//------------------------------// // Come on Everypony, Smile // Story: Don't Go Into the Everfree Forest, TD // by BronyWriter //------------------------------// I ran as fast as I could, barely avoiding some of the ponies in my path. If there was even a chance that TD could be saved, that a sample of whatever he had been exposed to was still left on his clothing, then I had to get it before it faded away. TD was right; every time he faded away was a time where he risked not coming back as TD, and if he went fully pony permanently, then I wasn't sure that I could bring him back, even if I did have a sample. I reached TD's house and pushed on the door. It was locked, but I wasn't going to let that deter me. I teleported inside of his house and reappeared on top of his bed before I hopped off and began wildly searching for anything that might be what he was describing. All else failed, I'd take his entire wardrobe and have him point out what he had been wearing. The only reason he hadn't come to begin with was that so Princess Celestia could keep an eye on him and we wanted to keep this quiet with the town. Nopony needed to know that TD had essentially disintegrated into a pony. I continued scanning the floor until my gaze landed on something, something that I think was what I was after. A pair of blue jeans lying discarded right next to his bed. I lifted them into the air and examined both of the legs. One of them was slightly damp! It was a long shot that I could get enough to figure out what had happened to him, but it was definitely a starting point. I encased it in a protective shield and shot out of TD's house like a bat out of Tartarus. TD could very well be all pony by the time I got back, so I had to hurry. I wouldn't have run faster if a Hydra was chasing me. I made it back to the library in record time and ran down the steps of the basement five at a time. Princess Celestia was sitting next to TD, who was staring intently at the floor. Both of them looked up at me when I reached the bottom step. "Did you find them?" he asked. I nodded and levitated the pants higher so that he could see them before walking over to a workbench and laying them out. I took several deep breaths to slow my beating heart before answering. "Yeah." I took a few more deep breaths. "Yeah, I did. They're only damp, so I can't say for sure if we'll be able to get anything out of them, but I'm going to try." I levitated a scalpel, a few ingredients, and a beaker over to me so that I could take a sample and maybe separate the liquid and test its properties. I could only hope that I was able to find something in time. I slowly dragged the blade of the scalpel across the edge of the pant leg, hoping to get a little scrap of it... I did not expect everything from the knee down to completely disintegrate at the touch of the blade. It... it was gone. All that was left of TD's chances of being turned back into a human was little more than dust on my table. I slowly turned my head towards TD, who was staring at my failure to save him. "I... I'm so sorry, TD," I whimpered. "I tried." TD took a deep breath and poked at the dust. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I know you did," he mumbled. "I don't blame you." "You will be well cared for, TD. Do not ever think that I will simply abandon you to this fate." Princess Celestia put a hoof on his shoulder. "You will have my support." "And I'll like it too." TD tightened his jaw and ran a hoof through his mane. "Doesn't really matter what you do, does it? I'll be dead? No more TD. You might as well tell Ponyville that you found a way to send me home, wait a few months, and then introduce me into Ponyville society." "If that is what you think would be best." "It doesn't matter at all what I think anymore!" TD snarled. He batted Princess Celestia's hoof away and shot to his hooves. "I'm not going to be me anymore! I potentially have seconds left of mental capacity! You could throw me in a dungeon and it wouldn't make a lick of difference." "TD, do not think like that!" Princess Celestia took a small step towards him. "You will not be dead, and we will work night and day to reverse what happened to you!" "But you can't." TD's expression turned into a glare. "You can't because you don't even know what went wrong. You can't because even if you did, you wouldn't even begin to know how to fix it." TD turned his back on us and walked over to the corner of the basement, where he sat down and stared at the floor. "Just leave me alone to mentally die in peace. I appreciate what you've done to help me, Twilight, but..." He sighed. "I just want to be alone right now." Princess Celestia and I exchanged another glance, and she nodded at me. I sighed and flattened my ears. "Okay, TD. Feel free to stay as long as you like. We'll get through this, okay?" He didn't respond. * * * * A pony for good. Not even Celestia could help me. Celestia and Twilight had gone up to talk about something or other after everything had gone to Hell and I realized that I wasn't going to be TD anymore, during which time I switched back again to Pony Mode. Once I switched back after a few minutes... I couldn't even bring myself to get upset about it. I was about to mentally die, but that didn't mean that I had to keep making a big deal about it. I think I was just too drained by that point. Twilight had come back down the stairs and told me that I could stay the night. I thanked her, and she gave me some books to pass the time. She must have realized that I didn't really want to socialize with other ponies right now. I can only imagine what she was telling Spike. Maybe she had just told him to go play with the Crusaders or hang out with Rarity for the day, or something like that. So this was going to be my life now. TD the Pony. TD the Pony that was, if memory served, completely complacent and submissive to Celestia. No more me. Nothing that was me made it into Pony Mode. I could accept that. I could just... live my life. Once I was gone, it's not like I would know the difference. I wouldn't remember my time as a human, and I'd be completely happy as who I was. But... that sounded utterly distasteful to me. It wasn't me, and it would never be me. There was nothing I could do about that, though. I had to just lie down and accept that I was going to mentally die, that I wasn't in control of anything anymore. Or... My ears perked up as a thought entered my head. It... it was a nasty thought, but it was a solution that I hadn't considered before. I was sure that Twilight would understand once she really thought about it. Heck, seeing as how she, Celestia, and I were the only ponies who knew about what was going on, nopony else had to know... * * * * I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off with my magic. The hot water pouring over me did me good, and it helped clear my head. I had laid out several plans for what to do with TD, but none of them seemed particularly enticing. We'd figure something out, though. I walked out of my bathroom and into the main room of the library. I looked over at the basement door with a sigh. Part of me didn't want to go down and talk to TD. He could have already been all pony, and I wasn't sure how I could handle that. As jarring as it was to see somepony who was completely at odds with Princess Celestia, that snarky, sarcastic being was TD, and he was my friend. That pony who bowed to her and was nervous about meeting her... well, I could see why TD thought that was dying. Still, I knew that I had to go check on him. I couldn't just lock him in my basement and forget all about him forever; I had to make sure that he was okay, even if I was sure that I wouldn't like what I saw. Well, I also had to clean up the fragments of what used to be TD's human form. TD pony couldn't live with that around him. I know I wouldn't want to. I took a deep breath and opened the door to my basement. My heart was pounding, and the back of my mind told me that I wouldn't like what I saw. I couldn't even call out to him. I walked down the stairs slowly, mentally bracing myself for the sight of TD's dumb smile, all hint of the human that I knew gone. I reached the bottom of the steps and let out a shriek of utter horror when I saw him. I began hyperventilating and backed into a corner, tears streaming down my face. I wanted to look away, but I couldn't. I couldn't. TD was lying on the floor of my basement in a large pool of his own blood, the veins in both forelegs completely sliced open. He was holding one of my vegetable knives in his mouth, a mouth that was twisted into a wide grin. To top it all off, he had scrawled one word in his own blood in front of him. Free.