Equestrylvania

by Brony_Fife

Bloody Tears, Part II

Bloody Tears, Part II

---

Twilight's chest rises and falls peacefully enough. She is in bed now, not asleep but in bed; awake, and alert, and afraid.

Her chest shakes as she fights her emotions. This is no time for hysterics, she tells herself. No time. The lights are on, there are Royal Guards just outside your door if you need anything, and

The blue, bloated face of the decapitated head smiles its crimson grin

there is nothing to fear. You are safe, Twilight Sparkle tells herself. You're a national hero, well-known even before that as a talented magician mentored by the Princess herself. You can take care of yourself, and you know it. Roaring Yawn even

The decapitated head with the crimson grin began to float up

admitted that he was impressed with some of your work just a few hours ago. I mean, yeah, he might have just been cheering you up after your scare, but even so. And he's a leading name in cryptology and ancient magics! There is nothing there that can impede you in her development and ambition. You are merely imagining

With an awful sound, the giant suit of armor pulls out its hideous blade as the crimson grin keeps laughing and laughing

things. You need to keep cool.

Before Twilight Sparkle can do anything, the armor lunges for her, sword in its hands as that damned crimson grin keeps laughing

You need to keep cool. The lights are on. There are Guards outside her room. You are safe.

laughing and lunging and lunging and laughing

Twilight Sparkle screams in terror, again.

---

The guards rush into the room. "What's wrong, Twilight?!" asks one.

Twilight covers her mouth and shudders, fighting the urge to cry. Thinking up a decent excuse, Twilight says, "I-It's nothing. It was just a nightmare."

The Guards nod. One tells her, "It's gonna be like this the first few nights after something so traumatizing. You're going to have flashbacks so real, it'll be like you're time-warping, right back to that moment. In time, those memories will fade." He walks forward and pours her a drink of water from the pitcher on her nightstand. Twilight watches him intently, observing how he uses his pegasus wings as if they are hands. He holds it out to her gently. She takes it in a cloud of magenta light and drinks slowly.

"Feel better?" he asks. Twilight nods. He smiles. This guard seems very friendly and considerate. She can see in his dark eyes that he is certainly a family stallion: older than she is, eyes that hug you when he sees you. She must remind him of a daughter or sister, she thinks. She cannot see his mane, but his tail is several shades of red.

The other guard is younger-looking, with eyes and tail colored like the deep green of the ocean. The disinterested expression he wears reminds Twilight Sparkle of her fellow students in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns; those overconfident hacks who felt they were already so good at their craft that they needed no further instruction. He sniffs nonchalantly, as if dismissive of his comrade's words of comfort, but says nothing.

The older stallion introduces himself as Tiger Cross, and they'll be right outside if she needs anything else. The two leave the room, leaving the light on as they do so. Twilight closes her eyes again, this time truly attempting to get some sleep, but instead falls right back into her memory.

---

Just as the crimson grin and his lunging armor made their way across the room of soulless eyes, a white figure shot from her left. It was Shining Armor, running in like a hero (or alternatively, like an idiot), to rescue his sister from this terror.

Without saying so much as a single word, Shining Armor shot a concentrated beam of unicorn magic from his horn. He specialized in protective forcefields and other defensive magics, but this was not an occasion for defense. The beam knocked the armor clear across the room.

The crimson grin stopped laughing.

The crimson grin became a sneer.

The armor got back up and lunged again, this time for the annoying white unicorn that had interrupted its earlier attack. Shining Armor shot another beam, throwing it against the wall once more. Twilight's mind retreated deeply inside her. Hiding.

Her body collapsed on the ground as the fight continued. The crimson sneer began to close in on her while her brother was distracted by the armor. She lost control of all her bodily functions. She lost control, completely. That was when

"Hey, Twily. I know you're probably asleep right now, but

her magic, her one true talent, began to burst and bubble and froth like mad

"I came just to check on you before I go. It was a pretty terrible fight, and we were both lucky to

a primal survival instinct took over, shooting a white-hot fireball at that crimson sneer

"have survived it. I want you to know I love you, very much. I never realized before just how easy it is that a life can

then there was white and a sound like thunder

"be snatched away or ruined, even the life of somepony you love. I very nearly lost you this morning. And I'm

and the crimson sneer was no more. The armor clattered harmlessly to the ground. Then from white to darkness. She felt strong forelegs wrap around her, a strong face pressed against hers. Its cheek was damp. Tears?

