• Published 17th Oct 2012
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Equestrylvania - Brony_Fife



A Castlevania/MLP crossover. But enough talk! Have at you!

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Silence of the Daylight, Part II

Silence of the Daylight, Part II


Twilight walks down the hospital corridor, her pace quick and graceless. She does not recall the last time she slept. She was able to get maybe a few hours yesterday after the horrific event at the Castle, but hasn't slept a wink since then. As she wobbles and nearly hits a wall, Spike stops her.

"Twilight, don't you think you should rest?" he asks. "You've been going at this for a while."

She nods, and pats her assistant on the head. "Yeah, you're right, Spike. I should..."

But before she can finish that sentence, she hears the sounds of arguing coming from a nearby room. If she remembers correctly, that would be the room where...

She opens the door and sighs. Rainbow Dash and Shatterstorm are at it again, embroiled in a fierce argument over probably nothing. Twilight regrets leaving these two to guard the rib.

"Come on, guys, stop it," she mumbles, barely able to stay awake.

Rainbow Dash looks to her friend. "Twi, why'd you have to let this guy help me?! He's a total asshat!"

"He said he wanted to help, so I asked him to help you guard the rib."

Shatterstorm sniffs. "I can guard this rib just fine without her thick-headedness getting in the way."

Rainbow Dash presses her head against Shatterstorm's, each attempting to push the other away. "Thick-headed?!" hisses Rainbow Dash. "You're the one who seems to have problems with working with mares!"

"You're the one who seems to have problems with just working at all," Shatterstorm retorts. "I may as well just guard this thing myself!"

Rainbow Dash then takes to the air, leaving Shatterstorm to nearly fall over. "Fine! Then guard it yourself! See what happens when that creepy cloak guy shows up again!" Shatterstorm's eyes widen in fear as Rainbow Dash turns to Twilight.

"What was his name again?" Rainbow Dash asks, trying to remember what Twilight showed her from Aeon's bestiary. "Death? Yeah, Death!" She turns back around and leans in menacingly close to Shatterstorm. "Let's see how you handle him when he comes-a knockin'!"

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash feels a sharp tug on her tail, pulling her down. Her patience with Rainbow's attitude at its end, Twilight slowly raises a hoof to point at her friend's face. Her eyes and voice are stern. "Rainbow Dash, this is not a game. I asked Shatterstorm to help you guard this thing because he genuinely wants to help. So you're going to work with him, and you're both going to put up with each other, for as long as it takes for us to get our bearings together."

"But he's—"

"No buts, Rainbow Dash." She looks to Shatterstorm, the look of fear in his eyes replaced by something grim. He looks much different without his helmet, with an ocean-green mane that just seems to swoop and tumble about on his head. He looks so young, probably about Twilight's age.

"And you too, Shatterstorm. I'm just asking you guys to guard this rib in case Dracula's minions try anything. That means you're going to have to work together."

Rainbow Dash flutters about the room, darting around Shatterstorm like she's about to fight. He looks at her as she does so with a deadly eye. His wings twitch rhythmically, as if giving warning signals. "I can't work with this guy, Twi! He's a total jerk! Calls me names for no reason! I'm not putting up with him!"

Shatterstorm grabs onto Rainbow Dash's tail and pulls her to the floor. They stare each other down with the ugliest expressions Twilight has ever seen either of them make. "Look you," he says in quiet, threatening tone, "I'm the one with military training. Without that little Element trinket backing you up, you're powerless. You're gonna need me, and you know it."

Rainbow sneers. "I don't need that necklace to do my job. And I don't need you either! All that military training and you can't even protect anypony! What about the Changeling attacks? Or last night? Where were you, huh?! Sucking your hoof and bawling on the floor, that's where!"

Tense silence pours into the room at Rainbow Dash's words. Shatterstorm doesn't try to argue with her. Instead, he merely walks by Rainbow Dash, by Twilight, by Spike, and out of the room, silent and angry. Twilight shoots a glare at her friend and as she follows Shatterstorm, she hisses, "Low blow, Dash."

Rainbow Dash watches her walk by Spike, who looks to Rainbow. He slowly leaves the room, closing the door behind him and leaving Rainbow Dash with the rib. She sighs and facehoofs.


