After the tragic loss of his relative, Shadow Firedash becomes suicidal, but there are stronger and more deadly forces at work than he knows about...
Shadow Firedash loses his grandmother and becomes suicidal. But then he starts seeing something. A black wisp of smoke that appears whenever something tragic happens. He starts piecing together a connection between this smoke and the sudden uprise of bloody deaths. But will this smoke come after someone he knows, or will it come after him, mind, body, and soul?
It was morning,I had just woken up and was beginning to start my day when I got a call from my mom. Usually, my mom called me every few weeks to see how I was doing (and I suspected it was also to see that I hadn’t burned my house down).
This was not a check-up call. When I held the phone to my ear using my magic, I heard heavy crying and hyperventilation. My mom never cried unless it was something really important; and this was important.
“Oh it’s awful! Just awful!” was the first thing I heard her say. When I tried to calm her down, she just kept crying. This must have been the most serious thing ever to happen to my mom But I couldn’t console her if she didn’t tell me what happened.
“Mom.” I said sternly but cautiously. “Please tell me what’s wrong.” I pressed. After a while, I heard deep breathing. When she finally said something, I could still hear the pain in her voice and the sudden breaths she took in between words said that she was still fighting back tears.
“Son.” she said quietly, as if forced. “It’s your grandmare…” she followed up with a few sobs before continuing. “The doctors found her unresponsive in her hospital bed…….. She’s dead.”
I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. My grandmare? Dead? No. It just couldn’t be. I tried shaking my head to wake up from this nightmare. No. This wasn’t a dream. This was real. This was not something the Princess of the Night could wake me up from.
“Her funeral is this weekend.” I heard my mom say despite my inner conflict. Her cries were still echoing in my her. Holding back tears of my own, I thanked my mom for letting me know and hung up. As soon as I was sure nopony could hear me, I bawled my eyes out. I didn’t care that I was crying. I had loved my grandmare more than anything, and now that she was gone, it was too many emotions all at once.
After a few minutes of crying and remembering old memories, I now had a new emotion stirring. Anger. My grandmare had been the kindest, most gentle pony I had known, and although she had been addicted to smoking, we could have helped her!
“WHY?!” I yelled at the empty walls of my house. “Why did she have to die?! She could’ve gotten help! JUST WHY?!!” I then poured my rage into my horn. Using my hatred at the world for taking my grandmare from me, I magically threw all the furniture in the room all around. I even broke the lamps and vases by throwing them against the walls. I didn’t care. This was my moment of rage. I deserved this! Then I made the furniture into a tornado of anger with me as the eye of the storm of emotions. If my hide wasn’t already pitch-black, I could’ve sworn the speed of the leather couches forbade me from seeing my own body’s color.
After I was done having my temper tantrum, my head was clear enough to think again. I suddenly had an idea. Ponies talked about how good the Princess of Friendship was at magic, so maybe she (or any of the other princesses) could help me say goodbye to my grandmare one last time.
Before I could have a second thought, I was on the streets of Baltimare, running towards the Castle of Friendship in Ponyville. Princess Twilight was my last chance to make a deal with Death.
The Castle of Friendship stood tall and proud; soaring much higher than all of the buildings in Ponyville. Even some of the tallest buildings, like the town hall, were insects in comparison to the giant that was this Crystal Behemoth.
As I pounded on the door rapidly, I started worrying about what I would do If Twilight wasn’t home. Surely I could go to one of the other princesses, but what if they were all away on some sort of group-princess-friendship-mission or something? What would I do then? Where would I go? Who would I go to?
Luckily, my prayers were answered when Princess Twilight Sparkle herself answered the door. “Your Highness!” I instinctively exclaimed before bowing before her royalty. Looking up, I saw that the purple alicorn was blushing. “Please. You don’t have to do that. Just call me Twilight. Please.” she said, almost completely red in the face. My turn to blush came when I stood up straight and started apologizing. “There’s no need for that.” Twilight said with a wave of her hoof. “What is said is said. There’s no use apologizing. Anyway, can I help you with something Mister...uh…” she trailed off.
My brain finally started working again as I realized I had never told her my name. “Please excuse me Princess- Er, I mean Twilight. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Shadow Firedash, and yes. You can help me with something. Or at least I hope you can.”
“Wait, Firedash? You’re the grandson of the elder who recently passed away in Baltimare aren’t you? My sympathies. Your grandmare was well respected I hear. I’m sorry for your loss.” I thanked her for the polite gesture before telling her my idea.
