Chapter 1
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Sweetie Belle gripped her sheets harder than she would grip the opportunity for a Cutie Mark. She sat upright in a layer of cold sweat and her eyes remained fixed on her bedroom door. She could almost hear the faint scraping of something dragging across the floor. She exhaled as quietly as she could manage and only dared breathe back in at what felt like the last moment. She slowly scanned the dark room, looking for any shadow or shape that matched what she saw. She knew it was a dream but the nocturnal show was just so unnerving that instincts of self preservation demanded that she treat the creature as a real threat.
She dared breathe again as she thought of her encounter with the beast. It wasn’t scary at first sight. It was in the beginning a very simple encounter. She was outside the house while her sister was inside dealing with a customer with a special dress order. Rarity’s client has a filly that was Sweetie’s age whom despite being shy was eager to have somepony to play with. She had a dull green coat with a white mane and tail. Her eyes were a dark brown and her jaw was slightly swollen. She said it was from being hit by a bully at school; something Sweetie thankfully couldn’t fully relate to but could sympathize. Her Cutie Mark was a single musical note that looked so vivid that it might have been sharp.
She shuddered at the thought of the music note. She also slightly calmed down at her own silent reminder that it was just a dream and that she didn’t have to think about it anymore.
She lied back down and stared at the ceiling. The young Unicorn yawned. Her mind drifted back to sleep and then took a sudden turn back into the fresh memory of the nightmare.
Her new friend’s name was Calando. She was a year older than Sweetie Belle. She was an Earth Pony. She had a soft voice that didn’t seem to be affected by the swollen jaw. She liked to laugh and even though she wasn’t very good at hopscotch she was very eager to give it as many tries as it took.
Sweetie Belle smiled as she yawned again. She tried to focus on the good part of the dream. She rolled onto her side and found her head just at the edge of the bed.
“Ever feel like you’re falling?”
Sweetie Belle shot back up into a sitting position and pulled the covers over her head. No pony really said anything but in her head Calando’s voice was as clear as the CMC’s mission.
The friend that her mind had prepared for her that evening asked that very question in her soft sweet voice. Before Sweetie could answer, Calando continued with “No…not like out of a tree. I mean like slowly falling out of your body.”
The nervous filly recalled not thinking too much into it until suddenly it felt like she really was somehow falling. It wasn’t like falling out of a tree; the feeling was exactly what Calando described. Sweetie Belle felt like she was somehow slipping. Somehow she was gradually sinking into the ground and had this crazy notion that she was going to leave her body behind. She tried to ignore it. She tried to laugh it off and focus on their game when Calando looked right into her eyes.
“I fell once. It was scary. You feel it now right?”
She hugged herself while tightly curling up under the blankets. Calando wasn’t really in her bedroom. Calando wasn’t even in the house. Calando existed only in her mind…right?
Sweetie remembered what it felt like to slowly sink. She felt cold and afraid. She couldn’t find words. She just looked back at the strange filly who took a step closer and maintained eye contact. As she filly drew closer she felt colder. Sweetie backed up a bit and Calando stopped her advance. She smiled gently and Sweete Belle found a small glimmer of comfort.
“It’s ok. Nopony falls forever. We all hit the bottom sooner or later.”
The now terrified filly let out a timid squeak, then clamped her front hooves on her muzzle. She remained perfectly still under her blankets. She didn’t feel like she was falling. She didn’t feel cold.
But she was scared again. She shut her eyes tight and tried to stop thinking about her nightmare; but thinking about not thinking about it just made her head hurt.
Also, she was thinking about it again.
She ran into her sister’s house. She ran straight to Rarity who was organizing her show room. Her hooves carried her all the way to her sister’s side; who looked down at her with an exhausted glance.
“Not now Sweetie…I’ve got an important customer coming any minute now, I didn’t get enough sleep and I swear it’s awfully chilly in her now…I’ve simply got my hooves so full at the moment…”
Sweetie remembered slowly stepping away from Rarity. She remembered looking back and seeing Calando standing in the center of the room. She was looking right into the young Unicorn’s eyes. She still had that gentle smile. She still looked so calm and tranquil. Calando still looked so nice. Sweetie looked away from Calando’s eyes and suddenly she felt afraid of her again. Sweetie slowly looked back and the cold feeling came back. Calando stepped closer and suddenly Sweetie felt like she was slipping away again. Sweetie backed away towards her sister, who let out an exaggerated sigh and began griping about her workload again. She remembered drowning it out while looking for the will to say something.
Sweetie Belle started paying attention when she heard Rarity collapse.
She grabbed a blanket and dove under her bed as the sound echoed in her mind.
She remembered looking at Rarity who just started back at her. Her sister…her second mother…just lied there. After what felt like forever she finally said something.
“I’m falling.”
Sweetie started crying. She tried to use her magic to force her sister to her hooves; but all it did was make her weakly cry out in pain. She stopped channeling her energy and tried to physically move the full grown mare. She remembered getting desperate when she realized that moving her was slowly becoming easier. Rarity’s breathing slowly grew quieter, and her breath was getting colder. Sweetie turned around to confront Calando. She yelled at her, telling her to stop and let her sister go.
“I agree…I should just let go.”
Sweetie felt like her bones turned to ice. She turned and her sister wasn’t breathing. She just lay there like a knocked over ponyquinn.
