//------------------------------// // Doubts // Story: Manulus Mortem // by TwiRaptor //------------------------------// "Starlight!! Come Back!!" Twilight reaches out as her student bolts from the castle towards the street. Twilight stomps a hoof in frustration as she attempts to catch her student. The alicorn leaps through the castle doors before they close completely, however, a bright light completely blinds the princess as she looks for her student. Using her wing to cover her eyes from the light, Twilight's ears twitch as tires of a large wooden wagon squeal on the rock roads of Ponyville. "Look Out!! Dear Celestia!!!" A stallion screams out and the wagon squeals louder before smashing hard against who the stallion was screaming out too. Twilight gasps uncovering her eyes to see the accident that has occurred only moments after her student fled the castle. The Wagon sits crooked by the side of the road and the stallion falls frantically from the seat trying to get to the pony he had hit with his ride. Stumbling on his hooves he reaches her, the mare he has unluckily hit with his wagon is the student of Princess Twilight Sparkle. The stallion shakes his head, scared for the mares life and in doubt that this is really happening to him. Twilight sucks back tears and covers her mouth with one hoof, the alicorn can feel the cry coming and it is to much for her to keep in. Opening her wings she quickly flies over to the downed Unicorn, student ... her friend. Twilight almost crashes on landing, tripping over rubble from the broken tire of the wagon but she gracefully flaps her wings to keep herself up straight arriving to the side of Starlight Glimmer. "Starlight!! I told you to come back!!!" Twilight screams, shoving her face down into her friends side crying into the unicorn's fur. This couldn't be happening, but it is ..."STARLIGHT!!!" ................................................................................................................................................................................................. The intense feeling of thirst and hunger come over Starlight Glimmer as her eyes open. Looking around at the hospital bed she is laying in the blankets are beginning to form patches of mold. Using her magic the unicorn rips the blanket off of herself and she proceeds to try and stand. Removing the blanket using all the energy she really has, Starlight falls to the floor as soon as her hooves touch the cold floor. Her body smashing onto the hard ground knocking the wind from her lungs causing her to gasp. "Help ... Nurse, Anypony?" Starlight says weakly as she is unable to stand after the fall. Laying on the floor waiting for help she begins to realize that something is very wrong. The windows in the room are smashed, however, there is not enough glass on the floor for it to mean something broke it from the outside. "NURSE!!!" She screams again but now she tries to pull herself to a stand. The unicorn hardly moves quickly afraid of falling down again. Reaching the door discovering it is locked, her horn glows again using all available energy to focus on the doorknob. With a powerful tug on the knob she rips it from the door and the door now 'unlocked'. Starlight stumbles through her doorway , so weak she almost rams her face onto the wall just outside her door. There isn't a sound except for her own hooves scrapping on the unswept floors of the hallway, there are no nurses or other patients in the hallway as the unicorn looks to her right and left to see what is going on. "Hello!? Anypony!" Starlight calls out but the only response is her own voice echoing back at her from the empty building. She makes her way down the hallway her body building up energy the more she moves around, walking down the hallway she looks in some of the open doors to see in other patients rooms but each one is empty and she finds nothing. "What is going on here? What even happened to me ... to get here?" Starlight rubs her head as she carefully walks down the stairwell. Her memory of the accident being blurred so much she is unsure if she was even in an accident anymore. The unicorn pushes her whole body up against the exit in the stairwell immediately she is blinded by the sunlight. She closes her eyes and trips over her own hooves stepping outside into the world. Falling to the ground again her eyes are forced open by the pain of hitting hard stone below. As her eyes adjust she thinks she can see a pony standing before her but as her eyes adjust to the light, it is nothing more than a garbage can. The world outside the hospital is different, it is worse than the nothing she saw inside. There isn't anypony in immediate view, mugshots of ponies plaster the wall outside the hospital, letters and other gifts lay all around the ground of the exit of the building as if the hospital itself was being treated like one giant gravestone. Getting up to look at all the images on the wall she is even able to find a picture of herself squeezed among the hundreds that were here. Starlight places a hoof on the picture of herself, not for long though as the the idea of what she is seeing makes her feel ill. "Hello!? Is there anypony here!?" Starlight screams out so loud her weak body almost collapses again. "WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!!" She screams louder and tears squeeze through her closed eyes, the thought of being on that wall. Some pony was thinking about her, what has happened to everypony? ................................................................................................................................................................................................. Starlight uses her magic to throw a heavy stone through the window smashing the glass and this article before she can read it. The thought of getting something to drink clouding discovering what happened to everypony. She climbs through the storefront's new entrance she created and nearly trips on the spilled cans and other debris cluttering the store floor. The first drink she can see is levitated up from the floor and to her lips for a sip as she cracks open the soda she found. The fizz of the carbonated drink is refreshing, she almost forgets about the loneliness she is being consumed by having still seen nopony sense she started walking to get to Friendship Castle. Starlight collects what she can, including a saddlebag to hold the food and drinks. Newspapers litter the roadside left behind by those who are nowhere to be found. Talking about death in Equestria. Starlight finally builds the courage to pick one of them up while she walks the road towards the Friendship Castle. The article seems pretty average to the regular Ponyville Daily. "I don't understand ... where could everypony have gone?" Starlight mumbles and uses her magic to pull more papers from the ground. "There has to be a reason for this!!" Her voice echoes through out the town, no voice but her own. The newspapers start to explain it all. "Manulus ... What?" Starlight's eyes widen and she stops before the doors of the Castle. The large doors broken enough that she wouldn't have to open them to step inside the structure. Starlight reads the papers as she enters the dark rooms of the Castle. Tears forming in her eyes , she lets her body fall back to sit on a couch to take in everything. New Virus Threatens Canterlot Canterlot Press Local Daycare Burned, Fillies Blamed For Manulus Ponyville Daily Princess of Friendship Infected? Ponyville Daily Manulus Kills, End of Times!! Equestria Official "Dear Celestia, this isn't real!! This is all a dream!!" Starlight throws the papers away, having seen enough but she still feels a thirst for answers. "TWILIGHT! RAINBOW!! EVERYPONY!!!" Starlight cries out looking up at the crystal ceiling of the castle and the tears roll from her eyes to the couch. "Oh Celestia ... how could something like this happen. These things can't just happen!?" "Yet it happened ... Starlight Glimmer" A familiar voice comes from the doorway to the castle. This being the first voice the unicorn has heard sense she woke from her coma. Starlight looks forward to see who the visitor was and to understand why it sounded so familiar to her. "I was afraid that one day you would wake up. I hoped you would die in your coma once everypony left me" Spike stands at the door, leaning against the frame, he doesn't look happy to see the unicorn. Starlight can't help but feel hurt after hearing what he had to say. Though after reading the articles ... she needs to know why.