//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 & Epilogue // Story: The Kindness of Strangers // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chapter 8 Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes. She was lying in the High Street. Her head was pounding; it felt like someone had taken a hammer and bashed her over the head with it. She reached up and clutched her forehead, but quickly retracted her hoof when she felt something warm and sticky. She looked at it; her hoof was covered in blood. Twilight attempted to place where she was in town. But for some reason, she could not. It did not take long to figure out why. Twilight was in front of where Sugarcube corner was supposed to be. Supposed to be as in because it was no longer there. Instead, a large blast crater had taken its place. It was coming back to her; she remembered Sugarcube Corner exploding, and being flung into the wall. She must have hit her head. Twilight heard several groans from around her; she perked her head up and looked. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were lying on the ground as well, each of them with various injuries from being thrown in the blast. Applejack's leg was clearly broken. Rainbow Dash's wings were torn; Fluttershy's flank had a number of deep cuts and gashes. Rarity was clutching her head, blood running down from it; both she and Pinkie Pie had several pieces of debris jaunting out of their side at odd angles. In comparison to her friends, Twilight had gotten off easy. Her head was spinning, and she heard ringing in her ears, she probably had a concussion, but there was no way for her to be sure of that herself. She looked over at what was left of Sugarcube Corner. Surprisingly little, but she did see something important, a grey hoof appeared over the edge of the crater. Twilight panicked, Overdrive had survived and was coming to kill them. She looked around for anything she could use to defend herself and her friends. But when the hooves pulled their owner up, Twilight was surprised by what she saw. A grey earth pony with an orange mane pulled himself up from the crater. He grunted in pain as he made his way up. "Floppy?" Twilight called out to him. The earth pony opened his eyes. The irises were blood red instead of Floppy's normal orange ones. Twilight was frightened, they were Overdrive's eyes. "Not quite." He said with a smile. "How about we just stick with Monty?" "What happened?" Twilight asked. Monty merely smiled at her. "I killed it." Twilight's eyes grew heavy, she struggled to keep them open, it was a futile attempt, and she quickly lost consciousness. -- Twilight awoke in a hospital bed. She looked around and saw several unicorn doctors tending to her friends in the other beds beside her, and to the far left end of the room she saw Derpy Hooves lying back with a tube down her throat. They were at the Royal Hospital in Canterlot. Twilight's head had been bandaged, her head was killing her but she no longer heard the ringing in her ears. Princess Celestia was sitting in the room, and she quickly noticed Twilight was awake. The Princess crossed the room in her regal step, approaching the bedside of her prized pupil. Twilight looked into the Princess' eyes, they were the happiest Twilight had ever seen. She smiled at her mentor and tried to speak, but the Princess raised a hoof to shush her. Her smiled communicated everything it needed to. Twilight drifted back off to sleep. -- Montana Ulhan was lying in a hospital bed in a private room, thinking over what had happened to him. This shouldn't have happened, he shouldn't be here. It was unnatural. Worse still, he was remembering things, not only from his own life, but he was remembering things that did not happen to him. He remembered everything his ancestors had experienced as if he had done them himself, but the one thing that was worse, he had Overdrives memories too. There was no worse fate. He remembered destroying the dragon, giving the magical explosive to Derpy Hooves to destroy the post office. He remembered sending Twilight into the Mohoofie Desert alone and unprepared, hoping for her to die. He remembered ripping apart Princess Luna's mind and driving her to attempt suicide, and worst of all, he remembered the horrors that had been planted into Twilight's mind. Unspeakable things that he wanted to forget, but he couldn't. Twilight was lucky; her mind would be able to repress these memories. His could not. It was his punishment. He had destroyed Overdrive, and taken what was left of his body for his own, and he had to deal with the consequences of that. The memories were painful, sure. But what really bothered Montana Ulhan were his eyes. They were not his; they were not the kind, gentile orange eyes that he had been born with. They were Overdrive's harsh, imposing, blood red monstrosities. Every time he looked in the mirror, he would be reminded of what had happened to him. He could never forget. -- Princess Celestia walked down a long, bleak, white hallway through the Royal Hospital's psychiatric ward; an Earth Pony guard was outside her sister's room. He nodded to her and opened the door, allowing the Princess to enter the padded room in which Luna resided in. Luna was lying on the floor, still clad in straight jacket; she looked towards the door and smiled. "Hello big sister!" she said cheerfully. "Hello little sister!" Princess Celestia said with a smile. "You're looking a lot better today!" "I'm feeling a lot better!" Princess Luna said, a bright smile forming on her face. "My sessions