//------------------------------// // Love you (Spike, Twilight; Horror) // Story: Anthology of Graybles // by Str8aura //------------------------------// Twilight frowned in boredom, lighting her horn yet again to flip to the next world, looking out over a perfect replica of her own with a sigh. The mirror portal she gazed upon gave her the power to cast an eye over trillions of nearby dimensions, seeing nearly every possible future and reality conceivable from any point in time from the present moment to the big bang. Endless possibilities lay beyond it, and with a simple modification she had turned the mirror into a looking glass, flipping through views of each world like channels on the world's most powerful TV. And naturally, the thousand or so closest were all worlds where the defining difference was what side of the bed she rolled out of, how long she sharpened her quills, and the color of her assistant's egg. She began getting frustrated, flipping her horn into overdrive, speeding through the same picture of the same ponyville street over and over again, searching for any noticeable difference. She almost missed it in her furious flipping, quickly speeding to a stop and backtracking through the identical worlds, until she came across one significantly different. The sun was a little higher, the horizon was a little purpler, the tree by Lyra's house was tilted slightly, and Lyra's house was completely gone along with all other trace of civilization. A barren wasteland of soil stretched out for miles, only dotted with dying trees and small hills. She stared at it, uneasiness creeping up her back slightly, before deciding to blot it out. She flipped the channel, feeling a weight lift off her lungs as she was greeted with yet another identical street in the early morning. Sighing, she returned to her monotony, letting her concern slip from her mind... Another wasteland flashed. She ignored it, shutting her eyes for a second. Another one flashed. And another. And another. Pristine sleepiness faded into a final drawn out string of flashing images like a single yarn extending from the rest of the ball before disappearing completely, replaced with nothing but brown and grey, filling her vision in a cascading streamline of flashing images burning into her brain. No matter how far she scrolled with her horn, the mirror showed one thing and one thing only. The line between life and destruction was one barrier of dimensions long, and beyond that, every world she saw was dead. She finally forced herself to stop, despite her keenness to march forward stubbornly until she came across a living world she could close it on. The wasteland stretched before her, looking like the ashen earth could come cascading through the portal onto her carpet. She softly turned the lock to the room she sat in with a horn, before struggling to her hooves, limping over to the portal in a trance. The portal enveloped her, letting her pass through the barrier like a wall of water, stepping into the dust and smelling the ashes for the first time. Oddly, the ashes smelt like petrichor. Not a trace of her home remained, and it seemed like everything else followed her suit. A standing, but remarkably bare Canterlot Mountain loomed in the distance, the one beacon of the past remaining turned into nothing but a sad reminder, striving for a hope it could never reach. All else was gone, razed off the map completely. She rotated in place for a minute, head swimming and sky stretching endlessly above her, seeming ready to pluck her off the ground with its own gravitational field at any second. Thoughts swam through her head clockwise as she turned counterclockwise, seeking to maliciously disorient as she stared up to the heavens in shock. When she returned, she left the room in a haze. A quick, empty grocery run blurring around her later, she was back in the room, doors locked and ready to search until she collapsed. Worlds and realities sped past her as she leaped in and out of portals, spending no more than a few minutes in each one to gauge her surroundings. Any more and her heart began to float, her eyes unfocusing, her breath catching, and her entire body violently rejecting the new world she found herself in. Over and over the motions went, absorbing every difference in wastelands she could. Some were bathed in hellish fire coursing over the land, ravenously devouring all it could touch. Some were frozen over, bodies around her maintained in a constant state of phantom life, forever encapsulated in the one moment before frigid cold swept over all. Some were burnt out husks of the town she knew, keeping her rooted in her spot as she stared at the ashen outlines of playing children and relaxing adults burnt into the side of a standing wall. Some were forests, growing invasively, in which clicks and giggles filled the void with noise just out of sight. Every world was a painting, a photograph rooted in one place eternally with none left to turn the planet forward. And one was a desert. She gazed upon the familiar emptiness, covered in sand, and began to leave again. Turning back to the mirror, something caught her eye- Something buried in the sand, only an inch of bleached white sticking out in the sea of yellow. Scrambling to dig, her breath grew ragged, beyond stressed and tired by this point, desperate for any sign of equine life. Luckily, she found one. Twilight stared into Twilight, her agape mouth nearly wrenched off as she was dragged out of the sand. Her empty sockets bore holes into Twilight's skull as it lay in Twilight's grasp, and she barely noticed the spots in her eyes. The alicorn from out of the mirror stared at the skeletal alicorn from out of the sand, and she suddenly saw a flashing clipshow in her mind, identical to the flashes of the mirror portal cycling through worlds. Her mind showed Twilight, eyes widening as Nightmare Moon's horn slid through her like butter, rupturing arteries and shattering bones instantly. Her mind showed Twilight, spine breaking as Tirek brought his fist upon her at full strength, landing a perfect blow as she tried to speed past him. Her mind showed Twilight, body and soul withering in a green cocoon as the hazy image of Chrysalis smiled at her outside. Her mind showed Twilight, flesh blistering and fur burning as she boiled in the stomach of a hydra. Every death removed a piece from harmony's puzzle, every death bringing another world fallen to the cascade of monsters and madmen she was destined to battle. Every world hinged on her and her friends, and even a single slip up could kill not only her, but innocents as well. Every fight she had resulted in a world where she lost, where everyone lost. Every battle tossed a dice where every side won, in different universes. She was the most important piece, and her rogues gallery was infinite. Twilight dropped the skeleton, stumbling back into the portal and shutting it as fast as possible, trying desperately to quell the screams bubbling out of her throat. For a minute she stood there, in front of the dead portal, struggling to catch her breath and push stray hairs out of her eyes. A knock sounded from the door, and she unlocked it unthinkingly. "Twi?" Spike's voice sounded out from the doorway quietly. "Yes?" She replied breathlessly. "You okay? I heard whimpering." "I'm fine. Just playing with the portal." He nodded, satisfied. "Alright. The girls are getting ready to go to lunch. You going?" "I'll catch up. I just need a minute." He flashed her a thumbs up, starting to head out the door. Twi turned to him, watching him as he passed back through the doorway. She had never noticed how tall he was getting. "Spike?" "Yeah, Twi?" "I love you." He smiled. "Love you too. See you around."