Village of Despair
Sunny Town – Village of Despair
By Zero Zivan A.K.A. Skyjagged
A fanmade response to a fanmade game
Story of the Blanks
Inspired by My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
“What’s your plan?” Leech demanded. “Just go in after her? That’s exactly what they want! You can’t just rush in like this and expect not to get hurt!”
I pushed open the door to Doctor Midnight Shadow’s office and stomped outside. “Getting hurt is not my concern. She’s been dragged back in, right after she thought she was safe. It’s unfair. I’m going to fix it.”
“By your own recounting, you escaped purely by luck,” the Doc argued, as he and Leech followed me out of the building. We were in the main square of Canterlot, just outside of the gates leading to the royal palace, Princess Celestia’s home. Normally, being able to visit such a beautiful city would have filled anypony with awe. Unfortunately for me, recent events had severely downturned that sentiment.
My name is SkyJagged. One week before this, the arrival of Nightmare Moon sparked an interest in me to see what kinds of mysteries might have risen up during her banishment a thousand years ago. Only one had appeared; the story of the six ponies who I learned much later were referred to as ‘the betrayers’. That night, I investigated the last known place those six ponies had disappeared to, and as a result found Sunny Town, a small settlement inside the Everfree Forest. After getting greetings and odd responses to my questions from five of the townsponies, I found the sixth, Mitta, hiding inside one of the huts in town. She was very different; unlike the other five, she was miserable, not cheerful. When I asked her questions, although she was averse to answering them, she eventually opened up in a way the others did not. It was through her warnings and guidance that I was able to discover the truth behind Sunny Town, its odd inhabitants, and the horrible curse upon it. I had been lucky enough to escape with my life… just like the Doc was telling me now.
“That’s not important,” I growled over my shoulder. “She does not belong there. She had a second chance, and they stole it back from her. I am going to get her out, and destroy them all if I have to!”
In the chase that had followed my discovery, Mitta had defended me, allowing me to escape Sunny Town through its only entrance. Then, when I had been cornered at the edge of the forest, she had appeared again, willing to stay until there was an opening for me to get the rest of the way out. It hadn’t worked out that way, though. As the ponies surrounding us had closed in, one of them threatened Mitta. Given the kindness she had shown me, I had snapped. All that mattered in that moment was that Mitta, not me, be safe. After the escape, I had assumed that my cutie-mark, the one that helps me protect my friends, had magically transported Mitta and me out of the forest. Now, though, Doc and Leech seemed convinced that the escape had been engineered by the five ponies attacking us. That just didn’t make sense to me.
“Your nightmares, Jag,” Leech said, using his wings to propel himself up to my side as I trotted on. “They knew all along that you’d come back. They’re prepared! This time, you will not escape. Period. They’ll have ponies to guard the door, and this time they’ll have Mitta tied down or something so she can’t help.”
For the past week after our escape, nightmares had been haunting my sleep, every night dreaming of my return to Sunny Town. In those dreams, I would always be pulled into the forest, where the five ponies surrounded me. And worst of all, each time I went in, Mitta herself would attack me, turning me into one of them. I couldn’t be sure if the dreams were actually connected to those five ponies until I visited the office of Doctor Midnight Shadow, a dream specialist who had put me under and connected himself to my dreams. This time around, the five ponies had spoken to me, saying they had known all along that I would try to get help. When I made it to the back of town, I found the same exact scene that had revealed the truth to me in real life. But one of the ponies had told me then that the bones in that fireplace were not the pony they had murdered, starting their curse. It was Mitta herself burning in that fireplace. Then the pony had attacked, leaving me in a pain beyond explanation, just like in every other dream.
As I lay on the floor in Doctor Shadow’s office, writhing in pain, Doc and Leech had apparently heard Mitta scream, and then watched her literally fade away. They also said that my cutie mark had disappeared for a few seconds, too, so I didn’t know what to attribute to their imaginations and what to believe. One simple fact, though, was that Mitta was gone. The three of us agreed, at least, as to where she was now.
“Once she’s untied, that won’t be a problem.” Mitta couldn’t have been in that fire. She just couldn’t. She had still been in the office right up until the point I had been attacked. Which meant that, as I had said, the ‘Mitta’ I saw in the fire wasn’t real. A dream. Or Three Leaf had been lying when she had claimed it was Mitta, and not the mystery victim, in that fire. She had lied when I first met her, after all, claiming not to know what cutie-marks were.
I stopped when I got across the street and down the path to where a large rectangular box stood in a grassy path. We had travelled to Canterlot in the Doc’s time machine, the TARDIS, and it was my only chance of getting back to Ponyville quickly. “Open the door, Doc. We have somewhere to be.”
“I won’t take you back until we have come up with a plan, Jag,” the brown colt replied firmly.
“Fine! I’ll just have to fly, then.” I flapped my wings and took off, but the faster, stronger Leech caught up to me instantly and tackled me to the ground. The Doc only opened the door once Leech declared that he had me, and once he had entered Leech dragged me, kicking and flapping, inside of the time machine.
“Now,” the Doc said, sealing the door, “we have to make sure that we have everything planned as well and carefully as we possibly can before rushing in to this situation. I respect your desire to help Mitta, Jag, but we need more preparation.”
That line stopped me from struggling. “We?” I looked up from the floor. The Doc didn’t correct himself, and Leech had no objections. I raised my hooves and pushed on his chest. “Get off me, Leech.”
“Promise you’ll shut up and listen?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“I’ll listen,” I snapped. “I talk, too.”
“Fair enough.” He backed up and brushed some dirt off of his tan coat where I had kicked him. I stood up and looked at them again. “You can’t come,” I said. “They’re expecting me, just like you said. I can’t expect to face them and make sure you two are safe each step of the way.”
“Well, I appreciate the sentiment, SkyJagged, but we are quite capable of taking care of ourselves. I have seen my share of battles, and the undead, whether they are ponies or not, are not the worst I have seen.”
“And I have my own skills,” Leech put in. “They won’t be able to touch me if I keep moving and use what they have against them.”
“Look, guys, I appreciate the offer. Honestly.” I sat back and did my best to summarize the story I had told them again. “But you guys can’t match five fully intelligent ponies that can’t be hurt, one, by the way, who is incredibly fast, and the other… I don’t know, ten or so whose only purpose is to catch you. I can’t let you go into this.”
“You can’t stop us, dude,” Leech answered. “She’s our friend as much as she is yours. And we’re not letting either of you get into trouble without us along to bring you back.”
“I agree,” the Doc added. “So please, let’s stop this pointless arguing and focus on our plan of attack. How can we get in, and what do we do once we’re inside?”
I glared at them silently for a few seconds, trying desperately to get them to back down. Unfortunately, even I knew they were right. Even since walking into Midnight Shadow’s office, I had known that they were as much a part of this conflict now as I had been when I set foot in the town. Since that morning, it had been made clear that my friends would be there to help me with this problem. At the time, I had no idea it would escalate this far, or that I wouldn’t want them with me.
But still, it would be nice to have some friends to watch my back, and each other’s. I just didn’t want to think about what would happen if we failed. “Fine.” I dropped the act with an exasperated sigh. “I know where the entrance is to Sunny Town. The main problem is that there’s only one. If we have any hope of getting out, that path has to stay clear the entire time we’re in.”
Leech leaned back on his haunches. “Sounds good. I haven’t had a good fight in a while; this should be fun.”
“Which brings me to problem two,” I said, watching him pointedly. “From what Mitta’s told me, these ponies have the power to change you by touch alone. You two saw what it did to me while I was sleeping. So above all, do not. Let. Them. Touch. You.”
“That may be more difficult,” the Doc put in. “Didn’t you just tell us that there is one pony in there who is particularly fast?”
“Yes, Starlet,” I answered, nodding. “I’m not sure how exactly it works, but somehow being the quietest of the group has made her the most dangerous. She’s the one you have to keep a close eye on.”
“How will we know which one is her?” the Doc asked, while Leech snorted behind me, muttering “It’s always the quiet ones…”
“I can’t help you there,” I answered. “I had no idea which one was after me at any given time, because they all looked the same in zombie form. Assuming that they don’t have colors, all you can do is track the one that moves faster. Otherwise, keep an eye on the white one. That’s her.
“While you two are keeping the escape clear,” I continued, “I’m gonna go in and look for Mitta. Once I have her, we’re going to run. I don’t care about the others, so long as we can get her out of there.”
“Was there nothing inside the town to indicate a way to break this curse?” the Doc asked.
“None.” I shook my head. “Remember, the curse theoretically came about because they were living in a dangerous part of the forest, and they murdered a pony. I don’t think there’s anything we can do to break it.”
The Doc nodded, but I think he was still pondering alternatives.
“That’s the plan,” I said. “I don’t think we have any armor or weapons, so the best we have is to stay on the move and stay alive. Agreed?”
“Wait a minute,” Leech interrupted. “No weapons? This whole ship is full of tech! Why not use something from in here?”
