The Voices of Nobody

by BowtiesandFedoras

Chapter 25

He stood, towering over us, as shadows branched out across the room behind him. His form grew subtly but intimidatingly.

"Ten... nine... eight..." he counted, filling us all with a strange fear. Though we all wanted to sprint out of there and get as far away from him as possible, the fear gripped us and paralyzed us.

Most of the others turned from the gruesome sight and towards me, urging me to run away and prepare the spell. I clutched at the book in my breast pocket and took several steps for the doorway; planning to use my knowledge of the castle to evade him until the time was right.

"...Seven... six..."

With one shout from one of them, Rainbow, "GO!" I made a mad dash for the marble corridors.

The others all ran off after me, save for Big Macintosh. I glanced at him, pleading for him to follow us, but he responded with a stern, fierce glare. "I'll hold him off; just go!"

Vesania snickered before continuing with his countdown.

"...Five... four..."

We all, save for Big Mac, resumed running down the halls before pausing briefly before a large portrait of the Princesses, where the hall branched off in separate directions. We made haste in discussing the (pressed) plan for keeping me safe from him until I could draw the symbol on the ground to send him back to his hell.

We agreed that if we paired up and took random paths, we'd have a better chance of success. The issue with that plan was, there being seven of us, one of us would have to go alone. They begged for one of them to come with me, but I was more worried for their safety than for mine. I reasoned that he would want to come after me first, and save them for last, so it was better if I went by myself. Before the decision became unanimous, a crash was heard from the throne room.

Big Macintosh was flung into the wall loudly, shaking dust from the ceiling. He collapsed to the ground on his knees, very winded. He turned his head to face us angrily.

"GO!! JUST GO!! RUN!!"

Vesania stepped through the door, glaring down at the injured man. A pitiful smile appeared on his face. He stooped down to lift him up and bring him to eye-level. Big Macintosh lifted his arms and clasped his hands, and swiftly brought them down like a muscular hammer on Vesania's head twice. Vesania became irritated with him and flung him down the hall away from us and strutted after him.

We took that instant to heed his command and flee down different paths; Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie going towards the library, Twilight and Fluttershy heading for the gardens, Luna and Rarity for the observatory, and me going up to the level where my temporary room was located.

As we ran, Luna and I looked at each other one more time, expecting this to be the last time we'd see each other. Her lips moved to say something, though the sound was cut off by Vesania doing some explicit, loud, unseen thing around the corner to our strong friend.

"What?" I called to her, hoping not to hinder our ability to escape him.

Her chance to repeat the message was interrupted by Vesania poking his head around the corner and staring me in the eye, grinning evilly.

"...One..."

I sped up at the sight of him, fearing him now more than usual. I fully expected him to start lumbering after me. But no, he was too cruel for that. He went off after the others, Rainbow and Pinkie, to be exact. He winked at me as he did so; he wanted me to know that he was going to torment the others before coming after me. He was a sadist, and he knew that the most effective torture for me in this context was to kill all of the others before coming for me. I wanted to stop and do... something to stop him and keep him away from them, but I knew that that would be a fruitless effort.

I kept running fearfully and desperately as he stomped off down one of the corridors.

---

The path to my room was long and windy, and the stained-glass windows in the halls were large and overlooking most of the castle, it being so high up. I didn't bother taking in all the untouched beauty of this region of the castle, no matter how reassuring it may have felt. I was nearly out of breath, and stopped by a window to regain my strength; I knew that my room wasn't far from this point.

A gut-wrenching scream echoed through the hall behind me. Rainbow Dash. I looked back down the hall with the petrifying knowledge that one-- Another scream-- two of them had been...

I kept down vomit at the thought of what horrible things he might have done before finally silencing them. I glanced out the window at my side and saw the castle gardens under the moonlight with Fluttershy cowering and crying under a tree and Twilight trying to console her. Something suddenly startled Twilight, causing her to pull Fluttershy away and hide in the thick bushes.

To my horror, Vesania came waltzing boldly out into the gardens. His multi-voice was incoherent from the distance, but it rumbled the colorful glass in front of me. He uprooted trees with ease as he went through the paths of lush green and terrified animals. He came upon an arrangement of topiary art, and admired it a bit before tearing them to bits with swift movements of his claws.

After seeing him walk around more and speak no doubt hateful words to the two, Twilight angrily rushed out from behind her hiding place and shouted something at him before blasting him with a bright blast of magic. He absorbed the blow without any visible signs of pain. She hit him several more times; each time he got one step closer to her, making her shrink back a bit. Eventually, he was practically touching her with his face he was so close. I pounded on the glass and screamed for the scene to end, for this all to stop, but oh, did it ever stop.

It stopped in the least favorable way imaginable. He killed Twilight. He opened his jaws as wide as they could go, and slowly engulfed her in that damned red-orange void, and pulled back, letting her body collapse indignantly on the grass. I then saw Fluttershy trip and expose her position behind the bushes, crying as she did so. She, mortified, scrambled away and tried to gain some height to separate her from the black nightmare. Just as she made it to the treeline, Vesania reached up and grabbed one of her wings and pinned it to the ground with his index finger. She flailed and cried, and wriggled out from under his finger and rolled onto her back. I could see that she had given up. She crawled slowly away from him, completely abandoning the idea of escape, and escaped my sight under a group of trees, but Vesania didn't.

He heard me screaming and screaming and pleading, and looked me dead in the eye, and shot me that damnable grin of his before turning back to Fluttershy. He lunged at her, disappearing under the canopy of trees, and making her release one last shriek of fear and sadness.

It was then that the complete gravity of the situation hit me like a megaton of lead. With her death, I saw innocence die right before me. I saw the embodiment of all that was good, and pure, and innocent being slaughtered in front of my own eyes by a beast that wanted no more than to cause suffering and fear and satisfy his sadistic hunger. Absolutely nothing was safe or sacred anymore. The only hope for this world was me completing my task, even though we all might die in the process.

I collapsed to my knees and vomited there on the floor, almost on the verge of suicidal thoughts. But now, now I had resolve. I had total resolve: the resolve to remove him from existence, to avenge all those who died for nothing at his hand, to save this entire world from any further harm. He would be defeated by my hand, and I will ensure that it happens.

Author commentary:

Yes. That just happened. What you just read was not an illusion, it is actually there on your screen.

Comments

[Fireeaters]

Time for possible lichdom?