didn’t care how many slivers her hooves would succumb to because with a light shining through this darkness, she knew that something was watching out for her. Begging for her to understand. The wind whistled louder as her body drew near it’s sorrowful tune. Warning her not to come near, it only grew louder with each step of her hoof. Her speed gradually picking up pace, she marched into the light with the absolute determination in mind. A prophecy wanted her presence. No. Needed her presence, her flesh in form. Her purple-coated fur, her smart wit, her hunger for knowledge. It needed her life source, badly. If something went through all this trouble to shine through her own dark matter, than so be it she shall prevail and answer the calling of her prophecy with the brightest smile in mind. And a deep satisfaction in pursuit, also.
Twilight Sparkle, walked through the light. Walking hoof and hoof into extinction, she knew that there was no turning back now. The sounds in her head only grew, the loud laughs died down for an old formidable foe in mind. The sound of drums quietly reprised and hummingly tuned it’s way into the massive volumes of sound that blistered and soaked her mind consequently. She knew that this was it.
Twilight walked through and ripped open the pieces of two-by-four one by one. Sporadically she twisted and turned her body all around as the hot knives dug into her tender flesh, she didn’t care anymore. Ripping everything into two, she met her eyes with the golden light, like the light met with her tear sunken face. She wanted to cry in bliss as the light dawned on her frame and cleansed her body whole. Her mind riddled with so many questions was soon to be deleted and forgotten along with several other parts of history. Her history as a murderer were soon to be erased. Her life in reel of these past few days, weeks, years, whatever she was in. Were soon to be rewritten in history and fact and fiction were about to become intertwined and divided and textured back together in one endeavour bent on setting things right. Her life before her eyes were about to meet with an unprecedented hero in disguise as she slashed her way through the wall, arms and legs trembling. Twilight Sparkle was about to see life as it was never before seen. A life where she was living normally in Ponyville, and not hovering afloat in the air while a thousand others wallowed over the death of one of the elements. A death she did not take, now, she believed. A death that never happened, and a death that was soon to have never existed beyond a fantasy. A fantasy her mind played on her from the beginning. A fantasy she believed that wouldn’t happen by her own hooves slowly did. A fantasy she secretly knew would happen, but chose not to think so.
Twilight lifted the final pieces of wood with her hooves and threw it across the wall, scraping the checkered coated wall-paper before plummeting onto the floor.
She took a breath of revitalization and dunked her head through the now-opened wall and smelled the wonderful air and what life had to offer in this brilliant world. As she slowly cracked each eye individually, she was almost in bliss of what she saw down below. Well, what she believed was down below, however, turned out to be something of which no pony could possibly dream of.
Twilight Sparkle was in the air, or more appropriately speaking. She was stuck in the air, out of sight, out of mind, out of life’s reach. No pony knew she was here, but that meant no pony could ever know that she was here. Her hopes and fragile dreams were slowly torn down into asunder one by one. Both sides traded fact for fiction, but never agreeing on believing just one. Her monotonous walls of sounds and noise stopped short right this moment. Perhaps, wanting her to wrap her diluted brain around this eerie fact of reality. A reality she had already wished no pony should ever portray themselves in. She swooned her head forward, then towards the right and swam it back to the left, finally she used the force of her head and the strength of her forehooves, her hooves dug into the floor. With the whisk of her horn she created a bubble, a big bubble between the tip of her horn and the wall and used it as leverage to force the weight of her body back against the wall behind her. slamming herself to the furthest of the hallway, possible. She fell into complete, utter darkness, the abyssal desolate area couldn't have been more welcoming to her frightened eyes. With her hooves remaining as the last of her body to only graze the golden light, wanting to suck on it’s taste once more. She whammed her arms into the floor, her skin coming back as small, but sharp scrapes each time she had done it. Her forehooves dug into the floor and never wanting to let go. She began screaming, cackling with her deranged thoughts and laughing hysterically with the sounds that protruded before her all inside her delusionized mind. Spit sputtered out of her mouth, followed by cursing, belting, and berating of herself for ever believing in such a fairy tale.
That was when she stopped dead in her soul. Her mind still screamed and painted insanity all over herself, but her body and mind didn’t connect this coherently enough as she sat there looking up at another light. A far better one, at that. Just shining so powerfully that you had to be a cold-blooded killer in order to understand it’s sheer complexity and animosity with the world. A clear head for starters, but that would soon subside as she arched her body upwards slowly, making sure not to miss a second of this her eyes were tied together with the rays of light. The golden flakes of the beams bounced off anything, and everything it could. Shining at several parts of the room, but residing in the middle so perfectly, quietly, calming that it only asked questions that she, too, was asking herself. She thought, that. Asking these certain questions could redeem and be enough to beg for her forgiveness, and the rays of light complied.