"Shatterstorm, wait."

Shatterstorm does not.

"Shatterstorm, I said hold it!" Twilight jumps in front of him, locking eyes with him. He tries to walk by, but she cuts him off. "Would you just stop!"

They look into each other's eyes for a moment. Suddenly, Shatterstorm looks away, out a window, trying so hard to find something else to look at, trying not to lose his cool and smash something. Sadly, Twilight puts a hoof on his shoulder.

"Listen, I'm sorry about Rainbow Dash. I know she can be kind of bull-headed and abrasive, but..."

"It isn't her," he says, the words escaping him with a sigh. He shakes his head as his voice becomes a whisper. "It isn't her."

Some silence as a nurse and doctor briskly walk by. The hallway seems less busy than other parts of the hospital, for some reason. Twilight looks to Spike, her tired eyes asking him to go somewhere else—this is between adults. He purses his lips, nods, and makes to leave. He rounds a corner then stops, listening in on their conversation.

Twilight knows her next question will be diving into a very sensitive topic. She approaches it very cautiously, her voice at a comforting whisper. "... It's your mother, isn't it?"

Silence. Slowly, Shatterstorm nods. She knows what looking into Death's face can do to a pony. She had experienced that firsthoof. Being thrust back into every horrible or depressing memory you've ever had. Twilight still remembers his mad rambling from last night: No, Momma, please don't, don't do it again, don't do it again, Momma...

"She... she colored your whole perspective on mares, didn't she?"

It's a while before Shatterstorm responds. "Sort of," he says quietly. "Tried dating back in high school. The fillies I was with..." He sighs. "They only used me to get what they wanted. It just... Y'know, mares and I, we just don't mix. N-Not even, uh... Even after I joined the Royal Guard, I..." He sighs, bites his lower lip and continues to stare out the window. His wings twitch nervously. Finally, he turns to Twilight, vulnerability and uncertainty present in his eyes.

"Can I ask you an honest question?"

"Sure, go ahead."

He shifts slightly, his eyes darting away, then back. His voice drops to barely audible. "Am... Am I worthless?"

Twilight, horrified that Shatterstorm would ever think such a thing, hugs him tightly. "No, Shatterstorm! No, don't think that way. You aren't worthless."

"But you heard Rainbow Dash. She's right. Even with military training, I couldn't stop the Changelings. I couldn't protect you. I couldn't even help during the attacks last night. And Tiger Cross, he..." Shatterstorm grimaces. "I failed him."

Twilight's tired mind races for something to say. "We don't even know what happened to Tiger Cross. He might still be alive!"

"He was like my brother, you know? And brothers protect each other, and I just... I broke when I should have helped him."

Finally, he begins to collapse. He lowers his head in shame, his ocean-green mane hiding his eyes but not the tears rolling down his face. Twilight hears a choked sob. "Those mares... they were all right about me. I'm... I'm too powerless to make a difference..."

She holds him, her cheek pressed against the back of his head, thinking of what she could say to calm him.

Suddenly, she hears someone coming closer to them, and looks up to see Spike. His eyes go from her to Shatterstorm. Twilight shoots him a look that tells him to leave, but Spike, in his growing disobedience, ignores her wordless command. He rests a claw on Shatterstorm's back.

"Hey," he says, quietly. "Look, I know it's... it's real easy to feel like you're worthless. Other ponies might go out of their way to hurt you. Even if they don't mean it, they're gonna say and do things that are gonna hurt you, and they're going to ignore you when you have something important to say.

"But, you gotta remember, nopony's ever really worthless. Sure, we all do dumb things and we screw up, and ponies we know and love are gonna get hurt by our mistakes. But on the other hand, we'll do things that help in the long run. We go out of our way to help anypony that needs it, and make 'em happy.

"You might have failed a few times in the past, and you're gonna fail again, sure. But even if you fail ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the one success you make might be all it takes to change the world.

"I dunno what went on between you and your mom, and I don't know why mares treat you like dirt. But that's all in the past. They can't hurt you anymore." Spike slowly leans in. "You can't let them keep hurting you. What they did to you in the past should never keep you from doing the right thing, right now."

