> "Hey Twi..." > by Flint-Lock > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Entry #21 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey Twilight.  It’s been almost a week since we last talked. How have you been? Are you still living the high life of a princess, with all of those exciting documents you need to sign, those riveting four-hour-long meetings with your councilors, and the endlessly fascinating lines of petitioners?   You know, I’m starting to think this whole Princess thing is overrated. Anyway, things are about the same over here. School, work, rehearsals, containing some enchanted toilet brush because a certain wizard decided to use this dimension as a dumping ground. You know, business as usual… Still nothing, huh? Must be a really busy day.  The girls and I are going to hang out at the lake later today. I’ll talk some more later.  > Entry #22 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey Twi. It’s me again. Still nothing? I understand; knowing you, you’re probably busy fighting an eldritch horror with rainbows. Anyways, the girls and I had a pretty good time at the lake. Rarity spent a lot of her time lounging in the shade in a bikini. As you might guess, she became very popular with the boys(and quite a few girls).  Fluttershy and I walked along the shore and fed ducks. Shy, being Shy, actually managed to cuddle a few ducklings (lucky bastards).  Rainbow and AJ had a contest to see who could swim out the farthest. They both made it about halfway across the lake before a lifeguard told them to knock it off.  As for Pinkie, well, she spent most of her time building a massive sandcastle. Once she was done, she then started kicking while yelling “Down with the monarchy! Glory to the Sand Republic!” I’ll never understand that girl. That’s probably for the best. Once we’d toweled ourselves off, we headed back to Sugarcube corner for some shakes. Everything was going fine. It was a beautiful late spring day, the birds were singing, the sun was shining, and everything was perfectly, wonderfully mundane. I was enjoying my milkshake with everyone else, listening to Dash brag about how she was “as fast in water” as she was on the land when I suddenly had the worst headache I’ve ever felt in my life. How bad? Take the worst migraine you’ve ever had, double it, and you’ll get a pretty good idea of how it felt.   When I looked up, I noticed the girls were staring at me. When they asked what was wrong I told them I was fine, that’d probably just been brain freeze, that was all. That’s when I noticed our little group was missing a certain rainbow-haired tomboy. I asked where Dash had gone off too. Everyone set down their shakes and just stared at me. At first, I thought I’d broken some kind of obscure human taboo. I mean, it’s happened before(though, in my defense, how was I supposed to know that sniffing people was considered weird?). Then AJ asked, “Who’s Rainbow Dash?” That caught me off guard. I reminded them about the girl they’d been talking to less than a minute ago.  Nothing. Seriously confused, I tried to remind them about the rainbow-haired egomaniac they’d known for years. Nothing but blank stares.  We didn’t talk much afterward. Eh, I’m not too worried. It isn’t the first time Rainbow and the girls have pulled a fast one on me I am still not forgiving them for that stunt they pulled with the food coloring.  > Entry #23 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twi, something’s wrong. This morning, when the girls and I met at the usual spot, Dash was a no-show. When I asked the girls if they’d seen her, they just looked at me like I was going crazy.  First, I just brushed it off as them continuing the joke. I figured that Dash had just called in sick again, and was probably using her free time to work on the latest chapter of that Daring Do shipfic she’s been writing. That is until we got to homeroom. When Mr. Doodle did roll call, he completely skipped over Rainbow.   When I told him, he’d just said “Rainbow Dash who?”  More than a little confused, I’d whipped out my phone and brought up the photo I took of AJ and Rainbow’s little swim-off. There was a slight problem. Aj was in it alright; Aj and only Aj. I looked through the rest of my photo gallery. Nothing. Every group photo, every selfie, everything. Not a single instance of Rainbow Dash. Not even the photos were she was a sliver of blue on the edge of the shot.  During lunch, I went around the tables, asking if anyone had seen Rainbow Dash. I tried all of her usual haunts: the soccer team, the track team, the Daring Do fan club. No dice. The only thing I got for my troubles was a couple of weird looks. By then I was seriously freaking out.  I raced to the school office (earned myself a serious scolding from the hall monitor) and begged Miss Raven to check if she had any records of a Rainbow Dash. According to her, there were no students by that name enrolled at Canterlot High. In fact, she couldn’t find that name in any of her records.   