“The TARDIS is used for transportation, Mr. Leech,” the Doc responded. “I do not carry weapons.”
“Okay, fine.” Leech turned to face him. “What about some… what was that word… indirect weapons? Like that screwdriver that can push things?”
“The sonic screwdriver is a multi-purpose tool built for repairs and hacking, not weaponry!” Doc looked like he was getting offended at the idea of using anything as a weapon, so I stepped in to cool them down. “Enough! If you two are coming, you have to be ready to work together, not argue.”
“I’m just trying to help with some ideas,” Leech grumbled. “Fine, I’ll stick to myself, then. Maybe, if I copy one of them, I won’t be affected if they touch me.”
“That’s high-risk. What if they have some sort of hive mind or something that’ll fry your brain if you try that?”
“Pshhh.” Leech waved a hoof in the air. “I’m a Changeling. I don’t think some stupid curse is going to get to me just by mimicking those ponies. Let’s move on.”
“You watch yourself,” I growled, pointing at him. “I don’t want that hotheadedness getting you and then the rest of us killed.”
“Oh, I’m not particularly concerned about that,” the Doc cut in. “I’m sure that, were I to die, a regeneration would eventually make its way back. Possibly even away from this odd pony world.” He paused. “Well, I’m not quite sure how I feel about that idea. I have gotten a bit attached to this universe.”
His odd comment only got stares from Leech and me. I was the first to shake off the confusion. “I’m gonna assume you’re talking about backup copies or something. I don’t want details,” I added, holding up a hoof as he opened his mouth to explain, “just pay attention. They won’t exactly kill you, per se. I noticed one main theme during my escape last time, and that is that they’ll try to turn us first. Maybe we won’t become as psychotic as they did, and maybe we will. What worries me, though, is that they’ve never managed to change a pony from outside of their town before. If they get to us, they might be able to leave town, or be able to visit Ponyville and, say, change everypony there?”
Leech and the Doc frowned. It was obviously a theory that hadn’t come to mind. Even I had only just thought of it, and the idea made me shudder. “My point is, we don’t even know if getting caught will affect only us. At all costs, we can’t let that happen.”
There was a short silence, which told me both of them were silently begging the question, ‘then why are we doing this?’ And they also knew the answer. Someone was suffering. And none of us were willing to just sit back and let it happen, regardless of the risks to ourselves.
I turned to the Doc. “You mentioned earlier that the worst the screwdriver could do was push things. If that’s the case, you should probably use it. Keeping your distance is the critical part of this operation. If you can’t outrun them, the screwdriver will keep them back.”
“I had thought of that,” he replied, nodding. “And you’re right. It certainly will come in handy.” He peered at me. “Jag, you seem the least prepared out of the three of us.”
“What makes you say that? I’m the one who has the critical information about the town.”
“I mean your fighting ability, Jag,” he held up a hoof and inclined his head, trying to signal patience. “Mr. Leech is able to mimic other ponies, which should protect him from the dangers present to us. I have been in combat situations before, and have a reasonable defense. But you have no weapon, no special skills, and are still going to travel deeper into the forest than either of us. I fail to see the logic in such action.”
“Look, I may not have a sonic screwdriver, and I may not be able to copy other ponies, but I am not less prepared than either of you!” The outburst was not like me at all, and taking that into account, I paused to take a deep breath. “Listen,” I continued, more calmly, “I’ve been here before. I know how they act, so it’s best if I go in. Besides which, my cutie-mark is the only one here that can help to beat the odds. Mitta is in trouble, and I’m doing this to help her. My ability is protecting my friends. So, if only through my cutie-mark, I can make it to town and back here. I have to be the one to do this, anyway. She’s here because of me.”
Leech blinked. “She’s here because of a murder, dude. This has nothing to do with-”
“My nightmares, okay? If I had found some other way to deal with those nightmares, or moved somewhere else, this whole thing wouldn’t have happened! It has to be me.”
Doc’s expression turned harsh. He walked up close to me and planted a hoof firmly on my chest. “This is not your fault, Jag. If you are going to think that way, then I will lock you inside the TARDIS and Mr. Leech and I will handle this matter on our own. If you aim to fix this, you must first realize that you are trying to help repair a problem that has existed for a thousand years. One week is not enough time to correct it, and it may be several years before this whole mess is abated, with or without my help. Once you acknowledge the facts, and not your personal opinions, you will be able to examine the issue in a more capable fashion.”
He was using a lot of big words, but the general message got through, and I nodded. “Okay.” I nodded. “It’s not my fault. But it’s my responsibility. I’m the only one Mitta has to rely on. I am not going to betray that trust. Since you two are so eager to help, I know you feel the same way. So, in that spirit, I think we’ve wasted enough time here as it is. We have to go.” I swallowed. “Back to Sunny Town.”
We made it back to Ponyville in almost a minute, and then we were off running. Neither of my friends spoke; I had to assume that they were getting mentally ready for what was waiting for us in Sunny Town.
It was getting dark out. Just like last time, the confrontation in Sunny Town was going to take place at night. The idea didn’t fill me with confidence, but this time I didn’t even hesitate. I charged through the streets and out the back entrance to Ponyville, toward Fluttershy’s house and the Everfree Forest just beyond. Leech, disguised for the moment, followed close behind on his wings, and the Doc galloped after the two of us. Soon we were inside the collection of trees, with the exit lying just behind us. The sight in the clearing surprised me more than anything else would have, and I dug my hooves into the dirt, struggling to stop. I had been running too fast, and my momentum dragged me forward too quickly. I almost slammed headfirst into the problem, and was barely able to spread my wings and take off, looping back around. Leech managed to stop himself easily, and the Doc, having seen the commotion, slowed to a stop as he caught up.
Ahead of us, there would have been a collection of blue-leafed flowers, but they had all been removed. Just as well, too; I wouldn’t have had time to pick my way through the odd-smelling stuff and charged through it, anyway.
But the lack of flowers wasn’t what had startled me. Laying in the trees, blocking the path to Sunny Town, was a large boulder with the words KEEP OUT UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH printed on it. I looked back at the others. “This wasn’t here before.”
“No kidding.” Leech dropped out of his disguise and tapped a pockmarked hoof on the stone. “Well, it’s solid. Not going anywhere.”
“Who would have placed this here?” the Doc asked. “Maybe that Zecora friend of yours? She didn’t sound happy when you mentioned that you knew about the town.”
“I don’t think Zecora has the resources to push a big rock like this around,” I answered. “In fact, it would take some pretty strong ponies to…”
I slapped a hoof against my forehead, realizing only then what the problem was. “Of course. When Mitta and I told the Princesses about this, Celestia mentioned some sort of security. She must have decided to seal off the entrance.”
“Then what do we do?” Leech asked. “I’m not sure she’ll be willing to have it moved if we ask her.”
“No time for that, anyway,” I said, circling around to one side of the rock. “We’ll have to push it. Come on, help me out here.”
“Fine.” Leech followed my lead and pushed on the stone with both hooves. Unfortunately, our combined strength couldn’t even budge the big rock. We pushed, shoved, and kicked for a few more minutes before we both ended up lying on the ground, panting for air.
Leech looked up at the Doc. “Why aren’t you helping?” he growled.
Doc looked up at the stone, contemplating our dilemma. “I believe this stone is secured by that unicorn magic I’ve seen so much of. Trying to force it away, as we’ve seen, won’t help.”
“Ugh.” I stood up. “Of course, the security had to be so good that even the good guys can’t get past it.” I leaned against the stone, trying to figure out a way we could get by. “Well, we can either try to find a unicorn who can teleport us in, or get the Princess to undo this spell.”
“Teleporting in would be faster,” Leech said, leaning over me, “but how are we going to get out afterwards?” He tapped a hoof on my head to make his point clearer.
“Fine! Back to Canterlot!” Leech was really getting on my nerves, and at the time I should have realized that the problem was my own annoyance at being so unable to help Mitta. But, of course, I wasn’t thinking of it that way. I got ready to lead the way back out, but before I so much as raised a hoof, the Doc called out, “Jag! Look out!”
The warning stunned me, but not enough to keep me from jumping away from the rock. As I whirled to face whatever was coming at us, I saw an odd white glow moving around the stone face. The odd, wispy behavior of the stuff reminded me of the Princesses’ manes. As we watched, the odd plasma withdrew back inside the boulder, and then, to our surprise, the thing actually moved. Somehow, that white wisp was rolling the stone out of our path!
Leech took a few steps forward, but stopped before he got too close to the opening, peering in cautiously. “I don’t see anything.”
“That doesn’t mean much,” I said. “They can hide in the ground, remember? Plus, again, they knew we were coming.”
“Yeah.” Leech looked over his shoulder at me. “But did you see that ghost last time, too?”
“That wasn’t a ghost,” I waved a hoof at him. “It was magic. Maybe it recognized me and opened up.”
“Oh, sure. Doc and I saw eyes, dude. Two yellow ones.”