Spike clicks his tongue, surprised at his own advice. Shatterstorm looks at him, eyes wide, touched by this sagely little dragon and his words. Twilight is equally amazed at Spike's wisdom.

"You gonna be OK, man?" asks Spike, patting Shatterstorm on the back.

Shatterstorm nods, drying the tears from his face. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll be OK."

Spike puts out a claw. "Name's Spike."

Shatterstorm puts out a hoof and shakes Spike's claw. "Shatterstorm."

Spike smiles. "You ever need a friend, Shatterstorm, you can count on me." Twilight smiles warmly at this scene, witnessing the birth of a strong friendship.

As Shatterstorm heads back to guard the rib, Twilight looks at her assistant, fighting the tears forming in her eyes. This little dragon has been serving her for years now, and has become almost like a son to her. Over those years, she herself had done a lot of thoughtless things to hurt him, and he'd done quite a few thoughtless things himself, but looking at him now...

Her assistant, her beautiful little boy, is growing up.

"That was..." she starts. "That was the most powerful thing I've ever heard you say, Spike. I'm so proud of you."

Spike smiles and gives his mother figure a thumbs-up. "Hey, those are just the conclusions I came to because I'm an assistant. Assistance, y'know? That's my job."

"You also quoted some of 'The One Success' by Winternight and 'The Past Stays in the Past' by Summerseve, I notice," Twilight says, smiling slyly.

Spike looks away sheepishly. "Well, hey, you're not the only reader in the Library."

He becomes a little more solemn as he and Twilight watch Shatterstorm disappear back into the room where the rib is. Maybe it's that she is tired, but Twilight's mind flutters back to a passage she'd read in a book regarding psychology and warfare, a quote from Nevermore the Perverse: "The surest way to defeat a pony is to rob them of their sense of worth." In this sense, Shatterstorm is a defeated pony, and was defeated long before his encounter with Death.

She bites her lower lip as she hears Shatterstorm apologize to Rainbow Dash behind the door. For now, he is defeated. In her heart, Twilight hopes that in time, he can emerge victorious.


Her yard is empty. Hutches broken out of. The bodies of smaller, weaker animals torn into. Upon investigating them, Fluttershy finds that no meat had been stripped from their bones. They'd been killed not for food but for the sake of simply killing.

It takes her an hour or two, but she buries them. She wants the tears to fall from her eyes, but for some reason, they do not. She feels as if she has become mechanical. Just using that shovel, shoving it down into the now-muddy ground, throwing the dirt aside, down, aside, down, aside...

She looks at her yard now, an hour or two later. Rows of little dirt mounds. Little graves, for little animals that couldn't defend themselves while Fluttershy, that greatest of cowards, hid in her room like a terrified foal. Hid as her little animals, many of whom she'd raised since birth, were torn apart by the evil monsters her bigger animals had turned into.

The shovel falls down at her side. She looks at the mass of gathered graves, dismayed at how much of her yard the little mounds make up. A warm wind picks up, blowing her mane and tail, her cross necklace clinking as the wind plays with it. She feels her eyes grow hot and her throat grow thick. Finally, Fluttershy falls down and weeps, and her sobs are long, and hard, and horrify Aeon as he approaches.

He stands there, on his four pony legs, listening to her cry. A long-time friend of his had once asked him why he never seemed to cry at anything. He has never truly cried, or at least he has lived for so long that he doesn't really remember crying. He's had numerous opportunities to do so, and has had many reasons. He finds it hard to form friendships, since he'll just outlive everyone anyway. He, in his observation of time, has had to see so much sorrow and suffering that it would have caused anyone else to kill himself. His attempts at brightening the future for others had often backfired and merely caused the world to become worse.

Aeon walks over to her, and slowly, he lifts a hoof. He looks around, feeling like a sentimental fool. Finally, he takes a slow, deep breath as he gently places that hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder. She jumps in sudden shock and fights a terrified squeal as she turns around, the cross necklace already in her hoof and ready to be held up.

Aeon backs off as she does this, and upon seeing him, Fluttershy stands there, awkwardly; the tears streaming down her face, her nose beginning to run. She lets go of the cross and gulps. She clears her eyes and wipes her face as she looks behind her.

Little mounds. Little graves for little animals.

"...I'm a coward."