“So do you think you can do it?” I asked after explaining everything. She looked like a combination of shock, anger, and concer. “I understand how you might be feeling right now, but nopony can bring back the dead.” I told her I didn’t want to resurrect my grandmare, I just wanted to say goodbye. “Still, I’m sorry. It just can’t be done. You are just going to have to accept that she is in a better place now.”
I hung my head in defeat. My hope had been shattered worse than the time Princess Flurry Heart broke the Crystal Heart. “So there’s nothing you can do? What about the other princesses?” A shake of her head told me the answer. My ears folded against the sides of my head as I turned away from Twilight. I had run out of ideas and now had nothing to live for. My grandmare had meant everything to me, and now that she was gone, I would go to her funeral as the last thing I would do before I said goodbye to this cruel, harsh, and unfair world.
“Get ready. The procession starts in less than an hour.” my mom called to me from the ground floor. I had decided to go to my mom’s house before going to my grandmare’s funeral.
I had bought a brand new suit from Rarity’s Boutique in Ponyville after being disappointed by the Princess of Friendship. “Custom Made,” Rarity had said. I had no idea how she would’ve gotten my measurements without me knowing, but somehow the suit was a perfect fit on the first try.
“So, may I ask why you would need a suit in all black? A funeral perhaps?” Rarity had asked as I was buttoning the last button on the suit jacket. I was hesitant to tell her the truth, but she deserved to know. After all, it wouldn’t matter in the end anyway.
“My grandmare died and I wanted a new suit to wear to her funeral.” Rarity’s eyes widened in shock and concern. “Oh darling! I’m so sorry for your loss!” ‘Please no sympathy’ I thought, but instead said, “Thank you. She meant a lot to me and,..... And I just want her to know I miss her…..” I trailed off into restrained sobs and tears running down my face. Rarity started shedding tears of her own, ruining her mascara. Then she insisted that I take the suit free of charge. I refused. The outside layer was velvet, the inner layer was silk, and IT WAS CUSTOM FIT. I simply couldn’t let her throw so much money that she must have put into this away, so I insisted on paying her.
All of a sudden, Rarity’s normally calm and composed personality became one of anger mixed with sadness and frustration. “You listen now.” she said in a commanding tone. “You will take this suit free of charge, you will wear it to your grandmare’s funeral, and I will not hear another word about payment from you. Do I make myself clear?”
She was practically pushing me out of her boutique by the word ‘Payment’. I really thought she was going to reconsider not accepting money for such an expensive item. But with one final push, Rarity shoved me out of her store. She waited for me to get up so she could levitate the new suit for me to grab with my own magic. “Have a nice day. Please come again.” was the last thing she said before closing the door in my face. I was pretty sure I also heard the faint click of a lock. My suspicion was proved correct when a sign was hung on the inside of the window. ‘Out to lunch. Please return at another time darling’. I would never have guessed that Rarity also made her own open and closed signs.
My mom’s impatient calling for me to get my flank downstairs snapped me back to the present. Looking around, I remembered that I was in my mom’s house. I was anslo in the very room that used to be my bedroom when I was a colt. Up until I went to college, I would be in this room every hour of the day. Since then, my mom had converted it into a guest room.
Once again, I was distracted from my distraction by my own mother, who was now threatening to come up here and pull me down by my ear kicking and screaming. That was something I didn’t want, so I hurried up to fasten the last knot in my tie and I ran down the hall so fast that I tripped on the rug and ended up falling down the stairs.
I heard some bones break, causing me to explode in pain. I dared not to yell, as that would attract attention. Seeing that blood was pooling around me, I understood and accepted the fact that I would join my grandmare in Celestia’s field of grass in the sky within a few minutes.
Unfortunately, just the sound of me falling down the stairs was enough to catch the ears of my remaining relatives. “What was that? I managed to hear despite the tinnitus ringing in my ears. The first pony I saw to see me unable to move was my mother. Her scream of terror was the last thing I saw and heard before my vision went dark. I was so happy. I thought I was finally dead. I could finally pass on peacefully. This wasn’t even the way I planned. But I was severely disappointed when I found out I was still alive.
I woke up in the Baltimare hospital in my hospital bed with my head still ringing and the world still spinning. “Shadow? Are you okay?” my mom asked me. Her voice sounded deep, dark, and hollow. Just like everything else in the world. I managed only a few grunts, and when I tried to move, the world would start spinning again.
