No Sweeter Salvation

by Proper Noun

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Sweetie Belle, Silver Spoon, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Horror
Length: 5568

For Sweetie Belle, rescue and salvation have turned out to be very different things indeed.

At a Canterlot psychiatric institution, Sweetie Belle comes to understand that rescue never meant salvation. There is no "happily ever after."

Gore tag for part of Chapter 2.

Published 2014-01-28 18:50:04 UTC
Last updated 2014-05-26 21:39:23 UTC

Chapter One

"Doctor, it's been two months. I'm sure you've had plenty of time for somepony to perform scanning spells. Is she ever going to wake up?" Twilight Sparkle kept her voice down as she spoke. It was after hospital visiting hours by far, and most patients were asleep, but being a princess came with its own visiting privileges - namely, she could go where she wanted, when she wanted, as far as ponies in general were concerned.

"I... I don't know, Princess." The pale pegasus shuffled nervously. "We have a report from Doctor Caduceus's clinic in Ponyville, from before she was transferred here. It's like she's in a coma, except that her mind is exceptionally active, almost as though she were fully awake. Doctor Mori's scans reproduced the report perfectly."

"Okay, that's great, but what does it mean?" Twilight didn't like to push ponies for information, but she hadn't had a lot of time for medical research since assuming the full extent of her royal duties a few weeks before... the incident. She could have helped out herself, she was sure, if she weren't so busy helping her former mentor govern Equestria.

"Well, according to my study, there are two possibilities. One is that she suffers from Locked-In Syndrome. To simplify, the patient's body is essentially comatose, but her mind is fully aware and her senses are receptive, meaning she could be listening to us even now. In that case, it's been too long for her prognosis to be good." The doctor shuffled again. "Alternatively, she could be somehow trapped in a lucid dream, judging by her level of brain activity. That would probably be a magically-induced state, not something psychological or medical science can understand right now, so you'd know more about the possibility of recovery than me."

"Which is her primary diagnosis?"

"Locked-In Syndrome, but..." The doctor's voice trailed off. Twilight frowned into the darkness.

"But, what? Is there some kind of problem?"

"She's not showing any sign of the kinds of brain damage normally associated with the syndrome. If it were my decision, she would be diagnosed with an unspecified enforced lucid dream state and transferred to magical specialists. But you know how the medical system can be with anypony who's not a unicorn..." Twilight rubbed her forehead with a hoof.

"Yes, I understand. I thought my legislation would help with - " The princess cut herself off. "If you can, please see if you can find any further evidence for your diagnosis. As you know, this case has my personal oversight. If you need my ear, just send a note to Spike at the library, and I'll be here as soon as I can. Okay?"

"Yes, Your Highness." Twilight restrained herself from so much as rolling her eyes. Ponies weren't going to stop addressing her as royalty, and she'd learned that worrying about it only made her more stressed.

"I know my way out," the alicorn said, heading for the door. "I'll see what I can do for her on my end."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"The same thing we do every day," Babs said.

"Try to get our cutie marks!" Applebloom had been taking speech lessons from my big sister, and her accent was nearly gone.

"Well, good luck with that, girls," I told the pair. I was drawn away by an unfamiliar sense of urgency. I could go Crusading any time, ever since... "I have to see the doctor again."

"Since when do you see a doctor, Sweetie Belle?" Applebloom asked. Her question fell in sync with my own nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right. Something had changed without asking me.

"I'm not sure, but I'm going to find out. See you two later, okay?" Not feeling like walking through snow as deep as I was tall, I waved a hoof, and the scene swirled. I had been standing by the door of the Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse, but it became the door of Doctor Caduceus's clinic. I walked past the pink nurse at the front desk, heading straight back to one of the patient rooms. I knew my way around, and I was a big filly. I didn't need a nurse to escort me anywhere.

I stepped inside a small, sterile white room, and sat down to wait. That was how it worked, right? It must have been, because there was a knock on the door almost immediately. The doctor, a middle-aged grey pegasus with an open-scroll cutie mark, stepped in and shut the door behind her, giving me a cheerful greeting.

It was... wrong.

"You're not Doctor Caduceus." She shook her head.

"I am Doctor Dusty Scrolls. Caduceus is on leave today." She set down the file folder she'd been carrying on her back. "You are Sweetie Belle, correct? Rarity's sister?"