“That’s right.” Doc moved up behind him. “Any ideas as to who it might be?”
“You’re both delusional,” I muttered, pushing my way between them. “Shape up. We’re going into a combat zone. Doc, you got your screwdriver ready?”
“Right here.” He pulled out the small item – from where, I had no idea – and put it in his mouth. “If I have to run, it’s best I use it like this.”
“Fine. Leech? You’d better… I don’t know, turn into Mitta or something.”
“Pass. I’m copying the fast one. That way I’ll have a better defense.”
“All right. Don’t stay in one place, and watch everywhere. The only place they can’t get you from is the air. So stay on your guard.”
The warnings were as clear and concise as I could make them, and we were as well equipped as we could hope to be. But I still couldn’t shake an awful feeling of dread, as if no matter how hard I tried, someone was going to get hurt.
As expected, the ground started to move once we were just a few feet in. Doc and Leech each turned outwards, facing the oncoming threat head-on. I glanced back at them. “You two be careful. It’s going to be a pain if I have to de-zombify you.”
Leech chuckled as he locked eyes with one of the distorted bodies near the trees and transformed into it. “Don’t worry about us,” he said, with a scratchy, unreal voice.
“Time is short,” the Doc said, brandishing his screwdriver. “Go.”
Reluctantly, I turned away from them and charged into the forest, following the walls of trees toward Sunny Town. Most of the Bone Fiends appeared just as I was leaving the main clearing, which could only mean the Betrayers were more concerned with taking my friends down than me. Pity for them; I was the one they had to worry about.
As I charged through the entrance to Sunny Town, my eyes darted everywhere, searching for any sign of the five. The town was as black and rotten as I remembered it being during my escape. It was difficult to see anything, which was half the reason my escape had been so fear-inducing. It was never good to be running from something deadly in the dark. I searched as carefully as I could for a threat, but nothing stirred. Needless to say, I didn’t like it. Even though their intentions to get to my friends were clear, it made no sense for them to leave nothing to handle me. But nothing moved from within the house ahead, nothing stirred the ground. And certainly none of them were talking to me in that creepy omnipotent voice.
A white light glimmered from inside the house. I was reminded instantly of the thing that had moved the covering to the path, and thought about calling out to it. Then again, it was already helping me. Trying to get its attention would be a waste of effort. Besides, it would be just as dumb to draw attention to myself if any of the cursed ponies were still here, which at least one of them had to be. I crept up to the rotten old hut and poked my head in. “Mitta?” I whispered. “Speak up. Where are you?”
A mare’s quiet laughter echoed in the house, and I instantly pulled my head out. The gentle laughter continued for a second, and then the mare’s voice called out, “Not here, Jag…”
It was Three Leaf. Again, the one pony I liked less than any of the others was watching me. There had to be some kind of connection there, but I just couldn’t place it. And I really didn’t care. “Where is she, then?” I growled. “I’m not in the mood for your games. And I’m sure you don’t want to waste time toying with me, either.”
There was a brief pause. “Waste time?” she answered a minute later. I moved on to the next house the light shined into, but found only another empty building. “We’ve been here for a thousand years. How can we possibly waste time when we have all the time in the world to get to know each other?”
The next house, then. This one, by some miracle- or a curse- still had the door attached. I broke it down with a quick buck and turned around to face forward. Still nothing. Oddly, Three Leaf didn’t seem surprised by the light. Maybe she was the one causing it, giving me what I needed to see. “But then, we have gotten to know each other already, haven’t we?”
I couldn’t help but answer to that one. “How does giving me the same nightmare every night help you to learn about me?” I asked, moving around the next building.
Three Leaf only laughed quietly again. “It wasn’t just in your dreams, Jag. Mitta showed us everything, even if she was too foolish to notice it. We know all about Ponyville, and the Princesses, and how you refuse to abandon your friends. It’s why we were convinced that this was the best time to bring you back.”
“Well, the visit’s only for a few minutes, so enjoy it while you can.” I didn’t care for how she was blaming Mitta for the trouble they were causing, but in a way it made sense. Mitta had a share in the curse, and since she was connected to me, maybe they could have learned everything that they did from what she had seen and heard. The real question was, once I got her out of there, how could we completely sever her connection to these insane spirits?
“She’s not in the houses, Jag,” Three Leaf said, as I peered into another house.
“Yeah? Then where is she?” I turned back. The light was now hovering in one area, just above the ground. As it floated there, I noticed two yellow orbs near the top of the shape, and then a nose. Leech and Doc had been right; the thing was a ghost. I couldn’t tell exactly who the pony spirit was supposed to be, but if Three Leaf was controlling it…
“We both know where,” she snapped, pulling me out of my thoughts. “I’m not playing games, either. Go outside. It’s where this whole thing started. For us, and for you. It’s only fair to make it our ending point, too.”
“I’m not going in there,” I snapped back. “You’ll be waiting for me.”
“You want to make sure this isn’t an ambush? Fine.” Three Leaf was playing some kind of angle, but what exactly she was going for was beyond me. I turned to look into the last house when the ground started to shake underneath the ghost, and it faded away. A pony’s hoof and skull appeared first, and just like every other time, the ghastly sight made me want to turn and run. The thing was blocking my path, though, so all I could do was stand and watch. I turned back to make sure nothing was walking up behind me.
“I’m alone, Jag,” Three Leaf said. I turned back. Now that the bones and flesh had formed up outside of the ground I could see that the pony was, indeed, Three Leaf. Her mane was tangled back away from her head, just as it had been when I last saw her. Her mouth hung open on a loose jaw, but somehow that didn’t stop her from continuing to nag me. “You and I are the only ones here. Well, aside from Mitta. But in a sense, even she doesn’t matter. You’ll see that soon enough. But what you’re looking for right now is proof that I’m not trying to get you inside a building where I can trap you, right?”
She moved toward me, her hollow red eyes locked on me, but she kept as far away as possible, strafing the side of the opposite building. I jumped forward, out toward the old shack, keeping my eyes on her. But Three Leaf just stopped where I had been standing and sat down, still watching me. I looked around again, and then squinted at her. “Why?”
“One reason only: I want you to know the truth before you join us. Interesting how Celestia called her by that element,” she added, turning away for a moment, “because she is what will prove to you what I’m trying to say.”
“You’re still playing a game.”
“I am not.” Three Leaf raised a rotten leg and pointed the hoof behind me, toward the old hut outside of Sunny Town. “Just go. I’m giving you what you came for. So go and get it.”
The staring contest lasted for a few more seconds before I decided to keep moving, though I often looked back to make sure she wasn’t following. She was, of course, but each time I looked back she was sitting again, almost like she knew the exact moment I was going to turn around. The idea creeped me out, but focusing on it was just going to mess up my focus even more, so I pressed on.
Around the bend lay the old hut where, as she had put it, this entire story had begun. Here, they had killed an innocent pony. One who, as Mitta had put it, ‘was only trying to help’. And now, I thought, here I am, doing the same. It was here that Apple Bloom and I had, a week ago, discovered the horrible secret of Sunny Town. And it was here that the nightmares had become reality only about half an hour earlier. And now, Three Leaf seemed convinced that this was where the stories my friends and I had to tell of our own lives would end.
I stopped at the door. Here, unlike the other houses, the building had withstood the trials of time with far greater resistance. The door was undamaged, the wood solid. The fire inside still burned eternally. Undoubtedly, their curse had made this place, the origin of their punishment, the only thing that could not be destroyed.
I turned back, sitting on the porch. Three Leaf was still the same distance away, and as always she looked as if she had never gotten up. Beyond her, the light glimmered on the outskirts of the forest, and I could see the glowing yellow eyes again. Seeing the ghost made me think of another possibility, and I figured I may as well try to follow up on it.
“Why did you kill her?” I asked.
“Because she got in our way two times already,” she answered, shrugging, her red eyes dimming for a minute, as if she had blinked.
“Not Mitta. I know better than to believe you could kill one of your own. Otherwise, you would have killed yourselves hundreds of years ago. I’m talking about her.”
Three Leaf stared in silence. I thought for a minute that she was refusing to answer, but then she did. “Ruby.”
So that was her name. “The one you killed a thousand years ago.”
“Of course. I’d forgotten Mitta hardly told you anything about her.” Three Leaf’s eyes dimmed again, giving me the thought that she had ‘closed’ her eyes to imagine the past in her mind’s eye. “It was on the ninth day,” she began. “We were only just beginning to accept that our cutie-marks had disappeared. Gladstone thought it might be a curse from Celestia, to punish us for leaving her kingdom. Ronio and Starlet thought maybe it was because we had left other ponies behind. They were quite surprised when we learned that Celestia thought the same, by the way. But Grey Hoof thought that it might be because we had learned better than to live in a world of danger. That by finding safety, we no longer needed the cutie-marks to find our purpose. We had risen above what other ponies considered their reason for living. And then she came along.”