I tried looking to my side, only to see that there was a pale blue pegasus with a cutie mark of a blue cross and two blue diamonds looking back at me. He was quiet for a few seconds, then he spoke. “Wodahs ekawa er’uoy.” I had no idea what he just said. Maybe it was another language. Luckily, my mom was also here on the other side of the bed. “Oh thank Celestia you’re alive!” she exclaimed, suddenly hugging me so tightly I couldn’t breathe. Looking into the mirror, I stared at my reflection who stared right back. I wondered if this was how I would die. Literally killed with kindness.
Unfortunately, she let me go so I could breathe again. “I’m sorry Shadow. It’s just, you gave us such a scare. The doctors were so puzzled when we told them you got hurt so bad just by falling down the stairs.” To tell the truth, I was also shocked. I had fallen down the stairs before, and never once had I received injuries so severe as this.
For a second, my mind was distracted by what I thought was a jet-black wisp of smoke. I thought I saw it float into the hallway and out of sight. Then it was gone in a second. The doctor to my left seemed to follow my gaze. He looked at me, then at the doorway. “Please excuse me for a moment.” he said before leaving the room. Suspiciously, he went down the same hallway in the same direction as the black smoke.
A second after the doctor left the room, a horrible, ear-piercing scream filled the air, forcing my relatives and I to hold out hooves to our ears. The scream lasted almost a minute before we could finally take out hooves away from our ears.
“What the hell was that?!” my uncle said, still yelling. “You don’t have to yell. The screaming is over.” my aunt told him. Captain Obvious over here. “Yeah, but isn’t anyone else curious where that scream came from?” I added. My relatives muttered and nodded their heads softly. “No way.” my mom interrupted. “There is no way I am letting you walk around in that condition. You have multiple broken bones, pulled muscles, brain damage, and a punctured lung. Nope. You are not going anywhere.”
I was not brain damaged! If I focused enough, there was the possibility I could levitate myself out of bed. Or, I could have someone levitate myself out of bed. Or, I could have someone levitate me. “And nopony is going to help you get out of bed.” she said, reading my mind. “So just sit there and recover while we check who made that scream.” and with that, she and all my other relatives walked out of the room.
She wasn’t going to get rid of me that easily. I tried focusing my magic on myself, but as soon as my magic sparked, all of my pain rushed back to me. I didn’t yell. Pain wouldn’t stop me. I ignored my injuries and focused on my horn. My magic ignited, enveloping me in a magic glow. Suddenly, I was so strained that I couldn’t think straight. Pushing myself farther than ever before was really taking my breath away. For a moment, I could actually feel myself lift off the bed for a second. But the corners of my vision were starting to darken. I released my magic before I passed out again.
Breathing heavily, all I could do was wait for everyone to return from whatever it was that they were looking at. Damn it! I hated not being able to move. But there was nothing I could do about it. Luckily, they came back running with shocked looks on their faces. “So, what was it?” I asked inquisitively. My relatives’ expressions didn’t tell me much. “Shadow, you need to see this. Was all my mom said, which confused me. She was the one who insisted that I stayed in bed. Now she changed her mind because of something she saw?
‘Either way,’ I thought as my mom levitated me out of the hospital bed. ‘It gets me out of here’.
“Luna have mercy…” I said quietly as I stared down at the cause of the scream earlier. It was a mare. A dead mare. In a pool of her own blood. Her white coat was stained crimson red, and her pink mane was somewhat concealed under her nurse’s hat. I was staring at the body of Nurse RedHeart.
“How did this happen?” I asked. My heart was beating so fast, I thought it might burst out of my chest, grow legs, and run away. That was not something I wanted to think about. I also noticed something else. Another body. This one wasn’t in a red puddle. Horror started seeping in all over again when I recognised the body as my great aunt Misty Fire! Before I could panic, my mom reassured me of her survival. “Don’t worry Shadow, she just fainted when she saw the body. She’s okay.”
That was a huge relief. I already had one relative die. I didn’t need another one giving me such a scare. I redirected my attention to what was important right now. Focusing on Nurse RedHeart’s dead body. The doctor had said not to touch the body until the proper authorities arrived. But since I saw Shining Armor talking to the pegasus, I assumed I could at least move her on her back to see her face, as RedHeart was drowned in her blood.
As soon as I saw her face, horror ruched back to me once again. RedHeart’s face was a pure, monotonous, crimson red. Sticking out of her left eye was what surgeons used to make precise cuts. A scalpel was lodged in RedHeart’s eye. Only an inch was not cutting into her skull and possibly her brain. What sort of sick monster would kill somepony like this?
