//------------------------------// // Waking // Story: Tears of the Sea - Waking // by Glen Gorewood //------------------------------// As Twilight Sparkle makes her usual awkward landing, the pink party pony gleefully giggles and bounces around her friend. Not in front of, but around in a semi circular somewhat oval shape that seems to change with every movement. Dizzy, the princess of friendship swears her eyes must be crossed when for a moment she sees two Pinkie Pie’s. Shaking her head and blinking her eyes, her vision readjusts and confirms there is merely one very excited pink poof maned party pony now standing front of her shuddering with barely constrained excitement. Her fur almost seems to be rippling from the repressed energy. Twilight smiles and in a calm yet jovial voice says, “Hi Pinkie, long time no see.” The pink party pony defies gravity for a moment as the pent up energy seems to cause her to levitate, a mock shock expression on her face. “Long time! Twilight it’s been months since I’ve seen you! How have you survived without cake, or cupcakes, or sugar, or sweet rolls, or donuts, or candy, or chocolate cake, or anything tasty and sweet at all! All you have in that room is boring bland food with no flavor! How do you survive on raisin bagels and coffee alone?!” Twilight’s eye twitches as her friend continues on, speaking of lacking sweets and sugar as if it’s the end of the world. Coughing to grab her attention, and bring her pink friend literally back down to earth, Twilight calmly interjects. “Pinkie, I have more than just raisin bagels in my castle.” Pinkie Pie, in a rather good impression of a certain mad god, smiles widely. “Really? Like what?” Twilight, adjusting her mane, chuckles, “Well Spike made me pancakes this morning.” The pink pony tilts her head into a most awkward position. Then in a voice like one asking for some salacious information she speaks “Oh...so did they have syrup on them?” The princess of friendship grins, almost preening, “Of course they did.” Pinkie pie looks thoughtful for one moment, then pulls a detectives cap, mustache, monocle, and magnifying glass from her mane. Putting on the cap, mustache, and monocle and placing the magnifying glass to her eyes, she begins to question her friend. “So Twilight, how long has it been since, prior to those pancakes this morning, you had sweets?” Twilight looks about nervously, a nervous chuckle escaping her lips. “Well um, I don’t know Pinkie maybe a month?” Pinkie, points an accusatory hoof in an exaggerated fashion at her purple friend, then in a obvious parody of detective series she shouts. “Ah ha! Twilight Sparkle you are lying! How many months has it really been? And don’t try to lie, I may not be AJ but I am”. The party pony strikes a dramatic pose. “The Sugar Detective!” Sparkles and confetti explode behind the element of laughter right on cue, emphasizing her pose and statement. Rarity would be proud. Twilight gives a nervous smile, before replying to her enthusiastic friend whose antics seem more over the top than usual. “Pinkie, I honestly don’t know. Maybe it’s been three months or so..” With a flourish the detective outfit is thrown into the air as Pinkie Pie rushes to her friend’s side grabbing her by the shoulder. “At least three months! Twilight how are you alive. Quickly, with me, we must get you some tasty sugary treats right now!” As her pink friend jabbers on about an sugar to magic power ratio that makes no sense, Twilight Sparkle let’s herself be dragged into sugar cube corner. As the door to the pastry shaped shop opens, she notices something a little off about it. It’s not much, nor that large of an amount, but there is what looks like salt buildup in the door frame. Two piles of it to be precise, one on the upper left edge and one in the lower right corner. Ignoring it for the time being, she instead takes in the sights and smells of the store. Ponies of all ages gather in Sugar-cube corner. However today there seem to be quite a few new faces. And the bakery seems slightly bigger. Did they renovate recently? Pinkie Pie stops dragging her and gestures to a seat by the window, Twilight Sparkle, lost in thought; sits down as her friend rushes off to get sweets and undoubtedly a few ice cream shakes to cure her supposed sugar deficiency. Such a thing is ridiculous, after all ponies don’t need sugar as a dietary requirement. Too much sugar, like too much salt, is bad for anypony. Twilight pauses mid thought, why is she thinking of salt again? Glancing around the store to try to get her mind