Silent Ponyville: Redemption

by Apple Bloom

Chapter 5: Revulsion

The floor was cold, the air was still, and she was sure that there was sompony else in the building with her. Her first thoughts were that she was in Canterlots main castle. But it didn’t look right.
The hallway’s of Canterlot were immense, with ceilings that rose high above her head; dark mosaic widows lined the walls. Depicting stories of how Equestria was made, how princess Cielestia fought and banished Night Mare Moon. And her friends and how they used the elements of harmony to return nightmare moon back into Princess Luna.

These were just as high, but that’s where the similarities ended and the differences began. Empty window frames lined the walls in place of where the giant mosaics should have been. Shattered dust covered glass fragments coated the areas around the basses of the broken windows. Wind flowed through the gaps unsettling the hair on Twilight head.
The walls were cracked and chipped, cobwebs hung from every nook and cranny in the gaps in the walls. At one end of the long hall the lights faded into pitch black darkness, and at the other end there was a tall statue of Celestia. With the sun high above her she seemed fearsome in the dim half light.

As she limped the down hall she kept looking over shoulder, she couldn’t shake the feeling that sompony was watching her. Smartypants (or vector Smartypants as she called her) was still dripping the red liquid; the rhythmic drip of the substance was the only other sound that could be heard besides her footsteps. Her entire chest was drenched in the stuff; she gave little gasps as the red liquid flowed down and over her burnt ankle. At first it stung so much that she had to check to see if she hadn’t cut herself on something. But soon the sharp sting faded to a soothing coolness.

A quiet clicking came from behind her. Twilight’s heart froze, she spun around. No one was there. Her radio wasn’t making the static sound, it helped, but not much. The clicking came from behind her again. Again she spun around, and again no one was there. Now Twilight was starting to get scared, her eyes were wide as she tried to ignite the kerosene lantern. After a few dull clicks a large flame flashed to life but slowly faded out.

The lights slowly dimmed as the clicking grew in intensity; Twilight was really starting to panic now. As the darkness continued to grow thicker and blacker, the air became stagnant and hot. Twilight’s mane stood on end as she felt something brush past her front leg; she looked around wildly but could not find any source of the thing.
With the light now diminished completely, Twilight fumbled for the switch on the lantern, flipping it madly she watched with a panic stricken face as the flame flickered and died each time she flipped the switch.

When she tried to light her lantern again, the bright white face of an upside-down pale pony leapt into view. Its head twitched violently as its mouth stretched wide, the gaping maw seemed blacker that the oppressive Darkness around her. Twilight screamed as she turned around and ran from the mare. Her back leg twitched as each step sent sharp white spike of pain arching upwards into her back.

As she put distance between her and that thing, the darkness seemed to let up gradually. Soon she could see the floor. A shrill wail erupted from behind her; Twilight looked back behind her and stopped dead in her tracks, which was a big mistake. Before Twilight could react, the Pale Mare sent long tendrils of darkness at Twilight. Twilight screamed as one of them dug into her burnt ankle, but it was soon cut off as another covered her mouth to stifle her screams.

The Pale Mare brought Twilight towards her, arms stretched wide as if to give a hug. Twilight struggled but it was to no avail, soon the Pale Mare’s head was resting on Twilight shoulder, almost lovingly. Twilight whimpered slightly at the coolness of the Mares skin.

The Mare made soft cooing noises as she brought a long metal spike up before Twilights face, it was dully painted green and purple with long spines running along its back. Twilight whimpered softly as the spike dragged across her face, not hard enough to cut her but just enough so she could feel what was about to come. Twilight closed her eyes and expected the sharp pain of the iron spike, but instead something else happened that she did not expect.

