A forest of singing birds and fluttering butterflies was just what the doctor ordered for Amethyst Star. Things were so calm and peaceful around her that it really helped her mental state after everything else that had happened recently in her life. This green and brightly lit forest was the most idyllic locale Amethyst Star could remember traveling through so far in the Undiscovered West. And while a lot of her journey had been hectic and stressful that didn’t mean there hadn’t been plenty of pretty stuff and places to see. Even among everything else though this forest plainly stood out with its sheer natural beauty and soothing atmosphere.
The sun was shining warm rays on her and every other denizen of the forest from its early morning position, Amethyst Star had made sure to make the most of this perfect day. If things were going to be like this she wanted to wake up early and experience as much of the day as possible. This pretty forest and perfect weather would just be wasted otherwise. That’s what she thought as she walked past all the strong and healthy trees around her. Walnut, elm, oak, the forest had a diverse array of greenery that was all on the verge of changing to a more yellow and orange color with the turning of the seasons. Amethyst Star could look up and see friendly squirrels running through them too, a woodpecker making its home in a hollowed out trunk, and down on the ground were rabbits hopping along as they made it back to their holes and a chipmunk or two jittering around with a mouthful of acorns.
“What a nice place,” Amethyst Star smiled while she walked.
Up ahead was a gently flowing stream that she could easily hop over but instead she chose to walk along it for a bit, seeing where it might take her. The green grass beneath her hooves was soft and comfortable, a welcome change from the usual, and the stream provided cool and clean water for her to take a sip from whenever she was thirsty. Everything about this forest was a nice change from the usual for her. It was slow and obviously didn’t have the adventure she craved but it was what she needed right now.
She could even look and see plenty of bushes overflowing with ripe fruit that she could pick whenever she wanted. Was this forest just perfect or something? She wouldn’t be surprised at all if she started seeing apple trees and ponies out on picnics in here. In fact she was kind of surprised she hadn’t seen anyone already. A forest as pleasant and bountiful as this? Why wasn’t there anyone nearby?
“Well maybe that’s why it’s managed to stay so perfect. No ponies or anyone else tromping through it all the time to muck it up,” the unicorn said to herself as she did exactly that. On a smaller scale though.
Amethyst Star stopped for a second to dip her hoof in the stream, lazily taking a break as she watched her shimmering reflection. Her face looked a lot happier than it really had any right to be. Forgetting about that unpleasant thought she took her hoof out of the water and continued walking. Just in time for a little blue butterfly to land right on the tip of her horn. She paused herself again to not disturb the tiny bug and smiled up at it. The butterfly slowly flapped its wings a couple of times before taking off into the air again, leaving Amethyst Star to her walk.
She wasn’t doing anything in particular as she walked downstream so when the sweet song of a bird reached her ears she decided to go find the source of it. A simple little detour fit this lackadaisical and warm day.
It turned out to be the chirping of a sparrow, sitting in a bird’s nest on a low branch of one of the elm trees. Amethyst Star was just barely able to peek into the nest to see three white and brown-dotted eggs. The sight brought a warm smile to the face of Amethyst Star, the mother, or father, sparrow was happily chirping about their soon to be hatched eggs.
“Aww,” she cooed.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
When did it become dusk?
The pleasant morning light of the forest had turned into an orange twilight. The voice from beside Amethyst Star caused her to slowly turn her head, above the clouds had stopped moving, in the forest the animals had stopped moving. Silence reigned. The pony standing next to her—when did he get there? There was no one else in this forest.
Her head turned. Her eyes turned.
She saw the stallion standing there, looking towards the nest with a tight-lipped smile.
A yellow coat.
A blue mane and tail.
A white star on his cheek.
His face seemed to mirror hers, also slowly turning from the nest to look her right in the eyes as he kept smiling.
“Hello, Miss Amethyst Star.”
She blinked. Once. Twice. “Hi...” she finally managed to respond to the pony she vaguely felt was familiar. Had she seen him before? Had someone mentioned him to her? She couldn’t remember for sure. But she knew how strange she felt just looking at him. How wrong everything suddenly felt. How the warm and calming atmosphere of the forest turned so cold and uncomfortable.
“What a pleasure it is to meet,” he closed his eyes as he grinned at her.
