A brony gets into a rather bizarre adventure when fever makes him see ponies in more than one way.
"I was your average guy who is trying to move on with his life. I was living with an old friend of mine in his apartment after his parents... I don't know what happened to them, but I remember that the guy went away for a while; he did leave me some money for food and rent, so I'm guessing that he'll be back someday. To be honest, I'm not too sure of that, either. From there, I just tried to live normally. To make this long story short: in my free time I met the ponies, and got sort of interested in the whole show. After a few days of seeing them whenever I got the time, I started to see them in different ways: Yes, I mean in the hallucinations that come with this fever that just appeared and that I dislike so much. Not that I hate them, but I don't think I like them too much, either... Especially not after what has happened... Honestly, I think I'd like to forget all of this."
Good day, whoever it's the one that's reading this. By some unknown reason, I've ended up here and, to be completely honest, I don't think I'd like to waste your time at explaining such an insignificant, and also irrelevant, detail like all the factors that have weighed in to take me where I am now.
My name is Matt. To say the truth, my name isn't too important either, but I've been told that I need to tell readers about myself before starting to narrate a story, and that's what I'll do: I'm of average height and I limp a little. Yes, I know you have little to no information to work with, but believe me, it'll be more than enough: after all, I'm not here to talk about me, so I might just fast-forward to the important parts right away.
Around 3 weeks ago, I was hit a fever that hasn't really gone away yet. It's one of those fevers that come with bonus hallucinations, which are actually pretty common for me. Due to the fact that it's all normal, I had decided to work in a log of my visions. I mean, I've done it before: that's from where I get some of the ideas in my drawings. I can imagine that none of you are truly interested in reading some of those ramblings, so I took the time to fancy up some of those entries: the ones pertaining to pony-related visions. Eeyup, pony visions. They aren't as great as you would imagine, however. Well, I guess I'd have to go from the start of all of this, so I'll try to make it fast...
It happened at night, it was around 11 PM and I was sweating like nobody's business. I knew very well that I had caught a fever and the only thing I wanted was to rest at least a bit. My eyes were glued to the ceiling as my mind was stuck on the fact that it seemed like there was no sleep scheduled for that one night. My sight ran across the ceiling before bumping against the moon behind the window glass. When my eyes finally could focus on it, I realized that it was approaching with a troubling speed. Baffled by the sight, my eyes ran back towards a random point on the ceiling, only to find it maybe two times closer to me than it should be. For some strange reason, I didn't even try to close my eyes to shield my mind from the insanity, because I can clearly remember that the ceiling did nothing but to zoom over me as my breathing started to become increasingly agitated, and increasingly obstructed as well.
As if I had asked for one, I felt a sneeze approaching. My mind was still parted about if it was good or not, but it seemed inevitable and a part of me felt like there was no way out: I'll leave out unnecessary details, so I'll just say that the sneeze forced my eyes shut and I did my best to keep them that way. And then, in root of pure dumb luck (keyword being dumb) I managed to keep my eyes out of that awful stuff that always happens whenever I get sick.
I heard the door open but brushed it off as just another figment of my mind. A distant chuckle could be made out between deafening noises that I must say that came out of nowhere. Weirded out by the situation, I was about to jump out of bed as see what was happening but at the same time, the door closed with a crash and the noise was gone, leaving nothing behind but an almost silent sound of hooves against a hard surface.
I don't remember anything else from that night, but I guess nothing else happened, so let's just say that I managed to fall asleep after those events, even when considering the asphyxiating conditions of my respiration system.
The day after that baffling event, I woke up coughing, which isn't anything too out of the ordinary when you're sick. It was a pretty asphyxiating cough, however, but luckily, it went away rather swiftly.
After that forced awakening, I looked up to the ceiling once again, wondering what had happened the night before. Everything seemed so normal in that moment; I refused to believe that last night had been real.
Almost at the same time, I heard the sound of hooves once again, the same sound I had heard when I fell asleep. Puzzled, I tried to find the source of the sound, but my body didn't feel too well and insisted in staying in bed for a long, long while.
After feeling my own body stab me with pain, I directed my eyes towards the ceiling once again, as if to contemplate my absolute misery in that position.
"Nothing will happen..." I said some after that. I spoke too soon, it seems, because the sound of hooves returned, stronger than before. It sounded a little different, though: it sounded more like hooves against dirt or sand, as opposed to something like concrete in the other two occasions.
And then it hit me.
On the corner of my room, on the ceiling, a tree was growing. It didn't seem any similar to real life trees, but it sure looked like the trees from the show. It was an orange tree, or brown, whatever you want to call it; it was just an autumnal tree, which stood out by the fact that it was a little too bright.
And then, right next to it, appeared a second tree, identical to the first. I moved my eyes towards a random spot on the ceiling, trying to put away those thoughts and vision, but to no avail: wherever it was that my eyes were directed, nothing but trees appeared.
After a long while of baffled eye movements and spontaneous blooming, I noticed a path were there was no trees to speak of, just an empty space.
The sound of hooves against the dirt came a second time, but only seemed to get louder with every passing second, instead of fading away like in other occasions.
But the weirdest was just about to happen: as soon as I noticed that line with the lack of trees, I heard a distant rumbling, not different from the one that trucks do, getting louder and louder.
I left out a simple but communicating ‘huh?’ before seeing something stranger even:
There were leaves falling from the ceiling. The tiny trees were dropping their leaves all over my bedroom, making it seem like a snowfall, but of fire. The effect looked cool now that I look back on it, but in that moment it was something that made me question my sanity with worrying frequency.
After some seconds of my progressively agitating breath, I heard a voice that was a little too familiar:
"Yes, and grudge rhymes with fudge!"
I don't think there's a word that could express my feelings in that very instant, but it was certainly the strangest moment of the last week, or maybe the entire month.
I asked to the ceiling, and I'm not even joking:
"Where are you, Pinkie?"
Looking back on it, that must have been the least smart moment of my entire life. I completely knew I was hallucinating, but still asked a pastel-colored pony if she was hiding somewhere.
I think there should be an award for that kind of delusion.
I think nothing but a few seconds passed when I could distinguish two figures between the trees, running together. It was pretty obvious then, and it’s even more obvious now: Rainbow Dash and Applejack.
They were running on my ceiling.
Upside down.
While leaves fell on my bed.
My mind noticed that two last details for too long of a time, seeing as I barely missed something very important:
A tiny stone on my ceiling seemed to be in Applejack’s path, just like in the show.
While I did try to tell her about it, what purpose would it have served? It would have been senseless, but it would have been at least something; at least I was enjoying that sickening insanity instead of being terrified by it like yesterday.
Before I could talk, Applejack tripped over the stone, that was pretty big considering their sizes, and flew off the ceiling, towards me, growing as she approached me. My mind had a little bit of a conflict there: should I have felt scared? Surprised? Interested? It didn’t seem to make up his own mind, and Applejack was still falling towards me.
She landed on the bed with a thud, beside me. She was completely motionless after that. I spun myself around to get a better look at her, but only realized I was on the edge on the bed after that: with my spin of ‘are you okay, Applejack?’ I only managed to get myself out of bed with a fall.
My body touched the cold ceramic floor, and in that moment, I officially woke up: every single vision was dispelled, only one thing remaining: Applejack was still on the bed. Well, not really the Applejack that had fallen, but a figurine of her. I bought her like five days ago, if I’m not wrong. Five days, which is around the same time I’ve spent with this fever.
After groaning in pain from the sudden freezing welcome the floor gave me, I managed to stand up and went towards the kitchen to get something like an aspirin for the horrible headache that had been messing with me since last night.
After that, I tried to at least wash my hands and my face, to see if I could really wake up after that trippy vision.
My respiration was still having a pretty difficult time, but I think it started to get better: the fever hadn’t really struck me yet, and I was really grateful for it.
From that time, which was around 11 AM, up until a few hours after lunch, around 4 PM, everything went just fine. The only thing that really threw me off was the fact that my entire body ached and I couldn’t really react to things like I normally would: I broke three eggs because of that, and I could barely clean up that mess without feeling dizzier than Rainbow Dash when she went against Trixie.
Of course, not everything went too well that day... and now that we're talking about Rainbow Dash, I think she'd like to hear the tale coming up...
I was just sitting there, minding my own business while trying my best to stay awake, which honestly didn't really go too well, when, all out of a sudden, a strange smell and flavor took over my senses. It felt like... I don't know; I don't have anything to describe it just well, but coffee with apples would be pretty near. It was a pretty much disgusting flavor, but managed to spark up interest on me just fine.
I tried to stand up to... I don't know, either. I can't remember too well what I was going to do exactly, but I do remember not being able to stand up from where I was.
I started to feel really tired and sleepy out of a sudden, sitting in the living room. At a side, the window was opened, and the cool breeze helped me relieve the awful heat that I was feeling in that moment. The clouds were just nice enough to block out the sun from time to time, so it was a really good weather. Maybe because of that, maybe not, I just fell asleep on the couch, mumbling something like 'I'd like a double happy', which isn't something I've made up in this very moment: I can completely recall myself saying that.
So anyway, I closed my eyes and then, I was completely, completely lost in a haze of... of... okay, I don't remember that too much, but it felt real nice.
Some seconds later, I opened my eyes again. Everything seemed normal, and I tried to get up again and go out for a walk. I could feel myself getting sicker by the second and unless something truly magic happened, I wouldn't get any healthier.
...Well, try to guess what kind of thing happened next...
Like I said, I opened up my eyes again, trying to just stand up, which was something that proved to be a little too difficult in that moment; I just stayed on the couch, which wasn't too bad either, contemplating my increasing sickness. By the time I noticed that something was wrong, I couldn't tell if I was asleep or awake. My best guess is asleep, though.
That trademark sound of hooves against wood appeared in the distance once again, getting closer at a worrying speed. I sighed with frustration, asking myself if there was going to be a moment where no weird stuff happened to me and I could finally get some rest, which was what I really wanted.
A 'hyah!' could be heard just an instant later; it sounded like a pony, but who...?
Well, I think I had such a short time window I didn't even finish that question in that moment, because as soon I slowly opened my eyes, I could clearly see a tiny Daring Do making way through my living room on a rope that started on the lightbulb at the ceiling, with origins I won't even begin to question.
As she neared a wall that I certainly didn't remember seeing before, she extended her right wing as she jumped, making a sharp turn that I'm really sure it's not possible, and landed with a thud over a little table that contained some papers, sliding over them until she had to jump a few times back to the center, making said papers fly off with every chance she got to stand over the table itself. When the little tower of letters and other things was completely demolished, papers scattered about on the floor, she appeared to be looking for something, as her ears perked up at the slightest blow of wind, turning her head to recognize every single detail of the room.
Apparently, she didn't see me, because she passed her eyes over to the place I was sitting in some times, and either didn’t take it as something out of the ordinary or just couldn't see me there.
"The Griffon's Goblet, huh..." she muttered beneath her breath, a confident smirk appearing on her face. "Should be around here, if I'm not wrong..."
She threw her hat up in the air and caught it between her teeth, looking directly to the other side of the room. She mumbled something about distance and Magnus Effect, as she begun to estimate the correct trajectory her hat would have to take in order to... I don't know, do something, or something like that.
After gesturing some routes with her hoof, she threw the hat like a Frisbee, the headgear flying through the air in a clean curve, finally reaching a wall, leaving out a click sound when it did. She grinned with pride. After that click, the sound of metal chains scraping against something could be heard on the distance, as the hat just fell down to the floor of my living room.
She directed her eyes towards the ceiling, her confident smirk turning into an expression of doubt.
"Did anything happen...?" she asked nopony in particular, before noticing something: the ceiling seemed to be slowly decreasing.
And because it seems that everything wants to her dead, the ceiling grew spikes just a second later. For some strange reason, I didn't think of what was going to happen to me, given that I was a little too carried away with Daring's movements.
"Wrong switch, wrong switch..." she said, a hint of fear on her voice. Before some seconds of herself pacing around the little table, she just jumped and took flight, directing herself towards her trusty hat and, at the same time, spotting a hole in the ceiling that I’m pretty sure didn't exist some instants before.
...I think I got a little too carried away while looking at that hole in the ceiling because before I could even notice how, she was gone and I was left alone with the rather rapidly lowering ceiling. I... can't remember anything that happened after that very moment, but I guess I somehow survived, given how the fact that I am currently writing this.
What I can actually remember, though, was having dinner in a complete silence, sweatier than a pig wrangler on a summer's day.
After eating and drinking, even when I couldn't taste any of it, I just went to my room, locked the door for no apparent reason and threw myself over the sheets, without bothering with anything else. I extended my hand towards a random spot, only to find Applejack still lying there on my bed.
The last thing I thought before losing my consciousness was that I was feeling too much heat for the hour it was at the time: something around 11 PM or maybe just a tad sooner.
I fixed my eyes on the ceiling, feeling strangely healthy right off the bat. It appeared to be morning once again, and the clouds seemed to be doing a great job at blocking the sun. ...I know this because my curtains seemed to be opened; that was the second detail that I didn't remember.
Immediately, and without my own mind commanding me, I got out of bed like I was the most athletic man on Earth. I knew there was something strange there, but I just decided to stop overanalyzing stuff and see what I could do. As soon as my feet touched the floor, I felt no cold whatsoever; it took me a few more steps to realize that, indeed, the floor was either warm enough for me to not notice it, or that I was having just another weird dream... and given the circumstances, it wasn't difficult to know which one out of the two choices was true.
I don't feel like wasting time on describing my room or anything like that, so let's just say it was way more organized and clean than usual. Anyway, with nothing but a few steps, I opened the door: and that was when I noticed that something was going wrong. No, not just wrong, very wrong.
For some strange reason, behind the door was nothing but a long, dark corridor with a -visible disregarding the darkness- door at the other side. For some equally strange reason, I just decided to go through the corridor: it would take some minutes, but I guess I just went "there's nothing to be afraid of, it's just a dark hallway" in my head and just closed the door behind me.
The creak of the door closing echoed through the entire corridor, the sound travelling far too fast for the distance that I thought the hallway had; but, far more strange than that, was the fact that the sound never faded away and only became louder and louder with every passing second.
My footsteps didn't make any kind of sound, and I was starting to feel like I wasn't myself anymore, for some reason. I had been walking down the passage for some minutes, but the door at the other side never changed its position.
The minutes went by as I tried to stop myself from advancing. The creak of the door had filled the air and, in the confusing mess of sounds, I could hear just about anything that my mind felt like coming up with.
I tried to reason with my own mind: I opened my mouth to speak but no sound came out. I tried to raise my voice but no avail: the only sound present was the self-replicating whimper of the door. I really mean "whimper", because I could clearly hear dozens- no, hundreds of them. It felt like a rain of pleads had started to wash down my very being as I began to lose any perception of what made me be myself.
Desperately, I screamed. Yes, I know, simple action, and there was no way it could have taken me anywhere, but, what else could I have done in that situation?
I screamed nonsense, and no sound came out. I froze in my spot, and tried to turn back around. As soon as I directed myself to make the turn, all of the sounds just stopped, leaving myself with the hum of silence.
Well, that hum of silence just lasted a second or even less, as I heard the sound of a door opening behind me.
I don't think I'd be able to describe my feelings in that moment: physically, I felt like I could do anything, but mentally, I was completely crushed. I tried to do something, anything, like running that would be the most sensible thing to do, but I only stood in place as I heard hoofsteps approaching. It was the same sound that I've had heard in other occasions, and that was what unnerved me the most about it: why did I hear that? Every time I heard it, it was louder and lasted longer: was that signaling that "it" was "getting closer", whatever that might mean?
For some reason, I was able to actually move after I got over the surprise that, indeed, nothing good was going to come out of this. My frantic steps made no sound, either, and the hoofsteps resonated more and more inside my head. I didn't even try to look back, both from fear and from the fact that it could have ended up really ugly had I tripped or anything.
The door was really far away from me, but in that moment I thought of nothing else but to escape, so distance was no matter.
The horror I felt in that moment only seemed to increase when my mind decided to be extra nice to me and started thinking about the situation as I went "gaaaaah!" and moved my legs like I was running in an olympic event.
I could hear my voice saying this:
"I'm running from an unknown being that has hooves, and is starting to catch up with me, albeit pretty slowly. Its hoofsteps sound rather slow, like it isn't even forcing itself to run. The door is only a minute away, but I can feel my legs failing me already. The hoofsteps have stopped and, instead of them, there is the sound of wings flapping approaching me extremely fast. I won't be able to make it at this speed."
The sheer calm exhibited in the voice, my own voice, made me think that I had no choice at all.
I braced myself for the impact against the door: no, I wouldn't stop to open it, I'd just slam myself against it, hoping it that it would break or fly off and just leave me continue my path.
Some steps before the big jump, I felt that my feet were made of lead and, even with the adrenaline of the moment, I wasn't able to lift them more than a couple of inches. I tried to move, fueled by the ever-increasing desire to live, but due to this thing called inertia, I only managed to fall and slam my head against the wooden floor; I wasn't knocked out, mind you, but the impact was hard enough to just unable any movement from my part for a while.
A being landed behind me, leaving out a light chuckle: it sounded so familiar, but I just couldn't tell whose voice it was. I couldn't even pick which gender it was.
"Weak. You were left alone for such a short while, I'm shocked you've managed to reach this point so quickly," said the voice in a calm, monotonous way. "And here I thought you all would be psychologically stronger... since you boast of intelligence so much..."
I tried to drag myself towards the door, ignoring any other thing. I tried to get away, but as soon as I started to move, I felt a hoof against my back, which immediately turned into a sharp pain: whoever it was, it was forcing its entire weight over me, and left me with no air.
"I thought you would understand me... after all, you've felt what I felt..." said the voice, the words dripping with malice. "How does it feel like, being chased by the unknown and losing your voice? How does it feel like, to lose yourself in a sea of confusion?"
I felt that everything was coming to a close, in that moment. I forced my voice out, as if to try a last time to say anything. To my surprise, my voice actually came out, even when barely audible:
"Who are... you?"
I tried to grab the doorknob, in hope that everything would just disappear as soon as sunlight engulfed the corridor. That proved to be a terrible mistake from my part, as the pressure over my body did nothing but to increase: I couldn't breathe anymore, so there were just minutes before my imminent fading.
"You already know the answer to that," whispered the voice. "But there's a much better question..."
I gathered all my strength to enunciate the following words, knowing that, after it, there would be nothing. With that mindless determination, I spoke up again:
"Who..." I said, words failing me. "Who..." I tried again, with no luck.
"What's wrong?" asked the voice, mockingly. "I thought that you would at least try to get your point across, you know..." it continued, reaching a point where I could literally feel the cold, merciless stab of hatred through my heart.
"What are you...?" I finally could say, consciousness leaving me at the same time. I felt absolutely nothing after that: no pressure, no lack of air, but no joy, no sadness, no nothing.
Nothing but confusion.
"Wake up," I heard the voice say. "You're not supposed to die yet."
I opened my eyes slowly, staring at the ceiling. I felt even worse than before, but I chose to get out of bed immediately anyway. It was morning and the few clouds blocked the sun from time to time.
I froze in the spot.
The curtains were opened, just like in the vision I had just had. I glanced over to the door, hoping that everything would be just fine, like it should be.
Ha, what was I expecting?
There was no door to speak of: in place of the door itself, there was nothing but more of the wall.
A feeling of dread began to develop inside of me again. For no reason at all, I directed myself towards the window, to take a look outside and to try to find any sort of comfort.
As soon as my eyes were fixed in the world outside, I left out a gasp; after that, complete silence. I stared outside in absolute silence for a long while, trying to comprehend what was going on.
There was nothing. The sky was blue, the clouds were pretty, but there was nothing but the apartment. I looked down, and I couldn't find the ground anymore: there was an endless amount of floors that reached further than my eye could follow. I turned back towards the room, claustrophobia start to creep into my head. I turned the computer on, looking at every corner of the room as my breath started to get more and more agitated.
The whirr of the fan broke the unsettling silence, but there was nothing I could do to brush whatever was happening out of my mind.
When I set my eyes on the screen, I was greeted by, by far, the simplest animation I've seen:
A little white square over a black background started to move through the screen, like those DVD standby... uh, thingies, bouncing as it touched the edges. It was accelerating constantly, but you wouldn't actually notice it unless you've looked at it for a long time.
For some strange reason, I tried to focus on the animation, as if to forget about anything else.
After a while, I reached out for a notebook I use as a place to write down ideas, just to read some of the stuff written there: it comes out as amusing for me, sometimes. Plus, I was starting to feel like I wasn't myself anymore, so my subconscious was pleading for me to find something, anything that could mark the idea that I was, indeed, myself.
A random page appeared as I opened it; the writing seemed rather fresh and it was, most certainly, my own handwriting. I could tell because of how shaky it was, trust me.
I couldn't really remember the fact that I has written anything, but I decided to just read something. I'm starting to worry about every single thing, I thought as I rolled my eyes. It's nothing but a fever, remember.
I read out loud:
"Hey now, do you see me down the way? I've been watching you every day... No one knows my plan... yet, but I must be silent, I must contain my secret smile but let me tell that you'll be chewing your nails, hanging your head and chasing your tail when you know about it...
Your world is under observation now, and I monitor your station... under faces and the places where you'll trace your points of view, whether you want it or not.
You've got nothing to fear... but fear itself. But... what do you fear? Do you fear that your hopes turn into disappointment?
You save others, but are also saving nobody but yourself. Your life is an eternal war, where peace is nonexistent. In order to escape, somebody has to be sacrificed.
Who? Me? Who am I, you ask?
I really thought you'd know that by know...
Don't you remember how we met? Didn't you see the signs?
I wanted to scream, and my mouth was closed shut... I wanted to shine, and my light wasn't glowing...
I was sinking in-between the never-ending darkness... in there, there was no air but I was finally able to reach that long-cherished state of peace.
There I waited for my own mind to take somewhere nice, somewhere I could fly without being afraid of flying. ...To take me where dreams are real.
But what sense does it make not to fulfill your dreams?
That's the reason of why I shrouded the world in an eternal night, and the reason I shall eclipse your entire existence. Because you deserve it, you will pay...
I'll swallow your sorrow, and I'll inhale your fear. I'll steal your tomorrows and I'll inject your tears.
So, please, never forgive me, please spit on my name; but I hold on to my memory, and keep me to blame, because you'll need me to blame."
I stopped reading in that moment. There were more lines, but what was the point? I was pretty sure I had understood the message by then.
Things had gotten dark rather quickly; to think that I was having an amusing vision of Applejack falling from my ceiling... just yesterday.
My eyes went towards the screen once again, finding nothing but a single phrase written in the screen, in a typical computer font:
"Life is fear; fear is despair."
Confused, I directed my eyes towards the window, gazing at the blue sky outside. Nothing but some seconds passed before I felt the computer turning off by itself. One part of me just wanted to turn it on again, given how everything would appear to be just fine if I did; other part of me, however, was too frozen with dread to try anything.
I stood up, baffled by the situation, and looked back to the wall where the door was supposed to be.
To my increasing confusion, the door was there, actually. Looking back, the fact that the sole idea of something being normal unnerved me is rather strange, but I'm guessing it made sense back then.
I directed myself towards the door, fearing the idea that there could be anything at the other side. The door opened slowly, with a creak, much like in the dream before. The main difference was that behind the door there was nothing strange: the typical short hallway, the kitchen at the right, the living room at the left and another room right in front of me. Everything was in order.
I forgot about everything in one second and just went to grab some bread, given how a sudden hunger attacked me in the spot.
After the little kitchen rob, I stood up and went towards the front door, my bread in my hand. I opened the door as I bit a part of the bread, closing my eyes for a moment there. I closed the door behind me before I opened my eyes again, noticing that something was clearly off:
There were no walls to speak of. The stairs went straight down into a distance far too great for me to recognize, filling me with vertigo. I bit into my bread once again, tasting sand; nothing but sand. I spat compulsively right after that.
I turned back, to get back into the apartment but, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, there wasn't a door anymore: just stairs; stairs that went upwards, towards infinity.
A sound of gentle drizzle reached my ears, but there was absolutely no rain to speak of; just... the calming sound of the rain, in the background.
I hadn't felt peace like that for a long time, then. It felt just so disjointed from what was happening then, but at the same time it felt just so right. I can't truly describe it, but I felt like I could stay in that spot for all eternity.
With my mind entirely hooked on the rain, I decided to give a few steps down the stairs, knowing that I would end up nowhere. I didn't really think about it, then, but was there anything else I could do? I was lost in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a seemingly endless staircase.
My steps resonated in my head, as if to remind me of the passing of time. The somehow lit stairs glowed with an unnerving blue, the black void surrounding me giving me claustrophobia one second and agoraphobia the other. The unsettling doubt about whether there was any escape or not was slowly draining my hopes away; hopes that were refilled by the feeling of calmness stemming from the rain.
Hidden in-between the only sound present was the sound of wingbeat, coming from behind me. Under other circumstances I'd just brush it aside as my own mind but, in that moment, I froze in the spot, my own mind telling me to run as far away as I could.
Two things happened at the same time: I heard a low chuckle coming from behind me, and, as if to showcase my low intelligence, I turned around to face whatever it is that was happening behind me. You can guess how well it went...
All sound stopped when my eyes noticed the figure standing in front of me. There she was, Nightmare Moon, a smug smile on her face. I tried to say something but couldn't do anything but to stare in disbelief.
She raised her left forehoof, her expression changing into a tired one.
"Wake up," she said with no emotion whatsoever, before moving her raised hoof as if to point me. At the same time, I felt a pressure against my chest, not unlike the one I had just woken up from. "I haven't given you permission to die yet," she added.
Everything went black in that instant, which was rather surprisingly fast. Well, I guess that it's better that way, it was better than to suffer all the asphyxiating...
I regained my consciousness just a moment later, as my eyes fixed on nothing but a perfect darkness. It was late at night, it was obvious... but I couldn't be too sure of the hour. Not that it was of any importance, anyway: there seemed to be nothing but darkness at the hour, and I wasn't feeling right, so I highly doubt that any change would have made a difference at the time.
The covers which I threw myself over were wrapped around me, I could feel their thight embrace around me, constantly on the verge of strangling me. They were creating an unbearable warmth, together with leaving me entirely blind. I tried to push them out of over me, but then I noticed that I couldn't move my arms too well; it wasn't very obvious in the moment, but it's clear now: I was feeling really sore for some unknown reason.
Feeling electricity flowing through my arms with every single movement, I pushed the sheets aside, finally releasing myself from that suffocating heat. ...Well, actually, the heat didn't really go anywhere: I was still feeling tired and thirsty, but I felt only a tiny bit better; I could feel more air entering my system, so at least I didn't feel like I was about to pass out again. The curtains slowly faded into existence, letting the almost inexistent glow of the night sky pass through them.
I closed my eyes again, psyching myself into a sleeping mindset once again. I, indeed, felt tired, but there was no drowsiness to speak of in my person, which complicated the entire process too much.
I turned myself over the bed, facing away from the window. Maybe seeing nothing but dark for a while would help...?
I'm not tired and I should be. I'm actually tired but not physically.
...I'm not even sure if this is real. I've woken up three times in a row and have gone to sleep only once. This could be a dream or not be one. I don't know what to think anymore.
The faint light of the stars outside passed through the curtains, proyecting against the walls; however, it seemed to be fading into black again.
I've only felt worse and worse in these last two days, and I doubt this illness is going away soon. I only hope that it does...
My thought current came to a halt when I felt a cold breath against a side of my head. My mind immediately hoped for the worst, because apparently I can't stay tranquil for a minute here. I closed my eyes forcefully in the spot; I don't even know why, but we all do that, that thing of pretending to be asleep. It really makes no sense...
Move and you're dead, I heard my own mind tell me. Huh, real smooth, myself. Real smooth. Don't even breathe... A move and you're dead.
"It's about time..."
Spoke the easily recognizable voice of Nightmare, an evident expectation in her speech. "You can say goodbye to your loved ones now..."
As she finished that phrase, I felt a drop of a warm liquid fall on my neck and slide down slowly. I maintained my immovile stance as best as I could. It's all in your mind, I heard myself say, with a rather reassuring tone. I never thought I'd find my own voice reassuring. It's simple.
Huh, it was rather simple, wasn't it?
A cold, frigid laughter pierced my ears just a moment later. She sniffed me.
"You smell... of hope. I hate it," she growled with disgust, before a faint purple glow started to appear in the place, slowly lightening it. I just tried to focus further and further in the fact that it was nothing but my mind, but it didn't appear to be working. I was rapidly giving in, my dread starting to overthrow my rationalization. I could feel myself starting to quiver, my thoughts clashing into eachother and forming a complete whirlwind, where not a single word could be understood by myself. On the verge of succumbing to the fear, I just jumped out of bed in the fastest way I could manage and bolted out of the room, not caring about anything else but my own safety.
Maybe not even half a second passed before my right hand was assaulted by a sharp pain, as I felt her fangs ripping out a sizable portion of my hand's skin, severing two of my fingers' nerve endings. A current of blood vigorously and immediately flowed out of my wounds as I rushed for the exit. ...It might have been the adrenaline, though, what made it seem like both a lot and nothing at the same time. The door of the room swung open with a satisfying woosh, with both me and Nightmare stampeding through the mess that was the floor. When I got to the main door, I just went completely crazy on it, forcing it like never before. My fear seemed to reach completely new levels as I felt hope leaving me, seeing as the door wouldn't even budge.
She's right behind me, I know it. She's behind me, and I can't escape. She has always been around me; I just hadn't noticed. Ever since I got hit by this fever I've been hearing hooves over a hard surface, and just now I know it had been her all this time. I wonder why has she appeared here, of all places...
I heard two, or maybe three, shockingly loud hoofsteps behind me, reaching the spot where I was almost immediately. I took a deep breath out of reflex, but that proved to be of no use whatsoever; my entire body was hit with a sharp pain: I could clearly feel her horn forcefully entering the back of my neck, only to come out from the other end, puncturing my Adam's apple.
My neck gave a sickening snap as my arteries were relocated and torn open, my larynx split apart by the chilling appendage crossing me. A mute gasp flooded my mouth with blood, the crimson liquid spewing down my chin and neck, some droplets jumping off, staining the door in front of me. I felt myself being lifted off the ground, my legs hanging limp over the floor. In the almost pitch black night, her mane emanated an unnatural glow, lighting the room.
"Did you think you'd be able to run from me...?" she maliciously whispered. "Is this reality too much for you?"
I couldn't even think properly. The sudden sharp pain had numbed my mind, and the hemorrhage was making me fade with worrying speed.
"You're surely wondering why is all of this happening to you," she continued in her typical tyrant voice tone. "Telling you would ruin the fun... why don't you find out in your own, you sun-worshipping maggot!?" she barked out in a raspy voice, slamming a hoof down on the floor. The piece of ceramic that received the blow cracked, tiny bits of ceramic flying out at a great speed. She gave a step back from the door, muttering something incomprehensible beneath her breath.
My eyes weren't able to sustain focus anymore, but I could clearly see her horn protuding out of my body, feeling the blood starting to form clots around the wounds, together with a torrent of saliva and bile that fell down on the bloody bone. A strange warmth slowly grew throughout my body as my own blood clogged my broken windpipe, obstructing any possible entry of air. The agony of death seemed to fade into a feeling of unexplainable euphoria as I slowly faded away from consciousness.
Then, she spoke again.
"It's a simple plan, to be honest." She was on the border of sounding mehcanical. "Your mind is a connection between two realities that complement but shouldn't ever be in touch. I'm here to destroy that connection, no matter the consecquences."
I felt my body being flung towards the wall, the blood clots ripping the skin around the wounds as I slid off her horn, opening them once again. I couldn't feel much, so I wasn't completely sure whether my head was still attached to the rest of my body when I hit the ground once again.
"What about Discord and Chrysalis, you ask? Ah, they've been doing a great job, maybe even an excellent one, at replacing your reality. They've been around for a longer time than I have, and they are the ones in charge of disconnecting you from the rest of the world."
I could barely feel, but I felt one of her hooves being positionatd over my chest.
"Still alive, aren't you...? I'll give you a last chance. Go out and say goodbye to your loved ones."
I think she kept on talking, but my senses just faded completely. The complete peace of not feeling, not thinking, not experiencing anything made me envy the dead. Maybe death is nothing but the privation of sense? Our destiny is to become a senseless being, buried beneath the ground?
This is not over. This can't be it, there's got to an end to this. I know there's a way to end all of this. I know it won't be easy.
...But now, I'm dead. She has just killed me, but I don't feel like this is the end. This isn't the end. This is not over yet.
This hasn't ended yet.
An eternity passed before I could move again.
My eyes opened up slowly, in fear of appearing in my own room again. I didn't want to live another one of those experiences. Not again, I beg you.
A catched a glimpse of the walls before closing my eyes again. Everything seemed to be in order. There was no heat, a soft breeze, people talking on the streets three floors beneath my apartment.
Everything seemed to be in order, just like it had always been.
But oh no, I was so wrong...
I looked to my side, noticing an open notebook. A page filled with large letters, layered one over eachother in a style of frenzied rambling, greeted me as I tried to get my eyes used to the light. At the same time, I became rather interested on the message.
It looked nothing like my handwriting, but it was messy enough to be recognized only as handwriting.
Simple enough: nothing special, in fact. I think I'm okay with it. My so-called life was becoming colorless, anyway.
The bells are ringing, everything you've loved soon will be gone. Your eyes have gone where your eyes don't go, and it's to take out the trash. This isn't a little argument with you: I remember who you are, I was a prisoner in your skull and I can't find my way home. You know nothing, coward, because you need me, you know you're nothing without me. But... why hide? Why hide the lies?
This is the final sacrifice, and one I should have taken long ago. I've acquired my right to kill once and for all. Now is the time to die, bastard. I'm hungry for pain, your pain; but try and be grateful, for you'll make somebody have quality time ending your pathetic existence.
I'll give you a total of 3 days, and today counts as one.
I hope that you've enjoyed your stay.
Who could it be? I glanced around the room again, trying to find something that could help me know anything about the situation.
The window was open wide, the gentle breeze flowing into the room. I stepped towards the door in a rush. The door was locked, just like I had left it. It wasn't possible, then, that somebody could have entered the room. There was no way to lock the door from the corridor.
I walked over to the balcony, staring outside. The breeze was such a relief considering what was happening to me. I met almost nobody around the place: I just slept there, and I had never bothered to socialize too much, so it was unlikely that I had gotten into such a fight with somebody.
Then, at a loss of options, I just went with the most obvious one:
That message had been written by myself. But... how? The two styles of handwriting were completely different. So different, in fact, that I completely refused to believe that I was the one who wrote it. But, looking past the presentation of the message, there was the content of the message itself, and that posed nothing but more questions.
Is there a reason behind this? I asked myself again and again, trying to formulate an hypothesis, no matter how senseless, and just leave the matter aside.
I need to think, I heard myself say. I really need to get some fresh air and just think. L-let's get out of here.
I tried not to focus on my dizziness as I went for the door and grabbed a sweater. I felt unexplicably lightheaded at the moment and, for some reason, I was sure it hadn't been caused by the fever; there was something else in there, something I couldn't quite explain. The door opened with a soft, nigh unaudible creak, the corridor appearing before me. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary at the time, so I just walked through the front door without further thought.
I went down the stairs, my steps echoing throughout the building.
Need some time to think, that's all. I'm sure things will get far clearer once I get some peace and quiet.
I had started to forget how different the avenue looked from the street: the tall buildings casted a dim shadow all over the sidewalk, as if they were protecting people from the unforgiving sun.
My destination, the park, was around three few blocks away; it would take me five minutes, at most.
None of the many fevers I've had before has been similar to this one, and I've been prone to having high fever since I was little. ...I don't understand.
The streets were empty, as it was usual around the area. The soft rumour of the leaves ruffling in the breeze striked me as deeply relaxing and beautiful, bordering on even heavenly. I couldn't hear my own steps no matter how hard I tried to stomp the concrete; all I heard was the sound of the leaves.
After some minutes of walking whilst turning my head to watch the surroundings, I arrived at the park. The firmament was replaced by a mosaic of green and yellow as I directed my eyes skyward. For the first time in a pair of days, I felt inner peace and freedom.
I left out a sigh as I sat on a bench, leaning all the way back with my eyes closed.
I need to take some medication. I just can't keep hallucinating.
My fingers ran over the wooden bench. It was quite cold for the hour; it must have been around noon, or a bit past it, and the sun was glowing strong even through the layer of clouds present at the time.
"I just don't understand who or what is the source of the messages. It can't be myself, I'm not a sleepwalker. Nobody has entered my apartment for two weeks except for me, so that possibility is null, as well."
The almost absolute silence in the park helped me focus on what seemed important at the time. I had started to appreciate it.
I opened my eyes again, my sight now lost in-between the nigh fluorescent treetops. The shades of yellow, green and the occasional red started to blur before my eyes, blending into one. The irregular shapes continued to dance in front of me, mesmerizing me with ease, taking me into a rather sudden lapse of inconscience. Whether I wanted it or not, I just stared the leaves over me. I, honestly, didn't mind at the moment: I'd welcome any chance to have a break from the insanity that would only increase; that, I knew very well.
A long patch of time passed where the only sound was the ruffling of leaves and the almost silent whistle of the wind. I stood up in silence, feeling far calmer than before as I passed my sight over the surrounding area. I had forgotten how tranquil that part of the city was, actually. I smiled slowly before marching off.
The walk back home felt different from the one towards the park: I felt like I had become disconnected from reality in a way, because I had stopped listening to certain sounds and couldn't quite feel anything against my skin.
The rest of the day went surprisingly well: scarce were the moments in where I felt sick and, to my own surprise, I wasn't feelng as tired as before. I honestly thought I was going to get better.
