Fulfillment

by Amaranthine Thought

Chapter 4

Emptiness told me what had happened and what she’d done; she was much happier that morning than she had been before. I was relieved that she hadn’t gotten Sweetie, and felt angry with her; once Emptiness let me go, I went back into town to find Sweetie, more determined than ever to make Emptiness lose.

I found Sweetie soon enough, and she was looking for me just like I was looking for her. Once she saw me, she hurried to me, and I noticed that she didn’t seem to be doing well.

“A, are you alright?” I asked her.

“We need to talk.” She told me, and she led me into a little alley, where we hid behind some trash cans. Sweetie checked to make sure nopony was nearby and then told me, “She tore up my room last night. My sister, Rarity, got really mad at me…”

That was better than anything I’d feared, but I still felt terrible for Sweetie. She then continued, asking me, “You’re alright though, right? You’re not in too much trouble over Silver, are you?”

“Don’t worry about me.” I told her. “You’ve done three nights so far; there’s four more to go, and it’s… it’s going to get worse. Her time is starting to run out and she’s going to start turning invisible.”

Sweetie looked dismayed, and I tried to make it better, explaining, “But when she’s invisible, she can’t see where she’s stepping and she won’t grab you when she’s invisible. She won’t make her normal noise if she is invisible, but if you put something on the floor to make noise or trip her, that’ll make sure she can’t surprise you.”

“She’s going to try more and harder too; she won’t be so slow in her grabbing attempts, and she’ll reveal herself faster too. She’ll also make it darker, and harder to see.”

“Gentle… can, can I really do this?” Sweetie weakly asked, her voice uncertain and fearful.

“The Game normally doesn’t last longer than three nights.” I told her, trying to encourage her. “And most that play it don’t know everything you do; you can do this Sweetie. You’ll beat her.”

Sweetie smiled at me, and moved to hug me. I resisted my first impulse and let her. I knew she needed something to hold right then, and awkward and uncomfortable it was, I knew nopony I’d be more comfortable with touching me than Sweetie.

She let go soon, and wiped at her eyes, and told me, “I need more lights.”

“You have time; get some more.” I told her. “Brighter the better, but remember, it must be sudden.”

“I can’t get anymore; Rarity won’t buy any more, and I don’t have any money myself.”

“Then I’ll get you some.” I told her, surprising her a little. “I’ll drop them off behind your house, and you just need to come and pick them up there, alright?”

Sweetie nodded, and we parted ways. I found the shop and… well, I robbed it. I stole some flashlights and when the owner saw me I flung one at his head and escaped.

---

“You, you’re the Ponyville little thief?” Rarity asked, surprised. “I, I suppose I can see why you did that, however.” She quickly added, thoughtful.

“That was just the start.”

---

I snuck back into that shop a couple of times to get more stuff for Sweetie, and only stopped once I had a good number of flashlights and lanterns and a ton of glow sticks. I dropped that off like I said I would, but then I had more time and figured I’d go and get anything Sweetie might need to have. So I went back into town, and got her a lot more stuff; bells to scatter on the floor, marbles for Emptiness to trip on, anything that would either make noise or make it hard for Emptiness to get to Sweetie.

Honestly, I got carried away; lots of the stuff I stole was mostly useless. One more so than the rest:

I found Diamond wandering some store, and snatched her tiara. A little revenge for bullying Sweetie and me, and I figured it made as good a thing to not want to step on as anything else.

As the day grew later, I waited to meet with Sweetie as she got stuff, to tell her where I’d hidden most of it and give her another potion to drink. She drank it right there and told me that she felt ready.

When I went back, Emptiness was waiting for me. She knew I’d stolen stuff, and wanted to know why, and what I’d done with it all. I didn’t tell her.

She got really mad at me and kicked me around a bit before she broke my leg. My… my left hind leg. Then she left me and went to go play, angry. I think that’s why that night went so horribly.

Once the fourth night arrived, Emptiness would start using what magic she got from drinking potion. Turning invisible, darkening the room, using brief illusions to frighten and distract.

Sweetie was ready for most of it though. She’d spread paper on the floor and some bells so Emptiness couldn’t easily sneak up on her. More bells were set on the edges of her bed, so she’d always hear Emptiness when she got close, and she had two good flashlights, one with her, the other placed under her pillow to hide it.