“Uh-huh… who are you?” Amethyst Star asked. She almost tried to take a step back from him but found that her legs wouldn’t let her.
“Harlequin White. The pleasure to be,” he opened his eyes only to wink one of them at her. “And before you ask why I was out here, well I was merely taking a stroll. Merely enjoying the beautiful forest and all the little creatures inside it, just like you!” He looked back to the sparrow and its nest. “What a lovely sight, is it not?”
“Uh, yeah, it is,” Amethyst Star frowned, following his gaze to the happy little sparrow.
The strange stallion reached out a hoof, right to the sparrow as if beckoning him to hop on. “Oh I do so enjoy seeing little lives such as this all happy and carefree. So joyous and so naive. Why it makes me smile so wide.” Just like he said his smile grew wider and wider until it stretched across his entire face. A smile that would give Pinkie Pie a run for her money were it not so empty. “Seeing things so pointless and small, my does it amuse me so. And to play with them as well.”
Surprisingly the sparrow jumped onto his hoof, Harlequin White lowered it to Amethyst Star’s shoulder, where the sparrow again surprisingly flittered its way onto her. The tiny bird looked up into her eyes and chirped. It was something that would’ve normally brought a smile to her face, and filled her with an ecstatic wonder that a wild bird had chosen to ride on her shoulder, but instead all she felt was uneasiness as she looked into that sparrow’s black eyes.
“Would you like to walk with me?”
“Huh?” Amethyst Star’s head swung back to Harlequin White, snapped out of her thoughts.
“Walk with me? My home is right nearby.”
“You live in this forest?” Amethyst Star asked as they both slowly began walking through the trees, her legs seeming to have minds of their own.
“I live around,” was his answer.
He led her on a winding and invisible path deeper into the forest. Amethyst Star kept looking around the further they traveled but she never heard or saw any more animals, the sparrow on her shoulder was her lone companion for the moment. The orange glow from the sun got dimmer and dimmer the further they went, long shadows were casted by the twisted and dark trees that seemed to sprout up suddenly all around the two ponies. Was this really the same forest? It was almost like she had somehow wandered into the Everfree.
“Well here we are, home already.”
Amethyst Star peeked around his body to see a small wooden cottage sitting in the middle of some trees, there were no windows and only a front door that led into the one room inside. No chimney either and only a simple roof of wooden shingles. It’s not like it looked scary or anything. It’s not like it should have been foreboding. But Amethyst Star just wasn’t sure about any of this. Did she want to go in there?
The question would answer itself when Harlequin White opened up the door and they both stepped inside.
Shelves of books lined the walls, all of them curving together. In the middle of the single room that made up this “house” a lone desk and chair sat made of the simplest wood. Sparse. Barren. Empty. It wasn’t really the place a pony could or would want to live. It wasn’t that anything in here was strange on its own but it did no favors to easing her mind. Everything was just wrong. But it was difficult for her to put it in words. It was difficult for her to think right now. Her mind felt like it was wandering through a fog and all of her responses were dulled. She knew she should be doing something else, or reacting in a different way, but everything was just so hazy.
“Home, sweet home.”
Harlequin White said and then stepped around the desk to take a seat in the chair. The door closed shut behind Amethyst Star, leaving her to just stand there in the middle of the house with the sparrow perched on her shoulder. She looked down, noticing the brown carpet beneath her hooves for the first time, and up, seeing the one lamp hanging from the center of the roof that provided the illumination for the home.
Were they always there or did they just start existing when she noticed them?
“I’m sorry I can’t offer you a seat as well. You’ll just have to stand, I’m afraid.”
Amethyst Star looked to him as he leaned forward, propping his elbows up on the desk and cupping his face in his hooves as he smiled at her. Her eyes were drawn to the white star on his cheek.
“No big deal, I’ve been on my hooves for most of my journey. I can stand to stand around for a bit,” she said to him.
“Good, that’s good to hear. But I’m such a bad host aren’t I? How could I make you so uncomfortable?” He feigned crying, wringing his hooves over her eyes.
Amethyst Star bit her lip at his weird behavior. “D-Don’t worry. I mean, I guess I gotta thank you for bringing me to your home? You’re being pretty hospitable.”
“Oh I just figured you could use a rest from your long journey,” he smiled widely at her again.
