13 Days Later – 1 Day Until Time is Up
Twilight flicks through another book, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Nearly two weeks have passed since she made the deal with Shepard and she hasn’t made any progress, and she has only until tomorrow. Twilight feels sick thinking about what she has to do if she fails. She pushes on and grabs another book from the large pile she made. But this upsets the pile of books, causing them to fall towards her. Twilight braces herself to be pummelled by books… but nothing happens. She opens her eyes and sees the books float back into a pile. She turns around and sees Shepard leaning against the wall.
“You shouldn’t kill yourself, Twilight,” Shepard says, wheezing slightly, “It won’t bring me any satisfaction.”
Shepard looks a wreck. Her eyes are bloodshot and tired, with huge bags underneath them, her mane is a total rat nest and her fur is sweaty and mattered, and the visible skin on her chest is a sickly pale. Over the final week she has gone ever weaker, as she battles for control over her own body and it is taking its toll, both physically and mentally. She gets off the wall she is leaning on and takes a few unsteady steps towards Twilight. She nearly falls over, but Spike appears beside her and supports her.
“Thanks Spike,” Shepard says, giving the dragon a kind smile that three weeks ago Twilight didn’t think Shepard could give… she wishes that she was nicer to Shepard to begin with, maybe this would never of happened.
“It’s no problem,” Spike replies, trying to give a cheerful smile back.
“I am sorry about how much you have to help me,” sighs Shepard, “I am ashamed about how weak I’ve gotten.”
“Like I said, it is no problem,” Spike repeats, still smiling.
Twilight can feel a pain deep within her chest as this scene unfolds, for this all feels like her fault and soon she will have to pay the price.
“Twilight?” asks a voice, breaking Twilight out of her thoughts.
“What?” Twilight says, looking at the source of the voice which is Shepard.
“Any hope yet?” asks Shepard.
“None,” Twilight replies, hanging her head. It was the same answer as all the other days.
“I see,” Shepard says, who never believed that it would be any different than the other days.
“But I still have time!” states Twilight, opening a book.
Shepard just sighs again and lies down on a nearby pillow. Twilight is amazed how once something so strong now can look so weak.
“Can I get you anything, Shepard?” asks Spike, eager to help.
“Just water, I don’t think I can stomach any food right now,” replies Shepard, laying her tired head on the floor.
Spike nods and turns to Twilight.
“Just water as well, please,” Twilight says, rubbing her eyes again.
Spike nods and leaves the room. A silence hangs over the room, until Shepard breaks it.
“You know you don’t have to kill me anymore,” Shepard says, “I can do it myself now.”
Twilight finds herself hanging her head again at those words, she doesn’t want to hear this.
“I don’t mind how I die anymore, as long as the pain stops,” continues Shepard, finding herself slowly nodding off.
Twilight finds herself shaking slightly, tears starting to fall from her face. “How can you be so calm about this?!” Twilight cries, “Aren’t you scared of dying!?”
Shepard looks at Twilight for a second and then back the ceiling. “I don’t who I am, but I remember that I was never scared of dying, but of failing… I think that the same with you, Twilight. Which is why right now you are working yourself to death for someone else,” she then gives Twilight a warm but sleepy smile, “For that I thank you... for showing me a small bit of myself.” Shepard than falls asleep.
Twilight walks to Shepard side and strokes her hair, hoping that she is getting a restful sleep.
“I am so sorry, Shepard,” Twilight cries, silently, “I am so sorry.”
A sound causes Twilight to look up, she sees Spike carrying a tray with two glasses of water, he has a worried look on his face.
“Is Shepard…” he asks, scared.
“No, she is just sleeping,” Twilight calms the dragon, rubbing the tears out of her eyes.
Spike breaths out a sigh of relief, “I hope she gets some sleep this time. She barely got any this week.”
“Yeah, I know,” Twilight replies.
“You haven’t got much either,” scolds Spike, placing the tray on the table.
“I can’t Spike, I’m running out of time,” cries Twilight, “I only have until tomorrow! I got to find a way to find out her name by then!”
Spike doesn’t say anything, for there is nothing to say. If Twilight does go to bed than Shepard would die, but if doesn’t Twilight risks damaging herself further and Shepard could still die. So what can you say?