It was a moving speech, but something about it seemed off. I listened patiently, occasionally glancing around to make sure I was still safe. The two of us were still the only ones in the clearing. “Ruby,” she said again. “Just a little pony, trying to be friendly to others. Like you, she was confused by our lacks of cutie-marks. At the time, we decided to tell her the truth; that they had disappeared. That was when things got… out of hoof.
“She had just found Ronio’s lost ruby. It was a gift that he had been saving for Starlet. As soon as she returned it to him, the thing appeared on her flank… a cutie-mark. A magnifying glass, to prove her ability to find things. The sight amazed her, and she started to believe that if she was able to get a cutie-mark in the same place we had lost ours, then maybe she could help us get ours back. Grey Hoof and I didn’t like that idea, and the others didn’t believe it was possible. And then she said that she liked our town. That she wanted to stay, and live with us.”
She fell silent. I stared at her, wondering if she was as lost as the rest had seemed to be the last time we’d met. All they could talk about was my staying with them, to share in their pain. But now she was telling me they had killed a pony who just wanted to live in the town, starting this whole disaster. Could they really be trying to fix the past by ‘redoing’ the entire thing with me as their visitor? “So you killed her,” I pressed, my teeth clamped together in a fierce rage. “She only wanted to be friends with you, and you killed her.”
“I think it was you who made the proper comparison,” she answered. “As you were visiting the doctor’s office. ‘Those with powers always end up being better than those without’. The simple fact is that we did not want another ‘superior pony’. Ruby had a cutie-mark, and we did not. Allowing her to stay was asking for trouble. In time, that cutie-mark would put her in a position above us, and we would soon have another Princess who we relied on for every part of our lives. That we could not have. But simply refusing to let her stay would not be enough. We tried reasoning with her, but she refused to believe that cutie-marks were something we did not want, or that she did not belong in the town, ‘helping’ us. Her cutie-mark would help her to find a way in, and ways to ‘fix’ what she was so convinced was a problem. We had no choice but to eliminate her.”
“So you killed her. And the next day, you were monsters. And you mean to tell me that you didn’t believe killing her might have caused this whole mess?”
“Of course we thought it was the cause!” Three Leaf’s eyes flashed in bright red. “But allowing her to stay would have ruined everything. We should have found a way to just keep her out of the town… it was the killing itself that did this. It had nothing to do with the mark!”
“Keep telling yourself that.” I stood up and tried the door behind me. It opened without any difficulty. “I’m getting Mitta and leaving. She had nothing to do with this. She doesn’t deserve to be locked up with the rest of you.”
“Oh, she deserves it,” Three Leaf replied as I turned around. “She did nothing to stop it. I’d say she deserves it even more than the rest of us. She didn’t try to stop us, or to warn Ruby. She just turned the other way.”
This was a bit of a different conflict than most I’d ever been involved in, and one of the rare occasions where the person I was supposed to be fighting was equally as willing to talk with me as I was to them. This pony was male, as was made plain by the square snout and his voice. There were only two possibilities as to who it might be, but I was certain that the pony talking with me was Grey Hoof. I found it odd that the leader of Sunny Town would not be trying to stop SkyJagged from interfering again, but ultimately, it was for the better that he be more intent on me.
“You’re a colt of science, I’ve noticed,” he said. “It’s an impressive feat, using things most ponies don’t understand to help others. But didn’t you notice that that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for all this time?”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand that,” I replied. “Killing someone harmless doesn’t seem to relate to protecting your friends. I would like to know your reasoning.”
“It’s simple,” Grey Hoof replied, walking in circles around me. I had noticed that the forest had become much darker, and I could no longer see or hear Mr. Leech nearby. Clearly, this curse on the ponies living here also affected those who visited. “The girl was going to ruin our party. We were celebrating our freedom from oppression, and yet she appeared and brought it back. And she insisted on staying until it had returned.”
“I can respect a need for freedom from authority,” I answered, tracking him with my screwdriver. “That still doesn’t explain why you had to kill her.”
“Because she would not leave.” Grey Hoof stared back at me with a set of hollow eye sockets that glowed in a dark scarlet. “You really believe we didn’t try to get her to leave? She simply refused to accept that we wanted our marks gone. And trying to keep her away from the town would not work. Her talent was to find things, and that would have included ways back in. Can’t you see our dilemma?”
“There had to have been another way. Can’t you see that what you have done is hurting those you care about?”
“Every day.” Grey Hoof stopped pacing and watched me. “My story is one of misery and despair, and it has spread to my friends. But despite this, you and I are not so different.”
“I am nothing like you!” I snapped. “I do not kill under false presumptions! I do not go around attacking other people!”
“Please, Doctor.” Grey Hoof stopped in mid-stride, and I slowed to keep my distance. No matter what happened, I had to keep my distance, as SkyJagged had said. “Let me continue.”
I didn’t offer any further objections, and so he started his explanation again. “You use the methods available to you to ensure happiness to your friends. To all of your kind, in fact. I am the same way. But you, Doctor, have never been too late to stop something catastrophic; never had to bring happiness to those friends in the face of an event that was beyond your power to fix. So, then, let me ask you something, sir… what would you do in that situation?”
His argument was well-founded. It was difficult to see fault in someone who had only wanted the best for his fellows. But there was one very critical flaw in his argument. “I would do what I could to find the best in the situation. Granted, there is no good in your curse,” I continued as I noticed Grey Hoof’s jaw move, preparing to speak. “so I would only be able to do one thing: to search for a way to repair the damage as well as possible.”
“Precisely.” Grey Hoof nodded. “That is what I have been doing for a thousand years. Searching for any possible way to end this curse. There was only one way I could think of: redemption. For years, we examined our feelings about the killing. Every one of us was filled with regret for taking another life. Even trying to defend ourselves was no excuse. But even accepting that, we could not move on. The curse was endless, something that we could not be freed from until the end of time. Perhaps not even then. And then, one night, another pony wandered into our town.”
I had heard this story already, of course, during SkyJagged’s nightmare interview. But, out of respect, I allowed Grey Hoof to recount it. “The little filly who we now know as Apple Bloom wandered into our town. We still have no idea what led her to us, but it was a blessing. We could at last get help from somepony, understanding from a living soul. But she was only a filly; we had to tell her the whole story slowly. We tried to be calm, to keep her from getting suspicious. But then Mitta had to go and ruin the whole thing. She didn’t even realize it, I think. But her jabberings about how ‘this is not right, the same thing over and over again’ worried the little filly. And then, she found the old hut.”
This was, of course, where the murder had taken place. It was, therefore, the sole reason that little Apple Bloom and SkyJagged had learned the truth about this place. “Needless to say, we could no longer pretend that nothing was wrong. Our disguises were shattered by the knowledge that she had found, so the only thing we could do was attempt to reason with her in secret. But once she saw Three Leaf, she ran. It was all too much. We had waited so long for the chance to right the horrible thing we had done, and that chance was quickly slipping away. To make matters worse, Mitta got in our way, actually helping her to escape, as if she wanted this curse to go on.”
It was a total load. I knew better than to think that Mitta could ever want something as painful and depressing as this curse to last. They knew it, too. This was all just a trick to get us off our guards. So far, they’d managed to separate me from Doc. They wouldn’t pull off any more than that. Still, though, it made sense that they would want somepony to understand. This new story only left me with two questions.
“Then tell me something, Ronio,” I said as my powers flickered again. Throughout the fight, I had been copying Starlet’s power, using her speed to help defend Doc and me at the exit. But somehow, my powers were starting to fail. The copy had started to fade in and out almost instantly, which left me vulnerable for a second before it returned. Luckily nopony had gotten to me yet, but it could happen at any time. “Why bring us all here? What was the point of getting us all into the forest?”
“It’s because Mitta wouldn’t tell you the whole truth,” Ronio answered, his red eyes tracking me. “We think it might be because she didn’t believe us. Even you don’t seem to trust us. But it’s the truth. No matter what you may think, we only want this to stop.”
“So what happens now that we know the truth?” I asked.
“You can help us lift the curse. We don’t know how yet, but it’s the only explanation. You have to understand in order for us to be set free.”
“What gave you that idea?”
“Mitta did.” Ronio turned his head, staring off into the distance to a place I couldn’t see. “When she and SkyJagged were transported out of the forest, they were guided by some sort of pure power. But there was something else. We could see a connection between them in just those few seconds, something that had never happened before. They could understand each other, heart and soul. It took understanding and compassion for her to escape.”
“But she’s not free.” He seemed honest enough, but like Jag had told us, the curse had messed with their heads. Even the smartest stuff they said had some sort of problem with it. “She’s still cursed. All she could do was leave the forest.”
“It’s the first step. Having somepony understand has to be the first part of setting us free. It might take a long time, but now that you’re here, we have the chance to break this curse.”
Time for the critical question, then. “Then why’d you try to keep them here? You wanted to keep A.B. and Jag from ever leaving. How can you expect them to understand if you try to turn them into one of you?”
