Beyond My Grave: Night Terrors

by AnnEldest

A Small Gift

The morning was supposedly spent with us walking around the Crystal Empire. I was listening to them when I realized how little I actually knew of it. It was really nice to actually see more of it.

We got something to eat and then started walking around in the market. Cadance was actually really nice. I mean that in a way that she didn't seem depressed at all. We talked and laughed about old times and memories and shared some things about us to each other.

I do not know why, but it seemed like she wanted to talk with somepony for a while. I guess that she really wanted to do something normal without them thinking something was wrong. Though I knew something was wrong with her, I didn't point it out nor made myself look like I did know.

The benefits of knowing how depression felt like you knew how to handle people that were depressed themselves. Maybe that's why Cadance came to apologize to me. Not that I cared, I was enjoying myself and enjoying spending time with her and Flurry Heart.

She was really adorable, just like her mother. I hate to admit it, but I was actually kind of glad that Celestia convinced me to do this. Maybe she was right. Maybe this was something that we both needed. At least I knew that Cadance was happy.

By the time we reached the market, it was about 11:30, so we spent a few hours doing random things. We trotted down the alley; going from booth to booth, seeing the interesting and weird merchandise they were selling.

"So when did Shining Armor start thinking you were depressed?" I asked.

"I don't know. A couple of months ago," she answered.

"Do you know why he thinks that?"

She sighed. "Honestly, I don't know and would prefer not to talk about it right now."

"Right. Sorry," I said.

"It's fine. I'm just not in the mood to talk about it."

"I can't help but feel bad,” I admitted.

"You have the right to worry about me after last night," she said sadly.

"Yeah... What was that about?" I asked, forgetting that she had just asked me not to talk about it.

"Luna!" She sightly said annoyed.

"I know but I think I do have the right to have some knowledge about last night," I responded.

"...I'm scared," she said.

"About what?" I asked.

"It's hard to explain," she said, trying to avoid the conversation.

"Talk to me, Cadance."

We sat down at a bench and she placed Flurry next to her. Cadance kept her head down, deep in thought. I wanted to say something, but I didn't know what. It was clear that there was so much so wanted to say to me. I decided to wait and give her time to speak. I wanted her to speak on her own time, not on mine.

"I want to know… I don't know," Cadance said.

"Cadance, you shouldn't have to worry like this. You have so many ponies who care and love you. You should never be afraid to talk to somepony. We're all here for you," I explained to her.

"I know… I just really don't want to talk about it, please," she begged me. I sighed, admitting defeat.

"Okay. As you wish," I said.

"Thank you," Was all that she said.

There was so much that I wanted to say to her. So much that I wanted to know and ask her. But I knew I couldn't. There was no way she would tell me. If she wouldn't tell Celestia or her own husband, I doubted that she would tell me. It's not like we were close or anything. Though spending time with her was nice and all, that didn't make us friend. I decided to try to change the subject before it got us into another fight. The last thing that I needed was for her to be mad at me. I sighed as I looked down at Flurry.

"What's it like being a mother?" I asked.

"It's never easy," she sighed but not in a bad way. "But always worth it. You'll see when you have kids."

I scoffed jokingly. "If. I doubt I'll ever have kids."

"That's what they always say."

"I assure you that will never happen," I said.

"You never know," she teased me.

"Oh please. I do know," I said.

There was a small moment of silence between the two of us. The last we were alone together, we were fighting with each other. It was a weird moment for both of us at that moment. We made little eye contact with each other. It was never just the two of us for this long. Flurry Heart must have noticed this, for she went between trying to get us to talk. It made me wondered if even she had noticed that something was wrong with her mother. Did Flurry know that Cadance was feeling this way? I hoped for her sake that she did not. We both looked at her and laughed a little.

"I think she's on to us," I joked.

"She's one smart filly," Cadance said.

"I can tell..if not too destructive," I said.