The words quietly escape her mouth before her brain has any time to analyze them. They hang in the air before her, like a cloud of cigarette smoke, choking her. She doesn't realize how deeply she is hurt by her own words until Aeon's ancient, curious eyes look at her.

"I disagree," Aeon says quietly.

"Yes," Fluttershy says, "I am. I hid under my bed while my animals..." She cannot bring herself to finish that sentence.

"And what would you rather have done?" asks Aeon. He leans a little bit forward, scanning her. "Would you have jumped in to save the day?"

Fluttershy looks away and does not answer. Aeon lifts a hoof to her.

"If you did anything besides get away from them, they would have killed you," Aeon explains as he brings Fluttershy's face forward. "And if they did that, Angel would not have been able to give you that cross. He would have come home to find his mistress dead. And if that happened, then that cross would have remained at your house. And if that happened..."

Fluttershy's eyes widen.

"Then you would not have been able to save your friends. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Spike, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Twilight Sparkle... They would have all died had you not hid."

Silence. Aeon lets his words sink in as he walks up next to her, and sits down facing Ponyville. From here, there is so much visible damage to the town. It isn't as active and bustling as it was the day before of course, with most ponies recovering in the Hospital or volunteering to look for survivors or burn bodies or gather supplies. So many lives decimated in what was once a very innocent land. Aeon breathes a sigh.

Fluttershy sits down next to him.

"So... what are you trying to say, Aeon?"

Aeon looks at her and smiles. "That even horrible things can have a good reason to happen, unlikely as it may seem."

They go back to looking out at Ponyville's shattered remains, for what is only a few minutes, yet feels like a few hours. Fluttershy's eyes go to Aeon, observing him as he watches. It's strange, but she can feel something inside him aching.

Aeon stretches as he stands up.

"I am going to go back to the hospital. I hear they are going to need some help in the kitchen, keeping everypony fed. Angel is waiting there for you, by the way. If you are finished here, you are more than welcome to join us."

He stands there, looking at Fluttershy with the most reassuring smile he can muster. She can tell Aeon is not the type who usually smiles: it looks too... pained. Like he's smiling just to avoid crying. She stands up.

"Sure," she says. As they leave, Fluttershy looks to him again, really looks at him, and finds there is something deeply somber and depressing about Aeon. Like a few parts of him are missing, leaving tender wounds vulnerable. Call it her 'inner nurse', but she can tell that he is desperately keeping himself together when he has no power to do so.

Instead of asking him what she really wants to ask him, Fluttershy merely tells him, "Thank you, Aeon. You're... you're a good friend to have."

At this, she hears Aeon let out a sound that begins a scoff, and ends in a chortle. "If you say so, Fluttershy. Being a good friend has never stopped this one from being a very foolish boy sometimes."


Sweetie Belle stares out the window, her eyes half-lidded, uninterested in anything as she sits in the hallway. Many of the hospital halls are littered with survivors whose homes have been destroyed. In here, there are many ponies Sweetie Belle does not recognize, all with suffering, lonely faces. There is little in the way of color or happiness here.

Next to her, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo have been trying to cheer her up. They've been trying for hours. Sweetie Belle, however, expresses little interest in their conversations, and contributes nothing to them. She merely sits and stares out the window, this third floor window, looking out onto the destroyed town.

From here, she can see the ruins of her sister's boutique. It has not been burned down like many of the other structures in town, but even so, Sweetie can tell it was thoroughly ravaged by the monsters that attacked last night. She wonders if every other town in Equestria has been struck in the same way Ponyville was. How many other little fillies like her had to run from their homes as it was overrun with creatures that they thought only existed in horror stories.

Just above the town, from here, Sweetie Belle can see that black castle that had appeared out of nowhere, seemingly dropped into Canterlot. It just sits there, looking at her, laughing at her. At Ponyville. This helpless, lost little town.

Sweetie Belle and her friends look up when they hear a sharp sob. Everypony present looks down the hall, where a mare is crying in front of a doctor as he whispers something to her that they can't hear. Behind them is a room in which a nurse solemnly draws a blanket over a small foal. Another nurse helps the doctor lead the mare away from the others as she calls for her baby to come back to her.