“Now that it’s passed, we think it was two things. First, that when they found the fire, it forced us into appearing as what we really are, which also pushed us into the old mindset that anypony with a cutie-mark is dangerous. We wanted to keep them here so that they would never be ‘tainted’.” He sniffed. “I don’t care about that anymore. All I want is for Starlet and me to be free. If a pony with a cutie-mark can get us there, that’s just fine with me.”
“Yeah? And what’s the other thing?”
“That it would be easier for you to understand if we let you go.” Ronio stepped towards me. I backed away, but my rump hit a tree. He stopped, though, apparently noticing that I didn’t want him to come closer.”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “I’m just trying to show you that I’m sincere. When SkyJagged gets back, we’re going to let you leave. We just want you to help us.” He raised a hoof, offering it to shake. “Please?”
I sat on the floor of the old hut for a long time, unable to think of anything to say. When I could finally speak, all that came out was, “How?”
The fireplace burned brightly, and the skull inside only stared at me blankly, offering no reply. The fire had been kindled a little differently this time; now, instead of one set of bones, there were two. They had destroyed Mitta in the fire.
“She was the reason this whole thing became a mess.” Three Leaf was sitting behind me. Under normal circumstances, I probably would’ve panicked at being trapped in the room with her. But seeing Mitta in this state was devastating. “If she hadn’t been so emotional, believing that we never deserved a chance to be set free, then you two wouldn’t be afraid of us. We might have already moved on, by now.” She paused for a minute. “We did this to keep her from interfering again.”
My whole body shook. Despite everything I had gone through, they had killed my best friend. Worse than that, she had also been their friend, for many years. Whether or not they liked her anymore, she had still been a part of their lives for all this time. And they had killed her. “You expect me to understand… after what you did to her?”
She couldn’t be dead. She just couldn’t.
Three Leaf sighed. “No, honestly, I don’t. It was an act of impulse, just like trying to stop you and the little filly from leaving. And they’re actions we can’t take back. All we want is for this to stop. To be free. Maybe we even did her a favor; maybe she’s in a better place.”
I stared into the fire, my mood still darkening. The skeleton stared out at me, equally as dismal. This whole expedition had been for nothing. For all I knew, they still didn’t want us to leave, and this was all a clever game to trick us.
A white light flickered in the fire. For a second, I thought I had imagined it. But, right in front of me, Mitta’s remains shuddered, and then collected themselves as best they could in the cramped space of the fire. The orange tongues of flame moved away from her body, and I could see the same red light in her eyes as in the others. With shaky steps, the skeleton pulled itself out of the fire, and then collapsed in front of me. From a shorter distance, I could see that almost nothing remained except her bones. The red light flickered in her eyes, as if she was trying to tell me something. But then they went out, and all that was left in front of me was a pile of bones.
“So she is still here,” Three Leaf said. There was another pause. “At least you have your friend back. That’s more than we can say. All of our friends are long gone. Our families, our heritage, and our very lives. All gone. Don’t you understand? We don’t want to live like this. We don’t want to live forever. Can’t you find a way to stop this?”
“I don’t care about what you want,” I said, staring at the bones. Mitta’s message had gotten through, all right. I still couldn’t trust them. No matter how convincing they tried to be, I couldn’t let myself be fooled. “You’re still willing to kill to get what you want. You’re no different now than you were a thousand years ago. Now, you’re saying you’re willing to let me and my friends go. Fine, then! I’m testing that theory. We’re leaving.”
I got to my hooves, but before I could move, Three Leaf stopped me, putting a hoof on my shoulder. “Take a look, then, SkyJagged, before you go.”
Her touch didn’t hurt me like I thought it would. Instead, it showed me the entrance of the forest, where the Doc and Leech were still facing off against the other Nightmares. But instead of fighting, they were both talking to Three Leaf’s comrades. Just talking. And others were moving in behind them. They were being distracted until they were caught.
“You stay away from them,” I growled, but my horror at watching the rest of my friends fall destroyed any strength in the order.
“We just want them to understand,” Three Leaf said. “Why can’t you?”
“You’re going to kill them,” I said. “You’re going to sneak up behind them and kill them.”
Three Leaf shouted, sounding exasperated. “Fine! For the sake of argument, let’s say that’s what we’re doing. We’re still killers. We’re planning on hurting you. How did this happen, SkyJagged? How did they get into the position they’re in now? You brought them here. You made this whole thing an argument about protecting your friends. If you’re so willing to keep your friends safe, then tell me: whose fault is it that they are where they are? If we’re the ones who’ve betrayed who we really are, then what does that make you? In trying to save one of your friends…”
I knew what she was going to say before she even said it. “…you doomed them all.”
The pain started up, just as soon as I realized what I had done. Three Leaf was right. In my selfish desire to help Mitta, I had willingly walked into a trap, leaving my friends to fend for themselves while I tried to finish a lost cause. Mitta had already been long gone. But I had stubbornly refused to let her go, and now my friends were going to suffer for it. I don’t know what came over me in that moment, but something drove me to grab Mitta’s remains in my forelegs and fly from the old shack, completely slamming my way past Three Leaf and into the forest outside.
Somehow I was able to keep flying against the pain, even as it spread from my shoulder through the rest of my body. When it struck my mind, I was already moving without thinking. It was less unbearable now than it had been in my dreams, but that was probably because I already knew that everything I loved was lost forever. My spirit was being destroyed, but I no longer cared.
I thought over his idea again. Everything he was talking about made sense, except for the part where I was standing in the forest alone. So long as I couldn’t see or hear the others, I just couldn’t trust them. End of story.
“If you’re so willing to let us go, then why did you divide us all up? You got Jag to go off by himself, and somehow you got the Doc and me separated. This is a game, and I ain’t buying. You want to get me to understand you? First you gotta prove I can trust you.”
Ronio’s eyes flashed brightly, and the forest around me actually started to vibrate, as if the trees themselves were under his control. The whole area brightened just a little bit, but in the better light I could see that Starlet had been standing right next to Ronio this whole time. If she had snuck up on me, I might have been…
But I was still in disguise as her, with the shape still fluctuating in and out. She would have had to time the attack carefully. Maybe she just wasn’t smart enough to do something like that.
The Doc spoke up behind me. “Glad to see you are still present, Mr. Leech,” he said, drawing my attention just long enough for me to glance back at him. “Where have you been?”
“In the dark, talking to Roneo.” A thought came to mind. “Same with you, huh?”
“Actually, my companion was Grey Hoof,” he said. “But that is strange. Why would they separate us?”
“Simple. They want to get to us. Ain’t that right?” I turned my head back to face Ronio and his girlfriend. But neither of them had an answer for me. Instead, they had turned to face the clearing that Jag had charged into. Their odd change of attention gave me a sinking feeling. “Doc?” I asked, following their stare. “You haven’t figured out how to fix this curse, have you?”
“I’ve only received suggestions from Grey Hoof,” he answered. “And his ideas are not direct.”
“Then we have a problem,” I said, leaning in low to the ground. “Get ready to dodge.”
“Why?” the Doc stepped up behind me, still facing toward Grey Hoof. But when he looked where I was looking, he got the point. “Oh, dear.”
A Pegasus was bearing down on us, fast. In the darkness, it was impossible to see Jag’s bright green mane against a bright blue coat. But even if it had been brighter, he would have looked just as black as he did from this distance. After all, his eyes had turned red.
SkyJagged was one of them.
“You guys are going to pay for this,” I growled, looking around. The other zombies had started to close in on us, and now that we were up against an army, as well as one fast pony and another with wings, we were pretty much doomed. “Doc, we’d better go. I think we can find a way to get him back if we go find a Unicorn who’ll help us.”
“There is just one problem with that idea,” he answered. “It seems the stone has moved back while we were chatting with our new friends.”
“What?!” I whirled back to make sure he wasn’t pulling my leg. To my misery, he wasn’t. The stone was back exactly where it had been when we first came into the forest. Only now we were trapped on the other side, with the ones who were trying to kill us.
“I think we’ve established that it will be impossible to understand their reasoning,” the Doc said. “They have dragged us into the forest using Mitta as blackmail, claimed to wish us no ill will, and are now closing in on us. Perhaps they are all suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder as a result of this curse…?”
“Doc!” I yelled, trying to get him out of his scientific junk. “Thinking later, we have to get out of here first!”
I turned around just in time to see Jag up close. His entire coat had gone black, his wings looked ragged, and even his mane had gotten a lot more messy than it usually looked. And of course, he had the hollow red eyes to match the rest of them. It was freaky to see him with that dark look in his eyes, but my instincts kicked in before I froze up, and I double-stepped to one side, calling out to Doc, “Look out!”
He got the warning. I didn’t hear the jump as Jag whizzed right past me, but even before I turned around I could hear him landing on the ground. I moved up next to him, ready to pummel any of the zombies nearby before they could get to us. The Doc stood up, staring at the ground next to him. “Leech,” he said. “Look.”
