//------------------------------// // The Only Chapter // Story: Why Can't There Be Silence // by Normal //------------------------------// Drip Drip Drrrippp. “Twwiilllight…” Purple slits broke the darkness of the room as Twilight Sparkle cracked her eyes open the smallest amount. Everything was dark, nothing could be seen, even by her eyes. Used to the darkness after so long, even this inky blackness caused shivers to run down her spine and through to ragged and chewed up hooves. These shivers were not just caused by the cold and damp that permeated the air though. “Twilight, come play with us.” “Twilight, you don’t like it here.” “Twilight, leave with us.” Those voices, they kept pounding away, chiseling away here resolve. Hearing them all, calling out her name…Why wouldn’t it stop. Tears started slowing down her face, leaving behind a trail of darken purple fur. Sobs wracked her frail chest and one hoof waved out frantically, almost as if to brush away lingering spider webs. But the voices never left her that easily. Never. Some days the voices were pressing up against her, clamoring all for the attention they insisted upon and other days they were quiet. The quiet almost made it worse. Her fur always stood on edge on days of silence. She could sense them still there, their warm breath traveling down her neck and their hooves holding onto hers. They never let her go. It had been getting worse, they wouldn't even let her sleep most nights now. They seemed so insistent. What...what was even the point any more? Why didn't I go with them? One of them senses the thoughts swirling in Twilight's and tugs harder at her hoof. Her limp form crashes off of the metal cot and lands hard on the cold floor. A trickle of warmth puddles up around the now off center muzzle and the broken unicorn doesn't even have to lift a hoof to realize yet again her nose has started to bleed. Nose bleeds too have been happening more and more frequently to our young friend... "Come on Twilight! We're your friends, don't you trust us?" As she lay there spasms tore apart her body, bodily fluids that consisted of more than just blood seeped out of her. An acidic stench filled the small room as her bowels voided themselves unconsciously, covering both the floor and her nethers with the dark amber liquid. Giggles could be heard echoing around the room. "Come now Twilight, my dear, would any pony actually want to visit you? Come with us, we'll always be there for you." "Forever..." Another voice echoed after the more sophisticated voice finished. "Twilight, even your own brother stopped visiting you, why do you hang around here still instead of with us?" The voices were turning more distinct, Twilight could tell who was who as soon as they spoke. Her brother...They were right. It had been months since last Twilight had watched his back stiffen and his hooves march their way out. Whenever he came to visit it always seemed to end poorly...Twilight let out a choking sob as she remembered the fading dreams of a childhood spent riding around a top her brother's shoulders. He was all she had. "Twilight, we will never leave you side, we promise." Twilight's eyes turned upwards now, drying by the hope of such a promise as she did so. "You promise?" She asked tentatively. ~ Princess Celestia sighed, eyes struggling to mask the morose hidden within as the doctor handed her the only possession her late pupil owned over the past years. A tattered notebook, filled with drawings and scribbles that could only be described as the notes of a mad mare. Celestia had always had hope for her young student, always thought maybe someday she would break free of her troubles and be the bright filly she had known for a brief window of time. Hoof resting on it faded cover Celestia allowed the glimmer of tears to enter her eyes. She could not prevent their passage, not this time. Twilight Sparkle, a filly with so much potential, and Sunset Shimmer, a filly with a goal so large...Both of them could have been lead to greatness under her hoof and instead they lost themselves entirely when she turned away. Celestia knew exactly what she would find if she opened that sketch book.Many times before had the contents been seen by her eyes. Many nights the thought of them haunted her dreams. Five ponies, always the same age as Twilight, gathered around the young unicorn. The scene always seemed like the picture one might take of a group of friends. Celestia could only assume they were the cause of Twilight's mental degradation into Tartarus and many years ago she sent forth ponies to find who these five might be. They were all dead. Fillies that lived only long enough for their cutie mark to appear. Only two of them had any connection before their deaths. Applejack, the young farm filly that tumbled out of her aunt's Manehattan penthouse. Deemed a suicide and a shame by the community. Rarity, a young unicorn found mauled by diamond dogs a week after she went missing from her bedroom one night. One flank remained intact enough to proudly display three diamonds. Pinkamena Diane Pie...another filly that shamed her family when her dead body was found hanging from the rafters in their silo one morning. Reports said the filly wore the largest smile ever seen on a dead pony. And then there was Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, both dead from a school yard race...The yellow pegasus's body found bloated and half eaten by fish at the bottom of a lake and the prismatic speedster's shattered remains were found scattered around a crater. Finally Twilight Sparkle, the one closest to her, dragged down by the shadows of the past... A sonic rainbooom...an event that stayed uncommon for reasons unknown to most ponies; that was the cause of all that pointless death.