"We do not use that name here," I hissed. The air in the room dropped far below freezing, and frost began to form across... everything. How dared she bring back the one word I had forbidden?!

"My apologies. I shall not speak that name here again." The room warmed and began to thaw, though she seemed entirely unaffected by the changes. She must have been a very, very calm pony... or had she not even noticed? I paused the world for a moment to think. First a pony I didn't recognize showed up, then she broke the law by mentioning that name, and she followed up by failing to react at all to my anger.

And she didn't freeze along with the rest of the world. I realized she had been flipping through her charts, watching me intently the whole time.

"You're not - "

"No. I am not under your power, not even here." She paused, then her form glowed a soft white and flowed into another shape, one much more familiar. "Perhaps I should not have attempted to blend in this time."

"Princess Luna?" I blinked twice, and changed the scenery several times to make sure this wasn't a fluke. It wasn't. The midnight-blue alicorn gave me a small, indulgent smile, before returning to her initial solemn expression.

"Hello, Sweetie Belle. I've been watching you for some time now, but I had not been informed your condition was quite so... dire." I blinked once again. My condition? What condition? I didn't have -

Darkness.

"You really shouldn't have done that, darling." A voice full of warmth, kindness, love, generosity. A voice that lingered, haunting my nightmares when I tried to rest.

"No! Stop it, stop it, stop it!" I screamed, returning us to Ponyville. Every building shook with the power of my voice, but my visitor remained unflappable. The torment was gone. I wasn't trapped anymore. I got on just fine, so long as I stayed away from the Carousel Boutique. There was something wrong about that place. I stammered a little as I told the princess, "D-don't ever do th-that again."

"I am sorry, Sweetie. You appear to be protecting yourself from certain memories here. It must end." Her expression saddened, and buildings raced past. I recognized the one that stopped in front of us, and immediately banished it.

It didn't go away. I immediately knew: she was stopping me.

"Let go!" I ordered. Princess Luna did not react, though her eyes seemed fixed on me. "I can't have this place. Let go."

"Will you trust me?" What?!

"Why should I trust you?! Ever since you came here, you've caused nothing but trouble! You've spoken her name, you've broken my laws, and you've tried to scare me! You - "

"I am here to help you, Sweetie Belle, and Princess Twilight Sparkle asked this of me as a personal favor." Luna had cut me off, and I fumed indignantly. Who did she think she was? This place was mine, and my word was law. "You know why Diamond Tiara - and she who shall not be named - are not in your Ponyville. You pick and choose memories and make a goddess of yourself, child, and an angry one when anything challenges your power.

"I know this feeling intimately, Sweetie Belle. I was made a monster by it." She seemed unable to look at me directly as she made the admission. "I try to speak of it little, but though much of Equestria still seems to believe so, I did not appear from nowhere. I was Nightmare Moon."

"Wait, really? I thought that was just a Nightmare Night prank," I said. The alicorn shook her head, and everything I knew about Nightmare Moon flashed through my mind at once. Daddy reading me the old mare's tale; Mommy saying Nightmare Moon would get me if I didn't brush my teeth before bed every night; Nightmare Moon herself appearing at the Summer Sun Celebration more than a year ago.

"Power and anger made a madmare of me. I struck down those who challenged or merely disagreed with me. I tried to control everything." Her expression fell deeper and deeper into shame the more she spoke, until at last she had to turn her head away entirely, staring into the grass by the path. "I hated and resented my sister, and I tried to destroy the world because of her." Abruptly, she fixed a stern look on me, straight in the eyes. "I cannot permit others to share my madness. You must come with me, Sweetie Belle, before you succumb as I did."

The Boutique began to stir, with a long, deep groan, and I froze. A chill ran through me, and I whimpered involuntarily.

"No. No, no, no. You have to leave now. You're waking it up." Luna turned, and gave the growing building a critical once-over before shaking her head.

"No, child. I am waking you. This, no matter how dark and angry it may appear, is yours - and your doing. Come, and I will guide you." The princess extended a wing, drawing me close as the monstrous Boutique began to creep towards us. The place roared, but she cried out over the din with ease. "Swallow us, thou foul thing! Do what thou must, and fulfill thy purpose!"

