Tor Ironclad
I had my usual dream again last night. I was in the forest, being tortured by all things imaginable. Chased through the mud, swimming through the pain of my own subconscious. I wasn’t alone though, there watching all of my suffering was the pony with square amber lenses for eyes and the horrid maw of steel teeth. He needed a name in my mind. “Barnabus Thom” was the obvious choice, and it truly seemed to fit him well on account of all of the similarities. Sometimes I find myself wondering if my smart-mouthed adversary truly wears that iron grin under all of his wrappings, but I’m sure he would consider it rude were I to ask him. He’d probably call me names and make fun of my decorations again, like he did when we were preparing for winter. I’m not sure I’d want to know how much he resembled the terror in my dreams. Knowing a specter from my worst nightmares walked the world; that might throw my world into utter disarray! Though, it seems as though that’s happening anyways, even without the knowledge of Barnabus’s true face.
I woke up as usual this morning, creaky, rusty, covered in metal from head to hoof. I went through my usual routine; rolled off of miss Rarity’s sofa, rotated my joints, stretched out my spine, splashed water on my face. This morning looked as if it were to be a regular day for me in Ponyville. Oh, how wrong I was. This was going to turn out to be a very good day for me, one my most treasured memories since the incident with Chrysalis and… and Celestia. It wouldn’t be with out its oddities, however, and something else happened this day I doubt I will ever forget
Today miss Rarity prepared apple fritters for breakfast. Usually, one would associate apple fritters with the phrases “whipped up” or “deep fried” but these were Miss Rarity’s fritters. These could not be just any fairground food! No, these were elegant and magnificent, as beautiful to the eye as they were to the tongue. As miss Rarity and I were sitting down at her dining room table, I was looking forward to having my first taste, yet I noticed something different about the mare sitting across from me. She had a twinkle in her eye that wasn’t usually there. And my goodness, what a twinkle it was! It was a twinkle to remember, I’d say.
I’m sorry. I suppose today got me a bit excited. I’m writing like a love-struck schoolpony.
Needless to say, miss Rarity was looking even more divine than usual on this morning, if that’s even possible. We discussed my job, how I was handling my work and if I was able to stand being around miss Pinkie Pie all day. We discussed her designs, though I am not the best at understanding fashion, as is the case with most stallions that are not trained in such things. She really does seem to appreciate my opinions though, so I make sure I tell her all I can. She giggles a lot when I get to talking, and I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten to be a lot shyer around her lately. I feel like I always want to try and impress her, but when I open my mouth most of the time whatever comes out isn’t very great.
I desperately wanted to say something nice to her, and I wasn’t having a hard time finding something to say, I just didn’t want it to come out stupid. “I… I appreciate how you’re letting me stay here and cooking for me all the time. Since I got my job at the Corner, I haven’t been able to help you out as much as I used to. If you can think up some jobs you need done, why, I’ll do them for you!”
“Oh, Tor, I don’t really mind all that much. I understand that you’ve got a job now. I don’t want to overwork you, darling! I’ve handled myself fine before you came along, and I wouldn’t think of causing you more stress. It’s so bad for the complexion.”
“Well, all right. But just keep it in mind! The offer’s always on the table.”
“All right Tor, you are generous as always. Thank you for your offer.” She said as she smiled a warm smile at me.
Well, there we were, miss Rarity and I, eating breakfast and having a chat. Then she glanced up at the clock on the wall and alerted me that it was almost time for me to head off to work. She retreated to her room upstairs as I prepared myself to head out to Sugar Cube Corner to help out the Cake family with their store.
I always make sure I’ve polished my decorations a bit before heading off to the Cakes’. They run a respectable joint, and I need to be sure to reflect that in my own hygiene. I have a brush and can of fancy silver polish that miss Rarity bought me. It’s top of the line stuff too. I make sure to pass over my decorations at least twice with the stuff before I head out. Today I wanted to try combing my hair in a specific way to make it look much neater than usual. I needed to call Miss Rarity down for help in order to do it, and I felt bad for interrupting her work, but she didn’t seem to mind. When we had finished, I slipped on my jacket and hat and miss Rarity sent me off with her usual farewell.