Sweetie felt herself begin to cry for real. She didn’t want to remember anymore. She reached around until she felt a familiar doll with the edge of her hoof. She glanced at her closed door and with a sudden motion she pulled the mini replica of Rarity under the blanket with her. She hugged her pretend sister and slowly crawled back onto her bed. She slowly rearranged her covers and only a few times she looked at the door and took comfort in the fact that she was still alone in her room. She kept hold of her substitute Rarity and got back into the blankets. She lightly dragged her hoof over the top layer, a blanket that her sister made for her from scratch. It felt warmer somehow. Sweetie Belle yawned and rested her head into her pillow.
She opened her eyes and saw her lifeless sister lying on the floor. She saw frost slowly building up around her body. She saw Rarity’s cutie mark slowly slipping off her flank and vanishing into nothing. She turned and saw that Calando was now standing next to her. Sweetie also felt a new sensation. It didn’t feel like she was falling slowly. It now felt like she was being gently pulled down. She felt a surge of adrenaline and knocked Calando over, who looked up at her with a confused look and asked a question in her calm and eerily soothing voice.
“I let her go. I let her fall. It’s what you wanted me to do, right?”
The terrified Unicorn felt an unbearable guilt. It wasn’t what she wanted but it was what she asked for. She did…make Rarity fall. She did make her sister fall…she let her drop…”
She gripped the doll even closer and a button eye popped off. Sweetie Belle was again in tears, from the images in her head and for hurting her sister again.
She shut her eyes tight and silently repeated to herself that it was just a dream. She didn’t really lose her sister. Rarity didn’t really fall anywhere. She gently pulsed her magic and reattached the eye. Her sister was fine. Her sister was safe. She was safe. Sweetie tried to be brave and go back to sleep.
She remembered running up the stairs. She remembered tripping on the top step and sliding down towards the evil filly. She swore she felt cold tendrils lightly touch her back legs; then she just shot upstairs like if she was set on fire, electrocuted and spray painted puke green at the same time. She barricaded herself in her room and hid under her bed. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She could still see Rarity’s lost expression…she found herself crying again as she lamented her sister. She didn’t want to fall. She wanted Rarity back. She wanted Calando to go away.
At the sight of the doorknob slowly gathering frost she became very aware that she wasn’t getting her wish. The frost turned into solid ice. The doorknob cracked and shattered into a thousand pieces and the door slowly swung open. Calando slowly trotted into Sweetie Belle’s cone of vision and looked right at the bed but not under it.
The filly opened her eyes and dove back under the bed, this time not taking any covers. All she brought was her Rarity doll. She stared at the door and reinforced the idea that it was just a dream. It could only hurt her if she let it. She held her doll closer and curled up again.
She felt cold.
That was all Sweetie Belle could take. There was no getting around it. Calando was going to get her. Sweetie Belle was going to fall. She was going to be pulled. She was going to slip away into a cold and lonely nothing. She stopped crying and almost stopped breathing as a creeping doom came over her.
Calando was in the room with her.
Through the darkness Sweetie Belle tried to see where the devil filly was; but couldn’t find her. She started to light up her horn then stopped dead cold. Creating light would make it easier for Calando to spot her. It would give away where she was hiding. She felt heavier as she tensed up. She felt anchored to the floor.
She felt like she had fallen and couldn’t get up.
She stared at the door. The only way to escape Calando was to get out of the room. But if she got out from under the bed she would be spotted. Sweetie Belle wiped her eyes with her hoof then slowly started breathing again. She looked around the room and saw nothing. She slowly crept to the edge of the bed and glanced around again. With a burst of brave desperation she charged at the door and soundly slammed into it. She fumbled with her magic to get it open. Right as soon as she could fit her body through she was in the hall and shut the door with the same force she hit it with. Sweetie Belle braced her back against the door and tried to get her breathing under control.
The door felt cold on her back.
Without another moment to plan her next move she charged to her sister’s room. She entered the other bedroom the same way she fled her own. Through the dim light coming from the moon outside the window she could see her sister’s sleeping form. She saw her body rise and fall as she breathed. She could make out that weird mud stuff on her face and the cucumber slices over her eyes. The shaking Unicorn slowly made her way to the edge of her sister’s bed and slowly nudged her leg with a hoof.
Rarity groaned slightly and sat up. Her horn glowed and the vegetable pieces came off her eyes. She let out a groan and then let out some words.
“Sweetie…it’s the middle of the night…”
The filly prepared herself for a scolding. Her knees trembled. There was a chance that she was going to be sent back to her room. Back to Calando. Back to…falling…
Rarity opened her eyes and looked right at the filly at the edge of her bed. With a yawn she reached down and pulled the smaller Unicorn up into the bed with her. Sweetie said nothing. It was as if Rarity already knew what was wrong and had an idea of how to make it better. She tucked Sweetie Belle in next to her before getting out of bed and slowly making her way to her private washroom.
She looked at the closed door and let herself soak in the warmth of the bed. She realized that she brought her mini Rarity with her and didn’t care. Sweetie held it close until her real sister returned; then quickly slid it under the bed.
Rarity came back into the bed with a tired yawn. Her face was washed clean of her nightly beauty treatment, and she wasn’t making any move suggesting that the cucumber pieces were going to be replaced. She inched up to the filly and gently wrapped her forelegs around her. Rarity softly kissed her head through her mane. Sweetie Belle felt Rarity gently rub her back and heard her softly whisper.
“It’s ok darling. It’s over. Nothing’s going to harm you as long as I’m around.”
Sweetie Belle nuzzled her sister’s chest. She closed her eyes and let herself drift away. She wasn’t cold. She wasn’t falling.
She felt safe. She felt warm. She felt secure.