Suddenly, there is a feeling deep inside Sweetie Belle. Something deep and significant within her breaks with a noise only she can hear. It works its way from her heart, to her throat and eyes. Everything around her swims. Her cheeks become damp. Her nose begins to run. She sees the yellow-and-red blob in front of her turn its head and ask what's wrong.

It's loud and moaning, and throaty and hoarse; somewhere between a sob and a scream. Everypony in the hall looks to Sweetie Belle in shock. The sound of her crying is horrible, awful. Scootaloo fights the urge to cover her ears just so that she won't hear the horrible noise. Apple Bloom immediately reaches for Sweetie Belle as she falls apart, holding her close and tightly, fighting the urge to cry herself.


Rarity runs down the hall. She can't tell why or how, but when one is as close with somepony as she is with her little sister, one can tell when something is wrong. She can just feel it. Something broke. She can hear her baby sister cry, no matter where she is.

She runs by doctors and nurses. She runs by a room where Pinkie Pie entertains children with a puppet show. She runs by a room where Miss Cheerilee reads a story to her remaining students. She runs by a room where Roseluck is being hugged tenderly by Daisy and Lily. She runs by Twilight as she sleeps on a chair. Carrying a bag full of magic research equipment, Spike looks up at Rarity as she runs by. Without a word, Rarity nearly runs down Aeon, Angel, and Fluttershy, who stare at her in shock.

Rarity runs and runs and runs until finally she hears the sound of Sweetie Belle's voice. It sounds as if she is being strangled. She calls for Sweetie Belle, for her baby sister, and she rounds the corner, where she is met by a hallway full of homeless ponies.

She makes her way across the hallway. "Sweetie Belle," she says, her sister's cries becoming a moan. At the same time, a nurse also makes her way to Sweetie Belle. She places a reassuring hoof on Sweetie Belle's back as the two sisters meet.

Sweetie Belle's body becomes a wretched thing to watch, her breathing becoming haphazard, her eyes becoming wider. She hyperventilates, trying to say something, but her words come out as babbling. Scootaloo covers her mouth in horror at the sight of her friend's breakdown, while Apple Bloom somberly looks away.

Rarity hugs her sister as she begins to cry, herself. After a few minutes, Rarity breaks away from Sweetie Belle and puts her forehead against her sister's. "Sweetie Belle," she says quietly, "you're going to be OK. All right? I'm here."

Sweetie Belle says nothing, but looks into her sister's eyes; Rarity's pearl-white face marred by runny mascara. Her bottom lip quivers. "We're all gonna die, aren't we?" Sweetie Belle mumbles.

Rarity holds her tightly. "No, Sweetie Belle, we're not going to die."

Sweetie Belle buries her face into the hug. "Yes, we are. We're all gonna die." She begins to cry again, this time quietly.

"No, we're not going to die! Sweetie Belle, darling, that's nonsense!"

"It's all because of that Castle, isn't it?" Sweetie Belle chokes between sobs. Rarity looks out the window, and sees the black Castle, sees it looking at her and silently laughing. "Everypony's saying it's because of that Castle. It took Princess Celestia away, so she can't protect us, she can't save us. We're all gonna die!"

Rarity can think of nothing to say. She wants to say that there is nothing to fear, that Celestia isn't dead. But even though their Princess is not, several other ponies have already been killed by these awful creatures. She may soon need to leave on a quest with her friends, to go search for the other remaining pieces of Dracula, to put a stop to all this madness.

And who could protect Sweetie Belle then? Twilight is already working with the Hospital's directors to create a larger forcefield, which was comforting. But what can one say to a child who has suddenly become aware of her own mortality, whose childhood has come to such an abrupt and ugly end?

What else can be done but to hold her so that she does not come apart?


Twilight feels a claw poking into her side.

"Twilight?"

She snorts awake. "What?" She looks up to see the familiar eyes of her assistant. "Hey Spike," she yawns. Stretching as she gets out of her chair, Twilight looks at the bag Spike brought with him.

"I got all your stuff you asked for, except for the Whisperdust."

Twilight snorts in mild frustration. "Was it destroyed by the explosion?"

Spike shrugs. "The explosion destroyed only half the Library, and the basement where your equipment was is in one piece. There were a few other things missing, so I'm assuming somepony looted it."