As I was making my way to Sugar Cube Corner, I noticed several things out of the ordinary. For starters, everything around town was decorated much more heavily than usual. Everything was some shade of pink, red, or white. There were flowers adorning every stall at the market and every home. The next odd thing I noticed was more in the ponies themselves. Everywhere I looked I saw pairs of ponies, most of whom looked as though they were something more than friends. If I did happen to see a lone pony, whether they were sitting at a table alone, or trotting down the road, another pony would without fail approach them, nervously and blushing, with flowers or candies and the two would form a pair and continue their activities together. I quite liked to see that part, because for the first time in a while, I saw happy, cheerful faces as I passed by, as opposed to the usual frightful and wary ones. I was greeted by a, “Good morning, there!” or a, “Have a nice day!” wherever I went, and that was truly therapeutic. Ponies have gotten a lot more accepting ever since that incident at SwiftSand Valley, no doubt my friends helped dispel some of the more unpleasant myths about me. The only other thing I found odd was that everywhere I looked; I saw a very familiar, yet somehow distant, shape plastered on every wall, or hanging in the air in the form of balloons, or even in the shape of the cards that ponies were giving to each other. The shape was so very familiar, like something important I had forgotten about, or a dream I had woken up from and was now desperately trying to recall.
I walked into Sugar Cube Corner and was greeted by the Cakes, who seemed much more in love than usual on this day. Miss Pinkie Pie bounced out of the kitchen and greeted me as usual, but she as well seemed much more excited than usual on this morning. “Hiiiii Tooooorrrr!!!!!” She shouted. “Did you talk to Rarity this morning? Didja? Didja?” She seemed to know more about something than I did.
“Yes. I talk to her every morning. Why do you ask?” I asked, totally oblivious to whatever she was hinting at. This caught Miss Pinkie off guard. She still was bouncing excitedly and grinning as wide as she could.
“Wait… Did she have anything exciting to ask you? Anything special?”
“Ummm… No. We kinda just talked about the usual. Why do you ask?”
She stopped bouncing and smiling, and started to look as though she were on a mission. “Oh, nooo reason! I’ve got to go and… Pick some flowers? I’ll be back later!” She said as she zoomed off into the street, leaving a trail of dust as she sprinted through the streets. I watched after her, wondering what she was going on about.
Today was a delivery day. I was to go to the train station and pick up our shipment of ingredients. I like these days. They give me a chance to show that I’m a regular pony, just like everypony else, and I get to see what’s going on around Ponyville. Today I saw Seething Mass waiting near a park on my way back to Sugar Cube Corner. He looked like he was waiting patiently for somepony to meet him. He saw me and I motioned for him to come walk with me, and he eagerly obliged.
“How you… How do you do, Tor?” He asked, sounding as mixed up and nervous as usual.
“Why, I’m good! This has been such a nice morning hasn’t it? Though, it’s a bit odd, but I keep seeing couples all over the place! Have you noticed this too?”
Seething Mass looked a bit surprised, but he obviously knew what was happening. “Why, t… To… Tor! Don’t tell you’ve… Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten! It’s Hearts and Hooves Day! Love poison, the day when meshing occurs!”
I was shocked that I had forgotten what day it was! I had been thinking about this day all month, and it was finally here, and I lost track of it! The last thing that Seething Mass said confused me a little though, as the things he said often did. “Oh yeah! I can’t believe I forgot! Now, what was that about the meshing?”
Seething Mass shrunk away from me a little. He started doing that whenever I didn’t quite understand what he was saying. I try so hard to understand him, and I’m not sure he knows that. “Well… I compar… I was comparing the bond these form… These ponies form… On Hearts and Hooves Day ponies form bonds similar to that of a pair of gears. When two ponies who fit… Who come together and fit perfectly emotionally can mesh, they become part of a much greater machine that functions accurately and precisely! Why, this isn’t… This bond isn’t limited to just ponies in love though. It can even apply to friends…friendship. The Cutie-Mark Crusaders, for instance, experienced…”
He was suddenly cut off by an unfortunately familiar voice. I stood up straight and became serious as I heard the voice that now made me instinctively shudder exclaim, “Oh Seething Mass! Most excellent to see you here today! Why, I thought we had agreed to meet here, but I mistook this for someplace else when I saw the large trash heap!” called the voice of Barnabus Thom. He trotted beside Seething Mass, then cocked his head in my direction with a delicate grinding sound. “Oh, wait, pardon my mistake. That was just Tor. How do you do, you iron workhorse you?”
