//------------------------------// // Book 2: Animus | Chapter 2: Helpless // Story: The Midnight Series: Incomplete Edition // by Notowa //------------------------------// Chapter 2: Helpless Sunset was walking to an odd building. The building was not familiar in the slightest to her, but she felt like she had been there before. She was her ponyself. Sunset looked around her, and there was a fogginess that surrounded her, along with dead trees that no longer held leaves together on the branches. It was nighttime, with the moon glowing at the peak in the skies. She came to the building, and it looked as if it was an abandoned mansion in the middle of the woods. Sunset knocked on the door, and it had opened fairly slowly. She was greeted by human Princess Twilight. Which made her feel comforted. She held out hoof hand and brought her inside the mansion. Inside of it was covered in reds and blacks, the carpeting was bright red and the walls were a darkened wood that still held a glossy pigment to give it's richness and texture. There were candles and torches that partially lit up the room, like an old castle. Princess Twilight held Sunset's hand, as she realized she was in her human form. Princess Twilight dragged her further into the mansion, where she saw pictures of familiar faces on the walls, painting of places she had been too, and passed many doorways. She stopped at one of the doors, and opened it. She brought her to a refined room. Near the center against the wall was a large king-sized bed that had black sheets, a fluffy red blanket, and was enclosed with a transparent black curtain draped down from the four corners against the railing of the bed. The room had a small desk and chair in the far right corner of the room. There was a large wardrobe in the other corner, and the rest of the room was darkened by shadows that lingered everywhere it was not lit. Princess Twilight laid next to Sunset. She wrapped her in the sheets and blankets, making her comfortable. They both laid there, starting to get sleepy. The comfort of Princess Twilight with her made her feel relaxed. Sunset felt something underneath the sheets that made her crawl up to the top of the bed. In an instance, Princess Twilight felt like she was being dragged. Sunset quickly grabbed her hands as she was about to be taken away into the darkness. She tried to pull her in, but her grip suddenly lost strength and Princess Twilight was taken away. Sunset sat in the bed, alone and afraid of walking out of the curtains. She heard a giggle coming from the side of her. She quickly turned to look and saw Princess Twilight sink below underneath the bed. She crawled to the edge and checked underneath. Sunset saw nothing. She got back up, but she heard something behind her. Sunset slowly turned around and saw that the wardrobe was opened with scratch marks all over the inside of it. She kept turning the other direction. Until she came across the desk, and there was something carved into it. It had an eye symbol which looked familiar to her. Sunset turned around and saw Twilight with no facial features and her enormous eyes staring from the other side of the room. With her hands, bloodied, and the fingernails cracked and ripped into her skin. Twilight hovered to her, but Sunset went back to the bed. She stood until she felt like she was safe enough to head for the door. She ran and opened the door. Bolted through the hallway Princess Twilight took her through. The pictures on the walls became blank and the painting smeared like someone had used their hand to wipe it away. Sunset didn't look back until she found the front door she came out of. Sunset was suddenly outside. She came out to the front entrance of Canterlot High. She saw the mirror and stallion statue. She went to it, and placed her hand over it, but it was solid. The mirror had her reflection, but it was her ponyself. It quickly changed in front of her to a familiar face, the demon she became. Sunset backed away from it, and turned to the school entrance. She saw Twilight standing at the door. Both the demon and Twilight came to her. Sunset ran for it, but they caught her. Sunset tried to wake herself up before they reached their hands to her. Sunset startled, as she started to regain her composure. Her eyes twitched to open up again, laying in her bed. She felt the bitter cold of the bright morning sun peeking through the curtains. Throughout the night, she remained frozen from the touch of Twilight's body. She could feel her intoxicating dead corpse nearby. She looked around and saw that Twilight was not there. Sunset hoped that it was all a dream. As she got up to fix her bed, her bed was wet with blood, cold sweat, and possibly piss from Twilight's doing, since she may not know how to use the restroom. "Great, now I have to clean that up!" Sunset said to herself, as she wrapped up the sheets and blankets to a naked mattress underneath. As she got up, the house felt colder, and she could smell the freshness of earth from outside in her house. Sunset looked around and saw that Twilight was nowhere to be found. "Twilight?" Sunset called. She walked down the stairs and saw Twilight laying on the floor. "Twilight?!" Sunset ran to her, it seemed she fell over the platform late at night. She was knocked unconscious. Her eyes were closed, her body felt heavy and lifeless. "Oh, Twilight..." Sunset picked her up, and placed her on the couch, as she searched to see if Twilight was still breathing. She was. Sunset, relieved, and was curious about Twilight and looked into her mind again. Through Twilight's eyes, she saw herself, it seems that Twilight was not asleep but watched her throughout the night. Twilight's grip lifted from her as she saw herself moving around into the blankets. Sunset scooted Twilight out of bed, and made Twilight fall over