All the other tools were there for Twilight to begin the other job she was about to do. "We'll worry about that later," Twilight says. "We'll need to find some Whisperdust or Sand of Time for the directors to work with, but outside that, we can finally get to work on analyzing Dracula's rib."

Spike raises an eyebrow as Twilight picks up the bag with her telekinesis and starts down the hallway. He walks alongside Twilight. "Analyze the rib? What do you mean?"

Twilight and Spike round a corner. "That rib contains some of Dracula's power. Anypony who looks at it can feel it. I have an idea to create a device that can track the other remaining pieces of Dracula, by zoning in on where Dracula's power is strongest."

"So the other pieces emit the same amount of power?" Spike clarifies.

Twilight nods, then yawns. They are almost to the room where Shatterstorm and Rainbow Dash are guarding the rib, but it feels so much further away. Still so tired. So very very tired...

She feels herself being propped up. "Hey, maybe you should go get some sleep first before you start in on this project," Spike says. Twilight feels his hands pushing her upward, off of him. She coughs, embarrassed that she was about to fall over on her assistant.

"Y-Yeah, maybe I should. I can sleep in the bed that's in the rib's room."

"You're going to sleep right next to a piece of the very embodiment of otherworldly evil?" Spike asks, folding his arms.

Twilight looks around. She sighs and drops the bag onto the floor, propping it up against the wall. She lies down and rests against the bag as if it is a pillow. "Fine, I'll just sleep right here. Go get some Whisperdust from one of the shops in town. I'm sure there's still one or two left." She yawns. "And then... then give... um..."

Spike smiles as Twilight drifts off into the sleep she really needs right now. He reaches into the bag behind Twilight's head and pulls out a blanket he had packed for just this occasion, and unfolds it over her. Then, after looking around to see if anypony was watching, he leans in and kisses Twilight on the cheek.

"G'night, Mom," he whispers.


Evening strolls through Ponyville, undisturbed. Enjoying the sights. Walks by the damage, and the burning bodies, and the ashes, cool as a stray cat through an alley full of death and disease. Time is uncaring in this sensitive situation. Plumes of smoke snake into the air from all over Ponyville, signaling that piles of the dead are being burned. What bothers Big Macintosh the most is that almost none of the bodies had been identified.

He has had to burn ponies he’d recognized today. Ponies who were friends, who had family. He doesn’t know how many are left to burn, even right now, but looking at this latest pile, his heart drops further than it already has...

In this pile are foals they’d found, piled underneath their mother’s body. Evidently, the mother had attempted to protect her babies, but whatever monster had broken in decided to have its way with them nonetheless. There were also two male bodies in the room before they'd found the foals and mother; they must have tried to protect the mother and foals... and...

Marble looked away the moment she saw them, gasping and breaking into near-hysterical weeping. Pokey Pierce, his attempts at acting macho to comfort Marble temporarily suspended, looked at this scene in silent horror.

As they dragged the bodies outside where it would be safe to burn them, they came across another shocking and disturbing discovery. In the street just outside the back door of the house lied a body that was unmistakably a very large zombie corpse from last night: blood all over the unnatural fangs in its mouth, eyes wide and wild and dark like madness. Body stinking and rotting for Celestia only knows how long. Looked like it was on its way out of this end of the house when the sun came up.

Big Macintosh looked down at this zombie and immediately swallowed a scream. Pokey Pierce, his courage suddenly gone at the sight of this large stallion in fear, asked his friend why the zombie upset him. Big Macintosh, almost hyperventilating, looked back to the zombie body.

That face, although rotted, was one Big Macintosh could identify.

"My... My father," he mumbled.

Marble slowly drew a hoof over her mouth and Pokey Pierce closed his eyes as he solemnly looked away. Big Macintosh sniffed and fought his tears, his voice growing weaker. "My father... killed those foals?" He fell to his hooves and wept as the sunlight began to creep away...

Between Big Mac’s teeth now is a torch. He stands before this pile, not sure if he can do it. Unsure of whether or not it is his place to burn the bodies of foals. If his conscience can withstand the knowledge that he has had to burn the bodies of Ponyville’s next generation. If his heart is strong enough to burn the body of his father before it comes alive and kills again.