He was obviously taunting me, so I retorted, “Oh, yes, I do have a job to do. One can’t laze around all day, can they? I have become quite the regular working stiff these days.”
“And stiff is certainly the right word for it! A little rusty around the joints these days? I’m glad SOMEPONY could find a use for you!”
“At least there is a use for one of us!” I finished the verbal battle. Barnabus merely shook his head a bit, then looked back straight into my eyes. All was normal for a moment, but then a shrill ringing shriek filled my ears and I flinched. I saw a bright flash, and the whole town behind Barnabus appeared to have caught fire by some coincidence. Barnabus’s face became the jagged iron toothed smile of my nightmares and my eyes widened in horror at what I saw. This lasted for no longer than a second, and then I saw another white flash and this vision had left me. I stood there, my eyes wide and my legs shaking, immobilized by momentary fear. Barnabus obviously noticed and gave a small scoff, then began to canter in the direction he was headed. He errantly kicked a hind leg against a loose stone in the road, which rocketed right toward my muzzle. On impact, it made such a loud “CLANG!” that the street vendors looked in my direction to see if something had broken. My head was still shaking from the rock, and I had noticed that Barnabus was far ahead of me now, and Seething Mass was in between us. He looked back at me and then at Barnabus as though he didn’t know what to do. “Come along now, Seething Mass! We have much to discuss!” exclaimed Barnabus, and Seething Mass followed, glancing back at me for only a moment.
Only two things were able to occupy my mind as I made my way back to the bakery. The first, and longest lasting, was the horrifying vision I received of Barnabus. I began to think much too deeply about what had happened, instead of discarding this as merely a lunatic vision, I actually began to believe that he was conspiring against me, causing these terrible visions. It was as if he were casting some curse on me. The only other thing I could think about was Hearts and Hooves Day and how nice it was that everypony was finding somepony else to spend their time with, romantic or not. I knew I wished I could be that way with somepony, but for some reason my mind had deemed this a physical impossibility. I was a monster now, how could anypony have such feelings of friendship or love toward me?
My feelings of self-pity were doomed to an early death immediately as I entered Sugar Cube Corner. Miss Pinkie Pie had that effect on me most of the time. She always cheered me up if she saw that I was feeling down. She asked me to help her with some baking, and I obliged her, still feeling depressed. Moments later, she praised me for my hard work and told me I was good at baking, which put a smile on my face, which nopony but I could tell. I wish they could, but with this cursed muzzle… I am starting to get really sick of it. I’m beginning to grow used to, even attached to my other decorations, but I have never been able to get used to the muzzle. My eyes didn’t help either. They made me even harder to read. I was thinking precisely these thoughts as I worked on the cakes today, bringing me back into my pit of sadness. Miss Pinkie had been slowing the process, but I couldn’t stop feeling miserable. It didn’t help that on every cake we made pinkie wrote the words, “My very special somepony.” This made me regress back toward how unlovable I was. It was then that my mind made the connection. What if this was Barnabus’s fault too? What if the nightmares scared the ponies off? What if he was attempting to break me in all ways possible? I could not let that happen. I continued working, fueled by my thoughts, almost blocking Miss Pinkie out of my mind.
We had worked until six in the evening and then Miss Pinkie sent me off, telling me to “enjoy my holiday” and other cryptic messages. I walked back through the streets, through the crowds of ponies aflutter with love and caring. They were still giving each other tulips and posies and boxes of candy. They were still looking at each other and blushing and laughing, and being in love. All of the things I was afraid I was incapable of. Especially love. It was a thing I wasn’t sure I wanted to experience again, this love. I missed it, very dearly. I was reminded of how I used to feel about love, even friendship, only months ago. I used to believe that everything was out to get me, and if it weren’t already, it would be sooner or later. But this had changed. I met my friends, I have a good life, I quit a job that ran on my old beliefs and started a new job that allowed me to enjoy and trust the world. I was, admittedly, a much happier pony than before. Yet no matter how much I had changed, I still didn’t believe I could not grasp the concept of love again. Every time I saw a couple embrace, Sunny’s face filled my mind as her skin melted away and revealed Queen Chrysalis underneath. Every giggling filly brought searing memories of Celestia looking after me as a foal, and the look in her eyes as she gave me the sentence that brought me this pain in the first place.