off of that topic again, she notices that the new ponies are all rather odd. The one seems to be missing a leg, perhaps due to a wild animal. Three little colts are just sitting and staring at their food, not touching it, as if they see not the delicious cake before the, but something else entirely. Or perhaps they just don’t like cake. The young couple is sipping at their drinks, but holding the cups as if their lives depend on it. In fact, all of the new ponies seem to be acting very strangely. Almost as if their being here wasn’t by choice. But that’s silly, who wouldn’t want to be in this perfectly scrumptious bakery in Ponyville. After all, it is one of Twilight’s favorite places and home to one of her best friends. Not to mention between the Cakes and Pinkie Pie the selection is one of the best in Equestria. As if on queue a pink blur zooms out of the kitchen and screeches to a stop at the table. In a flurry of motion the pink party pony sets up a dazzling delectable display of a sugary feast. Complete with chocolate strawberry milkshake, with whipped creams and a cherry on top. Next to which is what looks like something Twilight would never expect to see in the store. “Is that chocolate covered coffee beans?” She says, her voice nearly dripping with excitement. Pinkie Pie pronks to the other side of the table, and sits down before smiling and replying. “Yes yes yes, Twilight I knew after seeing you earlier that you not only lacked sugar but also,” taking a deep breathe the pink pony says the final word in an exaggerated drone “caffeine!” Popping one into her mouth, and enjoying the combination of caffeine, coffee bean, and chocolate, Twilight smiles and nods in agreement. One sip of a milkshake later to wash it down, and she decides it’s time to ask her friend a question. Her friend who is of course, devouring a mountain of cupcakes. “So Pinkie, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” Twilight Sparkle begins to say. The pink party pony swallows an enormous, nearly impossible amount of cupcakes before replying. “It’s about the sugar to salt ratio isn’t it?” Twilight just gawks in shock. “How..how did you know I was going to ask about that?” Pinkie pie shrugs, a soft smile on her muzzle. “Because yours is off silly.” Twilight Sparkle tilts her head confused. Her salt to sugar ratio is off? Why would that be important? After all such a ratio doesn’t really exist. “Um Pinkie Pie, how do you know my ratio that makes no scientific sense is off?” The pink pony pauses mid milkshake sip, then discarding the straw she hurriedly ingests the beverage of sugar and sweets as if her life depends on it. Or as if she hasn’t had any in a long time, which is impossible since Pinkie Pie lives on sugar and caffeine. Letting free a satisfied sigh, Pinkie Pie stares at Twilight with a serious look on her face. A face whose eyes are, now that the alicorn looks closer at them, quite somber. In a quiet voice, tinged with sadness, Pinkie Pie responds. “Because, it’s why you are here. You only come here when your sugar to salt ratio is off Twilight.” Twilight stares, the look on her friend’s face isn’t right. Pinkie Pie isn’t supposed to be sad, after all she came to see her so they could have a perfectly normal day. Not a happy day tinged with sorrow like salty tears. The pink earthpony grabs a slice of rainbow colored cake and takes a bite of it. Chewing it with a distant look on her face she continues. “You are wondering why I’m sad right Twilight? Well I’m not sad, not really. But I’m also not okie dokie lokie happy. I am really happy to see you again, after so long. But I’m not happy that things are, like this.” She chews the cake furiously before stuffing her face completely full like a chipmunk. Grabbing another piece, she continues to eat and talk interchangeably. “You probably noticed it earlier, the salt?” This gets Twilight’s full attention. She leans forward over the table eagerly, barely missing treats and sweets. “You mean the salt on the door frame at the store’s entry?” Pinkie stops chewing, swallows, and looks down at the plate of goodies before her. “You really haven’t noticed it have you?” She says in a soft voice. Twilight moves back to her seat, looking quizzically at her normally outgoing friend. A friend whose mane is still poofy, whose store has so many new faces, whose food tastes as amazing as ever. Everything seems perfect, after all the Cakes are happily baking and the twins are silent. The twins. Panning her eyes Twilight notices something very strange, and a quick check with