He hesitates, the torch in his mouth. Soon it will be night. If he chooses not to burn them, they might come back as monsters. They would roam the streets of Ponyville at night, killing anypony unfortunate enough to cross their paths. They would all become mindless killers, using the bodies of children as their vessels. Using the body of his father...

He knows what he has to do, but he cannot fight the tears rolling down his face. Suddenly, he feels another set of teeth joining him on the torch’s shaft. He looks down to see Marble. Then Pokey Pierce joins both of them. Together, the three sadly, reluctantly, lower the torch onto the pile.

The fire sets itself to work almost immediately, thanks to the paper and other flammable debris they had added. The empty eyes of the foals look to Big Macintosh, to Marble, to Pokey Pierce. “I’m sorry,” whispers Pokey Pierce, his voice thin and small. Marble leans on Pokey, tears in her eyes.

The big stallion takes a deep breath as he watches the fire begin to grow, swallowing all the bodies; as it claws at his father's demonic corpse. "Don't tell AJ," he says to his friends. Celestia only knew how Applejack would take the news of her beloved Pa becoming a monster.

Big Macintosh looks up as the fire goes higher. The sun is on its way down. It's time to go back to the Hospital. He cocks his head in its direction, giving a wordless order to his friends.

They leave the dead behind to burn.


Evening spills its red light all around Spike as he walks, runs, walks, runs back to the hospital. His stubby legs prevent him from moving as quickly as he’d like, not to mention the sounds of the jars of Whisperdust in his bag clinking together dangerously. He had only just found these jars in an empty shop earlier; if they break, he’d have no time to run back and find some more.

Spike looks about, and finds a nearby piece of cloth on some debris. As he picks it up, the cloth strikes him as somewhat familiar. He looks up and sees that he is in front of the Carousel Boutique, or rather what remains of it: windows smashed, walls stripped, some parts of it caved in. It would take a lot of work for it to be restored back to its former artistic, whimsical beauty.

He remembers seeing Rarity in the Hospital earlier, how she had run as fast as she could down the hallway, a look of abject terror on her face. Not bothering to stop her, he had allowed her to pass. He doesn’t remember why he didn’t try to get involved, just that he had passed the chance to. Spike sighs, wondering if that was really the right thing to do.

As he puts the cloth between the two jars of Whisperdust to separate them, Spike’s eyes fall to a smaller text written just above the “WHISPERDUST” logo: “CAUTION: Do NOT ingest. Keep out of reach of foals.”

Spike scoffs. He wonders who would be stupid enough to eat magical dirt?


All Twilight knows right now is that she is running. The halls around her are dark and twisted, with floors and walls often spinning around each other in inconceivable ways. This hall was the entrance to the Castle, that hall was the hotel she was staying at before; this hall is apart of the hospital, that hall is Ponyville on fire.

She looks behind herself and sees the Crimson Grin. It’s joined by the warped face of Death, and what she thinks might be Dirt Nap’s trampled remains. Twilight picks up the pace, running through the halls even faster than she did before.

Suddenly, she falls, as if the floor just got yanked out from underneath her. She falls, falls past windows. In this window a hospital room, in that window rainy Ponyville, in this window the Castle looms…

Before her now is that mouthless face of white, with bloody tears streaming from bloody eyes. It is as if the white expanse is not a really a face at all. Just eyes without a face. The bloody eyes look at her as she falls toward them. They blink.

Suddenly, they are green.

Twilight is back in the Hospital now. Before her are green eyes that have been looking at her for only Celestia knows how long, watching her sleep.

An awkward silence drifts between them. The mare with green eyes seems familiar to Twilight. Red hair, cream-colored coat. She looks like she had just been in an accident: a broken hind leg, bandages on her head. Twilight sits up on the floor, allowing the bag of materials behind her to slide down and the blanket covering her to drift off her back.

"...Hi?" she asks awkwardly.

The mare tries to stand back up, but struggles. Twilight helps her to her feet. "Thanks," says the mare. Her voice is quiet, almost whispery, as if she is terrified somepony might be listening in.

"Who are you?"