I was caught up in my thoughts for so long that my head started to hurt and my eyes started to tear up. When I had made it back to the Boutique, I was very nearly crying out of confusion and frustration. I opened the doors and walked in slowly, not noticing that miss Rarity was waiting for me on the sofa. I looked up, and there she was, looking right at me.
She blushed as she asked me a question, “Tor… Would you… Like to accompany me for a stroll?” My mind was uneasy, but simply seeing her helped.
“Why, I reckon that would do me no small amount of good, miss Rarity.” I replied, glad that I might have an opportunity to escape my thoughts.
I opened the doors for miss Rarity, and got distracted by the beautiful colors in the sky, the entire thing painted pink and purple almost as if it was trying to reflect what holiday it was today. I took my first unsure steps outside, and hoped that the world would stay as normal as it was right now. Miss Rarity stepped out ahead of me and playfully said, “Tor, what ARE you doing darling? We’re losing valuable daylight!” The sun had nearly set.
“Just making sure it was safe.” I mumbled as she turned to look at me, confused. We walked all over town underneath the radiant sky, Celestia’s sky, and just as we made it to a little bridge on the river, the golden rays of the sunset were beginning to reach across the pink and orange sky. We stood there talking like usual, but as time went on, the usual perfectly composed miss Rarity was turning more and more red. After several moments of silence, she had finally found something to say.
“Tor, darling. Pinkie Pie has been trying to set this up for a very long time. Would you… Like to be… My very Special Somepony?” She asked me as she turned toward me and looked right into my eyes. I froze. Warmth filled my body, and I started to shake. My eyes grew wide, and my head felt hot. I saw another white flash, and the burning Ponyville was back, but this time, in Rarity’s place was Queen Chrysalis, grinning and laughing at me. This persisted only momentarily, when another white flash interrupted this vision and returned me to reality. There was a strange beating in my chest. This beating felt oddly familiar, as though I knew what had caused this beating a long time ago, but it had left me. This beating inside of me felt like a gift from a friend. Not wanting to make her wait, I knelt down, and held Miss Rarity’s hoof and gave her my reply.
“Why, Miss Rarity, I would be deeply honored to be your very special somepony.”
“Please, just call me Rarity from now on, darling. No need to remain so formal, is there?”
“Of course… Rarity.” I said as I stood back up. We couldn’t make eye contact for a few moments. The air was still a bit awkward. She turned to watch the sunset, and I followed suit. She leaned into me as we watched the light of the sun finally disappear on the horizon. We stayed silently for a few minutes after it was dark, then headed home together. I couldn’t think of much to say, but whenever I looked in her direction, our eyes met and we instantly looked away from each other, blushing. She giggled a little every time it happened, and I had to catch my breath. I felt alive again! No longer was I but an iron shell. The beating, the pounding inside of me was starting regain its name. It was my heart. The thing that I felt was lost forever had been reclaimed. I knew that my heart had returned from its exodus, and had returned filled with forgiveness for the stallion that had forsaken it. As I looked about me, I noticed that today’s recurring shape was starting to make sense to me again! It was the heart, the symbol, and source, of love, kindness, and friendship. I was so happy to greet this that I could have cried.
When we made it back to Rarity’s boutique, we sat together on the couch for a while and found more things to talk about. Then she left for upstairs to work on some very luxurious outfits that she had been asked to work on. On her way up the stairs, I caught her staring at me, as if I were something of great value. Once I noticed, I looked right back at her, and blushed again. She continued up the stairs and vanished into her room.
I was feeling restless. No doubt the memory of the heart was intriguing to me. I tried to sleep on the sofa, but eight o’clock just seemed much too early for sleeping. I tried to think of what was wrong. Maybe the sofa was too uncomfortable, I could go ask Rarity if I could buy a bed and where I could put it. No, I didn’t want to bother her. She was busy. I decided that laying down there wasn’t going to solve the problem. I went out to go and get some fresh air. I walked around Ponyville for a while, watching the smiling faces of the ponies. I’m still not sure why I like to see them so much, but the smiles made me feel like everything was right with the world.