her ears verifies it. The sounds and signs of the twins are missing, no they are completely gone. Normally, with so many new faces, they would be running about causing a ruckus and giggling in glee. The lack of their presence in the bakery causes a chill to go down Twilight’s spine. “Pinkie...” Her voice quavering, Twilight gulps down the remnants of the milkshake with an unidentifiable aftertaste and asks a question that she doesn’t want to ask but must. “Where are Pumpkin and Pound?” Her normally jovial friend says something under her breath, something Twilight doesn’t quite catch. “Pinkie, I didn’t hear you speak up” the purple princess’s voice is dry, like baked sand in the desert. The pink pony raises her voice and repeats herself. “Gone.” Twilight’s heart feels like it might just stop. Voice cracking even more, she asks. “Gone what do you mean gone? Pinkie the twins can’t just be gone.” Pinkie Pie lifts her head, her eyes meet Twilight’s. And the alicorn feels her mind might break. Solid blue orbs are receding into a pink leathery face that is slowly losing all but it’s most prominent features. Familiar blue orbs that stare out from what was her friend’s face. Her limbs are shrinking. Shriveling into her sides. Even so Pinkie Pie’s voice leaves the slowly disappearing muzzle. “The salt to sugar ratio was off, and they couldn’t hold on. They are gone Twilight. They were too young, too innocent, they couldn’t hold onto themselves after such a long time.” Twilight slowly backs out of her chair, and wishes immediately that she hadn’t. Her friend’s body, though still pink, has elongated. It now resembles a large, leather, worm more than anything. A worm with her friends face, mane, tail, and cutie mark. And as she backs away towards the door, like a worm sensing vibrations in the earth, her friend, or the thing that has her mark; turns and stares directly at her. As do all the others in the shop. Every last of one of which has become a distorted version of themselves, though few features remain to distinguish them besides their cutie marks. However as her fear rises, Twilight notices something horrible about the cylindrical forms many of these things possess. Most of them, even the former couple, have no cutie mark to identify them. Her eyes pass over each of them, terror rising with each moment as she inches closer to the door. Finally, she is almost to the door, the gateway that will allow her to escape this nightmare. Hoof on the doorknob, eyes on the mass of monsters, her mane stands on end as Twilight hears a voice whispering right by her ear. A very familiar disturbingly happy voice. “Twilight, the sugar to salt ratio is off. You are waking up now, aren’t you?” Keeping her head still but shifting her eyes, Twilight can’t help but scream. For right by her cheek, millimeters from her face, is a monstrous abomination with a pink body and bright blue eyes. With a poofy leathery dark pink something where a mane should be, and its impossibly large cylindrical form reaching over from where its almost completely gone lower legs are, or were. The chair at the table opposite where she was a minute ago, where Pinkie Pie was. Shivering in fear that she knows will cause her to bolt any moment, Twilight notices something that makes this creature somehow worse. By its sides, near the mid frontal ridge, are what look like tiny shriveled vestigial limbs that are grasping the top of a chair, holding the thing steady as it stares at her. A pair of tiny ears remain above the blue eyes. As she watches, terrified, a long single line under the eyes opens up revealing a massive cavernous mouth and jagged sharp teeth. And from this fiend comes the voice of her friend, the element of laughter, and as tears roll from its eyes the smell of salt hits the purple alicorn’s nostrils. Yet the voice, oh the voice is what makes her bolt. And as she flees out the door what it said rings in her ears. “Wake up Twilight, can you see us yet? Do you remember? Do you remember the ratio? Do you remember the real world outside the dream?” The words echo in her mind as she runs, the smell of salt overpowering her like a vacuum of an empty void. Screams full her ears as ponies change into those monstrous things all around her, buildings collapse and the air grows thick with that horrible sea salt smell that is almost brine. It’s suffocating, and Twilight finds it hard to breathe. For a moment she stops, her wings by her sides as she catches her breath as her lungs heave gasping for fresh air. Her wings lay limp, she can’t feel them. Maybe