"Name's Roseluck," she says. "Everypony just calls me Rose, though. I run the flower stand near the Town Square." Her green eyes once again scan Twilight. "What's your name?"

"Twilight," she responds.

Rose seems to think this over a moment. "Twilight... Sparkle?" she asks. "The Twilight Sparkle? Celestia's student?"

Twilight lifts an eyebrow. "...Yes?" This mare is weirder than she thought. Rose hobbles over to a window, mumbling how everything seems to be falling into place, making sense. The more she babbles, the more Twilight wishes she were someplace else.

Rose turns and motions for Twilight to come to the window. Out of curiosity—and against her better judgment—Twilight joins Rose. The half-crazed mare points outward, toward the castle overlooking the town.

"See that castle?"

"I've been there, actually."

At this, Rose seems stunned. She looks aside, lowering her hoof. She nods, then looks back to Twilight. "That makes even more sense."

Twilight sighs impatiently. "Look... Rose, what do you want to tell me? Just say it. Don't get cryptic."

Rose shoots Twilight a dangerous look that makes her cringe. "OK, you know what? Fine, I'll just lay it all out.

"Ever since that Castle appeared and everypony panicked, I've been receiving... weird... messages, and images. I wanna say that it's the Castle talking to me, but you'd think I'm crazy." She sniffs. "Heck, you probably think I'm crazy anyway."

Twilight purses her lips and swallows.

"But, but you were there," Rose continues. "You were there, in that castle, so you know. You know it's not just a castle, it's an..." She falls silent suddenly, pensive. Her voice drops even lower. "...It's an entity."

The feeling she had of being constantly watched while inside the Castle. The feeling that invisible eyes pressed themselves against her body. That feeling of being an incredibly tiny invader inside a huge and dangerous animal...

"Yes," Twilight says, her voice just as quiet as Rose's. "I know. That Castle is alive."

Rose smiles. It's small and melancholy, but it's there, expressing Rose's relief that at least one other pony does not think she's crazy. "I dunno why it's talking to me. I'm no unicorn. Got no magical abilities or psychic sensitivity. But it tells me... that Celestia is taken. That she's been taken away from us."

Twilight looks around. Everypony else camping out in the hallway seems uninterested in their conversation, talking amongst each other or zoning out, still traumatized by all the death they'd seen. She turns back to Rose. "Yes," she says very quietly. "Celestia isn't here right now. But my friends and I are working on a way to bring her back, by thwarting that Castle and its plans."

Rose nods, seemingly in relief. "You know why you interest me, Twilight?" Rose remarks casually. "You keep showing up in those images lately. The Castle looms over you, like, like a predator." She makes a motion with her foreleg, as if her hoof is tracing the path of something. "And a white horse gallops by. It laughs like watching you suffer is the funniest thing in the world."

Silence. Long, dreadful silence. Twilight doesn't think she has reason to doubt this Rose, even though what she says makes her skin crawl. Finally, Rose speaks up again.

"You know something? I think that castle wants to destroy you. Not kill you. No, killing you would be easy. It kills all the time, so it—it got bored with killing somewhere down the line. No, it wants to destroy you, Twilight. Completely."

Twilight's mind flutters back to Aeon's account of Richter Belmont earlier that day. How Dracula tormented him, destroyed him with his own despair. How he had taken everything away from him, to the point where none of his friends could help him. The color drains from her face and her heart begins to beat faster. "Wh-Why would it want to do that?" she asks. Her voice is tiny, gripped and drowned in an almost childlike fear.

Rose does not break her eye contact. Her eyes seem as if they have aged a hundred years in the past two days, ancient and gnarled and malicious. But there is an aspect of them that Twilight finds the most terrifying: helplessness. Uncertainty. Ambiguity. The Castle has warped this mare.

Then she opens her mouth and utters five silent words that will continue to terrify Twilight long after all this is over.

"To prove that it can."

Those five words hang in the air like a noose awaiting a hanging. Suddenly, two mares chirp from nearby. Rose looks aside as Daisy and Lily call for her, tell her she should not be out of her room. They blame each other for falling asleep while keeping watch, and apologize to Twilight if Rose said anything rude.

As they help Rose back to her room, Twilight looks again out the window. Out at the Castle.

She has been marked as an enemy.

And she knows it now.