//------------------------------// // 9. Midnight // Story: What is Left // by OnionPie //------------------------------// The bells inside the grandfather clock played their melody, then began to chime the hour. The clock tower at the heart of town followed. They rang together, shrill and deep, close and distant, counting the hours. Ten… Eleven… Midnight… Silence. Something stirred at the end of the dark hallway outside the room. A figure, blacker than shadow. My breath caught in my throat. The hooded figure lumbered out of the dark, the slivers of streetlight sliding over his scorched raincoat and ruined face. “Your time,” Chuck-Chuck wheezed through a dry throat, “is up.” I stood up and backed away until I pressed against the wall. I opened my mouth to say something, but those white eyes killed the words in my throat. “We both knew how this would end,” he said. “I can…” I swallowed. “The money…” He moved closer. “Still you fight the inevitable?” Every instinct screamed at me to run. But he stood between me and the only door, and he’d grab me before I could even think about going for the windows. He glanced with disinterest at Rarity sleeping on her bed. “Please...” I whispered, my eyes going to Rarity. “She needs me.” “You disappoint me, Belle.” He approached like he had all the time in the world. “The time for that is long gone.” I breathed as fast as the ticking clock. “I can’t. I have to be here for her. If I leave her—” “Leave her?” He stopped beside her bed. “You misunderstand.” His horn took on a soft glow, and a tiny glass bottle hovered out from under his blackened raincoat. His ruined face flashed a sick grin. “The two of you are going to the same place.” “What?” I breathed. He stepped up to Rarity, grabbed her by the throat, and brought up the glass vial. “No!” I charged at him, knocking into his side. He staggered into the nightstand. The flower vase with the dream lily wobbled and tipped over the edge, shattering against the floor. Chuck-Chuck swung his hoof into my face so hard I saw stars. Next thing I knew, I was on the floor, head pounding. Chuck-Chuck loomed over me. The blackened skin on his face had cracked and begun to bleed. "I owed you that one from earlier. This one's interest." He kicked my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. My back bowed forward, and I clutched my stomach, wheezing. He picked up the tiny glass bottle from the floor and held it in the light. A translucent, white liquid stirred inside. “I’ll kill you last,” he said, uncorking the vial and turning to the bed. "Don't touch her!" I screamed. “Rarity! Wake up! Rari—” He kicked my face. “Shut up!” I collapsed back to the floor. My head swam, my whole body ached. I didn’t have the strength to rise. All I could do was lie there and watch as he tugged Rarity’s unconscious head up by her mane and emptied half the bottle’s contents into her mouth. “No,” I whimpered. “No…” "Shame,” he said. “She won't feel a thing, passed out like that." He tugged my head up by my mane. "You, however..." He brought the half-full vial closer and pried my jaws open with his magic. "Agony." I startled when the disgusting liquid hit my tongue. I tried to spit it out, but he forced my mouth shut. “Don’t fight it,” he said, squeezing my nostrils. The poison splashed in my mouth. I shook and whimpered, struggling against it with all my strength. But it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t breathe. I swallowed. "Good." He let go of my mouth and nose, and I fell to the floor, gagging. "How long the poison takes to kill varies from pony to pony. I once saw someone survive ten minutes. Most don’t make it past two.” I gagged and coughed from the remaining poison in my mouth. "I wonder how long you’ll last.” He hunched next to me. "You’re a feisty one. Maybe you’ll make it to three." He glanced at Rarity asleep on her bed. "She won’t." My stomach twisted. I could feel the poison burning at my insides, spreading fast. “Now, then,” Chuck-Chuck said, his horn glowing. “With your death…” The magical document shone into existence in the air before him. “...I declare your contract…” He made a slow motion with his horn, and a line struck through my signature at the bottom. “...void.” The document dispersed, the magical light faded, and I felt a weight lift from my horn. And in that moment, I knew I was going to die. Rarity was going to die. It was