they were damaged in her panicked flight. Yet that shouldn’t be possible, she is an alicorn she should be able to fly regardless. Twilight focuses on her wings, tries to lift them, goes through all the training Rainbow Dash has given her over the months, or years, since she ascended. Visualizing herself flying in the sky, Twilight Sparkle makes the mistake of closing her eyes. And behind her eyelids she sees stars in a void, and a single bright shape drawing nearer. She can feel the vacuum, sense her hunger, and then she hears the thunder rumble. No not thunder, snapping her eyes open Twilight turns her head hoping with all she has left that it’s merely thunder. Thunder that causes the earth to shake like a stampede is coming to trample her to death. And as her eyes catch a glimpse of the tsunami of cylindrical worm like monstrosities of all colors and shapes that is barreling towards her, destroying all in it’s path, her mind breaks. Reverting to an almost primal state, Twilight Sparkle, Princess if friendship, takes off like a wild animal towards the Everfree. Escaping the place formerly known as Ponyville, her home, she races through the grass, reefs, and alien landscapes unlike any that should be in her world. She races by where Sweet Apple Acres should be, barely noticing that only four apple trees still stand and a single large Annelida with a pair of doglike ears that whines at the base of the largest one. The farm itself is in ruins, yet Twilight barely notices. She just keeps running, driven by fear more than anything. Hoping beyond hope that this is all a dream, and that something will appear that makes sense. That something turns out to be a familiar cottage at the edge of the Everfree forest, a beacon of sanity for the frantic alicorn. With a heart that feels about to burst she races up to the cottage door, slamming her lavender hooves against it she cries out. “Fluttershy, help! Help me!” Time seems to slow to a crawl, as the traumatized princess of friendship waits, her body nearing its limit and her voice raw. It may only have been a few moments, but to her it feels like a lifetime. The door creaks and opens, light cascading out from inside lights up a familiar face, attached to a familiar pony body, with a familiar cutie mark. Inside is a familiar Discord, with a familiar bunny. The lack of other animals is lost on Twilight, for all she sees beyond those other two is her dear friend Fluttershy. Whose face is filled with worry, and whose voice says that most desired of statements. “Oh Twilight..won’t you come in. You..you look terrified.” Without waiting for another words the princess of friendship, and currently absolutely mortified alicorn, races inside and leaps onto the couch. Grabbing a pillow she holds it like a teddy bear, or a shield to keep what she has witnessed at bay. Shivering she can’t help but keep her eye on her butter yellow friend, hoping that she at least will stay the same. That she isn’t one of those things. As the purple princess quivers in fear, Fluttershy makes her way towards the kitchen her teapot, having sensed her friend was coming to visit some time ago. As she passes Discord the draconequis whispers to the shy pegasus but a few simple words. “She is waking up.” As she pours the water into prepared teacups, with chamomile teabags within, the butter yellow and light pink maned mare responds with a soft knowing and still kind voice. “I know.” The lord of chaos snorts, “So are you going to tell her? Or should I?” The second question comes out with a slightly vengeful hiss added, something that thankfully Twilight is too far in shock to notice. Fluttershy stirs some sugar into the teacups, and as she picks them up and makes her way back to the living area she responds in the same kind and calm yet knowing voice. “I will.” The draconequis snorts again, with a harsh and sorrowful chuckle mixed in. “You are too kind Fluttershy, far too kind to her after all this time.” The element of kindness merely smiles, and walks towards her friend with the tea. Yet for all her soft steps, and kindly smile, she carries upon her back a burden greater than can possibly be imagined. The burden of helping her closest friend, face reality. The burden of waking her up. It is a burden that she chooses to bear, for it is the one true kindness she can still offer after all this time. To a friend who doesn’t even remember what happened, so very long ago. A friend who needs to remember, so she can truly wake. Not just for her own sake and sanity, but for the sake of an entire world.