When school got out, I raced back to the apartment and checked the Internet.  Her ViewTube channel, her Mystable account, even her DoFic.com profile. They were all gone. Not deleted or deactivated. Gone. I couldn’t even find them in my search history I need answers. I tried calling her number on my cell, but all I got was a voice saying the number had been disconnected. I’m going over to her house right now.  Part of me already knows what I’ll find. > Entry #24 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I arrived at Rainbow’s address, no one was there. No one had ever been there  I don’t think anyone’s touched the place in decades. The lawn was a jungle of weeds and uncut grass, The windows were either smashed in or boarded up. What little paint remained was faded and peeling.   Twi, We need to talk. ASAP! > Entry #25 > --------------------------------------------------------------------------  Twi? Look, I get it, you’re a busy mare, being a princess and all, but would it kill you to check your journal every once in a while?! Sorry. The past few days have been tough. I haven’t been sleeping well. I can’t help thinking about Rainbow. No one else does. No matter what I do, no matter how many times I try to remind them about our adventures, the girls act like she never existed. This doesn’t make any sense. One moment she was there, talking, living, existing. The next, it’s like she never existed. The only thing that mentions her at all is this journal Part of me is starting to wonder if there ever was a Rainbow Dash.     > Entry #26 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last night I had the strangest dream. In the dream, I was standing in the middle of an empty field, staring up at the night sky. The air smelled of sweet, damp soil, cut grass, and wildflowers. The air was deliciously cool.  The sky was beyond beautiful. I could see thousands, maybe millions of stars, see the faint band of light that was the galaxy. If I squinted, I could make out the faint smudges of nebulae, like splashes of paint on a cosmic canvas.  Normally, I would have found a scene like this breath-taking, inspiring. Instead, I felt strangely uneasy. It was subtle; a prickling at the back of my neck, a jumpy feeling in my stomach. It was like, as I stared at the stars, something was staring back.   Weird. > Entry #27 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pinkie’s gone! We were at my apartment. Just the five of us.  Five. Every time I write that, it feels wrong. We are six, we’ve always been six, but every time I say that the girls insist that there’s always been five of us. Always has been. Anyway, we were playing some fighting games. Well, maybe “playing” is being a bit generous; it was more like “watching my character flail around drunkenly as Fluttershy waled on him”  (For the element of Kindness, she’s surprisingly good at fighters.) Just as Fluttershy was about to finish off a combo and put the poor guy out of his misery, I was walloped by another headache. If the first one was like brain freeze, this one was like having brain freeze while having my head used as a chopping block.  When it finally faded, I shook my head and took a quick headcount, praying this was just a fluke. Fluttershy and I were on the couch. AJ and Rarity were laying on the floor. Pinkie… I asked where Pinkie was. Everyone just looked at me. “Pinkie who?” Rarity had said. I've spent the next few days trying to get someone, anyone to remember Pinkie. It’s no use: no one in this town remembers her; her family says they’ve never heard of her. Same with the Cakes.  Noone remembers Pinkie. Mull on that for a little while. Also, this might just be me being paranoid, but I swear the cafeteria isn’t as full as it usually is. I’m seeing empty seats where there shouldn’t be any. > Entry #28 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let me tell you how my day went, Twi. When I pulled into the school’s parking lot, it didn’t take me long to find an empty space; half of them were empty. I met up with my three remaining friends, then walked to our respective homerooms. Mr. Doodle wasn’t there. Instead, we got some guy I’d never seen before. The school was a lot dumpier than I remember. The ceilings are seriously water-stained. The Lockers are showing signs of rust.  The floor is scuffed and stained, and a lot of windows are either cracked or boarded up.   