This illusion of completeness and peace was soon shattered. The instruments of this cruel vandalization were none other than Seething Mass and Barnabus Thom. I was out near the park, and I saw them sitting at one of the benches, excitedly discussing mechanisms or science or whatever horse-apples they like to talk about. But they weren’t alone, standing next to them was a mare I had never seen before. She was tall, and I thought for a moment she was that strange Ann character Seething and I had met at SwiftSand, but she was a bit different. I watched as the mare began speaking to Seething Mass, then made my way out of the park. I’m not sure if they saw me, but seeing them filled me with anger. The sight of that… villain, speaking so freely with the friend he had stolen from me enraged me beyond belief.
Rage caused me to make a rash decision right then, one I soon wished I hadn’t. I walked down the roads towards the far end of town, the oldest part of town nearest to where the Apple family had initially settled. Most of the buildings there were a bit run down, but every bit as cheery as the other houses in town. There was one store that was not. It looked as though it had been abandoned, and had not been visited for years, but I knew that the opposite was true. I have on multiple occasions seen Seething Mass go inside this building, sometimes emerging with Barnabus Thom. This had to be Barnabus’s lair, I thought to myself. I was unfortunately right.
I knew that nopony was home. Seething Mass and Barnabus were both out and about doing errands or whatever it was they had been doing. Even though I had this thought in my head, I made up an excuse in case Barnabus showed up. I simply went into his house because I wanted to have a word for him, that’s all. I hadn’t thought about what that word might be, but this was only a minor detail that needed no real consideration. I’m sure I could think of something good on the spot. The front door was tall and grey, and held fast by an equally ancient lock, but I knew a thing or two about lock picking. My magic may not be good for moving objects around, but in my youth I had been fascinated by lock mechanisms.
I opened his dilapidated front door and was instantly distressed by the damp, dusty smell that greeted my nostrils. It smelled oddly of burnt cinnamon, and I had to push through the scent if I wanted to accomplish anything. I stepped inside, creaking the floorboards under my immense weight. The entire first floor seemed to be a regular music box shop, if that could be called regular, anyway. There was no artificial lighting, and the windows were covered by wretched, pink, lacey drapes through which every trace of light was filtered. The light from outside on the street had to make it through those fabric monstrosities first, and when it did it came out a horrid dusty rose color. The entire interior of the shop had a hazy pink to it, claustrophobic and antiquated.
There were cogs and gears and gyros piling behind the register counter, and there was a box of decorative gems sitting on top as well. Underneath the counter were all of his tools, for the finer points of construction, and several types of glues. The room behind the counter was a supply closet, filled with even more music box supplies. There were plenty more boxes of gems back here, which struck me as odd. He obviously had enough gems to last him a lifetime, or at least a very good year of work. Why had he been so frantic to get more from the salamander caverns? Covering everything was a thick layer of dust, save for a pathway where the filth had been disturbed. Obviously he hadn’t touched any of his tools or supplies for months, maybe years! When had he moved in here, anyways?
I had investigated the first floor. It was now time for the second floor. I had figured he might have more to hide up there, but in the first few rooms I checked all was normal. The entire floor was just as dark, old and pink-looking as the first. Layers of dust covered everything, and there were wilting plants on end tables placed around the short main hallway. The first room was a master bedroom, obviously Barnabus’s. It had a large bed and a window that overlooked the street in front of the house. It smelled of burnt cinnamon. Not interesting. The next room was a guest room, the bed much smaller, but this one also had a window. This room appeared to be prepared for a guest that Barnabus was expecting to arrive within the week. The furniture was dusted, the bed was made, and there were new potted plants on end tables beside the bed. I wondered if the burnt cinnamon had come from an incense burner somewhere hidden in the house, as it was following me even into this room. Odd, but still uninteresting.