over. I was supposed to give up. "Anti...dote," I croaked, still tasting the poison in my mouth. "Want it, do you?" He leaned close enough for me to smell the dust on his breath. “The flower’s far—” I pressed my lips against his and bit so hard I tasted blood and ashes. Chuck-Chuck groaned, trying to pull away. I tugged hard in the other direction. His lip came loose and he stumbled back away from me. I spat a chunk of burned meat on the floor. "You bitch!" "I wonder how long... you'll last." Chuck-Chuck paled, pressing a hoof to his bleeding lip. "Tastes like shit... doesn't it?" He stumbled back against the nightstand, bottles and vials clinking inside his raincoat as he rummaged inside. He pulled out a blue vial. The antidote. He uncorked it. I leaped from the floor with a rush of adrenaline and rammed my horn into him, feeling his ribs crack. He slammed back against a wall, gasping. The antidote fell on the bed. I dove for it and fumbled with it in my hooves. Chuck-chuck put his hoof under my belly and threw me back to the floor. He took the antidote in his magic, tilted his head back, mouth open, bottle hovering over him. I tugged at the antidote with my magic, making a thin stripe of translucent, blue liquid spill on the floor. He snapped his head at me, scowled, and charged. I tried moving aside, but I was too slow. He knocked me back against a mirror and raised his hoof to strike me. I moved my head to the side just in time, and his hoof went straight through the mirror, shattering it. I bit his shoulder. He groaned and threw me off him with far less strength than he’d had a moment ago. I rolled to a stop on the floor. We both froze for a moment, looking around for the antidote. I spied it first and leaped up. We both dove for it, knocking into each other and losing our balance. His hoof stepped on the bottle. The glass crunched and the blue liquid spilled out, draining into cracks in the floorboards. We both stared at the ruined antidote. Chuck-Chuck’s expression was one of pure horror. "You killed me.” He took a lumbering step toward me. “You killed…” His knees buckled, and he collapsed on the floor next to the the broken glass. "You... bitch." My legs wobbled. My stomach burned. It was becoming hard to breathe again. I leaned forward, ready to vomit, but nothing came. My guts cramped. Cold dread clouded my mind. A strong scent hung in the air. The smell was rising from the spilled liquid. A sweet smell. A familiar smell. Warm and exotic. In my swirling mind, I recalled it from somewhere. I blinked down at where Chuck-Chuck lay groaning on the broken glass, and spied the paper label still clinging to one of the glass shards. Lilium Somniorum Extract. “Dream Lily?” I breathed. "That's the antidote?" Chuck-Chuck coughed something that might have been half a sentence, his mouth foaming. I looked at the nightstand. The flower vase had fallen to the floor in the struggle, porcelain shards scattered around a pile of earth. And in the midst of it lay the most beautiful flower in the world—two headed, one white and one blue. I crawled toward it, too weak to stand. The edge of my vision darkened. The agony in my stomach clawed its way into my chest. I picked up the flower from the mound of dirt and snapped the stem in half. A blue liquid, thick as blood, dripped to the floor, its sweet scent rising into the air. I bit into the bleeding stem, sucking the sap into my mouth. Bitterness burned down my throat. I wiped my mouth, shuddering. Something grabbed my hind leg. I looked down. Chuck-Chuck’s face twisted with fury, his mouth oozing white foam. He held me in place and climbed over me, eyes bulging at the dream lily, his horn flickering. I pushed against him with all my strength to keep him away from the flower. He groaned as he struggled against me, his eyes glassy, his body shaking. His pushing weakened. His heavy breathing slowed, then stopped. He jerked one last time, and his body fell limp on top of mine, the lily just out of his reach. I pushed him off me, and he rolled over dead on the floor, blank eyes staring at nothing. The burning sensation in my stomach and chest had already faded. I could feel the antidote working, strength returning to my battered body. I looked around the dark room, dazed. I had to get to Rarity, give her the antidote, if she wasn’t dead already. I picked up the lily in my teeth, crawled to the bed, and