“Civilian!” someone shouted. I turned my head to see who it was, but kept my magic focused on holding RedHeart’s face up. My mom shifted her telekinesis so I didn’t have to move her neck. This was better, as I could now see without causing pain in my neck. I thought the doctors might have missed a broken bone.
Now I could see who called me. It was Shining Armor. He was walking up to us in his palace guard armor, which was purple with a gold border. “I ask that you please do not affect the body in any way, shape, or form.” he said sternly. “If someone did this to her, then we will need the body intact in order to properly look for clues.”
Clues? I found my head turning towards the security camera in the corner. Of course! “What about footage?” I asked, not meeting his gaze. “What do you mean, ‘footage’?” I heard Shining Armor ask curiously. This time, I did turn my head back. “The camera footage. From the security cameras.” I clarified, pointing towards the small box in the corner. Shining Armor brightened at that, but I could tell he was jealous that he wasn’t the one to think of that idea first.
All of Equestria knew about Shining Armor’s sibling rivalry with his younger sister Twilight Sparkle. After all, they were both royalty now, so their playful bickering had escalated tremendously. However, neither of them let the long standing feud get in the way of responsibilities ruling Equestria. But whether it be a reality bending draconequus or a shape shifting, love sucking bug queen, they would always stay loyal to their family. I wondered if they had gone through such loss as I had…
After sending guards to check the camera footage, Shining Armor directed my mom (who was still levitating me around) and the rest of my family back to my hospital room. “The authorities will take care of this. There’s no need to worry. We’ll find out who Nurse RedHeart’s Killer is.” he said before magically closing the door. And on that cheery note, another doctor opened the door a few minutes after Shining Armor left.
He had a white coat that covered most of his body including his cutie mark, and what little of his coat I could see was also white. His mane style reminded me of Dj Pon3’s, but the colors were different. Instead of light and dark blue, they were alternated Dark blue and black. “Okay, so.” he said as he walked up to my bed. “Heart rate is normal, vital functions are stable, and there appears to be no brain damage.”
I was relieved to hear there was no brain damage (Because I proved my mother wrong), but disappointed to hear my vitals were not damaged. At least then I could have a slow, yet painless death. I wanted to ask what happened to the other doctor to make him leave, but then I remembered that what he had first said when I woke up was backwards. “The only problem is…” the doctor said, redirecting my attention. “You have several broken bones, fractured ribs, and also torn muscles. So you will have to stay in the hospital for about a month at least. As much time as it takes for you to heal.”
NO! NoNoNoNoNoNoNo, I couldn’t! My grandmare’s funeral was today, and my plan to join her was this week! I couldn’t allow myself to be alive without my grandmare. Universe! At least let me be in pain!
After an agonizing six weeks in the hospital and another three weeks in physical therapy, I was finally back to my (relatively) normal self. According to the doctor who said things backward, I had made a full recovery, but he recommended the physical therapy to be sure. And when I insisted that I go home after the first week of therapy, he leaned close, sternly said, “Doctor’s. Orders.” and walked away. The good news was one, the doctors who treated me said they would pay both my hospital bill and the bill for my therapy, and two, I was finally alone. The only problem was my mom insisted on staying with me for another week to keep an eye on me and see that everything healed correctly. All I needed was one minute alone and it would all be over.
Despite watching me like a hawk, my mom had overlooked when I bought a .50 caliber Desert Eagle. After I bought it once my therapy was over and done with, I immediately hid it under my bed along with the single box of ammunition for it. I couldn’t risk hiding it in my closet because my mom constantly washed all my bed sheets, shirts, and pants, and then put the laundry in my closet for storage.
Once I had a moment of peace, I levitated out my Desert Eagle, loaded the ammunition into the barrel, and cocked the gun. The last thing I saw before I closed my eyes was the wisp of smoke from the hospital. It lowed under my bed where the box was. Before ending it all, I immediately looked under the bed to find it. My blue mane fell in my eyes, but I could tell that under my bed was…..nothing. The black wisp had simply vanished. I was starting to think if it was just my imagination. I focused on the gun once more as I held it in my mouth. I could taste the cold metal of the barrel with my tongue. The taste of sweet relief. The taste of freedom from the slavery that was my life. I closed my eyes again, sending one last prayer to my grandmare that I would see her soon. Then I pulled the trigger.
Hoping to hear a gunshot, I was both disappointed and confused when all the weapon did was click. Every time I magically pulled the trigger, the gun would go CLICK instead of BANG. I inspected the weapon more closely, hoping to find the source of the problem, and then I found it. Somehow, Impossibly, the gun’s safety had turned on. I did not do that. I clearly remembered using this very gun at the firing range. The safety was never turned on at any moment. So how did it turn on? Either way, I turned the safety back off. Enough distractions! Time to see my grandmare....