"What?! No! I don't want to be eaten!" I screamed, waving a hoof wildly for a change to some other scene, any other. Nothing happened - she had trapped me in one place, and the strength of her wing alone was such that I could not pull away. The Boutique, stretched to gargantuan and grotesque proportions, loomed over us. Luna seemed unperturbed, but as the whole thing began to crash down upon us, I screamed again - this time without words. My eyes screwing shut and my face in my hooves, I curled up in a defensive ball to die.

Nothing happened. When nothing continued to happen, I finally risked a look up at the silenced beast.

There was no beast, just a ceiling. Its arches and diamond patterns were too familiar, but it wasn't trying to eat me anymore. Slowly, I pulled myself to my hooves. The place almost appeared normal, if it weren't for the kitchen being the only room.

"Drink your milk, Sweetie." Her voice, once sweet, roared in my ears with each word. I could feel it again: the nameless one jamming a funnel all the way into my throat. Once again I had to swallow or be drowned, and I started to cry.

"Mo, aahp! Aah uuuhpf! Oowa, ehhp!" I had meant to call for the princess to help me, but she was gone. My body started to slow down, and my legs froze in place. Milk sloshed around me, surging towards a door that wasn't there before; its tide carried me away, flowing out of the kitchen and upstairs to her craft room.

She was there, standing next to a crystalline statue that used to be the school bully, Diamond Tiara. I whimpered.

"Please, not again. Don't do this to me again." The milk had gone, but its replacement was far worse. I couldn't bear to look at her as I cried.

Then, I couldn't cry. My vision filled with gemstone patterns, and became dark. I was thrust back into an endless void of sensationlessness. I could see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing, smell nothing. It wasn't that nothing was there - it was that I had no senses at all.

Except this time, a pinprick of white beckoned to me. It was so small, or so far away, or... something, but it was there, hanging in the emptiness like the first star of evening. I found myself drifting towards it - or it drifted towards me, I wasn't sure - and it grew. It had been no larger than the head of a pin, but it grew to a pea, then a marble. Larger and larger it grew, and faster and faster I was sucked towards it, falling through the nothing until I could see nothing but the bright white. For a second time, I was swallowed whole.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

I woke up. It wasn't a clean transition, as it had been for as long as I dared to remember. Instead, my head was all fuzzy, and there was a bright light in my eyes. I groaned and waved a hoof in its direction; it dimmed, letting me wake up more comfortably. I poked my dry lips with my equally-parched tongue, and groaned again. I needed water, and sat up -

I fell back into bed, my breath knocked out of me by a flash of gray and a pain in my chest. Somepony had hopped up on my bed and was straddling me.

"Well, look who's finally awake," hissed a too-familiar voice. I grimaced, forcing out words as I tried to catch my breath.

"Get... off me... Silver Spoon."

Chapter Two

Author's Note

There's some relatively mild gore late in this chapter. Still barfable for the more squeamish, so fair warning.

Chapter Two

Things hadn't quite gone to plan. I'd intended to throw Silver Spoon through a wall for daring to attack me, but instead, the wave of my hoof had brought somepony who told her to stay out of other ponies' rooms - and that it was time for breakfast. She'd given me a killing glare before leaving. The pony who took her away for me said he was surprised to see me awake - why was everypony treating that as unusual? - and that the doctor would be by to see me shortly. Then he left, too.

That was okay, I supposed. Waking up was really slow, so much that it reminded me of - so slow that I needed more time. The room was brightening again, but my eyes had adjusted. I looked around, and wow, everything was white. The walls, floor and ceiling; my bed, and its empty twin off to the side; the shafts of light pouring into the room, divided by the bars outside the window. Even the mare entering the room was white.

"Good morning, Sweetie Belle," the earth pony said, adjusting glasses that magnified her purple eyes comically. Impossibly, she was another pony I didn't recognize. Where were they all coming from? They couldn't all be Princess Luna, could they? Or maybe that was why only one unfamiliar pony at a time was showing up--

"I've been waiting for so long." Her mane was purple. In an instant, it straightened from gentle puffs to an elegant curl, and her brilliant blue eyes flashed at me. It was her. I screamed, diving off the bed in desperation to have anything between us. Somehow, she had gotten in again. She took a few steps towards me. "Why, whatever is the matter, Sweetie?"

"Stay away from me! I'm not thirsty!" An indescribable white-and-purple mass descended over me, and I screamed again, kicking and flailing at its smothering embrace. "I'm not thirsty! Don't hurt me!"