hoisted myself up on the mattress. Rarity was still breathing, chest just barely moving. I rushed over to her side and turned her over. She looked calm, peaceful, like she was just sleeping for the night, not knowing that a deadly poison pulsed through her. I brought the lily up beside her. “You need to take this.” The broken stem bled on the mattress, making a pooling, blue stain, just like when I had found Rarity the first time in a pool of her own blood. I was trembling, my magic sputtering under the small weight of the flower. “I’ll save you,” I said, bringing the dripping stem closer to her. “You won’t die.” Though her eyes were closed, it felt like she was watching me, judging me. I could almost hear her asking, why are you hesitating? “I need you to live. I can’t do this without you.” The lily quivered in my magic. “I want to be good. I want us to be sisters again. I want you to save me. I want…” It’s always about what you want, isn’t it? Rarity’s voice echoed in my mind. Tears blurred my vision. “Don’t you get it? You’re all I have left.” I brought the broken lily closer to her mouth. “I’ll save you. ” The stem brushed against the edge of her lips. “Every single day, I’ll be here for you.” Have you even tried to understand what I want? “It’s not too late,” I whispered. “We can make things the way they used to be. We can...” To fall asleep and never wake again. “I can still…” Tears and blue sap dripped on her cheek. If you have any love for me, you’ll let me go. I threw the lily away. I leaned forward and hugged her. “I love you,” I croaked in her ear. “Do you hear me? I love you. I love you. I love you.” Her breathing was slowing. I could feel her drifting farther from this world with every breath she took. I let go of her, and her warmth fled me. I climbed to the edge of the bed, reached into the raincoat of the body on the floor, and pulled out another white gem from the same pocket. Every inch of my skin prickled. My mouth watered. The pounding in my head intensified. I crunched the small stone in my magic, grinding it to a fine, white dust, and moved the powder like a thin snake above the bed. I lay down beside Rarity and rested my head on her chest, staring up at the shifting dust above me. She was warm. I could hear her breathing, could feel the soft thumping of her heart against my cheek. I ignited the dust. It flashed and fizzled like firework powder, lighting up the room in bright white. When the light died, a fine, white smoke hung in the air, glittering in the dim light. I closed my eyes and sucked in the smoke. All my pain melted away. Bliss tingled through me. My body shed its weight. I was floating, barely touching the soft bed, Rarity’s warmth like sunshine at my side. I exhaled. The smoke swirled and sparkled above me. I sucked it in again, deeper this time, filling my lungs with the sweet smoke. I could feel her heart beating against my cheek, slowly, slowly. The bed rocked gently from side to side. The walls of the room fell away, revealing a black lake shimmering with pale light. The ceiling disappeared, and a thousand, thousand stars twinkled to life around a brilliant full moon. Waves lapped against dad’s rowboat, slowly, slowly. A warm wind blew against us as we drifted out on the lake, going anywhere and nowhere. Rarity sat at the rear of the boat, working the oars—a different Rarity than the one I could feel lying beside me in a bed in a different world. This Rarity was younger, little more than a filly—the Rarity I visited every time I used the dust. The young Rarity smiled at me. She was always smiling, her eyes shining with a love only sisters could share. She didn’t speak. She never spoke. There was only the sound of the gentle waves against the boat. I could feel her heart slowing, the boat steadying, the waves too weak to rock it anymore. “I never should have left you,” I whispered. “I made you promise never to leave me, but I was the one who abandoned you.” The wind died down, the waves calmed, the boat drifted still and steady on the lake, and the Rarity in the dust never stopped smiling. “I wish we could stay like this forever,” I said. The stars in the night sky faded to black. “But I know we can’t.” The moon dimmed into nothingness. “So I’ll come back.” Shadow swallowed the shore of the lake. “I’ll always come back.” All was still, and the silence of my sister’s heart drowned the world.