• Published 5th Feb 2012
  • 1,056 Views, 6 Comments

Drawing A Blank - Rysonn



Story of the Blanks fanfic. Semi-dark with my own story developments thrown in.

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Chapter 2

Ruby’s eyelids slid down, grey sheets concealing the golden illuminations of solidified light. She leaned her head onto Applebloom’s, eye to eye with the filly.

The golden eyes flashed open, seeming to dart out at Applebloom’s retinas, piercing into the filly’s consciousness. Applebloom’s world quickly fizzled out into an eclipse of everything Applebloom knew, and all that shone through, was Ruby’s mind.

Ruby’s memories tan free through the now blank space in Applebloom’s mind that was once occupied with her own memories. A spark of recollection ignited into a brilliant array of knowledge.

Applebloom’s vision returned, yet, she didn’t see Ruby, or her room. What she saw, was Sunny Town, vacant in the midday sunlight. She felt herself began to move. She then noticed that she had no control over her grey body. All she was, was a witness, called upon to serve her position in Sunny Town’s past.

Applebloom noticed that none of the ponies that she remembered in the town were present. She didn’t remember all of their names, she only recalled a few, but for now, she was alone in the town. She was alone in Ruby’s body.

Ruby’s body pressed forward, past the large building in front of which Applebloom had returned Roneo his red gem. Although she didn’t remember the name of the pony he had given it to.

They walked by the place that Gladstone had been when Applebloom asked him a question of which she didn’t remember the context of. They then stopped at the appearance of a rather frantic Three Leaf.

“Ruby, I can’t explain now! Come on, you have to hurry!” Three Leaf pleaded seemingly at Ruby’s mercy.

Ruby didn’t ask questions, just followed Three Leaf. She lurched forward into a long stride, then leaned into a full sprint behind Three Leaf. Ruby followed Three Leaf down a rather familiar path. A path that Applebloom knew was significant, yet didn’t know why.

They ran on as the foliage above them began to thicken, blocking out the sunlight that once shone upon their path.

As Ruby ran, she peered up at the solid black building ahead of them, alone among the trees of the dark forest.

A jolt of memory shot through Applebloom’s consciousness. Like a streak of white light, it raced through her mind, infecting fear into Applebloom’s partially numb mind. She wanted to run, wanted to hide, wanted to do anything, but she was a witness. She was forced to do her duty.

They slowed to a trot, and approached the black, wooden door of the large building that so intimidated Applebloom. Ruby leaned over to the handle. She bit down, and pulled, but the light “clack” of the latch reverberated, mocking them.

Ruby wasted no time. She spun around in one swift motion, and channeled all of her strength to the kick being delivered to the door. It fractured slightly. Again she struck at the door, and it began to tear down the cracks embedded in the door. She struck again, and this time, the door splintered into pieces, rewarding them with access to the building in front of them.

Ruby leaped inside, and looking around, found an open door, untouched by her hooves. She had broken down a false door. The thought ran circles in Ruby’s and Applebloom’s conjoined minds, but before Ruby could give herself a reasonable explanation, she was severed of every thought but pain.

The wooden club impacted in the back of her head, sending a sickening crack as it more than likely fractured the pony’s skull. Although, unlike in the stories, this was no quick affair.

In the stories, shed of blacked out in a split second after that single first blow. Yet, this was reality, and it just wasn’t that simple.

The club connected again, forcing Ruby down to the wooden floor. She screamed with the pain that bolted through her body. It connected a third time. Another sickening crack echoed throughout the dark room. Blood seeped from the slits and gashes in her head, spilling into a pool of the crimson red essence of life.

Applebloom didn’t feel the pain herself, but new that it presided in the same body that she did. She felt the emotional pain emanating from Ruby’s mind, a plea for mercy, a cry for help.

The club connected one last time, snapping it in two from the sheer force of the blow that was delivered with it.

With that, Ruby couldn’t hold out any longer, and she slipped out of consciousness, completely incapacitated by the mental damage inflicted upon her. She lay there, lightly breathing, letting her blood seep into the floor beneath her.

--

She awoke, her head hammering mercilessly within itself, blood staining her mane, and grey coat.

Her eyes slowly crawled open, and she found herself barred up in a stone pit at the back of the room, behind a solid steel grate which had been bolted securely to the wall.

Around her lay a half-circle of ponies from the town, glaring at her, not menacingly, but certainly not comfortingly.

“I’m sorry, Ruby,” Grey Hoof’s calm voice sounded, somewhat regretfully, “but we have to do this. Forgive me Ruby… Goodbye…”

There was quiet hissing sound coming through a pipe on her right. Suddenly, there was a spark.

Ruby screamed in agony as the heat of the flames vegan to incinerate her flesh, slowly as it did. The pour of tears that had been prevented for so long, finally broke forth, pressing through the blockade of Ruby’s will.

The ponies on the other side of the grate just watched, unmoving as her flesh began to shrivel up and char from the heat of the intense flames. There was only one thing that broke their gaze.


The floorboards smashed open, revealing the soil underneath, and the slowly rising pony. It vaulted, pulling itself up from the breach. It had no skin, or muscle, just bone to hold it together.

“You…… shouldn’t have done…………….. That….” The undead pony sang out to the group of ponies encircling Ruby.

Ruby stared in complete shock, not understanding any part of the scene playing out in front of her.

Slowly, her vision began to fray in on itself, blurring the line between life and death, until finally, her life force had died, and all that remained was a burnt corpse, and an unresting spirit.