The next room I checked sparked my interest slightly more than the last. There were blueprints and designs posted on the walls. Most of them appeared to be designs for Barnabus’s music boxes, but others seemed much more strange, almost sinister in design. I didn’t understand what they were, but I was trying to figure them out. This room smelled of burnt cinnamon the most strongly of all the rooms, so I figured it was where Barnabus spent the most time, and therefore kept the incense.
After a good five minutes in this room, I heard a small noise, like a hoofstep in the room next to me. This was the last room I hadn’t checked. My heart began to beat faster as I approached the door in the hallway. Whatever was in there, I knew it was going to be important. I opened the door inch by inch, and saw that the room was just another bedroom. But this one wasn’t the same as the other two. On the walls was a faded pink floral paper, peeling at the corners as if it had been there for decades. There was an entire wall taken up by shelves on the walls, with dozens of porcelain dolls and figurines sitting on them. There were wrapped gift boxes and fresh flowers littering the room on either side of the small bed that was sat in center of the far wall. The small bedside table was overflowing with cards, apparently get-well cards from what I could see after looking through a few. The room appeared to be that of a small filly who might have been ill recently. I didn’t really see Barnabus as the fatherly type, but I suppose we all have our secret sides. The wallpaper might have been peeling, but this was beyond a doubt the cleanest room in the house
It was then that I noticed the most unsettling thing in the room. In the corner, I saw a life sized porcelain filly who had been arranged into what appeared to be a tea-party with several other small toys, a stuffed Ursa Minor and what looked like a pink and purple hippogriff. The tiny doll’s porcelain skin was pure white, but she seemed old because tiny cracks covered her surface and her skin was a bit discolored from age. Her mane was the brightest ruby red I had ever seen, and arranged in an intricate pair of braids. She wore a pink bonnet and a frilly dress, and I briefly wondered what lavishing praise Rarity would have to give the delicate folds of silk and lace. The features were perfectly lifelike, as if whoever crafted it had spent years perfecting it. Its eyes were a glistening pink.
I walked nearer to this doll, and I wasn’t a meter away from it when it tilted its head and blinked at me. I froze in my tracks, and began shaking profusely. This adorable doll had immobilized me with a glance, and to think I used to call myself a bounty hunter. Once my heart had started beating once more, I attempted to engage in conversation with the filly. “Uhhhh… Hey there. I didn’t notice you.” I chuckled nervously as I began to back away. She looked very sad, as if she hadn’t had any contact with anypony for years. Once I got over the creepy-doll thing, she was actually very cute, adorable even. She attempted to voice a response, but her words came out as a whisper.
I leaned in closer, “I’m sorry little one, p-please forgive me but this iron makes it a little hard to hear sometimes.” She gasped as I moved closer and as a result her mouth opened. It was hardly an inch, but there where her lower jaw met her cheek formed a crack that widened her mouth horribly and made a sound like somepony had dropped a large window. She froze perfectly, uncannily still, and lifted a small delicate hoof up to the crack, which even now began to ooze blood. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please, I’ll get help!” I stammered out. I noticed that the skin on her joints had been apparently broken, then taped up so she could move. The bandages were tinted with blood, I hadn’t been able to see them before under the sleeves of the dress. She lay down and began crying without moving her jaw, a terribly hollow sound that told me she had felt this pain before. She huddled curled up, glancing anxiously at the door like she was afraid that she would get in trouble with her parent for breaking something. I tried to calm her down, but it was no use.
I was only a foot away from her when she lifted her head and stared right at me, tears streaming down her shiny porcelain cheeks and mixing with the blood leaking out of her distended mouth. Half of her jaw hung down, nearly touching her neck and exposing her glistening tongue while the other half was fully closed. I moved my face closer to hers, trying to inspect the crack more closely. Her eyes looked behind me and I swiveled around, preparing to run downstairs to get help, when I saw Barnabus standing in the doorway, rage and fury practically visible behind those square lenses.