“I’m going to put Shepard into bed,” Twilight states, picking up Shepard gently with her magic and heads for the stairs.
“Be careful of your leg, Twilight,” warns Spike, for Twilight’s injury still hasn’t healed yet, and is still locked in a leg brace.
Twilight ignores this and climbs the stairs and enters Shepard’s room. Twilight lays Shepard down on the bed and tucks her in. When she leaves the room she notices Spike carrying some of the books she is reading up the stair.
“What are you doing, Spike?” asks Twilight, confused.
“I’m bring these books to your room, so you can read them there,” explains Spike.
“Why?” asks Twilight, still confused.
“Well in case you want to fall asleep, or it gets cold,” explains Spike, "They say it is going to get chilly tonight."
Twilight sighs, “Thanks Spike, but I won’t be falling asleep tonight.”
Spike just shrugs and continues into Twilight’s room, Twilight follows.
“Just put them beside my dresser,” orders Twilight.
Spike just nods and sets them down where requested. He then heads for the door, stopping beside it. “You know none of us will blame you if you fail… we all want you to succeed, but we won’t fault you if you don’t,” Spike says sadly, letting out the words that have been that been on his mind for awhile, "Because I don't even believe Shepard will fault you after trying so hard." With that he leaves the room.
Twilight frowns, not sure what to think about Spikes words, but she sits in front of the dresser and pulls out a book and begins to read. Half an hour passes when she starts to feel sleepy. She shakes to try and wake herself up, but she continues to nearly nod off.
“Dammit body, don’t give up on me now,” she curses, but her body has had an enough and she slumps on her dresser and falls asleep.
About ten minutes later Spike enters the room, upon seeing the sleeping alicorn he sighs. Twilight has been getting less sleep than Shepard has and Spike knew she wouldn’t last much longer. He pulls a blanket over Twilight and leaves the room.
“Sweet dreams, Twilight,” he says, before he closes the door.
Twilight opens her eyes and finds herself in a misty landscape. She looks around and finds herself surround by walls of mist. She also feels grass under hoof.
“Why does this place feel familiar?” she asks, herself.
She then feels that she is holding something with her magic… something bellow her. She looks down and gasps. She is holding the weapon she now known as the Executioner Pistol and she has it pointed at Shepard’s head, who sits before her.
“What Shepard, what is going on?!” Twilight says, panicking.
“The time is up, the punishment nigh, everything must end,” Shepard replies, expressionless.
“What do you mea…” but a sharp noise stops the words dead in her mouth, the gun went off in her magic. Shepard falls to ground bleeding out her life blood.
Twilight drops the gun and falls to her knee, “What… no I didn’t mean…”
She looks around and sees her friends standing at the edge of the mist, just staring at her. Twilight can’t speak as they just stare at her, then they close their eyes and recede into the mist.
“WAIT!!” Twilight screams, and tries to chase after them.
But her legs won’t move… something is holding onto them. She looks down and screams, for looking back up at her and smiling with a rows of sharp teeth, and a bullet hole through one of her eyes, is Shepard.
“It is good to see you again, Twilight,” she says, in the familiar evil voice.
“YOU!!” Twilight screams, teleporting out of its grip.
“Yes me,” it says, grinning, blooding pouring of its empty eye.
“Why are you here, I don’t fear Shepard anymore!” Twilight cries, backing away.
“But something else has replaced it, hasn’t it, hmmm,” it says, advancing on Twilight.
“What are you talking about?” Twilight says, slightly relieved that it is a nightmare, but is still frightened.
“Guilt for not trying to save Shepard earlier... and longing for an answer that you already know but can’t remember,” it says, smiling wickedly.
“Do mean Shepard’s name?! Do you know her name!?” Twilight yells, forgetting this is a nightmare.
“No, I don’t know her name for you don’t know, and I am a figment of your imagination, but you know how to find her name you have just forgotten,” it says, shorting the distance between it and Twilight, “Now, no more questions, time for this nightmare to begin!” With that she raises the Executioner Pistol that Twilight dropped and fires a shot.
It flies over Twilight's head, barely missing her. With that she bolts, running into the mist.
“Darn, it is kind of hard to hit something with only 20/0 vision,” it says, smiling. With that she melts into mist and chases after Twilight.