from the platform. She smacked the ground with her full weight. Sunset was startled when Twilight hit the floor, and for the fact that Twilight stood up countless hours on staring at her. It made her skin crawl with goosebumps. She remembered to phone the girls, given it was an emergency they needed to figure out together. It took a little while for the girls to arrive, but Twilight was still asleep when they entered Sunset's house. "What's the problem?!" Rainbow Dash yelled, as she ran into Sunset's house. "I'm ready for anything!" "What's up Sunset?" Applejack asked. As Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie walked in. The shivering cold breeze was blown into the house, so Sunset went to shut the door. "Does it have something to do with Twilight?" Applejack took a wild guess as she looked down at Twilight, lying on the couch. "I'm afraid so..." Sunset said. "Twilight arrived late last night in the middle of the storm, with no shoes or even a jacket." The girls were terrified. "That's not all, she was acting weird. I tried talking to her, but she didn't say anything. It was creepy." "How unnerving..." Rarity commented "Something smells funky..." She complained, as she looked around the room. "It does." Sunset replied. "Something actually smells funky, like sweat and something else?" Rarity continued. Sunset thought about it, and realized she did not wash up or cleaned the bed before she called them over to her house. "Sunset did say she was outside..." Applejack interrupted. "She could have stepped anywhere with no shoes on!" "Yeah..." Sunset said, as her face grew pale, as she scratched the back of her head. "Well, then do something about it!" Rarity demanded. "I can't stand to be here any longer with this... fumes of toxicity!" "C'mon Rarity, there are more important things to worry about!" Rainbow Dash added. "Like, did you use your brain magic or whatever Sunset?" "Yeah I did, nothing seemed to have happened before she arrived last night." Sunset said, while Rarity was once again upset with Rainbow Dash, but this time Applejack stepped in to calm her down. "That's strange..." Fluttershy said softly, as she went to examine Twilight's body. "She's breathing rather slowly, and her pulse..." "She is sleeping ya know?" Rainbow Dash added. "Even so, her whole body feels cold, and not functioning normally..." Fluttershy said. "I'm worried! Was Spike with her at all?" "No, I don't think so..." Sunset said. "This is not good. It's happened again, isn't it?" Fluttershy questioned, overly worried of the both of them. "Am afraid am with this one on Fluttershy." Applejack said. "Twilight probably had an accident with something again?" "It could be." Sunset said. "But, after what happened, you think she would have been more cautious, or even too scared to mess with things like this again?" "Guess not..." Pinkie Pie said, as she was laying on Sunset's bed. "Pinkie Pie?!" Sunset yelled. They all turned their attention to Pinkie above the platform on Sunset's bed. "What?!" Pinkie Pie asked. "Twilight was laying there!" Sunset announced. "Oh, that explains why it's wet over here!" Pinkie Pie said. Sunset facepalmed in embarrassment. The others looked at each other. "Look, we're going to find out together, right?" Applejack asked, as she placed her hand on Sunset's shoulder. "Yeah, let's hope!" Sunset said, as she began to worry. Everyone quieted down, and they saw Twilight awaken from her sleep. She did not yawn or even wipe off the drool from her mouth. "Twilight? Are you okay?" Sunset asked, but Twilight did nothing, but starred with her big captivating violet eyes. "Twilight?!" Rainbow Dash asked, but Twilight looked toward her direction, and Rainbow Dash cowardly shifted back away from her as she looked deep into her eyes. "Talk about Fluttershy's raging eyes." "What?!" Fluttershy said. Twilight observed all that surrounded her, not saying a word or having any reaction in her emotionless expression. "I should try it!" Fluttershy stepped to her, Twilight looked at her, and Fluttershy gazed at her with her powerful mind controlling eyes. She focused for a minute or two, but she could not see anything in Twilight but dread. "It's no use..." Fluttershy added. "We need to go check in at her house, find Spike, and open her closet of secrets again!" "Agreed!" Rainbow Dash said. As the others nodded, Sunset was not convinced that Twilight would do something like this again. "Anyone else feel hungry?" Pinkie Pie asked, as she was kicking her feet off the side of the bed. "Cause I could use something warm in my tummy!" The girls stopped for a moment, and were starting to feel their empty stomach growl. "Sure." Sunset said. "But, what do we do with Twilight?" "Take her with us?" Rainbow Dash said. "She won't do any harm!" As she tapped on her shoulder. Twilight looked back at her. "Except do that!" Rainbow Dash added. "There we go!" As Rainbow Dash placed a pair of sunglasses on Twilight. "Someone just got fifteen percent much cooler!" The girls laughed. "Okay, I'm going to get ready!" Sunset said. As the girls waited around for Sunset. They just talked about some things regarding Twilight's behavior. Twilight was silent, looking around, and looking at all the girls one by one. As if she never knew them, and took off the glasses. "C'mon Twilight, really?!" Rainbow Dash added. Sunset finally showered, and she got dressed into a dark red shirt that had orange and yellow stripes along the neck and shoulders, black jeans, leather boots and her leather jacket, unzipped. "Alright, let's go!" Sunset said, as she walked out of the bathroom. The girls liked the newest outfit she had. "Wait, what about Twilight?!" Pinkie Pie asked. "She's not dressed!" They all turned their attention to Twilight, and she was still wearing Sunset's usual pajamas. "Oh boy..." Sunset said.