Twilight Sparkle walked up to it, closer and closer it began. The numbing sounds perpetrating her head even shutted up for this instance. This brief amount of time showed her that her own mutated thoughts even wanted answers on these long lost questions.
Twilight walked further and further into the light, and a layer of stairs unveiled itself through the blinding power of this life source. She placed hoof to hoof, body to body on each step, a ball of spit she sucked down made her realize that every choice comes with every sacrifice. No matter on how bad it could get, she elevated the thoughts and let them flutter on while she stuck to her mission of intent. The intent to get answers, and the intent to free herself from her own diseases.
A figure finally appeared. Appearing larger than life, it was black and off towards the distance, the light that she had been bleeding and itching with so much intensity spit and heckled the being that stood afar from their feeble presence. It was none other than Princess Luna, and what she had seen from Twilight was a story far more horrid than any pony should have ever laid their eyes upon.
Cold. The blinding, howling cold cackles into the night; so thick and visible it can make anyone feel isolated by its sheer velocity. Twilight Sparkle didn't know where she was, or what she was doing now. She was so caught up in trying to get out that she never got the real chance to understand her surroundings. Though, now she'll have all the time to contemplate her next move while Luna grills her about her actions. Disconsolate she was, staring down at who used to stand up for so much; bringing massive attention with the whisk of her magic, Twilight Sparkle was demoralized and low-spirited now. And she never really bared the chance to really think of what she had done beforehand, because everything happened so fast. Like at the speed of light, one minute somepony is dead; next dealing with the loss and the sounds starting to come back. Those sounds. The sound of drums beating like a rapid heart; beating, pulsing, blood pumping in and out. The delusions, the fear of her friend coming back to murder her; the glowing bright light questioning her motives. All for what? A prophecy, a gloomy response to her eventual death? What was it? Why were these signs all calling to her now? What was she missing; what was she forgetting; a missing piece? A missing puzzle, was this like a castle of cards and one wrong pull could result in it collapsing? It would be a collapse she couldn't risk for anyone; not even her own self.
The loud sounds no longer clanged and rattled at her ears. Nor the glowing light of wisdom showered across her tired, rundown face. Now she was stuck in a limbo; a state of levitation at a fixed height. Where was she? Was this thing coming back for her? Did it have a title of sorts so she can identify in her muddled state of sedate; was she piqued by the interest of some mysterious being, some...'shadow'. She didn't know, and what was more concrete in her mind was that she didn't really have the energy to care. Like a predator hunting the prey that slowly barks the conclusion to itself that it will never be free from it's claws. She didn't have the feeling to really care about her situation because she was so tired of trying...
Trying to what?
Trying to run away?
To be left alone with her overabundance of thought...
With the last of her ill-fated strength she fired up whatever brain power she could muster during the moment, and tried to figure out what she was running from. Fear always played with her subconscious, and with that, it fueled her drive to get to her as far away as Ponyville. To abandon the help that was readily available to her. Was she not? She stood in this faint, cloudy, divine sparked not by her incoherent thought, or the mysterious light, but from a pony she never quite expected to see.
Twilight bit her lip and wanted to walk backwards, but feared of falling off this levitation spell; which she naturally assumed it was. During this moment, she tried to hide the image in front of her by stuffing her mind with past events of these grueling hours she had been gone. Or was it days? She wasn't sure anymore, but the idea of re-discovering her movements shocked her. She realized she must have been super delirious because all of this shouldn't be real. It should not exist. At all. But it did. And it felt more real than she could imagine, and adding to her running act, she had definitely made quite an impact on her friends alone; if they hadn't found out already. There was though, she heard the light drizzle creeping behind herself before she noticed a mirror in front of her now. Where was this pony she knew so well moments ago? Did she just vanished? And what became of her, she piqued intriguingly, but soon got back to the mirror in front of her. It had a white frame and a glistering sparkle to the mirror itself.
She stared in a somewhat gaze, her eyes gawking at it like a little filly at a candy store. She stared in complete, and utter amazement; which turned into disgust once she had a visualized look at her body. It was dirty, and stuffed with brown and black patches around the chest down. Her neck was so discolored like some big animal came and chocked her with its dirty paws instead. Her mane complimented her abysmal frame with clumps of dirt and mud packed tightly between the split ends of her once-flourishing hair. That she no longer represented a Twilight Sparkle, but showed a darker, vigorous and patchy side of Twilight Sparkle that she never recognized. No pony would know her from the jump if they saw her like this. She noticed that she had quite grown some muscle, especially around her hind legs. Her shoulders looked awkwardly broader than usual. And she vaguely noticed that her height might have increased within the last while. The more she stared, the more she fell into a weird trance of herself. Visualizing herself as some ferocious, but independent and out-standing leader. Fighting the good fight, but she hasn't felt that way in a long time. It was something that was harshly cut off by the sudden hunger pains in her body. She hadn't eaten for a good while now, and she would soon be getting desperate if she didn't make time to look for something now. But with being stuck up somewhere, she dared not to move otherwise she was afraid of falling to her death. A death that sounded easy, but not smart. No. She looked around for anything that could resemble the mare she saw only momentarily ago. And her surroundings were covered with a misty hollow glow in the air, almost as still as a rock; she turned her head as far as she could to see a running stream pounding and slamming the rocks below at the quietest of sounds. The view from her angle was slightly uncomfortable, but felt amazing to see something so pure, and natural just sitting there and doing mother-nature's work. It had been a deal-breaker to see something like this in these trying times. But for her, it ended quicker than she would have anticipated when she turned back to see the mirror changed with the bright light again. Where this being left to, and came from was unimportant to her already diluted stage that she only could look in an angry shock. She realized she could run right here, and forget this being, but she stood still mainly because of her previous fright to falling off the world.
