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// The fear that come from truth 
// Story: The bells from beyond reality 
// by Kuroneko 
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Princess Celestia often come to visit me, she try to convince me that everything is alright, telling me it was all just my imagination, an illusion, a trick of the light, that such things can’t happen in our world, but I know by looking at her face that she too, have seen the same thing as me. Oh how far have I fallen that even the smile of our dear princess can’t light my heart anymore. 


I wish Golden Velum would speak, it’s clear that we saw something similar in nature and maybe he could help me understand what I saw but the only thing he do now is muttering some incoherent sounds. Sometime his sanity seems to come back for a few seconds during which some words escape his lips before sinking back into madness, words about solids bigger on the inside, the universe in a grain of sand, the eyes in the void and other things, so weird and frightening that the nurses at the hospital try to avoid his room as much as possible.


As I was saying, it’s when Grogar uttered his last words that I came into contact with true horror, it was not really what he said and more from where it came, as the words were not pronounced by Grogar’s quickly decaying mouth but came from the city itself, echoing through each stone, each street, each impossibly bent step of stair. My companions noticed this phenomenon too but put it on the account of some weird echo caused by the abnormal geometry of the city and I would have believed it too if only for a second detail I was the only one to see.


When we heard the voice all my friend, like guided by some sort of self preservation instinct closed their eyes, I did not and what I saw will haunt me until the end of my days. I saw the tall towers stretching to the sky and moving like the hands of a swimmer who desperately try to grab the air in order to pull themselves out of water before being mercilessly dragged in the abyss. I saw the narrow streets pulsating like veins, trying to bring more blood from the heart that was this accursed crystal tower. Having witnessed this last bit of eldritch truth, my mind finally gave in and granted me the sweet relief of unconsciousness. 


Just who or what was that thing that called itself Grogar, that could manipulate corpses like if they were puppets and traveled from world to world bringing death and destruction for no apparent reason? Well, it doesn’t matter now, it’s gone, but the scars it left on my mind will never go away.


When I woke up I was lying in an hospital bed, I even wondered for a moment if everything was not a nightmare but when I looked around me and saw my friends I knew it was all real as their faces bore the marks of our adventure. Amber Bolt had lost all her spirit and determination, she was deeply depressed as if the mere act of being alive was still too much for her to bear. Amethyst Grape looked as if she had aged prematurely, her beautiful mane had turned white and her blue eyes had lost their light, her face usually so cheerful was now only reflecting apathy and tiredness. The mighty tree that was Mountain Leaf had been struck by lightning, his head was hanging low and his voice was barely audible, he looked like a dwarf now. As for Buried Star, as mysterious as ever, he was deeply lost in thoughts like if he was trying to figure out an unsolvable problem and all his mind was focused on this task to the point he didn’t paid attention to the rest of the world anymore. On a bed next to me I could hear the laughing ghoul that was once the pony named Golden Vellum.


In the back of the room the two princesses where peacefully sleeping, they were once again those benevolent ponies we all knew and not these fearsome primal elementals I saw in my nightmare. Seeing how everyone was here I almost expected king Sombra to show up, but I knew it was impossible, I saw him fall to his doom when the city started to vanish. What caused his fall, I couldn’t say, maybe he tripped on the geometrically incorrect surface he was standing on, maybe it was one last attack from Grogar that made him lose his balance or maybe it was the princesses who pushed him over the edge, what I’m sure of is that I saw an endless stream of shadow monsters rise from the depths of the streets like an ebony snake with fiery eyes all over its body, grab the king in shadows and drag him with them as they disappeared from our world. This was the last time we ever heard about Sombra, may he rot in Tartarus or whatever hellish dimension he’s in now.


As I was starting to move and make noises, the ponies at my sides finally realized I was awake and looked relieved, their faces lighting up a bit except for Celestia who came close to me with sorowful eyes and said something that nearly broke me, it was nothing out of the ordinary, no foreign language or eldritch tongue from beyond the stars but there was so much pain in her voice, so much sincere compassion that it almost brought me to tears, what she said to me were those simple four words : "I’m so sorry".


Then everyone told me what happened after I collapsed, they said that when they opened their eyes they found themselves in the streets of the crystal empire, still unsure if everything until now was real. This is when Celestia and Luna finally noticed our presence and upon seeing an insane Golden Velum, me passed out on the ground and the four other in a deap state of shock, they immediately understood the situation and, without even taking the time to revert to their normal form they grabbed us, Celestaia holding me in her burning hooves, Luna carrying Golden Velum, and teleported everyone to the Canterlot hospital where I slept for a week.


During this conversation I did my best to act as normal as possible, I even laughed with the other when Amber Bolt joked about how the people at the hospital were terrorized when they saw the living embodiment of the sun and moon walk through the door and ask for a nurse. "They must thought it was the end of the world" she said to the dismay of the two alicorns who couldn’t hide their embarrassment. We all laughed but my laugh was fake and hollow, because from the moment I opened my eyes, all the events from before came back to my mind and with them a fear that hadn’t left me to this day.


If only I could sleep then maybe I could persuade myself that it was all just a bad dream but I will never be able to sleep well again, they won’t let me. OH LUNA SAVE ME FROM THIS NIGHTMARE! EVERYTIME I CLOSE MY EYES I HEAR THEM, RINGING OUT OF SIGHT, MOCKING ME ACROSS SPACE AND TIME! THE BELLS ATOP BLACK STONE TOWERS! THE BELLS OUTSIDE OF REALITY! THE BELL THAT SHOULDN'T BE!