Twilight felt the sharp metal point trailing down her neck, chest and finally groin. Twilights eyes shot open when she realized what the Pale Mare was about to do, with a sudden burst of fury, Twilight snapped her head sharply to the left, breaking free of the Mares grip and head-butted the Pale Mare. As Twilight and the metal spike were roughly dropped to the ground, the Pale Mare clicked slowly as if she were a broken child’s toy trying to work. Each click matched with a twitch of her head, the Pale Mares face slowly changed from shock to rage.

Her pitch black eyes grew wide suddenly though, as Twilight rammed the damned spike into her chest. The Mare looked down and held her hooves in front of herself as she fell to one knee. Twilight gave a loud yell as she bucked the mare in the face, sending her flying backwards and out of the broken window.

Twilight panted heavily as she walked over to the broken window and looked out expecting to see that things body; however, her rage was short lived as her breath caught in her throat. The spike was sticking out of the ground, but a small trail of hoof prints led off into the castle grounds.
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Twilight stared at the small fire that burned brightly in front of her. Her mind was blank; she couldn’t think of anything or say anything. She just stared at the blazing lamp. She looked around at the small do nut shop that she had made refuge in.
The air was still and quiet, the floor was cold and hard. The only sound that was heard was the slight crackle of the lamps fire.
The walls were dull and grey, the tables were lined up neatly against the walls with thick cobwebs in-between them. The trays that normally contained the small pastries were empty; the counter where she had sat so many times with Spike was bare and covered in a thick layer of dust.
“Hey Twi?”
“Yes spike, what is it?” Twilight looked up from her studies at the tiny dragon; his eyes were big and puffy and his arms hung down on both sides.
“Can we go to bed now? It’s like one AM or something” Spike let out a big yawn and rubbed his eyes.
“Not now spike, we have to finish this essay for Mrs.Trolly.”
“Fine but can I at least go to bed?”
“Fine, but I will need your help tomorrow really early in the morning ok?”
“Ugh, fine.” Spike grunted as he made his way out of the do-nut shop. Twilight just couldn’t understand how he didn’t see the joy in studying.
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Twilight choked up at the thought of Spike, her number one assistant. She wondered how he was doing. Probably sleeping the day away as usual. Then her mind went to Pinky Pie, she remembered how the pink pony loved her sweets. Soon Twilight was thinking about all her friends.
A sharp rattle shook her from her thoughts. Twilight looked at the darkness behind the counter; the sharp rattle came again, Twilight grunted as she rose to her hooves, careful not to put any weight on her injured leg, and gripped the lantern in her mouth.

As she moved closer to the counter, she stopped. Her little red box was making the static sound again. It wasn’t loud but it was definitely there. Twilight looked over shoulder at the tables behind her, then she had an idea.

She carefully levitated one of the tables over to herself and studied it. It had a flat base with a long slender pole connecting it to the table. She effortlessly snapped the table top off and brought the sharp pole over to her hooves. Then she grabbed one of the metal stools, she bent and snapped one of the legs off to form a makeshift blade at the end of the metal pole.
She took the wooden stick and broke it off at the base of the foot. What she was left with was a sharp metal spear and a shield of sorts. But she quickly rolled her eyes and dropped the foot of the table and picked up the wooden stick.
With both the metal and wooden spears suspended above her head, and her lantern shining in front of her, she made her way through the counters door. Behind the counter was a tall rack with four levels to separate the pastries that would have normally been there, instead, small dark black mounds sat in neat rows on the four trays.

She shined her lamps beam back and forth, scanning the immediate area for anything dangerous, useful, or both. As she moved her light towards a small red compartment the rattling noise came again, she moved towards the door and dropped her wooden spear. Metal spear poised high above her head; she set her hoof on the handle and threw it open.
A large dark form shot out of the compartment, Twilight screamed, dropping her lantern as she threw her metal spear and impaled the creature. With a loud squeak the giant rat ran off into the kitchen with the spear hanging out of its side. Twilight stood there on her hind legs panting, then she started to laugh at the fact that it was a rat.