Twilight runs through the mist, nearly bumping into trees and rocks. She knows she will be caught, for this is how the dream goes. She runs and then gets caught, she just doesn’t know when. Suddenly she trips over something and falls onto her face. She tries to get up, but something kicks her hard, causing her to fall onto her back. The Nightmare Shepard looms over Twilight. Smiling, it leans over and starts strangling her.
“Why won’t you remember Twilight?” it giggles, “You've had the answer all along, but you've lost it. Why won’t you go look?”
Twilight struggles, trying to escape. She then hits the nightmare in the face, causing something to fall from its neck and smack her in the face. It seems to be a necklace, but Twilight can’t see though her darkening vision.
“Find it, Twilight! Find your answer!” it yells, happily.
Twilight wakes up.
Twilight gasps as she jerks awake. She looks outside and she sees that it is now dark.
‘How long have I been asleep for?’ she wonders, rubbing her heavy eyes.
Her mind drifts back to dream, which as dreams always do, they start to fade. But she remembers one thing, it said that she knows the answer.
“What answer?!” she growls to herself, thumping the desk, “If I knew the answer I wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with!”
Giving up trying to work out what her dream meant, she grabs a book and tries to read, but finds it impossible for she can’t forget the dream.
“Damn IT!” Twilight screams, throwing the books off the dresser in frustration and then covering her face behind her hooves, feeling ready to cry.
A sound catches her attention. The sound of bits of metal hitting the floor. She looks down and sees that she has knocked down her jewellery box, spilling it's contents across the floor. She quickly got to her hooves and starts gathering them up. She really hasn’t much need for jewellery, but many were gifts and she treasured them dearly. She puts them back into their box and checks to see if they are all there, which they are. She puts it back onto the dresser when something catches her eye.
It seems to glow in the moonlight as it lay in the middle of the floor. Twilight walks over to it and carefully picks it up. It is a ball chain with two flat bits of metal hanging off it.
“What is this…?” Then she remembers.
“It’s a dog-tag?”
“A what?”
“It's what soldiers use to identify bodies on the battlefield”
“What does it say?”
“Huh?”
“Look on it, it should have the owner’s name, blood group, religious preference, service number and place of origin on each piece of metal.”
Twilight quickly looks at it, but it still just as unreadable as before. She is about to give into despair when she thinks of something.
“What if this is Shepard native languages, and she can read it!” with that in mind she rushes out of the door and to Shepard’s room, holding the dog-tag close to her.
This is the answer she forgotten, and she had it all along… how in Tartarus did it in end up in her jewellery box? She knocks on Shepard’s bedroom door, which is soon opened by a tired Shepard.
“Twilight, it's still hours until dawn,” Shepard says, yawning, while also looking slightly confused.
“I’m sorry, but is this yours?” Twilight asks, holding out the dog-tag.
Shepard takes the dog-tag and looks at it, for a very long time. She then gives Twilight a very pained look.
“I think you should go, Twilight,” Shepard says, as she closes the door.
Twilight feels like collapsing. It didn’t work, her last chance didn’t WORK! She starts crying. She has failed. With these thoughts in mind she makes her way back to bed, where she cries herself to sleep.
As Shepard finishes closing the door she collapses on the floor. She clasps her head between her hooves and lets out a silent scream. The pain she feels now is the worst she felt yet. Her Omni-Tool turns on as it starts to pour huge amount of information into Shepard’s mind.
Harbinger tries to slow down the huge amount of information, but like a ragging torrent it cannot be stopped, as it pours into Shepard’s mind. The surge pours through her Hall of Memories, filling it with it lost items before finally pouring into the Soul Chamber. It washes away the other souls to the far corners of the Chamber and then surging into the soul that sits alone in the middle of the chamber.
The soul then climbs to her feet, standing strong, as does Shepard.
“Shepard, are you alright?” Harbinger asks, for Shepard had laid on the floor for quite a while.
“Yeah, better than I have in a while now,” Shepard replies, smiling, feeling much stronger.
“I have managed to cap the information for now, you may review it any time you wish.”
“Thanks, but right now I think I want a shower,” Shepard says, smelling herself, “Yep, I need a shower… and something to eat.”