//------------------------------// // .-.. ..- -. .- // Story: Knock. Knock. // by Arreis Of Avalon //------------------------------// My heart is racing. My hooves are shaking. I feel chilled to the bone. I am not okay. I wipe tears from my face - when had I cried? In the dream, or real life? Which was which, I could not tell. How long now had I been afflicted by this great curse? “W-Why,” I said softly to the nothingness. Nothing answered back with a hollow, soft whistle as the wind drifted through my cold, drafty home. The… the cracks. The cracks in my house - my mind. I needed to fix them all. Myself. I couldn’t rely on the dawn anymore. She would never save me now. No dawn came for the T...Twilight. That’s my name. “Twilight.” I mouth it again. I hear a rumble in the distance. I shouldn’t know this name. But I do. It is who I am. I hear a rumble in the distance. Thunder?... Or something more? I stand. I need to find more things. I need to learn. I get my candle and move to the next room. Twist - flash. Time for light. Downstairs, light turning, flash. We planted the forest to hide one tree. Who was we? The visitors? The guests, my… f… I shook my head. Who were they hiding? The God? Me? Themselves? “... There are fewer and fewer blank pages left…” The thought shakes me to the core. I walk upstairs. Knockaknockaknock “This looks like a dismal place,” I say to my dusty, empty photo frames, “but I feel at peace here. Ordinary forest topsoil… Clay, sand, leaves, and compost. A normal forest. The way it should be.” Not… not like the other world. Next room. I hear a bulb burst upstairs, but I ignore it. No time here. No pony here. No worries tonight. I’m too tired to worry. Twist, turn, click. Next room. Creak. This room appears to be in disrepair when the lights come on - I will need to fix it soon. I cannot have visitors if my house is so unclean. Do I want visitors? I don’t know one way or the other anymore. Downstairs. I turn on the lights. Knock knock knock knock knock! I don’t respond. My hoofsteps creak against the rotting floorboards as I make my way upstairs 2 floors. I come to a dark room. Twist, turn. This is getting… easier. The light comes on. There’s scratches on the wall. Why? I don’t know. Next roo- KNOCKNOCKNOCK! “Shut up,” I say under my breath as the light turns on. Next room. The sound of my own voice gave me comfort. I keep going. “I take samples of the air every day,” I say to noone in particular. “The humidity is the same composition too. Nitrogen and oxygen. The land hasn’t changed much in eons. Everything’s the same as it was for my ancestors. It’s just that the land’s richness is in decline. Taking note of it, day after day, is my job.” This world never changes. Not until I let it. I turn on the light. Lightning strikes in the distance - for once, I don’t jump. Next room. The thunder after the strike still lingers, but this world still feels at peace. “Everything’s quiet. No wolves or owls… Only frogs and gnats.” I go to my clock and wind. Time passes. I see a note, beside me. I pick it up and my heart goes cold. Fewer and fewer days left. That almost mirrors exactly what I said earlier. Were… Were these being written as I walked around? Somepony was home. KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK. The house shakes. I hear a roar. The door creaks open. It’s… He’s trying to find me. My eyes narrow. “I still have some pages left.” I run downstairs and out the door. I wander the forest with a new will in my heart, fire pumping through my veins instead of blood. I search and search and call out for the mare. I need to see her - I need to know! I hear singing in the distance. An old lullaby about the Mare in the Moon. I look up - there is no moon on this night. It is a black moon. Nothing to be seen. I keep walking, following the song. I walk for such a very long time. It gives me peace, even if it’s exhausting. I walk and walk and walk, because I am now determined to find her. I will not just slip peacefully into the blissful ignorance once more. Somepony was home now. A roar in the distance. I jump and look back. When I turn around once more, I hear her song again. I see her. I study her briefly. Blue mane… Blue body. She looks like a ghost, a wisp, something not meant to exist in this plane of reality. Her body is ethereal, see through, blank. Her eyes shine a bright white, but the light is not so harsh on the eyes that I must look away. On her flank is a beautiful moon. The Mare in the Moon. I walk to her calmly. She turns her head to look at me and smiles. She opens her mouth and says something, but all I hear is static. I shut my eyes. Towers, mighty and majestic. Crystal towers. A star, with no lights surrounding it, just a single, solitary star. And, behind it, in the sky, is one glowing red eye. The sun rises and the star fades. The moon rises and the eye is gone. The moon sets, and the darkness of Twilight settles in. And the eye, unseen, still watches as the towers grow. I open my eyes. She is gone. … I miss my home. I awaken.