//------------------------------// // Waking Fear // Story: Wake Unto Night // by IinkDash //------------------------------// //Wake Unto Night\\ //By: Iink Dash //Edited: Bright Idea //Chapter: 3: Waking Fear\\ Dash opened her eyes to complete obscurity. She could see no light of any kind. Her head hurt as though AppleJack had applebucked her again. Dash groaned. She could feel something large restraining her, suspending her above the floor. Her fore legs could not move; she didn’t even try. She tried to move her hind legs instead. As she did, stabbing pain shot up her spine, down her extremities and resonated through her head. She tried to force herself not to scream but let out a quiet stifled whimper. Two small, glowing, emerald luminosities appeared in the distance of the room, like eyes staring deep into the inner being of her soul. It felt like they were trying to scorch her from the inside while also icy like it were trying to freeze her solid with an arctic blaze. This made Dash feel very uneasy. Her stomach churned as she gazed back at the eyes. She could hear a strange fluttering noise. It sounded like the flapping at large insect wings. To her right, Dash heard to quit gasp of another pony. Well, most likely another pony. “W...wh…where am I?” said the voice sounding scared and confused “Wha…what is this place?” Suddenly, the voice cried out in pain as though she had been stabbed though with a flag pole. This confirmed to Dash that the voice was in the same position she was in, suspended above the floor but what felt like the tentacle of a giant octopus or the vine of a very large plant. “Hey! Don’t move! It’ll hurt less!” Dash yelled to the voice, trying to be helpful. “What? Who’s that?” the voice cried back. “Why is this happening?” “I’m on the same cloud as you! Just shut up and let me think of a way out of this!” Dash yelled “Be mute…” said a soothing yet unsettling voice coming from in front of them. As those words were uttered, the lights grew brighter, like two large, green, glowing headlights illuminating the both of them. They turned toward each other to see whom they were held captive with. As they did, all thoughts were lost. In their place was panic. This mare next to Dash was the same one from the dream. This is the murderer. This is the one that killed her. Her visage was a look of pure astonishment as was the one of the mare dangling front of her. Why was this mare just as scared? “Ah, you distinguish one another?” Spoke the voice “Good. But there is no requisite to be alarmed…yet. The visions you experienced were imaginings and noting other. But if things go erroneous, they could become very much physical…” “The hell’s that supposed to mean?!” demanded RainbowDash, spitting blood defiantly. “Gaze down…” the voice answered. They both looked down. Dash immediately wished she hadn’t, for what she saw, she would never forget; a large gaping laceration stretched across her lower abdomen. Her entrails and other various organs dangled out of it, oozing dark, red blood down to the infinitely distant floor below. She could hear it splash the bottom and begin to pool, though she could not see it in the endless darkness of the chamber. She felt herself going numb. The other mare was even worse. Her hind legs were a wreck, smashed beyond repair of any kind, magic or medical. Shattered and splintered bone extended through torn, rancid, rotten flesh. She cried out in panic and agony. As she did, her back, right hoof shook loose with a bone chilling snap and fell off, hammering down on to the distant floor far below with a loud crack. Red blood spewed out profusely from where the hoof once was and splattered down to where the hoof most likely was now. Nopony deserves this kind of torture, no matter what they could have done. This was wrong on every level. It had to stop. Now. “NO MORE!” Dash roared “STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!” “Be tranquil. This was but a forewarning of what may perhaps come to pass. Do you comprehend?” said the voice. Dash looked back down. Somehow, she was healing. Blood floated back into veins, entrails and organs drifted back into place and flesh repaired. She looked over at the other mare to see her hoof, along with the entire pool of blood float back into place. Pieces of bone floated back to their original places as the bones themselves corrected themselves, returning to natural angles and the flesh repaired until it had all returned to the way it belonged. “What is the meaning of this?” pleaded the other mare. “I am preparing you for whatever is to arise. Only one will subsist. However, which individual does will be decided through a sequence of assessments” explained the voice. “Prepare us for what? What’s going to happen?” beseeched the other mare. “You shall momentarily discover…” replied the voice “Assessments? What is being assessed?” Dash asked. “Your determination. Your métier. Your flaw…” the voice said. “But that doesn’t make any sense. What does that mean?” the other mare questioned. “It signifies what you construe it as. Attain the undertaking ahead of you beforehand if you aspire acquire any further information...” “What undertaking?!” demanded Dash “This one…” replied the voice. As these words were uttered, Dash felt dizzy again. The world started spinning, twisting, and churning like a giant whirling hurricane in her head. She fought to keep her eyes open but they felt like a million heavy weights were dangling from her eyelashes. It was impossible. She went numb. The whole world fell into a deep, lonely, painful, obscurity…