He was pointing to something lying there. I followed his hoof and saw a little pile of something sitting in the dirt. A few of them looked like sticks, but when I noticed the big, round part on top, I knew exactly what it was.
“Bones,” I hissed, shuddering. “Is that who I think it is?”
“I believe so,” he said. “I think that’s Mitta.”
“Oh, you are all so dead!” I roared, turning back around and getting ready for an attack. By now, though, I was having a lot more trouble keeping up my form as Starlet. I think the lack of positive emotion in the area was making it hard to keep up my strength.
“I’m blinking out,” I warned him as he faced out opposite to me, his screwdriver still clamped in his teeth. “I won’t be able to fight them off for much longer.”
“I’m not certain the screwdriver will be of any use for much longer, either,” he said. There was a pause as we braced ourselves for the inevitable. “I’ll admit, I was not hoping for this outcome.”
I snorted. “You and me both. Jag was our friend, and we were stupid enough to follow him into this death trap. Then he lost us completely.” We had switched positions now, so I could see Jag pacing toward us from the entrance, his eyes glowing as brightly as the rest. Along with his color, I could see now that his cutie-mark was gone, just like it had disappeared in Midnight Shadow’s office. “Just wait, I’m sure he’ll even be the first to get to us.” I noticed that the others still weren’t moving. Strange that they weren’t taking part, but for the moment, one alone was enough for us to deal with.
“This was a poor plan, yes,” he said. There was another moment of silence. “But I don’t regret coming along. It was with good intentions that we all came here. What happens next is of no importance.”
“Yeah,” I said, watching as Jag moved closer. My powers had now gone into critical, and if I wanted to stay awake, I would have to stop using my disguise. Grudgingly, I let my only defense go, and returned to my true form. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m not sorry, either. At least we got to have an adventure.” I thought about that for a minute. “Always wanted to go out having fun, anyway.” Not that there was anything remotely fun about this.
I watched Jag move closer and closer. With each step, he seemed to get slower and slower, the wait for our deaths dragging on painfully. And then Jag stopped completely. I blinked, wondering what had happened. “Doc? Did you do something?”
“Time has stopped,” he said in wonder. “Something has frozen them.”
“I did,” a mare’s voice spoke up in the dark atmosphere. This one, though, seemed peaceful, and nothing about it made me worry. As we stood there, wondering what could possibly have happened, a bright light appeared nearby, making it impossible to see the others. Not even the trees were visible anymore as the light began to turn into something else. It became a pony, a mare, from the look of her. She had a blonde mane that ran down to her shoulders, and a gray coat just like Mitta’s. She even had glowing eyes, like the others, but hers were a bright yellow. I could see a cutie-mark on her flank, but it was hard to see it from the front. That wasn’t what bothered me, anyway.
“It’s you, isn’t it?” I asked. “You’re the pony they killed. Ruby.”
“Yes.” The ghost- it couldn’t have been anything else- nodded her head. “I’ve been here ever since that fateful night, but most of them couldn’t notice me. It’s been a while since I had to do something like this.”
“You have stopped the flow of time,” said Doc, from right next to me. Apparently, he was standing beside me now, even though neither of us had moved. Maybe this was another one of those things that Ronio and Grey Hoof had been doing a minute earlier, to confuse us.
“Yes,” Ruby said again. “It’s something I didn’t know I could do until a few seconds ago. But that isn’t important.” She walked toward us, her serious expression brightening a little. “There is still a chance for you to escape. I can help you to get out of the forest.”
“Escape?” I asked, squinting at her. “How? What’s in it for you?”
“I want nothing more than to see you leave safely. Right now, you have two options. I can either move the stone for you, as I did when you needed to get in, so that you can get out.” Her face drooped, and I could guess why. “Leaving Jag and Mitta behind?” I asked.
“Yes.” She looked up, her eyes now hard and determined. “If you do this, then you will never see them again.”
“Then what is the other option?” the Doc asked. “What is your other plan?”
“This will be far more difficult, and it ultimately depends on the strength of both Mitta and SkyJagged, but we may still be able to save them.”
“Both?” I glanced between the two of them. “Wait a minute, Mitta’s gone, isn’t she? We saw her bones right there in front of us. If she’s still alive, she would have come back by now, wouldn’t she?”
“They burned her in the fire, the same way they did to me,” Ruby answered, making the same sad face. Her emotions seemed to be jumping around, but I guess it was probably fair. This was a strange situation for both Doc and me, so it was probably the same for her. “Mitta’s spirit is still here,” she continued, “deep in the darkness. If you decide to stay, I will enter her remains and try to bring her back. I’m certain that she is suffering, possibly even delusional, and so she may not be willing to wake up. If that happens, I will have to open the door for you. There is no way to save them unless both Mitta and SkyJagged are cooperative.”
“We understand,” the Doc answered. “What will happen if she wakes up?”
“If she does, then I will enter SkyJagged’s body and attempt to bring him back. This will be even more difficult, because he is now directly at odds with himself. He, too, is suffering, because he believes that his actions have hurt you.”
“Well, they kinda have.” I looked at the ground, feeling a little guilty for calling him out like that. “But that’s not important!” I added. I looked back up, facing the two of them while I thought up what to say next. “We came here because we wanted to help. He didn’t drag us into it, and we can’t just give up on him. Not then, not now.”
“Well said.” Doc nodded his head and turned back to Ruby. “What exactly can you do to bring him back?”
“SkyJagged’s soul has been clouded by the effects of the curse in this town,” said Ruby. “Because of this, like them, he has forgotten who he truly is. It will take some effort, but if I am able to make him see reality, even for a moment, and realize that the three of you are unharmed, and again, if he will not think it is an illusion, then he will wake up.”
“Well, what about the others?” I asked. “Even if we can bring them back, what happens then? Won’t Grey Hoof and his pals just attack us themselves?”
“The five of them have been… ‘reset’… for lack of a better word,” Ruby answered. She looked down at the ground. “Whenever they make a mistake, like hiding the truth from Apple Bloom and SkyJagged, or spreading the curse to SkyJagged, their minds are affected by the curse. They forget any good intentions and start to become violent. But I believe if we can correct this mistake, they may settle down again, and keep their promise not to harm you.”
“That’s a huge gamble,” I muttered as I sat back on my flanks and rubbed a hoof against my forehead. “First, hoping that Mitta will wake up. Second, hoping that Jag will wake up. Third, hoping that everypony else will wake up. This is a great big nightmare.”
“Then… you are giving up?” Ruby asked.
That got my attention immediately. I lowered my hoof and glared at her, annoyed that she would even think that. “Absolutely not. I came here because I wanted to do my part to make sure the two of them would never have to suffer again. From the sounds of it, they’re even worse off now than they ever were before. That’s getting fixed if I have anything to say about it.”
“Agreed.” Doc stepped forward. “My life is devoted to correcting anomalies in the timeline. Sunny Town is an unfortunate effect of several mistakes that these ponies have made. It is my duty to ensure that no such errors damage time as it ought to be. There is no question that SkyJagged, at least, does not belong here. I am also here to make sure that this problem is put to an end.”
“I was hoping you would say that,” Ruby said. Her eyes brightened, and she offered a radiant smile. “Then, you will stay to help them?”
“Plan B, Ruby,” I said, giving her my own smile. “Until those two are free, we’re gonna fight.”
Another terrible scream split my head. Even curled up as I was, there was nothing I could do to prevent the onslaught of images and sounds assaulting my mind. I could repeatedly see SkyJagged, Leech, and the Doctor being attacked, maimed, and left to die in ever-more-horrifying manners. Mixed in with the images were their voices, begging for my help; asking me why it was all happening.
“I don’t know!” I screamed, clutching at my ears. Tears ran down my cheeks in unending cascades, being the only thing I could do to try to cope with the agony. “Stop! Make it stop!”
The terrible visions would not go away. I could not even begin to guess how long I had been trapped in this awful, unending nightmare, but it seemed like it had started since Ruby’s death. Only now, it had become something that filled my mind entirely.
The wails and images continued to flood my thoughts, no matter how hard I closed my eyes. I had been fooling myself to think that I could be happy; I had instead brought three other ponies into the town to be murdered. My sin was trying to look the other way and ignore what pain my actions would bring to others. I had only realized it after it was too late.
“Mitta…” a voice called, among all the others. It was a girl’s voice, one I recognized as Ruby’s. Now thoughts of her death filled my mind along with those of my friends. I recoiled from it, trying to curl up even tighter, but nothing worked to still my suffering. It was, after all, what I deserved. I continued to cry, surrendering myself to the punishment I could not escape.
“Mitta,” Ruby’s voice said, stronger this time than before. I sobbed again, trying to shut her voice out. The thought of hearing her voice was more fearful than anything else. I could not bear to hear the voice of the pony who I had ignored since I learned of the danger she was in, could not bear the condemning note in every word she said, no matter how gentle.
“Mitta. Open your eyes.”
I trembled, fighting the urge to obey the voice. “No!” I screamed again. “You are not real! You are a dream! Go away!”