“Yeah...” Amethyst Star frowned and raised an eyebrow at the strange pony. “What do you know about me and my journey anyways? Sorry, I’m just kind of confused right now.”
Harlequin White’s eyes stared up at the ceiling for a second, going from side to side in a faux display of searching his memories and thinking even though he clearly knew how he was going to answer from the start. And probably before Amethyst Star even asked the question. “Hmm. What a good question, Miss Amethyst Star. What do I know about you and the little adventure you’ve decided to take? I guess the simplest answer would be: everything.” He shrugged.
“Everything?”
“Everything, yes indeed,” Harlequin White nodded. “I think you’ve done a miraculous job so far, I must add.”
That was a bit surprising to hear. Nice if it was genuine though, she even got a bit of a hopeful look on her face. “Really?”
“Oh yes, quite miraculous. Not many ponies can be such a great source of entertainment like you. I’ve been laughing and laughing the entire time. Ha. He. Ho,” Harlequin White giggled.
“Laughing?” Amethyst Star’s frown returned and deepened, that dash of hope quickly gone. “All of this stuff that’s happened to me has been funny to you?”
He nodded some more, struggling to contain his laughter. “Oh yes, yes! Downright hilarious! A naive pony like you, her life so small and pointless going out on a pointless adventure, I love it.”
“P-Pointless?” Amethyst Star sputtered. “My life isn’t pointless, and neither is my adventure!”
The smile on Harlequin White’s face… changed.
“Miss Amethyst Star. How wrong you are.”
The sparrow on her shoulder left to begin flying about the room while the hanging lamp dimmed, casting the same orange glow from outside across everything else, like the light of a setting sun. She watched the sparrow for a bit as it flew in circles while Harlequin White’s gaze continued to focus on her. He stopped leaning forward and instead laid his hooves out on the desk, gently tapping the wood in sequence.
“Yes, yes, pointless. I mean what did you really think about your adventure? You didn’t think things were going well did you? Of course even if they were I’d still think it was pointless silliness,” he laughed.
“Okay, fine. I’ll admit this adventure hasn’t turned out the way I wanted it to so far. But that’s just it. So far. I’m still out here and I’m still looking for a real chance, aren’t I?” Amethyst Star pointed to herself. “I think that’s pretty impressive. And it’s not pointless.”
His smile turned even more mocking if that was possible. “Right, you’re so adamant about changing and becoming a better pony. Becoming special.”
The unicorn’s eyes narrowed. “I am special.”
He feigned surprise, sitting up straight in his chair and holding a hoof over his mouth in a silent “Oh”. The strange pony then tilted his head and a smile peeked out from past his hoof. “Really? So you’ve been looking down on your friends all this time?”
“Huh?!” Amethyst Star backed up, her face a confused and kind of angry visage.
“Well that’s what it means to be special. Better than others. Whether consciously or not you’re looking down on the ones around you. I mean you can’t tell me there wasn’t even a little bit of resentment or disgust for your friends in you? After all they would never even try to do something like this, how pathetic you must have thought of them! How complacent, how small, how could they like and allow themselves to be overshadowed by others. And how could they be so mean to you about wanting something different. I’m surprised you don’t outright hate your friends,” he lowered his hoof to smile as sincerely as he was able.
“No!” Amethyst Star yelled, his words ringing in her head. “I don’t hate my friends and being special doesn’t mean you have to think less of anyone else!”
“But isn’t that something that you were worried about? That ponies were thinking less of you and underestimating you because you weren’t like Twilight Sparkle and her friends?”
“Well… yeah, but that doesn’t mean it’s how I feel. And I know that Twilight Sparkle definitely doesn’t look down on anybody else!” She accusingly pointed a stiff hoof at him.
“Oh but you’ve still been so selfish and dismissive of everyone else on this journey… you mention Twilight Sparkle but do you really think you can compare yourself to her in any way?” His smile turned into a sneer as a row of chuckling threatened to break past his lips.
Amethyst Star squared her legs and stood up as tall and proudly as she could. “Yes.”
Harlequin White’s sneer stayed on his face. “Oh, that’s what’s so entertaining and hilarious about you.” He lifted a hoof and pointed it to the carpet she was standing on. “Look.”