“What is the meaning of this…” He spoke quietly, softly, the shaking accompanied by the slight crunchy grinding of what I sincerely hoped were his teeth. “What have you done...” I tried to explain, but was unable to get a single word out before the world around me began to distort and a high-pitched scream began to fill my ears.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY DESDEMONA?” He shouted at me suddenly, his cry of rage and anguish punctuated by a snapping sound from somewhere beneath his cloth wrappings. I looked from side to side, and saw the dolls that were on the shelves warp and twist into the dark creatures that chanted in my nightmares, their eyes hollow and their tiny mouths distending outward into grins. The floor shattered with the sound of Barnabus’s rage and were replaced with the floor of the shack in the Everfree forest. Barnabus was screaming now, blood boiling up inside his glass lenses and streaming out of his cloth wrappings, jetting in torrents from his joints and tainting my vision a throbbing red. I couldn’t hear what he screamed; the piercing tone filled my head and spiked my sight with white cracks. Suddenly my vision cleared.
The teeth. The wretched, horrid, jagged, grotesque iron smile was there, and it was attached to Barnabus. There was another figured behind him, Seething Mass. His features were twisted just as grotesquely as those of his companion, greasy hair falling in strings in front of two eyes that dispassionately dissected my suffering. And he was carrying a shipment of rivets and nails, and a mechanical limb of twisted black steel and blood-soaked barbed wire was handing a mallet to Barnabus.
When the pony behind the lenses finally spoke again, his voice was a demonic harmonious cacophony of his true voice, as he shouted, “REMOVE YOURSELF FROM THE PREMISES, YOU CRETINOUS, FOOLISH OAF! LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO MY, MY DAUGHTER, MY POOR DESDEMONA!” I rushed out of the room, terrified to see that it opened to the Everfree Forest. All I could see was the trees and the dark shadows lining the hallways, then the streets in pairs. They turned to look at me as I tried to run, but tripped with every step I took. I stumbled through the forest, through the winding paths, tripping on roots, the shadows moving out of my way whenever I drew near. After ten minutes of the same, over and over again, I saw a building that was entirely out of place. Rarity’s boutique on a distant hill, shining like a beacon of warmth. I followed the path to her front door, and I turned back to be sure nothing had followed me. I threw the doors open, being sure that everything was as I had remembered, then slammed them behind me, cowering on the floor as absolute terror filled every inch of my body.
I heard the voice of a very surprised Rarity exclaim, “Tor! Is everything alright darling?” she asked concerned. I lifted my head and gasped. All was as it should be again. Miss Rarity’s face was only a few inches away from mine, her face wracked with worry. After I had quieted my breathing and my eyes had adjusted to the light, I stood up and answered her, sheepishly.
“Yeah… I think I’m ok. I certainly hope I am, at least.” She stared at me for a moment. Her eyes had shifted to a new emotion, embarrassment. We each said good night to each other and then something unexpected happened. She embraced me with her neck. I hadn’t had this happen to me in such a long time, not since Sunny. I remembered the feeling and embraced her back, no doubt I only made it more awkward.
I may have once known how to do it, but I just couldn’t figure it out again. I almost started tearing up from frustration with myself again, when she nuzzled my face (which I’m surprised didn’t hurt her) and said, “I’m glad you’re my very special somepony,” Smiling at me with a twinkle in her eyes.
“I’m glad to be your very special somepony, Rarity.” I responded, and she blushed again. We said our good nights and Rarity retreated up to her room once again, offering one last word of encouragment. “Why don’t we talk about this in the morning dearest, when you’ve had a good night’s sleep.” I just nodded and she left. I was worn out, too many delusions in one day. “These sure are becoming frequent, aren’t they?” I asked myself as I headed for the sofa.
I laid there, thinking some more like I’ve taken to doing every night lately. Tonight I thought mostly of Rarity and my friends, but that brought my mind to Seething Mass and what happened today. As I left the room with the crying porcelain foal, Desdemona, I caught a glimpse of Seething Mass behind Barnabus. He didn’t try to help me, or to calm Barnabus so I could explain myself. He just stood there; he froze, allowed it all to happen. This has been happening a lot lately whenever Barnabus has started being cruel to me, but I used to be able to dismiss it as Seething Mass’s inexperience; he didn’t know how to help his friends. Now, it seems almost like Seething Mass was… helping him. I don’t want to accept the fact that my best friend has been turned against me, but maybe I have no choice. I’ll keep trying to be his friend, but I’m not sure how much I trust him now.
I feel like my friendship with Seething Mass is hanging by a thread, and Barnabus is holding the Scissors.