The Hole

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 5

Trixie dealt with the problem the way she dealt with every problem in her life. She ignored it.

And at first it seemed to work. Looked at from a sideways perspective, burying her head in her own work and the preparations for her performance, the situation seemed to improve. The fervor of the hole slowed, to the point where an unobservant individual- -by failure of perception or by choice- -might have thought that it was just a passing fad, a strange anomaly that had intrigued the simple townsfolk for a while before turning into a simple roadside attraction in the back of the town’s consciousness.

Perhaps it would have, in time, if it had been given a chance. If the effect had not been so virulent. But those effects were the ones Trixie could dismiss the best, because they were the most frightening, and it was so much easier to live in a world where everything was stable and ordinary, and nothing was scary at all.

She ignored how the ponies of the town began to move slowly, or how pale their bodies seemed to become. She walked right past an angry screaming match in the middle of the street, where Cheerilee was screaming at her students to stop going to the hole and to stay in school- -even when she herself was sneaking out during quizzes to stare into it. She ignored how three particular fillies were no longer seen in town, or how Applejack had stopped delivering apple orders, and how Rainbow Dash kept making excuses not to attended Wonderbolts muster. Their eyes had become distant, as if those things no longer truly mattered. They could not go too far from the hole. They could not bear it.

All this, Trixie was able to ignore. She focused instead on how the days were growing colder, and how clouds were beginning to drift across the sky faster as the seasons began to change. Summer was leaving, and fall would begin soon. The air had a strange smell in it, one that Trixie normally greatly enjoyed for how happy and sad it made her at the same time- -but this year, for some reason, it smelled badly of decay.

It was on the day before her performance that she finally had some time to do some regular shopping. On this particular day, she chose to go into a particular new shop that she had never been in before.

“So,” said Trixie, leaning over the counter and eying the clerk. “Explain to Trixie why she would want to drink this dirty leaf water.”

Jasmine Leaf looked at her, and then quickly away. Her eyes could not stay still for long. On a normal day, the local tea-pony’s coat would have been a rich mulberry, and her hair a bright pink. Except now her body had grown pale, and her mane was beginning to rapidly gray. Parts of it stood up at intervals. Almost like she had woken up with it like that, but not quite. More like she had not gone to bed in some time.

“It’s not dirty,” she said, her voice croaking. She tremored, and began to scratch her forelegs, both at the same time. Deep marks where her body hair had been worn away were already forming. Her jaw was clenching repeatedly, and she could not stop turning her head to face west. Toward the direction of the hole.

“Really.” Trixie tilted the cup of brown water. “Because it looks dirty to me.”

“It’s not, it’s tea, it’s good- -I- -I love tea, it’s my favorite…” She trailed off, and suddenly turned west again. “I…tea is good. Tea is a good thing. You…can you…” She burst into tears. “I can’t!” she screamed, tearing herself from the counter. “I just can’t do this anymore!”

“But what about selling me stuff?!”

“Take whatever you want, I don’t care anymore! I have to see it! I JUST HAVE TO SEE IT!”

The door slammed, and Trixie was left alone in an empty tea shop.

The situation had become disturbing. So disturbing that Trixie did not even try to take as much as she possibly could from the shop, even if she did not like tea. On a normal day, she would have carried out as much as she could take- -and then taken a second trip. This day, though, was wrong, and as Trixie stepped outside she shivered. It was not really cold, but seemed strangely chilly to her.

And suddenly it all seemed to become visible to her. How deserted the streets seemed, and how the few ponies that wandered through them were slow, dirty, and did not look too unlike Jasmine Leaf had: pallid, tired, and somehow distant. They tried to continue their days, doing as they had before, but their gaze was always distant, even as they clung to the vestiges of what had once been their special talents. Each and every one of them looked sick, and each and every one of them looked like they would rather be somewhere else.

“Hey! HEY!” Trixie grabbed a passing stallion, and earth-pony with an hourglass cutie mark and a scarf. She did not know his name, and had never cared to learn it. She had no emotional bond to him- -and yet her heart was racing. “What’s wrong with you?” She slapped him hard in the face. “You sell produce or something, don’t you?” Another slap. “Well, SELL PRODUCE!”

Another slap, and the stallion blinked. “H…huh?” he said, as if waking up (if only barely) from a deep but uncomfortable sleep. “Oh. Trixie. I was going to go to…to your show. But I don’t think I can make it.” He sighed, his lungs rattling badly. “Sorry.”

“What’s wrong with you?” asked Trixie, suddenly horrified at how desperate she sounded.

“I…I don’t know. I guess I’m just a little ill. I had so much energy before, but now…”

“You’re thinking about the…” Trixie gulped. “…the hole.”

The stallion’s eyes lit up with perverse joy, as if the energy the town had shared just days before had flowed back into him in full force. As if he had remembered his very purpose in life. “Oh, the hole! Have you been? It’s such a wonderful thing! So beautiful, so inspiring! It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen!” He paused, his head suddenly wrenching itself westward. “I think…I think I need to go back. Yeah. That will help, I’m sure of it…”

He wriggled away from Trixie. Somehow, he was incredibly strong, even if he was beginning to atrophy badly. Trixie had to let him go, and he shambled through the streets, followed by two earth-fillies. One was the pink rich one, and the other was the silver probably-rich one. Except at this point both looked mostly gray.