"Oh, Sweetie, you know I would never hurt you!" the mass roared in my ears. I screamed and fought, but only became more tangled. "Nopony will ever hurt you again!"

There was a pinch in the side of my neck, and a weight holding me down. Everything was shimmering pale blue, and my legs became harder to lift, until finally, I stopped moving. That was it, then. I was going to--

"I think she's calmed," an unfamiliar voice said. The weight and the blue shimmer disappeared, and the white peeled away to reveal a gray pegasus mare and a pink unicorn stallion looking down at me with concern. The latter spoke to me again. "Are you feeling any better?"

"Where did she go?" I glanced around a bit slowly, but she was nowhere in sight. The pegasus did look vaguely familiar, though... wait. "Are you Princess Luna?"

"No," they said together, after trading curious glances. The mare continued, "Should I be?"

"No - I mean, yes, but..." I was starting to feel a bit groggy, and shook my head. What had it been? I started to kick the rest of the white off me, and it turned out to be a sheet. I could feel my face start to warm up in embarrassment. "...sorry."

"Quite alright. Are you feeling any better?" the unicorn asked. He offered me a hoof to get up by, and I took it, though once standing I immediately felt dizzy and spread my hooves for better balance. "I'm Doctor Rose, by the way. This is our intern, Miss Dusty Scrolls."

"Nurse Dusty Scrolls," she corrected. The unicorn rolled his eyes.

"Please, let's have that discussion in private." The pegasus snorted. "Now, Sweetie Belle, I think it would be a good idea to get some solid food. You've been asleep for quite some time."

I nodded, prompting another wave of dizziness, and walked carefully after Doctor Rose. The pegasus nurse excused herself as we progressed slowly through a hallway. We passed one identical door after another on the right, and blank wall space on the left. She didn't show her face again, so only thing that changed as we walked was the numbered plaque next to each room. It had been counting down from 34 at mine, and the dizziness was gradually getting better as we went. Rose stopped me, however, as we passed a counter.

"This is the pharmacy. If you need any medicine, you'll be able to pick it up at this counter. And over there is the emergency exit, which will open if there's a fire, or anything else dangerous happens." I glanced towards the door he indicated. It actually said Fire Exit across it in big, red letters. We started walking again, approaching the opposite end of the hallway from my room. "Here's the group therapy room, and right over there is the cafeteria. Breakfast just started, and your plate should be along in a few minutes. Why don't you have a seat with that Silver filly while you wait? She's been very concerned for your recovery, and I'm sure she'd love to know you're up."

"But she--" When I turned to protest to him, Doctor Rose was gone. I shrugged. Ponies did have a tendency to come and go. Looking out over the cafeteria, I saw a lot of foals and not many open spaces. I could sit next to some temporarily-greenish colt who was vomiting after trying to drink an egg yolk through his nose with a straw, or Silver Spoon, alone at a small table in the corner. I wasn't surprised nopony would sit next to her; she was never very nice to anypony but Diamond Tiara. That wasn't the only thing that struck me as off about her, but oh, well. If she was mean to me, I could just get her taken away again. I went ahead and crossed through the room's general din to sit with her.

"About time you got up. What are you, like, some kind of bum?" I rolled my eyes as I took a seat. The filly wasn't wasting any time when it came to being mean, but I'd had a lot of time to rehearse for her usual antics.

"What's the matter, Silver Spoon? Are you upset that you have to sit alone, because you've been so mean to everypony that even Diamond Tiara won't put up - ngh!" Under the table, she managed to kick me straight in the belly. Her expression remained dull, almost uninterested, as I gasped for breath. This was very new. Since when did Silver Spoon actually hit ponies?!

"You don't deserve to talk about her," she said matter-of-factly, before taking a nibble at her toast. I groaned, protecting my middle with a foreleg. She reached across the table and gave me a condescending pat on the head.

"You--"

"Here, Sweetie Belle!" Doctor Rose said cheerily. He set a covered plate down in front of me. "It's nice to see you two catching up. Maybe you can even help each other!" I turned to respond, but he was already halfway to the door, and I sighed, taking the cover off my plate to see what I'd been given. It looked like breakfast would be buttered toast and a scrambled egg or two. That, a small cup of apple juice, and a fork stared back at me.