Just before I pulled the trigger with my magic, I heard my mom walk in again. “Shadow? Do you want the….WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” Before I realized what was happening, I was tackled to the ground just before I pulled the trigger, causing the bullet to shoot into the wall instead of my head. Damn, I was so close. I tried pointing the gun at my head again, but my mom was the wiser. She knocked the gun out of my magic grip and tossed it across the room. The black smoke returned near the closet before disappearing again. The gun landed on it’s handle and went off!
In a split fraction of a second, I did some very quick math and figured out that the angle and gravity would make it miss my mother’s head by inches. But my luck wasn’t as good as my intelligence. “MOM!” I tried to warn, but was too late. Time returned to normal as I witnessed a bloody hole tear through the back of my mom’s skull! I was instantly splattered with the blood and brains of the pony who loved me my whole life! (Other than my grandmare that is). Her now lifeless body fell on top of me, blood oozing through the bullet hole that had somehow exited her head right between the eyes.
I was frozen in terror. I couldn’t move; my brain told my body to work, but nothing responded. My grandmare had only died, but my mom had just been killed! Killed by the gun I bought. This was my fault. It should’ve been me. It was supposed to be me. My mom didn’t deserve to die, I did. I deserved to die.
I was completely broken when Shining Armor and the Royal Guard came bursting down the door. Literally. They had busted the door clean off it’s hinges despite the fact that it was unlocked. Apparently, the neighbors had reported hearing the gunshots, and were worried that we were being robbed. I could imagine their surprise when they found nothing but a cowardly lowlife who had just accidentally killed his own mother.
“What happened here?” Shining asked when he first saw the scene. I couldn’t answer because my cries prevented me from speaking. My tears were now mixing with my mother’s blood on the hardwood floor. I was still crying my eyes out when they found me.
“Please, calm down. We need to know why your mother is lying on the ground dead with a bullet hole in her head.” I still didn’t answer. I couldn’t answer. If I told the truth and said I had tried to kill myself, they would lock me up somewhere where I wouldn’t be able to join my grandmare. But what could I have said? What lie could I tell them? Would they even believe me? In a panic, I said the first thing that came to mind.
“The black smoke.” I said silently. Barely within earshot of Shining Armor, even though he was only standing two feet away, he asked me to please say it again, so I did.
He was obviously confused. I could tell by his expression. “Black Smoke? What do you mean? What does that have to do with this?” he kept asking. I had no answers. I simply felt that the smoke was to blame for everything bad that had happened recently. My grandmare dying, the murder at the hospital, my gun’s safety mysteriously turning on, and my mom’s death. I had even seen the black smoke right before three of the four tragedies. And if I didn't know any better, I would be willing to bet that the smoke had something to do with my grandmare’s sudden passing.
I had to check the hospital where she was. If I was lucky, there would be nopony there after two months! For some reason, I started laughing hysterically as I tried to run out of the room. I felt myself being tackled by heavy metal as Shining Armor yelled orders at the other guards to hold me down.
Somehow, I suddenly felt so much stronger. I easily forced them off me before continuing for the door. Looking back, I saw Shining Armor’s horn glow right before he tackled me to the ground himself. He was definitely stronger than the other guards, but I was stronger still. I was slowly pushing myself off the ground and him with me. Suddenly, solid steel hoofcuffs materialized around my forelegs. But my hindlegs were still free, so I pushed myself across the floor. Becoming aware that he was still moving, Shining Armor cast hoofcuffs on my hindlegs as well, preventing any further progress.
He finally released me from under his weight and walked around to the front of me. I started laughing again as I tried to caterpillar crawl my way towards the door. “What the hell is wrong with you?!” Shining Armor yelled at me as he conjured a straight jacket, a muzzle, and metal chains one me as well as the hoofcuffs. I still crawled forward. He finally got smart and simply lifted me into the air so I couldn’t crawl on the ground anymore.
“Huh. WHy didn’t I think of that earlier?” he asked out loud but obviously to himself. I continued to grin under the muzzle, although I now had no idea why. Restricted movement had cleared my mind somewhat, and I just now realized that I was bound tightly and was being suspended in midair by the captain of the Royal Guard as the rest of the Royal Guards were struggling to get up. I had also lost all of my sudden strength.
