The White Void

by Sealcake

Exhaustion

Rainbow dash stopped her flight and landed, stretching her cramped wings. She wiped off the sweat that was running down her forehead and took a mouthful of air.

Sitting, she looked upwards; a green sign with the words "2 miles" written on it greeting her. Rainbow smiled and proceeded to massage the muscles, some of her feathers even needing a little of preening after the mad race she pushed off to come to that point.

Her concentration only broke when a panting unicorn, stumbling, fell next to her.

"Lo... loyal p-p-ponies d... don't let friends... behind," she mumbled, tongue touching the floor. She licked her dry lips and closed her eyes, resting her head.

"Twilight? Are you okay?" Rainbow poked Twilight's body, her chest rising and falling, trying to catch all the possible air to soothe the pain present in her lungs.

"As a... scientist I c-can say that -" she coughed, nausa overcoming her "- I am pretty sure I am not in the best of situations concerning the state of my body."

"That means-"

"I feel bad, yes, now if you excuse me." Twilight got to her hooves, legs trembling. She reached the sign, and lowered her head, puking all the contents her stomach was holding. After finishing, she fell on her back and over the puddle of dirt, her limbs preferring to become completely numb instead of aching. Rainbow Dash ran to her side, eyes wide open.

"Twilight!"

Twilight opened her eyes, she looked at Rainbow Dash and murmured, "Yes, that is my name," before closing them again. Her throat felt hoarse, like a sandpaper had been rubbed in it. "They did teach me that breathing through my mouth was -" she trailed off "- a bad idea."

As by proving her comment, she felt something that could only be defined as ice spikes tearing apart the tissue of her throat. Although painful, she decided that that was best than feeling suffocated by only breathing for the nose.

"Crap, Twilight!" yelled Rainbow. She was the athlete, but she knew that it was common sense that breathing through the mouth was a bad idea, especially if one was running. Even more if you were a bookworm. "You just... YOU JUST DON'T DO THAT!"

"I was... I was following you," Twilight managed to say, "I didn't want to be left... alone."

Rainbow Dash's eyes widened as she finally realized what she had done. Consumed by guilt, she clenched her teeth and came closer to Twilight's body, her face a mixture of anger and regret. Putting her hooves on Twilight's chest, she said, "Just hold on."

"Hold on... I have heard those words many times this day..." she said, her chest stopped moving. "Did you know that... ponies can... c-can die of exhaustion?" Her eyelids felt heavier, the white space started to slowly vanish into nothing. "What a coincidence," she mumbled.

"Ju-just h-hold on," Rainbow said. Blinking, she noticed how watery her eyes had become. "I-I got this," she said, tears running down her cheeks.

Holding one of Twilight's hooves, she tried to warm it up. There was no objective in her mind, no reason. She was just trying to warm it up, to warm a cold hoof, a cold hoof that belonged to a body that didn't move.

Sobbing, Rainbow Dash rested her body next to her friend's, Twilight's cold hoof still in her grip.

"No, no, no, no," she repeated, "please don't go away, please don't leave me alone." She closed her eyes, crying her heart out. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please come back."

She hugged her friend's body, noticing the vomit that soiled her mane.

'Sedese ocom.'

"Uh?" Rainbow's ears perked up.

She separated from her friend's body, got up in her hooves and frantically looked everywhere, but the result was the same as before; nothing. But there was that sensation, a feeling of being watched by someone.

However, her thoughts vanished when she heard and incoherent babbling in a familiar voice.

"Aghughghugh."

"T-Twilight?"

"How would..." she mumbled, "how would Luna's dirty messages look like?"

"Twilight!" Rainbow yelled, she ran towards her friend and hugged her in an asphyxiating embrace. "Ohmygoshohmygosh I thought you were dead!"

"Why would I?" Twilight asked, puzzled. Then she smiled and said, "Of course, they would be something like 'Thy beauty is beyond all earth's compare; Pray tell me, lover mine, what dost thou wear?'" She giggled at her own joke and got up, saying, in a serious tone, "The news of my death have been slightly exaggerated."

"What, uh, how... WHAT?!"

"It might have been a mere fainting, nothing to worry about."

'Erprapucoes uqe de anad.'

Both mares stopped, frozen.

"Did you hear...?"

"Yes, yes I did," answered Rainbow.

"This give me chills..." Twilight said, resting in her foreleg. "W-we better keep going." She pointed at the sign, "We can't be too far away from whatever this thing leads us."

"Y-yeah," Rainbow replied, sensing a strange change in the temperature. "We better keep going," she said with a nervous smile.

Twilight smiled and lead the walk, Rainbow following her.

With their mind occupied in other things, they didn't hear the menacing whisper of the creature that followed them. 'Memrosai motmaso osol.'

Comments

[musicluvr1974]

I hope their stalker isn't Cthulhu or something...!

[PegaSista101]

Who's the creep who speaks Ancient? And what the what just happened to Twilight?