Blink Again

by Amarandream

8 - Smile

Sweetie Belle awoke with blurry eyes and a full bladder. Beside her, Rarity dozed away while Twilight... er, Light, slept not much further off. She still had trouble remembering that the alicorn went by a different name here.

Slowly, she rose and crept away from her sister’s side, watching her step to avoid making a sound. After all, she would hate to wake them just because she needed to go to the bathroom. Luckily, even with the squish of flesh and crunch of bone underhoof an almost ever-present accompaniment in this place, she managed to slip off in near silence. She chalked it up to her small size more than anything.

She was so busy watching the ground and the two sleeping mares behind her that she missed the body right in front of her. When she bumped into it, she whipped around with a gasp, thinking she’d just run straight into a corpse. When she saw what it really was, she almost shrieked before stuffing her hoof into her mouth. That was a mistake. It tasted of blood and rot, and she quickly spat it out in revulsion.

What met her was a pair of cyan eyes, gazing down into Sweetie Belle’s soul. She’d walked straight into Fluttershy, or perhaps the statue that used to be her. Normally, she would have been comforted by the kind mare’s presence, but not now. Now, those piercing eyes seemed to see everything and nothing all at once, as if they were dissected her while understanding not a whit of what they saw. Or was Sweetie only imagining that? It was hard to tell, given recent events and the haunting atmosphere.

She backed away from Fluttershy, rerouting around the pegasus and out of the so-called camp. She hated the idea of going very far from them or stepping out further into the mass grave at all, but she hadn't been there long enough to lose her sense of modesty. She couldn't go to the bathroom in full view of three ponies, one of which was still awake, even if unresponsive.

As she stepped further and further away from their sleeping site, her steps slowed, became more hesitant. There couldn't be anything dangerous out there, could there? As far as her fear-addled memory could recall, Light gave no indication of a clear and present threat. Sweetie was reluctant to take her word on it though—not when the place just seemed so dangerous. She would just have to be quick.

She stopped just out of sight of the others, quickly doing her business into a pool of like liquids. When she was done, she turned straight around with every intention of heading directly back to the others. It took only a single step for her to realize one of the bodies sitting between her and them hadn't been there before, and it was watching her.

"Um, hello?" she nervously called out. "Who is it? Be warned, I can scream really loud. If you try to hurt me, my sister will come and... and..." She floundered. If this was a threat, what exactly could Rarity do? Her sister wasn't known for her fighting skills.

"Don't worry." The pony stood up. "Nopony wants to hurt you. I'm just curious."

Sweetie blinked, then sighed in relief. "Oh, it's just you. You really scared me for a second." Given how most of the bodies were Twilight and this one was quite messy, she hadn't realized for a moment that it was just Light. She must have seen Sweetie walk away and followed to make sure she was safe.

Light chuckled, shaking her head. "I apologize. That was not my intent. You shouldn't wander off though." She began limping toward Sweetie Belle, favoring her right foreleg over her left for some reason. "If Rarity really is here, I'm sure she would be quite worried to learn you were poking about alone. Even if nopony wants to hurt you, there are still things that can. An explosive potion once destroyed almost everything here, for instance. Best you stay with a grown pony, and away from the center."

"I wasn't 'poking around' though!" Sweetie insisted. "I just needed to use the little filly's room, or what passes for it here, I guess. I promise I... wait a minute." She quickly backed up, almost stepping into the pool of fluids. "What do you mean, 'If Rarity really is here?' You were talking to her just earlier! And... and I don't remember you having that scar. Or the limp." She gulped, contemplating whether or not she should scream for help. "You aren't Light, are you?"

"No, I am not." The Twilight clone stopped right in front of her. "You may call me Twi."

"Oh, well, hello Twi." She froze. Didn't Light say Twi could become dangerous? Uh oh.

"I'm sorry, did you just say that Light called me dangerous?"