‘What just happened?’ I thought. The actual last thing I remembered at this point was telling Shining Armor that the Black Smoke I had seen had been the cause of everything. So how the hell did things go from point A to Point C without me remembering point B? No idea.
By now, Shining Armor was now also levitating the other guards because they were complaining about not being able to walk. I saw that one of the guards, a white unicorn with a red helmet plume was limping on two of her legs, and that another one, a yellow pegasus with a blue hair plume, looked like he had broken both of his wings and also dislocated his jaw. Did I do that? Because I had no memory of it.
Now the Royal Captain was levitating me into the back of an armored truck. Oh no, I was not going to therapy again! I tried to fight him, but Shining Armor’s magic had a firm grip on me. I couldn't break free, and before I knew it, I was lying on my side in the back of an armored van (or truck if you want to bitch about it), feeling every bump in the road as Shining armor drove me to an unknown location…
I didn’t know how much time had passed, because my hooves were tied to my sides. Along with my watch. I really didn’t think all of this was necessary. Maybe Shining Armor thought I had killed my mother (because I did) and was taking me to court? But if that was the case, then why all the security measures? As it turned out, it was far worse than therapy. As Shining Armor opened the door to the back of the truck where I was and explained to me everything I had done wrong, I ignored him and looked beyond his rather shiny suit of armor. Behind him was a sign. I tilted my head pretending to listen when, in reality, I was trying to read what was on the sign.
It read, “Canterlot Institutional Center For The Criminally Insane”. WHAT??!! He brought me to an INSANE ASYLUM?! I was NOT FUCKING INSANE!! I told him about the black smoke! How it was always there whenever something tragic happened! Did he not fucking believe me?! I was- HEY! PUT ME DOWN!
Shining Armor was calmly locking the car doors as I furiously wriggled around in his magic grasp. He couldn't do this to me! He sighed as he started walking towards the front door of the institution. “Ool, I understand that the death of a family member can be difficult to take in, but the death of one does not call for the murder of another.” In between desperate grunts, I reconsidered suicide. Was it really necessary to kill myself because I was distrought about the death of my grandmare? Now that I thought about it, not really. Was it really my fault my mom died if the gun had went off by accident? No. So why had I been so depressed? Were my negative emotions a result of the black smoke? What the hell even was that thing?
“Hello your Highness, what can I do for you?” the receptionist asked Shining Armor as he walked up to her. “Yeah, I have a mentally unstable unicorn here. You are to never remove his magic suppression ring, keep his binds on when he is outside his cell, and he must be kept under maximum security with twenty four hour surveillance. Can you do that?”
“Excuse me for a minute your Highness, I’ll have to check if we have a room with your requirements available,” she said as she clicked buttons on a keyboard and began scrolling, looking for something on the computer monitor in front of her. “Ah, you’re in luck your Highness. Our last Padded-wall-vault-cell just became available yesterday. The doctors found the patient dead in his cell. Natural causes of course. Would you like me to lead you to the vault?” Shining Armor agreed to follow the mare, despite my (very muffled) protests. I refused to be locked up in a mental asylum.
As Shining Armor followed the mare, I looked to the left and right sides of me. This part of the facility was what looked like an actual prison. Inmates were held behind metal bars with only a bed, a sink, and a toilet for company. The bright sides was that they weren’t bound in chains or gagged. The downside, the toilets were in plain view, which I severely disapproved of.
After about five minutes of walking down an unnecessarily long hallway, the mare stopped at an intersection. “Uh, hehe. I’m not sure if it’s straight foreward, to the left, or to the right.” she said, pointing in each direction respectively, clearly confused.
Suddenly, a bound pegasus in a straightjacket ran from the hallway going right, past us, and into the hallway going left. The stallion was pursued by four prison guard unicorns who shouted at the pony to stop running.
A fifth guard, who was a pegasus, stopped momentarily to give orders to our guide. “One of the crazies made a run for it during a prison transfer! We need all the help we can get Lightbulb!” he yelled at the mare, who’s name was apparently Lightbulb. Her expression was surprisingly bored. “Which one was it this time? The one who thinks she’s a dog?”
“No! That one is in the Ponyville mental ward!”
“The one who thinks he’s a vampire?”
“He was shot during the prison riot last year for trying to bite one of the guards!”
“Was it you?” she asked, now starting to sound severely uninterested.
“This isn’t a guessing game smartass! Colonel Fucking Papercut is NOT CONFUSED!!” he yelled back, this time in more of a drill sergent like voice. “Never mind who the fuck got out, just help me damn it!” he yelled again before grabbing the mare and pulling her towards where the other four guards and the prisoner had long since dissapeared.