"I'm scared that I might lose you when all this is over."

She feels strong forelegs wrap around her, a strong face pressed against hers. Its cheek is damp. Tears?

"And I... I don't wanna lose you, Twily. That's... that's why I'm leaving."

She opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was a pair of red eyes staring back at her from against a white, mouthless face, crying bloody tears. But they were not red eyes.

She opens her eyes, and the first thing she sees is that white, mouthless face from before, but the red eyes and their bloody tears are covered by a bandage. Her mind comes back, and she realizes that those aren't red eyes.

They are bite marks.

"Leaving?" asks Twilight, now fully awake.

"Yes," replies her brother. He breaks his embrace to look at his sister. He does not look well, to say the least. His eyes are bleary and bloodshot, and his coat (that angelic, heroic white) is slick and clammy with cold sweat. Twilight is alarmed to see that he is wearing a bite mask, and that there are several guards in the room--guards holding chains that connect to a collar around her brother's neck.

"I'm leaving. The doctors that inspected me are telling me that I am..."

Twilight feels safe in her brother's embrace, but there is some very real fear that has invaded this tender scene. Something horrible is about to tear her brother from her. Something horrible is about to tear her brother apart.

"... That I'm infected."

"Infected?"

"Yes, I'm infected with something they don't have a cure for. So, uh..." His eyes dart about and his ears twitch. He sweats even more. He inhales sharply. "... So, so the doctors, uh, th-they're... they're gonna try to study what it is exactly that I have, and, and try to..." He seems to have lost focus in his thoughts and speech, as he finishes his sentence in a mumble and nears his face to Twilight's. His breath is cold and ugly, and his eyes widen like they are about to escape his head.

Suddenly, another pony puts his hoof on Shining Armor's back. "I'm sorry, Captain, but I'm afraid that's enough. We need to go."

The guards lead Shining Armor away from his sister, who holds onto his hooves with her own as he is pulled away. She feels tears forming in her eyes. Her voice becomes very weak.

"Why? Where are you taking him?"

In silence, the guards escort Shining Armor out of the room and the door closes behind them, leaving the two guards from before and Twilight alone. Listening closely, Twilight hears the sounds of shackles being applied. "This is for your own good, Captain," she hears one of the soldiers say.

Twilight jumps from her bed. "Where are they taking him?" she repeats, her voice quivering.

The indifferent stallion finally speaks. "The Captain's been diagnosed with something resembling madness. We assume it was that bat-bite. The doctors are locking him up because he attacked one of us with no provocation, sending Private Baldwin to ER. It's the reason this whole room was flooded with guards just now, to both allow him a last wish and make sure he didn't try the same stuff on you." Before he goes any further, the older stallion hushes him.

He turns to Twilight. "I'm very sorry for all this, but Shatterstorm is correct. The Captain has gone mad."

Her brother, mad? That menacing look in his eyes, desperate and hungry; the bite mask he was forced to wear... He was becoming an animal?

"No!" Twilight barks as she tries to rush the guards. "No, it isn't true! Let me see him! I can help him!"

Shatterstorm spreads his pegasus wings and steps forward, causing Twilight to back down. "Let the professionals handle this!" he commands.

Twilight, ever the talented magician, uses her magic to teleport right out of the room and into the hallway beyond. She hears the two guards chasing after her as she runs to catch up with the group of guards escorting her brother. The world is stained by tears flowing from her eyes as she runs, smearing her environment into an unrecognizable blur.

She cries her brother's name as if he is being murdered in front of her. He turns his head.

He is wearing a crimson grin.

He is wearing a crimson grin, and he laughs.

---

Please, let this all just be a nightmare, Twilight asks to nothing in particular.

She'll wake up in her bed, in her library, the Princess' castle will still be on the mountainside, her brother will be all right, and the morning will be beautiful. She'll wake up in a start, and be shaken by the events of the dream, but she'll be all right.

...But, no. She is in a bed in a hotel in Canterlot. She is part of a research team that is currently looking over the things they've found inside the mysterious castle that has apparently traded places with Canterlot castle. Most of the citizens have been evacuated until further notice, and only the research team and the Royal Guard remain.

