STOP! TEASER TIME. · 9:10am Apr 4th, 2016
I wrote this listening to this on repeat for hours.
I need a denim jacket now.
Twilight shook her head roughly as her mind returned to her library home. 'Focus now, deal with that later,' she thought to herself as she glanced around at her assembled friends. All five of them looked dejected and frightened, but there was determination and anger there too. Luna had delegated the job of making them more angry than afraid to her, and she had resolved to do it if only to make up for how deeply she had embarassed Luna with her little display in the Observatory.
"You all look very... not confused," Twilight began. "I take it you know what's happening?"
"We all saw those things in the woods that night," Applejack muttered, her voice hollow and rough. "Ah don't claim to know what in the hay they were, 'cept wrong. Ah ain't been that scared since the night Mama Apple died."
"Yeah," Rainbow picked up, her own voice even raspier than normal. "Some voice in my head is nothing compared to those things, and if you say it's really my Element, I won't argue."
"Ponies need something to hold on to when they get scared," Fluttershy whispered. "My Element is real. I know that. It's comfortable."
"Okay!" Twilight said brightly, "that's good! Not much to explain then."
"Ah didn't say that!" Applejack retorted hotly. "Ah aint seen you since. You'd best start talkin' 'bout what happened and where you've been."
The rest of Twilight's friends nodded slowly, and Twilight felt a faint stab of anguish that they'd lost so much faith in her. "You want answers," she said carefully, "I get that. Really, I do. I'll give them to you, but not until you know that they won't make it any easier to deal with."
"Darling," Rarity said, her voice tight, "we're here because nothing seems easy right now. None of us have the slightest idea what's happening. The truth couldn't possibly make it worse."
A few dark chuckles escaped Twilight before she could stop herself. "Husks. They were husks," she said, and the confusion in her friends faces almost made her smack herself in the head. "Dead ponies," she clarified. "Kind of like zombies, but a lot faster and stronger."
Pinkie burst out laughing and flopped on her back. "Don't be silly, Twilight!" she said through cacophonus explosions of mirth, "zombies aren't real!"
Twilight let her scar and fangs show, and she added a deadly glare to them that silenced Pinkie in a heart beat. "Three days ago, vamponies weren't real to you," she said, her voice uncompromising but calm. "Here I am. Do any of you think I'm lying about that?" She was answered by the sound of five terrified heartbeats. "Didn't think so. What happened? I killed all three of them. As for where I've been, they almost killed me, and this is the first chance I've had to speak with you since I recovered. I'm guessing Rarity told you about how I heal, so I won't explain that."
Her friends looked horrified, and Twilight cursed her temper for what seemed like the millionth time. "Look. Killed is really the wrong word. They were already dead, I just.... helped them realise it."
"That aint what's got mah goat," Applejack said slowly. "It's you. Twilight, that aint who you were before."
"Not it's not," Twilight answered flatly. "Next question."
You'll never make me stop!
3847182 Hush.