...I was wrong, as usual.
I had finished eating dinner, if we can call crackers and tea "dinner", when the night fell. I had taken the only ibuprofen capsule I had some hours ago, and I was feeling rather well. Not nearly as energic as I usually am, but well enough when considering the things that had been happening.
I went into the balcony in my room, staring at the lights of the city outside. I seldom did things like that, but it felt just right at the time. The streets seemed to be rivers of amber light, completely silent. In the distance, the stars could be seen behind the tallest buildings. At my right, the lights started to lower in number; it was like the darkness of that part of the city had made light vanish. Downtown was at my left, its colours shining through the night sky.
I stood there for a while, my mind blank. For some reason, the firmament had always managed to snatch my attention. I felt like I could have been there for years, if it weren't for the cold breeze that started to kick in.
I went inside with no further thought and closed the window of the balcony behind me. The abscence of the moon made it a little difficult to see in the almost pitch black room, but my muscle memory guided me towards the bed. I didn't really feel tired enough to sleep yet, but I had nothing else to do.
It's in occasions like this when I wonder how do certain people deal with this constantly. The feeling of being chased, the frantic pursuit for a way out, the fear of having to live with your own mind haunting you every day...
I wouldn't be able to do it.
I just closed my eyes, hoping that I'd wake up in the real world the day before. I didn't knew what to think of the situation: in one hand, it was an experience of insight into my subconscious, but on the other hand, I had felt the pain of death three times already, and I didn't really want to experience it again.
I don't want it to end, I want it to lower the intensity, that's all. I'll always welcome a chance to see what can I come up with, but...
I'm not so sure about this anymore. I want normality back, I want it more than anything. I just want my typical life back.
I... already miss him. He never told where did he went. Now I'm thinking if he'll ever come back.
A long while passed before I noticed a soft sound: the sound of light rain. Had it started to rain? I didn't remember seeing any dark clouds for the duration of the day, and I could see the stars just a while ago.
My mind focused on the sound, always so quiet, on the background.
I want to go outside and play in the rain like when I was a kid.
And then get even sicker, yes... I suppose that it isn't such a good idea...
I felt as I slowly lost my conscience and drifted away from reality. The sound of drizzle never quite went away nor increased in volume: it just sustained itself over time. A feeling of calm and peace took over my mind.
Just some seconds later, I felt my body moving on its own.
The movement was certain, much faster than what would be expected from somebody who has just woken up. My eyes were still closed. I felt alien immediately; I hadn't ordered my body to do any kind of motion and I was getting up from bed anyway. It felt rather different: the sheets felt quite less against my arms and, seemingly, my capacity to move my own arms had also lowered.
When my eyes finally opened, I could take notice of quite a high number of differences: the night sky was clearer, almost purple, the stars were quite a lot shinier, and the architecture of the place itself leaved no room for doubt - I was in a house, as opposed to my apartment.
The main difference, however, had yet to come.
Sitting on the bed, I, or better said, my body, left out a sigh, followed by a low growl. The voice was, too, different from mine: it sounded a tad lower and deeper, which isn't saying too much, either, for I never really quite developed my voice.
No the main difference wasn't that.
My body went forward, in direction towards the floor. I tried to brake or stop myself, but I had no control whatsoever over the movements that body made. No, that wasn't myself, I was only a member of the audience, so to speak.
That wasn't the difference either.
Before I planted my face against what seemed to be a wooden floor, a pair of equine hooves intercepted my route, before my own body made a completely new motion which felt an awful lot like stretching. Things started to get clearer rapidly: I appeared to be trapped inside the body of what must have been a horse, inside what must have a rather strange stable. The situation hit me like a good, unmissable chance and, without even realizing it, I started to pay attention to anything and everything I could hear, see or feel.
He lowered his hind legs from the bed-- hold on a second, a bed...? Why would a horse have a human bed in a small room, as opposed to a stack of hay in a larger, possible open place? And what kind of horse has learned to use a bed with such proficiency and naturalness?
As I was saying, he got out of bed and went out of the room in a rush. I could barely make out the pieces of furniture with their drawers half-opened, dozens of pages scattered about the place, and a certain something over one of the papers that gleamed with a metallic glow when it reflected the moonlight; what was that last object, that was something I couldn't discern.
The door opened with an honestly weird rope mechanism, where he introduced his hoof into a sort of ring and pulled a short distance. This allowed me to catch a tiny glimpse of his hoof, which only raised more questions: it was a tad thicker than what I had expected, and a tad simpler as well: I couldn't make out the pastern between the fetlock and the hoof. It was of a color similar to brown under the dim moonlight, bordering on burgundy.
In maybe two seconds, he was already on the other side of the door, in a slightly larger room. The fact of not being able to control and direct my vision whenever I wanted came off as barely tortuous to me, because the few things I saw did nothing about clarifying the situation.
I managed to distinguish more paper around the place, a table that seemed to be part of a dining room, a chandelier, more or that nondescript, luminescent material and a picture of three figures on which I couldn't focus. In a thing of instants, he was in a hallway, in front of a door.
The house itself appeared to be very human-like, which made me wonder about what being I was captive in. Was it a sort of civilized equines, perhaps? Like the ones from... that... show... that one I saw on the Internet some weeks ago. Was it that?
He sat in front of a door, staring directly at the opening mechanism. It was then that I heard his voice again, inexplicably closer to me:
How could I do it?
A question that I couldn't comprehend no matter how much I tried. What did he mean?
I had no reason to do it. His voice sounded again, close to me. It transmitted an irrational melancholy, almost as if I could palpate his sorrow and sadness.
He stood up and spun towards the right in a flash. A door I hadn't seen opened at almost the same time. Behind it was only could be a bathroom: the bathtub was undeniably a bathtub, it even had a curtain, and what looked like a toilet and a sink were also there. I could barely see it, but the curtains of the bathtub were stained with a dark substance at the bottom. He flinched and stormed out immediately, towards the main room once again. My figurative eyes went crazy again: all kinds of furniture flashed past my eyes, the mysterious brilliant material also on the floor.
He got near a small source of light and lowered his head instinctively. His teeth made contact with an unknown material and, before I could start to wonder what it was, I could already feel a cord against my body, or better said, his body.
"It's about time. The train arrives in twenty minutes."
"The train"? There are trains in this place? And "twenty minutes"? Where has he seen what time is it? How did he gain knowledge of time and when did he invent terms to refer to a certain amount of it? The amount of questions seemed to be growing exponentially and they only managed to make me doubt more and more the origin of this being. If I could have access to as much as one answer, I'd start building an hypothesis from there.
The source of light turned out to be another door, which was left clear by how I was now outside. A cold wind started to blow once outside, the weight of his saddlebags also quite high.
"It's like the Windigos have come back."
That phrase sealed the deal: I, of better said, my conscience, was in Equestria. But... where, exactly?
The architecture of the place seemed strangely similar to my eyes; it was like I had been there before. He wasn't of much help, looking at the ground almost constantly. The few seconds in which he raised his head to check the route were worth the wait; I could barely see correctly, but I managed to pick out certain things that helped me give myself an idea of the place in which I was.
It didn't seem quite like the Ponyville we're all used to; on the contrary, it looks different, like from a high social stratum, and that reduced possibilities a whole lot: chances where I was in Canterlot or some other, unknown city.
I took the fact of being in an almost completely new place with surprising calm and ease. There was an unexplainable feeling of familiarity with the place itself, which made me feel rather well.
The city streets were completely empty and silent, which wasn't a surprise at all: after all, it should have been really early in the morning and it's probable that nobody needed to wake up at such hour.
He walked for a quite long time, never changing his behavior. He passed his eyes over the houses without interest, without any kind of drive, slowly imbuing me in that melancholy that I couldn't comprehend yet.
When he reached what had to be train stop, he just sat near the border and fixed his eyes on the rails below. I never heard his voice in the time he stood there. The cold silence was killing me; I was made a whirlwind of questions and barely managed to fabricate theories out of the scarce details that I could collect.
I couldn't explain at least a part of what was going on. I felt, literally, that I was being dragged by this stallion, who also managed to drag himself. I could palpate the feelings of misery and self-deprecation, its wordless presence being more hurtful that the harshest of words and the most violent of actions. I had started to feel a natural sympathy for him: I didn't want to feel his sadness, I just wanted to end it. But... what could I do? I was only part of the audience, an unlucky spectator who regretted entering the theater as soon as the play began. My doubt and his uncertainty became one, filling me and the space I was in with the smell of confusion, a putrefactive pestilence that I learned to hate after nothing but seconds of being exposed to it.
He sighed again, the putrid smell dissipating a bit as it mixed with something else. What was it? Hope, faith, desire? All I knew was that it was positive in a certain way: any kind of distraction was positive.
His ears perked up as soon as he could hear the sound of a locomotive nearing, in the distance. At the same time, my scarce amount of space was filled with a different feeling: it felt like impatience, mixed with a pinch of resignation. What had led this stallion to take a train at this hour? Where did he pretend to go?
A cold blast of freezing wind hit him as the train slowed down onto a halt, the screech of the metal making him feel a physical pain, which I also could feel, literally, for some seconds.
It struck me intriguing, this situation of being able to actually feel somebody else's feelings, and the fact of being able to share senses with him, but not control him. Was I his consciousness?
The door of a wagon opened and, without even a thought about it, he entered.
Inside it barely felt warmer than the city, but it was enough to make me prefer the wagon over the cold wind.
The door closed behind him, making him spin around. He found himself in front of another stallion, this one relatively older and with a hat on, who had a look of doubt on his face. I could notice his white mane over his darker coat.
"Good day, sir. I'm Railroad, the train conductor. Are you the only one?"
"Yes, the only on..." replied my own body. "Good day to you as well, sir. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
They shared a smile before starting to walk forward on the train. Is Railroad the only one around here? I heard his inner voice say. Those were surely his thoughts, which only reinforced the idea that I was his consciousness.
"Excuse me but," said Railroad. "What is your name?"
"Silk Thread, but call me just Thread," answered my being. "It's less formal. Ah, by the way, how many other passengers are there in the train?"
A rather strange question coming from a random passenger, I consider.
"There's none except from you and me. There was an incredible decrease in the travel both from and towards Canterlot three days ago. You'd be the first one," he responded, in a joyful and friendly tone. The wagons were barely visible under the moonlight, so Thread focused on following the steps of the conductor.
At hearing his last words, Silk Thread stopped on his tracks, and I could feel surprise mixed with incredulity rapidly expand on the little room I could feel I was in. You mean you don't know what happened!? Silk screamed in his mind. After a few seconds, he resumed his trajectory. They had advanced three wagons already, but it seemed like their destination had yet to appear.
"Ah, I nearly forgot," said Silk with a chuckle, a diminute lapse of shame appearing. "I haven't paid my ticket..."
"Ha, there's no problem at all," replied Railroad, following his message with a laugh. "You're only one, and I was going to pass by the city anyway." He turned around, his blue eyes passing all over Silk's body. "Where are you going to? Now that I see you so loaded..."
"Ah, my saddlebags? They only look filled, they truly weigh next to nothing," responded the traveler. "I'm going to Appleoosa."
"Appleoosa, huh? I've heard wonders of the place and its population," replied the conductor, resuming his walk. "It'll take quite a while to arrive from Canterlot; maybe you'll arrive at night, even."
"I was aware of it, yes..." said Silk Thread, in a lower volume.
They continued with their walk up the train for some minutes before Railroad stopped again.
"Well, colt," he said. "This is the last wagon, or rather the first one, before the locomotive room. I'd appreciate it if you stuck around, it's just that... I feel... alone in this place..." His voice went down a bit, quivering a tad behind his insecure soft smile.
"I understand entirely," answered the traveler. "I'd imagine it's quite a lonely job to have."
"Yes, it is..."
"Excuse the change in topic but... you are from here, right?"
"No, I'm from Vanhoover," he responded, his smile growing a little. "A beautiful place once you get used to the cold. I ended up working here at the train business after a long time of working for Cherry Jubilee, far away, in Dodge Junction. I've lived there for some years, but I'm barely there lately. Great mare, that Jubilee; quite a sight. Last time I was around those parts, she had met one that went by the name of Applejack. Quite the stunning filly."
He left out a mixture between a sigh and a chuckle. "She had maybe twice as much physical capacity as me..." His smile never disappeared. "Am I t-talking too much?"
Silk didn't answer immediately; he was rather taken aback by the stallion's story. "Ah, w-what? Ah, no, don't worry about it," he sheepishly replied, unsure about what he had said. "You can talk as much as you want."
"I wasn't going to stop," said Railroad, followed by that trademark laugh of those who have lived an experience-filled life. "Just let me start the machine or we'll reach Appleoosa when we're old."
Both of them entered the locomotive room, having a short silent conversation in which they gave eachother their friendship with ease.
I was starting to understand a minimal part of the situation, though it didn't help much to positionate myself within time.
I'll be there at nightfall, then... I heard Silk's inner dialogue again. There's no better time. I'll be able to rest as soon as I arrive.
There was a moment where the only sound was the coal being shoveled and burning. The flame gave enough warmth to keep them both cozy. Silk's eyes were lost in the fire, the process and its luminosity dazzling him.
"Things had gotten quite salty between the Griffon Kingdom and Whinnypeg for an international limits... thing,... some time ago," Railroad recounted. "A cape of clouds, something like that, was in dispute. It was serious, let me tell you that."
"I heard something about that little ago," Silk replied. "What happened with that situation?" Thread laid down on the floor, the warm hug on convection producing a sudden drowsiness in him. He wanted to keep on listening to the story. Maybe I'll be able to clear my thought if I listen to him. Maybe I'll even manage to stay with him.
"I don't know, I already worked at Dodge at that time, and all the attention was stolen from it when the Nightmare Moon incident happened. I had been here for around two years, then."
"It's not like the media worry too much about the north..." said Silk, pensively. "It's almost like they don't consider them part of Equestria itself."
"Yeah, huh?" replied Railroad in his typical tone. You could almost feel how he'd mess up your hair after a friendly hug. "It's a place that takes care of itself, really."
The train started to reach an acceptable speed, its characteristic sound getting louder and louder as time went by.
Silk left out a yawn.
"Getting comfy, aren't we?" Rail joked. "You can go to bed in the wagon behind us if you wish to. I guess you're not used to waking up early, are you?"
"No, it's not that," replied Silk, the post-yawn tears betraying his lethargy. "I can stay longer awake."
"Try not to fall asleep with my stories, then," Railroad said. "If you need to wake up, it'll be dawn soon. You can use the Sun to wake you up."
He has this experienced air. It was his inner voice again. If I manage to go with him, I won't have a problem. There's got to be a way to make him go with me.
What could be this thing he keeps referring to? Has he any kind of plan?
This drowsiness will make me fall. I need to get up and do something...
I could feel his thoughts saying to me that he needed to get up, but it didn't go further than that. He ended up asleep in front of the cauldron.
"And... why are you wanting to go to Appleoosa?" asked the conductor, absent-mindedly. He directed his gaze towards his companion. "Silk?"
He laughed again, before focusing on shoveling coal into the fire. "You've already fallen asleep..."
I had waited for a sudden disconnection from that world, as it's usual in my dreams, but it didn't happen. I still felt myself inside his body when I heard his voice again.
It's over, Silk. You've ended it.
I was starting to get tired of how cryptic his thoughts were. I asked the air:
"End what? What happened before this?"
I'm not sure of what kind of response I expected, but I'm at least sure that I wasn't expecting an actual response:
Don't make me remember it. I swore I'd leave those memories and my past behind.
"What past? What are you talking about?" As I said that, the vague image of the bathroom came back to me for some seconds, before disappearing as Silk spoke once again.
I've told you that you shouldn't remind me about it. Stop it.
I couldn't comprehend a thing past the fact that there was a certain event in his past, surely a traumatic one, that he doesn't want to remember.
You'll only hurt me and yourself. I beg you, please don't do it. We've been together for such a long time and I've done nothing to you.
Who was he talking to, exactly? To me? Had he already accepted the fact that his conscience wasn't under his control? ...Had it always been like that?
There was a very long silence before he opened his eyes again. The sky outside was considerably clearer and the stars were gone. When he lowered his gaze, he could see the conductor looking directly at him.
"Ah, you've woken up already," said Railroad, his grin never fading. "Sorry about the weird look I was giving you. I was just thinking."
Silk stood up and shook himself a bit, his tail somehow a mess. "Is it already morning...?"
"Indeed. You missed the dawn; ah, such a sight. Anyway, are you hungry?" asked the stallion of the white mane. "I think I have something around here."
How far does his generosity go...? I'm nothing but passenger out of many.
"Say, do you like oatmeal?" asked Railroad, opening the door to the second wagon, looking for a bag over one of the beds.
"Uh, wouldn't it be rude to be picky with gifts?" asked Silk, rather rhetorically.
"Uh, yeah, I guess...?" replied the driver between his teeth, leaving a white bad on the floor. "It might not be the best in the world, but it's certainly something."
"T-thanks, you shouldn't have bothered..." responded Silk, making half a circle in the air with his hoof, before diving in and starting to eat in a rather rushed way.
"Easy, colt," exclaimed Railroad between a laugh. "The oatmeal isn't going anywhere."
In root of this, Silk huffed in amusement, blowing oatmeal off, which managed to raise at nostril level. Silk gave a step back, ending up sneezing several times.
The older stallion just looked at him, barely holding laughter inside. He started to crack up some seconds of silence.
Silk just looked at a side.
"You put on quite a show when eating, huh?"
"S-so... I've been t-told..." replied Silk Thread, sheepishly, before shaking his head a little, some of the hair of his mane standing up a bit. "The Canterlot ponies didn't seem so nice while saying it, however..."
"I've heard about the capital city folk," replied the conductor. "A bunch of snobs, I've heard. Are they?"
"There are genuinely charming ponies, but the many that are there for fitting into the high society might come off as nothing but pieces of manure..."
"Well, then... speaking of Canterlot, what happened there that nopony wants to travel?"
I felt a sudden insecurity grow inside his mind.
"I'm n-not sure of what happened, but it had to be something strong..."
I didn't even have to lie to him.
Why lie? What had happened in Canterlot? Nothing but more questions surfaced.
Silk resumed eating, his insecurity vanishing.
The sound of the rails was the only sound present for a long span of time, before Rail decided to make another question.
"So... you were asleep before, when I asked. Why Appleoosa?"
Silk raised his head, looking at the floor. "Oh, that..." He moved his eyes back and forth between Railroad and a seemingly random spot on the floor. "It's just that I've heard wonders of the place, and I was looking for a change of scenery."
He gulped. "I also didn't really like the ambient at Canterlot. I'm not used to that."
Railroad just nodded. "Ah, I see. Do you have any family?"
"No," Silk blurted out suddenly. I felt his urge to hide something grow abruptly, almost crushing me.
"At Appleoosa, I mean. Are you staying with somebody?"
Silk left out a sigh. "Ah, not, either. I'm not quite sure of where I'll stay." The previous feeling was replaced by a soft inner peace. Huh, how different could his emotions get?
"Just like me, huh?" said Railroad, his sight lost in the fire. "I was like you, taking a train with a destination, but no clear destiny beyond it. It was quite a feeling, lemme tell ya."
"Yes, it is like that..."
"Well, let me stop myself before I start recounting my life again. You don't want to hear that. Neigh, you don't deserve to experience the pain of listening to that."
Their conversation went on for hours, the topic never changing from mundanity and Railroad's past. Silk avoided talking about himself as much as he could, giving incomplete answers or responding with indirect questions, the latter being always answered by Railroad, sometimes without even noticing.
The sun was high in the sky; it had to be past noon. Rail showed no tiredness whatsoever; Silk, on the contrary, was falling asleep again.
"You should get into bed," said the conductor, losing his friendly tone at last. "You look tired and, well, sleeping on the floor is an acquired taste."
"Y-yes, I know..."
Silk Thread, then, stood up and, between false steps and trips, climbed over to one of the beds of the wagon. I couldn't quite feel what he felt or hear his thoughts: the only thing I could see was the half-opened curtain and the sunny sky behind it.
I couldn't get my mind out of his short doubt lapse. He had said something about lying to Railroad about what had happened in Canterlot. I couldn't understand what led him to hide that, and also his reaction to when Railroad said that he hadn't heard about it. Maybe it was a very important event? Then, why didn't he tell Rail?
As if I had called for it, I hear his voice again, his thoughts being clearer now.
I wish I could forget it. Ponies always say you can forget things at random. Why not this...?
I tried to speak to him like before, but a strangely powerful feeling of numbness came over me. I couldn't think clearly, and I was losing he only sight I had.
Well, if I keep on thinking about it, I doubt I'll forget it... If only I could make myself focus on something else...
He closed his eyes a second later. He was obviously preparing himself to take a nap. I couldn't make him wake up, and I wanted to ask him so many questions.
It happened half a week ago, so I guess it's normal if I still remember it...
With that thought, I stopped feeling what his body touched, and was left in a complete void. He had fallen asleep with surprising speed, and the only remaining action was to disconnect me completely.
I felt my eyes open by themselves, a surprisingly veridical feeling of comfort and rest imbuing my being. The feeling of being half-alien had sustained, so I had to be still trapped in Silk's mind. It was night, that was clear, and the moonlight illuminated the place.
"Have I just arrived?" I heard him ask the air as he pushed the covers out of him and got down from bed. At the same exact time as he made contact with the ground, I noticed something: there was no movement on the train, there was only silence.
"Maybe Rail has fallen asleep? ...But wouldn't that be potentially dangerous, if other train came here?"
In a couple of steps, he reached the locomotive room and opened the door. The window at the place was opened, the cauldron unlit, and nothing but silence present. The bag with the oatmeal had fallen, its contents spilled over the floor.
"He's probably asleep, then. He must be close, he said he doesn't like being alone."
He came back to the previous wagon, carefully passing his eyes by the beds around him as he went down the corridor. None of them seemed to be occupied apart from his.
"Maybe he's in the next one. Probably thought that I'd like to have some privacy or something..."
Then, he opened the door. An almost identical wagon greeted him. He walked without further thought, checking the place with his sight. He didn't get what he was looking for. The silence was something completely different to what's expected from a train.
"He's not here, either. I've gotten somewhat separated from where he's supposed to be."
He looked back. The dim moonlight passed through the windows, lighting the room just a little. There was something there that made him feel like he didn't belong, like he didn't have to be there; like he needed to get out of there.
"It's the silence and the lack of presence, I'm sure. It's not something to be expected from a place like this one."
He opened the door to the next wagon in a flash, a whoosh of wind passing through him. The click of the door echoed throughout the room. It was just as empty as the others, that fact could be clearly seen. He had started to give less attention to the beds, and walked faster.
"I doubt I'll find him past this point. He's surely somewhere in the back, and I just missed him. ...But I guess I won't lose anything if I try to find him past this point..."
He reached the door and raised a hoof, ready to open the next door, when he heard a soft click in the distance. Was that Rail? Had he woken up and Silk hadn't seen him? He looked back, noticing how much longer the train seemed to be from his spot. Something was different, he couldn't quite put his hoof it. Without giving it too much importance or further thought, he kept on advancing.
The wagon that followed had no beds: it had the door from where he entered the train on one side while, in the other, it had two windows in where the purple night sky could be clearly seen, together with the stars and the moon. The room emanated a strange feeling of hospitality, like it was whispering to him that he should stay. They had met there. His ears perked up when he heard a couple of very soft hoofsteps behind him. "Railroad might be there. Might have been just me..." Without thinking twice about it, he continued on his way.
The next wagon was almost entirely empty. Nothing apart from the window was visible, their shape plastered on the floor like light paintings.
The steps got closer, barely becoming louder.
His own steps were faster in that moment, as he reached the last door. At the same time he opened the door, another one closed behind him. He turned back in the instant, out of reflex. He could see the third wagon, nothing behind. It was cold out of a sudden.
There's a shadow between the beds. I can see it. If it Railroad playing a joke on me, it stopped being funny. If it isn't him...
He opened the door, entered the door and closed the door behind him. He sighed and then sniffed the air.
The inebriating smell of rust entered his nostrils. He noticed the lack of an entrance of lighting right away. There he was, sitting on a dark room, a part of his mind that wasn't me starting to give more and more wild theories about who or what that other being could be. The steps got even closer before stopping completely. A hoof struck the door with an uproar. A little chuckle was heard was heard behind the door.
With the innate fear of the unknown, he pressed himself against the door, mumbling, beneath his breath, something about how he'd give his savings to Celestia if she managed to get him out of that one. The smell of the rust was too strong to ignore.
There was a long silence before a second hit, this one much harder, broke the door in two. When he felt the wood and splinters over him, he blocked completely.
Who...? What is it, who could it be that has broken the door in two hits?
The cold nightly air rushed into the room, then. He tried to move, but the sheer amount of confusion and despair he felt at the time had won the battle.
His body was lifted off the ground, his limbs hanging, pointing at the floor. He had reached a state of nigh-catatonia, his eyes opened wide. He floated back to the empty wagon, unable to move and resist. He could perceive something very clearly in the dark.
All out of a sudden, I felt his body being flung against a window, which broke with a thunderous clamor; the tiny shards of glass flying through the air, many of them puncturing Silk's coat.
As he fell, he could see, from the train, a fixed stare and a demented smile watching him, the mouth filled with bloodstained fangs.
It... it wasn't rust. The entire room was drenched in... blood... Whose? Railroad's!?
Behind the psychotic grin, he could see something else: a dark blue, luminescent mane, filled with stars.
It's-- it's her. She has found me.
That last phrase hit me with hardness only comparable to the harsh landing he had against the cold sand just an instant later.
The hit disconnected me immediately. The image of the sands, lost in nowhere, the night sky over me, the rails... it all went to black in that moment.
I woke up much more peacefully that I had thought. Overtaken by lethargy, I slowly opened my eyes up. I perceived the opaque sky of a cloudy day in the distance. I had forgotten to close my curtains again and the light, while dim, left a pulsating pain in my retinas when they found it by surprise.
I passed my fingers over the bed while I was caressing it. The strangely long lapse of being trapped in another being's mind made me appreciate the freedom I have to act and think so much more. Today was different, though; I could feel my sickness returning even stronger than before, and I already felt weak as is. I took one of the bed sheets and left it over my head again. I actually couldn't quite feel the heat commonly associated with fever, but it could have been the fact that I was just waking up: awakening tends to make us not feel certain things.
I left a sigh out, not knowing what to do. I only knew that I felt worse than before and in a way I couldn't quite explain. It felt radically different from being just sick, it wasn't nausea or something like that; it was, rather, a horde of superficial, undeveloped feelings, almost as if they weren't there. Nevertheless, their presence was notorious, and I couldn't bring myself to ignore that detail.
"I wonder what happened with Silk after that... maybe he would have end up dead, like me..."
I immediately questioned myself on the subject of why could I remember something like how a dream finished; the scarce memories I have of my dreams have always been vague stuff like combinations of colors and shapes, never concrete figures, and much less complete situations. It was extraordinary, but I couldn't gather interest on the issue; rather, I felt uncomfortable with that. As it might seem obvious now, things started to get weirder from there.
I tried to remember what had happened in my dream last night and, to the surprise of probably nobody, I remembered more than I had dreamt.
I didn't see something clear, but I could discern things perfectly: it was the bathroom of that house from where he came from, a colt laying on the floor who, between sobs, said: "I beg you, please don't do it. I've done nothing to you..."
It went dark suddenly, the vision ending, nothing but confusion following. No matter how hard I try, I can't bring myself to ignore it. It only manages to persist.
A thought came to my mind:
Maybe my subconscious has created Silk. That wouldn't explain why do I remember everything about him, actually... It's more like I truly am part of him. Like he's a part of me, I mean.
I left that last phrase floating for a moment, as if to think about it. Maybe I was more right than I would've liked to be.
I don't perceive it as something strange. There's something out of the ordinary in all of this, but I accept as something completely mundane. I shouldn't have memories that aren't mine...
After a second sigh, I pushed the sheets further from me. The room hadn't changed since three days ago. Clear proof of the inactivity provoked by the sickness, that. Applejack was on my desk, front legs up. There was something... different... on the figure; something else past the pact of belonging, it was like she was more than a simple molded figure.
Being no stranger to whims that put my maturity in question, I took her.
My impersonation of the southerners' accent isn't the best by any way, but I just decided to forget about that and start to just do whatever I wanted.
I cleared my throat before saying a random phrase, whatever was on my mind:
"Another day. Better get kickin'. Kicks McGee, Bucky McGillicuddy, time to work."
I started to make a motion near skipping with Applejack. I stopped myself an instant later and asked myself why was I doing that, that I seemed like a little boy, or a little girl.
A moment passed before I just continued. It was an exaggerated movement but, in my mind, Applejack was more energetic and happier than usual.
"Ah, the smell o' dew in the morning."
I made a kicking motion, together with a fabricated sound of wood being hit. Imaginary apples fell from the trees, hitting the baskets. The sun was still pretty low in the sky, scarce rays passed through the treetops and there was a soft breeze that had survived the night. Applejack looked to the sky, the clouds partially covering the sky.
"A few more and we're done here. Then it's time to go to Shy's place to help with her bunny sense... cens... thingy. Let's hope Ah don't ruin it this year, heh."
I continued with the farmpony's hopping over my bed, my mind painting acres of green over the bed sheets. I had stopped questioning my integrity and I was just following my ideas. It's a break from... my other days.
In my imagination, Applejack continued with her work with a grin so large that Pinkie would be sort of creeped out about it.
I could almost feel the tender breeze of dawn between the trees, even when I haven't been in that situation ever in my life. Kind of like the cold I felt when I was with Silk.
My mind went back to my so-called dream. I had stopped to consider it just a dream: it seemed more like a hallucinogen experience to me.
I don't understand how was I able to build such a complex replica of the city based off so little information. An arsenal of unnatural movements and completely new feelings, all of them already fleshed out. Nothing seemed out of place. I... I don't get it.
I disconnected from my little farmer incursion, my mind coming back to the train scene, especially the moment when Nightmare threw him out the window.
He said that she had found him. That means he already knew Nightmare had returned, or that she at least was roaming the place. And what happened with Rail? Was he the reason behind the cold in that wagon? It didn't really explain why the window broke. Maybe the other window was the broken one. Had it been broken by Rail's body? It could have Nightmare herself, but there was no glass on the floor. And what about the blood in that dark wagon? It had been there for quite a long time, if I can remember the smell correctly.
I left out a third sigh, releasing Applejack.
"But... why do I care so much? It wasn't anything but a side effect of fever."
I raised my arms as I stretched, as if to see how far they reached. I felt that a long time had passed. An amount near an hour, maybe. I decided to get out of bed; I thought that I couldn't feel so bad and that there would be no problem at all.
When my feet touched the cold floor, I didn't feel that instantaneous awakening as usual. I limped my way through the place, without opening my eyes much, my memory guiding me towards the kitchen. I took a piece of bread absent-mindedly, before biting it and realizing it was insipid. Part of the sickness, I thought in the spot, before returning to my room.
I didn't feel like I harbored energy in any way. I didn't feel exactly tired, it was more like I had been drained; I was starting to get tired of that strange feeling of lacking something.
The panorama outside the balcony was the most interesting view my eyes could have had at the time; I hadn't really wanted to stay at the computer yet: my eyes get a serious strain when I'm healthy and, for reason I hadn't in my knowledge, it only gets worse if I'm sick. No, harming myself on purpose wasn't either a normal nor logical idea.
I directed my gaze towards my desk, focusing it on the drawer that held what's relative to my free time. Various notebooks and a pile of blank pages would be inside, if my memory didn't fail then. I didn't want to open the notebook again; it was like every time I did, I only made myself doubt more and more about my own mental constitution. No, it wouldn't be very sound to make myself uneasy. I only knew I'd end up doing something in the notebook itself: past the written words or how they were written, its very existence provoked a deep inquietude in me. I'd decide, sooner or later, to get rid of it, of that I was entirely sure; I didn't how or when, I only knew it'd happen.
I raised my sight over the desk, then. The clock said that the time was around 2:15. That couldn't be the hour. I stared at it a long time and it was clear: it had stopped working. Maybe it was last night, I thought at the time. I should get some batteries for it.
I opened the window to the balcony, a breeze entering when I did so. Outside, the city was enveloped in mist, uncommon for the time of the year. It almost was like the buildings disappeared past the mist, devoured by the while cloud. It seemed like it would rain, it's always like this before rain in this city.
"It might have rained when I slept and it'll resume now. I do remember having heard soft drizzle outside my window before fading yesterday."
In front of my apartment there was a little empty space, filled with nothing but flowers. Even from the distance, the dew over them could be seen. The flowers had withered but green stems could be seen growing below.
I wrapped my arms around the railing, but that immediately proved to be a horribly awful idea: the freezing sensation that invaded my arms hurt like needles and made me jump, together with making me notice how cold the day would be. I threw my arms back immediately. I had the idea of going to the park again: refreshing just a little bit before had helped a lot when I looked past the fact that I had a completely coherent hallucination at night. Apart from that, actually, it seemed to have worked for the better: I felt clearer and a tad healthier.
In front of the empty space across the street, there's a bench. It's entirely alone, and most of the time I see people sit on it for an entire day. It's like... like a spot for when you need to be alone. I've seen people who clearly have serious problems just cry openly and helplessly whilst nobody bothers to help them. More than once I've wanted to do something for them but... oftentimes I do not see them again. I like to think they've reached the solution to their problems but... Well, the world isn't like that sometimes. I probably shouldn't think about that: not that I can do much to stop them. I actually wouldn't mind giving it a try.
Droplets of rain started passing in front of my vision. I wanted to extend my hand and feel them, but I couldn't bring myself closer to the rails. I didn't want to feel that cold sensation again.
I turned back into my room, closing the balcony window behind me.
"My life is starting to become repetitive," I remarked as I approached my bed. "It's like I can't do anything here anymore."
I directed myself towards my desk after reasoning that I couldn't go out that day, and opened the drawer. A tower of papers greeted me, at which I took some at random and cleaned the surface from anything that could become an obstacle. Some days had gone by without even taking a pen and, oftentimes, the act of drawing tends to have a cleansing effect on me. I don't understand why I didn't think of it sooner.
Without much of a thought, I sat in front of the empty paper sheet, armed with nothing but a graphite pen and a pencil sharpener. What could I draw, then? I looked around the place, my sight not going too far before finding Applejack still lying down in my bed. I need to make the bed, myself. And... I should draw a tree. It's simple and has lots of potential when it comes to details.
Detailing the process of drawing itself probably isn't quite important to understand how I spent my afternoon, not to mention it would be quite repetitive and boring. No, it's not that I think that drawing is boring, but narrating it makes little sense if there's nothing to be appreciated. Well, those are my thoughts, maybe I'm wrong. Anyway, the action of drawing that tree was filled with errors and double-takes. Again and again I stopped myself to erase and commit the same mistake twice. It took far longer than I had thought it would take, but it at least helped me to pass time with ease.
It was a very leafy tree, like the ones I remember from the spring when I was younger. I imagined it as a green, lively tree; as opposed to the gray sketch I had; that color had always seemed to be rather depressing to me, like it made me think things were unanimated. The fact that I can't paint correctly doesn't help my case.
I had continued to draw little sketches of flowers and stems throughout the evening, stopping once so I could stare outside once again. The sound of rain had accompanied me during the entire day, and the streets outside were completely soaked. There was absolutely nobody outside; there was only rain present. If I were healthy at the time, I would have been outside, sitting alone. I like to be alone in the rain: it makes me feel like I'm in a movie or a music video. I guess I've always had something for film, as well, but I'm not truly willing to try it. I think I'll stick with drawings until I believe I can't improve. ...We all know that you can never stop improving, so that's not really my aim.
I hadn't had any food for the duration of the afternoon since I hadn't felt any kind of hunger. I probably didn't think I needed it. Well, had I eaten at that time, it would have actually been considered more of a part of dinner than anything else.
The light of the sky had gone down a tad, at what I supposed it was about that time past sunset when the moon's appearing. I had started to have some difficulties seeing what I was drawing, then. The clock still marked 2:15. Batteries tomorrow, I scrabbled in my mind. At the same time I said "tomorrow" in my mind, I asked myself if I would have other of those strange dreams where I remembered everything. Let's hope not...
I had gotten used not to turn on the lights when the sun had gone down and to simply go to bed when I got tired. According to my mother, rest makes wonders, and I still believe her when it comes to that. She was oftentimes right.
I took the papers and shoved them into the drawer almost mechanically and stood up. The light the sky emitted wasn't strong enough to light the room, but I could still see certain things. I just went towards my open bed and tried not to cringe too much when I felt how cold it was. Applejack was still there. I still couldn't put words to the strange feeling that appeared when I grabbed her earlier that day. It was like I wasn't manipulating a figure, it felt... like something else; like I truly was handling her, the character herself. Of course, that could have been my own sickness making me feel strange, again. It wouldn't be much of a surprise, actually.
I don't know why I went to bed at this hour. It's not like I'm not going to sleep now or something. It's still early on the day and I don't feel tired, which is a surprise, actually.
My hands touched the bed, finding it rather surprisingly warm. It wasn't like I had been in it just a moment ago, of course, but it was far more warm that it should be. Without really bothering to think about it, I just got into bed. It was then when my mind decided to have a monologue again.
I wonder what would have happened to Silk if that dream kept going. Maybe Nightmare would have ended up murdering him, maybe she would have just left and he would have to find somewhere to stay. He actually didn't pick his saddlebags up, so he lost... whatever it was that he had been storing there. He then might have had to just follow his path with nothing to help him satiate hunger. He also asked for that other stallion... Railroad, was it? He asked for him quite a lot. He really cared for him, even when they spent such a short time together. It was clear he needed somebody... somepony to lean on.