"A-hem." My attention was drawn back to the bully on the other side of the table. I glared at her, and she rolled her eyes. That was the other thing off about her: her face looked very different without glasses. "Well?"

"Well, what?" I reached out to grab my fork telekinetically, and... nothing happened. Nearly crossing my eyes, I looked up to the tip of my horn, just visible in the upper edges of my vision. It was covered in some kind of black sleeve, and I poked at it with a hoof. The texture was that of some sort of cloth, but it was at the same time cool, metallic, and form-hugging.

"Stupid blank-flank. Don't you know what a horn clamp is? It means you aren't allowed to use magic, and I can see why. You're so clumsy, you might hurt yourself." She snickered, but I ignored her for a moment, following the sleeve to the base of my horn. It seemed to be attached to some heavier metal ring, along which I could feel two little bumps on opposite sides. I shrugged, and turned my focus back to my breakfast. Unlike an older unicorn, I was still used to using silverware with my hooves from time to time, and that's precisely what I did. I was rewarded with another kick, though it struck the leg I had been protecting myself with.

"Ow! Knock it off, Silver Spoon! What's wrong with you?!"

"Diamond Tiara. Don't you ever think of what happened to her?"

"I try not to." I took a bite of egg, and Silver Spoon kicked me again. I shot her another glare. I was being as tolerant as I could, but I was half a step away from banishing her to the moon again. "I said, stop!"

"Ugh, talking with your mouth full! You're such an uncultured little filly." She rolled her eyes, seeming ignorant of the peril she was in. But she was right, even though I didn't want to admit it: I had been raised better than that. "Chew, swallow, and listen, okay? If you can behave like a proper filly for like, five minutes, I'll tell you what's wrong."

"Fine," I grumbled, after swallowing. It wasn't that hard to sit and eat properly, and while I usually tried not to think about it, I had gotten kind of curious. Without Diamond Tiara to hide behind, Silver Spoon rarely - if ever - risked the odds of somepony fighting back against her meanness.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Silver Spoon stepped inside the Carousel Boutique, the bell over the door jingling as usual. Diamond Tiara had been missing all week, and when they last talked, Diamond had said her daddy was sending her to get a dress made. When the weekend came with no sign of the pink filly, Silver had set out to ask if anypony saw where she went - but the place seemed empty. Somepony really needed to learn to lock the doors... well, if nopony was home to ask, she could still take a quick look around for clues.

It wasn't long before there was only one place left to check - a door, just barely ajar, that led into darkness and seemed to radiate a sense of foreboding. She steeled herself, carefully pushed the door open, and stepped forward as quietly as she could, urged to silence by instinct. Fumbling in the dim stairwell, Silver Spoon carefully made her way down to the near-blackness at the bottom and paused to get her bearings. The sole point of light in the basement's gloom, a tiny gemstone lamp, illuminated a shock of light purple mane and the vague outline of a young pony standing by the far wall.

"Diamond Tiara?" There was no reply. Silver gathered her nerves and advanced carefully across the floor, barely keeping her balance as she tripped over the indistinct forms of tools and containers. Finally, she took the lamp down from its hook and held it up to the other filly.

"Oh, it's you." Her voice dripped disdain as the light revealed the face of Tattle Telle.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"Hey!"

"Whatever. Do you want to know what happened or not?" I gave her the most dignified huff I could, along with a reluctant nod.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"Why are you hiding down here? I've been looking for Diamond Tiara all afternoon!" No response. The filly didn't even move. Silver rolled her eyes and turned away. "Whatever. I don't have time for--"

Her jaw dropped, leaving her sentence unfinished. Moving the lamp again had revealed another young pony lurking in the darkness. The white-streaked purple mane, the familiar ornament mounted on her head, and the raw, twisted expression of horror frozen into sparkling pink features told her more than she needed to know.

The police found three frozen fillies in the basement: Diamond Tiara, Tattle Telle, and Snitchaloo. Silver Spoon didn't keep track of the other two; Diamond was her only friend. She refused to leave the pink filly's side as Mr. Rich, still grinning after the order for Rarity's arrest, had Diamond Tiara sent to the best and most expensive hospital in Equestria, Canterlot's Center for Medicomagical Solutions and Rehabilitation. Silver lived by the side of the bed her friend had been laid awkwardly sideways on, eating, sleeping, and doing homework within the confines of a tiny, sterilized white room.