She did look down, just as instructed, to see that she had seemingly unknowingly walked over a line of ants when she stepped into the house. The line was shattered by her hooves and when she lifted her right front hoof she saw dozens of ants that she had accidentally crushed beneath it. “W-What? Were these ants always here?”
“Do you care about them?”
Amethyst Star looked back at him, a weak response coming out of her. “Huh?”
“Those ants. Do you actually care about the fact that you’ve just ended so many of their lives or are they an existence so far beneath you that you can’t even be bothered to look down on them in the first place,” he glanced up at the flying sparrow and as if the bird could read his mind it came fluttering down to a stop right on his desk in-between his hooves. “Life. Lives. Is there any difference between ponies and those ants?”
“What are you talking about, of course there is!” Amethyst Star tried to shake some of the ants off her hooves and stepped away from the line.
“Really? It all seems so pointless to me,” Harlequin White shrugged. “That’s why seeing this little sparrow with its eggs was so funny. Everything dies someday but everything keeps on trying to live and make the most of their pointless little lives. I’ll die one day too. And my brother just so happened to recently die, I bet he was surprised even though he shouldn’t have been.” Harlequin White started to giggle.
Amethyst Star couldn’t believe what she was hearing, it made her sick to her stomach, almost enough to overshadow the cold pit that had formed there the more he talked. “I-I can’t believe you can laugh about something like that...”
“I don’t see the problem. I like to laugh and find entertainment in things and life has no value. The life of an ant, pony, dragon, me, or-” he picked up the sparrow in his hooves, the bird’s beady black eyes looking up at him in curiosity. Harlequin White’s own eyes looked down at it for a second before flickering back to Amethyst Star. “This sparrow.”
He pushed his hooves together and crushed the sparrow between them with a sickening crunch.
“What are you doing?!” Amethyst Star yelled in absolute horror.
“Nothing!” He pulled his hooves apart and the sparrow flew right out of them, looking perfectly fine. It was chirping and tweeting happily as it made a few rounds around the room before returning to Amethyst Star’s own shoulder. Sitting there and staring back up at her while she peered at it, morbidly confused.
She slowly turned her head to look at Harlequin White again, shivering and scared as she did so. “I don’t-”
“Just a joke, just a little illusion, of course I didn’t actually kill that poor little sparrow. Otherwise how could it be alive and well? Even a unicorn like you with limited magical knowledge should know there’s no spell for bringing back the dead. So I couldn’t have possibly just crushed it between my hooves like an insignificant speck, now could I have?” Harlequin White’s smile split his face and a mean-spirited chuckle emerged from his throat.
Amethyst Star just slightly shook her head. Her only response to his question. The atmosphere in here and around him had gotten even worse. More oppressive, frightening, colder. Everything about this was already so wrong but the playfulness, fake or otherwise, that had existed beforehand was completely gone. Replaced with nothing but danger and the sound of sirens and her own heartbeat blaring in her head.
Gulping, she closed her eyes tight for a second before opening them again, a worried look on her face. “Can I go now?”
“Go?” Harlequin White feigned surprise at her words. “But why would you want to go? Am I not being a good host? Is something wrong?” He made an exaggerated pout, frowning and puffing his lips out as if he was about to cry. It reminded her of the behavior of another she had visited with, but minus the playfulness, minus the good-nature. Replaced with dread and cruelty.
Amethyst Star gave him a stuttering nod. “Y-Yes. Please...”
“Aww, and I was having so much fun,” he sighed and slumped over onto his desk, still keeping up that fake pout. “But fiiine, I suppose it would be better to treat you a little… differently than I treat most of the pointless lives I come across.” He sat up with a jolt, grinning again. “Do you know why?”
The unicorn shook her head again, still having difficulty speaking.
“It’s because, there is a difference between things like ants and ponies. Ponies hold far much more potential for entertainment,” Harlequin White gave a quiet laugh while he smiled at Amethyst Star. “You can run along now. Enjoy your adventure.”
She wasn’t sure when she turned around and walked out his door but here she was back in the forest. The light had grown even dimmer, the sun almost disappearing completely behind the horizon, making the forest colder and changing her mind from how she thought it was so pleasant and inviting earlier. Amethyst Star would need to find a place to stop soon. She was about to take a step when something tumbled off her shoulder and onto the ground, still.
Her eyes drifted down to look at the little sparrow lying there in the grass.
Twisted, broken, and dead.