As she was calming down she bent over and gripped her lantern in her mouth, her lamp twisted around as something glinted in the small cupboard. Twilight walked over and picked up the small pair of keys, one key had the word “sloth” written on it and the other “work”.

Twilight thought for a moment before she slipped the key ring over her horn, she gasped and closed her eyes as her body shuddered slightly and her horn started to heat up. She shook her head violently trying to shake off the key ring, finally with a hard shake it flew off and hit the wall in front of her. Twilight squinted her eyes and waited for the feeling to pass, after the heat had left her horn she reached down and grabbed the key ring. She wondered how she forgot that her horn was unusually sensitive to metal.

She stared at her lamp for a few moments; she smiled when she noticed that there was a slender hook jutting up from the base. Now with the keys on her lamp and away from her horn, she looked over to the dark room where the rat had run off to.
Twilight couldn’t see very far into the room, the only thing she could make out was the outline of a mixing machine resting on a cluttered counter; Twilight turned her lamp back on and stepped through the doorway into the dark room.
Her radio suddenly rose in pitch as if sompony had turned the volume up to its max setting. A steady ringing seemed to rise and fall in pitch on a steady rhythm. Twilight took a shaky breath and kept moving forward.

The lamps beam cut through the darkness and revealed what you would normally expect to find lying around in a bakery. Thick cobwebs hung in between the parts of machinery from years of neglection. Twilight froze as a soft sob crept its way from around the counter before her.

Biting her lower lip, Twilight held the wooden spear up high above her head and slowly inched her way around the counter, what she saw made her mind flip. There crouching in the corner of the room was,

“Pinkie Pie?” Twilight said as she rapidly approached her pink friend. Pinkie Pie turned her head around and Twilight froze mid stride. Her entire left eye was swollen shut; her face was covered in dark red lacerations and bruises. Her mane was drooped down around her head in long dark strands.

All around Pinkie Pie was hastily scribbled messages written in what seemed to be red paint, the ones that Twilight could
make out read:

“Giggle at the ghasties is LIE
NONE OF IT MAKES SENSE WHY-
Bdfghigjlmoqrtuvwxyz
Anannannnnannannnaaaaaannaann
PARTY A IS LIFE
Theycrawinsidemymindtheonesthatihavntki

Pinkie Pie sobbed and turned back around and started to hit her head against the wall slowly, the heavy thuds seemed to be growing in intensity as they continued on. Twilight ran to her friend and held her hoof out but before she even touched her pink mane Pinky Pie screamed and leapt at Twilight, pinning her to the ground Twilight Yelled

“No Pinkie it’s me!” But she didn’t listen; with the lamp shining on Pinkie Pie she got a good look at her face. To her surprise only the left half of her face seemed to be damaged, the rest however was fine. Pinkie Pie screamed,

“WHOTHEHELLAREYOUANDWHYDOYOULOOKLIKETWILIGHTSHECOULDNTBEHEREBECAUSETHISHASTOBEFAKEICANTBIELEVETHATYOUWOULDEVENTHINKOFDOINGTHATANDOHMYGODTHISHUUUUUUUUURTS!” suddenly Pinky Pie rolled off Twilight clutching her head, screeching at the top of her lungs as she beat left side of her face repeatedly against the ground.

Twilight could only watch in horror as her friend repeatedly smashed her face against the ground, each time her slams grew weaker and weaker until she stopped. Pinky Pie coughed once as a blood started to trickle from her mouth, as Pinky Pie lay there panting and unconscious Twilight tentatively called out

“P-pinkie pie?” Pinkie Pie twitched her head slightly. Twilight leapt of and ran back into the main room to rip off one of the curtains. She quickly made a make-shift gauze stack and, with it in her mouth she ran back inside the kitchen room and screamed.

Pinkie Pie was gone, all of the writing was gone. Erased. And in place of where her friend should have been was the dark green and purple spike.

Comments

[LCranston]

Yes, yes, more Otherworld!

You really have me hooked on this. More, please!