When I asked Principal Celestia why the school was in such bad shape, she just sighed and said that it’d been like this when she took over, that she’d tried to fix it up a little. She rambled on about she’d lost track of how many times she begged the city for additional funding, and how every time they’d claim that the city simply don’t have the money. Then, when she thought I wasn’t looking, she’d take a drink of something out of a hip flask. I guess that’s what happens when your city’s tax base is slowly being wiped from existence. Twi, I’m coming through the portal. I don’t know what’s going on over in Equestria, but these one-sided conversations are getting old. Princess duties or not, we need to talk. NOW.   > Entry #29 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- What the Tartarus, Twilight?! When I tried walking through the portal, I nearly broke my nose!    What’s going on with the portal? Is something wrong? What’s going on over there? No, wait, I get it now. You’re doing this. Yeah, that’s it. You’re taking them. Teleporting them away to who knows where. Wiping everyone’s memories so they don’t remember. Deleting every trace of them from every record ever. What kind of monster are you? Are you doing this to punish me? A belated punishment for everything I’ve done Was this your plan all along teach me the value of friendship, then take everything away screw you! screw you and your so-called friendship I should have just killed you when I got the chance Screwyouscrewyouscrewyouyou I’m so sorry I didn’t mean any of it I’m just really really scared Twilight please answer! > Entry #30 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Where are you, Twi? I’ve talked to my remaining friends. They definitely remember you, remember how you “re-united the Three Musketeers”. They tell me how the four of us helped stop the Dazzlings. Whatever took Rainbow and Pinkie, it hasn’t touched you…yet. So why won’t you answer? Every night for the past few weeks, I’ve been staying up all night, watching your journal like a hawk, waiting to see that beautiful purple glow, that joyous buzz. Sometimes I imagine what you’ll write:  an apology for remaining incommunicado for so long, an explanation for whatever’s going on here; that Rainbow and Pinkie are safe and sound back in Equestria, and that they’ll be coming home soon. When I finally fall asleep, I dream up hundreds of different scenarios: sometimes I’m in a mental hospital, suffering from some kind of dementia. Other times I find myself in a hospital bed, surrounded by my friends. When my subconscious really wants to mess with me, I’ll have a dream where I wake up to find this whole mess was just a nightmare Every time, I wake up. Every time, there’s no response. Sometimes I wonder why I bother writing in this thing. Guess it’s more for myself now than anything else.  Like if I keep writing this down it’ll start making sense. > Entry #31 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I had that dream again. Just like last time, I was standing in the middle of a field, looking up at the sky. This, everything was…off. The air felt wrong; thick and soupy, with a strange chemical taste. My body felt a little heavier than before.  The biggest change had to be the sky.  Instead of twinkling points of light, the stars had swollen to the size of full moons. Their color was…off. Instead of reds, blues, and whites, I saw eye-watering greens, sickly purples, and dingy greys. In the space between these unnatural globes, I could see…something.   Darker than space. Stretched across the sky. And I was looking at it, it was looking very closely at me.  I woke up in a puddle of sweat. > Entry #32 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- They’re gone… This time it happened at the chem lab. AJ, Rarity, and I were doing some kind of experiment, I can't remember what. Been hard to focus on much of anything these days; having your best friends erased from reality doesn’t help your concentration   I remember AJ asking me to pass her a beaker of acid or whatever. I turned to grab it when my headache returned with a vengeance. I mean it. It felt like someone had put my head in a vice and given it a few good turns. I dropped the beaker and fell to my knees, clutching my head. I wanted to die.    When it finally, mercifully faded, I picked myself up, eyes watering, head reeling. The classroom was empty. All of the students, the teacher, Aj, and Rarity. All gone.  Something broke inside of me. I tore out of the classroom and tore through the school, dashing from classroom to classroom, asking if anyone had seen Aj or Rarity. Looked in every classroom, every closet, every forgotten nook, and cranny, not so much looking as fleeing from reality. Reality caught up. I collapsed in the middle of the hallway. Defeated. I heard footsteps. I looked up to see Fluttershy running towards me, a concerned look on her face. It was too much. I hugged her like a drowning man clutching a life preserver. Tried to tell her what was wrong, but all that came out was a blubbering, incomprehensible mess. Don’t know how long we sat there. Minutes, hours, who knows. All the while, Shy just sat there and held me, her shirt sponging up my tears as she stroked back, telling me that “everything was going to be okay…” over and over again.  