The rain was still on the background. I certainly doubt there is a single thing more emotional than rain. Rain can reinforce anything: melancholy? Throw some rain there and it'll be heartbreaking. Want to have a moment of nostalgic childishness? Jump into puddles with your best friend under a soft rain, just like when you were kids. It's like... like it refines the mind and senses. Maybe... maybe because it does? I've heard something about smell being refined when it rains.
I sighed with relief. I could already feel a sensation of rest. It was like the only thing I had to do in order to feel better was to lie down on bed. The only problem would be that, after a while, I'd say to myself that I should do something. Maybe resting was the only thing I had to do so I could recover? It was true that I had been forcing myself into sleep deprivation for some time before I got sick. Final exams and all, it's quite normal.
I hope the solution is as simple as that. One... can only hope.
Just a while later, I already felt sedated and fading. My sleep cycle was starting to get altered. That was my last thought before succumbing to the offensive of the realm of sleep.
I could hear something in the distance. It became quieter and quieter, as if the source of the sound was vanishing from existence as time went by. I couldn't identify what it was; I only heard it go away.
It was then when I could get myself a look of the situation itself: cold sands, the sky below them. An awful headache appeared just some seconds later, product of who knows what.
It was all clear and familiar for me: I was back at Silk's body, it was more than obvious. Would it happen every single night?
I heard him voice a little moan before raising his hooves towards the night sky. Even for being in the middle of the desert, it was oddly cold. The stars shone with surprising intensity and the moon was much closer than I remembered.
He groaned before launching himself forward, ending up on his haunches. Accompanied with a cough, he stood up. He noticed the rails right in front of him, with solitude surrounding him. The cold nocturnal breeze had managed to make everything just as frigid, including him.
"I wonder what I will do as soon as I get to Appleoosa. I need to get there, no matter how."
He didn't doubt it for a second and he directed himself towards his right, following the train's rails. His stomach growled just as much as him, the cold slowing him down as time passed, but he managed to advance nonetheless. The silence of the sands at night made him border into agoraphobia as much as the constant questioning about if he would ever manage to get enough food to reach his destination. If he was lucky, he would make it in maybe nothing but some hours; he could get through that with ease; he could go on for a few days without eating, and he considered himself to be surprisingly resilient to thirst. ...That was only if he had chosen the right direction; if he hadn't made the right choice, he would probably perish and be consumed by the sands before anypony could even find him.
He stopped as that chance passed through his train of thought. He looked around, his sight lost. The desert was almost uniform, to the point he had to retrace his steps when he turned around to see if he could find something that helped him make the right decision. He found nothing and just decided to keep on moving.
What time is it now? For how much time was I knocked out?
He gave large steps. He wasn't quite sure of if he would ever reach the town of destination, but he wished to make it with all his might.
At times he tried to speed up and run but immediately stopped himself right before he started to get too tired. I'll get tired and hungry faster this way, he reasoned in those cases.
The course itself was monotonous and took far longer that Silk had thought. Hunger seemed more like torture to him and, seemingly, it would only get colder, if that was even possible. It was then when he could make something out in the distance: it was a wooden roof, if his eyes weren't failing him.
He sighed with relief and started to trot a tad faster, as his destination got closer and closer with every time his hooves touched the cold sand beneath him. The breeze had made his scarce sweat turn into his worst nightmare, and his stomach made a noise that didn't let him think. He did his best effort at putting that aside. He took a deep breath before starting to gallop.
Submerged in a sudden motivation, he directed himself towards the recently seen cottage, hoping that it would turn out to be the destination he had been looking for with an overpowering determination for what felt like weeks. The sound of sand flying backwards as it was shot behind by his hooves reminded him of how his goal was closer and closer. It wouldn't take longer than some minutes to reach the long-awaited spot. The surprisingly clear and bright light of the stars allowed him to see much more than he had expected: both his clear path and the solitude in the desert.
After a considerably tiring lapse of panting and gasping out self-encouragement, he approached more and more to the seen roof. Behind it there was a line of what surely were houses, laid out in a way a small and humble town would have; a drastic change from the crowded buildings in Canterlot. "Maybe they are the outskirts of Appleoosa? Maybe they are they older settlements, and now they are unoccupied. Well, I'll surely find the rest of the town behind this if I walk for enough time."
He lowered the intensity of his steps, reaching the pace of an energetic canter. The first house in the way, if it actually was a house, was nothing but seconds away.
"It would be more rational to rest a bit here. If I reach Appleoosa while tired, the heat will do whatever it wishes to do with me. If I manage to get food before starting to investigate, it'll be trillions of times better."
"Investigation? What investigation?" I tried to ask him. I was still his mind, and the last time I asked him a question, he answered.
There was clearly no answer. Whether he was ignoring me or I wasn't in control anymore was unclear.
He got closer, finally, to the first enclosure. It looked lots like a house: the orange paint that used to be on the walls was almost entirely peeled off by the wind and the door seemed to have been victim to all kinds of abuse and improvised fixes: it was made out of an uncountable amount of planks layered over splintered wood with no apparent pattern. Silk asked himself, to his mind, if there was even a proper door to begin with or the door was also improvised and fabricated with spare pieces of wood. He raised a hoof, without finding any sort of mechanism that allowed him to open the door itself. He gave it a soft kick, perking his ears up at the hollow sound that came as a response.
It sounds... umm, like it can be taken down. There's no other way to open it, and I don't think it'd be a good idea not to search here, he remarked to himself as he directed his sight towards the rest of domiciles further away. The position of the houses, a semicircle arching in the opposite direction of the moonlight shrouded them in shadows. Plus, it doesn't look especially friendly over there...
Leaving out a sigh of mild resignation, he spun around, readying his hind legs for a buck. Would he land the kick on the door hinges? There was no indication of what direction the door opened, or if the door even opened with a direction. He closed his eyes before giving the hit.
A startling uproar pierced through the silent nocturnal desert air: the land of wood behind completely shattered.
His legs, thanks to inertia, kept advancing past the hit, ending up with his legs firmly grasped by the two holes he had just made on the door. Tiny splinters had dug into his coat, and they only got worse as he struggled to get his back legs back on the ground.
"Agh, horse apples, why didn't I think about it? It was clear it would happen..." he groaned out in a raspy tone as he pushed himself away from the door. "Plus, it didn't even move. It's still closed, the damn thing..."
Again and again, he tried to get away from the holes he had just made, at which he made little to no progress. After a while, he just gave up and hung his head low, sighing. "I have to take it down."
Between groans and frustrated huffing, he managed to free himself from the wooden trap. He, as if to appreciate his failure with further detail, turned around to face the door. There they were: two holes with enough size for him to stare inside with relative ease. There was a table with pair of objects over it, and some tall drawers around. He then sniffed the room itself and, to his surprise, found quite the smell: the smell of rotten fruits, to be exact. Which ones he couldn't tell, but it was crystal clear, at least for him, that the smell was plaguing the entire house.
"Let's just punch the door a few times..." he whispered beneath his breath as he gave a small step back. He would have to kick the door lots of times before being able to enter. He directed his gaze towards the group of homes in the distance, turning his head back at the sand when he noticed how the darkness seemed to form the shape of something in one of the doors. "That's nothing, Silk. Nothing but your imagination, now get this door open. Nothing bu--"
The sound of wood clashing came from behind him, from the semicircle of houses. In a jump, and against his own will, he kicked himself against the door, feeling the weakened wood give in. Before he could even breath in surprise, he landed over the planks in root of the thrust, the smell of rotten fruit invading his nostrils.
Ah, what a welcome... he remarked in his mind, getting up. To his surprise, the planks hadn't broken: the entire door had just gone down with him, like he had just pushed it. "What could be in here, anyway? I only came in here because it's too dark and I can't even trust myself anymore. It's like... like..." he said out loud, stopping when he looked at one of the walls: there was a portrait hanging. He got closer to it with a couple of steps and squinted to see it in the dark: he could see three ponies, a stallion and two foals. They all seemed to be male, from what Silk could gather. The grinning faces of the two colts made him notice how grim the stallion's face was. He looks like he just got the worst news ever imagined. He looks... devastated. And his children are so happy and joyful. It's almost like he gave all of his happiness to them.
He shook his head before giving a couple more steps, this time towards the table in the center of the room. There were two baskets over it, both covered with tablecloths. He reached one with his teeth, removing the cloth. The smell of food decomposing was still in the air, and it seemingly wouldn't go away. "What could this thing have...?" he asked nopony in particular as he raised his head and took a look inside. The basket itself seemed to be empty, or at least almost empty: a blank paper could be seen at the bottom. "Well, not much... What about this one? Probably nothing as well."
He uncovered the second basket and, contrary to what he had thought, he did find something: two red apples that appeared to be in strangely good shape. "Hey, food! That's what I'm talking about. Still, why are these... still ripe? For how much time has this place been abandoned? ...Has this place been abandoned?"
After having a short-lived questionnaire, he proceeded to bite one of the apples, after reasoning that they might have seemed to be ripe but might haven't been. "Still juicy," he whispered, baffled. "Well, it would be a shame if I didn't use the apples... Plus, I really need some food. I know I will."
After some seconds of munching the already mentioned apple, he reasoned that he would end up needing a place to store his provisions if the journey got too long. Looking around for something, he directed himself towards the opposite wall in the room. There, he could see something hanged on a nail. It looked like a bag. "Let's hope it is..." he said to himself as he reached for it. It did feel like one. He pulled with his teeth and the object fell from the nail, straight to the floor when he let go of it. "How... oddly convenient. If there was somebody else here, I'd say-- ugh, why did I say that? Now I think there's somepony else here. Maybe I'm right."
He squinted again, his eyes never able to see well in the darkness of the night. "Is that a strap? Because if it is, this is a saddlebag. It looks more like a rope, anyway." He reached down to the ground, biting the rope with his teeth. He immediately let it go. "Rust," he said in a loud voice, giving a step back. "It tastes like rust, like that room in the train. Maybe it's not even rust."
"I don't need the rope. I'll just... I'll j-just..." he tried to say, his speech becoming just a little more difficult to articulate. I worry too much. It's rust. It's rust. It's just rust. Nopony was killed here, he repeated to himself as he walked towards a certain darkened part of the room. "Look, this... right here..." he said, extending his hoof outwards to reach it. "This isn't a body, you see--"
His hoof touched something solid. It could have been anything. It could have been just a bunch of sheets, for all he knew; at the time, his mind automatically went with the worst option: a dead body.
"Oh my goodness, that's not... that's n-not..." he said, not even noticing he was speaking, as he jumped back. He landed near the table, at which he grabbed a random basket and stormed off. The basket seemed eerily light, but he brushed off as his own body not caring about many things at the time.
When he was already outside, he gave a couple more steps before stopping altogether. Maybe it's not dead. Maybe I was just stealing somepony's things. I broke into somepony's house as he slept. He set the basket down, just then noticing how it was the one with the blank paper. Oh, great. I got a bite off an apple and a blank paper. Eh, at least I got a basket. I can still get some things in here.
He directed his eyes towards the night sky as he felt the breeze soften in its course. I can't seem to stop thinking this is a ghost town. This is not a ghost town. There are ponies out there. They are asleep. They are just resting, like I should be. I should be sleeping and then, tomorrow, ask for directions. Yes, I should do that; I should do that, that's smart. He sighed.
"I can't even convince myself. I'm scared. I'm alone, lost, with no food and I think I'll start to get hungry and starve just because I had that apple bite. I've gotten nothing but an empty basket and I'm certain I've already found a dead stallion. Great, just great. It's like... like I'm not even here. Agh, just listen to yourself, Silk. You don't even know what you're saying. It's like you're trying to mask your fears with a conversation with yourself. ...And I'm doing a really sloppy job."
He turned himself to face the distant houses. Alright. If there's anypony out there, I highly doubt it'll be out to harm me. Just walk and nothing bad will happen. Nothing bad... will happen.
The sound of the sand beneath his hooves filled the otherwise silent desertic ambient. The basket was hanging from his teeth, dangling back and forth with every step. It would take some minutes.
There's got to be a town hall in here. I'll be able to get a map there, I'm sure. I just need the map and I'll be fine. Appleoosa can't be far from here: the climate is near identical. It's not like this is Appleoosa: there's no way it could happen to Appleoosa as well. Canterlot is the capital; of course they would target it.
Questions rose into my mind then: who did what, when, where and why? Why Canterlot? Who targeted it and with what purpose? The Canterlot incident... was it something that only he could remember? Railroad hadn't remembered it when he mentioned it.
Railroad either didn't have half of a clue, or he hid it very well. He sighed again. I wonder what happened to him. Nightmare probably found him and killed him. That would explain the blood... But it doesn't explain why it smelled like rust and not fresh blood... Agh, am I really thinking about that? Railroad's probably going through the same fate as me. He was probably thrown off the train itself before me, so it wouldn't be much of a surprise if he managed to get to Appleoosa already. The colt seemed a little too athletic to be a train conductor.
Sand, sand and more sand. There was nothing else in the distance. Dunes and little houses, not a single soul to be seen. "A deserted desert," he said out loud, chuckling a bit. "It sounds redundant and obvious. It is redundant and obvious."
I can't help but to wonder about that portrait. What happened to those two foals? The room seemed to be the entire house and, unless the broken door covered a doorway towards a basement, I doubt there was something I missed. Maybe they live somewhere else. What about his face? He looked much more than just sad. That stallion had an extremely depressed look. Maybe his life had taken an unlucky turn recently? That wouldn't explain why the two little colts were smiling. ...Well, they're children. They seldom worry about things like that.
He came to a stop randomly, close to his destination. He dropped the basket and, somehow, got the blank paper out. It was then when he realized that it wasn't completely blank: on the other side, a message could be read:
"I'll be gone soon. Ask Blizzard for help. Love you two," he read out loud, only to realize the message itself after finishing.
Then... he is dead. He is dead, after all. He told his kids to take care of themselves; he told them to go look for somebody called "Blizzard." He knew he was going to die, that's the reason behind why he looked so depressed. He knew... he knew he wouldn't live to see his children grow up to be stallion like him. He got the paper into the basket again and picked it up, resuming his course. "Such a... sudden method of discovering things... I wonder if the kids are alright. I'm sure they are."
He, then, arrived at the front door of another house. This one seemed different from the other one: the paint hadn't fallen off, and the door was actually more like an actual door instead of a bunch of planks together. He pushed the door softly with his hoof, at which it opened with a screech. He looked inside, seeing nothing that caught his attention entirely. The window that allowed seeing the road in front of him showed nothing but more sand, as if to remark on the point that he was alone and lost. He entered the place, noticing how silent it was. He couldn't explain it, but that particular house came off as even more silent than the previous one to him. It was like it had gone past the point of silence and it had started to make sound occur at a lower volume.
After examining the room for some seconds, he noticed something else hanging from a wall. It looked like another portrait, but there was nopony in the frame. It was just a bunch of trees. A painting, he said to himself. They're called paintings.
He turned around, catching a glimpse of the room itself on the dark. It seemed to consist of absolutely nothing: there was no table, no nothing. It was just the window and the painting. Did anypony actually live there?
"Nothingness. Ah, nothingness," he said while sighing. "I had forgotten how unsettling you were."
He directed towards the door once again, noting something: I can sleep here. Let's see if I can find something else around here...
Having said that, he inspected half of the 9 houses left, not bothering to force the doors that wouldn't open. So far, he had gotten a little bag filled with oats, a functional saddlebag and four apples, together with the presence of salt cubes, which he wasn't able to store.
Things got quite different when he reached the second-to-last house.
He walked towards it like any other, and opened the door carefully. The door in the sixth house had fallen, so he tried not to make that happen again. He heard a barely audible snap when the door opened, which he dismissed as the house settling. He entered the house or, rather, the room, noticing the window in the back. The moonlight passed through it, lighting a certain part of the floor. It was then when he realized that there was something written on the floor. It looked like the same phrase repeated over and over again.
"I... am... s-sorry...?" he read out loud whilst noticing how shaky the writing was. He stopped for a moment. I don't need to see it, I just know it: this entire place is filled with "I'm sorry," right...? I don't want to be here. I want to get out of here. He turned around and gave a step forward, towards the door, but froze when he heard something:
"Don't go."
The voice had come from behind him. Was there anypony there, in the shadows? He couldn't turn around, but he couldn't keep walking either. He just stood there.
"Please, don't go. You'll only hurt me. I beg you, please don't do it. I've done nothing to you. Don't leave me, dear." It was the voice of a mare. She sounded senile, but not old. She sounded crazy and incomprehensible but, at the same time, her agony was evident on her speech.
Silk stood there, completely still. He wasn't even thinking. I could palpate his fear, however. He was terrified. He just wanted to run.
"Don't... don't go away!" the voice got louder, and the sound of a chain being dragged across the floor appeared on the background. It was getting louder. This mare, whoever she was, was getting closer to Silk with every second. "I need you to survive... Those children need me to survive..."
"Those children"? Does she mean... is she Blizzard? Silk wasn't sure of where he was going with that train of thought. I need to get out of here, damn it! Those foals are also probably dead. She must have gone insane after failing at the task of keeping them alive. ...It's like... everywhere I go, death and disappearance are much more common. This mare's about to die and I won't do a thing to save her. Don't turn around, don't turn around. If you face her, you won't be able to run.
"Why don't you understand!?" the mare's shouts got past pleading and turned into a full-fledged demand. "I need to get out of here! I swear I'll raise the foals for him! Just let me out of here!" The chains got louder and louder, up until the point Silk could hear them right behind him. "The chains... the chains are digging into my body! I'm about to... to get rid of them... The chains are restricting me... I don't need them... I don't need them... The children need me... I need you..."
Just as she said that last "you," Silk felt his left back leg being grabbed. That was all the impulse he needed. He jumped, startled, kicked the mare's hoof away, and stormed off, barely silencing a scream beneath his breath. As he got far from the house itself, he could clearly hear the shouts of agony of the mare behind him. Did she manage to get the chains out of her...? Maybe she... Maybe she ripped her own body open in an attempt to escape? Just thinking about it makes me sick. I should have never entered there.
He ran down the path towards the second house he had gone to.
Don't look back; the empty house is just some seconds away. Lock the door and you'll be fine, Silk Thread. Just lock it. You have everything you need here.
He jumped into the open door and closed it behind him with such a strength he had to check that he hadn't broken it.
Nothing but silence came afterwards.
His agitated breath got into normal range after a while, as he lay down on the wooden floor. It wasn't exactly as comfortable as a bed, but anything would do the trick.
"What was that mare talking about...?" he asked himself beneath his breath, as he drifted off to sleep. "I can't help but to feel bad for her. She must have gone through such a trauma to end up like that... I wonder if she broke her shoulders to escape that place..."
He sighed, getting his tail out of his face.
I really shouldn't think about it. I should think about what I will do when I wake up again. I should be getting ready to hit the road once again. Appleoosa's near, but it isn't coming towards me.
With that said, he cleared his thoughts and, without much of a further struggle, he fell soundly asleep on the floor, leaving all memories behind.
I, at least, had gotten no new information on why is Silk doing this entire journey, and only got more possible questions. He acts like everyone should know about what happened in Canterlot, but whenever I ask him about it, he doesn't want to remember.
Also, this is the third time I've heard that "I've done nothing to you" phrase. It has to mean something, but what...?
In the distance, barely perceptible yelps of pain could be picked out. The sound of sand being pushed around was recognizable on the background, layered below the occasional weeps. The voice muttered something that I fought not to understand: something about "getting the children back where they belong."
Who could that have been? If the sound of the sand was any indication, I still was in the desert in the middle of nowhere. The voice outside of the window would belong to Blizzard, surely. What had happened with her? If her speech could be used to get a clue, the chains that held her down had damaged her considerably when she managed to get out of that one house.
She screamed at irregular intervals. Oftentimes, I thought that she had gone silent, only to continue seconds later.
Silk got up after listening to her for a long while. Silence had returned to its reign, by then. I could hear him talk to himself about how he had already rested enough and that he wished to continue with his journey. He shook his head before getting his so-called belongings into the saddlebag that he already had tied around his body. Giving a deep breath in front of the door, he closed his eyes for a moment.
There's only one place I haven't been to. After I clear that, it's back to traversing the desert alone.
The sound of the door opening was the first sound in a while. He went down his path, focusing on not giving too much attention to anything that could be on his way. In front of the doorway of the place he had just left, he caught a glimpse of a figure on the sand. A slightly darker trail marked its trajectory: surely, it was blood. I couldn't get a better view of he figure given how Silk just rushed past it, but it was completely immobile and, given the shape I saw, she was missing maybe more than one limb. How had she got into this condition? Who did that to her?
Due to my questioning, I don't exactly remember how exactly, but Silk reached the last house without any other event even happening.
Silk himself was much more silent than the night before, so to speak: it was still night, but the sky wasn't as purple as before; it had started to mix with a very soft blue.
"Dawn is approaching."
That was his last line of thought before opening the door carelessly. A loud creak travelled through the room and, only then, he could notice the dim light on a table, right in front of him now that the door was out of the way.
There's somepony here. Or maybe... maybe they're not here right now. If that's the case, I better be fast.
The sound of his hoofsteps resonated with much more intensity than he had expected. His eyes flew over the scarce items the room contained. "I could take this lamp with me," he said as he approached the object. "I might need it to... I don't know, get light into somewhere."
He took the object in his teeth and, after a glance at what other things he could find, he left.
Once outside, he sat of the sand and, for the first time, he asked where he could go now.
I should continue the path I was going. The first house was... he thought, squinting his eyes, as if to signal that he was thinking. It was right in front of this one. I should just go back and wander until I find something. Sounds... good...
He looked at the sky once again. Dawn was nearing, but wouldn't be there too soon, either.
Either stay here to see if I can get someone to help, or just leave alone... Now, again, there might be nopony here... there might be a long way towards the nearest town. That nearest town might not even be Appleoosa. Agh, it's like the place itself is avoiding me. I just want to get there. I want to know what happened to Canterlot and why.
What happened to Canterlot? Or, rather, what is happening in Canterlot?
"That voice returned. I thought I had gotten rid of them," he said out loud, the lamp falling to the sand. "I thought I had managed to forget them, especially his voice."
Whose voice? Every sentence only brought more questions forth.
"It wasn't my fault. I didn't actually do anything to him. It was all his own fault. All his own fault." Silk kept on repeating that phrases on his head in an attempt to silence me, surely.
He lifted the lamp off the sands and stood up shortly after, his gaze fixed on the slowly vanishing stars. "I don't even know where I am. I don't even know where everypony else is. I need to know what happened to Railroad and... And why is Nightmare around. I'd like to think that, for all I now, it wasn't her. It was just... something else."
With his mind returning to how he could even get to his destination, he started to walk once again. He went around the house of the lamp, with the object itself between his teeth, before walking off into the empty distance.
Ah, here we go again. Let's just hope I reach something soon enough... he thought, even his thoughts filled with a tone of resignation.
It didn't take him long to find another building in the distance. It had a distinct roof: shaped more like a cone pointing towards the sky. A high tower, maybe? I hadn't ever heard of a pillar or... anything... in the middle of the desert. Then again, it looks like it's wood. Oak, I think. Well, let's get there! That last point resonated through his head in a determination-filled reverb. I'm still quite impressed at how much he changed his mood, and how often.
He galloped towards the just-seen building, grinning just a little too much. The breeze of earlier had disappeared and a strange warmth was emanating from the ground itself.
Minutes later, he had reached the recently-seen construction. Of course, it wasn't a tower or anything: it looked much more like a town hall. The front door was open wide, and the wood itself looked just fine.
Why is this so separated from... everything? he remarked in his mind as he looked everywhere. Not a thing in sight, except for the town hall itself, or whatever it was. It's like there was something else around these parts, but it flat-out disappeared.
He gave another step forward, getting closer to the open door. Nopony here, either. It's... strange, very strange. Too strange not to be unsettled. Blizzard was the only pony I met in that little place. She was the only one, and now it seems like she just died. It's... off-putting. I wonder if that was even her, or... maybe it was the foals? Maybe one of them was a filly and I didn't notice it? How... how horrible that would be. Why did they chain her, then?
He stopped himself before his inner questionnaire got any stronger. Just take the step forward and get what you want. There's got to be a map around here, it's the town hall. If I look around for long enough, I'll be sure to find something.
Silk gave three or four steps once inside the building, looking at just about every single thing he could see. The place had no windows, that was clear.
As soon as he was inside, the door closed behind him with a thunderous clash. He turned back, fast, and the dim light of the lamp ceased to exist.
"Who's there?" he asked the air, not sure of where to look. The darkness had engulfed everything, and, obviously, he couldn't see half a thing.
Loud breathing came as a response. It was a mare, that was clear. "Who's here, you ask?" she said, trying to paste calmness on her voice. "Why should I answer...?"
"Who are you?" Silk asked again, not sure of why he had gone there in the first place. Oh, the map, that. I need a map... he remembered in his mind.
A very dim light shone before his eyes. The mare's horn barely glowed, but it was more than enough to see eachother. There she was: a white mare, her light-blue mane cascading behind her head. Her green eyes looked directly at Silk's eyes, and the unsure grin on her face indicated nothing good. "I'll answer you right after you take a nap. Deal?" she asked with a light giggle.
Before Silk could answer, he received a strong hit to the side of his head. His vision almost faded instantly, and the sound of the clash itself left a high-pitched ringing on his ears. He felt much less capable to escape her and, without him even realizing, he tripped over to his side, ending up on the floor, immobile.
"I had always wanted to do that," she said, as she was admiring her work. After some seconds, she reached down to Silk's body. "He's out of it." She then dropped the pan that she had used, its loud clank as it hit the wooden floor propagating through the place.
A third voice came from the other side of the room. "Frost, who was that?"
"I think it's another one of those, you know the ones. Why the question, sir?"
"It... umm, it sounded just like somepony else." The voice approached the mare, it was right behind her.
"Well," she said with a smile, casting a lighting spell. "You can see him here, s-sir. Does it look like the one you're talking about?"
"Yes, it does. And please, don't call me 'sir,' it makes me feel older than I am."
"And... well, what should we do with him? And... You know you are old."
"What should I do with him?"
The sensation that accompanied my awakening was so much worse than other days. It was completely clear that, yes, that fever wasn't going to leave me alone for a long, long time. I felt my limbs weak and tired by, seemingly, no reason and my eyes both burned and hurt, as if they were being pressed by hearted carbons.
It was dark at the time. I couldn't see a thing, but I was sure I felt my eyes were open. It's surely right before dawn, I thought, and light just doesn't reach the necessary amount.
Feeling the typical awakening yawn coming on, I stretched my arms reluctantly, together with my normal groan; it was almost an everyday thing.
I, then, felt a far too familiar hit against my chest. The pressure of the strike was strangely recognizable, almost like I had already felt it before.
"You're back," said a voice near me. Again, it sounded strangely familiar. I had heard it before, I was sure. The sickness sensation didn't let me think with the clarity I wanted. "I'm back, as well," the voice continued. It was a feminine voice, but it sounded... different.
Wow, myself, you've really gone off the rails this time, I joked in my mind. You've really outdone yourself. Things have gotten more and more confusing with every time I woke up, but this particular one had stricken with particular force.
"It's not it that you should blame," answered the voice, seemingly out of nowhere, just as if had read my mind. "You and I know the real reason..." The voice sounded more and more familiar with every second word. It was almost like I knew who it was, but my sleepiness wasn't letting me remember it.
The pressure against my chest, which was quite formidable, vanished out of a sudden. It was like it had never been there. I breathed in slowly, trying to put that little scene behind. I've really got to get used to that.
I blinked a few times before finishing the interrupted stretch, with my arms getting a electric-like sensation throughout them in the middle of the action. Should have expected that.
I got up like almost every day, silently cursing the cold floor beneath my feet as I directed myself towards the kitchen. I couldn't see a thing, but my muscle memory guided me just fine.
"That voice... the way it pressed against my chest..."
My footsteps echoed through the room, and the creak of the door to my room seemed to mask a low rumble in the distance. In the corridor, nothing but a self-replicating darkness awaited me. Even if I tried, I couldn't see more than black.
"I know I've heard that voice before..."
I stopped after giving a few steps, engulfed by the darkness of the corridor. I expected silence and, to my displeasure, I couldn't find it anywhere. My ears rang and I could clearly hear the blood circulating through my head.
"The exact same touch..."
From behind me, or maybe from inside, I heard a voice. It wasn't a menacing voice, nor imposing; on the contrary, it was a reassuring voice, speaking in a slow and tender manner, almost like the tone a loving parent would have.
"I had missed you... I had missed you so much... Now we're going to stay together, alright? No more running away from me, did you hear? Don't give me that look, don't take it as that, dear."
Who was there? I turned back, my own mind shouting at me for doing that. Nothing.
"Well, of course you shouldn't have done that. But let's forget about it. You're alright, you see? No need to get upset, neither of us."
The voice didn't come from behind me. It seemed to get louder with time, but I couldn't locate it anywhere. It just... it just appeared.
"Don't worry; I'm sure it's gone. It's gone, you see. No need to be scared."
A low rumble came to life just some seconds later. The darkness was daunting, and I seemed to be getting lost inside my own home. I couldn't remember how far I was from anywhere in particular: I was standing in the hallway, with no knowledge of where to go. Utterly baffled, I gave a step forward, the imposing blackness leaving right where I was. It made no sense.
The faint sound of the flap of wings joined in, then. I turned my head, but no avail: the sound, just like the voice, had no discernible source. I refused to believe that it was any other than my own mind. The flapping got louder and louder in nothing but seconds. Even when I couldn't position it, I couldn't help but to feel something was approaching me and there wasn't a thing I could do.
The sound of my own breathing got louder with every passing second. A feeling of anxiety took over me as the two sounds became unbearably loud. For what seemed like the longest time, there was nothing but that: just the sound of wings flapping and myself breathing agitatedly; nothing to feel, nothing to see.
I moved my arms around, trying to find a wall or any other thing that could help me locate myself in that place that I was supposed to know so well. The short-lived quest brought absolutely nothing but the knowledge that I was nowhere near a wall.
Without knowing why I was feeling so out of place, I walked forward. If I find a wall it'd help... I said in my mind. Anything would help now.
The sound of the wings flapping stopped just as suddenly as it began, and so did the sound of my breathing. It was almost like my own head just stopped receiving sound.
Deaf and mute, I went down the supposed hallway with surprising ease. Not a single misstep was taken, and I arrived soundly in... The middle of nowhere, once again.
"I think it's gone. Let's hope it's gone."
The voice gained a slight sense of dread. Whatever it was the voice was talking about, it feared it. I didn't want to think about what it could be.
I heard a step in the distance. It echoed through the room for a long while before vanishing from existence. Silence reigned again once it was over. Must be my mind acting up again, I tried to convince myself as I walked towards nothingness.
Another step came from behind me. It sounded nothing like the steps of a person. It sounds... oddly familiar... I feel like I've heard those particular steps before. Please tell me I haven't...
"That was m-me. N-no, it w-wasn't. Be silent."
A soft breeze passed through me. That was the exact moment I felt like the truth was undeniable: there was something else than me in there. How did it get here? I asked no one in particular. Is it even real?
The steps behind me began to gain frequency, but not intensity. It was like whatever that was making the steps itself wasn't moving.
I started to give larger steps as I unconsciously tried to get away from anything. I just couldn't bring myself to further delirious visions. I needed to evade them as much as I could. It was like... like I had to maintain with sanity in order to continue. It's the only and the best way to go.
"I'm going in. Stay here. I'll be right back. Don't move. Don't go away."
A light approached me: a faint blue mist that seemed to both start and end suddenly. I directed myself towards it, reaching it with surprising speed. The steps behind me only got more and more continuous as I advanced. An imaginary chase scenario played in my mind.
As soon as I reached the faint aura, it vanished in mid-air. I was, again, lost in the middle of nowhere. I turned around out of habitude, expecting nothing but darkness to greet me. Instead of darkness, the same faint flow of colour appeared before me. A strange feeling of hospitality emanated from it. I could see nothing but it. I approached it without any thought, thinking that it'd be better that way.
A door was closed with a slam somewhere. Again, it sounded nothing like I was used to. The echo of the door shutting persisted for far longer than it should have. From below it, another familiar sound surfaced: the sound of the tracks.
"You're back, again," said a voice, the same voice as the one from when I had just awoken. "I'll enjoy this greatly."
I stammered far too much. Who was it? My mind wouldn't stop asking itself that question. Who is it?
"W-who are y-you?" I barely managed to ask. I started shaking out of a sudden, and breathing was starting to get a tad more difficult. Something was very, very off in that moment. Not the smartest question, I remarked to myself after it. The light in front of me vanished a second later.
"Who am I? Oh, you know me..." answered the voice. "We've had our... encounters... for quite a while."
A step forward. I felt something getting closer to me. I just couldn't move, I was frozen there.
"Don't you know who I am?"
That particular line was the spark. I... know who it is - who she is.
"What are you?" I asked. You're not very smart, aren't you? I heard my own head ask me.
"Don't ask me questions twice: I have already answered you," the voice said dismissively.
"Do you happen to know where you are?"
The sound of the tracks made me only think of one thing: "Is this place... a t-train?"
"You'd be right: this is the last wagon of the train. This place is so monotonous. You'll help me."
A light appeared, once again, in front of me: the aura of magic.
In that moment, I felt something inside of me. It was clear: apart from the suspense that all that darkness had made me feel, there was a bafflingly strong feeling of safety. It was like I knew nothing could happen to me. It was like... like I felt I was invincible. I had stopped to feel all out of a sudden.
With the least bit of lighting, I couldn't recognize what happened right after that. It was like the lack of stimulus reigned completely: I could make out a faint glow, a twisted grin... and the smell of blood, filling up my nostrils. I couldn't feel anything but, from what I heard, something horrible was happening.
Pitch black. In my eyes, there was nothing but that. I couldn't feel a thing except for the fact that I knew I was awake. I knew I was there, only... only that I didn't know where or when. I just was. There was nothing: no sound could be picked out, no sensation could be felt. I couldn't hear myself think, of at least try to think. Not too long passed before the silence broke.
"So you say that this stallion here is your friend?" said a voice, strangely clear and close to me. The silence before it hadn't been unnerving, but I preferred listening to something instead of staying in a void. I preferred it so much.
The voice itself was reminiscent of something else, like I once knew somebody with a voice like that.
"I met him a short time ago; around a day ago."
The second voice rung as even closer to my memories. It sounded deeper; a male, perhaps? Was somebody, there, with me? Or was I... not myself once again?
"You met me a few hours ago," answered the first speaker, a slight incredulity present on its voice.
"Yes, it's... it's quite the story; to be honest..." replied the other voice, before leaving out a light chuckle. "I might tell you the whole story if we get the chance, Frost."
Frost. That name... I've heard it before...
"Hoarfrost." corrected the first voice. I had started to interpret sound so much better by then. It sounded like a female. Was she... was she the mare?
I'm back here, then...
"Eh, there isn't much of a difference."
"Anyway, is this colt ever going to come back?" asked the mare, with a clear hint of impatience in her voice.
"It was your fault. I didn't say that you had to hit him like that," responded the second voice, one that remarkably sounded like that stallion... that stallion Railroad. Was that his name? Was I, again, in there?
"Give me a break: you don't even know how horrible it was to even be here before you arrived," said the mare, somewhat louder, her voice taking a tone of offended defensiveness. "You can't even imagine the things I've— he's waking up." Her voice went back to normal as she said those last words.
"That was a big change in tone, huh?" asked the stallion, jokingly. There was silence for a moment, before he spoke up again: "What was his name again?"
"Do you think I might know...?" replied the mare. "Plus, is it that important?"
"It had something to do with clothing..."
"Hanger. Hanger the... Troubled Impaler of Plants—"
"Silk Thread, I remember now."
That's... his name. Indeed, I'm here. I thought I was hearing voices again... Though I don't know if this is any better...
She left out a chuckle. "That sounds like a mare's— no, a filly's name," she corrected. "He sounds a tad... weak."
"You'd be wrong," replied Rail.
"How did you meet him?" asked the mare, the slightest interest present in her voice.
"Hehe, I guess I never told you about my life. I work as a train conductor."
"So Silky, here, met you there."
"Yes, we met there. He's a really nice colt—"
"You think everyone is nice," replied the mare, her tone of voice coming back to her defensive one. "You met one of those... things... and you thought if might have been friendly and all."
"I think they were. They looked like it, at least..." he replied in his trademark calm voice. I heard one or maybe two steps before I heard his voice, much closer: "Hey, Silk, can you hear me?"
"I don't think he can," answered the mare, with a hint of impatience being appreciable.
Rail, then, turned back. His voice went towards Frost's before speaking again: "Well, then... we better get going, no?"
"Yes! Oh, thank Celestia, I thought you'd never say that," replied the mare, excitement showing in her voice. "Let's just stuff Delicatehooves back there and rush out of here."
"Alright," he replied, before leaving out a laugh. "Heh, he better get comfortable back there or he's going to be very sore when he wakes up. Anyway, are going to, or should I?"
"I've got this," replied Frost before I felt myself, or rather, Silk, being lifted and carelessly dropped over a wooden surface. The hit shook my head, or Silk's head, to be precise, more than necessary and left me with a ringing in my imaginary ears. Hoofsteps sounded, nearing me and then leaving. Whatever was happening, it sounded important.
"If he even wakes up..." I heard the faint voice of the mare, mumbling beneath her breath. It sounded inexplicably sour, almost filled with malice. "Well, Railroad, are you ready to go?" she asked, her voice adopting a cheery tone.
"I'm ready. How about you?"
"We should have gone already, don't you think?" she asked, her voice expressing her impatience once again.