Emptiness was not happy with all that. Angry because of me too. She wasn’t playful at all, unlike the previous nights. Sweetie was alert and wake because of the potion, but Emptiness did her best to distract and scare her; she even got Sweetie to fumble her first flashlight, but she got her second as Emptiness snatched the first.

Then Emptiness started her newest tactic; she pretended to be you. But Sweetie saw through it every time, staying put and ignoring her. This frustrated her, and Emptiness decided that then was the time that Sweetie discover her worst tactic; the second worst part of The Game.

The worst part of The Game was lack of sleep. Emptiness had many tricks and ways to gain an advantage over her victim. She’d scare their fur off, she’d distract them.

But the worst tactic she had was that she would destroy their spirits, and turn other ponies against them.

---

“The, the card…” Rarity breathed, her eyes wide as a hoof went to her mouth.

Gentle only nodded.

---

Sweetie didn’t have to fight Emptiness in the latter half of the night. She had to instead endure her ruining her home, hearing Emptiness tell her everything she was doing as if Sweetie was doing it. Sweetie managed to stay put, but then Emptiness found something, and she got up and headed out with her flashlight, unable to not try to do something.

Because Emptiness had found a card. A rather important card.

Out of her bedroom, Sweetie was much less safe, but Sweetie was careful to pay attention and did her best to keep her back to the wall and furniture, so Emptiness couldn’t badly surprise her. But Emptiness had many things to hide behind, and nothing to alert Sweetie to her being invisible.

Sweetie managed to get to the card, and tried to keep it safe. Emptiness should have had her, but Emptiness was as cruel and petty as she was insane.

She took the card from Sweetie, and tore it in half. Purposefully wasted her time knowing that what she did was worse than just taking Sweetie’s horn. She let Sweetie live, scared the cat senseless, and left Sweetie alone.

---

Gentle stopped as Rarity sobbed into her hooves. For a few moments, the only sound was Rarity’s sobbing. Then Gentle sighed.

“She didn’t hate you, she didn’t blame you.”

“I, I…”

“She didn’t tell me to forgive you; she told me to tell you that she had never held anything against you.”

“I hit… I hit my own little sister.” Rarity managed, crying as she remembered.

“Emptiness did more than steal horns and kill. She loved to break spirits too.” Gentle sighed.

“I hit her hard as I could… I, I thought… I thought she’d completely denounced our bond; torn the card in two just like she had our relationship.” Rarity said, her crying ebbing. “I, I told her to leave, and, and didn’t want to see her again… I, I just kept looking at, at the destruction, and feeling be, betrayed and so, so angry with her…”

“Lots of unicorns playing The Game would give up.” Gentle told her. “Let Emptiness take their horns without a fight, leaving their homes to ensure that Emptiness wouldn’t also take the horns of their families because they couldn’t stand it anymore. A lot of the ghosts hated her the most for making them hated by family and friends alike.”

Rarity sniffled, and wiped at her eyes. “…Twilight came soon after she left; Sweetie had gone to her. We… we had a very bad argument. I… said a few things that… that I shouldn’t have.”

“…A friend?” Gentle asked, guessing.

“She… she was, once.” Rarity answered. “To think I’d so clouded my eyes with anger that I’d… I’d not just have that terrible argument with Twilight, but… but so hurt you.” she said, looking down at Gentle.

“…”

“Gentle, I, I’m truly, deeply sorry.” Rarity told her. “I promise you, I will make it better, I’ll…”

Rarity trailed off as Gentle shuddered fearfully suddenly, the filly giving a pained whimper at the motion. Even after, Gentle tried to move away from her, clearly pained to move at all, yet, trying.

“G, Gentle?” Rarity weakly asked, her expression almost horrified, her hooves going up to her face again as Gentle looked at her.

She was clearly in pain, her breathing hurt and rough. But more so, the filly looked at her with clear fear, suspicion, and anger, all of them mixed together.

Rarity’s tears returned, seeing that, but Gentle shut her visible eye, took a hurt breath, and just said, “I, I’m fine. This is nothing. Let me continue.”

“Gentle…”

“Let me continue. This next part is important.”