"Eep!" Sweetie cowered. "Did I say that part out loud? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I'm sure she didn't either."

Twi sighed. "I guess I'm not surprised to find her slandering me, but please, you have no reason to fear." She gently put one hoof under Sweetie's chin and lifted it until their eyes met. "I'm a friend, just like her. The two of us merely have some disagreements. Now come with me. I have a gift for you."

"A gift?" Sweetie cocked her head to the side, barely registering that Twi was already pulling her along with the gentle touch of an outstretched wing. "What kind of gift?"

"The helpful kind." Twi smiled. "Don't worry. It's just over here." She continued pulling Sweetie Belle along, who now kept pace with the mare, despite needing to enter a trot to do so.

Sweetie skidded to a sudden stop when she saw where Twi was taking her. It was like a cave, but made out of bodies, having been dug out of the side of the central corpse pile. Most of the bodies in that area were little more than bone now, but what remained of some of the pelts had been laid flat over the top. Around and on top of it, a series of large bone spikes fanned out as if it were a fort somepony had taken to viciously defending. It even had a relatively fresh body laying next to it with neatly carved strips taken out of its side.

"Wh—what is this?" She hurried back several steps, suddenly feeling lightheaded. "No, no, no. What have you done?" Tears gathered at the edge of her eyes as her head and stomach warred for the choice to either faint or vomit. What was this crazy pony going to do to her?

"Huh?" Twi looked from her to the cave, and then her eyes widened. "Oh, no! I promise it's not what you think! I didn't build this. I only dug it back out after it was collapsed. It was the Twilight before me who made it originally. She was crazy—tried to kill me, in fact—but she left something useful behind. A journal. I just wanted to give it to you."

Sweetie Belle took a deep breath. "Wait. Really? You... didn't bring me here to kill me then?"

Twi cocked her head to the side. "Wow, you are absolutely terrified of this place, aren't you? All the better that we get through with this quickly then. I left the journal inside this little abode, along with my part of the library Light and I once shared. Come." She turned and walked through the skeletal structure's opening without watching to see if Sweetie Belle would follow.

Sweetie gulped, staring at the structure's walls. This Twi seemed mostly sane, but what kind of pony could use such a place? She hoped it was just a library and Twi didn't actually sleep there, or this pony might be a lot more dangerous than she claimed. Just then, she wished more than anything that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were there with her. Well, obviously she didn't wish this fate on them and would have preferred to be in Equestria alongside them, but still. When the CMC was together, there was nothing they couldn't handle. With them, she could march in there no problem—or at least, that's what she told herself. Alone, she was afraid, weak, and altogether useless.

"Hey!" Twi stuck her head out of the opening. "Are you coming or not? It's just bone."

"Um," she took another look at the cave, cringing at the thought of going inside, "maybe you should just bring the journal out here. I don't really need to come in, do I?"

Twi frowned. "Nonsense. This will just take a moment." She then proceeded to walk over, put a wing around Sweetie Belle, and pull her inside, careless of her reticence.

They were barely past the threshold when Sweetie shrieked, futilely pushing back against Twi's wing to escape the horrible body before her—the body of a Twilight with a series of bone splinters piercing its muzzle, forcing its mouth into an exaggerated smile.

"Woah there." Twi patted Sweetie Belle's head. "It's okay. It's just Sparkle. She can't hurt you. Say hi, Sparkle." She stopped and stared at the body for several seconds, then turned back to Sweetie Belle with a shrug and a deadpan expression. "She isn't very talkative."

Sweetie stared in horror, first at Twi then at the corpse. "Whaaa—?"

"Just a joke." Twi raised her hoof as if in defense. "She was dead long before I arrived. I only learned of her through what was left of the previous Twilight's journal. This journal." She picked up a blood-soaked, shredded up tome from next to the body and set it before the filly. "Apparently, Sparkle here had the rare privilege of dying both relatively sane and morally upright. It is a fate I wish to ensure each and every one of us can share in. Nopony should be allowed to succumb to madness, or to be tortured by this place any more than they are capable of withstanding. This is why I bequeath you this book. Read it, and you will understand."