Where are they going? Where are... we... going to?
Before I could hear anything else, I blanked out again. Huh, it sure happens a lot...
My consciousness returned once again after a very long while. I felt nothing for a very long patch of time, yet I knew something was happening to me.
W-where am I? I'm moving. I hear hoofsteps and sand. It's not daytime yet. I hear sand. Oh, please, mind, send me to reality...
"Are you even sure we'll get there soon?"
Who is she, exactly? I haven't met anyone lately. Maybe... maybe they're—
"Of course we will, Frost. I know this place very well and I know we're nearing it. At this rate, we'll get there in an hour or two."
That voice... I've heard it before, I'm sure. It sounds like... like... Like someone I shouldn't know.
"Come on, Rail, trot faster. I am not going to take the risk of this filly back there waking up."
"Heh, alright. Though I don't think that's going to make it better, Frost..."
Rail. I do know him: the train conductor. Silk was thinking, after a long time where the only sound were my own thoughts. Nightmare must have dropped him here with me. ...That means I went the wrong way after losing my consciousness and that I was in a completely different place. ...Ugh, I hate this situation so much. It really could get worse, but don't you even try, fate.
Silk groaned after that line of thought ended, together with kicking a hoof against the wood. A mute thump came from behind Rail and Frost, at which her ears perked up.
"Seems like you woke him up," said Railroad in his trademark calm voice.
"Well, Mr. Softyhooves needs to learn to wake up before. Or later, I don't mind." Hoarfrost sounded irritated, like something was deeply bothering her.
Silk stood up and leaned on the wagon, letting his mane hang limply over his head.
"What a strange way of meeting, huh, Silk?" said Rail, leaving out a chuckle. "I think you know very well what happened yesterday. Wow, yesterday, and it feels like it was forever ago." He turned his head around to face the rising colt.
"I say the same thing."
"Rail, eyes on the road," said Hoarfrost, harshly.
"Don't worry, I can do both," replied Rail, trying his best at smiling to the impatient mare. "Say, Silk, how have you been holding up in this last day? I do not see your saddlebags anywhere near you."
"I lost them after the... the incident. There were a bunch of things there..." said Silk before sighing. He raised his head, his gaze reaching the starry skies in the distance. "Not that there was much I could have done, anyway. They're gone now."
"Yes, nothing but to advance forward," said Rail, nodding lightly before smiling at the leaning stallion.
"Excuse me, you two... are you two a couple or what?" asked Hoarfrost, stopping on her tracks, not amused in the slightest. "Hey, Silky, get down from there and pull. You're a load."
"Also, Rail, where are you two going to?" asked Silk before jumping down from the wagon and positioning himself behind a rudimentary pole that functioned as a way of pulling the cart.
A bit rustic... but I don't mind.
"Dodge," answered Rail, enthusiastic. He grinned for a moment before directing his gaze towards the sands once again.
That's... not... "But—"
"Yes, now let's go! We still have some time left!" shouted Hoarfrost before hopping forward, pushing the cart with surprising strength for a mare of her size.
"As you say, Frost!" replied Rail before starting to canter once again.
Silk spoke up nervously. "W-wait, I don't want to go there...! I'm supposed to—"
"I don't care, now go! Wither you go with us or we leave you here in the desert! Now stay quiet and pull."
I regained my consciousness slowly. The passing of time was more of an intermittent condition, and I oftentimes felt static. In front of my open eyes, a never-ending black void. A loud rumble in the distance, the feeling of my numb body... and her voice.
"You've faded again? Weak."
My body slowly started to feel a cold, penetrating wing running furiously from my back. Sound faded away slowly, coming back in almost hypnotic pulses. It reached a point where my mind continued the pulse once all sound has stopped.
"Answer me." Her voice acquired a strong, severe tone. I almost felt physical pain in root of the strength. The wind suddenly blasted with much more force, the unbearable cold sticking to my bones, a sharp pain presenting itself once it reached my very core.
My voice, which I hadn't tried to force out, would be impossible to make out, as if I were just unable to articulate a sound. Floating in that desolated darkness, I couldn't feel myself, like I was a third person that only shared feelings with that person I called "myself."
I had no thoughts to speak of. My senses indicated that, indeed, time has been passing and still did, but it was more like I had been disconnected and I could just stare into someone else, my mind adrift.
"I said answer me." The voice somehow managed to become even more severe. I felt fear, dread. I felt myself being chased and threatened.
Why am I still here? Why haven't I recovered? My thoughts had come back, but nothing else did, and nothing made sense, then.
"Make an effort. I'm really starting to believe this is nothing but a waste of time. Wake up."
Am I not awake?
I heard a groan before feeling a strong hit to my cheek. A hard, but not cold, object struck me. The wind stopped in the instant, the cold sensation being replaced by sharp pain in my left cheek.
"You better be now."
My mind, as opposed to what I expected, was in calm and didn't question much: why do you keep appearing? This is real life. I don't want to hallucinate anymore, I can't do it.
Her laughter appeared not too far away from me. Its sheer intensity and honesty struck me and made my heart jump. That was the last kind of laughter I wanted to hear and probably the last one I'd ever hear. Without thinking about it twice, I jumped out of my spot and tried to escape with as much speed as I could. The sickness, heat and pain of fever would be nothing but secondary factors once I managed to start my scurry.
As soon as I managed to connect to the ground, I noted that nothing was like how I visioned it to be. The darkness of the moment itself played a very important role, but even that was nothing but a detail when I noticed something else: the floor gave out a loud crack before giving in beneath me. An impossibly high amount of splinters scraped against me, tearing shreds of my skin off. I felt my blood run down my arms, its red tonality being the only thing that, in the middle of darkness, could be seen. There it was, in front of me: a crescent pool of my own blood, trickles of the fluid appearing from mid-air. The same gelid wind as before appeared out of a sudden, the little bloodstain flying through the air just a second later. The open wounds of my arms froze, the cold stab of ice burrowing deep into my being, together with the feeling of them rupturing inside of me.
This can't be real, I shouted and pleaded in my mind. It was so little, but it was more than enough; I didn't want to continue with it.
"Say it." The voice came from right behind me, and sounded nothing like a normal voice. It was full of confused ire, raspy and insecure. "Say it and I'll end it."
I advanced forward in the dark. It was something so simple by then. In that moment, I wished I could see what was going to happen to me.
A cold chuckle was the only answered I received before a soft light reached my eyes.
Open drawers and papers scattered around with no pattern whatsoever. A door opened in the hallway, far from me. A voice I had never heard said something I couldn't comprehend. The starry sky outside the only window wasn't enough to light the room and see what was going on. A loud stomp against a floor, the light disappearing. A strangely familiar sound served as an aperture for the mute sound of something being hit. Gurgles followed, a warm sensation in my hands. In-between the silence, nothing but the sound of agitated bubbles, lowering in volume up until the point where it disappeared completely. A long silence followed, before a voice suddenly spoke up.
"You can't escape your past."
It sounded familiar but I couldn't begin to imagine the situation that would prompt the usage of such a phrase.
A distant macabre laugh reached my ears. A mixture of repulsion and curiosity took over my mind. In my body, a heat that made me disintegrate. The silence reigned once again after a few moments and the cold came back, even when not nearly as strong as before. A sigh and a deep breath. The sound of a door opening. A hit against the wall, an object being thrown. A tiny spurt of blood passing through a tiny ray of moonlight. The sound of drawers being forced open, papers being bent and ruffled. Then, nothing. A grunt and more steps over the wood. Sweat in my hands and forehead.
"Don't act so innocent. I know who you are and what you've done. I can see it all right now. It's all happening right now."
A clock sounded in the distance. Seconds seemed to pass more and more slowly with each new one. An inexplicable desperation bloomed inside me. Claustrophobia took its place in my mind. Alone in the room, the darkness was made of a thousand eyes that watched every single movement. The crunch of wood beneath me. I still wasn't alone. A torrent of incomprehensible voices spoke to my ear. My hair was an exhibition of guilt, which I tried to rip apart from me. The pain that came from the act was the pain of those who I had wronged being reflected. Severe regret of those acts I never thought I'd commit. The pain rose, reaching a level where I couldn't even scream. My blood boiled with every new step, every new second another judgement placed over my head. Pain, loneliness, sadness. My eyes were on the verge of popping right out of their sockets, the dim shadows in front of me stabbing my mind with the indomitable fury of a misjudged innocent. I become insignificant beneath the gaze of a thousand watchers.
The door in front of me was the escape of all the suffering that judgement had put over me. It called my name in a soft voice; it made me approach it without noticing.
A thunderclap ended that episode. My agitated breathing served as ambient noise as I tried to calm down. The darkness in front of me didn't seem menacing anymore, at least in my eyes. The silence was warm, in a way, almost like an inaudible voice repeated that it was all over to my ear.
I raised my hands in the air, as far as I could reach. My right hand hit something.
"How was it, your little vision?" she asked. Of course it would be her. "Surrender and it'll be easier on you."
Surrender to what and why?
"Open your eyes and notice you can't continue escaping what you've done." Her voice sounded both irritated and caring, nothing like the cold tyrant she really was. She sounded almost like a furious mother.
I... I don't understand. What was that all about?
"You remember who I am, right?" she asked. "That is your past, the one that you refuse to accept as yours, and it's time to face it. There won't be any more chances." The sheer bitterness and aggression on her voice, even when it wasn't loud, made me flinch.
Who are you? My mind, once again, begged for an answer.
"Who do you think I am?"
N-Nightmare.
"Ah, you have reached that point. Wake up, Silk. Wake up and face reality."
W-who?
"Time to go, Silk Thread. Your figments in this world will never help you."
What am I even talking about?
Her voice became louder, shouting at me. "It's all lies, Silk. This world isn't real. This is nothing but a product of your mind!"
Her words sounded so real, so... honest. I couldn't bring myself to believe her, however. I would never give in when it came to my hallucinations. I would never lose a fight against my own mind, not against myself.
"Move for once, for goodness sake!"
A second voice appeared. The shouting of Nightmare played over and over in my head. Not... real. Not real.
The stars above their head lightened the invisible path before their eyes, the cold sands beneath their hooves covering all their surroundings. Every couple of minutes they could see a cactus at a side of the road before rushing past it in silence. The sole sound of hooves hitting sand was a silent conversation that felt so much more natural and comforting that Silk's awkward attempts at starting a conversation. Hoarfrost would glare at him and Rail would try his hardest at maintaining himself out of it, to keep his mind calm as ever. Nervous stares at the ground had become normal by then, even when they had stayed together for a very short span of time; it had been more than enough for the three of them to know better than to start any discussions.
Well, that might have been correct if it weren't for the fact that Silk Thread had zoned out and was literally being dragged around by Frost and Railroad. The mare, fed up with the situation, decided to bring him back into consciousness the hard way.
"Move for once, for goodness sake!" she harshly shouted at him, as loudly as she could. Even Railroad jumped at the yell, but calmed down immediately. "If you're coming with us, couldn't you collaborate!?"
Railroad left out a tiny chuckle before saying: "To be fair, we never asked him if he wanted to—"
"Quiet and pulling, you," she dismissively said to Railroad. "Hey, porcelain hooves, can't you pull!? You've been out of it for a very long time... and I won't have any of it! You're such a lazy—"
"Aren't you wasting energy shouting at him?" asked Railroad, aiming for a rhetoric question.
Hoarfrost shot him a dark, gloomy glance for a moment before shaking her head as Railroad directed his gaze towards the ground. "I do what I want. You'll let me do what I want or else—"
"I just don't want any fights here," Railroad said quietly. "We're all seeking something, aren't we? And I'm sure we're not seeking any fights. Just calm down and carry on. The sooner you put it behind, the sooner it'll stop bothering you."
Without much of a surprise, Silk regained his consciousness and immediately continued his duty of pulling the cart.
"You're always so calm, Rail, even after what has happened," he said, smiling a little.
"Well, there isn't much sense in making such a fuss about thing you can't change, that's what I believe." Railroad returned to his silent stance, observing the distant empty horizon with his jaw half-open.
"I agree with you," said Rail. "Plus—"
"You two, couldn't you just pull harder? I've got little time and I don't pretend to waste it on listening to you two talk about your lives," she said, not even bothering to face the two. The indignation in her voice was so solid you could grab it and throw it against the ground and it would probably stay the same. "Maybe later I will, but now time is scarce."
Silk nodded slowly, then, his voice going lower than usual, his ears dropping to the side. "Ah, I understand. Can I... ask you something, Frost?"
"Not now. Maybe later I'll try to answer you."
They continued to canter down their path in silence once again, all of them moving their eyes back and forth. No one wanted to speak again, but they all felt like they needed it. It would help them to calm down, to think, to vent about what was bothering them. The tension between the three, the fact that nopony knew eachother, how much their personalities and goals differed, it all made them a little hesitant to interact.
After a long silence, Silk spoke up again: in a soft, almost inaudible whisper. "Rail, what's up with Hoarfrost?" he said, trying to maintain his tone low enough so the mare at the other side of the conductor couldn't hear him. "Do you know why is she like this?"
"Umm, Hoarfrost, dear," Railroad said in the most calming and neutral voice he could muster. "Why don't you just stop pulling for a moment? Just go back and take a break," he continued, hesitating a little on the fact of talking to her. He knew that she was more than just a bit unstable and impulsive. "You'll be far better, don't you think...?"
"And leave you two pulling the cart as you banter?"
"Trust us: we'll reach out destination as fast as we can."
She sighed in resignation before answering in a raspy voice. "I don't have time to disagree with you. Go on; but do it, or else..."
Silk and Railroad gulped at the same time. Hoarfrost didn't seem to be in favor of the idea, but she did it anyway. The cart slowed down, a small hill of sand forming in front of the wheels.
In a pair of stomps, she turned around and jumped over the wooden cart, landing on all fours. With a short groan, she lied down over the rudimentary planks before leaving out a relieved sigh. She needed to rest after having too many thoughts about what was expecting her.
Another long patch of time passed, the two stallions pulling the carts, avoiding looking at eachother. There was nothing but the sound of sand in the background and the dim light of the stars over their heads lighting their path.
Silk was the first to speak up, or to whisper up, better said. "She's asleep already. Rail, I—"
"I only know her for around half a day," said Railroad, his voice serious and firm out of a sudden. "I know she's looking for somepony but I have no idea of why or what for. I really didn't want to ask her," he continued, a slight tone of understanding appearing on his voice just seconds after.
"Umm, Rail..."
"Yes, Silk? Is there something wrong?" Rail asked as he tried to widen his steps. He unconsciously started skipping over the sand, his hooves digging deep into the cold sands underneath them.
Silk Thread hesitated a bit before asking: "Where will you go now? You know, after... all of this..."
Railroad waited a moment before answering, thinking. "I think I'll go back to work for Jubilee, like in the old times," he replied, joyful. "You know that I live in Dodge, right? Because I remember saying that to you when we first met."
"Yes, I do remember that," Silk replied. "How could I forget that...?" So he'll stay there. Ah, Appleoosa, why can't I reach you? Why can't I...?
"And what about you, Silk? Weren't you going to Appleoosa?" the conductor asked, curious. "It's kind of far from here. Why are you going there again?"
Silk gulped, not sure of where to direct his gaze. After a pair of failed attempts, he managed to give an answer. "I've got an acquaintance there that will help me with something. Maybe I haven't told you, but she—"
Railroad gave Silk a knowing look before saying: "Ah, so she'll 'help' you with 'something,' huh?" Railroad proceeded to laugh before speaking up again. "Shouldn't you spend more time with your... acquaintance?" After saying that last word, he gave Silk a wink and a soft nudge.
"It's not that, Rail," the other stallion answered, a tad more serious than he would've liked.
"Oh, of course it isn't..." Rail said, barely containing a chuckle.
He directed his gaze towards the other stallion in silence, noticing how his expression still seemed to be worried about something, before asking something else: "You have another question, don't you?"
"It isn't a question, I just..." said Silk, his voice barely audible over the sound of the sands. His voice expressed his confusion, together with his wish to know what was going on exactly. "It's just a thought about something. I can't get it out of my mind."
"About what?" asked Silk, before smirking and jokingly biting his lip. "Try not to think about her too much, Hoarfrost might see—"
Silk cut Railroad off, forcing his voice over the joking voice of the train conductor. "Rail, do you what happened in that town?" "Ah, that..." Rail replied, trying to go back to his serious tone. He thought for a long while, his eyes lost in the sky, before answering: "As far as I know, it has always been empty, or at least it has been like that for a very long time..."
"Rail, I met a mare there," said Silk, his voice gloomy.
"Didn't you have your acquaintance?" asked Railroad, a tiny bit baffled. "Wait, did you leave her behind?"
"Rail, the mare I just met is dead," Silk said without much of a thought.
The statement hit Rail like bricks, the conductor stopping in his tracks with an utterly baffled expression in his face. "Did you... Did you kill her?" he asked, not believing Silk in the slightest. As soon as he saw him nod lightly, he left out a sigh, but not one of relief. He spoke up again, his tone strong and raspy, sounding nothing like his normally easygoing voice. "Because if you did..." he said, giving a step towards Silk, silent fury in his eyes. "I you did, I swear I'll—"
"Rail, calm down, please," said Silk, giving a step back. "I haven't hurt anypony. She was... tied down..." he tried to explain, Rail still over him, as if he were to jump over him and curb-stomp him at any second. His voice went quiet again, but in the silence of the night, if was loud enough for Rail to make out the words without any trouble. "She was tied down with chains, and she spoke to me about taking care of foals..."
Rail shook his head before speaking up. "I had never heard of this place..." he said, a little bit lost in the conversation. "Wait, she spoke to you? She was alive?"
"Of course she was, Rail." Silk began to pull the cart once again, sighing. "I really mean it: I saw her dead in front of a doorstep, I saw her blood make a trail from another house."
"I s-see..." was the only thing Rail could reply. Silk had seen somepony die, or at least in the presence of a dying pony, and it hadn't affected him one bit. He only wished he could do that.
"I also found a note in another house about taking care of foals, Rail," said the travelling stallion, directing his gaze towards the eyes of the conductor. Silence. "There also was a dead stallion in there."
Railroad didn't answer past that point. He just stared at the horizon in silence, pushing like there was nothing else to take care of. Behind the two stallions, Hoarfrost wakes up, stretching in inaudible quietness. She had heard something about a dead mare close to the area, and her interest was picked. She decided to hear the stallions’ conversation before jumping into conclusions.
The same sky had been present over them for what seemed to be the longest time. The monotonous task of pulling a cart across the desert at night was beginning to take its toll, as the two stallions began to feel the weight of boredom pulling them down into lethargy. They were both observing the sky like it was the most interesting and amazing thing ever, Silk mumbling made-up names of constellations beneath his breath. Hoarfrost considered going back to sleep, and almost managed to do so, just by looking at them lazily trot forward with no apparent direction. The desert didn't chance, no matter in what direction they looked. Armed with nothing but Railroad's knowledge of the area, the three of them embarked in a quest, one that not one of the trio knew what it would bring once it was over.
They only knew it was something they had to do.
"What a beautiful sky," Railroad absent-mindedly said, his eyes still lost in the starry sky. The particular shade of purple of the late night sky, together with the surprising brightness of the stars in that area of Equestria, made the sky a great attraction and distraction. He could literally feel Silk's gaze as he spoke. "Do you think the two are related? You know... That the note meant that the mare..." He couldn't bring himself to completing the phrase. Even as a calm, level-headed stallion, he couldn't think of death as something normal. It had always been his greatest fear, to see death in front of his eyes. "That mare you saw die was the one taking care of the foals? And what about them?"
Hoarfrost's ears perked up at the mention of the deceased mare.
"I just don't know, Rail..." Silk sighed before and after answering. He, in a way, felt responsible for the mare's demise. "There was a photo there, in the house of the note, and I just can't place everything in where it belongs. It's just too much." "How many foals are involved here?" asked Rail, his voice sounding oddly concerned.
"I have no idea. It's just..." said Silk, feeling his energy leave him slowly as he pressed himself forward. "At least three. Yes, at least three foals are either dead or dying."
"Three..." said Railroad, sounding offended by Silk's sheer disinterest on the foals’ fate. "But are you sure this note is about that mare?" Rail was very concerned about the foals, up until the point where Silk had to ask him if he was going to turn back into the town and check every home to see if he could find something. Only when he informed Railroad that he had already done so, he said he wouldn't.
"Yeah, I think it's about Blizzard..." replied Silk, hanging his head low.
Hoarfrost gasped softly after hearing the name. A mixture of feelings and emotions exploded in her mind.
"Blizzard?" asked Rail, a little bit confused. "I have never heard that name before."
Hoarfrost gnashed her teeth together before asking, in the voice of fury: "Who?"
Silk tried to change the topic, but to no avail. He tried to greet her formally, but she couldn't have cared less about that. She only cared about the words, not who emitted them. "Hoarfrost, you're—"
The mare jumped down from the cart and, in a second, she was beside Silk. "I asked something," she said, loudly, not really caring about personal space. "Who is that mare?"
Silk Thread, with a slight fear on his voice, replied: "B-Blizzard."
"Blizzard."
A tiny silence was had before Hoarfrost deeply growled beneath her breath. She raised her head towards the sky after it, talking to the two stallions as if she was making a very important announcement. "You two, pull like nothing else matters. I really mean it this time." She directed her head towards Silk, not lowering her volume at all. The result was her shouting into Silk's ear: "Silky hooves, is Blizzard dead? Are you sure that she has passed away?"
"If it's her—"
Hoarfrost slowly nodded, her eyes expressing an inextinguishable fire of ire burning inside of them. "I need to speak to Rain. Yes, speak..." she said, before chuckling darkly.
Silk pressed himself against Rail accidentally, the two of them looking at eachother's eyes in nervousness. "Rail, I'm scared..." the travelled whispered.
"I'm scared as well," the conductor replied back. "Just run like your life depends on it. Today, your life does depend on it."
"Rain..." said Hoarfrost, her eyes lost, an appearance of total insanity in her entire body. Suddenly, she screamed with all of her might towards the sky: "Rain!"
I've got the worst feeling about all of this. Hooves, legs, it's showtime...
"You'll pay!" she screamed again, her voice audibly struck by the intensity of her shouts. She cleared her throat and mumbled something about that it would surely be sore the day after it.
She's a volcano of pure fury. If I even direct a word to her, she'll surely kill me... thought Silk, his eyes nervously jumping all over the place. He separated himself from Railroad and assumed his position before starting an accelerated gallop.
Judging by the speed of their travel and Railroad's knowledge of the area's geography, they would reach the.ir destination in maybe an hour. The two stallions were thirsty and would surely drop to the sands in exhaustion once they arrived in Dodge City. Hoarfrost, by her side, was being fueled by sheer fury and probably wouldn't run out of energy in a very long time.
And so, the three galloped for a very long time, the monotonous ambient making the task last an eternity. In their eyes, the mix of dark, cold sand and distant stars in the sky; in their ears, the sound of their hooves hitting the sand, the sound of the cart being dragged. No chilliness whatsoever, their throats dry, begging for water, which was nowhere to be found. In their minds, nothing but the mission of reaching their destination. It will be over soon, they repeated in their minds.
I've been running for way too long... I swear if I keep at this I'll be sore and tired for days... For how longer is this going to continue...? Are we even getting closer? "Are we there yet?" exclaimed Silk beneath his breath, without realizing he had talked out loud.
"We could have been there already if you really were pulling!" the mare shouted back, her sight lost in the middle of nowhere, expressing a deep disorder in her thoughts. The sheer bitterness in her voice made Silk jump.
"Y-yes!" he shouted in nervousness and fear, before accelerating his pace a little. Hoarfrost and Railroad followed without a word.
The sky slowly shifted away from the dim purple of the night towards the faint blue of dawn, the stars vanishing as dusk set over their heads. The moment where the stars disappeared, emptiness taking its place in the skies, was a solemn, peaceful moment, even with the undeniable tiredness that roamed free in their minds and bodies. The three felt their minds clear, trying to draw attention to how an event as simple as dusk could be such a good way of reaching quietness and peace. Dodge was nowhere to be found by then, as Rail hadn't said a thing about anything in the horizon, but none of the three bothered to say or think anything about it. All they wanted was to reach their destination and just do whatever they could, no matter how useless.
After another long while of silence, Rail finally said something:
"There it is."
Hoarfrost had been coughing profusely and almost shouted her lungs out with excitement: "Go, go, go! I'm not stopping any soon!"
Hoarfrost is totally psyched, remarked Silk on his mind, even his inner thoughts sounding absolutely beat. If I dare to stop, she'll probably zap me with her magic before rushing out like a madmare. Her fury is... it's horrifying. I have never seen somepony so angry before...
"Move those legs, Silk, or we're getting killed!" shouted Railroad, jokingly, his exhaustion making his voice difficult to decipher.
"Is that literal?" asked Silk, not truly wanting an answer. He at times lost focus on his legs and felt like he was about to trip and be left behind.
"Yes, it is!" shouted Hoarfrost, her heart pounding faster than a pneumatic drill. Her voice was raspy and sounded little like a mare, together with being a tad difficult to understand, but the sheer intensity of it made it difficult to ignore. "So move your porcelain hooves or I'll bury you right here, right now!"
"Gah!" exclaimed Silk in a deep dread. Hoarfrost was capable of anything in that moment. "I d-don't want to get killed!" he yelled, trying his best at diminishing his panting. He tried to go faster once again, his steps becoming even more spread and separated. At times he felt like he was flying.
"That's better," said the mare, before growling. "Raise those hooves; I want to see you giving the longest steps you can give!"
"Yes, ma'am!" the traveler shouted back, nervous. The sheer speed of his galloping both amazed and scared him.
More silence. The situation's tension seemed infinite, rising every second. With each step, they felt closer to their goal, even when the rest of their goings knew that they weren't even close. They were approaching their destination, yes, but still were a far way until they could reach it. Blindly, they hoped that they somehow appeared in their destination with no explanation whatsoever: they wouldn't be against it, at all.
Silk, after mouthing some gasps and panting for a moment, asked: "Hoarfrost, where are you going?"
"I need to speak to Rain," she replied, her voice oddly calm, despite how tired she was due to running for such a long time. "I'll be joining you, filly hooves, after this, so do stick around. I really need to see somepony else after this."
"You'll go with me?" asked the traveling pony, baffled. "But I'm going to Appleoosa and—"
"I heard you two have your conversation. I know where you are going to," she replied as if it were total and completely normal. "Don't act like it's weird, you two speak loudly," she explained, chuckling a bit.
They rapidly approached the city, the sands turning more and more arid as they advanced. The sky was still totally empty, but an almost imperceptible radiance slowly grew in the border of the horizon. The houses of the place were similar to the ones in the town before, but were much more numerous and organized. By the looks of it, nopony was awake yet. The sound of the cart being pulled echoed through the road, the trail of their journey disappearing in the distance.
They had arrived at last. They stopped their rush in an intersection, a long moment being spent in nothing but panting and giving eachother triumphant looks. Rail was the first to speak up.
"I'll go visit Jubilee for some time. I think I need to start over, and there's not a better single thing that can make that happen than working for Cherry Jubilee. I guess that this is here where our roads bifurcate," he mumbled beneath his breath, his tone nostalgic. "It's been a pleasure being with you, especially you, Silk. You're a very nice stallion with a quest that I only hope you can finish." He proceeded to give the traveler a firm hug, before speaking up again. He walked towards the mare and nuzzled her before saying: "As for you, dear Frost, I hope that everything that can go well goes well. May nothing but happiness burst through your barn's door."
"Thank you, Rail. I hope the best for you too," said the other two at unison, grinning. They all felt like their quest was truly over. Well, at least Rail and Hoarfrost thought so.
"Alright, time to set things straight," said Hoarfrost to nopony in particular, hyping up once again. Her voice was dark and anticipating, a strange fascination with the situation being evident. "It's time for the truth, and if there's no truth, I'll make my own truth! Rain, I hope you have missed me."
The mare walked away, giving large, determined steps, a malicious chuckle beneath her breath. After some seconds, she disappeared.
"Rail, please don't go away right now," said Silk out of a sudden, clinging to the train conductor. "I think I... I think I might need to be with somepony for a while."
"Well, I won't be going anywhere right now, partner," he replied in his typical cheery tone. "I'm somewhat interested in knowing how did Hoarfrost's encounter go. With the determination she had, I can only hope it goes well."
"So you aren't going to Jubilee's right away? Ah, I don't know how to thank you," said Silk, sighing in relief.
"But of course I won't. It's very early in the morning and everypony's either asleep or just waking up. We're at dawn just now."
"Oh, you're right..." Silk let the stallion go and stood in all fours once again. Suddenly, the sound of glass being shattered propagated throughout the silent city ambient. "Was that Hoarfrost?"
"I hope not..." answered the conductor. "Ah, Silk... Why is that, that thing that you need to be with somepony?"
"It's n-nothing, just that..."
"Is there something bothering you? Is about that deceased mare and her foals?" Rail asked, genuinely interested. "Because it's about her, I'm also struck—"
"Rail, I think I might have had the chance to save her," said Silk, his voice barely strong enough for Rail to understand him. "I think that it's my fault. I was scared, I just wanted to run... and now she's dead." He stopped for a moment to gulp, before continuing, his voice even more affected than before: "Those little foals are probably starving right now and I—"
"Silk, try to calm down," said the older stallion, giving him a friendly look.
"—I can't stand it. I just can't stand it," said the traveling stallion, his voice breaking. "Knowing that I should have done something, that whatever I might have done would have been enough..."
"Silk Thread, try not to put too much pressure on you," stated Rail, his voice sounding a tad more serious and demanding. "You know very well that the fact that she's gone now has nothing to do with you."
"Rail, you didn't hear her beg for her life to be saved. You didn't hear the hope in her voice," said Silk, his voice erratic and impulsive. It jumped in tone out of a sudden and was much faster than usual. He sighed before saying: "You... you don't understand why I am so affected by this. I have seen things, Rail, things that I can't wish even to the worst of my enemies, things that—"
Growling, Rail just slapped the rambling colt back to sense. The sound of the hit echoed through the roads of the city, with nothing but silence following. "Silk! Listen to what I say. You aren't the first and you won't be the last pony to have that situation happen to him," he said, his voice sounding supporting and reassuring. "I understand that you feel it's all your fault, I really do, but I've learnt to leave what's painful behind. I have been taught to hold on to what you feel like it makes your life better and to leave whatever mires you away from you."
"But I—"
"No buts here. Now, answer me this simple question: why are you so shaken by it?" Silk sounded far too serious for him, almost sounding threatening.
"Rail, I care about everyone. That mare was screaming in agony, and the chains tore her bones apart," explained the colt, rubbing his struck cheek with a hoof. "You have no idea of how much it hurt for me to see her lying on the sand after a while. I just tried to pass her up and... and forget about her."
Rail gave him a firm glare, not believing him too much. "And nothing else? Just your love for everything and everyone."
"Y-yes," replied the traveler, nervously.
"I don't believe you at all," replied Rail, his voice really serious, sounding nothing like his usual self. "Now, Silk Thread, be honest with me: is there something else bothering you? Anything? Because you seem to have been carrying a weight over you and I'll be damned if I don't try to knock it off you."
"You don't want to know, Rail, you don't..."
"Of course I do. Please, tell me, if it's nothing too personal." Rail gave a step forward, looking at Silk right in the eyes.
"Rail, I..."
"Yes, what? I can't force your words out."
"I have..." Silk sighed, turning his head towards the sky. The glow in the horizon has grown enough and the sky was slightly tinted blue.
"Come on, boy, make an effort. You want those thoughts out? Then put those words out," Rail said, putting ones of his hooves behind the head of the traveling pony.
"I have a memory, Rail."
"And?" asked Rail, not surprised. "Everypony has memories. Wait..." he continued, realizing something in his mind. "Is that mare your... is she a relative of yours?"
"No, it isn't that..." said Silk, nervously moving his eyes between the leaning stallion and the sky. "Rail, I think I might have done something horrible in the past," he finally said, his voice apologetic, hanging his head, his mane obscuring his eyes and his insecure frown.
Rail got serious out of a sudden. He got closer to Silk, sounding more like an interrogator than a friend. "Killing, am I right?"
Silk spoke up, his voice shaking in desperation. "Please don't get furious with me, Rail, I don't want to lose—"
"You're not denying it."
"I swear I didn't want for it to happen! I'm not even sure if it did happen. I’m just too confused." As soon as Rail let go of Silk, the traveler started to pace around, his steps being poorly coordinated, with no pattern whatsoever.
"Well, then do speak up. I will listen to you closely, very closely..." Rail followed the stallion around, never letting him get too far away.
"Please don't stand so close to me. You're scaring me," said the traveler, feeling persecuted. His nerves didn't let him think correctly.
"You are the one scaring me," replied the train conductor. "The thought of knowing you've murdered somepony else is horrifying, I can barely bring myself to stand in front of a... of a murderer. A murderer like you."
"Rail, I didn't kill anypony—"
"But you just said that—"
"I know what I said," Silk replied, sounding like he was regretting all of his actions in the past year. "Listen, Railroad, I'm being dead serious here: I think I might have somepony else's memories in my mind."
"Is such a thing even possible?" asked Railroad, his curiosity overpowering his indignation.
"I don't know. All I know is that sometimes I hear and see things that I have never ever experienced, and I swear I'm not insane."
"I'm sorry, but that does sound like insanity—"
"I'm not crazy! I'm not crazy! I'm not, I tell you! This is real, I swear I'm not insane!" shouted the traveling stallion, clinging to Rail with both hooves.
"It's difficult to believe you when you act like this..."
Silk immediately noticed his strange behavior and separated himself from the stallion, leaving out a nervous laugh. "I'm sorry. As I was saying, lately I... I've had a voice talking to me lately. It speaks to me as a watcher, someone who has been looking into my actions and feelings but can't comprehend what's happening."
"Maybe it's another personality?" the conductor asked, meaning his question to be rhetoric. "I've heard some awful things about that."
This is starting to make sense. Silk has my voice in his head, and that's why he has been so confused in his actions lately. If I have to be honest...
"I'm sure I have nothing wrong in my head," replied Silk, offended. "Rail, I beg you, you have to believe me: I have somepony else's memories in thoughts in my head. They're talking right now, right now, in this very instant!"
"And... and what are they saying?" asked the conductor, a little reluctantly. He still took the entire situation more as a joke than anything else.
Maybe the vision of the couple being murdered is part of someone else's memories as well? Could it be part of Silk's actions?
"It asks about how I—"
Silk suddenly cut his message, his eyes glued to nothingness. His jaw was wide open and his ears had dropped to the sides.
"Yes, Silk?" asked Rail. "Umm, Silk?" he asked again, a little bit more of concern in his voice. "Silk? Are you there?" asked the conductor, moving his hoof in front of Silk's eyes. "Partner, are you alright...? He's out of it." He shouted next to his ear in a last attempt to bring him back. "Answer me!"
"Rail," said Silk, with no emotion in his voice.
"I'm here. What's wrong with you?" asked Rail, very concerned about the mental coherence of his friend.
"Rail, I'm a killer."
"W-what?"
"I killed a married couple to find information. I killed a married couple." His eyes expressed a deep shock and disappointment, almost like he had found out that everything he knew and loved was a lie.
"Silk, don't lose it. Hold on to your sanity!" exclaimed the older stallion, holding Silk's head between his hooves.
"I killed, Silk, I killed. I murdered, I ended two lives." All life in his voice had disappeared, leaving nothing but a husk behind.
"S-Silk!" shouted the conductor, giving Silk another slap, this one far stronger than the last. "Get a hold of yourself!" he yelled at him, accidentally spitting over him.
"Don't you hate me? Don't you want to end my existence?" asked Silk, his whole being not back yet.
"Both yes and no, but that's no topic now! Tell me where we are."
"Dodge City," replied the traveler, his eyes not focusing on anything at all. "I'm supposed to meet a mare that will give me something very important. After that, I'll return to Canterlot to explore."
"Wait, what? Are you going to Canterlot right after going to Appleoosa? What happened?" asked Rail, concern returning to his voice.
"Everypony's gone, Railroad. They all disappeared," Silk replied, his voice flat and monotonous.
"Silk, be logical!" shouted the conductor, his gaze glued to Silk's jaw. "If such a thing could even happen, everypony would know right away, or am I wrong?"
"Rail... Rail, I'm not joking..." said Silk, his voice still low and almost lacking energy.
"I won't believe a word you say," said Rail, a stern tone in his voice.
"Rail, listen to me... I beg you..." Silk said, hanging his head low, resting his body against the older stallion. His voice sounded urgent and worried, almost like he was having a battle in his mind. "Most of Canterlot disappeared one night; I don't even know what happened. When I woke up, Canterlot was a ghost town—"
"Don't waste energy rambling, mate. Just calm down and breathe, everything will be fine."
"Rail, please..."
"Say, shouldn't we go check on Hoarfrost?" Railroad asked, his voice returning to normal. He gave a step back, lowering his chest in expectation.
"I don't think we should—" "Oh, but pf course we should!" he exclaimed in excitement, managing to get below the traveling stallion, launching him up in the air, making him end up on the conductor's back, his hooves not reaching down the ground anymore. He skipped before breaking into a canter. "Let's go!"
"Rail, wait...!" shouted the involuntarily lifted stallion, his voice expressing a little bit of fear. "Didn't you see how furious she was? She will—"
Rail laughed for a moment as he skipped down the road, before saying: "Don't worry, she wasn't furious: she was impatient and with good reason: she had been stranded in that town hall for a very long time." "Rail, didn't you see the ire in her eyes when I mentioned Blizzard?" Silk asked, his voice echoing through the city's walls. "Something's wrong, and I don't think we should interfere..."
