//------------------------------// // Chapter 28: Pay-Off 8 // Story: Piece by Piece // by Eltirions //------------------------------// 12 December 1008 Sweetie Belle opened her eyes to see white. With a pained mumble, she closed them again. She was so tired, she could just fall asleep again. The bed - was it a bed? It had to be - was so soft and warm and cosy and good, all  ‘’Sweetie?’’ Who was that? It was someone. Sweetie recognised the voice. ‘’Tired,’’ she muttered accusingly, and tried to fall asleep again. ‘’I can imagine,’’ the voice continued. ‘’G’away.’’ ‘’I shall not, but I shall be silent, if it please you.’’ ‘’Mmmfine…’’ And with that, Sweetie drifted off again. Only to open her eyes again, now not so tired anymore. She was in a weird, coloured realm. There were purple clouds in the sky, through which stars were visible, but no moon. Aside from the bed she was in, there was nothing to be seen but those strange clouds, and the bed itself was vague; Sweetie couldn’t see clearly what it looked like, for some reason. Shaking her head and rubbing her eyes, Sweetie pondered what to do.  The bed dissolved, thus solving her issue. With a surprised squeak, she hit the soft ground. Clouds as well, but she did not fall through. Somehow. What the… Cautiously, Sweetie stood up and looked around. The surroundings had not changed, which meant she still had no idea where she was. Revenge… ‘’Who was that? Hello?!’’ Betrayed… Sweetie looked around frantically, trying to see where the voice was coming from, while also racking her brain to find out if she knew who the voice belonged to. It sounded familiar, but she just couldn’t place it! Traitors… ‘’Who are you? Do you know where I am?’’ Left us… they left us… ‘’Who left you?’’ Fear… Sweetie was certainly afraid of the source of that voice. It seemed to be all around her, so were the clouds speaking to her? That made no sense, but nothing made sense here, so it might very well be the case. Slowly, Sweetie took a step forward, and then another one. After determining that she would not fall through the floor if she started moving around, she began to approach the cloud walls. And in response, the walls moved backwards. Of course they do. After a few futile tries to reach the walls by hoof, Sweetie stopped and thought her best course of action. Surrender… She whipped her head back. That had not come from around her, but from behind her. ‘’Whoever is there, please come out!’’ she called out into the mists. ‘’I just want to talk!’’ No response. Damn. After a few seconds of peering into the clouds, which achieved precisely nothing, Sweetie turned back around. ‘’Maybe this’ll work…’’ she muttered, before casting a Light spell and sending it forward, something she’d read about in a book once and then practised because it sounded interesting. All unicorns could create light, after all, but launching it required some more skill and practice. The small orb of green light glowed brightly as it flew ahead of her… and vanished as soon as it passed through the clouds. The clouds reformed before Sweetie could blink, and nothing showed that she’d just sent her spell through them. ‘’Damnit,’’ she cursed softly. ‘’How did-’’ How did I get here? With a gasp, she realised she couldn’t remember that. The last thing she recalled was walking into Twilight’s castle with the other Crusaders and Twinkle. Had something happened there? Sweetie couldn’t remember if it had, which probably meant it had. That was not a very comforting thought. And were Applebloom, Scootaloo and Twinkle experiencing this as well? Was she even still alive? Sweetie certainly hoped so. If this was the afterlife, it was an incredibly shitty afterlife. You could have done a better job, Caepasia. If this was the afterlife, insulting the creator-goddess of all Ponykind who was most likely responsible for creating it probably wasn’t a very smart move, but Sweetie could care less right now, and she’d never been particularly religious anyway. Darkness… Something snapped in Sweetie. ‘’SHUT UP!’’ she shouted. There was silence for a moment. No. The clouds in front of her broke apart, revealing Twilight Sparkle, looking like she hadn’t brushed herself in several days - scratch that, several weeks - and with madness in her eyes. ‘’Finally,’’ she breathed out. ‘’S-stay away!’’ Sweetie threatened, horn lighting up as memories of just what had happened suddenly came back to her. ‘’I’m not letting you mess with my mind again!’’ Twilight threw back her head and laughed. ‘’We’re already in your mind, Sweetie, don’t you realise that?’’ Well, fuck. Sweetie took a step back. ‘’I’m not afraid of you!’’ she declared. ‘’You don’t have to be,’’ Twilight replied. ‘’I am not going to hurt you. I will just make you see the truth.’’ She slowly approached Sweetie, who found out the clouds weren’t folding back anymore when she felt her back press against them. She cast a shield spell, but it wasn’t very strong, even Sweetie could tell that much. Twilight could probably blow right past it. ‘’A shield won’t keep me out,’’ Twilight drawled. ‘’But I will,’’ a new voice said, and then a dark blue orb of energy smashed into Twilight’s left side. Nightmare Moon, of all ponies, strode forward. Behind her, the clouds evaporated, and the stars in the sky suddenly began to shine brighter. ‘’You,’’ Twilight growled as she turned to face the other alicorn. ‘’You are not even the real Twilight,’’ Nightmare Moon accused, horn glowing with magic. ‘’You are but a remnant of her magic. You are no threat to me.’’ ‘’We’ll see about that.’’ Twilight’s horn lit up dark green, and then she leapt at Nightmare Moon. Who sent a wave of fire outward, which caught the younger alicorn by surprise. With a pained shriek, Twilight fell to the ground. Before she could recover, Nightmare hit the fallen mare with a barrage of spells that Sweetie could barely identify. Twilight hadn’t even the time to scream as she was practically erased by Nightmare’s barrage. Thirty seconds later, nothing remained of Twilight. Nightmare Moon, not looking winded in the slightest, turned towards Sweetie with an inscrutable look on her face. ‘’That is done,’’ she said succinctly. ‘’And this is not how I expected to meet you again, Sweetie Belle.’’ ‘’Y-yeah,’’ Sweetie replied, still awed by what she’d just witnessed. Nightmare gestured with her hoof after a moment of silence. ‘’Come. You have spent long enough entrapped by your own subconscious.’’ |-x-X-x-| 12 December 1008 It seemed, to Rarity, that time had flown when they had arrived back at the hotel. She and Flurry had retired to the room, while Rainbow had disappeared and not reappeared yet. Flurry had, obviously, noticed something was off, but she didn’t talk about it, and Rarity didn’t either, so dinner was an unusually silent affair compared to the past few days. And what days they have been. Rarity sat on the balcony of their room, the door opened slightly as Flurry had requested she do before Rarity had put her to bed. One of the Sergeants, the mare, was inside watching the room, while the stallion was standing on the balcony, eyes on the skies. Normally, Rarity might have initiated conversation with him, but she had so much to think about today that she could barely remember to drink her tea, much less talk with another person. ‘’Rares?’’ Sweet Caepasia- ‘’Commander,’’ the thestral saluted Rainbow Dash as she dropped down onto the balcony almost vertically. ‘’Sergeant,’’ Rainbow saluted back, before turning to Rarity. ‘’Rares-’’ ‘’I,’’ Rarity interrupted her, having pondered what to say to Rainbow when she inevitably reappeared for the past hour or so, ‘’feel I need to apologise, Rainbow darling. I was unnecessarily crude to you this afternoon, and I should not have done so. Will you accept my apology?’’ Rainbow stared at her like she’d grown a second head for a moment. ‘’I… thanks, Rares. I’m sorry too, for what it’s worth.’’ Rarity nodded. ‘’Have a seat darling, and would you mind telling me what you did?’’ ‘’I flew around the city,’’ Rainbow began as she sat down on a chair next to Rarity. ‘’It was… exhilarating. I needed that.’’ ‘’Did you see anything interesting while doing so?’’ ‘’Not really,’’ Rainbow replied. ‘’This place is great, sure, but we already saw the interesting bits.’’ That wasn’t true in the slightest, but Rarity didn’t care. ‘’And you?’’ ‘’We stayed in the hotel,’’ Rarity replied. ‘’I talked with Lily about some stuff related to my work, and Flurry and I had dinner together. Where did you eat?’’ ‘’Scored some food at a cafe in the second level.’’ ‘’Was it good?’’ ‘’Meh. I’ve had worse.’’ Silence fell, as Rarity didn’t know what to say and Rainbow evidently didn’t either. Rainbow Falls at night was certainly a sight to behold from so high up, even though it would soon be time to head indoors due to the cold. ‘’Hey,’’ Rainbow suddenly said. ‘’Weren’t we supposed to have a date today?’’ Rarity glanced at Rainbow. ‘’Yes, we were,’’ she agreed. Rainbow met Rarity’s gaze. ‘’Well.’’ And she sighed. ‘’I messed that up, didn’t I?’’ ‘’It’s not-’’ ‘’I’ll make up for it,’’ Rainbow interrupted. ‘’And for this.’’ ‘’Wh-’’ They were kissing. Rarity was kissing Rainbow, or Rainbow was kissing Rarity - and it didn’t matter, and it was not at all what Rarity had planned but it was so nice and - Someone coughed. Both mares’ heads snapped towards the source of the voice; the Sergeant. ‘’Permission to give you some privacy, ma’am, sir?’’ Rainbow’s glare could have melted steel. ‘’Go,’’ she hissed. The thestral snapped off a salute with his wing, then darted inside with a smirk on his face. Rarity got no chance to think about this, and didn’t regret that in the slightest.