Sweetie's breath hitched. "Understand what?"

"You will understand that, in time, madness and pain are inevitable here. For one so young, it may even come sooner. You will resort to cannibalism, become desensitized to your surroundings, lose your empathy, begin hurting yourself just to feel, and then resort to hurting others when that no longer satisfies. If somehow you stave these things off for a time, you will instead have to watch it happen to everypony around you. Those you love and trust will become unlovable, untrustworthy, and in time, outright malicious. Your only escape is to end the process early. Sparkle died well for just that reason," her eyes fell to a makeshift axe lying next to a small stack of papers, "and I wish to offer you that same ending. A good ending, should you wish it."

Sweetie Belle backed away from Twi, smiling corpse, and book all, backing up until she bumped into one of the skeletons making up the wall. "What? No! Stay away from me!"

Twi stepped toward her, and thus away from the entrance. "I don't want to hurt you. I only want to—"

Sweetie bolted past the alicorn and through the now-clear exit, galloping harder than ever before in her life. She had to make it back to Rarity. Surely, even Rarity could stave off one crippled pony, especially if Light helped. Though, given that Light and Twi were once the same pony, she worried that the former might not be much safer than the latter. She could only rely on her sister then. Her sister and herself.

"Wait!" she heard Twi call out, already far behind. "I was only trying to offer a way out! I wasn't going to force you to..." Whatever else she had to say faded as the distance grew and the crunch of bone underhoof became more pronounced.

Sweetie's heart felt like it was going to beat its way up and out of her mouth, but she had a mind for only one thing: her purple-maned goal. She would be safe then, safe from the madmare that she was now convinced Twi was. However that pony acted, she was utterly insane. Sweetie Belle would have to warn Rarity, find a way to defend herself..."

So caught up was she in her panic, she flew right past Rarity, digging her hooves into the ground in a desperate attempt to reach a full stop from a dead gallop. Instead, she skidded and crashed into another pony. Into Fluttershy.

"I'm so sorry!" Sweetie said on impulse, Light and Rarity rousing from their slumber behind her. "I didn't mean—" she cut off, realizing she was talking to a vegetative pony, and began hurriedly picking herself out of the mass of yellow feathers and fur she’d knocked over.

Fluttershy's eyes shifted to meet hers. "It's okay." She cocked her head to the side, dragging pink mane across bloody ground. "Is something wrong?"

Sweetie Belle's mouth dropped. For that matter, so did Light and Rarity's.

Author's Note:

As indicated in the description, many of the details in this chapter are inherited from Flash Notion's Not The First. If you want to know how Sparkle ended up like that, go read that story.

Comments

[darklight731]

Oh, that is a good reference. I hope that they all get their hooves on that journal still.

[Frustration in Excelsis]

Twi sighed. "I guess I'm not surprised to find her slandering me, but please, you have no reason to fear." She gently put one hoof under Sweetie's chin and lifted it until their eyes met. "I'm a friend, just like her. The two of us merely have some disagreements. Now come with me. I have a gift for you."

"A gift?" Sweetie cocked her head to the side, barely registering that Twi was already pulling her along with the gentle touch of an outstretched wing. "What kind of gift?"

"The helpful kind." Twi smiled. "Don't worry. It's just over here." She continued pulling Sweetie Belle along, who now kept pace with the mare, despite needing to enter a trot to do so.

... she's going to try to mercy-kill her.

a series of large bone spikes fanned out as if it were a fort somepony had taken to viscously defending

"viciously"

... wow, Twi's gone impressively off her rocker.

[DarkSnowGaming]

Twi cocked her head to the side. "Wow, you are absolutely terrified of this place, aren't you? All the better that we get through with this quickly then.

You talking about giving the journal or.... something else....?