And just like that, Shining Armor was bamboozled and guideless. “Colonel Papercut?” I asked through my bonds, although it may have sounded more like “Cohoh Apherhuh?”
Luckily, my captor seemed to have understood me. “Yeah, his name might not sound as threatening, but in reality, he’s one of the toughest sons of bitches in the Royal Guard. Did I mention he’s in the Royal Guard? Anyway, the only pony tougher than him is General Sternhoof.” Shining Armor said the last pony’s name with a shudder, as if he was scared of his commanding officer. And despite having never heard of the General before, something about just hearing his name made me think of somepony who could scare a shark out of water just by staring at it.
“Well,” he said, suddenly in a daze. “I guess since I don’t know where the padded cells are, and I have nopony to lead me there, I guess you’re home free.” he said before dropping me like a sack of potatoes on the hard concrete floor of the hallway. Jerk. How was I supposed to move?
Shining Armor turned around, and I started saying my prayers. His eyes were completely jet-black, and his mouth was a hundred razor-sharp toothed grin. This time, I was one hundred and ten percent sure I was going to die. I then passed out from pure terror.
When I came to, I was lying on the ground with my hooves and muzzle free. I looked around and saw that I was in the front lawn of my grandmare’s old house.
When I say “old,” I mean “OLD”. The wooden planks of the front porch were rotten and brittle. The roof was on the verge of caving in. The shutters were all but either loosely on a single hinge, or had fallen off completely. Some street thugs had spray painted, “The old hag is finally dead!” on one side of the building, and on the other, random graffiti had appeared.
Such disrespect! My grandmare had done nothing to upset anypony in her entire life, and here were some drug dealing, worthless, stupid, uneducated assholes who treated her like she threatened little fillies who walked on her lawn! It made my blood boil.
My deep seething hatred for poorly raised bums was interrupted by the honking of a car. I spun around so fast that my mane flew into my face, blocking my view of part of the world by a curtain of red hair. After I blew my mane out of my face, I realized that I knew who’s car had pulled up. It was my dad’s van. I was dead for sure this time. “Shadow?” he called out from the driveway, not sounding angry at all. That was what worried me the most. “Yes father?” I called back, hoping to stay on his (relatively) good side.
“You know I don’t demand any formality son. Come down here and give your dad a hug!” Okay, so now I was confused. I had killed my mom, the pony my dad loved as much as I loved my grandmare, and he was being friendly? Why had he not killed me on sight? I was cautious, but I did as I was told. I hugged my dad. But still, it made no sense why he was being so nice.
“The rest of us tried to call you after your therapy, but nopony could get ahold of you. Did you lose your phone or something?” Lose my phone? Nopony I knew tried to call me. Why would he say……...wait, “the rest of us”? Who was he talking about?
My question was answered when half a dozen other cars pulled up. My other relatives. If I was dead before, I was fifteen times that amount of dead now. I recognised some of the faces. There was my cousin Binder, my aunt Trailblazer, and “Smelly Old” Grandpa Pickle. What confused me the most wasn’t the fact that even my oldest and most distant relatives had shown up, it was that they were all smiling and waving. I was sure at least some of them knew about my mom’s death (or rather bloody murder by my own hooves), so why weren’t they beating the everloving shit out of me?
I braced for impact when Grandpa Pickle walked up to me. Mostly because he was once arrested for beating his wife, but also because I had killed his sister. So imagine my surprise when, instead of hitting me, he gave me the strongest bear hug he could. “Come here you little-” his sentence was interrupted by a burp before he continued. “-Piece of washed up shit.”
Grandpa Pickle had a history of insulting everyone around him, no matter who it was. He had terrible manners and couldn't care less about it. He also had a……. Very vulgar way with words. Why anyone would invite him, I had a hard time understanding. Either that, or he had invited himself as usual.
“That’s about enough Pickle. Let the poor kid breathe. He’s been through a lot,” my dad ordered his own father. Usually, my grandpa cared very little for his son-in-law. What made matters worse was that Grandpa Pickle was from my mother’s side of the family, so I could even begin to try to comprehend what was going through my grandfather’s head right about now. Another burp escaped his mouth as he let me go.
“Aaaalright, fine. But I take what’s rightfully mine. None of you touch what my now dead wife said would be passed to me, which is pretty much all of this stuff, be feel free to take what’s left.”