“Silver Spoon, I can’t believe that they would…hole,” said the pink one. “I mean, it’s like…hole. Do they even know who I am…hole. I don’t…they’re…hole. I can’t…why…hole…”

“I know, Diamond Tiara. You’re’ always right,” breathed the filly beside her. She was badly limping, and her mane was filled with prickers and diseased underbrush- -as if she had spent a great deal of time over the last few days in the Forest.

Something had gone wrong. Trixie suddenly understood that. She was not sure what, and, more importantly, not sure what to do. Her only thought was to get help, so she ran. She did not know why she ran, in the same way that she did know that it was already too late- -it was something deep in her consciousness. If she had known in directly, she might have given up, sat down, and panicked. Because she knew that Twilight had already seen the hole.

She made her way toward the castle, running faster and faster as she went- -and only slowed when she saw Starlight crossing the street toward her. Immediately, Trixie felt so much better. Starlight would know what to do. Starlight always knew what to do.

Except that Starlight seemed strange. Her eyes were foggy, and her expression distant. Her mane was streaked with white, and her already pale lavender coat had almost become gray. Except unlike the others, she looked afraid.

“Starlight! STARLIGHT!” Trixie stopped, gasping. She was sweating underneath her cape and hat. Even though the whole world seemed so cold. “Starlight, something’s wrong! All the ponies- -they’re sick! Or something! Or maybe really stupid!”

Starlight looked at her. There was a distant glimmer of recognition in her eyes, and she groaned. “I know,” she said, her voice hurried. As though something were trying to push that line of reasoning out of her head. “Something…something happened. I can’t…I don’t…”

“Wh- -what?”

Starlight shook her head. “It’s not magic, I tried- -tried to analyze- -and it’s not a contagion, it isn’t transmitted but it…but it took Maud…”

“Maud?” Trixie felt her breath catch. Maud was her second-best friend. “W- -what do we do?”

“I don’t know,” whispered Starlight. “I just don’t know…”

“That’s not good enough!” cried Trixie. She grabbed Starlight by the shoulders and shook her. She was so very thin. “I can’t do this on my own! Something bad is happening, but I don’t know what it is or what to do! I need help!”

Starlight’s horn suddenly flared, and Trixie was knocked back by a massive punch to her gut.

“Stop yelling!” shrieked Starlight, putting her hooves to her ears. “STOP YELLING! I- -I can’t focus! It won’t stop! I can’t- -I can’t keep my mind away from…from…” She trailed off and looked up with blank eyes. Yet the intelligence remained, at least partially. “I can’t stop thinking about it, Trixie,” she said in a monotone voice. “Every thought turns back to it. Ever chain of reason, every logical path…I can’t think. Not about anything else. And the worst part is…I like it.”

Trixie had started crying, but had not notice. Her ribs hurt bad, but not nearly as bad as her heart. Trixie would of course never accept that it was too late for Starlight, but it was. Her life had already ended on a warm summer night, surrounded by friends, when she had first looked into the hole.

Violet light erupted near Starlight, and Twilight appeared. However bad the change had been for normal ponies, it had been worse for Twilight. Her already thin alicorn body had grown gaunt and faded, as if she were barely there at all. Her once keen (and, to Trixie, excessively naïve) eyes were now hard and translucent.

“Spike, take a note…Dear Princess Celestia…please come at once. You have to see it. They all have to see it to…to…” She looked down and realized that Spike was not beside her. A distant look of sadness crossed her face. “S…Spike?” And then it was gone.

Slowly, Twilight turned her narrow face toward Trixie. Then she smiled. “Hello Trixie.”

“Twilight,” peeped Trixie. “You don’t look so good.”

“But I feel okay,” she said. Her voice was distant. “Say…have you been to the hole yet?”

Trixie froze. Her blood felt cold, and her heart seemed to stop for a moment. If Twilight wanted her to go, there was no stopping her.

Starlight shook her head. “No. No, Trixie doesn’t need to go to the hole.”

Twilight seemed confused. “She…doesn’t? Oh…” She smiled again. “I was just being friendly. It really is pretty. I was going to write a book about it…a book about holes…THE hole….and I wanted to share it with all my friends. But if Starlight says you don’t need to go, that’s okay too.”

They both stared at Trixie for a long moment, seeming to look through her- -and then suddenly their heads turned west, as if they were being called.

“I need to go now,” said Starlight. “Goodbye, Trixie.”

“We’ll see you soon,” added Twilight, distantly.

There was a flash of violet, and then one of blue. And then Trixie was all alone.

Comments

[sailing101]

And then Trixie was all alone.

[Fiddlebottoms]

“Starlight, something’s wrong! All the ponies- -they’re sick! Or something! Or maybe really stupid!”

I love your characterization of Trixie, as the one mare least qualified to deal with this situation, who must save the world, and she's the only who can because she's totally unqualified to deal with the situation and therefore could resist the hole.

[Lack of Tact]

I have been getting Uzumaki vibes throughout this entire story so far. You are crazy good; the entire premise just sucked me right in and I haven't stopped thinking about it.

Or this mysterious hole.

[PresentPerfect]

I love how Starlight is just barely able to hold on to the last vestiges of her sanity here.