//------------------------------//
// "What did you do to her?!" 
// Story: I'm sorry, Twilight 
// by the7Saviors 
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And what is it planning to do to me I can't help but wonder. It claims that it wants to talk, that it has answers to questions I didn't even realize needed asking, but I don't believe it for a second. Every fiber of my being tells me not to do what it says, to flee the library and never return, to keep galloping and never look back.

To abandon Applejack as a lost cause... just like I did with Spike.

The thought sickens me almost as much as the fear of whatever I left down in that basement. I don't want to go down there again. I don't want to know whether or not what it says is true. I want answers, but my terror convinces me that they aren't worth facing it again. The answers aren't worth it... but Applejack is, and it's then that I realize my mind was already made up, that is, until it speaks again.


"Applejack is gone, Twilight. I sent her to run a little errand for me while we... talk. Whatever you think I did, I definitely didn't."
 

Rather than anger, its twisted voice sounds almost amused at my assumptions.


"I'm hurt you'd even think I do something so horrible. I only want to help you and the other girls, Twilight. That's all I've ever wanted."


I don't reply to his words. Instead, I stay right where I am, frozen and silenced by fear, distrust, and indecision, though most of my hesitation was fear. Now that I remember what had happened down in the basement, the memory of that day refuses to leave me, the images repeating themselves over and again in my mind.


"Twilight, the seals are broken. I can leave this basement anytime I want, but I don't need to, nor do I want to... not yet. I can drag you down here either way, but I'd rather you come down here on your own." 

"You wanted answers after all, and there's something I need to show you. You'll want to see this... or maybe you won't, but it's something you need to see regardless."


It's right about one thing, all of the seals and wards I'd cast are gone. Now that I remember what to look for in terms of thaumic energy, I can no longer sense the workings of the spells I'd placed on the entrance to the basement. I don't know how it was able to remove them, but it's clear that that thing really can leave the basement at any time.

One part of me wants to curl up and hide in my room at the thought, and the other is screaming to warn everypony in Ponyville to escape, but no part of me wants to see the horror lurking down there in the lab. Not since I was a filly have I wanted so badly for Celestia to hold me and tell me everything would be okay, and Spike...

I just want my faithful assistant here by my side... but he's gone, and I'm the one who failed to save him like he tried to do for me. Between the memories of what I'd done in the lab, the fear of the creature I'd unleashed upon the world, the pain of losing Spike to that creature, and the guilt of knowing all of it was my fault, all I can do is sink to the floor of my bedroom and stare at nothing as despair and hopelessness begin to wash over me. I barely even notice that the voice has fallen silent. I don't know how long I stay that way, but eventually, I feel something small and warm rest on my withers.


"Twilight... Twilight, look at me."


Through clouded, watery eyes, I slowly look up and see none other than Spike looking down at me, his eyes bright with concern and compassion. The idea that the monster below is mocking me comes to mind, but complete emotional ruin washes the suspicion away and I simply stare in his direction unblinkingly and expectantly.      


"I'm not lying when I say I want to see you again. I'm not lying when I say I want to help you. You don't have to trust me, and I know you can't help but fear me, I know you can't help but fear what you don't understand, but you're Twilight Sparkle."


He smiles at me then, the big goofy smile I'd seen Spike wear countless times in the past.



"Finding out what makes the world tick is what you live for, and I should know—I do know, Twi. I know so many things now, and I want to share that knowledge with you because I know you, more than anypony would appreciate what I have to tell you, what I have to show you."


I continue to stare at him, drinking in his words but receiving nothing from them. His smile falls and he lets out a disappointed sigh before lowering himself so that we're at eye level.


"Alright then, how about this? Picture me in your mind—not as I am, but as I was back before all this began. Picture the day we both came to Ponyville for the first time during the Summer Sun Celebration, how we met the girls and how you all defeated Nightmare Moon. Remember how you felt then? Remember how it felt to finally put the pieces together and unlock the sixth Element?"


For a long moment, we continue to look into each other's eyes, and nothing happens as I once again let his words sink in. Then slowly, reluctantly, the memories come to me, and as they rise to the surface I latch onto them like a drowning mare, holding them as tightly as I can, trying to find some sort of solace or escape from the nightmare that my reality has become. Spike smiles a satisfied smile, the smile a proud parent might give their foal for doing something good.


"There you go, just like that! Now, close your eyes. Keep those memories in your mind, keep that hope and happiness in your heart, and I'll take care of the rest, okay?"
 

I mindlessly obey, all too willing to immerse myself further within a time where my mistakes and Spike's fate doesn't exist. Lost in better times, I go back to the years I spent in Canterlot—years I spent as Celestia's personal protégé, years I spent acting as an occasional mother to an infantile dragon, years I spent delving into the deepest mysteries of magic and science in all its forms.

Then there were the friends I made after I left Canterlot for the first time. They weren't my first friends, but they were the ones I cherished the most. I see all the trials and tribulations we faced together; I see the night we used the Elements to banish the Nightmare that had taken hold of Princess Luna. I see my brother's ponytale wedding, ruined by Chrysalis and saved by true love. I also think of the happier, more peaceful times during my life in Ponyville. Whether it was spending a quiet evening reading a book with my faithful assistant close by or enjoying a lively afternoon picnic with the girls, I was as happy as anypony could possibly be all things considered. 


Then an agonized scream shatters my perfect world, the sound of it clearly feminine and horribly familiar to my ears.


My eyelids snap open and I find myself in an alien world of unfathomable nightmares. The walls, floor, and ceiling are all made of strange dark stone, rotted wood and what I can only imagine are massive, scattered globs of pulsing sickly grey flesh. The fetid smell of blood, bile, and some other unknown but equally vile substance fills my nostrils and it takes every ounce of will not to retch right then and there. Viscous black liquid drips to the ground from above and seeps through the many cracks in the walls. It bubbles up from the stone floor, hissing and popping and emitting some kind of vapor that makes my eyes water. Everywhere I look, it's the same scene—dark, horrific, and endless. It takes me no time at all to realize that I'm in what's supposed to be my own basement, my own laboratory... and there's no exit to be found anywhere.

Another scream catches my attention and draws my horrified gaze to the slimy scaly bulk of a beast that towers over my comparatively minuscule form, its own partially amorphous body taking up most of the space before me. The beast is a mix of dark pink-grey flesh, pale violet scales, and bulbous green eyes amidst all manner of claw-tipped appendages. Somewhere in that maddening visage, I see a gaping mouth large enough to swallow several ponies whole and filled with rows of mismatched teeth. Some are large and some small, but all are tapered to a knife-edge and drip with the same black ichor that oozes from the floor, walls, and ceiling.

But its form doesn't stay that way for long, and before my eyes, it twists and changes to something else—something far more difficult to comprehend, but just as gruesome if not more so. Then it changes again a few moments later, and again, and once more. Each transformation is more twisted than the last, but the sickening screams of agony I hear from seemingly everywhere at once remain the same, and it takes me a moment to realize why that is and why it sounds so familiar. 

Having seen it for myself, I now know that this eldritch horror is none other than Spike. 'Spike' is what my mind now tells me when I look at it, but that's not the only thing I see. The screams don't belong to 'Spike' and they don't belong to Applejack either. The other creature I see in my mind's eye when I look at that thing, the other creature whose screams savagely tear at my heartstrings, the other creature whose name I scream out with renewed despair and hopelessness... 



That creature's name is 'Pinkamena Diane Pie'.