Cadance laughed at that. It was then I started to hear arguing. I lifted my head and saw that there were two small foals fighting with each other. I couldn't tell what they were fighting about, just that they were. They weren't doing anything physical to each other. Mainly, they were just screaming at one another. Cadance got up for her spot when she saw this. She handed Flurry Heart to me.

"I'm going to see what's going on with them. Watch Flurry Heart for me?" She asked me. I grabbed Flurry and nodded my head. I saw cadance then trotted over to them and start talking to them. Once again, I couldn't hear them. I looked at Flurry Heart who was laughing and smiling at me. This was the first time I held her like this.

"Hello, Flurry..." I said calmly. I sat her down next to me. She grabbed my hoof and pulled it. She was trying to get me to move. It seemed that she was getting bored. "Sorry but we have to wait for your mother," I said. She groaned madly when I said that. "Sorry, but you're going to have to wait," I said again.

Flurry crossed her arms and pouted causing me to giggle a little. She then lit up her horn and in a flash, she was gone. My eyes widened open when I saw that she was gone. I got up from my seat and looked around, trying to see where she went off too. But I couldn't see her. Mostly due to the large crowd of ponies. I saw that Cadance was still talking to the children who seemed to be calmed down now. I didn't want her to find out that I just lost her child. To be honest, I was far more worried about what Flurry Heart could do more than anything else. I knew that she had a lot of power for somepony her age. I knew I needed to find her before she could do anything too destructive I ran into the market area while I called out for her. I needed to find her fast before I was too late. It wasn't even two minutes and I lost an all power destructive alicorn baby. This was why I could never be a mother. If Cadance wanted proof, was here it was. I couldn't even watch a baby for a few minutes without losing them. The fear thoughts looped around in my mind until there was no room for anything else. Everything in my head was trying to show me that all will be okay, but I didn't believe that at all. I tried to stay calm and took deep breaths but it wasn't working. My breathing became more rapid, more shallow. The thoughts were accelerating inside my head. I wanted them to slow down so I can breathe but they refuse to stop. My breaths came in gasps and I felt like I was going to blackout. I panicked as I roamed throughout the market. My heart rate quickly surpassing the rhythmic beat coming from inside. There was no sight of her and was I getting really worried. What if I couldn't find her? What was going to tell the others? Shining Armor was going to be so pissed off at me. I didn't even want to think about what Celestia was going to do to me.

"Flurry? Flurry Heart, where are you? Oh shit. Shit. This can't be happening," I cried to myself. "Flurry Heart. Please come to me." I ran and looked at every stand I saw. I kept looking for her but no matter where I looked, I couldn't find her. I ended up back to where we were seated before I lost her. I soon stopped trotting and tried to relax. I closed my eyes and sighed.

"What am I going to do?" I whispered to myself.

"Need help?" I heard a male voice from behind said to me. I groaned when I heard that voice. I knew who it was. I turned around as he stood there with a smile. He was enjoying watching me suffer.

"Really? Now you come to talk to me?" I asked angrily.

"Well, last night you said you wanted to talk to me. Talk about a flip-flop," he joked.

I sighed impatiently. "Look, I have no time for this. I have to find Flurry Heart. Before Cadance does." He laughed as I was walking away. I turned around and face him.

"What's so funny?"

"You are."

"What?" I was confused.

"It seemed to me that your nightmare last night got to you."

He then pointed behind me. I slowly turn to where he was pointing at and saw Flurry flying around a stand that was selling what looked to be old toys. It wasn't even that far from where we were seated. I stood there shocked and in disbelief. "She was there the whole time?! How did I miss that?"

He chuckled. "I don't know but it was funny to watch."

I looked at him madly only to see a few ponies looking at me weirdly. They were whispering back and forth to each other. I quickly looked away from them. They must have noticed me talking to nothing or at least to them it was nothing. I shook the feeling off and tried to ignore them.

"At least I found her," I said as I trotted to her.

"Umm, I found her, actually." I kept trotting away from him without saying anything. I didn't need anypony else seeing me like that. "What? Not even a thank you?"