with Doctor Nightcaller and the medication have really been helping. He says I can be released at any time!" "I heard!" Princess Luna said cheerfully. "He told me that you didn't want to go yet." "No," Luna said shaking her head. "Not yet. I'm not ready to go out there yet. Doctor Nightcaller and I have been talking about my exile on the moon more than what happened recently... I still have a lot of things to work through before I'm ready to go back home." "Take all the time you need," Celestia said. "I will take care of the moon while you're gone." Luna smiled at her, "I love you big sister." "I love you too." -- Nearly a month had passed. Twilight Sparkle had noted, a month since they were all cleared to go back home. Everyone was recovering well. Applejack's leg had been set in a cast, and she was due to get it off next week. Rainbow's wings had healed, but she was still undergoing physical therapy to get full use of them back. Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie's scars were barely visible anymore. Twilight, ironically being the least injured of all her friends, had recovered the quickest, and was back at one hundred per cent. She was trotting along the High street towards the apartment where Floppy Disk/Montana Ulhan was living, as she normally did. The earth pony had been hit the hardest psychologically, and she made it a point to stop by for a few minutes every day to make sure he was all right. Monty Ulhan was a rare sight in Ponyville these days. He almost never left his flat; he never wanted to talk about what was bothering him. Twilight had been trying to get him to open up to her, but so far to no avail. Maybe today, she thought to herself. She arrived at his flat, and gave the door a polite knock. No answer. "Monty! It's Twilight Sparkle, may I come in?" Twilight added, along with another knock on the door. Still no answer. "Come on Monty, I know you're in there, you don't go outside," still no answer. Twilight was a little worried by this; Monty's flat only had one room in it. There was no way he couldn't hear her. She pressed her head up against the door, complete silence, Twilight gently tried the door handle, it was unlocked, and she gingerly pushed the door open and went inside. "Monty?" She asked as she opened the door, and went inside. She looked into the centre of the room, her eyes became very small and she screamed at the top of her lungs. Dangling from the ceiling in the centre of the room, with a rope wrapped around his neck was Monty Ulhan, he was suspended half a metre off the ground, swinging back and forth ever so slightly. Twilight looked at her friend in horror, and she felt tears forming in her eyes. She dropped to the ground, burying her eyes in her hooves, and she let the tears flow, this was the second pony to hang themselves on her watch. Only this time, she'd been too late to stop it. Twilight looked up at the end table, noticing that there was a slip of paper on it. She used her magic to bring it over to her, and she read it silently to herself. Dear Twilight Sparkle If you are reading this note, than you'll have likely found me. Nopony else comes to visit, so I can't imagine anyone else ever reading this. I know you wanted to help me; you tried to get me to open up to you about what happened. I always said I didn't want to talk about it. This was a lie. I desperately wanted to talk about it. I wanted to trust in you so badly, but I couldn't, I have all of Overdrive's memories. I know what he did to you, and if I talked to you about it, those memories would have come rushing back to you, and it would have driven you to insanity. You're lucky, your mind was able to lock those memories Overdrive tortured you with away. I wasn't so lucky. I've decided that this is the only way. I'm freeing you from the burden of me. You don't have to care about my well being any more. You don't have to take time out of your day to see me. I don't matter. I tried to tell you that you didn't have to visit me so many times, but you insisted on coming anyway. You really did care, and I am so thankful for that. I had to free myself of the guilt of being your burden. This way, I don't need to be anyponies problem any more. Don't be sad. Don't dwell on my choice to die. It's counterproductive, live life and be happy. Have them burn my body and dump the ashes where ever, it doesn't matter to me, and don't worry about feeling the need to tell anypony from back home. They already think I'm dead. Now they're just telling the truth. -Monty Twilight read the letter several times. She dropped the letter on the ground, looking at the dangling body; tears were rolling off her muzzle and falling on the letter. She stood up and exited the flat, closing the door behind her. She was leaving far more than Monty Ulhan's letter behind. Epilogue Derpy Hooves awoke from her deep sleep in the Royal Hospital in Canterlot, she was groggy from the medicine, and her vision blurred more so than usual thanks to the condition of her eyes. She looked up to find that a brown earth pony with a spiky mane, and an hourglass cutie mark looking down at her. "Hello!" The earth pony said cheerfully. "How are you doing this morning?" Derpy tried to talk, but wasn't able to find the words. Her mouth moved, but no words came out. "That's ok," the earth pony said. "You don't have to talk." Derpy smiled at him, and he returned the smile, she looked into his eyes, they were a deep blue, kind, and looked far older than the rest of his face. "You're going to be just fine. Trust me, I'm a Doctor."