Chapter 7: Silent Scream
“It’s…” Twilight squeaked as the stew of emotion simmered to boiling point.
Celestia sat down upon her haunches and placed both of her hooves on to Twilight’s shoulders gently. “Nothing you can do or say will ever change my opinion of you, my former student. Whatever it is that is bothering you, I am here for you, Twilight.”
Contrary to what she just preached, it did silence the Princess of the Sun, cutting her off mid sentence. Caught completely by surprise, the kiss to her lips was as tender as it was pleading to never break.
Twilight’s blood pulsed like raging rivers within her ears, her cheeks burning as fiercely as her heart thundered like lava inside of her chest; the sweet taste of the lips of her one true love against her own threw Twilight into a momentary madness. She parted her lips, seeking to probe the mouth she claimed with a needy tongue.
Gently, Twilight placed both of her hooves lovingly against Celestia’s chest and trailed them up to snake them about the Princess’s neck to capture her within a feverishly passionate embrace.
Then, came the foreboding light.
The stench of cindered flesh invaded the air as Twilight Sparkle’s vision had become a sheet of fading white and shades of grey. With each passing moment, her vision adjusted causing the moving grey, white and darkened shapes to become better defined until she recognized what it was.
A charred and grotesquely misshapen face that belonged to Celestia.
Unable to scream due to the burning agony that numbed most of her face and flank, Twilight could feel her body tremble and her mind struggle to latch itself onto consciousness.
From the peaceful silence came a high pitched ringing fading into being in lieu of the explosion; the feedback circulating within her head to discombobulate her senses.
However, much like her vision’s gradual regeneration, her hearing returned over time, though not entirely as perfect as it once was. She could just about make out the faint panicked voice of a male and the calm collected voice of a female amongst the ringing.
“... dead...do…?”
“...Twilight… yet… no...”
Twilight Sparkle lifted her heavy laden head from the wet pool of blood collecting below her to inspect the origin of the voices in a single eyed gaze that still partially blurred the details of the somewhat familiar visages.
With her neck muscles taut and bruised, Twilight could barely just about spot them from over the corpse of the alicorn partially laying ontop of her.
What she could make out, though, was one of the two creatures was small and oddly shaped with a “lion’s?” tail and wings, while the other was distinctly familiar in its pony shape, it was more slender and taller than most ponyfolk, possessing imposing wings and a long horn.
“...recognize you… kill her?”
“she won’t...memories...”
“Gone?”
Twilight felt her head slap back down against the concrete of the porch as all her energy bled out of her along with her blood.
As she lost her grip on consciousness, Twilight directed her gaze up to the starry night sky that shifted quite oddly amongst the abyss, feeling suddenly very tired and unable to keep her eyes open.
“No,” Said the voice, as Twilight peacefully drifted into the darkness.
“Changed.”
_____________________________
Twilight Sparkle awoke with a gasp, her legs kicking out as she attempted to remove a large gray suitcase that had become dislodged from the overhead compartment during the crash and had landed on top of her.
Sucking air into her lungs, with a one final yell she weakly summoned enough magic to to throw the luggage from off of her.
With her scrambled mind racing a thousand miles an hour, the event replayed over in her mind again and again as she struggled formulate just what exactly happened, reliving the crash from its inception to the inevitable and very familiar darkness as it suddenly consumed her consciousness.
The train… it crashed… why?
Pushing herself to her hooves, Twilight Sparkle noted that the interior of the carriage was mangled. The ceiling and the walls had bent inwards in places where the train was made of steel, while the wooden frames and beams that lined a lot of the car had become broken and shattered.
Not to mention the entirety of the cart was now flipped upon its ceiling, further disorientating the pony.
Urgh… my head…
With a haze filling her one eyed vision, Twilight Sparkle limped forward several steps to the immobile image of a cyan blob she could just about make out, which had an array of colourful strands sprouting from it nearby.
Rainbow Dash!
Twilight Sparkle dropped her haunches and lightly reached out to shake the mare as gently as she could. As she spoke Rainbow Dash’s name, it was abundantly clear that something was not quite right.
She couldn’t hear herself.
Why won’t this ringing in my ear go away? I must had hit my head pretty hard… that explains why I taste blood.
After a few more attempts to stir Rainbow Dash, Twilight made with absolute surety that the mare was alive by checking her vitals. A little something she had come to learn from Nurse Redheart, considering how often Rainbow Dash liked to crash into various obstacles at rather dangerously high speeds.
She never thought she would get to use it.
Oh please, no… please no, please! Rainbow!
Though she released a silent sigh of relief when she realized the mare was breathing normally (from what she could tell) and her pulse appeared steady and strong.
Thank Celestia… thank you! Thank you!
Then something caught her eye in her peripherals that caused Twilight to renew her hope. She could just make out the movement of something orange on the other side of the train car attempting to lift debris from off a fallen yellow figure she could just about make out buried there.
Twilight could only surmise that it was Applejack and Fluttershy.
I have to help them… I have to help my friends.
Please be okay.
Please.
Getting to her hooves, Twilight limped her way across the cart, struggling to step over and maneuver around the fallen luggage in her path, including a various array of other items from pillows, broken shards of glass to spoiled sandwiches that was was packed away in a picnic basket that was given to them for the trip.
Once she was close enough, she called Applejack’s name, causing the mare turn around and stare at Twilight with wild, fearful eyes of emerald, saying something that was lost upon deaf ears.
Don't be permanent… let me hear again.
Quickly stepping forward and pushing back the pain with a bite upon her lower lip, Twilight drew close to better see Fluttershy and her condition, but found it quite difficult considering how blurred her vision still was.
Robbed of two of her senses; one of which only being half present, Twilight had never felt so vulnerable and useless in all of her life. She could not assess the situation properly and could not formulate a plan like she always did.
If only this ringing would go away then I could think straight for two whole seconds!
There was nothing she could do.
But she did feel something underneath her hooves. She was standing in a puddle of something warm.
It was blood.
And judging by with each hoofstep drawing her further into the pool, it appeared to be quite a lot of it.
No… no! Not my friends too! You can’t take my friends away too!
Dropping to her haunches, Twilight sat in the blood and felt out with her hooves, wildly trying to feel for any signs of life.
Fluttershy… don’t die...
But there was none.
Screaming Fluttershy’s name frantically, Twilight Sparkle felt herself surge forward, attempting to resuscitate the mare, but was stopped when she felt something wooden protruding out from the center of Fluttershy’s chest.
I can save you! I can bring you back!
She could feel the mare’s still warm blood on her hooves as she vainly attempted to pull the implement from Fluttershy’s chest, uncaring even if she felt the blood of one of her best friends saturating her hide.
I can fix this!
Soon enough a set of strong legs ripped Twilight away from Fluttershy, dragging her back from the yellow and stained red corpse that was once her best friend, who was once alive only minutes ago, smiling and laughing with the rest of them.
You can’t be dead!
No matter how much she kicked and cried, Applejack’s grip only grew tighter around the young princess, causing Twilight’s own silent primal screams to weaken her futile attempts to save a mare that was already dead.
Wake up!
Slumping back against Applejack, Twilight turned about and threw her forelegs about Applejack’s neck, clinging on for dear life.
Fluttershy...