I bumped into some tables and into other ponies. But I didn't stop until I got up to Flurry. She was now playing with some toy when I got to her. I grabbed onto her with my magic and pulled her to me. I hug her so tightly; so relieved and glad that I found her before anypony else did.

"Oh, Flurry. Thanks the stars that I found you."

I then looked at her with a serious face causing her to frown. "Don't you ever do that again to me. I was so worried about you. I didn't know where you were." I said not knowing if she even cared what I was saying to her. For a moment when I looked at Flurry's eyes, I saw Silver Blitz when we first met in the woods. I remembered seeing her so happy when I told her I was taking her home. Then I saw her scared, covered with blood from my nightmare. I gasped sightly and shook my head. No. I wasn't going down that path again. I moved on from that and I wasn't going to let some nightmare bring me down. I took a deep breath and smiled at Flurry. "But I'm glad that you're alright. Now let's find your mother."

I was about to leave when I noticed an older elder pony trotting over to me. He had black bread and a dark blue coat. "She's with you?" he asked sternly. He didn't appear to be so happy at me.

"Ummm yes. She is. Sorry if she did anything," I apologized.

"No, she didn't. I just came over here to fill in for my granddaughter when I saw her flying around. I didn't know if anypony was watching her," he explained himself to me. I felt so bad. I didn't want to tell him that I lost her and was looking for her. So I just smiled and nodded.

"No. No. It's all good. I'm watching her. She's all good and taken care of," I said.

"I'm only making sure." He didn't sound so convinced.

"Well, it was nice talking to you. I'll just be on my way," I quickly said. I turned to leave. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could when he stopped me.

"Princess, the toy please," he spoke calmly.

I didn't know what he meant by that at first. It wasn't until I looked at Flurry when I realized that she was holding a small toy. With my magic, I pulled the doll away from Flurry to get a closer look at it. The doll was an antique and was old. The doll itself was an earth pony with its mane made from ropes and strings and its eyes were old buttons. The coat was a dark dusty purple and the main was dirty brown. The cutie mark appeared to have withered away with age leaving only scrapes behind so I couldn't tell what it was. However, besides that, the doll itself did seem to be in decent conditions. But it was the smile it gave that was the real attention grabber. It was unsettling and possed a personality in an uncanny way. Plus the teeth of the doll look very real and very lifelike. I had no idea why Flurry Heart was even messing with a toy such as that. It didn't look kid friendly.

"Sorry. I didn't realize that she had this." I handed it back over to him as Flurry reached out her arms to grab it. She started pouting again as I took it away from her. He smirked when he saw this.

"She likes it," He said.

"I don't see why. It looks unsettling," I said.

He shrugged as he grabbed the doll. "Those dolls were really popular when they first came out. They stopped making them years ago. Now you can only find them at antique shops. They are usually in better conditions than that, Princess Luna."

"Well, for an old toy, it looks like it's in decent shape. I mean even the teeth look real," I said.

"They are real."

"Wait, what?!" I looked down at Flurry Heart. "Why would any reasonable child want that?!"

"Kids are unpredictable with small minds which can't be understood half of the time," He explained. "That is the reason I have to force myself to endure every day of my life at least."

"Is that even legal?"

"I guess back then it was," He said. "Whatever sells I guess."

I had heard enough at that point. I decided that it was time to leave and find Cadance. "Come on, Flurry let's go find your mother," I said. She lit up her horn and teleported in front of me.

"I think she wants the toys, princess," He said calmly.

"Flurry, why would you want that? It shouldn't even be called a "toy." She crossed her arms and gave me a mad stare. She wasn't taking no as an answer. I sighed heavily and rolled my eyes.

"Fine. How much is it?"

Author's Note:

Next chapter is when things start to happen. Been busy with school and didn't want you to wait any longer. Hoped you liked it.

Till Next Time!!!!

Comments

[DarkChocolateMuffins]

😐don't test my patience😑

[AnnEldest]

9633997
What?