"Don't worry, partner," assured Rail, his cheery voice being the only sound in the quiet dawn. "Plus, if something's going wrong, we can make it better!"
"Your optimism is sickening but I feel obligated to agree..."
"Well, I see the house with the broken window. It's obvious that she is there."
"She'll kill us if she sees us..."
"Hold on, do you hear that?" the train conductor asked, his ears perked up. "That's Hoarfrost panting." With a playful giggle, he said: "I know what's going on in there. Better leave them alone—"
"Rail, don't," said Silk out of a sudden, raising his head in attention. "That's not the kind of panting you'd expect. She's terrified," he continued talking, almost explaining it to Rail as if he were a small colt. "Something is going horribly wrong. Rail, can you jump through the window without injuring yourself with the glass shards?"
The referred stallion jumped, making Silk spin over his back, the younger stallion ending up with his front legs wrapped around Rail's neck, his back legs firmly fixed to the conductor's flanks. "I'll try," he said, his tone serious once again. The older stallion gave a step back, pawing at the sand. In sight went back and forth between his front hooves and the window.
"Hold on a moment, don't jump," asked Silk, abruptly. He took a deep breath before shouting: "Hoarfrost, are you there!?"
There was no reply, a long patch of time spent in silence.
Rail stomped at the ground a few times before lunging himself forward, towards the window, with a technique worthy of a rodeo contestant.
"No, Rail, wait—!" Silk stopped shouting when he realized that not a single glass shard dug into his coat. The sound of their landing was muffled and way softer than what they expected. An instant of silence was had before Rail managed to see Hoarfrost in the corner of his eye.
"Hoarfrost!" he exclaimed with pure joy. "So sorry for the loud entrance. We thought you were having some problems and we— what is this thing we're standing on?"
Hoarfrost looked in deep horror at the hooves of the two stallions, not reacting to Rail's immediate hospitality. As soon as they moved their hooves around a bit, she tried to stop them, but her body didn't respond. The two stallions realized that the floor below them was warm and moist, together with very irregular. "Rail, S-Silk, I—" She tried to speak, but couldn't think of anything to say. Silently, she pleaded for them not to look down.
Silk lowered his head, noticing on what he was standing. He immediately raised one of his hooves and put it against Rail's jaw, saying: "Rail, don't look down. Don't do it—"
"Why? Is there something I—?" The train conductor managed to knock Silk's hoof aside and stared right down, not knowing what to expect. "It's a dead stallion," he stated, without processing it too much.
"Hoarfrost—"
"Hoarfrost, what do you think happened here?" Railroad asked, checking the room for anything his imagination could come up with. He jumped down from the corpse and continued to walk around the room in confusion.
"I don't know, I just wish it hadn't happened..." Hoarfrost, for the first time, sounded lost and sorry.
"Frost, is this—?" No, wait, wrong question at the wrong moment.
"He has been dead for a very short while. Maybe he died right before we arrived here," observed Rail, the seriousness in his voice unnerving Silk. He examined the corpse very closely, his eyes passing over every detail he could appreciate. He extended a hoof, moving one of the legs of the deceased stallion. "He can still bend with no problem and the blood hasn't formed scars yet."
"Yes, he was dead when I arrived," said Hoarfrost, sounding completely broken inside. Her eyes were fixed on the dead body, her ears dropped to the sides, moving her tail from side to side.
Sweet... Celestia. Hoarfrost has murdered who can only be Rain. We have to get out of here before somepony finds out...
"Silk, we have to get out of here," said the mare, raising her head. It seemed like she was trying her hardest to come back to her rough, secure appearance. She directed herself towards the door, raising her hoof. "We're as out-of-place in this town as a zebra in Manehattan."
"Isn't that a little disrespectful, dear?" asked Railroad, a little bit confused.
"And misinformed?" Silk added. "Zebras’ integration to the Manehattan population has been one of the best in Equestria."
The mare shot a zap of magic to the lock, which ended up covered in ice. She slammed her hoof against it, the lock shattering, and the door opening. "There's no time and we've got to run!" she shouted, opening the door in an instant, preparing herself for another frenzied run. "Silk, get to the cart! We have to escape as fast as we can. If nopony sees us, perfect."
Silk took a deep breath.
The two burst through the door and made run for the cart, not bothering to say goodbye to Rail. As soon as they reached and positioned themselves to pull the cart, Rail appeared right by their sides, with a sheer amount of determination in his face.
"Railroad!?" both Silk and Hoarfrost asked, not believing it. "Weren't you going to stay in Dodge!?"
"When my friends need a hoof, no matter how big or small, I'll give it to them," he explained, smiling. "Now let's go, before they start to think Hoarfrost killed him."
I know she did kill him... She's in fear and she seemed to be very capable to kill a stallion in her infuriated state.
Hoarfrost, also for the first time, blushed and gazed at the sky dreamily. In the distance, the sun could be seen rising in the firmament, its radiance painting the sand with its golden glimmer.
"All set!?" asked the train conductor, giving his partners a determined grin.
"Set!"
"Let's go! Nothing is more important than running in this moment!"
With that having been said, they started to trot away from Dodge, the cart behind them giving the sound of the sands they had listened to for a very long time just an hour ago.
"Do you two have your belongings with you?"
"I know I do! Hoarfrost, how about yours?"
"Coat-colored saddlebags! It's all in there!" The mare shot a smile to her journey partners, before giggling like a schoolfilly.
"Perfect, my friends, now let's go!" Railroad shouted, smiling in an almost oneiric excitement and enthusiasm. "Onwards to Appleoosa! We'll reach it in no time if we keep this up."
The sun had risen and was shining with all his might. In the distance, mirages were common and time and time again the three would see water lying around. The sole act of pressing their hooves against the scorching ground made the task difficult, let alone hunger and thirst, together with the sheer tiredness after not having slept a second. Sweat ran down their bodies, their panting raspy due to their dry throats. It would continue to be like that, and worse, for hours.
Railroad spoke up after a long while of nothing but forced breathing. "Umm, can I ask you two a question? Do you have anything to eat? We've been at this for hours and I think I'm going to drop dead if this keeps on going."
Hoarfrost's eyes went as big as saucers, her jaw half-open. "I don't have a thing," she said, turning her head to face Silk. "Silk, do you...? Please say you do, or else I..." she said, stopping to think for a moment. "I will... I will do awful things to you."
Silk spoke up in nervousness. "I... I don't have anything." He looked at the sands beneath him as he said: "I had some apples, however, but I think they were rotten or something."
Hoarfrost and Rail looked at him in silence. Hoarfrost mumbled something unclear beneath her breath as Rail smiled, amused by the situation.
"Don't worry, mate," he said to Silk, who was still seemingly interested in the sand of the desert. "I'm sure we'll reach Appleoosa soon enough and we'll be fine. Plus, I think I can go for way longer before even complaining again." He shook his head and directed his gaze towards the blue sky over them.
"The sun is going to kill us," remarked Hoarfrost, addressing nopony in particular. "I don't know if you two will, but if I find water anywhere near us I'll launch myself towards it and splash around like a little filly."
"I'd like to see that," said Rail, chuckling.
"It wouldn't be any pretty," she said, not very used to hearing that kind of comments. "It would involve me shouting anything I could think of. It's not a pretty sight at all."
"It's all fine," answered Rail, using his reassuring tone of voice. "I've protagonized some really embarassing scenes in my past, and I guess you couldn't do something half as bad."
"You're just saying that, Rail," the mare replied in apparent modesty. "You have no idea."
Silk, by his side, didn't know what to do. Between the two conversating ponies, staring at the sands, he felt very out of place. He cleared his throat a few times, but decided to stop it since it hurt more than necesary.
"I think I'm more interested in it than I should be," said Rail, looking at the mare. "I guess that with a mare as beautiful as you, it's something to be expected."
"Hey, don't get all praise-y here," replied the mare, her tone dry. "We're in one of the worst possible situations in here."
"Thank you," said Silk, his voice soft and low. "The awkward was distracting me a lot." He laughed for some seconds before saying: "Rail, do you think we're close?"
"Hmm, the desert is quite large, but I think we'll get there quite soon," answered the referred stallion, starting to skip over the sand once again. "The speed of our travel has been quite high and I think it shouldn't take us more than an hour from now to reach Appleoosa."
"I hope you're right," said Hoarfrost, an out-of-place uncertainty in her voice. "Well, gentlecolts, time to rush once again. Even talking is getting difficult for me. Are you two alright?"
"I'm doing quite well. A tad tired and thirsty, but I'll do fine. What about you, Silk?"
Silk, as opposed to the other two, wasn't doing quite as well. He was tired, of course, but there was something else in there, something that rendered him unable to focus. "I'm... I'm fine, as well." Silk felt somewhat sick, he was dizzy and was losing some of his sensibility, but he assumed for it to be all part of their desert run. His voice was erractic, sometimes jumping volume. "Let's carry on and hope for the best once we get there."
"Uh-huh..." replied Rail, looking at Silk for a moment.
The traveler was starting to have some difficulties maintaining the pace and he occasionally tripped over his own legs, even falling to the ground on one ocassion. His two accompaniants just looked at him without saying a word.
Hoarfrost asked him to switch places, so he'd have more space to maneuver. He agreed to do so, and Hoarfrost ended up in the middle.
She whispered at Rail's ear: "I think Silky Filly is having some complications. His eyes look like they're about to pop right out of their sockets and I don't think he's able to sweat one more drop."
"Hmm, yes, he does look like it..." The stallion looked at Silk, noticing how he was struggling to raise his hooves. "I wonder what might have caused that. I think he's going to pass out quite soon." He stopped talking for a moment before smiling, accepeting the situation. "It's such a shame. Silk, can you hear me just fine?"
Silk didn't answer immediately. Instead, he looked around, confused, before barely making out a "Huh? Umm, yes, indeed."
Hoarfrost just glared at him in incredulity. "I don't think he'll last much longer," she replied, talking out loud like normal. Silk didn't seem to hear her. "Should we stuff him in the back and just die from exhaustion as we pull him with the cart?"
"You're being a little too dramatic and exaggerated, dear," replied Rail in his trademark calm voice. Hoarfrost could almost feel the hug and her mane messed being by his hoof, almost like a big brother would do. He smiled in silence for a moment, noticing they were going slower than before. "See? You're so envolved in it you're slowing down."
"Umm, Rail, I'm going at the same pace as before," she explained, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Then...?" the stallion asked, not very sure of why they were talking about that certain topic. On the background, the sound something falling was heard.
Hoarfrost turned her head around to face Silk. "I think— Yep, Silk is out of it again," she said, before sighing in resignation. "Rail, stop before the sand burns him or something."
"Huh, I thought he'd last for longer..." The stallion, after having said that, started to slow down, barely containing a chuckle.
"Maybe it's like the other time when he just faded out of consciousness for no reason whatsoever," said the mare, looking at the recently disconnected stallion. "Anyway, I'll just," she said as he lifted the stallion with her magic, straining, "leave this fragile filly here in the back and continue. We've got quite a bit of a journey left. To be honest, I'm not sure we'll make it all the way."
"To Appleoosa, you say? Of course we will, don't be silly. Are you all set?" Rail asked, his energy and optimism seemingly never running out.
The mare started to trot once again, giving a slow canter. "Give me a moment to get used to the fast pace again."
Silk, by his side, was having a really rough time. In the instant before losing his consciousness, he felt something coming over him. It stopped him dead on his tracks and the only thing he managed to do was to hug the pole. There he was, then, resting of the wooden planks once again. The sun over him was merciless and he could feel himself losing his consciousness very clearly. Silent, he begged for it to stop, but it was to no avail.
"Of course we'll reach Appleoosa," stated the mare, smiling confidently. "It's just that I honestly feel like this journey is going to last far longer than what I imagine. Something tells me that we'll have to travel so many times we'll lose count."
"You don't sound like you're complaining," replied Railroad, starting to accelerate the pace.
"No, I'm actually not complaining," replied the mare, following Rail without much difficulties. "It's just that I wonder how many times it'll happen..."
"Well, if it helps, I know Silk's going to return to Canterlot."
"Do you know why?"
"I think..." Rail trailed off to think. Would he really tell her what Silk said? No, no, he wouldn't. Not until he was sure of it. "I think something happened there. He said he was coming to Appleoosa to get some information before returning there."
"Huh. Well, whatever he wishes to do."
Rail and Hoarfrost started to go faster and faster, readying themselves for the fact that they would have to force themselves to pull the cart with much more strength.
"And you? Are you going anywhere?" the stallion asked, feeling like he should always return the question he had been asked.
"I think I'll stay here for a while before going away again," the mare replied, not giving her statement much importance. "Where? It depends on what kind of response I get from my visit. And you, Rail? Dodge is quite far from here and you've come just because we needed help. I still can't thank you enough for coming with us, just imagine what it would be like if Silk had passed out and I was left alone in the middle of the desert. Horrible."
Rail turned his head away in shyness. "I... Well, I think I'll have to return to Dodge after this." He sounded rather flattered.
"Sorry for the trouble we've made you pass," she said, in a tone of voice way softer than her usual one.
"Hoarfrost, can you answer me a little question?"
"It... It depends on what you ask."
"Umm... That stallion we saw. Was he Rain?"
"Yes, yes he was," she replied, tilting her head aside. "I don't know what in the world happened to him."
"And what were you going to do to him? You were completely out of your mind and for a moment I thought you could kill me, or Silk, or both."
"I tend to get into that kind of mood whenever I'm really motivated or furious," she admitted. "I was supposed to ask him... Umm, I was going to ask him where to go now that Blizzard is... You know." Her tone of voice went from her usual high towards a much lower, almost melancholic one.
"Umm, that mare Blizzard..." Rail hesitantly continued to ask questions. He didn't want to do it, but felt like it was necessary. "Is she...? To you, what is she?"
Hoarfrost couldn't answer very well. All that the replied was a very calm "she" before gulping down and blinking a few times. There were tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. She turned her head away from Railroad as soon as she noticed.
"Oh, my," he said as he noticed how Hoarfrost was tearing up. "I'm totally sorry about that. Please don't answer that question. A thousand pardons if I've screwed up."
"No, it's all fine, Railroad, if you wish to know..." Hoarfrost took a very deep breath, her eyes fixed to the scorching sands beneath her hooves. "She... She was kind of my adoptive mother."
"Yeah, I couldn't take it when I heard Silk say that she was dead," she replied, her voice on the verge of breaking with every new word. "I actually was on the verge on injuring him, or worse, when he said that. I just didn't want to believe it."
"I'm so sorry for making you cry, Hoarfrost," the train conductor said, hanging his head low in shame.
"Don't worry, I can't be tough all the time," she replied, smiling at him. She felt natural doing so, even when she had been very distant for most of her life. There was something in Rail, something that made him nice and pleasant to be with. "Plus, as long as I'm all fine, I'll have to do whatever it takes. Rail, I want to ask you something as well."
"Do ask away."
"Are you two with Silk a thing, or what? You two speak quite well of eachother and I swear I'm seeing some strange undertones in Silky's gazes," she said, barely containing a laugh. The more she looked at the stallion after asking the question, the funnier it got for her.
"W-well, as far as I know, there's nothing between us," Rail replied, trying to maintain his composure. "What was that part about the gazes again?"
"Ah, I'm totally sure Silk has some weird feelings for you. The way he looks at you, the way he speaks to you..." She got closer to Rail, bumping into him slightly. She shot him a wink before giggling like a schoolfilly.
Railroad blushed in return. "Oh, that's... That's some news for me. Do you really think he... He does?"
"I wouldn't be totally sure, but I'm sure of the fact that he really cares for you," she replied, reveling in the hilarity of Rail's replies. The more he tried to stay calm, the more he looked like a complete dork to her. "When you said you'd be coming with us, I swear I saw Silk tearing up and blushing like a little filly in love."
"That's... That's great, really," replied Rail, trying to play it cool. "Let the colt have his thoughts about me i-if he does have them. It w-won't be much of a weight on me."
"Are you sure...? Because I'm seeing some blushing on your face as well..."
"I c-care about Silk as a friend, nothing else. I haven't felt a thing for him when we met, not even when he listened to me," replied Rail, his negation oddly specific. "If anything happened to him, I think I would be very struck."
"I... I guess I would be, as well..." Hoarfrost stopped talking for a moment and thought for a while. "Ah, I don't even know him. I just pushed him around before and now I'm saying that I care about him."
Rail answered chuckling: "Maybe you have something for him, eh? How about it?"
"No, I don't!" the mare shouted back. "I truly, really, honestly, don't."
"Okay, don't get like that," the train conductor replied, an amused grin on his face. "Cheer up, we're getting closer to out destination with every second!" he shouted in excitement once again, before raising his head to face the sky. Even when there was no breeze whatsoever, he mumbled something about the air being fresh and pleasant. Hoarfrost didn't really think the same.
A voice called me.
"It's time for you to wake up, Silk. Tell me, do you still want to be called Matt?"
I recognized it. I recognized her.
"Move for once, move those hooves— I mean hands!"
Indignation appeared on her voice.
"I'll get you out of there, hang on there."
With that phrase having been said, I felt a strong push. I was expelled out of bed, crashing into the cold floor. The light of a cloudy day passed through the curtains. My legs were still over the bed and I had o use my hands not to hit my teeth as my being banged against the hard floor. Here we go again, I thought in the moment. I knew it was her doing once again. Without much enthusiasm in hearing the answer, I asked: "Why are you here?"
"I'm here to make you go back to reality," she replied immediately, her voice serious and confident, as usual. I looked up, trying to find her somewhere. She sounded close to me, but she was nowhere to be found. Her voice just materialized in my room without a source.
"Where are you!?" I asked in a shout, trying to stand up. My arms had blocked most of the impact against the floor, but my head still hurt from the bump I gave it. I was a tad dizzy but I was sure it would go away soon.
"I'm right here," she replied. "Just look out your window."
Reluctantly, I stood up and shook the dust off my clothes before walking towards the window of the balcony. It was a place I liked to be in, it was more of a sanctuary for me, a place where I could go whenever I felt that I needed to disconnect myself from the rest of the world. Not that I didn't do that often, but there are times where it's better to be completely alone when passing your eyes over the city.
"Are you going to do something to me?" I asked as I touched the glass, looking outside. Nothing seemed to be out there.
"Open your window and keep your eyes wide open."
I groaned before opening the window, the cold breeze present that day hitting me after an instant. I got a firm grip on the balcony railing and leaned on it, passing my eyes over the street below me. There was nobody in sight, even when it must have been an average hour in the morning. In the distance, the skyscrapers, those large buildings that had never been more than decoration for me, a way of hiding what was behind the city itself. The sights around the city aren't the most interesting, but that day was different: it was even less active than the days before, where I could at least see some people walking around. That day, it seemed like, no matter what I did, there wouldn't be a single person walking around the empty streets. My eyes went towards the sky after crossing the streets. In the sky, an uniform tone of light gray, the clouds forming a solid layer that only left a tiny part of the sun's rays pass. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary and I was thankful for it. I was beginning to think I was just hearing things and was about to re-enter my room when I noticed something in the little park across the street.
"What the— What's that!?" My voice came out by itself, without even thinking about it.
The sole tree in the park, if it's possible to call a bench and a tree a park, changed the color of its leaves from the greenish yellow of the days before towards an autumnal orange, right in front of my eyes. I was surprised, of course, but it still was pretty tame. The same leaves, then, started to whiten, before becoming an almost glowing shade of white, before falling down from the tree. A small hill of snow-like leaves formed from the carpet that ended up on the withering grass, the leaves apparently moving by their own will. From the small hill of fallen leaves, a shadowy purple mist with stars left the place, the leaves disappearing completely after some seconds. The mist zapped past a window in the distance, slashing a railing in half, the metal falling down from what I estimated to be a fifth floor. Before it touched the ground, the mist whizzed past it, either disintegrating it or making it disappear. The mist didn't stop it's almost impossible to follow trajectory there; instead, it sped up, swirling through the sky with no pattern whatsoever. The mist spiraled in front of a few windows of the apartment before plummeting to the ground, taking a sharp turn for the main gate before touching the concrete. I was left there, in the balcony, looking down to the concrete below me, to see if the mist was going to come back suddenly or something similar. It seems like I was right, but only in one way: as I leaned on the railing, I felt something being deposited over my back, a voice talking to me.
"You shouldn't hang on the rail like that. You could fall down," the voice said. The voice, of course, belonged to Nightmare. She sounded amused and she was breathing a little louder than in other occasions she had tormented me. I turned back in instinct, the object over my back disintegrating. I found nothing behind me. I sighed in relief. My own mind is playing tricks on me again. I think I really should try to relax. How about some skygazing? I turned around once again, not expecting what was going to come. I almost crashed into the open window when I saw her. She was there, right on front of my balcony, flapping her wings, a smug grin on her face. Her wings didn't seem to be making any sound.
"Quite the world you've constructed, Silk," she said, pointing me with one of her armored hooves. "I'm impressed: the way you've mixed the architecture is, honestly, lovely. I love the little tree across the road, there behind me; it gives this place quite the appearance. It's almost like it's a real city." That last phrase was said with notorious malice, mocking me. I, personally, couldn't comprehend the reason behind all of this. Why is this happening once again? I asked in my mind, but the answer, as usual, just wasn't there.
A sudden outburst of anger took place inside of me. I shouted: "Why aren't you fading away!? I feel better! I don't feel sick anymore!" I flailed my arms around and pointed at her every time I ended a shout.
Her smug grin grew into a demented smile, her eyes staring directly at me. She looked so imposing, effortlessly hovering in the air. Her wings alone were bigger than me. She spoke up with an amused tone. "Oh, so I guess it wouldn't be a bad idea for you to regain that sickness so you can accept my presence, or am I mistaken?"
Having said that, Nightmare fired a spell at me. For some seconds I was standing there, utterly confused, but the effect itself didn't took long to be clear: I honestly felt horrible, like my entire body was on fire. The railings in my hands were at freezing temperature and I released them in fear of getting frostbite. She laughed as I stared at the distance, the sky turning darker. My throat was swelling up and I could feel my air intake lessening.
"There, much better. Now, will you listen to me?"
With my voice barely coming out, I asked: "What did you do...?"
She glared at me, confidence in her entire body. "Nothing too bad," she replied. "I've got quite the arsenal of things to do and say."
After she said that, her horn gave a flash and she disappeared completely. I was left with nothing but confusion and sickness. The breeze outside was more of a strong wind for me, then, but I continued to be there. There was something in the balcony that made it feel oddly welcoming and comfortable. I turned around after a while, trying to convince myself that I needed some rest. The sickness had come so suddenly and my visions had started to feel too real to be just visions.
"What is even— Agh!"
Nightmare was right in front of me, standing inside my room, her horn pointing at me. "Don't get so scared. I can't actually kill you, so you shouldn't worry that much," she informed, putting the idea behind quite quickly. "Tell me, Silk, why did you create this land in your mind?"
"I don't know this Silk you're talking about," I replied, trying to lie to her. If I managed to just separate myself from her, maybe I'd have the chance to rest.
She, in reply, laughed in a tone that I swear was darker than the night. "I know that you know you're lying. Tell me the truth and there won't be any suffering. It's as simple as that."
"Who are you...?" I asked. The question had been around my head for a long time. Who was she? Who were those in my dreams?
"Don't you think you've asked that question far too many times?" she replied before chuckling. "I'm Nightmare Moon, the Tyrant of The Night, as I've heard I get referred. It sounds strange, I know, but a title is a title."
You don't sound like you.
"Of course I don't: you never met me of anything. You should be glad you haven't done so," she said, giving a stop forward. The balcony wasn't quite spacious and soon enough I wouldn't have much room to move around. Her size was menacing, it made me feel far littler than what I really was.
This is only going to get worse, isn't it? My own mind didn't seem to have much hope for the situation.
"Why did you create this place, Silk?" she asked again, her voice dropping all dark undertones. "Didn't you have enough space and freedom in Canterlot?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," I answered, turning around. The city was right in front of me, the emptiness in its streets being totally baffling.
"So you won't tell me," she said as she spun me around, looking at me with a demented expression that I sweat could gaze into my very soul. "Ah, I guess it was about time you knew about the consequences."
"W-what consequences?" I asked nervously. The last thing I wanted was to have more ailments, or anything that could resemble a hindering. Nothing but silence came as a response.
"N-Nightmare Moon?" I called out again, the reply I got being the sound of silence. I stopped myself from trying a third time. Ah, no, that's great, calling out for a fictional character of a television show. That's your highest point today, yourself.
I sighed before returning to my room. Nothing but a strange awakening. I've still got a lot of things to do today, Today, I'll go to that place I've had in mind for such a long time, no matter how I feel. The fact that I had to remind myself what was I going to do came off as a little depressing for me, but I guess it was fine by then. I guess there wasn't much of a choice.
As soon as I entered my room once again, I began to look for my scarf. The day outside was pretty cold and my jacket was casually hanging on the wall. I couldn't quite remember where my scarf was. Yes, I know, it sounds like nothing, but it sure was important in the moment.
I think I left it on a drawer... The problem is which one? I only have like three...
The search for my lost scarf made me look basically everywhere in my room. In most of the places I thought it might have been, there was not even a trace. After a while of finding nothing, I opened up a drawer that I hadn't considered at first: the drawer where I had my papers stuffed. There it was, together with the notebooks that had started to incorporate those so-called letters. If I could remember correctly, I had thought getting rid of them sometime.
A long while was spent with my scarf in my hand, my eyes glued to the piles of paper in the drawer. When was I going to get rid of those?
After a while I decided it didn't make much sense to keep staring at inanimate objects. I put my jacket on and wrapped the scarf around my neck and, kicking my two feet together once at the door, I decided to leave.
Once at street level, I felt tiny once again, the building towering above me. Across the street, the bench and the tree that has started the entire situation, now devoid of leaves. A soft breeze blew through the street, pushing pieces of cardboard and plastic bags around. My steps at times echoed throughout the street, the edifications around the place appearing to be towers that reached into the sky.
As I walked down the road towards the outskirts of town, I often had to look around, the little pieces of diverse materials moving with the wind making me think there was someone with me. I turned around with expectation, as I hadn't seen anyone, but with caution at the same time, as I was entirely alone and most probably, defenseless to basically anything. The sudden sickness had started to affect me greatly once I started to enter a zone of the town that I hadn't seen before. I turned my head around constantly, finding nothing but empty dark alleys and houses with open curtains and nothing inside them. It must be quite normal around here, I tried to reason, the silence around the area becoming somewhat unsettling. Time and time again I heard a distant sound, very much alike the sound of something being dragged along the concrete. I couldn't bring myself to turn around whenever the sound reached my ears, but once it was gone, I turned around to find nothing behind me. In the dark alleys, I found nothing, or at times a plastic packaging would come out, forced by the wind, and make me jump, as it was sudden and random.
The sole fact of continuing to walk down towards my destination was becoming more of a chore than anything else, my mind starting to formulate its strange hypothesis behind why there was nobody around.
There should be people around here. It's the middle of the afternoon, I heard my mind say as I walked forward. In a while, the pavement would stop covering the ground, a dirt road taking its place. I breathed deeply, telling myself to press on, that I'd reach that cliff in no time.
As I walked in front of a dark alley, something came out of it and hit my hand. I jumped, startled, and started walking at a rather comical pace. I didn't even bother to look back, I just cared about advancing. If I could reach that cliff, no matter how, then I would be done by the day.
The concrete and pavement was left behind, a dirt road appearing before me. Lots of little houses appeared in front of me, but none of them had anyone. As I passed along the nearby houses, I noticed that all of them had their curtains open. Letting curiosity get to me, I peeked across a window for a moment. Nothing but silence was appreciable, and I left it before anything could happen.
Anything could happen, I heard my mind say. That's what they say about this part of town...
I continued my journey, turning my head around. The fact that nothing happened was strangely disturbing, almost like my mind was filling in the blanks with whatever it could come up with.
Why is there nobody out there...? It's in the middle of the morning; there is always people around at this hour. But today... Today, there is not a single person. I haven't heard anything. Well, except that noise before, but that might have been me...
As I continued that stream of thoughts, I passed beside a house, just like the others. Out of nowhere, a part of the shingle roof came lose and slid down, making a loud crashing noise as it hit the ground, very close to me, together with making a ton of dirt fly. I breathed in sharply, my eyes going as wide as saucers. After some seconds of incredulously staring at the broken roof on the dirt, I continued down my road, now fixing my eyes of the roofs of the houses.
As I continued walking, the breeze started to become stronger and stronger, up until the point that there was no way it could be called just a breeze.
I sped up the pace, leaving the outskirts of town behind without any new incidents. There it was, then, the cliff; it had a high stone formation, very much like a staircase, that had the habit of being filled with sand, which made it rather difficult to climb up. I just barged into the task, so to speak, tightening the scarf around my neck. With every new step I thought that I would fail the next one and just fall down the cliff. When put in perspective, the idea of having to climb up the cliff wasn't even near the best, but it was what I felt was necesary by then.
After some double takes and nearly falling off once, I reached the top. It was oddly silent, there: it was a very different kind of silence. In the city, there can be silence, but there is still some background noise. Instead, there, there simply wasn't any sound. I could probably start hearing my heart if I spent too much time in there.
At last, I'm here. Let's hope it's worth it...
The sky was slowly getting darker and the grass beneath me danced as the breeze whistled. I sat down, the grass still moist with dew, and began to watch the uniform sky over me, without any thoughts. I felt way better than before: I felt like I was living without any worries again. I was at peace, at last. I sighed in relief and smiled, embracing the silence in its fullest extent. I could feel a yawn coming on.
I had peace, of course, only up until something else happened...
"Beautiful sight from here. How did you find this place?" Her voice was dripping with malice, a nasty laugh following the phrase. "Ah, of course, you made this place. That's quite the capability of creation, there," she continued to say, before putting her front hooves over my shoulders. After some seconds, I really felt they were about to pop right out of their place, and it only got worse with every second. "I wonder how this place is like at night," she absent-mindedly said, looking at the white sky. "It must be quite pretty, in fact."
I didn't answer a thing. I just stared at the solid layer of clouds over my head, away from me, and tried to think about something else. Everything was in my mind.
"It's like gazing out a building in Manehattan," Nightmare said, her immaterial mane almost forming a helmet around his head. The cold of the armor on her hooves pierced through my jacket. "Huh, you're not even thinking. You must be really out of it..." She trailed off before chuckling a bit, her voice oddly normal, bordering on innocent. "Remember that night when you opened your window up and let the night breeze flow in because you couldn't think?"
I didn't answer. A breeze rolled by and I silently fixed my scarf, trying my hardest not to think about anything. I was convinced of the fact that the lesser I thought about Nightmare being leaning over me, the lesser she'd continue to sputter her nonsense. I was apparently wrong: after a moment, she released me and sat by my side, pawing at the grass for some seconds before continuing to stare at me with her demented eyes and grin.
"When was the last time you heard foals playing in the streets, Silk?" she asked. The way she kept addressing me as Silk was getting annoying. "And how about a casual conversation with a friend? I wonder what life around these parts is like." She spoke up without much thought, almost as if she wanted for me to believe I was in partial safety. I wasn't going to fall for that.
"I've got to admit it: in a very long time, I hadn't seen such a complicated and detailed world." She really did sound like she wanted to win me over. It was a competition of endurance, by then. "You've made this place yours. Don't you miss Equestria at times? This place looks monotonous and I think anypony would get bored very soon. What do you do here, Silk? Why don't you shake things up around here?"
For the first time in a very long while, I thought: My own mind is playing games against me. I swear, I think I could reach out for this thing and it would be palpable... I reached out for her with my hand, and there she was. I put my hand away immediately, crossing my fingers as my hands met over the soft, tender grass underneath me.
"A thing, huh... That's not a very respectful way of addressing a princess, or is it?" she asked, standing up. I didn't even see her, but I could feel her gaze over me. It was like weakening me with ease. "Do you know when this entire situation happened?" she asked, her tone almost indifferent.
Once again, I didn't answer. I tried to make like I had become deaf and mute out of a sudden, which was something that didn't go as well as I thought, given how nervous I was of the sole fact that she was right by my side.
"It all happened long ago," she said, her tone suddenly more normal than what I expected. She really sounded like she was going to be talking for a long time. "The news spread fast: 4 dead in Canterlot, cause and culprit unknown. Ponies around the area were afraid to leave their homes for some weeks. The perpetrator was still at large. A stallion spoke up, saying that he was guilty. The Canterlot ponies chased him and aimed to make his life a life-long stay at Tartarus. The day after his declaration, everyone in Canterlot vanished."
Silence followed.
I was nervous. The little tale that Nightmare told rang close and I knew what it was all about, especially the part about the stallion having declared himself culprit.
"They all left without a trace. Not a single pony in Equestria knows that it happened, even when it happened at the capital city," she said, her voice gloomy and soft.
I shivered and gulped. I know this story, I'm a part of it.
Nightmare only got closer to me as she spoke, her voice sounding convincing and at times, even oddly seductive.
"Of course, nopony should have known about the event," she explained, sounding more and more like a conspiracy theorist with every new word. The madness in her voice, real or not, was starting to get difficult to listen to. "But there is one single stallion that wasn't wiped away. The reason is still unknown. He left the city in a quest for questions. Do you know who this stallion is?"
"I don't know a thing related to what you're talking about," I replied in a calm voice, turning my head away from her. The last thing I wanted to see was her gaze again.
"You can't lie to me. You know this stallion," she said menacingly, moving her hoof around the spot I was sitting in. "Tell me what is his name."
I spoke up again, the nervousness in my voice being totally clear. Her calm behavior was very unsettling. "I seriously don't know him—"
Nightmare literally threw herself over me, her hooves knocking me out of my spot. In a flash I was being pinned down by her, her horn pointing right at my throat. One false move, and my throat ended up either punctured or sliced, maybe even both.
"I'm not playing any games," she said, gazing directly at my eyes. I was, honestly, horrified. "You tell me his name, and I'll leave you alone."
"His n-name is..."
"Yes? What is it? Tell me..." Her voice was deeply unnerving, almost like she was starting to get out of her scheduled actions, starting to act due to the need of the pleasure that tormenting me brought forth.
"He's called Silk. S-Silk Thread." I barely managed to the phrase get out, and I had to gulp harder than even before she just blinked over me. I don't know what happened exactly, but her simple blink was deeply troubling.
"That's right," she said, satisfied with my response. "Do you know why I ask you about him?"
"No, I don't..." I could barely reply anymore, her hooves being pressed against my chest. She continued to press against me and started to slowly pass her eyes all over me, never passing over a spot twice. Her eyes were almost glued to me, or so it seemed.
"Ah, yes you do. You know why. Tell me why." Her voice was very direct and dominant.
I replied hesitantly, not sure of why did I do it. "I really d-don't..."
"Wrong answer, colt." Nightmare proceeded to stab the grass right next to my head after saying that, her horn digging deep and without any problem into the fertile ground. I swallowed basically all the saliva in my mouth. My eyes were wide open and, for a moment, I really I had been hit. The rough touch of her armor felt way too real. I'm seriously fearing for my life in this moment.
"You're telling me about him because you think I am him!" I shouted, my nervousness reaching whole new levels.
"I don't think you're him, Silk, I know you are him!" she yelled at me, slowly retrieving her horn from the grass. "You also know why he hasn't accepted his reality yet. That is the reason behind your existence, and the existence of this entire word that, to be honest, is quite well-built."
I stared at her, incredulity being my strongest feeling. I couldn't bring myself to believe half a thing about the entire situation.
"I've got to give you some recognition, because you've done a great job. But that's enough talking for the day. You're coming with me, Silk, you're coming with me back to reality."
But this is reality. The other part is my dreams, and those make no sense at all.
After I thought about that, she laughed threateningly. "Tell me, how many times you've had your reality questioned in those you call dreams?"
"N-none," I answered, not even wanting to think about the current situation.
"And how about here?" she asked once again, her voice apparently powered by her enjoyment of the scene itself.
"Lately, a lot..."
"It's very simple logic, really," she replied, bringing a hoof down right next to my head. The mute stomp that came along was still loud enough to echo for a very long time. "How about you use that power of creativity and imagination to help those who you consider your friends? You have no idea of what Railroad and Hoarfrost are going through."
Somehow, I started to disconnect myself from the situation. It almost like my own mind was starting to accept the fact that I was hallucinating and was starting to ignore a very important part of the situation. Without knowing why, I asked: "Why... Why are you like this? I thought Nightmare Moon was filled with hatred for everything and everyone."
"You've got the wrong Nightmare Moon. Plus, I'm not her. If you see me as her, then it's just because I've chosen this form to be much more imperative," she explained, her voice changing once again, this time to a much more gentle tone, almost inoffensive. "So, are you coming with me, or should I take you with me by force?"
"What do you mean by force?" I asked, still out of it.
"I'll wake you up. You choose how."
I stood up without even thinking about it, the afternoon sun high in the sky. "I'm not dreaming."
"You're, actually, in one of Silk's dreams right now," Nightmare replied, her tone becoming slightly tired. Maybe, even for her, repeating the same thing over and over was getting tedious. "He passed out from exhaustion and he's dreaming now. To be technical, you're in one of his hallucinations."
"Hallucinations..."
"You've had those as well. It's the way you remind yourself of the fact that you won't be able to disconnect from the real world, not matter how hard you try," she replied, her voice filling up with malice once again. "Well, that's enough explanations for today, I think I've wasted a lot of time here."
Following her phrase, a very long silence was had. I was there, standing right in front of her, looking at her eyes, trying my best at suppressing my rampant fear.
"Who are you?" I asked for what felt like the millionth time.
"I'm whoever you want me to be," she replied, her voice tone most of her characteristics. "In this moment, I'm the reason inside Silk's mind. Well, Silk's imagination, leave some space for the real world."