The being merely hung there, no emotions to indicate it's tell of thought. Nothing to signify it as a alive, nor dead. But it just hung there, glimmering like the hot sun in the middle of day. The air around her felt suddenly warmer by the thought before dissipating into the thin cold of nothingness like it had been all along. The being finally got a word etch-wise to the ambiguous Twilight Sparkle.
"Do you feel different?" It asked amusingly.
Twilight looked puzzled, then meekly showed little sympathy for the line of questioning, "What?"
"Do you. Feel. Different." This time it asked more directly, with a little venom tickling its artificial tongue.
"Why ask?" Her voice quieted a little, she stared down a little and watched as her legs desperately tried to curl itself into a knot.
"Because it's important. Its relevant to our ongoing discussion." It reassured Twilight, tried to anyways.
"Look, you keep showing up at my worst. So that must be a sign," Twilight replied back, before lowering her voice to the point of being near inaudible, "Right?" Squeaking as she said it.
The being looked at vacuous as it did, but it saw right through Twilight Sparkle. And once more; it saw her future and both the goods and bad's that came with it. It was all in the matter of when Twilight's number would come up.
"Well, you've still got half a brain in you, I suppose. Can't deny that..." the being agreed, wholeheartedly.
"Why must show up, though? I don't understand that. Let alone do I understand why I am being subjected to your little mind games," She opened herself up to this familiar beam of light.
"I am here as a guidance, and as a teller of yourself." it replied.
"Why?! Why do you do this to me, just leave me alone. Leave me alone, and stop this all. Or explain the truth of why am I here. Why am I doing all these things, and why did I leave Ponyville! Huh! Because your money is as good as mine. I have no idea! So tell me. Just tell me!" At that point Twilight could no longer remain still and simply fell to the air. But she didn't fall like she expected, no, she simply sat still on the air. That was when she came to realize that she was stuck up in the sky.
"I can't reveal all the doors that haven't been open by you, yet." The being replied calmly once more.
"Yeah, but-"
"But I can tell you, that everything in your life will be resolved soon enough. It's just a matter of finding your number..."
"Number? What, wait, wait, don't go!" Twilight immediately started to breakdown in a fit of confusion and rage. "Please, I...."
The being started to fade through the mirror and before she knew it, it had been swallowed by this mysterious mirror.
"Hello! Hello! No, please," She whimpered incoherently as she tried to grasp on to any sort of understanding. "Don't go! PLEASE DON'T GO AWAY FROM ME!" she quivered and murmured a few, final words as her hung over her chest; legs crossed; rambling like somepony who just witnessed some other pony die. Uncontrolled and unrestrained by anything to keep her calmed down, she merely sat there and wallowed in anger....
Luna looked at her grimly at first, before it turned into a state of pity. Seeing her so lost, and confused, and tormented with her own thoughts inside her own hallucination spell. She was quite lucky enough to find her, and she had been playing with her for a little while now. She planned on turning her over, soon enough. But needed to find the source. The juice. The root of her problem, was it eternal demons? She hasn't seen this kind of hate for so long since the days before her millennial exile. But this seemed too crudely familiar....
Was Luna being tested to see if she could truly be labeled as the protector that Celestia needed; also the sister she wanted by her side through thick and thin. This felt like Twilight's situation was being chosen for Luna's faith to be put to the test. And the real damaging part is to either submit Twilight Sparkle; Celestia's favorite and most successful student to her. Or not do that and spare Celestia's sanity by keeping Twilight Sparkle alive, but losing her faith to Celestia and Equestria. Luna had to cautiously think about this, and she had a lot of planning to do. She would not sleep for the night, and neither would Twilight Sparkle as she sat in the woods crying and muttering to herself while stuck in a mind-numbing stage. Luna didn't worry because she was not far from her bait, but she knew nothing would really happen to Twilight because they were far enough away that no one in Equestria would ever know of their existence....
