The young patchwork filly sat with her back against the wall, the head of her master resting in her lap; her dark black mane covered the purple unicorn like a blanket. She cooed softly as she stroked her master’s head gently. A large mirror filled the wall in front of her, dust and grime crawling up its sides.
She watched herself in the faded mirror, her long black hair covering one side of her face. Her one button eye, with a hole drilled in the middle of it so she could see the world. With her mouth sewn shut, she could only open it when she was near her master.
She glared at the purple mare’s ankle where one of the burdened had burned her badly, as if it was at fault for being injured. She couldn’t do much for the injury as she had no training in the medical arts. The small lamp beside her burned brightly, it’s brilliant light illuminating the small room. She looked over at it, she remembered that she had found in the library, she was going to give it to her master. But she arrived, and attacked her master and drove her away.
The young filly sighed and quietly, she whispered into her master’s ear.
“-and she started to choke.
For they had gagged her with the hatred of a thousand voices
She cared not, for she knew that they would burn.
And burn they did.
Burned in the place that they sought safety,
By the hooves of the small one who they hated so.
To fill with her with their hatred.
Is a crime that can’t go unpunished.”
Twilight coughed loudly, the white filly smiled and stood slowly, careful not to disturb her. She dimmed the lamp till it was just a small flame, and, like the phantom she was she melted back into the darkness and watched silently. Echoing her master, always with her master, never leaving her master.
Twilight slowly opened her eyes to a rusted metal ceiling; a dim orange light illuminated her surroundings. To her right was a large metal door; to her left was an empty shelf. Her right leg throbbed, each pulse causing her ankle to twitch slightly. The stench of burning kerosene filled her nose; the ground slightly shook beneath her as she lay there.
She turned her head towards the dim light, squinting; she reached over and knocked the thing over. The light slowly faded until she could see what it was clearly. It was a small rusted lamp; the glass was foggy and dark. Two small metal rods ran up and down on either side of it, at the top was a handle wrapped in leather. So that anypony who needed to use it could carry it without causing too much discomfort.
Kerosene slowly leaked out from the base of the lamp, Twilight watched silently as the amber pool of liquid slowly grew in size. The fire in the lamp started to flicker; slowly it dimmed until it went out completely. She stayed that way for several minutes, silently listening to the steady thumping of the ground.
Twilight lay there, staring into the darkness until she finally decided that she had to move. Slowly she reached out towards the lamp groping silently for the leather-padded handle. When she had found it, she slowly dragged the metal object back towards herself. She turned it back right side up, still lying on her back she twisted the knob. The flame slowly sputtered to life, recasting a dim orange glow on her surroundings.
As Twilight sat up, the dull throbbing pain in her leg slowly grew into a steady wail. She turned the lamp towards her ankle and stared silently at it. All the hair on her ankle had been burned off, the skin dark red and peeling, her hoof was blackened and split down the middle. If she were going to walk, it would be very difficult.
Her mind was foggy, she couldn’t recall the past twenty four hours, only blurred memories and the sensation of fear. She rubbed her eyes slowly, and tried to stand up on her three good legs. It wasn’t easy, she had to use the wall for support but she eventually managed to do it.
“At least it’s not one of my fore legs.” She murmured to herself. She bent down to pick up the lamp but something clacked to the floor in front of her. It was a small rectangular box. With a glass panel at the top, and a long metal rod jutting from the top of it. Black letters and numbers hid behind the glass, a large knob sat in the middle. On its side was a switch pointing downwards. Curious, she flipped it to the upward position.
Static suddenly burst from the small device, its loud continuous drone filled the room. She sat there, the noise buzzing and flitting around her head. She was about to turn it off when the static cut off suddenly, an eerie silence crept into the room.
Twilight’s attention was drawn to movement in front of her; she reeled backwards, stamping her bad leg on the ground. She gasped at the sudden burst of pain and fell to her side. When the pain had subsided enough, looked back in front of her. What she saw was a small purple unicorn; her mane was a mess, sticking out in all directions it looked as if she had been in a fight. Or running from it. She had dark bags under her wild, bloodshot eyes. She was coated in soot and grime, the end of her tail was singed and frazzled.
Twilight blinked and the pony in front of her blinked back, she raised her hoof and watched as the mare raised hers. Twilight’s and the purple mare’s eyes went wide as she realized that the strange pony in front of her was herself.
She reached out with her hoof to touch her reflection. When she made contact with the mirror a sudden burst of blinding light erupted from all around her. When she opened her eyes she was lying in front of herself again, but this was different. This Twilight was clean, no burns or soot or scratches. Maybe not as happy as she usually was but she was un-injured all the same.
Then she watched as her other self went up to her room, stood on the balcony railing and called out to anypony. She watched as she found the small box, how it started to hiss just before some pale pony thing attacked her. How she ran into the blue walkers. The note at the school, the tower. And finally, her encounter with the wailers. Twilight screamed, as she screamed another, louder, wail rose up from the depths of the other world. The rust slowly melded into the walls, the chains fell to the ground, and slowly rusted away to dust that was carried away by some invisible force.
Twilight felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise as a dark shadow loomed over her. She quickly turned around and let out a sigh of relief. It was a small doll hanging from a string. She felt something, an odd tugging on her heart. She stared at it for a minute before realization hit her, it was smarty-pants! But she was different; her normal expressionless face was stitched into a rather creepy smile.
Her thick strands of cloth that made up her mane had become a thick long black mane. Crude porcelain was melded into her arms, just below the elbow. The lower half of her body had been replaced with a thick black leather, dark rivulets of red trickled down from her waist where the upped half and been stitched through holes in the dull red material.
Twilight reached out and gently unwrapped the string from the dolls neck. It loosely draped across her hoof as she stared at the limp figure, the thin trickles of red ran down her arm and dripped off her elbow. Her eyes started to blur as she hugged the soft doll close to her chest. she didn’t care if the red liquid stained her fur, she just needed to do this. After a few moments of silence, she gripped the thin string in her mouth and chewed until she cut of a decent length to tie smarty-pants to her neck.
She gave the string a sharp tug to see if it would hold, which it did. Now with her friend close to her heart she was certain that she could brave any danger that was thrown at her. She grimaced as she put weight down on her left foot. It hurt, but not as much as she had expected it to. With smarty-pants tied around her neck, and the door in front of her, she gave a big sigh and pushed the small metal door open and gasped.