As soon as she said that, she raised a hoof and pointed it at my face. Then, in a literal lighting strike movement, I get hit by a totally unexplainable thunderbolt right in the head. The hit was painless and I fell to the ground without any kind of problems. An echo of his own body falling to the grass plays over and over in his mind as he loses his consciousness.
And again, I've hallucinated to the point where I blank out.
All sounds disappeared by then, leaving nothing but a void behind. In the distance, however, something could be heard if attention was paid.
"Is he still out of it back there?" the mare asked, oddly calm.
"I think he is. Ah, Hoarfrost, I'm just so excited to be here. It's in the middle of the afternoon and I can feel myself withering, but I don't care at all. We're here!" Railroad sounded totally relieved, his excitement barely being contained.
"Try to get in the shade: I've heard some awful things happening to ponies when they're in the desert for too long," Hoarfrost said, shaking her mane out of her eyes. "As for Silk, I hope he's well. He's been completely immobile for a very long time now and I'm getting kind of worried." The mare left out a little sigh before directing her gaze towards Railroad, who was leaning on the cart.
"Shouldn't you... Shouldn't you be going to wherever it is you were going?" the stallion asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I'll stay here until he wakes up," the mare replied, her gaze lost in the distance of the city's sights. "Plus, I won't be able to leave if he doesn't."
"But you're going in opposite directions, aren't you?" Railroad started walking around, pulling the cart towards the shade of a nearby house.
"I think not," replied the mare, stretching. "Well, Railroad, I guess this is where our roads bifurcate. I think you should go back to Dodge, shouldn't you?" she asked, turning her head back to face Railroad. The stallion nodded lightly. "I don't think there's a way to put how thankful I am for your help."
The mare trotted in direction of the stallion, a warm smile on her face. When she was close enough, she raised a hoof to his face, gently turning it around so he would face him. Their gazes met, Railroad giving her a nervous smile.
"Is there something wrong?"
Hoarfrost didn't answer and just held Rail's head with her front hooves. He looked at her, not sure of what to expect. The mare gazed directly at his eyes before kissing him right on the lips. Rail tried to move his away out of surprise, but started to welcome the feeling. He felt like his heart was about to jump off his chest. A nervous gaze came from his eyes. Hoarfrost had her eyes closed, a soft blush in her cheeks. He breathed forcefully, trying to calm himself down.
"Thank you. You're great," the mare said after breaking the kiss, smiling softly at him. Both of them weren't too sure of where to look or what to say.
"H-Hoarfrost, I..." Rail couldn't say anything. He was very confused about the situation, but also comforted.
"Hm? Is there something wrong...?" Hoarfrost asked, knowingly smiling at him. Her tail swished back and forth, her gaze inciting.
"I don't want to go," he said, turning his head away from hers.
"But... But you're from there!" she exclaimed, surprised. "You have nothing that you own and... And..."
Railroad put a hoof over the mare's mouth, hushing her softly. "Don't worry about it, dear. I'm used to spend very long patches of time away from home."
"But why aren't you there?" she asked, knocking Rail's hoof out of her muzzle.
"I want to be with you. I want to help you."
"That's... That's very sweet," she said, becoming silent for a moment. After a while, she giggled and replied: "I knew it! You do have something for him! Don't worry, I won't judge you if you two do your things in front—"
"It's not him," Rail said, his voice far more serious than usual.
"Oh, so it's... It's me." The mare still didn't quite catch it. "Are you serious?"
"Y-yes, I am. very serious about it." Railroad pawed at the ground for a moment, his gaze nervous.
"Oh... Oh, my. I don't know what to say," the mare said, her behavior being far more timid than usual.
"You don't have to say anything, dear."
"Stop calling me "dear," you'll make it even more difficult to accept," she said and laughed, blushing a bit.
"But— Okay... I'll have to use any other of the respectful and affective names I have, then," replied Railroad, chuckling beneath his breath.
Hoarfrost just stared at him in silence for a long while. "Oh, come on."
"What...?" the stallion asked, completely lost.
The mare turned around, facing the cart, and said: "Silk, do wake up soon so this can stop...:
"Aw, don't be like that...!" the train conductor said, frowning a tiny but. "I tried my best to tell you my feelings about you..."
"And you did your best, believe me," the mare replied softly. "I'm inclined to think that it's just a matter of time before I fall for you, as well. No offense to Silky Fetlocks, but I don't think he would be a wise choice."
"Ah, well, I think he's a nice stallion. And I think he does have somepony in his life."
"He does?" Hoarfrost asked, quite surprised.
"I think. He talked about a mare in here, I think he came to visit her," the stallion explained, smiling in apparent heartwarming.
"Ah, I see. Huh, quite the surprise, actually..." The mare trailed off, looking at Rail. "I thought that Silky here was— Well, you know..."
"So what are you going to do here, Rail? You haven't got anything to do here, am I right?"
"In a certain way, I don't. I guess I could wait for you two to be done with... Umm, whatever it is you'll do."
"You really shouldn't have," the mare replied, nuzzling the train conductor softly. She gave the stallion a hearty smile, shuffling her hooves to get closer to him. "Remember why and for whom it is that I do this," the stallion replied, trying to sound as charming as he could.
The two were sitting in the shade that a roof casted, enjoying eachother's company. Railroad tried to give Hoarfrost a hug, or at least to get a hoof around her.
"Hey, step back," said the mare, separating herself from Rail. She shot the stallion a glare before sitting down again, this time at a few steps away from the conductor. "None of that cuddly business now," she said, pointing at him with a hoof.
Silk, by his part, had just regained his conscience and was struggling to get up. He groaned between his teeth as he scorching heat of the sun over him made him feel like his eyes had caught on fire. I keep on dreaming those things...
"Don't be like that, even you will need that sometime," Rail said, barely suppressing a chuckle.
"I know I will, but hey, this is not that time." Hoarfrost stood up, looking at Silk as he fought to stand. "Plus, cheer up: I'm basically counting on you on that," she said, incredulously staring at the stallion's failures to get up.
"I need to forget those things," Silk mumbled beneath his breath, not noticing that he wasn't alone.
"Ah, Silk, you've woken up already," said the mare, at which the stallion replied with a sleepy gaze. "Are you going...? Where are you going to?"
"Yes, I'll... I'll go." Silk jumped down from the cart, landing on his side over the sands. He rapidly jumped back to all fours, nervously moving his eyes from side to side. "I'm fine, really."
"Seems like he's still quite out of it," the mare said to Rail, who was chuckling beneath his breath at Silk's clumsiness. "Try to get him back, will you? I really got to go now, there are a lot of things I need to talk with a certain somepony."
After some seconds of trying to suppress his laughter, the conductor replied: "S-sure, why not...?"
After hearing his answer, Hoarfrost rushed off, with her trademark frenzied grin on her face. She disappeared in an instant as she gave a sharp turn at an intersection.
"Ah, Hoarfrost..." Rail stood up and paced around in a daze, his words imbued with some sort of deep affection for her.
Silk directed towards Railroad, a sly grin on his face. "Hey, what was that? Am I catching some vibes between you two?" he asked as he gave the stallion a nudge.
"I d-don't know what you're talking about," the conductor replied, blushing.
"Sure, I'll believe you; that was so convincing," replied the traveler, leaving out a chortle. "Say, Rail, did you tell her about it?"
"Yes, yes I did."
"And...?"
"She took it surprisingly well." Railroad sat on the cold sands once again, smiling at the clear sky.
"That sounds like success," Silk replied, feeling an odd pride. So this is how it feels when a friend makes an achievement... Feels nice.
"So... Are you going somewhere?" Rail asked, raising an eyebrow. "You said you came here for something."
"I guess I should," replied the travelling stallion, his voice's volume taking a big dip. "But..."
"But what...?" Rail got closer to Silk Thread, trying not to sound too much like he was doing an interrogation. "Is there something wrong again?"
"I don't know, Rail, I..." Silk gazed at the sky, his eyes lacking any light. "I think I might find out that something awful happened in my past, or something to that effect."
"Like what?" Rail asked, his ears perking up. He leaned on his front hooves, ending up in a position that would suggest he was ready to jump at Silk.
"Railroad, I... You know that I—"
"Yes, I do remember what you said."
"Did you tell Frost about that!?" Silk asked, adopting a very defensive position. An almost inaudible growl emanated from his gritted teeth.
"No, I didn't," replied the conductor, trying to sound as reassuring as he could. "I almost did, yes, but I don't believe you."
"W-what?"
"I don't think you've killed anypony," replied Rail, smiling at Silk, who seemed to have been having the biggest shock of his life.
"But I— I told you that I did! You should have believed me!" the traveler shouted, clinging to the train conductor, shaking him.
"Keep it down, there are ponies around," said Rail, still grinning friendly at him.
"No, I really mean it, Rail: I did a horrible thing!"
"Until there is a plausible way to know, I won't believe you," replied the conductor, his tone a tad more serious than usual. "If you really think it'd be a good idea to say something that you don't know for sure is true, go on."
"Rail... You need to learn to stop trusting others so easily," said Silk, shaking his head at the stallion. "What if I were planning to murder you when we met?"
"With what? A bag of oatmeal?" asked Rail, hugging Silk tightly. "There wasn't a thing on your saddlebags that could be used, you know~!"
"Now, you don't know that. You just guessed nothing would happen."
"I just knew it: you looked desperate, but not in a bad way." The train conductor raised his gaze towards the sky, his eyes lost in the clear firmament. With his typical smile, he continued to speak. "I just did the right thing, together with what my job forced me to do. It was nothing but my vocation."
Silk replied with silence, closing his eyes for a long moment. Hoarfrost and he make a great couple, with that of being so different...
"Anyway, weren't you going somewhere?"
Silk maintained his silent stand for a moment, his gaze directed towards the train conductor. I hope they live their lives together, Rail does really have something for her. "I'll just wait for Hoarfrost to come back" replied Silk, slowly drawing a line on the sands with his hooves. "I'm sure she'll be of great help."
Railroad nodded lightly before answering: "She is, actually." He left out a sigh before continuing. "Hey, Silk; don't put so much weight on yourself. If something did happen, it wasn't your fault. Trust me, I'm sure of it."
"You don't know me that well," replied Silk, not really moving his gaze from over the train conductor.
"I know you just enough to know that. You're not really complex, nopony is."
Silk, in response, just described circles with his hoof, dismissively, together with rolling his eyes.
"I don't know anything else."
I know you do... "Are you sure of that...?" Hoarfrost shot the stallion a bitter glance, growling beneath her breath. She kicked the wooden floor once or twice as her ears dropped to the sides.
Almost leaving out a confident laugh, the stallion replied: "I'm very, very sure."
There has to be something I can use against him. "Isn't there a way I could get there faster?" the mare asked, her stance still threatening.
"It's a very long trip. There isn't much on the ways of getting around the main road, unless you want to pass through the forest. That could take some time off you, but I don't think it'd be a good idea."
Hoarfrost nodded lightly, her eyes glued to the stallion's face, who adopted an almost insulting stance.
"Especially for somepony like you."
The light-blue mare flicked her tail and said: "Cut that out, Mist. You know very well that I came here looking for answer, not for your opinion."
"Well, since I have given you my final answer, I guess you could use some pointers," the stallion replied, raising a hoof and pointing at Hoarfrost. He smirked before continuing to mock the mare. "For a brittle mare like you, I don't think you'd have much of a chance of getting through the forest unharmed. You always were the weaker one."
Good old Mist. Always such an idiot... The mare stomped at the floor, the wooden plank leaving out a thunderous crash as it was struck. She grimaced before asking: "Do I need to prove the contrary to you?"
"Be my guest," replied Mist softly, sitting down. "I wouldn't be surprised if it flopped."
Hoarfrost's face contorted, her trademark frenzied grin appearing behind her bangs. "Stand back."
Amused, Mist gave a small step back as the mare's horn gathered a rather large aura around itself. In mid-air, a large ice block was materializing, an almost arctic smoke emanating from it. After some seconds, the mare let the block fall down, at which it cracked as it connected with the floor.
"Very scary."
Hoarfrost left out a groan as a zap of her magic was shot off her horn, the ice block receiving the blast, shattering in an infinity of tiny shards, the majority of those going straight for Mist, who barely managed to duck.
The stallion, after staring at the pieces of ice scattered about over the floor, smirked and asked: "Is that the best you've got?"
"It's more than enough," replied the mare, still maintaining her seriousness. "I don't need to show a lot to you: you don't have much to offer, either."
"How's Rain?" asked Mist, his tone shifting back towards a normal, friendly one.
"Dead," replied the mare, the bitterness in her words striking the stallion.
"W-what?"
"He's dead. I found him dead on his home. I couldn't quite get a close look at how he died, but it was really gruesome. The eyes had been ripped off..."
"That's a lie," Mist replied, jumping back. "I know that— that y-you killed him!" he shouted, his eyes glued to the standing, almost immobile mare.
"Why would I?" asked Hoarfrost, offended. "After all, I went there because something else happened."
"Are going to kill me too!? I'd pay to see you try!" Mist, after saying that, receded towards the staircase, ducking behind the railing. "Try me!"
"Mist, calm down," said Hoarfrost, raising her head, still quite angered, but not as much. "Say, Mist, do you remember who Blizzard is?"
"How could I not remember her?" asked the stallion, his gaze now lost in mid-air, his mind flooding with memories of the recently deceased mare. Well, at least to him, she wasn't deceased. Not yet, that is.
"She's dead, as well."
The mare's sheer indifference and distant attitude hit the stallion like a ton of bricks. He struggled to make his words leave his mouth. "But she— she was like your mother! How could you kill her?"
"I didn't kill her!" shouted Hoarfrost, her fury reaching a complete new level. An anger-fueled frigid zap was shot off her horn, flying through the room. Over the wall it touched, a large piece of white ice materialized, the wood creaking beneath it as the wall contracted.
"I won't believe a word you say, Hoar!" shouted Mist, his eyes expressing a deep desire to just show the mare that she shouldn't mess with him. "You killed her. I know you did."
"Mist, a recent acquaintance of mine found her dead," the mare said, trying to reason with the stallion. "I don't even know if it's her, but who else could it be?"
"Wait a minute, that means— are the foals okay?"
"I highly doubt it."
"How can you say that like it's nothing!?" Mist was still behind the railings of the staircase, only his head being visible. His eyes weren't being directed towards Hoarfrost; instead, his eyes were on the windows.
"You tend to get used to it. I've lived through worse," replied the mare, dropping all confidence. She sounded really affected all out of a sudden. "In fact, one of the foals... I know what happened to him."
"What? What happened?"
"He was in a very bad shape. He was right in front of me when he passed away. It was really harsh, really... It was also very sad."
The two stared at eachother in silence for a long while, completely immobile. I bet he won't say a thing about it.
After a long moment of staring at the unicorn, Mist went upstairs. Hoarfrost heard him humming a tune as he walked on the second floor. He, then, returned in an instant, with a notepad between his teeth. He cantered over to the mare and, with the notepad almost falling, said: "Here."
Hoarfrost grabbed the notepad with her magic aura, shoving it down her saddlebags.
"You can have it since you're going away. It's Blizzard's, I guess you should have it."
If I dare to read that, it'll sure break me... "Thanks, Mist. I'll be going now. It's been a pleasure making business with you."
"Likewise..." The stallion smiled at the mare, still believing she was a killer. "Also, is this ice on the wall going to thaw or something?"
"Give it time and don't touch it. You'll be fine."
"Are you sure you didn't kill Rain...?"
"One more word about that and you'll have a full demonstration about how I can actually kill."
Mist gave a step back and stumbled over his words in nervousness. "I-I'll j-just forget about it, then..."
"I might return to torment you some more in some time, if everything goes according to plan," the mare said jokingly, as she headed towards the door. "If it doesn't go according to plan, then I might not return."
"I'm sure you'll be back around here..."
"I wouldn't be so sure. I might go away with somepony else," said the mare, her eyes losing themselves in the distant sky as she opened the door.
"So a stallion finally managed to thaw the ice queen's heart, eh?" the stallion asked, giggling beneath his breath. "Who is this skillful stallion?"
"It's not really like that," Hoarfrost replied, blushing a little, staring at the ground. "Umm, he's called Railroad; I think that's his full name. He's a train conductor— well, was..."
"Railroad..." Mist smirked, asking: "So we could say he'll—"
"Both yes and no," replied the mare, cutting the stallion off.
"Ah. I thought you two had—"
"Again, both yes and no. It hasn't happened and, given the circumstances, won't happen any soon."
"Poor stallion, being with an ice queen like you," remarked Mist, his sympathy being palpable. "Does he know you, you know, like him?"
"I don't think he interpreted it as that, but he might know." Hoarfrost stared back towards the sky and kicked her hooves together. "Well, time to go. Stay... Umm, stay chilly."
"Stay ice-queen-y!" shouted Mist as the mare ran down the road, away from him.
Silk was being patted on the head by Rail, very much like he was comforting a little filly. He glided his hoof over the traveler's mane, giggling to himself. "Don't worry, mate. I'm sure everything will be fine." He raised his head as the mare approached, waving at her with his free hoof. "Oh, welcome back, Hoarfrost!"
"H-Hoarfrost?" Silk blurted out, struggling to be released. "Rail, let me go...!" he shouted as he helplessly shuffled his hooves, to no effect.
"Aww, look at you two! You almost look like a couple"" remarked the mare, an ear-to-ear grin present on her face. She got closer to the two with an apparent heartwarming.
"Hoarfrost, it's not what it looks like..."
Rail just smiled at the mare before saying: "Silky here was having some internal struggles, nothing else. I hope he's fine now."
"Internal struggles?" asked Hoarfrost, raising an eyebrow. She playfully winked at Silk, who was still being patted on the head by the conductor. "Like what, accepting his undying attraction to you, Rail?"
"Umm, no. I don't think he'll say that very soon."
"It's actually something that I don't think it's necessary to discuss," said Silk, still unsure of how serious the two were being.
Hoarfrost giggled and extended a hoof, caressing the traveler's left cheek. "We're living in a modern society, silly silky filly: nopony will be too weirded out if you have something for Rail."
"Hoarfrost, I really mean it," remarked Silk, looking at the mare with a serious gaze.
"Hey, take it easy," replied the mare, giving a step back. "Anyway, are you done? I suppose you already had a talk with that somepony."
"I... I actually haven't. I don't want to do it."
The three shared a short lapse of silence; Rail just kept on smiling, Silk stared at Rail and Hoarfrost was, in turn, staring at the clear sky above their heads.
"Well, if you think about it, it'd be a far better idea if we took this day off and started to take our journey towards Canterlot at night. The heat and all, you know."
"Are we going by hoof or...?" Rail snuggled a reluctant Silk, receiving a "stop that" in response.
"Train is basically the fastest way," the mare pointed out, pointing at the train station. "We won't get tired from it."
"So it's back to Canterlot in a train, huh Silk?" the conductor asked, his amusement seemingly only growing. "It's kinda like how we met."
Silk sighed before saying: "Let's just hope nothing strange happens in the way back..."
"I wonder if we can catch a train going there," said Rail, spacing out for a moment. "For some reason, there hasn't been much traffic towards and from there, and that's only because Silk here left the city. If it weren't for him, there would haven't been any kind of traffic whatsoever." The stallion stared at the sand for a moment, not imagining a plausible reason behind the fact.
Hoarfrost huffed, an expression of disgust appearing on her face. "Maybe they decided they didn't need to leave the city; after all, they're all a bunch of snobs..."
Nervously, Silk said: "Rail, I'm going. Let me go now."
"Oh, of course!" replied the train conductor, loosening his grip around the stallion. "Don't take too long, loverboy," he said as Silk walked away.
"Leave some energy to stay awake!" shouted the mare as the traveler receded, disappearing behind a house.
"I bet she misses him," Rail said, looking at the mare with his forelegs wide open.
"I guess he'll take his time," replied the mare, walking up to Rail. "He maybe hasn't seen her in a long time, and you know how it goes."
"Uh-huh..." The train conductor stared at the sands shyly, kicking up some dirt with his hooves.
"Hey, Rail, don't worry about that," said the mare, reading the stallion's mind. "Everything has a time, and we'll stick together in the end."
"Thanks, Hoarfrost."
"Say, can you do that thing you were doing to Silk to me? It looked... It looked very nice and comfortable." Hoarfrost sat down in front of Rail as she spoke, shaking her head a little.
"S-sure." he replied as he embraced the mare between his legs. He blushed a little as he nuzzled her hair.
"You're cute."
"You too."
"Pat my mane," said Hoarfrost as she raised her head.
"Yes, mistress." Slowly, he passed his hoof over her mane, enjoying the feeling of her soft hairs.
"M-mistress? Oh, my... You're going too far. Remember we're in the middle of a frequented road..."
She'll tear me apart... She'll rip me open when I tell her... Ugh, I don't want to do it... Silk was nervously walking down a completely average road, looking for a completely mundane door. Behind it, there would be a mare that he had befriended in a past travel. She was very acknowledgeable on the matter of news, and she was the only one who could have known about the recent events in Canterlot. She'll probably kill me when I tell her... There was fear on his inner voice, his eyes unsurely passing over the walls. There it is. Just got to tell her, nice and slow... He had just found it, and was walking towards the door, before gulping loudly and knocking on it, cowering in fear. I wonder if it'll hurt a lot... Dying must hurt...
The door in front of him opened, a mare appearing behind it. "Hmm? Ah, Silk, we haven't seen eachother a long time!" she exclaimed, opening the door completely. She stared down at the cowering stallion for a moment, quite confused. "Are— are you okay? You look scared." She took Silk's legs on her hooves and mad him stand up, even when he didn't make any kind of visual interaction with her. He stood in silence, visibly shaking. "You know that I won't bite you or anything... Ah, my manners! Welcome back, Silky!"
The stallion, after a long while of breathing heavily, managed to look at the mare in the eyes. "Merry, I need to ask you something..."
The mare cheerfully guided him inside as she said: "Well, come inside, then~! There are a lot of things I've got to tell you as well~!" The mare skipped about once inside.
"Merry, I—"
After a while of staring at the immobile stallion, she pulled him inside. Silk stumbled over his legs and almost fell flat on his face after tripping. "Ah, there's so much to catch up on! Did you know that I managed to buy this place? The owner said he had another place and that I only had to pay him monthly! This place is all mine now!"
"That's called 'rent,' Merry. He's your landlord," remarked the stallion, incredulously. "Don't try to—"
"I did remodelations on here!" exclaimed the mare, pointing her hoof towards a snail staircase. "The staircase, there, had to be trimmed down a little."
"He won't like that," replied the stallion, cringing.
"Well, what do you want to ask me?" the mare asked, sitting down at a table in the center of the main room.
Silk trotted over to the mare, and gazed at her as he said: "You see, Merry, it happened four days ago at Canterlot..."
"Canterlot?" asked the mare, adopting a business-like position. She made like she adjusted her glasses, despite not needing to use them or having them. "I haven't had any news from there since like five or four days ago."
"It's about..."
"About? I haven't had much information about the place, so I can't steer you in the right direction."
"About murder," the stallion blurted out, staring at the floor after saying it.
"Murder? That's a very strong word," replied the mare, asking herself why would he be interested on information of a murder. "Hold on a second, I think I've got something about that— yes, I do. An entire family was killed. Very sad, really."
"Do you know who the culprit is?" asked the stallion, leaning over the table at which Merry was sitting.
"Wait, I think I've got that written down since it happened some days ago..." Merry, showing how well her name reflected her actions, happily trotted back and searched for a file in a cabinet, her teeth almost rupturing a very soft paper as he retrieved it. "Here it is~! Let's see it..." She left the paper down on the table and silently read it.
Sweet Celestia, help me...
"Here it says that the culprit is— no, there has got to be a mistake," said the mare, her voice turning uncertain and gloomy out of a sudden.
"What does it say?" Ah, almost feigned ignorance perfectly. She'll believe me, she'll believe I have no idea about this.
"It says that... well, read it yourself," said the mare, almost shoving the paper in front of Silk's face. Canterlot. Murder. Family of four found dead. Most likely culprit: Silk Thread. Stallion. Cause: ...
Silk stood in silence for a long while, his eyes fixed to the paper. What if I really did it...?
"The information came from a very shady source, so it might be wrong," said the mare, sounding as if she were apologizing.
Silk, not sure of why, slammed his legs on the table and pleaded: "Merry, please tell you've got more information on this... Please!"
"Hey, take it easy," said the mare, softly shoving the stallion's legs down the table. "You've got to flip the paper and unfold it, because it has more things written in there."
Having done so, the stallion read in his mind: Unnatural slashes were found on the bodies, together with a pile of papers randomly scattered about all over the house. Force was very clearly used. Three of the victims had their main veins slashed open and one was drowned. No one had an idea of who could it have been, up until a stallion that nobody had seen around the area said he was guilty of the crime. Tomorrow will be the day were things will get official.
"Tomorrow..." Silk cringed at the thought that it all was too familiar for him. "Did your source say anything else?"
"I never heard of her again," replied the mare, her voice sounding devoid of any excitement. It was almost like she didn't want to be merry anymore.
Silk loudly gulped and look at the mare in her eyes. She was probably taking the entire situation with far too much seriousness, or at least that's what he thought. "Never heard of her again?"
"Like she... Vanished all out of a sudden." Merry cantered over to a window, the rays of sunlight highlighting the right face of her face. "Maybe something got her."
"Don't even joke about that," said Silk, fearing that he could find something else than silence and inactivity in his return to Canterlot.
"Is there something wrong, Silk? Something that I don't know about this situation?" asked the mare, genuinely interested. "I can't believe someone said you were guilty— no, that you said you were guilty! That's just insane, I just know you're unable to murder somepony else."
"I don't know, Merry, it feels very real..."
"It's just your imagination," replied the mare, trying to comfort the uncertain stallion.
"Merry, can you write something down now?" Silk shook his head, trying to get the words into his mind.
"Sure! Just say it," said the mare, before grabbing a quill between her teeth and lunging over an open scroll.
"Everypony disappeared in Canterlot," the stallion said, much to the mare's surprise.
"Hey, write your stories yourself," she said, dropping the quill. "You know I'm not a good writer."
"Merry, I really mean it: everypony in Canterlot just vanished," said Silk, his voice sounding like he was in deep torment. "I went towards the house of the murders that night, and when dawn came there was absolutely nopony on the streets."
"When did this happen?" asked the mare, reaching down for the quill she had just dropped.
"Yesterday," replied Silk, the past day's events playing in his head in a flash. "At dawn I took a train towards here."
"You arrived here at night, then!" exclaimed the mare, once again missing the point. "You really should have come here sooner. Will you pass the night here?"
"Merry, I beg you, spread the word," said Silk, cutting the mare off. He gazed deep in her eyes and said: "Nopony will believe me, but I know you will. You need to uncover the true culprit of those killings and to tell everypony that Canterlot is now a ghost town. I have nopony else but you..."
"Don't put so much weight over me," replied the mare, with a surprising amount of indifference in her voice. "Will you stay here for the night?"
"I need to go, Merry," replied the stallion, his speech getting faster and faster with every new phrase. "I met a mare and—"
"You met a mare? Congratulations!"
I really should have expected that...
"I always knew you had some space for love in that heart of yours," Merry said, giving the stallion a playful wink.
"She isn't my marefriend, Merry."
"She isn't? Then you're— she's cheating on her special somepony with you!" shouted the mare, squinting her eyes at Silk. "That's low. You should be ashamed."
"Merry, I met a stallion as well, and it seems the two have hooked up or something. I have nothing to do with her."
"Aw, don't worry! I'm sure you'll find your—"
"Merry, please focus!" shouted the stallion, a short moment of silence following. "Will you really tell everypony what happened in Canterlot?"
"Y-yes, sir!" replied the mare, doing her best at holding a leg at her forehead.
"Do you promise?" asked the stallion, giving the mare a hard, cold stare.
"It's a promise, mister!" she replied, before giggling a bit. "Is there anything you'd like to add?"
"Please don't tell anyone about how I supposedly killed some ponies," Silk said, sheepishly leaving out a laugh. "I'm sure I didn't do it and I won't rest until I know who did it."
Merry tilted her head aside for a moment and gave the stallion a confused look. "But maybe the culprit disappeared together with the rest of the Canterlot ponies—"
"I'm totally sure of the fact that they didn't disappear: they are someplace else, hiding, something to that effect," Silk pointed out, giving a circle with his right leg as he said the phrase. "I just don't understand how nopony knows that it happened: I told my companions and they didn't believe me at all..."
"You told them?" asked the mare, swiftly taking notes.
"Yes, I did." I guess that a lie sometimes helps...
"And they didn't believe you, wow." Merry gave a step back, leaving the recently written scroll lying over the table. "It is difficult to believe, but it's you..."
"Don't worry about it," replied the stallion, both talking to her and himself. "I've got to go now, but I guess you'll be all fine. Will you?"
"Of course I will!" Merry replied happily, confidently grinning. "Now, go, but you better return! I still have a lot of things to say to you!"
"You shout a lot," the stallion quietly pointed out. "You should be a preacher or something."
"But there isn't any sense for me to preach anything..."
"You know what I meant." Yup, she'd make a great one. "Well, Merry, until the day we see eachother. Take care," said the stallion, walking towards the door.
"You too!" replied the mare, her excitement returning with surprising speed. "Try not to kill anypony!"
"You really shouldn't joke about that, you know..."
After their conversation was over, Silk stepped outside, hearing the door close behind him. I guess it didn't go that bad. I'm still alive and I'm not missing any body parts...
Silk walked back towards his companions, looking around with a nervous gaze. Nothing had changed and nothing would probably change. In the distance, he heard:
"Ah, Rail, s-stop that! It tickles, it tickles!"
Is that Frost shouting...? She's... She's oddly loud.
Accelerating the pace, Silk ran down the road and took a sharp turn as soon as he reached the second-to-outer lane. There, he found Rail and Frost, the mare lying over her back on the sand, with the stallion softly nuzzling her stomach. The mare's mane looked like spilled water all over the sand. Unsure of how to react, Silk stood there, watching as the two got all kinds of affectionate. He, without noticing it much, actually blushed as he stared. The two shared a look and some giggles, as Rail caressed Hoarfrost's left cheek with his hoof. The mare directed her gaze towards the distant sky, noticing how Silk was awkwardly standing there. Rail took notice of him after a short moment, the two ending up staring at the traveling stallion, nervous little smiles on their faces, and blush on their cheeks.
Silk didn't react right away; instead, he stood in silence a moment before shaking his head and asking: "Oh, a-am I interrupting...? I'm sorry, really—"
"Not at all," replied the mare, turning her head towards Silk. "Say, have you got what you wanted?"
"I think I did," the traveler softly replied, kicking his hooves shyly. "Are you two...? Are you doing something that I shouldn't be seeing?"
"You can look away if you think that affection is icky," replied the mare, turning her head back to Rail.
"I probably will but— are you sure?" Silk asked, his mind pleading him to go away and leave the couple alone. "Nothing serious here?"
Hoarfrost stared at Rail in silence for a moment, who smirked at the mare.
"Seems like he thinks different when it comes to this topic, Hoarfrost," the train conductor whispered to her. "Seems like he's very forward~!"
"Hey, don't get too excited," she said, a stern look on her face. "We're supposed to be in a quest for something, and that something is very serious."
Rail laughed nervously, rubbing his hooves together. "You can always call me if you need to release some tension, you know... I-I truly won't mind!"
"I'll leave now, okay...?" Silk nervously smiled and went away, not sure of where to go. He disappeared behind a house once again, his mind flooding with thoughts of the couple. That was fast...
Rail smiled at Frost, smirking some more, before whispering to her ear: "Well, now that's he gone..."
"You're not supposed to do that," she said, rolling away from the stallion. "Now he thinks that we're a thing," she remarked as she stood up.
"We aren't?" asked the stallion, quite lost. He just looked at the mare, still feeling that his cheeks were on fire.
"Not yet," Hoarfrost replied, trotting over to an intersection, seeing Silk slowly walk away. "Wait, Silk, hold on! Where are you going?"
"He doesn't seem to know where he's going to," said the train conductor, cantering over to the mare.
"Seems like he'll get some salt," she absent-mindedly said, pointing a hoof at the traveling stallion.
"I didn't know he liked those. Do you...?"
"I don't, but it's an amusing place to be," she replied, giggling beneath her breath. "I've had some really strange and funny experiences in those places."
"So you'll go...?"
"You can stay here if you want."
The stallion, seeing a chance present itself, replied: "No, I'll— I'll stick with you, whether I want it or not."
"You've still got a lot to learn, Rail..." Having said that, she cantered down the road, following the stallion.
I slowly recovered my senses, feeling everything fade back to me as I rested, motionless. I was lying on the grass, chilliness surrounding me. The sun wasn't in the sky; instead, the dark of the night was present in the scene. There was a complete, perfect silence around the place: a total lack of movement. The grass was comfortably soft and moist, and I truly felt like I could have continued to lay over it for an eternity. I seemed to be alone, as I noted as I moved my eyes around the place, finding nothing but darkness.
A voice spoke up, close to me. It could have been from just about anywhere. It was her voice, once again.
"The sky is far darker here. The moon is further away and the stars are more dispersed throughout the firmament. It feels a little empty, to be honest. You could have done better. It's not very pretty."
The silence followed to reign over the ambient after that. I stood up and looked down from my position, finding, in the distance, a sole street with its streetlights functional. The rest of the city seemed to have been plunged into a blinding darkness. No breeze was present but the air was fresh and pleasant.
I'm here again. After all that Nightmare— my mind has said, I really don't want to be here... It's dark and cold. I need to get home, fast.
I got closer to the edge of the hill, gazing at the only way down: the same way I got up. Steep steps down the cliff, where a single mis-step would be paid quite greatly. Fortunately, the cliff wasn't really that high and I'd be inclined to think a fall from the top might only hurt for some days. Breathing deeply, I set foot at the first step down. It was nothing but a protruding piece of rock, but it was quite solid. Thanks to the darkness of the night, I couldn't quite see the way down unless I really squinted, and eve then it was quite the daunting task.
Time and time again I was reluctant to set foot on a new step, fearing that it could be nothing but my imagination and I'd end up falling down the cliff. On the little time I took on the way down, the air night had gone from fresh towards freezing, and I was starting to shiver.
I was maybe halfway through when her voice spoke up again, breaking my concentration completely.
"Why are you running away?" she asked. "Who are you running from?"
I lost my balance and rolled down the cliff, luckily not hitting any important part of my body except for my legs. My legs were quite struck.
I was lying on the dirt, my eyes fixed in the black night sky. I groaned, trying to get up. My knees hurt quite a lot. The stars over me weren't bright enough, and it seemed like I was about to be consumed by the dark. It seemed to be growing all around me.
The outskirts of town were right in front of me once I actually managed to stand up; I couldn't see half a thing, but I knew they were there. I'll surely crash against the walls a hundred times before I get out of here...
In complete silence, I started to walk towards the houses, my arms extended forward. Couldn't somebody turn up the lights around here...? My advancing was filled with doubt, as I didn't even know if I was going in the right direction at times. My steps over the dirt road were unsure, to the point I hesitated to give a step forward in fear that there might have not been any surface in front of me. Time and time again I'd hit a wall with my arms, the coldness and emptiness of the ambient making it appear as something far worse than what it actually was. I stomped against the floor with every step, the sound echoing against the walls, silence being interrupted every time it happened. I felt alone and, in a way, helpless. I couldn't even see my hands in front of my face, and my only guides were the distant streetlights. As I walked forwards, I noticed how not even a light was present in any of the houses. Maybe it's really late at night... It feels like it: it's cold and silent... Even my thoughts echoed in my head against the eerie silence. I almost smashed my face against a window at one moment, and I awkwardly tripped over my own feet at another.
By the end of it, I noticed that my legs were caked with dirt, as I was now standing beneath a streetlight. I noticed, once again, how only one street had its streetlights on; the rest of the city was seemingly engulfed in darkness. Even with the stars and moon over my head, they didn't manage to light the city just enough to appreciate it. After dusting myself off for a while, I continued down my route. I went up the street, my steps now silent. Nothing made a sound, and only my thoughts were able to break the silence's dominance over the night.
I've got an awful feeling about this...
Just as I said that, a heat started to spread all around my body. It seemed to emanate from my fingers, the warmth making its way up my arms. Paradoxically, a very strong shiver made its way down my back, which almost made me jump.
The alleys at the sides of the street were just as ominous and silent as the rest of the city. I wonder if there could be anything following me...
Out of curiosity, I took a look back, not seeing anything; not even light. The streetlights were going off.
I took a step forward, not noticing how a hole was right in front of me. My foot somehow targeted the hole itself and fell right into it. The streetlight over my head died off. How opportune...
I tried to pull my foot out of the hole, but it seemed to be perfectly fitting. Last thing I knew, I'd probably harm myself severely before being able to continue.
"Agh, why won't my foot get unstuck?" I asked the air as I nervously struggled to get my foot out of the hole. Another streetlight in front of me turned its light off, leaving me in the almost complete dark. I forced my foot out of the hole, and managed to stand up as my foot gave a very loud snap. I ran forward, noticing, soon enough, how there seemed to be puddles on the street. Little splashes plagued the night ambient, as I gave my best at reaching the lighted parts of the street. As soon as I got close enough to one, the streetlight would go off. They were going off faster than I could run.
"Tell me, who are you running from?" It was Nightmare's voice once again. As soon as she spoke, every single streetlight went off, except for the one that lighted my current path. I stopped running abruptly when I heard her voice, almost falling over once again, noticing how I was right in front of my apartment.
I guess I should enter... The night isn't going to be any good out here...