Something touched my shoulder, and I recoiled again. Until now, I had not felt anything actually touch me. It was a sign that these terrible visions were becoming much, much worse.
“Mitta, I am here. It’s really me. Please, open your eyes.”
“No! You are only another nightmare! You will hurt me, just like all the others! Stay away from me!”
“Mitta!” Ruby yelled. “You can still save them! They are not gone yet!”
The shock of her statement made me open my eyes, whether or not I wanted to. I was instantly met by even more vivid images of my friends’ deaths, and I instantly closed my eyes, screaming once more. “Lies!” I yelled. “They are gone, and you are a trick! Leave me alone!”
I felt something touch my face and turn it forward. “Mitta, open your eyes and look at me. You have to listen! Please… they need your help.”
“You are a trick,” I sobbed. “Leave me alone!”
“They are alive. You must open your eyes and listen to me… Please, Mitta.
“……I forgive you.”
Her last comment shocked me into opening my eyes again. The nightmarish images swirled in the edges of my vision, and the screams still filled my ears. Before me was Ruby, staring at me with golden eyes as bright and ominous as the red eyes I could always see in myself and the other ponies. She was looking down on me. She didn’t forgive me at all.
Another scream echoed, and I started to turn away, but Ruby held me, refusing to let me look away. “Focus on me, Mitta. You must hear what I have to say. You can still save them, Mitta. You have to wake up.”
“You are not real,” I cried, the tears still flowing from my eyes. “Ruby would never forgive me for what I’ve done!”
“Mitta,” she answered, smiling gently at me. “You, Grey Hoof, Three Leaf… I have forgiven all of you. You must forgive yourself. And you must save your friends. If you hide in here, you will suffer forever. You deserve more than this. Think of the truth, Mitta. You are the Element of Honesty. What makes you believe that you do not deserve a second chance?”
“I have only brought pain to others!” I shouted back to her. “If you are the real Ruby, then you know the terrible things I have done! I ignored you, I turned my back on the warnings in SkyJagged’s nightmares, and I brought him and his friends here to die!”
“Mitta, you are his closest friend. He came back here because he would not let that happiness die. The three of them were not brought here by you. They came because they care about you. And you must show the same care for them. Don’t you see that?”
Her words felt truer than anything I had heard in many long years. But I resisted them. I had to. “I could not bear to cause them more grief,” I said. “If I come back to them, I will only cause them pain.”
“You are wrong, Mitta,” Ruby answered. “If you try to ignore them, they will suffer as much as you are, now. They want you to come back, and the only thing that is keeping you from returning is your fear of hurting them. The only thing hurting them is that you refuse to return to them. Mitta, you must wake up. You must help them. If you do not, then they will suffer.”
Ruby released me and stepped closer. The terrifying images filled my thoughts again, and then were suddenly erased. Ruby was hugging me tightly, in a fond embrace I had felt from only one other pony. The feelings of warmth and love calmed me now just as they had then, and I sighed, accepting the hug as it washed away my pain.
“Wake up, Mitta,” Ruby said again. “You three are the only ones who can bring him back. You have to wake up.”
I opened my eyes once more. There was no denying that I had been sleeping for some time, because I was outside of the fireplace, back in the forest. I saw Leech and the Doctor standing above me, watching me intently. It was very dark.
“Mitta!” Leech called out. “Mitta, can you stand?”
It took a few seconds for me to speak. I gathered myself together, but it was very difficult to stand. My body felt weak and frail, and I could hardly bring the bones in my body together the way I could before. “I will try,” I said, struggling to get my feet under me. The fire had apparently damaged me greatly; much of my flesh and muscle had been burned away, leaving nearly nothing but the skeleton. I was finally able to stand, but my body trembled, ready to fall apart again at any moment. “Where is SkyJagged?”
“He’s behind you,” Leech answered, pointing with a hoof. “He’s been changed. We have to wake him up.”
I turned carefully, trying to keep from collapsing. As Leech had said, SkyJagged was standing just behind me, though now he was as black and fearsome as the rest of us, blackened by the curse, his eyes hollow and red. “No,” I whined, starting to back away. “I was right… he is suffering!”
My hindquarters bumped against Leech’s legs, and the Changeling pushed me forward. “He’s not gone, Mitta,” he said. “He’s just sleeping. He thinks that it’s his fault all of this is happening.”
“No,” I said, shaking even more. “No, that is not true! The fault is mine, not his!”
“Lies!” the Doctor snapped, walking up beside me. “This is not your fault. This all happened because of a simple mistake. What we must do now is find the truth. Ruby claims that you are the only one who can do that. Therefore, you must be prepared to see what has truly happened, and not take the blame.” He looked at me sternly. “Mitta, you are our friend. Nothing will change that. It is high time you accepted that.”
I looked from him to Leech. Both of their faces carried the same determination, the same allegiance, and the same compassion as SkyJagged once did. As I saw this, I could feel the truth in it. This was no time to back down. As I had done when SkyJagged escaped from Sunny Town, I had to stand strong.
“All right.” I looked forward, where SkyJagged stood before us. A white glow passed over him, and I knew that Ruby had gone to try waking him up. He looked far more fearsome now that I could actually look at him, rather than turning away. The sight was terrible, but it was a lie. This was not the true SkyJagged, and it was time for him to wake up. The others stood behind me, supporting me all the way.
“This is not you, SkyJagged,” said the Doctor. “You must see that.”
“Snap out of it, dude. You’re still our friend; this town can’t break that.”
I stepped forward, placed a hoof on his chest, and looked deep into his eyes.
“SkyJagged. Please wake up.”
They stood like that for a few minutes. No one moved, and the only sounds in the forest were Doc’s and my own breathing. It seemed like Ruby’s time-freezing thing would last forever. But then Jag lowered his head, staring back at her. His hollow red eyes flickered, darkening to a shade of brown. Mitta gasped quietly, probably as surprised as we were. But Jag’s eyes turned back to red.
Mitta turned around slowly, her body still wobbling in a way that worried me. When she had finally finished facing us, she opened her mouth, mumbling in an odd voice, “Stay behind me and get down.”
Then her own eyes flickered, and she raised a hoof to her mouth, looking a little shaken, but it was hard to see the expression on a skeleton. Even still, I could guess what it meant, and I waved her back over to us.
Jag’s message was even more clear when he turned away from us, facing out to the other zombie ponies. Right on cue, the one right in front of him charged forward, rushing us at high speed. Jag’s wings spread slowly, and his front hoof drew back. The pony leaped toward us, and he flapped his black wings, pushing his body forward as he swung the hoof. The blow hit the zombie pony right in the head, strong enough to send it flying back where it had come from. It landed on the ground with a sickening crunch, making me think it had broken something on impact.
Jag stepped back and lowered his hoof to the ground. Just as he did, his body flashed in white, and in just that instant, all of the color returned to his coat, and the bright red shield cutie-mark returned to his flank. With the authority of a military pony, he shouted, “Stay away from them, Grey Hoof!”
The zombie pony got to its feet, but I could see one of its hind legs was bent at a weird angle. “You can’t leave,” it said. “We need you here… to break our curse…”
“You listen to me!” Jag snapped. “There is nothing we can do to break your curse. I know what you were all thinking by bringing us here, and the simple fact is that you’re wrong. No matter how many ponies you bring here, they will never be able to break your curse. You are the only ones who can do it.”
Mitta stepped forward and opened her mouth. I had completely missed it, but somehow she was completely fixed- well, she was still a zombie, but now she looked just like she did when I first met her outside of Jag’s home. Most of her body was covered by a black coat, and her mane had returned. Just like Jag, she had been brought back!
“There is only one thing here that is keeping you from being free,” Mitta said. I glanced back at her, grateful that she had come back for my sake. I had been so foolish, thinking that I had let her be hurt by the others. When Ruby had spoken to me, she told me one very specific thing: that we were only allowing the ponies of Sunny Town to hurt ourselves. Mitta and I had let ourselves be tricked by false logic. It was fear that had tricked Mitta into believing that she was worth nothing, and fear that had tricked me into believing that I had become something I was not. If it hadn’t been for Leech and Doc standing strong against Ronio and Grey Hoof, then none of us would still be standing here.
Mitta spoke up again, with a firm voice I had never heard her use before. “We all knew that killing Ruby was a grave mistake. Despite that, we were all willing to go ahead with it, even me. That day, we betrayed everything that makes us ponies; we betrayed what we believed since the day we were born: that life is precious. When we moved here, we thought that by doing so we were keeping safe. But there is no worth in a life that is spent secluded from others, never sharing in the joy and sorrows of our fellows. I learned this the day that Apple Bloom and SkyJagged walked into Sunny Town, and you started to plan ways of keeping them here, either in mind or body. Ways to keep them from ever forgetting our town. But I knew that they did not belong here. Nothing good could come of trapping them with us. So I helped them to escape.”