For that short eternity, I actually believed it.  > Entry #33 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today, Fluttershy and I walked to the park. The walk there was…depressing, to put it mildly. Canterlot barely qualifies as a city these days. Most businesses have closed up. There are rows upon rows of abandoned houses, framed by cracked sidewalks. The road is practically cratered with potholes.  On the plus side, house prices are lower than ever! The park itself wasn’t much better. Many of the flower beds were overgrown with weeds. The central fountain was a stagnant, scummy pool, choked with duckweed. And you know what? Neither of us cared. Sitting there, under that perfect blue sky, bathing in golden sunlight, next to my only remaining friend in this universe. For a while, we just sat there, making idle chitchat about whatever. On occasion, a squirrel would run over to the bench, and Shy would gush over it because she’s Shy.  For that painfully brief moment, everything was right in the world. There were no eldritch horror, no existential dread, no fear. Just me and Fluttershy. That was all I needed. > Entry #34 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I had that dream again. Just as last time, I was standing in the middle of a field, staring at the night sky.  I remember feeling much heavier than last time; like I was wearing multiple lead overcoats at the same time. The air was a hot, thick soup, reeking of rotten eggs and window cleaning fluid. Every breath sent my lungs aflame. And the sky…the sky was full of worms. They were everywhere: bloated, writhing spheres the size of bowling balls, like someone had scooped up a handful of nightcrawlers and squeezed them into balls. They shone with a light that wasn’t light, shimmered with color that wasn’t color. And as I looked, in the empty spaces between these not-stars, I could see a web. Impossible Filaments of spun of unlight, pulsing with uncolor, stretching across the entire night sky. And the worst part? The knowledge that I was nothing. A germ clinging to a speck of dust. All I could do was stand there, helpless, while those worm-stars and that impossible web looked down on me.  > Entry #35 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It’s gone. Was in the shower when it happened.  The pain was indescribable. Nearly blacked out right then and there. When it stopped, I climbed out, then threw up. Didn’t dare check my phone. Just flung some clothes on and raced to school. Prayed that she was still there. She wasn’t there. Noone was there. Nothing was there. No building, no track course, no football field. Just an empty lot, overgrown with weeds, surrounded by a chain-link fence. I  dropped my knees and stared for a while. Beyond tears. Beyond grief. That school had been everything to me. Prison, Home, Kingdom, Universe. Now, it’s gone. I’m the only one who remembers And Fluttershy... > Entry #36 > --------------------------------------------------------------------------  I’m walking the empty streets alone.  The city’s in ruins. Streets cracked to pieces, weeds sprouting everywhere. Buildings are boarded up; some are starting to fall apart. Cars have turned to solid rust. Whats’ really creepy is the silence. No planes flying overhead, no rumble of cars, can’t even hear any birds. Only sound is faint buzzing from the remaining street lights.  Need to leave. Will Hitchhike to nearby town.  > Entry ??? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All gone. It’s all gone. Cities gone. All of them. No animals. Nothing. Just me now. Can feel it. Right behin me. Always looking.  I brought it here. Was careless. Jumping from world to world. Got its attention. Brought it here. Not long before it gets me too. Takes me to that heavy, choking place  Won’t let it.  > Final Entry > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fluttershy > Response > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunset! I sincerely apologize for the lack of responses lately. We just had a massive solar flare; one of the largest on record. The resulting magical surge dumped roughly fifty-thousand thaums worth of magical energy into the atmosphere, disrupting the link between our respective worlds.  I haven’t been able to send or receive anything from your world until a few hours ago. I need to come up with some kind of safeguard in case this happens again. From what I recall, humans use devices to protect sensitive electronics from power surges. If I could examine one, perhaps I could reverse engineer something similar to work with magical energy… Sorry, went off on a tangent again. Silly me. Anyways how are you doing? What happened during our little communications blackout? Sunset, are you there? Sunset?