Without thinking too much about it, I entered the building, noticing how dim the light inside was. I silently walked upstairs, towards my residence in the fourth floor. On the way up, I noticed how most of the doors were open, with no lights coming from inside them. The longer I gazed into the dark void that came from them, the more I noticed certain sounds in the background. Almost like something being dragged in the upper floors. Something's up. I know it...
The source of the light was in the third floor: past that, the light was scarce and I thought I wouldn't be able to see where my door was. That would have been a reality if, of course, my door wasn't wide open and with the lights on. Everything seemed to be in order inside, however.
I reached my room in a heartbeat. It was dark inside, so I turned the lights on. My notebooks were scattered over the bed and the window to the balcony was open. Outside, a deep darkness was present. I went towards the window, noticing how not even the only functioning streetlight was working now.
In the middle of the dark, I honestly thought I'd get lost. It was such a never-ending void; I could have stayed there for an eternity.
The stars were fading away slowly, or that's what it looked like, at least.
When I turned back, Nightmare was there, sitting over the bed like everything was completely normal. She gazed directly at my eyes, her little grin expressing an eerily deep amusement.
"It took you very long to get here again."
I stood in silence in front of her, not sure of how to answer. It was happening once again. My head...
"Say, Silk, which part of your life do these chronicle?" she asked, pointing at my notebooks. "They sound like when you were young, at times. At other times, they sound more like you wrote them little ago."
I should sleep... Without thinking about what she said, I tried to get into bed. She, to my surprise, actually got off the bed when I opened the sheets up, levitating the notebooks with her, leaving them all piled up on the floor, next to her.
She grabbed one as I tried to make myself comfortable. "It's interesting, really. Here it says that you've gotten better at imagining things. The way you drew this tree is very well-researched, I'll give you that. Very detailed, even when the leaves look a little strange. Very artistic..."
I wasn't sure if I could feel my legs anymore. It all had started with increasing shivers and an abnormal pain in my fingers. The shivers had started to spread throughout by body and reached my feet. Slowly but steadily, my feet had gone numb. By then, I just couldn't move them. The sensation went all the way to the anterior part of my lower legs, cutting out its blood circulation. My shoulders also started to hurt, and I could feel my hip getting ready to expulse the bones in my legs. That's what it felt like.
My ears went partially deaf maybe only a minute after it. I couldn't understand any sound, and the only ones which were entirely audible were making me feel like I'd end up with a ruptured eardrum.
She spoke up once again. "I've managed to do it: I finally managed to construct a background. It just felt so empty without one, like the sky was endless. Now it looks more like it." Nightmare's voice was more of an ear-rupturing shout for me, and the sheer malice in the undertones of her voice was almost damaging.
"I don't remember writing that..." I groaned, feeling my state worsening with every new second. A sickening sensation began at my stomach, as I felt it constantly rumble and press against itself. My breathing slowly accelerated as I began to lose control of my eyeballs. Slowly at first, they were making little uncontrollable twitches. They also started to hurt, as if they were being pressed with some kind of hot metal bar. The veins in my feet started to swell up, and I felt like my legs were unusually large.
"But you did," she replied, her voice as loud as it could be possible. "Are you alright?" she asked me when she noticed I was visibly cringing.
"I... I don't know... Give me that thing..."
She flung a notebook towards me. "Here you go. I hadn't taken a look at that one yet. Tell me if you find anything."
She's acting strange... This is not like she would be...
"Your handwriting is very well-emulated, as well."
Not feeling well at all, I opened up a random page. "I can't believe I did it. My entire life lying to myself, but today I know I did it. I just know it. It'll continue to haunt me for all eternity." Not even these things are normal...
She spoke up once again, almost laughing as she said: "I saw her laying there, a hoof extended out. She had tried to fight it, but it was clear that she hadn't been lucky. Huh, who could that be, Silk? S-Silk...?"
The night was punishingly cold, and I felt like I was going to pass out. I couldn't stop shivering and I coughed very often. I could feel an unusual amount of saliva starting to flood my mouth. Horrible night... I groaned in a deep exasperation, the rusty growl that came out of my mouth making me spit out all the saliva and bile that was pooling in my mouth.
"My father was there, too. He was in the main room. I ran to tell my brothers, to see if there was something we could do the three, together. A red substance appeared in front of me as soon as I opened one door. I couldn't bring myself to continue." She chuckled coldly before saying: "You make this sound so amusing."
I turned by head towards her, and noticed immediately that I was seeing double. I felt myself becoming numb, like I had been sedated. "They didn't believe me at first. I had to show them."
"Take a look at this," she said, shoving a page in front of my face. I could tell that the page's content consisted of the word "murderer" being repeated over and over with no pattern whatsoever.
The lightbulb burned like staring at the sun, and I couldn't move my legs to stand up and turn it off. Tinnitus appeared on my ears, at which I honestly felt like my eardrums were about to rupture. This is not good...
"It seems like you know what you did, Silk," Nightmare said, darkly chuckling beneath her breath. "Or at least you think you know what you did." She continued to flip through pages of the notebooks, but didn't read anything out loud.
I gulped loudly again and again as I set my head right beneath the sheets. I wasn't sure of what to think or do. Nothing would help.
"He wasn't alive. He was floating in a pool of his own blood, and his eyes were missing. I only saw them when I looked in the mirror. They were looking at me; they knew what had happened. They knew the truth and wouldn't leave until I told everypony what had really happened."
The moment was imminent. I could already feel it grating through my throat. I felt a completely irrational fear in that moment; fear that somebody else apart from Nightmare was in the same room as me.
"His legs had been torn off, that was clear: I could see his ligaments poking right out of his shoulders. His throat had been cut right off, a little pile of puke expelling a nauseating smell." She got extremely close to me, almost throwing herself over me, and whispered to my ear: "I ripped the eyes out of the mirror and stomped on them in a blind panic. If only they'd leave me alone. But they wouldn't, they would never let that happen."
I coughed nervously, a pool of bile landing in front of my face. The nauseating smell of half-digested matter flared in my nostrils, making my stomach churn even more.
"You're feeling that once again, aren't you?" she whispered, the sheer amount of malice and mischievousness in her voice being almost shocking. "How does it feel like..?"
I, unable to take it any longer, peeked my head through a hole in the sheets before feeling the bloody push that would unleash nothing but more suffering.
My eyes opened wide as I tried to ignore the event happening to me. How could I, anyway? My bowels and stomach were almost completely empty, and yet a disgusting, vile waterfall of puke came out.
After some tortuous seconds, I was left panting again, begging for the little chunks of the putrid mass to leave my body for once.
Little figures started to appear in my vision for an instant and then disappeared.
My eyelids felt heavy. My eyes closed on their own, and my arms were starting to go numb.
I hung my head over the edge of the bed, feeling blood rushing towards my head, I sighed.
"My entire family was gone, and I had no name to stain but mine. I'll let the rest know of my crimes by tomorrow's morning. I'll have my last dream tonight, before probably being killed by the Canterlot folk..." She stopped for a moment and left out a laugh. "It sounds like you had given up by then, didn't you? You were accepting part of your past: you really had killed them, Silk, you know it's true. After suffering for a while, you decided to take complete action and direct your attention towards this dream world, where you could imagine whatever you could come up with, and it'd be true."
With my conscience not working entirely well, I said: "You really need to stop."
"Why stop?" she asked, laughing. "Why hide the truth?"
"Nightmare, I..."
"Don't worry about that. I know you'll be back."
"I don't want to be gone," I said, not knowing the reason behind that last phrase. "Don't make me go."
"You don't know what you're talking about," she replied, a notorious disgust present on her voice. "Soon enough you'll understand."
My body went numb shortly after that. I could only feel the tears around my eyes. I was mercifully starting to fade away. I stopped hearing and I stopped to smell the noxious stench of my half-digested who-knows-what.
In the middle of the day... In daylight... Silk cantered down the road, not sure of where to go. He really hadn't thought about going anywhere; he just wanted to separate himself from his companions. "Maybe I'm the one who took it wrong..." For a moment, he stopped and looked around an intersection, flicking his tail back and forth.
No, that can't be. Those two... Those two barely know eachother... After that thought crossed his mind, he started walking again, his eyes examining the entire area.
"He has no idea of what he's doing," Hoarfrost said to Rail, suppressing a laugh as she pointed to the receding stallion. She gave a couple of steps forward before her shout of "do you need company over there, Silk?" bounced off the walls of everything nearby.
"You're very loud," said Railroad, giving her a soft tap on her mane. Hoarfrost shot him a glare and he gave a step back, flinching just a little.
Silk turned around, with a tiny, trembling and nervous smile on his face. He sighed softly before answering in a voice barely audible to the couple. "I don't think that—"
"You're not thinking clearly, mate!" the other stallion shouted, pointing at Silk with a hoof. The two trotted up to him, as Silk just looked at them with a vacant stare. "We're going with you; salt cubes and cider are better accompanied."
"But I... I'm just walking around," he replied, raising an eyebrow. "Wait, did you two think I was going to go to a bar or something...?"
"Umm, yes?" the mare answered, mimicking the brown stallion's posture. "Appleoosa is quite known for that."
The three looked at eachother for a moment, doing nothing but blinking.
"Hold on a second," said Silk absent-mindedly. He looked at the skies over him, bringing a hoof at his lower jaw. "Hmm, I think something's missing here."
The other two, at unison, questioned: "Something missing...?"
It was then that, from behind them, came a voice. It sounded nothing like their conversation; no, it didn't. They weren't nearly as cheerful as him.
"Hey there! I hadn't seen you three around here!" he half-shouted, at which the trio turned around to face him. In their faces, confusion; except for Railroad, he was already smiling at the newcomer. They shared a short look, which was interrupted by the stallion speaking up once again. "Ah, Silky Hooves, you're back, and with some pals! It's been a very long time, should I show you around the place again?" he asked, tipping his hat just a bit, grinning.
"Braeburn, I—"
"But what am I saying?" he asked nopony in particular, leaving out a laugh. "Of course I should!"
With that having been said, Braeburn proceeded to push the trio around, without even visibly straining. Not even the dirt that was suspended into the air posed a problem to him.
Rail looked at his companions, his grin barely being contained in his face, and said: "I had heard about the very enthusiastic—"
"What is the charming mare's name?" the yellow-coated stallion asked, stopping his trajectory to think of which route would be the best.
"She's Hoarfrost," replied the conductor, attempting a hoof-shake. "And I'm Railroad."
Braeburn, while not looking at the stallion's hoof, managed to, actually, shake it just fine. He directed his gaze towards the white mare, tipping his hat once again as he said: "Frost, I see. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." The hoof-shake stopped and, right after it, he brought one of his hooves towards behind one of her forelegs, at which she raised it with a rather baffled look. He could literally feel Rail's glare as he kissed her fetlock. "You better take care of her," he said jokingly.
"L-likewise," replied Hoarfrost, giving Rail a sheepish smile.
"Umm, guys—"
"Are we going somewhere nice and special? Because this place looks like it could have some of those places," Railroad said, turning his head around to face the walls that towered over him.
"You're in Appleoosa: everything is nice and special around here!" replied Braeburn, letting go of Hoarfrost's foreleg. He signaled towards the entire city in a sweeping motion with his hoof, as he said: "I could show you everything around here, but that wouldn't be any interesting, would it?"
"I guess not," the mare replied, still a little confused. "He barely knows me," she muttered beneath her breath, being almost inaudible.
Silk just stared at the other three, taking small steps at a side; they were easily spotted by the cowpony, who wrapped a leg around him, pushing him back the towards the group. "You've gotten even more energetic since we last met," he said, his voice strained by the lack of air posed by Braeburn's tight grip. "It's unbelievable, how do you manage to do it?"
"That's not very relevant, Silky," replied the stallion, giving him a friendly wink. Without even pausing to breath in, he turned his head to a side and asked: "Hey, remember that we had that problem with the buffalo when you came?"
"Umm..." Silk proceeded to give a pair of taps on the ground as he visibly strained to remember. Braeburn seemed to inch closer to him with every passing second. "Ah, I remember now. How did that go...?"
"Great!" Braeburn replied in a shout, wrapping his foreleg around Silk once again. "We've reached new terms on those grounds and now things are going smoothly."
"That's... Nice, Brae... Now if you could— could just let go—"
"Of course it is nice!" he replied, his hat jumping a bit in the air. He stomped a hoof down to the ground as he asked: "How about we go take a drink in commemoration?"
"Braeburn, I don't think that—"
"What will the pretty mare have?" he interrupted Silk again, pointing at Hoarfrost, who was just standing there, her eyes lost in the clear sky, like nothing very noteworthy was happened around her. "Wait, will you have anything? And how about the bulky stallion here?"
"Some cider would be great," Rail replied, nodding lightly.
"I guess a little amount of salt would be fine. I'll go with the salt, yes," Frost answered, her gaze still not directed towards Braeburn.
"How about you, Silky? Still unsure about this?"
"He's a softy," the mare muttered beneath her breath. "I'm sure he won't have anything."
"Braeburn, don't you h-have— umm, someplace to be?" Silk asked, his eyes passing over the houses' walls, returning to the three ponies in front of him for milliseconds before returning his gaze to anything else that could be there. "Or something to do?"
"Nope, it's all done!" Braeburn replied, never losing his cheerfulness. "I don't have a thing to do before the sun goes down again, and just standing around ain't a good idea. Say, are you still on your travels?"
Silk nodded in response, describing a circle with his hoof on the ground. "I just wish I weren't..."
"We're going to Canterlot tonight. We have time," Hoarfrost said, her tone oddly serious for such a mundane topic.
"Perfect, then!" the stallion replied, positioning himself. The trio just stared at him as he got ready for what was to come. "Let's go!" he said as he gave a step forward, his muzzle pushing Hoarfrost to a side, and with that, joining the three travelers in a group. A pair of steps later, they were being pushed around once again.
"Do you do this to all those who arrive here?" Rail asked, tempted to skip as he was pushed around, just see what would happen. He didn't think further about doing it since his eyes were too busy looking at every single thing that passed before them.
"Why do we need to go there...?"
"Only if I see them arrive," Braeburn replied, taking the trio down an intersection in the middle of the town. With the speed they were going, he didn't have much time to think of the direction they were going. It was all in his memory.
"I don't think we should, you know, go—"
"That sounds very tiring," the mare pointed out, trying her best not to focus too much on the fact that she was the one with the stranger's muzzle pushed against her. She didn't quite manage not to do so.
"Is any of you listening to me?" Silk asked, accidentally kicking a hoof down. Being the outer one of the three, he formed a small hill of dirt around his hoof, together with halting their travel down to a halt.
"Heh, great timing, Silky Hooves~!" Braeburn replied, raising his gaze towards a wooden building right on front of the four. "I have no idea of how you did it, but you stopped us right in the moment." As he said that, he cantered towards the entrance of the building, with the trio following him, each one with different levels of enthusiasm: Rail was just brimming with joy, Hoarfrost was just trying to get things done, and Silk was rather avoidant of the whole situation.
Rail peeked his head inside the place first. The door caught his neck when he tried to go back and talk to Hoarfrost, which lead to him being just pushed inside by her. Once he was inside, he said: "Ah, this is my kind of place. Brings so many memories."
"Memories..." Hoarfrost's voice has gone almost silent once again. She didn't raise her gaze too much to stare at the wooden walls; she just tried to be close to Rail at any given moment.
At the same time Silk entered the place, Braeburn half-said, half-shouted: "Saltworthy! Three ciders and some salt cubes."
"You shouldn't waste your money like that, you know," said Silk, seating himself. "It'll run out eventually."
"There you go," replied Morton, the bartender, as he laid down the requested items down on the table. "Always so enthusiastic, eh Braeburn?"
"It's a part of me, you know that very well," Braeburn replied, shrugging. He wrapped a hoof around Silk's neck and sat down by his side."Well, Silk, drink some~! You really should, you look tired and stressed."
"You should," echoed Rail, sitting on the other side, Hoarfrost sitting almost next to the wall.
"This won't end any well. No, it won't... There's no way this can go well..."
I shouldn't have let this happen... Ugh, why didn't I stop this?
Silk looked to his side, only to find Rail slumped over the bar, and finding Hoarfrost's eyes going on circles around the ceiling. Her head was going up and down with no apparent pattern. Nopony seemed to be paying attention to anything, except Morton: he was ever watching. The mare turned her head to face Railroad and, smirking, she said with surprising clarity: "Railroad, why don't you come here...?"
"Huh," said Braeburn, looking out the corner of his eye. His lips were visibly shaking, as if they were gaining a conscience of their own as they shaped into a grin. "She can't really handle it, huh?"
Oh, my. No, I need to... I need to stop this, or at least get out of here. Not... Not now. Not at this hour, please.
Railroad looked at her, utterly baffled. At least he seemed to be baffled: his eyes were fixed over her and the expression on his face expressing a deep lack of understanding of the situation. He spoke up after some seconds of passing his eyes over the wall to his left. "She took a few sips of cider after munching on salt, and now she's just being much more affectionate than before. She..."
"She's most certainly drunk," Silk muttered beneath his breath. The smell of alcohol, while not exactly disgusting to him, was repelling him from the room's ambient. "Or she's at least on her way to being drunk," he continued to say, staring at the mare in confusion. She changes her mood a tad too often... Hmm... No, it... It isn't that. This time, it isn't just that. I'm seeking something that isn't here just yet. I... I shouldn't let it best me.
When Hoarfrost brought her head down once again, the trademark blush of drunkenness was unmistakable. A somehow sly grin underlined her words as she spoke in a tone that was almost opposite to her typical speech. "I don't say this much, but you're really cute!" she said, pointing at Rail with a hoof, at which she struggled to maintain her balance. She stopped there for a moment and winked at him. The movement didn't seem to have an effect of Railroad. She hung her head to a side, her mane spilling over the bar, as she shouted: "Aw hay, you're very cute as well, Braeburn! Is that your name?" She turned her head around a last time, finding the bartender looking at her with a very calm expression, almost showing no emotions whatsoever. "And the fancy stallion behind the bar," she said as he pointed at him, almost poking him in the eye, "you're really pretty as well!"
After she said that, she let gravity take control of the entirety of her body: her face collided with the bar in a mute smack, and she stayed there in complete immobility for a long while, with her hooves wrapped around her head.
Well, on second thought, she... I don't think I'm onto something here. She might not have anything to hide, after all... I'm just being a little too—
Braeburn, who had been joyfully sipping on cider, asked: "What about Silk...?"
Hoarfrost raised her head and stared directly at Braeburn as she replied: "Nah, he doesn't have anything. His name is more like a filly's name, and he will never live that down."
"Thanks a lot," said Silk, only to receive a rather strong pat on the back. "Don't do that, Brae."
"Say, Silk, you haven't drank anything!" exclaimed Braeburn, giving an energetic hop in Silk's general direction. "You should get something, don't you think? No, there's no need to decline— here, have some of mine!"
Silk and Braeburn started to have some kind of duel in which their hooves fought to control the pint of cider. The ponies around them looked at them for some seconds, always coming back to the confusing mess of flailing limbs, with Braeburn's playful grin and Silk's stern look.
Morton, not paying the two much of his attention, got closer to Rail and said to him: "Seems like this friend of yours has had quite the change, huh?" He saw the stallion nod in response and turned his head back towards the mare. "Are you... Are you feeling okay, miss?"
Her eyes met with the bartender's with some difficulties, and she slowly nodded. "I've got Silk to keep me aware of my consciousness. If I start to cling to him at any given m-moment, I'll know there's something wrong." She kept her eyes fixed over him as he raised an eyebrow, grinning. Barely audible, she left out a "you're cute."
There's something odd about all of this. The smell, no, it isn't the smell... There's something else. I don't know what it is, but I don't feel like it's any good.
Morton turned to Railroad, tilting his head slightly. "He gets a pretty rough treatment, doesn't he?"
"Hoarfrost has been in one of these places before, so she must have been close to here at least once in her life. She left that place once. Maybe there is a relative of hers somewhere near."
The train conductor just nodded once again, turning his head at the sound of hooves hitting against eachother. Both amused and confused, he continued to stare as Braeburn decided to just continue drinking his cider like nothing had happened. Silk was slumping over the bar, his forehooves hanging off the edge of it. His eyes were lost in the middle of nowhere.
No, stop it right there. No, that's not... That's not what happened. She has no reason to lie about that. She... She probably did, anyway.
Railroad reached Silk's side in a single step and laid a hoof over his head. "Silk, are you all alright?" he asked with a soft smile. "You look like you've just seen a ghost or something."
Silk looked at the stallion before him for a long time before sighing and eyeing the door. "Rail, can we...?"
Railroad rolled his eyes before giving Silk a concerned look. He tilted his head before saying: "But Hoarfrost... I don't want to leave her."
The traveler gave a step towards the door, breathing deeply. "She'll be just fine, Rail." He turned his back to Railroad, who was standing there, unsure of whether to follow him or not. He was also under the effect of alcohol, for all he knew; he only had reacted differently. "You know, Braeburn is extremely polite when it comes to treating with the mares, even when he's a little too energetic, and Morton is the same, only much quieter." With a grin, he finished his phrase with: "Everypony else is struggling to keep themselves standing on their hooves. She'll be perfectly fine, trust me."
Railroad nodded reluctantly before accompanying Silk to the door. "But why are we going outside, Silk? Is there something bothering you again? Can't we... Can't we just stay inside?"
"No, I guess we can't," replied Silk, leaning against a wall, his eyes fixed on the afternoon sky. Time and time again he'd look at Rail for only an instant before redirecting his gaze to the firmament. "Look, Rail, I talked to that somepony I told you about, and she said that..." He stopped to breathe in, closing his eyes.
Rail was distracted watching the surroundings and kept on looking at Hoarfrost, who was just as immobile as before. "She said what...? Hm?"
Silk replied with a nervous gaze, rubbing his forehooves together. He lowered his head and, almost whispering, said: "I know you're not even going to try to believe me but... Everypony in Canterlot is gone."
"But that would be instant news!" the train conductor replied quite loudly. "The capital city's population disappearing suddenly? That thing would be spread all around Equestria faster than the Wonderbolts, don't you think?" As he said that, Silk put on a hoof over him and stared right into his eyes, or, at least, he tried his best to do that, since his eyes weren't capable of staying still.
"Rail, I was there: I saw them disappear."
"You saw that?" Rail asked, incredulous. "Wow, are you for real?"
Silk gave a step back and sheepishly replied: "Well, I didn't see them disappear, but I know that they just vanished after a while."
There was a rather long silence between the two of them. Their eyes would often meet, with Silk's facial expression becoming more and more incomprehensible as time went on. It looked more like intense pain rather than insecurity.
"Umm, Silk, are you drunk...?"
"I swear to goodness I wish I were kidding," the stallion answered, getting close to Rail once again. He didn't really seem to have a good grasp on the term of personal space. "When I got away from the city and we met, that was the second day of having not a soul around. The silence was awful, and I swear I could hear some things at night. I just couldn't take it." He sighed, turning his gaze to Hoarfrost. Is she even conscious now? He attempted to give Rail a confident look, but he only managed to make him crack up. "I'm trying to find answers for the entire situation, to know what happened and to see if there's any way it could be reversed."
"You sound like you've got plans," the conductor replied, a little smile forming on his face. "Really strange plans, might I add. Are you sure you can think correctly now? There's cider over there if you want to—"
"Rail, I'm serious!" Silk shouted, almost bumping his head against Railroad's as he took a step forward, digging his hoof into the ground. "The entirety of the capital's population, except me and the princesses, I guess, was wiped out and nopony knows it even happened." He stopped for a moment, to think about what he had just said. It really doesn't sound very credible. There's got to be a way to put that is less... Less strange. "I haven't been following the news very closely ever since, but it seems that nopony knows anything about it."
"Hmm..."
I've got to make him believe me. If he doesn't, then I'll be left to Hoafrost's will once we're back in Canterlot. That won't end any well, or at least it won't end any soon... "Say, Rail, remember that time when I told you I had killed somepony...?"
Rail nodded lightly and, with a stern voice, replied: "You acted like a total spaz, how could I forget that?"
Silk left out a sigh, once again, and hung his head low for a moment. He described a line on the ground, unsure of what to say about it. He either came out as a rambling, crazy stallion, or he made Rail believe him. "Well," he said as he raised his head to face the stallion before him. His eyes weren't looking at him. "It seems like most believed that I had, actually, killed that family. I said I was guilty back then, even when I had never been in that part of the city before. I... I just felt it was the right thing to do."
"To say you're a culprit of something you weren't even involved in was the right thing to do?" asked Railroad, tilting his head and scratching his mane with a hoof. "That's... Umm, excuse me, but... That's not smart at all."
"I also want to know what happened there," replied Silk, shyly looking at him. "I know I didn't do it, but who did?"
"Well, if you say the city was wiped out, would that matter?" Railroad asked, slowly starting to get more involved in the entire idea. "Because if you're saying the truth...They're all gone if you're saying the truth."
"Rail, I know they're not gone. They're just not with us," Silk replied, lowering his tone and getting closer to Rail. He faced in the same direction as him and started to point at random directions as he said: "I know they're out there, hiding, watching me... Watching us. They're not going to stop."
"Hey, don't get all paranoia here," Rail replied, pushing him just a bit. "No need to get all worked up over something that we're not certain of. You should just relax and have a drink: we'll have lots of time to chill and think while we're traveling, okay? You'll be fine, you really shouldn't worry."
They looked at eachother's eyes for a moment, in complete silence. They didn't really notice it.
"Now let's enter the place again, shall we?" Rail said, patting Silk on his mane softly, at which he gave a step back. "Hoarfrost must have already flirted with the entire bar like three times."
"Say, Rail, why are you coming with us?" the traveler asked, passing his own hoof over his mane. "Is it really all because of Frost?"
"Hmm, in a way, yes, it's about her. I just want to be with her. But it's also about you, mate," he said, giving him a tap on the mane once again. "I want to see how all of this plays out for you."
"Railroad, when all of this ends someday..."
"Where will I be going?"
"Exactly. Where will you be going once all of this is over?"
"I hope Hoarfrost comes with me towards my home, since she lost everything she had some days ago," he said with a dreamy tone. "That must have been really stressing, I wonder how did she manage to take it."
"I'm honestly surprised: she has seen and heard about relatives dying constantly and she still seems to have some contempt and care for the rest." Or at least she has some for Rail.. "If anything, I would've expected her to become a complete cold-hearted mare with no love for anything or anyone. B-but she's not! That's just amazing."
Railroad gave Silk a playful nudge before starting to trot over to the mare. "She is amazing, huh? You finally accept it!"
"You're lucky, Rail. Just look at me, I have nopony. You got your filly after days of meeting her, and she likes you. So much envy from here."
There was another rather long silence between the two of them. Silk stood still, looking at Rail with an unsure raised eyebrow, at which Rail replied with an inquiring look.
"Silk, I mean it, are you...? Are you drunk?"
Silk nodded as he said: "Yes, I am. Now take me home before I crash into a random house and say it belongs to me."
"I'd pay to see that," replied the stallion, chuckling. He went over to his side as gave him a push. "You can still walk."
"I'll have to pay if I do it, so don't you even try to make me," Silk replied, giggling a bit.
"First time drinking?" Rail asked as they entered once again.
"First time drinking, yeah."
The noxious stench of half-digested matter flared in my nostrils as soon as I regained my consciousness. My head and hands were hanging over the bed's edge, and I could feel as my blood failed to circulate through them.
You've got to leave, I thought to myself. I opened my eyes, finding the morning sunlight barely passing through the thick layer of clouds that covered the sky. The firmament was almost entirely white, with tiny spots where the light-blue skies could be seen in the background.
After throwing the bedsheets off me, I tried to stand up, pushing my hands against the mattress. With that simple movement, a tower of notebooks, which was next to me, went tumbling down, some of them landing over my head. I've got to get rid of these things.
After shoving the notebooks away, I got out of bed and left my room. Everything seemed to be in order, the silence in the ambient being rather comfortating. I gazed down the hallway, spotting a tiny stain in the floor, not too far from the main door. I went towards it and stared at it for a long time; not that it would have done any good, since the stain was completely black and was the only one present in the room. It didn't quite look like a droplet of anything, it looked more it had been painted on. It was around the size of my hand. Mud from outside, perhaps?
Without giving the matter much further thought, I went back, towards the kitchen. I personally think that it should be called differently, but it's the word that describes the room the best. Absent-mindedly, I threw some coffee into a cup and filled it with tap water, before sitting down at a little table that was lying around the room.
It's getting cold lately, I thought to myself as I took a sip of the coffee. Very bitter; I had forgotten to stir it, and the coffee had formed a semi-solid mass at the bottom of the cup. I could still drink it, anyway.
I gazed at one of the room's walls, my mind getting kind of lost in the ambient. Everything was completely silent, to the point my breathing came off as a bit too loud.
I should take a walk around the city. It'd help...
My eyes went towards the hallway once again. The room to my room was barely open, and a sliver of light passed through the gap. The morning was oddly dark.
Yesterday was awful. I sipped the bitter coffee once again. I should go someplace else. The park, perhaps... I could go there again. Nothing too serious could happen there.
The morning's silence wasn't the same as the other days. Instead of posing a calm ambient, the lack of sound made me feel rather uneasy. I couldn't convince myself of staying there.
For many days has this happened...? I brought a hand to my forehead and left it there for only a few seconds. Unbearably hot. Four? Maybe more, I can't quite remember...
I just can't keep on doing this. I've only felt iller and iller these days. Every new sip of coffee separated me a bit from my thoughts, its bitterness and coldness presenting themselves suddenly. I gazed at the walls once again as I held the cup in my hand, almost immobile. I should get out of here for some hours, at least. I don't know what's causing all of these things to happen, but I'm sure that clearing my mind will do wonders. It just has to.
I stood up and went towards my room again, holding the coffee up near my nose to counter the pestilence present in my room. In a few steps, I opened the balcony window and grabbed a jacket that was laying over the desk, before just leaving and closing the door. How convenient and thoughtful of me to sleep with my clothes on... I took a last sip out of my coffee and left in lying on the table. That way I can get sicker with ease. Truly thoughtful and smart, yes...
"Well, time to go," I said out loud to myself as I put the jacket on, feeling its cold touch spreading through me. I turned around once I was done, but my trajectory was halted when I found her standing in the corridor. "Not again..."
"Stay," she said, her voice severe and blunt. "We need to talk." She stood completely still, her eyes fixed on me and her mane somehow contorting itself into strange shapes. It was almost like it was trying to join the conversation.
Is she ever going to give up...? "Leave me alone," I replied as I walked down the hallway without much thought. I barely managed to squeeze through it as I felt her oppressing gaze over me. "I want to have a normal morning."
"It's the middle of the afternoon," she said, turning around to face me, without moving from her standing spot. She kept on looking at me, a smug grin appearing on her face, not a muscle on the rest of her body moving.
"I don't want to do this anymore," I said as I reached for the front door. It wouldn't open. "Why do you keep appearing!?"
"Oh, Silk, that question makes no sense," she replied with a laugh. She gave a couple of steps in my direction, ending up right on front of me. "You're very aware of that, or am I wrong?"
Her eyes. Don't look at her eyes. "Don't you have anything else to do!?" I stared at the window, which was barely visible behind her slender form.
"Don't you have anything else to do?" she echoed, raising a hoof and pointing at me with it. I could reach out and touch it; it was at only a few centimeters away from me. "That's the question you have to ask yourself. Tell me, do you?"
After a short while of silence, I answered: "I'm not doing this." I tried to open the door once again, hearing only the small clicks of the door handle on the background as I felt her gaze somehow getting more and more oppressive.
"You already are 'doing this,' as you call it." She returned her raised hoof to the floor, chuckling beneath her breath. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed it."
I wish I could just go lie down and forget about what is happening in this exact second... "I'm not doing this, I told you. I'm not following you in your little senseless game!" I replied, as I walked again from her, pointing a finger. Where to go, however? The apartment wasn't any big and there were no exits; or at least not any exit I could take.
"More senseless would be for you to just continue with what you're doing," she replied, her voice suddenly rather calm. She gave a step in my direction once again, lowering her head just a little. Her mane, once again shifting, took the shape of spikes as she slowly approached me.
"Leave me alone, for goodness sake!" I shouted without thinking much, swinging the room to my room open before entering it. The smell of puke assaulted my nostrils but I couldn't have cared less. In a couple of steps I was standing in the balcony, my gaze fixed on the empty streets of the city before me.
There was a long silence.
I think I can't hear her coming here. Either that, or she has disappeared like in every other occasion...
My gaze went down the nearest street: empty and totally silent. Damn mind... The color of the concrete walls that surrounded me seemed to ingrain itself to everything in sight. My own hands seemed oddly colorless to me.
"Let's see how long you can last alone." There it was, her voice once again, coming from behind me. I didn't even bother to turn around and, instinctively, focused even more on the void panorama outside my window.
"I won't need you," I replied plainly. "I might win this battle after all..."
"Before I go, I'll ask you just one question," she said, giving small steps on my direction. I could barely hear them, but they were there. "Where do you want to be?" Her voice, while oddly calm, still had a strong hint of malice.
"Will you leave me alone now!?"
"Answer the question," she replied severely. I could feel her right behind me. She was very close.
"I want to be left alone," I answered out of instinct. "Just go away!"
There was another long silence. I raised my gaze towards the sky, the strangely dark firmament covering everything with its opaque glimmer. The railings were as cold as they could have been, and my fingers were starting to lose sensibility. Still, I wouldn't move. I wouldn't turn around.
"I see," she said, almost whispering.
"Now go!"
"No," she replied in a growl, pushing a hoof against me. I grabbed the railing like nothing mattered. "I'm staying. There are some things I yet have to do here."
"I don't—"
"Hold onto me," she said, lowering her entire body just a little. "We're going."
"No! I—"
"I didn't ask you any question," she replied, stepping closer to me. "Now hold tight because if you fall it'll only injure you."
Before I could decline the rather forced offer, she bumped into me, at which I grabbed onto her to avoid falling off the balcony. The moment my left arm wrapped around her, I noticed how cold her coat was. It almost was like she wasn't even alive. No living thing should have that low of a temperature. With a large jump, I managed to land over her. "Hold on a second, why am I doing this...?" She spread her wings, almost knocking me out of her. She could barely turn around with the amount of space the balcony had to offer.
"Wait...!"
"Be sure to be quiet," she said absent-mindedly as she spread her wings, stepping on the railing. Her horn almost hit the upper floor's balcony. "Don't waste your energy on shouting, just be sure to be here." With that having been said, she took a step forward, letting gravity work her magic.
It all came back to me in that moment. We plummeted down to the pavement. This is it. I'm done. Without giving the matter any rational thought, I just dug my hands deep into her coat and shouted: "I can't grab your hair! O-or any part of you!"
"Then wrap your arms around me," she replied as she flapped her wings slowly, stabilizing in the air like nothing had even happened. "You really aren't any bright, are you?" she asked, not bothering to hold her laughter in. "Well, what else could I expect?" she muttered beneath her breath as she began to gain speed.
I, for my part, just wrapped my arms around her cold neck and just not to look down. That's what I've you're not supposed to do, at least. This just isn't happening. This isn't happening. The sight of the city, as seen from a random spot in mid-air, was oddly different. It was almost like I was being taken away from my normal life, towards some place where rules didn't apply. Without realizing it, I left out a very soft "I can't see anyone around here" as we gained altitude. The cold air grazed against me, and I somehow felt a strange kind of inner calm.
"That's because they're all gone," she answered absent-mindedly, turning her head around to see the surroundings. The city looked very different from up there; it looked smaller, and the mountains in the distance didn't seem like the end of the horizon. I felt like there was more to see.
"G-gone?" I asked out of surprise as the cold breeze that flowed through the city turned into a harsh blast of wind as we went higher and higher. I grasped at her neck with more force as I felt that I was slipping off.
"You really don't know what is going on, and you've been around here for a long time..."
"Don't tell me," I said, fixing my eyes on the houses below me. They all looked so tiny. And to think I could fit all of the people I know in a couple of them...
"You're supposed to find out in your own. I can't be doing everything for you."
After she said that, she fixed her eyes on a distant building that as considerably higher than the rest. She lowered her head a little before launching herself downwards, accelerating on what felt like an instant. My legs slipped right off her, at which I was left fighting for my dear life against gravity with nothing but my arms. She didn't seem to care for the fact that I was nearly choking her. She took a sharp turn for no apparent reason, at which my body was flung forwards, my arms receiving an impact that almost made me let go. She left out a loud, demented laugh as she swooped downwards, the freezing air of the skies leaving a strong ringing in my ears.
I couldn't think clearly. Everything would end up suddenly had we plummet into the concrete. Everything would be a flash and I'd be back towards my room. Maybe I'd leave out a startled scream, but there would be nothing past it; nothing like what I was feeling then.
The wind whistled past us as we rapidly descended. I could feel myself float: it was like a free fall. My mind was lost in a confusing haze of thoughts, which was routinely interrupted by my frantic breaths.
In the way down, I was very close to hitting the side of a building: my foot softly tapped against a wall that came out of nowhere, which was enough to make my heart skip not only one beat. Right after that, she took another sharp turn, one that made me land over her back on my own back, my legs just flaying around like they were filled with air.
To be completely honest, I can't remember much further of that particular event, but the sheer amount of dread I felt in that moment haunts me to this day.
With my eyes shut, I felt the both of us decelerating, before feeling that one of Nightmare's hooves had connected with the roof of that tall building in the distance. My feet hit the side of the wall, at which I raised them out of custom.
I opened my eyes once again, finding ourselves standing, completely alone, in the building's roof. I let go of her and stared at the distant skies over me. The clouds formed a thick layer that covered everything in sight. Had they been any darker, I'd have sought shelter from the imminent rain.
And, once again, a long while of silence was had. Time had stood still. The silence of the scene finally had become what I had been looking for.