Through with this horrible turn of events, Twilight Sparkle gets up from her bed and goes to her door. Tiger Cross answers her. She asks him if she can be escorted to the research lab. He agrees, and he and Shatterstorm take her there.

The halls are splashed with pink puddles of early evening light. Despite the light's reassuring warmth, there is still an eerie ambience to the hotel: as if by being near the castle (whose intimidating visage is visible from every window), the hotel by extension has become dangerous.

Twilight Sparkle stops by one of the windows and peers out at the castle. The monsters that dwell inside it... She can feel it in her bones, her heart, her soul... yet her mind cannot accept this. This all seems so unreal, yet it is happening anyway. And there is no sign that it can be stopped.

Sudden movement draws her eyes from the window to the roof below. She thinks she saw something down there, but a vague white shape was all she saw. Tiger Cross gets her attention, and Shatterstorm scolds her not to wander off.

---

Researchers bustle about, carrying samples of their findings, running tests. On the tables rest several of the Homo sapien bones, with scientists at work on them, recording everything they find. The large suit of armor, now without that horrible head, rests in another corner with unicorn researchers "kenning" it for its residues of magic.

But on a great big table lies a big black bat, bigger even than the ponies in the room. It is largely in one piece, besides the large gash her brother gave it on the side of its head. It possesses wingspans of nearly seven feet per wing. Its eyes are tiny crimson dots set deep in its head, like hellish red lights in a yawning cave. Its fangs are long and bent sinisterly, caked with dried blood.

Twilight finds her eyes drawn to the blood on its fangs. The bloody tears she saw on Shining Armor's neck. If the bat weren't dead already, she wouldn't hesitate to incinerate it the same way she did the Crimson Grin.

From around the other end of the table comes Roaring Yawn, scanning the bat body with his horn. He sees Twilight and immediately his facial expression changes from interest to concern. He stands there, awkwardly, not knowing how to address a girl who has just learned such horrible news. Twilight breathes a sigh and walks next to Roaring, turning and looking over the dead bat. More silence passes between the two.

"...I'm sorry," Roaring Yawn says, finally.

"For what?"

"For... this. I never meant for any of this to happen. This thing came from nowhere and, your, your brother, he..."

"Don't," Twilight says, her voice stern. "Please, don't. Don't blame yourself, don't make excuses, don't even explain." More silence. She fidgets. "Shining Armor was always the kind of stallion who'd rush in and save the day. He never once thinks of any harm that might come to himself. He doesn't ever really think, he just... does." She chokes.

Roaring Yawn wonders if Twilight should even be here right now. He looks about. "...Do you want to go home? I can make arrangements if you'd prefer not to be here right now."

Twilight sniffles and dries her eyes. "No, that's OK, Roaring. I'm... I'm still curious as to where all this is going."

Roaring Yawn, hoping that his next words—which he feels he needs to say—won't make Twilight angry, adopts a nearly fatherly tone. "For your own good, Twilight, I suggest that you take a break."

Twilight looks as if she's about to become angry. Roaring Yawn puts up a hoof defensively. "I'm not treating you like a foal. You aren't getting in the way at all, and I'm sorry for everything I said earlier. It's just that, with all that's happened, I think it's important to be among friends and family right now. Your traumatizing encounter with..." He points to the suit of armor. "...With that. And..." He points to the bat. "...this. You must be a wreck."

Twilight's face softens. He waves a hoof to the room around him. "This stuff? It's not going anywhere. Canterlot has just become ground zero for something that has proven itself to be very dangerous. I'm giving you the next two weeks off. Spend time with your friends. Come back refreshed."

After a few seconds, Twilight nods. Suddenly, she hugs Roaring Yawn tightly. Slowly, he returns the hug.

He feels Twilight shudder as she holds back her tears.

Bloody tears. Bloody tears against a mouthless face of white.

Comments

[Brony_Fife]

OK, so before we go any further, I'd like to share this neat video I found, mixing awesome with awesome. Behold!

[Jet Magnum]

1217312 Oh my god, there is something simultaneously amazing and horrifying about this. Whoever discovered this is some sort of mad genius.

On that note, if you haven't seen it already, you need to see this:

[EDIT: Potentially offensive content in video, language and suchlike! Fairly warned!]

[Teraunce]

You are pure evil for having Shining Turn practically in his sister, Twilight's arms.