Good old stinky Grandpa Pickle. Still thinking that just because he was married to my grandmare, that meant everything was his. Was he drunk? Of course he was drunk. Grandpa Pickle was always drunk. In fact, I couldn’t think of a time when I’d seen Grandpa Pickle that he wasn’t drunk.
The rest of my relatives had now gathered in my grandmare’s driveway and surrounding streets, and were now collected by the front door. Grandpa Pickle was fumbling with the keys in his magic. “And that’s the waaaaaay the door clicks!” he exclaimed just as he unlocked the door, and everypony spilled into my grandmare’s house, dragging Grandpa Pickle and myself with them.
Five hours into clearing out my grandmare’s old house, and I had ended up in the attic. There were a bunch of old boxes there, and because it had become dark outside, the only lighting in the room was from the ladder leading into the garage, and from a single circular window in the top of the farthest wall.
One of the boxes had an old phonograph, an antique record player that could scrape a few bits into the bucket at auction, or sold to an antique store. Another box had an old rug poking out of it that was so covered in dust that I couldn’t even get close to it without breathing in the fumes of the probably decades old fabric. I would have someone else see to that.
Something that both really intrigued me, and seemed severely out of place in my grandmare’s attic, was an old digital camera. It didn’t look nearly as old as any of the other relics in the rest of the boxes. I jokingly tried to push the power button with my magic, expecting nothing to happen, but miraculously, the thing turned on! “Damn, this thing’s batteries must be as old as the camera itself. There’s no way they could still be working,” I said to myself in the partly empty attic.
I tried to see if there were any photos in the old camera, but the dusty screen flashed with the sign, “No pictures taken”. That was odd. Someone had to have taken a picture with the thing at least once before dumping it into a box, and leaving it to rot in my grandmare’s attic. It was strange, almost as if it wasn’t a normal camera, but it sure as hell looked normal enough. I shrugged it off as simply the feeling of weariness from a hard day of sorting, packaging, unpackaging, and repackaging.
I slung the leather strap around my neck and allowed the camera to dangle from it loosely before heading downstairs and getting the rest of the stuff I had claimed from my grandmare’s old belongings. I had a single box, which paled in comparison to what some of my other relatives had taken. My Great Aunt had taken an old grandfather clock, my dad had taken a collection of unique vinyl records, and my Grandfather had claimed most of the furniture from the second floor.
But me……. I only had a single little cardboard box. A box full of things that I held dear. Not only because they were mostly antique games from my grandmare’s childhood and old movies, but because that meant that even I had something to remember my grandamare by.
Everyone else had something they would either sell for money because of its value or something they could keep for either the memory or the rarity of the item. I gathered my things for the same reason I was now keeping the camera. I could use them while also remembering my grandmare through her things.
I levitated my box of new belongings in my magic and headed out the door, which brought me a new problem. I had no way to get home. I didn’t remember how I had ended up on my Grandmare’s front lawn, which meant I didn’t know if I had driven my car or not, which meant I either had to look for my car, or hitchhike along with one of my other relatives.
The moment I stepped outside the house, I looked up at the sky. The day had turned to night while my relatives and I had been clearing out my grandmare’s house. Luna’s full moon shone brightly in the clear, cloudless void of the night. I felt a sudden heat around my neck, which left as soon as it had come. Strange. It was almost as if the camera had suddenly heated up for some reason. But the air was crisp and cool. It was a normal Autumn breeze. There was no reason for anything to suddenly become hot.
I shook my head. My weariness was getting to me. I looked up from my camera and my mouth flew open. There in my grandmare’s driveway was none other than my car! There was no way! I didn’t remember seeing it earlier, unless I had been blinded by the fear of retaliation from my family for my mother’s death. This was insane! First, that thing took control of Shining Armor and allowed me to escape a mental facility, and now my car had mysteriously appeared in my grandmare’s driveway! There was no logical explanation for any of this! Nothing made sense anymore! All these deaths, the black smoke, Shining Armor, and my car, none of it had even the slightest bit of sane, reasonable logic to it!
My head dropped into my hooves, and I almost dropped my box from my magic grasp. I sat in my grandmare’s driveway for a few minutes, trying to get my head to stop from exploding. I was thinking about this too much. “Don’t worry about it with an enphous on IT ,” a voice in my head told me. It was my inner voice, but something was off. I shook my head again. “I really need to get some sleep,” I said under my breath.
Once my head stopped pounding, I got to my hooves and got in my car. This was too crazy for me to handle while also under the effects of sleep deprivation. I had to get home. I had to get some sleep. I had to not worry about it.