How I wish I could have this kind of calm forever. No sound, no bothers. I could stand here and gaze at the clouds all day. It's only a little cold in here.
I spoke up after my breaths returned into their calm pace. "Can I ask you something...? Why are you here?" I turned around to face her, at which I noticed she wasn't staring right at me. What a surprise. Her eyes are fixed in... the skies. "Because... Aren't you from a fictional universe?"
"You know the answer very well," she replied, her gaze still in the direction of the distant cloud layer. Her voice wasn't as severe as before, and it sounded more like she was a bit concerned about me. Or, at least, she didn't loathe me with every last cell of her being.
These hallucinations are getting more and more contrived. This isn't even possible. I hope I'm not sleepwalking at home in this moment.
"This is the tallest building I can see," she mutter beneath her breath, before moving her eyes towards me once again. She seemed rather abstracted from the situation. "Now, tell me, can you explain the reason behind everything that has happened?"
I gazed upwards, smiling just a bit. "The sky looks beautiful from here, don't you think...?"
"I've never really liked the daylight skies," she replied. "They're too light for me." She gave a step forward, almost hitting me with her horn. "Let's just say somebody ran down this street and disappeared behind a corner. That has a meaning, do you know which one is it?"
"I think the daylight skies are really pretty. They're relaxing, the sky is very relaxing."
The clouds, even when formed into a thick layer, still had some holes where light entered. The sunrays were visible, and it almost was like certain parts of the city were destined to have sunlight shining over them. "Stare at the skies all day if you want. You're only buying time, and that will only get you so far. There is no escaping from this."
"No, there's... There's a certain something that you two don't even know yet..."
Railroad and Silk shared a look as they held Hoarfrost in her place: in the state that she was, simply falling down could have quite the repercussion.
Something's missing here. If she did spend most of her life in that town hall, why does she have such positive memories? I thought that being trapped somewhere was quite the traumatic experience, and even more if the death of loved ones factor in...
"It was the middle of the summer in that place," she said, pointing her head towards the sky, as if she were talking to something or someone else. "I had gotten hold of one those of camera thingies..."
Maybe she's lying. She must have had a rough life and it just trying to convince herself of the fact that she hasn't. Denying what she knows she can't deny. Trying to erase something that has been fire-forged into the deepest nook of her subconscious.
"Umm, Hoarfrost, dear," said Rail, raising one of his hooves and patting the mare's mane. "You've told us that story four times already. We know what—"
"I'm not your deer, buddy!" she exclaimed, trying to point her hoof at the stallion but ultimately failing at it: the hoof went past at a side of his head, leaving her closer to him.
But I could be wrong. It's a possibility.
"I'm sure you're not a deer," he replied with a warm smile, wrapping a second hoof around Frost. "But don't you think you should just stop...?"
"I'm guessing she doesn't know what stopping means in this moment," said Silk, looking at the two with a rather confused gaze. "And watch the hooves. She's really... umm, kicky right now."
"Plus, you know you're not getting a part of the story and I know you two are very interested in it," she said, shuffling her hooves around a bit. Railroad let go of her and she almost fell when she took a step towards Silk. "You..." she growled as she pointed a hoof at Silk, closing her eyes. "You know I'm hiding something..."
S-she knows!? No, that can't be it. She's not lucid right now. No, she doesn't mean it in that way.
She stumbled and tripped over her own legs as she turned to face Railroad. "And you know you want to know about it, so shut it. You see, that summer was oddly peaceful and forgettable."
"Then why do you remember it...?" asked Silk, accidentally talking out loud. He proceeded to stare at the ground when he felt the mare's gaze over him. The sun had disappeared behind the horizon a long while ago, and the stars were coming into sight as the skies darkened.
"Because it was the first time I had done something like that." She directed her eyes towards the firmament, focusing a bit too much in the distant stars. She gave a step forward, losing her balance, and barely managed to keep herself on her hooves. "There are some things you just don't forget."
A silent moment was had. None of the three seemed to be living creatures: instead, they looked more like statues. Even Hoarfrost, with her tipsy stepping and frequent almost-falls, managed not to move a little.
I'm sure she knows about me doubting her. I've got to ask her about this when she gets her lucidity back. There is something she has been hiding from us. Asking her now wouldn't be the best idea... It wouldn't even be a bad idea, it would be flat-out stupid.
Not even a breeze was felt. There was nopony else around: just the three of them and the silence to keep them company.
The train should arrive any time now. I've got to rest and clear my head. I'm just overwhelmed with events and it's... It's getting to me. All these things that have been happening...
"Can you come here for a second, Frosty?" asked Railroad, sheepishly grinning at her. With that having been said, she took a pair of clumsy steps before tripping over her own hooves and landing against him with a thud. He giggled before saying whispering something to her ear. Silk didn't quite catch it.
These two... They've just met and they're already bonding... Silk looked at the night sky once again. It was far clearer than in Canterlot. Wish it was that easy for me...
The couple's whispers and giggles started to bother him a little. He gazed over at Hoarfrost, bringing a hoof to his lower jaw.
I can't bring myself to trust her. She... She came out of nowhere and has acted strange around us. Everywhere she goes, there's somepony getting killed... It's all too coincident to be just that.
The mare's ears perked up all out of a sudden. She raised her hair and stared at the distance, as far as the rails went.
I'm a tad afraid to confront her about it. I might be right, after all. That... That wouldn't be my end, but who knows how close I'd be.
He brought his hoof down, trying not to focus his eyes over his companions as Rail nuzzled Frost's cheek. She gave a step to the side, the blush on her face being clearly visible under the scarce light. Whether it was drunkenness or something else, none of the three was too sure about it.
"Here it comes," she muttered beneath her breath, slowly raising a hoof to point at a distant hill. She toppled over to a side as she focused even more on the distance, brushing her hoof around the dirt once she had fallen over. "Our train is here."
Only after a while it was that, in the distance, they could hear the sound of the train braking. A dim light appeared behind the hill Hoarfrost had pointed.
She heard that a long while before the two of us. I should be cautious with what I say around her, I might get caught.
The sound of the train got louder as its light shone over the rails, the wooden stairs of the train stop becoming more visible with every passing second.
I might get caught even if I'm not the one who's hiding something. Then again, it could have been a coincidence. She just got lucky, that's all. Nothing to worry about.
Railroad helped her to her back into her hooves and went up the steps with her, acting as some kind of support for whenever she lost her equilibrium, something that happened with an increasing frequency.
It's just like the last time. Only... Only with these two. Silk directed his gaze towards his two companions, absent-mindedly watching as Hoarfrost tried to tell her story for the fifth time. Hope everything goes alright. Or at least tolerably well...
"That's when the two colts messed around in the back, they were cute..."
Where will we go first? Once we're there, there won't be much to do or see...
"You know, Rail, I... I knew those little colts. I was r-really close to them... I grew up with them..."
I'm on the end of the road and I haven't gotten any kind of grasp on what happened. If I only knew a tiny bit about it, I'd be able to at least speculate on something and go from there.
The light of the train hit Silk in his eyes, making him flinch a bit. When he opened his eyes again, he saw Hoarfrost talking again, but he couldn't hear a thing: the sound of the rails being scraped had become loud enough to drown out any other sounds for a moment, before fading into silence like it hadn't been there in the first place.
After the train stopped moving, he could see Hoarfrost's head buried against Rail's chest, his hooves wrapped around her neck, almost inaudibly whispering: "Don't worry, Frosty. Everything will be fine again, just give it time."
The doors opened out of a sudden and, without a word between them, the three entered. They silently stood inside of it, watching as the doors closed and collectively sighing in relief after it started moving once again.
Only one window was present in the entire wagon, imbuing the ambient with the night sky's dim purple tinting. The rest of the train was engulfed in darkness.
"Ah, how nostalgic," said Rail, hoping to alleviate the ambient. "Feels like it was years ago since the last time I ever was in one of these. Turns out it has barely been more than a day..."
A day...? It has been the longest day of my life...
"I can't see anyone around here," he pointed out, staring at the empty hallway as he held a hoof in front of his face. "I can't see, really. I can't see a thing. Frosty, dear, could you...?"
Silk spoke up, then. His mind hadn't stopped with its monologue, and he was starting to get tired of it. "I don't think that she would be able to— to... Nevermind."
Hoarfrost, after a short lapse of forcing her magic out, managed to cast a lighting spell. The entire wagon was dimly lit, her magic aura's light blue reflecting off the walls.
She didn't even touch me and I felt threatened. I'm expecting too much from her: she's just a mare.
"That's so much better, Frost. Thank you." He looked around the place, his excited grin being visible even with the scarce light the mare's horn brought forth. "Well, this place looks rather normal for a train," he said as he inspected a wall. "Nothing's out of the ordinary. There should be somepony with us already, but I guess it's fine: we can wait. After all, we've been here only for some minutes. Say, Frost, are you feeling well?"
The mare just nodded in response, before taking a step towards the open doorway. She stood there, completely immobile, for some seconds, before turning around and asking: "Can you come with me, Rail? And make sure the filly comes along as well."
Silk rolled his eyes and Rail just chuckled. "S-sure, sure," the ex-train conductor said, "he'll be coming along—"
"She," she interrupted, holding a hoof up in the air, pointing at the ceiling. "A filly is a she. And Silky Fetlocks is a filly, so Silky Fetlocks is a she."
Ugh, I hope you pass out... "Let's get going, then," the referred stallion said, bluntly. "Lead the way."
"Don't talk back," she replied, kicking her hoof down. "Now let's go," she continued to say, tripping over herself at the first step she gave. "And if any of you comments on my cantering style, I'll fling you two off the windows."
"Oh, we sure won't..." said Silk, containing a smirk. Hoarfrost turned around and almost poked Silk's left eye with her horn when she got close to him. "Heh, I, umm, mean... We s-sure won't do that."
"That's what I thought," she said, tripping again as she went forward. "Please do remind the sober Frost to never drink again."
The trio, then, proceeded to walk down the train, finding nothing but empty hallways and beds in their path. Time and time again, Hoarfrost would slam a hoof on a random bed and shout "time to wake up!" with no indication that she would, which was something that only gave her a sore hoof in return. She stopped doing so after around the tenth bed. Silk and Rail, as they walked close to her, silently thanked no one in particular, seeing as Hoarfrost didn't answer any well to being touched without any kind of permission.
"I think there's nopony in here," said Silk, trying not to focus his eyes on anything. There wasn't anything to see, but the darkness deceived him and many a time he'd stop on his tracks to examinate a piece of nothingness that appeared to be something else. "If I'm correct, we've passed through all but two of the train's wagons. There isn't much left to see."
"Well, maybe they're all here in the first wagon and they don't even know that we're here?" Railroad replied rhetorically, his perpetual enthusiasm not vanishing for a second. "That could be it. There's no need to be so negative."
"I think I see a candle in there," Hoarfrost said, squinting to see the distant door better. "That's the only door that isn't open and there's light coming from the other side. Look at the floor over there," she said, pointing at a tiny amount of yellow light coming from beneath the door. Since she didn't stop herself from continuing her path, her back legs collided with her front legs, sending her to the floor in an instant. Her lighting spell died down for some seconds before she had to conjure all of her concentration to do it again. "I was doing so well," she groaned, rolling on the floor, ending up with her hooves pointing towards the ceiling. "Rail, stop staring, and you, Silky, come and help a filly out."
Rail gave a step back, gaining a sudden but strong interest in the ceiling. "But I can't see anything— I mean— I'm n-not staring..."
"See? You are staring," she replied, her chest inflating with pride. "Don't worry, it's normal. I'm used to that. So, Silky Fetlocks, are you going to help me?"
Silk approached her and, without even looking at where her legs were, extended a hoof over to her. "Stop calling me a filly," he said, pulling as soon as she got a decent grip on his foreleg. She ended up sitting over her haunches, at which she let go.
"I won't stop doing it until you prove me wrong," she replied in a half-mocking, half-joking manner. She leaned over her front hooves and, before a pair of fake starts, managed to stand up again. "Or at least until I'm more lucid. I feel... Not so well, really..."
The travelling stallion just took a pair of steps and, without much preamble, opened the door, revealing what was inside: a single candle was in the middle of the hallway, with a small pool of wax formed around it.
Silence followed.
"Is... Is that it? Nopony in here, nothing else than a single candle?" Rail asked, taking a look around at the wagon. It didn't seem any different than the rest of the train, save for the different in lighting.
"Seems like there isn't anything in here," Silk said, looking at the beds at the place. "And there seems there isn't anypony else, either. We're alone once again."
"Well, you two can appreciate the emptiness all you want," Hoarfrost said, entering the place, stretching her legs. "If you want anything from me, I'll be in this bed right here. But please do ask tomorrow because I'm beat right now," she said as she grabbed a random bed's sheets and tossed them over to the side before jumping in, the sheets falling over her head. "Good night."
Another silence followed after. Silk and Rail just looked at eachother, noticing how there was literally nothing else left to do but to lie down and rest.
"So... I take it that the conductor is right behind this door?" Rail mumbled beneath his breath, pointing at the only door that there was left to open.
It was then that Hoarfrost poked her head from beneath the bed sheets and said: "You should come to bed, Rail: look, it's warm and everything~! I didn't even have to be here for a while; it's just warm by itself! These things make you want to just..."
Sheesh. At least wait until I'm asleep to say things like that...
"I, um," replied Rail, blushing profusely. He turned around to face the mare, only to find something else behind her. "I don't think that you should be there, Frost..."
"Why?" she asked at the same time as she turned around, only to find a stallion, hiding behind his hooves, his eyes fixed over hers. "Oh, I see now. Good day— I mean night, mister," she said, giving a little reverence to the unexpected guest. "No, don't worry," she interrupted him when he opened his mouth to speak, putting a hoof over his mouth as she giggled. "I'm not one of those mares. But if you're interested in those, that filly over there could be of your interest." She pointed at Silk, who just hung his head low and groaned. "That's the one. She can appear to be a bit of a prude at first, but don't worry, she'll come—"
Hoarfrost felt her left forehoof being bit down and then she was just flung off the bed and landed on the bed at the other side of the hallway, her legs splayed. Railroad proceeded to profusely chuckle about the entire situation and to shrug.
"We're very sorry about that," he said, warmly smiling at the stallion. "She's... She's a little out of it right now. A thousand pardons for waking you up like that..."
That smile... I swear, it's like a weapon of mass agreeing. I wouldn't be able to debate against a colt with that kind of smile.
"What was that all about, Rail?" Frost asked, raising her voice a tad too much. She bit down on the stallion's tail and, before pulling it, said: "Don't be rough with me if you don't expect for me to be worse."
With that having been said, Railroad was rather painfully pulled backwards, his back legs bending, leaving him sitting over the bed. She wrapped her legs around him and softly bit down his neck as she pulled him back towards a corner.
"Hahaha, you— you don't need to see that!" Silk shouted before blowing the candle, letting darkness engulf the room. "Or to hear anything about it either. Sorry for this bizarre entrance, but we've had some that have been worse." He blindly stepped in the stallion's direction, hitting his head against a variety of objects before finding the bed in which he was. "You wouldn't mind if I stayed with you for a while, wouldn't you...?"
Awkward silence followed.
"I can't even see you, but I know what you're thinking. 'That's an awfully masculine voice for a mare,' that's what you're thinking. You shouldn't believe a drunken mare, because I'm a stallion," he said, his speech becoming blunter and blunter with every new word. "I... Umm, excuse me. My name is Silk Thread. What's yours...?"
The stallion didn't answer either. The sound of the rails was ever present in the room, but there was a certain something in the background.
"Please answer, or you'll hear things you wish you hadn't..."
The stallion sighed before speaking up. His voice sounded rather raspy, almost like he had injured his vocal cords. "I'm Sketch. I'm going to Canterlot to study its architecture."
"I see..."
"Are you sure you're a stallion...?"
Silk huffed and replied: "Do you need any proof on that matter?"
"N-no, I don't, sorry I asked," he answered, pushing himself against the wall even more.
"I probably should leave you have peace and quiet so you can rest, shouldn't I...?" Silk asked, not waiting to hear an answer before stepping down from the bed. He just heard an "uh-huh" as he put the bed sheets on his mouth and pulled.
"Yes, you probably s-should..." replied Sketch, trying to regain his calm. Needless to say, he didn't manage it in the slightest.
"Umm, you should just try to stop thinking about it," Silk said, finding another bed in which to lie. "Especially stop thinking about my gender. It's... Not supposed to be up to debate. Have a good one— I mean a good night."
"Err... Thanks... Umm, I can't remember your name. Just thanks."
"It's Silk," he replied, getting into the bed. So cold... I'll never sleep if I can't get any kind of comfort...
The two fell silent for some seconds, a nearby snoring becoming louder with every passing moment. "Ah, so that's why she said that—"
"Yes, I know, Silk is a very ambiguous name when it comes to gender, I get it."
"Sketch is pretty neutral as well."
"Yes, it is..." I bet he doesn't get this much scrutiny over his gender. Hoarfrost must be the one who's just trying her hardest to mess with me.
"Well, have a good night, Silk."
"You too. Rest well."
That was basically the most polite encounter I've had in a long time.
The sound of the rails returned to its throne as the night slowly progressed. Silence was occasionally interrupted with somepony shuffling around on bed, or Rail's snoring, but it never was too long to break the ambience. Soon enough, the sound developed a trance-like effect, and Silk managed to leave all of his thoughts behind, or at least most of them.
I hope nothing strange happens... I just want to get home and start an independent investigation. I... I want to do it, but I really don't. I know it, I just know it: there's something in there. There is a certain something in Canterlot, and we will eventually find ourselves face to face with it.
As he drifted deeper and deeper into the rails' sudden trance-like rhythm, Silk's thoughts started to lose coherence and overall clarity.
I know she did... She just feigned it, she knew what she did, and that's why she fought it... She's afraid of it as well...
After a long while of listening to the rails' repetitive song, his mind started to block it as background noise. At times, he stopped hearing things altogether.
We don't want to be seen as murderers or as something that we fear... All of us avoid that...
He was gone, then. With a hoof over his head and the other three extended out into the dark night air, he lost all sensibility, his mind numb, succumbing to the unforgivable strength of his inner subconscious' current.
He opened his eyes. The darkness that resided before him seemed to be growing ever stronger and darker, even when it was already dark enough not to see anything. Stretching a hoof towards the ceiling, Silk left out a yawn, before rolling to a side, falling to the floor. The sound of the bump resonated through the entire wagon and it was only then when he realized that the sound of the rails was still present. In silence, he stood up and took a look around, noticing how he couldn't see a thing. Blindly, he gave a step forward, trying to sort out his surroundings via echolocation. I have never ever done this before, he thought as he waved a hoof around, giving small steps when he was sure that there was nothing in front of him.
Thank goodness it's so dark, otherwise... I think I'd have to explain a lot of things.
After some seconds of slowly advancing, he extended his hoof further away, hitting something with it. He tried to palpate what it could be. Feels very... Umm... He continued to move his hoof around it, bringing himself closer to it. Feels very warm. Hold it, this... He gave a step back, turning his head around out of custom. "This is most probably Sketch," he muttered beneath his breath, scratching one of his forelegs. "I think I should have known."
He, then, continued with his assisted advance, giving small steps in a direction that he didn't even knew. For all he knew, he could have gone into the locomotive room perfectly. His blinded steps were insecure, and he oftentimes would retrace his steps in his mind to be sure of in which direction he was going.
Last thing I know, I'll bump into somepony again... I probably woke him up, so...
His guiding hoof suddenly found something on his way but, due to his lack of proper reflexes, he continued advancing and ended up smashing his face against the newfound object. Growling a nigh incomprehensible "damn door" beneath his breath, he ran a hoof over it, finding the handle after some seconds.
The dim light of the night sky greeted him once he walked to the other side of the door. Nothing was really attention-catching or interesting about the empty wagons, but he felt like he needed to be somewhere else in that moment.
I'm right here, he thought, walking around aimlessly. Doing... Nothing.
He trotted over to a bed and laid on it, staring at the scarce that could be seen through the window. I know something's wrong with this entire situation. Hoarfrost... She's being strange. I don't even need to know her to know that. There is a certain something she is hiding from us, or at least from me. And what about Rail? I know he's also not telling us something. Or not telling me, in particular, about something. But maybe...
He grabbed his head between his forehooves, closing his eyes. "Maybe I am the one who isn't telling the complete truth. It's... It's only fair." He jumped off the bed and directed himself towards the window, almost pushing his face against the cold glass. "But I just can't tell them the truth. I don't know the truth. If I only knew what happened exactly in Canterlot, I probably wouldn't have left the city in the first place. I wouldn't have met the two and..."
He left out a sigh, reaching out for the window with a hoof. The stars look so different today. They're not as bright as before. I'm reaching the end of this pursuit for clues and I have only found two ponies that aren't looking for the same things as me. No, I... I didn't find them. They found me first. I never told them to come with me, but now I need them to stay. I need their help.
"Sketch probably doesn't know what happened there, and he's going to be met with a surprise," Silk mumbled, chuckling a little. "He won't even see it coming. Well, at least he'll have the entire city for himself when he arrives there. Perfect for him." He brought his hoof back to the floor and started to pace around as his thoughts started to accelerate.
Maybe he knows about it, and that's why he's going there now...? What he said wouldn't make much sense. If he really wanted to study the architecture of the place, he'd have to ask and consult a lot of the population of Canterlot. Silk brought a hoof to his chin, squinting to see that every door was still open. Nothing has happened in the while I was asleep. Great.
"What if he's not doing that?" he asked the air, rather loudly. "What is he knows about the entire situation and the sole and only reason he's going there is to see if he can get information about it? That would be great. But better it would be if he already knew about it. I'd love to get some pointers about all of this."
He started to walk deeper into the empty wagons, his head still not stopping to give the entire situation a better look What if he knows? Asking him about it wouldn't be the best of ideas. Maybe he doesn't know why I know about it, and that would bring some difficult to answer questions. If he doesn't know about it, he'll also ask the reason behind my knowledge of it. I could lie to him, but if it happens within Hoarfrost's earshot, I'll be screwed. She'd press me completely and Rail would be too busy being non-conflictive to do something about it. I need to stay away from her whenever it is I start to have a conversation about that kind of things. She might be hiding something from me, but she sure is eager to know about other ponies' secrets. Now, Rail... I know he believes me. I'm sure that he has accepted the fact that I know far too many things about it, even when my presentation of the topic was lackluster at best. He'd believe anything I tell him.
He stopped on his tracks, realizing that he had no idea of how far away he was from his initial position. He took a look around, noticing that the only window on the wagon had its curtains drawn. Hmm, now that's different. That, or my memory's faulty, it's one or the other. He got closer to the next wagon, seeing at there was no source of light inside of it.
It was then that he stood in silence for a moment, noticing the very faint sound of breathing right in front of him. There's someone here. I can't see anything, either, he thought as he gave a small step forward, hoping not to be seen. I wonder who is it. Maybe we missed somepony yesterday? I bet they wouldn't like to be woken up by a complete stranger. I'm just going to continue with my path, fast and—
Out of nowhere, the door slammed shut in front of him, making him give a small leap backwards, a voiceless shout emanating from his mouth. "That wasn't supposed to happen," he said out loud, finding nothing but blackness surrounding him. I should just continue, maybe they haven't woken up just yet—
"Who goes there!?" shouted a stallion, his voice coming from above.
"N-no one! I mean— no one that could h-harm you!" Silk shouted back, pressing his tail against the tightly shut door.
Only silence followed.
Is he getting closer? Is he going anywhere? I think I should—
"I recognize your voice," the stallion said, his voice a million times more calm now. "You are that filly stallion, or something like that. Are you not him...? Him and her?"
"Yes, I am him," replied Silk grumpily. "And I take it you're Sketch."
"That would be me. Say, were you saying something?" the stallion asked, jumping down from his bed, landing right by Silk's side. "Heh, almost hit you."
"Saying what exactly...?" Silk asked back, separating himself a bit. "I don't remember saying anything."
"You were talking to yourself about somepony knowing about a certain place he's going."
"Oh, that? Umm, I—"
"That somepony would be me, am I right?"
"Can I trust you entirely?" asked Silk, sighing. I guess he asked about it. I have nothing to lose now.
"Of course you can. You can trust a stranger as well, can you...?"
"I'm guessing strangers are the ones you're not supposed to trust... Umm, yes, I was, actually, talking to myself about that..."
"What for?" Sketch asked, a tiny far too eager to know the answer.
"First, can I... ask you something?" Silk said, opening the door behind him. A cold breeze flowed in. Ah, it's the last wagon. How didn't I feel the breeze before?
"Sure, go on. Unless it's something that has no use, I guess you could," the stallion replied, gazing at the rails that could barely be seen under the light of the skies.
"Do you know about what happened in Canterlot?" Silk asked, looking at the stallion right in his eyes.
"Why do you want to know about it?" Sketch replied, raising an eyebrow. "Do you know?"
"I... I sure do," answered Silk, the memories of his last moments in the city playing in his head. The bloodstained papers on the floor, the drawers, that figure in the distance that he swore was staring right at him. "I do know..." Silk gave a step towards the last wagon, noticing that the door was closed. "What are they transporting here?" he asked, pointing at the wagon with a hoof.
Sketch stared at him for some seconds before, not sure of why, extending a hoof towards Silk and saying: "Get back in."
Before Silk could question the logic behind this, the metallic artifact that hooked the last wagon to the rest of the train shattered with no warning, separating it from the rest of the train. A purple afterglow vanished a fraction of a second later. Sketch was faster than his mind and, without even knowing it, was forcefully pulled back into the hallway of empty beds. He was left staring at the skies, the wagon disappearing beyond the horizon as it decelerated. "H-how did you know that would happen...?" he asked, incredulous.
"I... I didn't," replied Sketch, twice as baffled as Silk. "I just felt that it would happen. What happened? I saw some purple thing for an instant down there."
"The wagon just— hold it right there, did you see that correctly? What was that?" Silk stepped in Sketch's general direction, almost pressing his face against his.
"A p-purple thing," he replied, sheepishly, as he gave a step back and closed the door behind him, leaving darkness engulf the room once again. "It was a little shiny, too—"
"Don't say a word more," Silk replied, his voice suddenly dry and blunt. "I know what's going on exactly."
"Y-you do?" replied Sketch, both amused and confused by the events that had just unfolded right before his very eyes. "Because it just came out of nowhere. Are you sure you do...?"
"She's here," Silk replied, sighing and closing his eyes as he hung his head. A long silence was had right he said that.
"Who?" Sketch questioned, titling his head aside. "I... I don't follow."
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Silk replied before trotting off with no warning. "I've got to tell Rail and Frost about this."
"But w-wait, don't leave!" shouted the student, running behind Silk. "There is a question you haven't answered yet!"
It's happening again. I should have known better than to leave my guard down, thought Silk as the lack of lighting almost made him crash into the walls as he made his way through the wagons. She's not going to let me do this. But I do know better. Better than her.
A sensation of deep calm reigned over him. The long-awaited warmth of the bed became more of a tender caress the more he thought about it. His mind wasn't really processing anything, but he felt as if his very conscious was tired of working. A soft breath occasionally appeared against a side of his face, as if to make sure he didn't drift too far away from reality.
He opened his eyes to find a diminutive amount of light passing through the recently open door. His eyes traced the distance between the door and the bed in which he laid upon a few times before focusing his entire attention to his side, next to the wall, when he felt a hoof making its way up his chest. He was greeted by a pair of dreamy half-closed eyes that slowly opened in front of him, a very visible blush complementing them, even when the ambiance was lit by the nigh absent light of the night. A paused breath hit his face time and time again, and he felt that a tail was lying over his side.
"Good morning, my dearest stallion..." He felt the hoof go behind his back, together with feeling a soft kiss on his cheek.
"Umm, F-Frosty, dear," he replied nervously, profusely blushing, struggling not to stutter too much. "W-what are y-you... d-doing...? What h-have we done...?"
"Oh, nothing," she replied, chuckling beneath her breath before leaving out a long sigh and tightening the grip around his body. "Just made me the happiest mare alive, nothing else," she continued, inching her face closer to him, sticking her tongue out just a bit, giving him a short lick on his cheek.
"No, no, no— please tell me we didn't—" he said as he pulled his head back, his thoughts racing on his mind up to the point where they didn't make any sense at all. "Tell we me did NOT do that. Just—"
"Oh, but we did that," she whispered to his ear, nibbling it. "We sure did..."
He gulped and did his best at giving Hoarfrost a severe look. His nervousness went against him and, after some seconds, he was visibly trembling. He felt her laughter once again, feeling her forehooves grasp him even tighter, her constant breaching of his personal space making him push her away. He wasn't making much progress. "Frost, couldn't you just—"
"Say, it's still late at night..." she whispered, letting him go as she put her forehooves at the sides of his ribcage, standing over him. "And those two aren't around here... Why don't we just...? Well, you know..."
Even in the almost pitch black darkness, he could feel her gaze pressing him, making him doubt himself. Why, all he needed to say was one word, and it could be done. Just one word.
"Heh, they sure were right," she muttered beneath her breath as she shuffled her back legs around, grinning. "Colts do sure get all sleepy after it..."
"Frost, don't do this, please..."
"Wait up; I'm going to lock the door so they won't bother us. Stay awake and don't move." With that having been said, she jumped down from the bed, almost falling to the floor as she landed, flicking her tail back and forth as she cantered over to the door. A sound, different from the sound of the rails, appeared in the distance, but she didn't pay much attention to it. "Well, I wouldn't blame you; with all the moving you've done..." She shot him a sultry look before directing her eyes towards the door that was right behind her. "Hey, the train conductor hasn't even appeared. I bet he's been— say, what's that?" she asked, holding a hoof to her ear. "Can you hear that?" She opened the door and stared into the seemingly never-ending darkness, staying perfectly still.
"I can't hear a thing, Frost," Rail replied, nervously trying to push away memories of an event he wasn't even aware had happened.
The two heard the sound get louder and louder and, right in the exact moment when it was too late, they realized what it was: the sound of hooves getting closer.
"I think that's Silk—"
"Rail, Frost!" Silk shouted as he stormed into the room, crashing into Frost's head, leaving her lying on the floor, gazing at the ceiling as her eyes twitched. "O-oh, my, I'm so sorry," he stammered out, grabbing his head as a shrill ringing appeared on his ears. "Is Railroad awake, Hoarfrost?"
"I'm awake," the referred stallion replied, throwing the bed sheets off of him as the mare mumbled nonsense as she tried to get herself back onto her hooves. "What's with all the noise?"
"Rail, you're not even going to believe me," Silk replied, walking towards the stallion and holding a hoof to his face.
"You say that a lot, you know," Rail pointed out, giving Hoarfrost a detailed look. "If it's not much of a bother, couldn't you just— just help her get up?"
"Sure, sure. Just let me find her."
"Over here, silly filly," she said, raising a hoof up to the air, trying to get herself on her back once again. With her face almost plastered against the floor and her legs splayed over it, she wasn't doing quite as well as she'd liked to. "Do... Do everything. Do please never crash against me like that again."
"Okay, Rail, get this," he said as he firmly grabbed the mare's extended leg and pulled her upwards, finding it relatively easy for lift her up. She stumbled quite a bit, but managed to walk back towards the bed. "Guess who is in this train with us."
"Err..." Railroad looked at the ceiling for a moment before making his way down, finding a second stallion standing at the doorway. "Him?" Rail answered, pointing at the referred stallion, not sure of where Silk was going with his question. "Is that the correct answer?"
"That's would be a big no," Silk replied, his voice a mixture of pride and dread. "Sketch here," he said as he pointed at the recently arriving stallion, "is not the one I'm referring to. Mostly because it's not a him."
"Maybe if you could just stop it with the preambles, we could follow you," Hoarfrost said, her voice becoming slurred once again as she jumped back into bed with Rail. "Just go on and say it. If you need me, I'll be here taking a long nap." She turned herself around to face the wall and left out a sigh, Rail barely hearing the sore "that's a way to kill the mood" that she mumbled seconds after, as she threw the sheets over her head.
"Railroad, Sketch, Hoarfrost..." Silk stopped to breathe for a moment, giving Rail a long stare. "I think that— no, wait, I know it. I know that Nightmare is in this train, with us, in this very exact moment." Silk looked at the ceiling for a while as the relative silence of the night took over the ambient. "I really thought you three would know what this means," he said, hanging his head.
"Umm, but we sure do," said Sketch, giving a couple of steps inside the wagon. "I'm sure all of us do. It just isn't necessary, to say it."
"And what would make you so sure about it?" Rail asked, trying his best at feigning interest. His drowsiness wasn't helping at all.
"We saw something happen," replied Sketch, still quite confused. "How he made the connection is out of my knowledge."
"That isn't relevant, you two," Silk replied, his voice turning more frantic and despaired with every passing second. "This is what is important right now: are we sure we can make it? Well, are we?" he asked, clinging to Rail's neck, occasionally stopping to take deep breaths. "Are you? Am I?"
This isn't positive. I'm losing it. I've got to just try to make myself seem believable...
"You should calm down," Rail replied quietly. "Say," he said to Sketch, "what was that something you saw?"
"Calm down?" Silk replied, giving Rail a cold stare. "No. You do not understand this situation at all, let me tell you. There is no way I could—"
"The very last wagon was separated from the rest of the train by a purple mist," Sketch recounted, playing the scene in his head. "That little hook thing just broke all out of a sudden, and it was left behind."
Got to keep myself together. If I fail at doing this, I'll lose of my credibility and that would be awful. I need to hold myself... I need to stop myself from becoming a panicking mess, I need to... I need to give all of this a better look. Who knows what this new colt might have heard from me. If anything, I should keep on being secretive. It's the only sane thing to do. Everything will be fine if I manage to do at least that.
"Oh, really?" Rail asked, his voice a tad lower than usual. "That's a bit difficult to believe. Are you sure you saw that?"
Tinnitus appeared in Silk's ears once he let go of Rail, falling to the floor. The ceiling seemed to be towering over him, and the words that came out of his companion's mouths were slowly but surely becoming a distorted and jumbled mess. Focus, focus, focus. I know I can do this. His front hooves were far away. The floor felt freezing, and he was sure the room was getting darker. Hold yourself together, Silk.
"I'm afraid I have."
Don't lose the fight. Your mind is the enemy. Truth is your only true ally. Your mind will betray you. Hold yourself together, Silk.
His ability to comprehend his surroundings was fading fast. The voices present in the room became incomprehensible gibberish, and his eyes were losing coordination. Time and time again, he'd phase in and out of a trance.
Stay. Hold yourself together, Silk. You're the one who will uncover the truth. Do it for everyone out there. You're the one...
"How is Silk doing?" Rail asked, returning into his position underneath the bed sheets. "He takes these things quite seriously."
Sketch looked down at his hooves and, dryly, replied: "I think he's unconscious." He reached down to him and poked him with a hoof, finding no response. "Yup, that seems to be the answer."
"Oh, he's gone already?" Rail asked, almost managing to contain a chuckle. "He has gotten worse at managing to stay unaffected by that kind of thing, then. Well, just leave him there, he should be fine..."
"And you may leave," Hoarfrost added, standing up as she threw the sheets back. "Unless you want to join..." she said as she licked her lips, giving him a wink.
Sketch gave a couple of steps back, staring at her with a wide-eyed expression of severe embarrassment as he blushed. "N-no— I'm actually leaving..."
The night returned to be silent after Sketch left the room and closer the room behind him. The sound of Silk's breathing was almost indistinguishable over the sound of the rails.
"Well, it seems that we're alone again..." she whispered, passing a hoof at a side of his face as she leaned in, softly biting down on his neck. "Silky Fetlocks is going to be listening, too?" she pointed out, looking at the stallion that lay on the floor. "Aw, now that's something new..."
"Shouldn't we get him into bed or anything? It's really cold," Rail asked, directing his gaze towards anywhere but Hoarfrost. He was too far into his sudden drowsiness as if to try to push her away. "We should—"
She put a hoof over his mouth, slowly cracking a demented grin. "Sure, why not?" she asked no one in particular as she jumped down from the bed before grabbing one of Silk's forehooves between her teeth. With her voice temporarily strained, she pulled him over to the bed Rail was in, ending up with the three tightly packed over the soft sheets. "Better...?"
Rail couldn't take his eyes off the stallion right in front of him. His breathing started to accelerate, slowly but surely. "B-but he—"
"He will never know, dear..." she said as she put her forelegs over the center if his chest, wiggling her rump from side to side as she bit down on the bed sheets that were now thrown at a side. "But if you want him to know about it, I can always arrange something..."
The door burst open.
"Is any of you awake!?" asked Sketch, his voice agitated, barely coming out from behind his erratic breaths. "I think something has gone awfully wrong..."
He trotted over to the bed, mumbling something to himself, finding the three ponies lying atop of it.
Right after he could reach out to move any of them to wake them up, he heard the sound of glass shattering in the engine room.
A couple of muffled sounds followed and then, only silence.
Arming himself with bravery, he went towards the door and, after doubting himself for a long while, opened it. The cold night breeze rushed in from a broken window to his left, and he immediately noticed how there was no indication of the fact if there was a conductor to begin with or not.
He stepped closer to the broken window, careful not to step on any shards, noticing very faint droplets of blood on the floor next to the opening.
The door behind him closed with a loud clash. He jumped, startled, and rushed to the door to open it once again. It wouldn't even budge.
He turned around, sitting down as he stared at the fire. "He was right. She is here, after all."
After a long while of gazing at the flames as he heard the train slow down, he proceeded to grab the shovel on the floor and get to work.
The crackle of the firewood and the warmth of the fire were his only two companions in that moment.
"Getting to Canterlot will take me several more hours. I... Why am I doing this?"