Mitta stepped forward, facing down all of the ponies around us. “We became what we are because we thought that we could be better than other ponies!” She spat on the ground. “Lies! We became far less than any of them just by thinking that. When we lost our cutie-marks, it was because we thought safety came before friendship. When we lost our lives, it was because we thought that that safety was worth taking the life of another. I was able to leave not because I understood that killing Ruby was wrong. I was set free because I knew that our very reason for leaving Canterlot was a lie! We could never be happy so long as we believed that we were safer alone than with others.” She paused. “So you stay here, believing that this is what you wanted. Or you can wake up to the truth. See that this was a mistake from the first day.” She turned and looked back at me. “As for me, I will go back to Ponyville, and live with my friends… where I belong.”
Something in the forest changed at that moment. Everything became a little less dark. We could see things a little more clearly, now. Mitta changed appearances, shifting into the form of a normal pony. A few of the others changed, too, and I could recognize Three Leaf and Gladstone in the crowd. Five of them turned to talk to each other, while the others continued to stare at us abysmally. Finally, their discussion ended and they looked back at us.
“You’ve given us a lot to think about, Mitta,” Grey Hoof said. I noticed that he hadn’t changed back into his normal self. “We’ll let you go. We aren’t going to trouble you again. Whether you’re right or not, we can’t keep you here and expect our curse to go away. So go. You aren’t welcome here any longer.”
Grey Hoof and the others turned and walked away, back into the shadows of the forest. Only Three Leaf remained, and when Gladstone noticed it, he stopped and turned back as well. They looked at each other, and Gladstone spoke to us.
“I’ve always been the one in the group to cheer everypony up,” he said. “For a thousand years, though, I could never find a way to make us feel any better. But you’ve all given us hope again. Maybe now we can finally move on. Even if we can’t, though… it’s good to finally have some clarity. Thank you.”
Three Leaf smiled. “I didn’t want to betray my friends, so I went along with the plan to get rid of Ruby. Now I see that by doing that, I was really turning against them. Even though I thought I was being a friend, I was only helping them become… something they weren’t. We were all sorry for Ruby’s death, but now I understand that this went far deeper than that. I want to thank you, too.”
I smiled. Even though Mitta wasn’t going to stay any longer as the voice of reason, I could see that the Sunny Town ponies were in good hands now that two others understood the truth. I opened my mouth to respond, but a bright light silenced me again. Ruby’s spirit appeared between our two groups, watching her old friends. She was smiling brightly. “I’m so happy,” she said. “I only wanted to help you find out what you needed to know. It’s been so long, and it might be a while before the others accept it, too, but now that I can see you, the way you were before, I know that there’s still hope.” She turned sideways, looking between us and her newly-reformed friends, still beaming. “Bless you all.”
With that, she faded away. Three Leaf and Gladstone turned and walked away into the forest, also fading into the darkness until we could no longer see them.
Something rumbled nearby, shaking the earth. The four of us were caught off-guard, and we turned toward the sound with excited nerves, expecting some other kind of trouble. What we found instead was the stone blocking our exit, rolled away again. We were free to leave. I grinned at the others, embarrassed by my jumpiness. Leech made a snide comment about what a wimp I was, and got a hoof to the face from Mitta. Doc and I laughed.
We all left the forest talking together, feeling as lighthearted as if nothing had ever happened to cause us grief.
For one last time, we left Sunny Town.
Together.
It’s been a while now since that whole mess finally came to an end. I haven’t seen or heard from the Doc in a while, so that crazy TARDIS thing of his probably teleported him somewhere into the future to fix some other problem. Leech still visits – quite a lot now, actually. I’m sure that his need for love to survive is a little greater now that he used up so much energy helping to defend himself and the Doc from the ponies at Sunny Town. I never expected to hear from them again, either, but on occasion, Three Leaf or Gladstone will visit me in my dreams to discuss what happened, what sort of ponies in Ponyville stuck out at them (they can still see things through Mitta; I think part of the reason they can’t move on is the fact that they’re all connected), and even some ponies that they want me to look out for. They truly are the good ponies they once were, a thousand years ago.
…… I’ve figured out something that the others may or may not have, but now that I’ve asked them, they all agree, and I’m sure the Doc will, too, if I ever get the chance to tell him. What I’ve learned is that we all represent an Element of Harmony. Some, if not all of us, represent more than one, maybe even all of them. After all, it was my loyalty to my friends that made me charge in to save Mitta, and the feeling that I’d betrayed them that corrupted me for a while. Doc’s use of science, although most ponies think of it as magic, to solve problems, most closely represents that final element. And it was Leech’s generous desire to hear out my problem, and also to give his time to make sure it was resolved, that drove him. Mitta’s connection to the Element of Honesty helped her to show the truth to her friends. It was their loyalty to Mitta, and from them to me, that saved us both from desolation. And when we left the forest, sharing laughs and joy with each other, it meant at least a touch of the Element of Laughter.
The point is, we all carry the Elements of Harmony in our spirits. As Mitta, Three Leaf, and Gladstone figured out, we’re not meant to keep that harmony to ourselves. It ruins the whole point. We exist to share the wonderful joys of those elements in the way we live our lives, among other ponies. If we try to ensure joy in our own lives by closing out all others, we’ll only end up as miserable wrecks. Only by living that joy with others can we achieve something greater than ourselves. That’s how we can really be happy, and the way we can bring harmony to everyone, not just family, close friends, or our own personal being.
So get out there and shine.
The End
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- moguera · 148k words · 1,172 25 · 13k views
- Rust · 130k words · 4,088 125 · 41k views
- Handyman · 906k words · 2,461 75 · 48k views
- notMurphy · 11k words · 341 6 · 4.3k views
- Flammenwerfer · 269k words · 1,603 57 · 30k views
- Dalek IX · 27k words · 283 5 · 8.9k views
- BlueBastard · 185k words · 376 9 · 6.1k views
- Bucking Nonsense · 95k words · 1,928 91 · 28k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.105 seconds
Total duration
1,010 users online
1,401,941 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Really good story, one of the best fanfics I've ever read. It also shows and teaches us about many important things in our lifes, when one knows where to look
Thank you and keep up the good work :)
I think Ruby said that one.
Anywho, this was a solid conclusion. I liked the game this came from, and I liked this story. Well done
1301032
I agree. Anyway great story I was little confuse about Ruby but not anymore. I miss read a little and reread some parts. Again thanks for the story.
1297056
It was my pleasure. I could see one main theme in the game, and in trying to develop a happy ending for it, I noticed a lot I could work off of. Glad you enjoyed it!
1301032
Bah... No matter how many times I read it, or my friends read it, there's always trouble... Mitta and Ruby's names seem to be the main cause of issues.
Thanks!
I need to say, quite good surprise i though it will be about Applebloom but it wasn't
Heh from start i though Leech will be changeling but with that Doctor who it was just "wat?".
Doctor didn't act like he should on start, later it was more in his style but still.
Sometimes i didn't know how to see Mitta do she look like zombie or normal? If like zombie then why that doc shadow don't panic about her look ?
1358210 I'll... try to reply as best I can, but you should focus harder on your writing if you expect anyone who doesn't live with a 7-year-old brother to understand you (that's not an insult, my brother really does write like that).
No, it wasn't about Apple Bloom. From the start, I wanted to make something that involved breaking the curse - at least somewhat. Had Apple Bloom been able to do that, I have no doubts she would've gotten her cutie-mark, and I am NOT going to go there.
The Doctor has many forms, first of all, so it makes sense that his character is not an exact copy of the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant). I specifically wanted him to be a little more innocent, the way the other ponies are.
Again, you guys, you have to read between the lines. Wherever the area is dark, Mitta appears to be a zombie. In daylight or in bright enough houselights, she looks completely normal. Doctor Shadow's office was light enough for her to appear normal.
I hope I was able to answer your questions clearly.
1562118 Well, it's been a while since anyone visited here! I'm glad to know it's still getting feedback.
If you don't mind my asking, how did you get to this page?
i know this question was not directed at me but.... I came across this when i was looking at the comic version of 'story of the blanks' by template93, some one mentioned it and i knew i had to check it out.
1651373
I only learned about that comic after Template took the pages down and started re-drawing them, so I have no idea what the story he's telling is. Frankly, I don't like the style either.
What I do know is that since "The Cutie Pox" came out, people have been obsessively writing up stories about how Sunny Town's curse was caused just because they murdered a pony, because they feared her cutie-mark.
I think it makes sense that there was more to it than that. The ponies of Sunny Town betrayed who they were, and moved into a dangerous place, which eventually corrupted them. The final straw was Ruby's murder, not because they thought it was a disease, but because they feared having another Nightmare Moon. They wanted to prevent having ponies around who were more powerful than others, and cutie-marks qualify on that category. Those three slips are what cause their curse.
I hope I managed to make this more interesting for all of you. If Donitz himself appreciated the story, I'm really glad. But even more important, I hope the messages in this story manage to make you all (and me) better people.