//------------------------------// // Guidance and Necessities // Story: A Nightmares Return // by Nihilus //------------------------------// ‘’ So what in great hell ähm Tartaros do I do now? ‘‘, exclaimed Pinkie Pie, sitting on her little island in the middle of huge lava sea. ‘’Well what does your consciousness say?’’. The new voice startled her and she jumped several feet into the air. As she turned around she saw a purple stallion with green and red hair, smiling at her with a mischievous smile. ‘’ Let me guess, it says nothing’’ He eyed her one more time and a little too long for Pinkie’s taste, but as she wanted to speak up he began to talk again.’’ Or it says that you should continue killing’’. ‘’Well, that’s odd. How does he know, what my consciousness told me? Maybe he is some underling of Mot, who wanted to find out about the new arrival, the glorious Pinkie Pie.’’ ‘’ No, I don’t have an alliance with this cursed Princess called Mot’’. ‘’ Could you please stop reading my thoughts?’’. ‘’ I didn’t read your thoughts’’ he began to chuckle. ‘’ Because you said everything out loud’’, he fell into a laughing fit. . ‘Nice, the second pony I met here and I make myself a laughing stock ’, thought Pinkie, but this time Pinkie made sure to think and not to speak out loud. .‘’Well that was rich. So, back to the serious stuff. From your reaction I gather that in fact your consciousness told you to continue killing. That’s good.’’ ‘’ Yes, well there was a voice, that told me I should end what I began, so I reckon it’s about killing Dashie. But why am I telling this to you. Who are you?’’ ‘’ My name is Nihilus Chrome and I am here to help you get back to the world of the living.’’ ‘’ Yeah, sure. You skinny little stallion will beat me out of here.’’ ‘’ Well, not me alone … and I’m not that skinny, am I?’’ ‘’ You are not the sturdiest. But now I’m interested, where is your army?’’ ‘’ Well Pinkie, you certainly will see an army, while we break out, but it, sure as Tartaros, won’t be ours. ‘’ ‘’ Nihilus would you kindly come to the point, you start to bore our readers.’’ ‘’ Our what? ’’ ‘’ Nothing, nothing. Just get to the point.’’ ‘’ Ok, well this is the plan. We gather the wickedest souls from all over Tartaros and start a rebellion against Mot and here underlings. Quite simple isn’t it?’’ ‘’ But aren’t the simplest solutions the best? I like your idea. Just one tiny-little problem. How are we going to get off of this island? ’’ ‘’Well, we leave the same way I got here. We walk over the lava.’’ ‘’We can do that?’’ ‘’Sure thing, you know, these whole lava sea here is just for decoration. And, now come, on follow me I got our first soul located.’’ ‘’Who is it?’’ ‘’Let me look for the name’’. Nihilus drew a list out of nowhere. ‘’ Ahhhh there she is, the name is Trixie Lulamoon.’’ ‘’Wait, why is she here?’’ ‘’You know her?’’ ‘’Well, she visited my hometown and one of my friends uncovered her lies. So, why is she here?’’ ‘’Let me see, reason of visit in Tartaros would be excessive lying, gambling and attempted murder’’ ‘’Where is she right now?’’ ‘’Down there’’ While the two of them had talked, they had walked over to the edge of the lava sea and now both of them looked down in an endless abyss. ‘’We have to go down there?’’, Pinkie asked with a little uncertainty in her voice. ‘’Seems like it, so let’s find a way down.’’ ‘’ Oh I found one, here this ladder seems conveniently placed’’, Pinkie said from behind the stallion. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Twilight had never felt so unrested after a long-night sleep. Though she didn’t have nightmares of any kind, but still she had awoken several times in the night. It all made no sense. But today was a new day and she had the feeling, that today she would find solutions. Her stomach made itself felt with a loud growling noise. ‘’Hehe ok first breakfast, than thinking’’, she chuckled and made her way to the kitchen. While she sat at her dining table with a bowl of oatmeal, she recapitulated yesterday’s happenings. She was banned from the hospital, had no clue where to search for Pinkie, she had thoroughly scared Rainbow. And as she sat there one question sprang to mind. Why haven’t I called the Police? Twilight facehoofed. Sure, the police in Ponyville wasn’t this big, because crimes where very scarce in here, but still they were THE POLICE. She was sure, they had at least more resources then she had. But then it struck her. She simply couldn’t call the police; her traces were all over this horrifying basement. If the police would investigate in this case she would surely be the number one suspect. She could see the headlines: ‘’Number one suspect in the infamous ‘Butcher of Ponyville’ case is the personal student of Princess Celestia.’’ They would say that every night Twilight teleported down into the Basement of Sugarcube Corner, because she knew that it wasn’t in use anymore. Her motive would be that she had never quite recovered from the incident widely known as ‘No Lesson’ or ‘Lesson Zero’, that she wanted revenge on everypony, who were influenced by her ‘Want it, Need it’ spell to punish them for the fact that they didn’t resist the spell. Sure this was all ridiculous as it was, but Twilight truly believed, that this was the way all would play out and it determined her course of action. Oh no, Twilight thought, I have to go down there and get rid of the evidence else I will get send to jail and never find out what really happened. So she finished her breakfast in a hurry and as sped out of the door, as she froze in place in the door frame. ‘I can’t walk there; it will look suspicious, if I fail to clean up.’ With this thought in mind she readied her teleportation spell. ‘I just hope the Cakes won’t see me’, Twilight thought. As another thought crossed her mind she lost her concentration and the spell diffused without doing anything, but the question that had came to her mind was one worth asking. ‘Where were the Cakes, I haven’t seen them in a long time now. No no no, please don’t tell me they are’, she gulped, ‘down there in this bloody mess’ But she had no time to think about right now, if they were alive and kicking and found this mess in their basement it would be a bigger problem and she could morn over the dead later. She readied the teleport spell again and vanished from the library, just to appear seconds later in the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner. And there she was, Ms. Cake right next to her, in a black dress and a black veil. Behind her the door to the basement, open. She looked like she was about to scream her lungs out, but the scream never came instead she broke down in sobs. As Twilight pulled her closer to comfort her she got a better look at her, she had bags under both of her eyes and the black attire gave Twilight the last hint. This was a mourning dress and that could only mean someone had died. Twilight cursed inwardly, sure somepony had died, there were at least seven dead ponies down in the basement, but she was sure they were not Ms. Cake’s reason to wear this attire. Twilight noticed that the sobbing has stopped and she looked down at the mare. Ms. Cake looked up at her with an inquisitive look. ‘’Why are you here Twilight?’’, asked Ms.Cake. ‘’Well, I … uhm … came to see how you were doing, since I didn’t see you much in the last time’’, Twilight lied. There was still a chance that Ms. Cake hadn’t seen the basement and she took that chance. ‘’Yes, I came back from Trottingen this morning, from my husband’s funeral’’, she had no more tears to cry. ‘’ Oh I didn’t know that he died. When and how did it happen?’’ ‘’ We were on our way to Canterlot with this huge pie we had made for a wedding, as he lost his balance and was stroked down by the cake. It seemed, in the rush, we had made a mistake and somehow ended up mixing cement into the batter.’’, after a little pause she added, ‘’ isn’t it ironic for a baker to be killed by a pie’’ ‘’ Yes, I suppose. I’m very sorry for your loss. Come here sit down, I’ll make us some tea.’’, she guided Ms. Cake into the sales area, but more importantly away from this cursed door, and sat here at a table. She walked back into the kitchen and prepared some tea. ‘’Ähm… Ms. Cake. Why is the door to the basement open? I have never seen it open before.’’, Twilight hoped that the nerve racked mare would answer her without thinking about this strange question. ‘’Oh, I just wanted to get some things from down there.’’ Ms. Cake answered. ‘’ Maybe I could get them for you’’ ‘’ That would be lovely, dear. Could you please fetch the blue box in the left corner of the room for me’’ ‘’Sure can do’’ Twilight ran down into the basement, and looked around. ‘Still the same horrifying scene’, she thought. She wouldn’t take long getting the evidence away, because she learned that little spell, which allowed her to create a null-space, an endless storage room, which only she could open. And luckily in this null-space were her cleaning utensils, so she got to work. Her routine in the library made her one of the fastest cleaners in all of Ponyville, so she finished cleaning up in no time. The bigger parts were disposed into the null-space; she would get rid of the later. At one particular item, a banner with the caption ‘Life is a Party’, she halted for a second. ‘That is a sentence Pinkie would use’, she thought and then dismissed the item into her null-space. As she was finished there were no traces left of a mass-murder, just a boring old basement. She quickly grabbed the mentioned box in her telekinesis and went upstairs just to see Ms. Cakes in front of the door. ‘’What took you so long, dear?’’, Ms. Cake asked. ‘’I had a little trouble finding it. Sorry to kept you waiting’’, Twilight apologized. ‘’Oh no problem, dear. Would you please set it down in the sales area please? I get the tea.’’ ‘’Can do. But I have to go, you know, clean up the library’’, Twilight lied again. She needed to get out. Fast. ‘’Ok darling, just one question. Have you seen Pinkie? I haven’t seen her all day.’’, Ms. Cake asked. Twilight fell into a bottomless pit. If only she KNEW where Pinkie was. ‘’I have no idea, sorry, but where could she have gone?’’ Twilight asked, silently hopping to get an answer. ‘’I don’t know dear. I already checked all the places where she would normally be.’’ This sentence crushed Twilight’s hopes. Even Pinkie’s close friend and boss didn’t know where she was. ‘’Ok, I hope she gets back soon.’’. Twilight said turning away from Ms. Cake to hide her tears. ‘’Me too, I just hope nothing bad has happened as I was away. Since I didn’t tell anypony, that my husband died’’ ‘’ Later, Ms. Cake’’, Twilight choked through clenched teeth. ‘’Ah see you later, dear and Twilight’’ Twilight turned around.’’ Yes, Ms. Cake?’’ ‘’You’ve got red on you’’ Ms. Cakes pointed to her cheek. ‘’Oh thanks’’ Twilight said as she brushed away the stain from her cheek. Ms. Cake said Twilight goodbye and Ms. Cake went off to the sales area, while Twilight made her way back to the library. Twilight had cried several hours after this incident, because she saw no hope in finding her friend. After this time she had no tears left she could cry and so she steeled her determination. She would find Pinkie dead or alive and if it was the last she would do in her life. So she came up with her next plan to get information on the whereabouts of her pink friend. As she laid out her plan she gulped. It was a drastic plan and she didn’t know if she could execute it properly. But she had to try. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Pinkie and Nihilus made their way down in relative silence, till Pinkie found it boring and began asking questions. ‘’ So why do you try to help me?’’ She asked the purple stallion. ‘’ Because I’m a good soul and think you should finished what you started’’, he answered. Pinkie deadpanned him and said: ‘’Come on a real answer please’’ ‘’Ok ok, I am sent by a dark deity, which wants to destroy all of Equestria and you happen to be the best way to accomplish this’’, she answered barely containing a chuckle. ‘’ If you don’t want to tell me about your motives then so be it, but this silly answers aren’t funny you know’’ Pinkie lectured him. ‘’ I personally find them hilarious’’, he laughed and Pinkie noticed that his laugh reminded her of a maniac. ‘’ Ok I hope you little list their can answer questions without making bad jokes. Who did Trixie try to kill?’’ Pinkie asked again still not comfortable with the idea of help from outsiders. ‘’Wait a second’’, he pulled his list out again, ‘’ here it is ‘The suspect tried to kill two colts named Snips and Snails. Motive unclear.’ That’s odd.’’ ‘’Why do you normally know the motive?’’ Pinkie asked. ‘’No, not that, but who in a right mind would name their kid Snails. That’s ridiculous.’’, he chuckled again at the stare Pinkie gave him. He will have a lot of fun with this pink mare. ‘’Ok forget it; I will shut up after this question, because clearly you are a lunatic with no sense of humor. So, how did she die?’’ Pinkie, rubbed a hoof against her nose. She felt a headache coming. ‘’ Cause of death: Killed by Ursa Major.’’ Now it was Pinkie’s time to laugh her flank off. Sure it was morbid, but hey she was in Tartaros, dead and a mass-murder. This was exactly the kind of humor she liked. ‘’ Why are you laughing now? Did I finally say something funny?’’, the eyes of the purple stallion sparkled with hope. ‘’Sure you did … because … Twilight … ahahah’’ she was panting and still rolled around the floor laughing. After Pinkie had finally managed to get on her hooves again and could pronounce coherent sentences again, she told Nihilus the story of what exactly had happened in Ponyville as Trixie came to town. As she finished her story both of them were lying on the floor laughing. After several minutes of laughing they continued their way down the abyss. ‘’But seriously how could she be so dumb to try it against an … hmpf’’ at the last part of her sentence she bit down on a purple hoof. ‘’ I wouldn’t say anything about this anymore.’’ Nihilus said in a stern voice. ‘’ Pfft blah, how often do you wash yourself, you taste horrible. And why shouldn’t I make of fun of her anymore?’’ Pinkie asked while scrubbing of her tongue. ‘’Because we are at our destination’’ he said not letting his eyes of something in front of him. As Pinkie looked in the direction her guide was staring, she could see a little foretaste of the things she would see in her journey through Tartaros. It was horrible, monstrous and cruel. Pinkie smiled with glee as she hopped forward to meet her first companion.