There were visitors, at first. Ponies kept coming by to leave flowers and cards, both from Diamond's family and her own. A few ponies she didn't recognize came around as well, probably to curry favor with the Riches. After the first week, though, almost nopony visited but nurses. Occasionally, a doctor would stop in as well, testing spells that would invariably fail. Sometimes, Mr. Rich would come to visit his daughter, but he would do paperwork the whole time.

By the end of the month, the flowers had withered and been discarded, and Silver Spoon was the only pony who stayed. Nopony else really cared, or did more than bring her food and homework. Weeks went by like this, though the gray filly didn't bother to keep track of time. Over and over, hospital staff would urge her to go home and get some real rest, but she refused, and they couldn't make her leave after Diamond's daddy said she could stay as long as she wanted.

Silver Spoon was there for the last treatment. Four unicorns filed in together, all in hospital scrubs, and she took a well-practiced step out of the way to let them work. All of them took up positions and surrounded the bed, though with enough space between them for her to see her frozen friend clearly. After a few customary readiness and procedural notes were taken, the four doctors bowed their heads together in concentration. Magic glowed around the horn of each, before lancing out towards the other three and a central point. The colored beams blended together, forming a purplish-pink pyramid over the bed and around the gemstone filly.

A brilliant magenta flash forced Silver to cover her eyes and turn away, but she wasn't quick enough to avoid being momentarily blinded. Over the groans of the doctors, though, she finally heard the cries of a voice that had become too precious for words.

"Daddy, Celestia, help me! Daddy, Celestia, help me! Daddy, Celestia, help me! Daddy, Celestia..." Silver Spoon sprang from her chair, squealing in delight. She hopped onto one of the unicorns' backs, and from there to the bed, dragging her friend into a tight hug.

"Ohmygosh Diamond Tiara ohmygosh you're okay!" In that moment, the entire world was her and her Diamond. It was like every hope and dream she'd ever had since that horrible day, all coming true at once. She knew she was crying, but she was also too happy to care.

"... Silver Spoon?" She pulled her head back from the pink filly's shoulders.

"Yes?"

"You're messing up my mane." She hadn't changed a bit. Silver buried her face in the familiar purple mane, darkening it with wet streaks. Then she started to moan, and squirmed in obvious pain. "Ugh... I... I feel awful."

"But it's okay now! You're all fixed and--" The gray filly cut herself off with a shriek. Diamond's' face was withering before her, her eyes becoming sunken in their sockets. Patches of pink fur started to fall away, revealing blanched skin stretched tight - cracked, and oozing blood in some places - over the bones and shrunken, puny muscles.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"Oh Celestia! Stop! I don't want to hear any more!" My insides tightened uncomfortably, but my command was met with a smile that was at once tearful and malicious.

"The doctors couldn't separate us, you know? She clung to me as she died..."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"Miss Spoon, Miss Tiara, please let go of each other! We need space to work, here!" one of the doctors pleaded. Another took charge of the situation, issuing orders as he tore into the cabinets of medical tools.

"The spell overcorrected; she's starved and dehydrated! I need a heart monitor five minutes ago! Doctor Rose, get Doctor Asclepius in here immediately! We need nutritive and blood plasma infusions now! You, give Diamond Tiara your strongest painkiller!" Instantly, the room was abuzz with activity and magical auras. Soft pink surrounded Diamond's head and neck, and after a couple of seconds, she was able to lay her head back and give the other filly a soft, sad smile - though she winced when the effort tore open her cheeks. Her smile spread into a ghastly, bloody grin that stretched literally from ear to ear, and only a crumbling, bleeding pink hoof over Silver's mouth stopped the filly from screaming.

"Hey, Silver Spoon..." Diamond croaked. Silver whimpered as she let the nearly-skeletal filly pull her down into another embrace, though the exposed, meatless bones pressing into her coat made her shudder. "I'm going to die now, aren't I."

It wasn't a question, but the response was still a tear-drenched, trembling nod. Diamond looked away.

"I don't want to... to go like this," she whimpered, as the horrible stink of decay began to fill the room. It was like the one time a wealthy gryphon had visited the Rich family while Silver Spoon was over, and the family had served him meat-based dishes of unknown origin at dinner. As if that hadn't smelled horrible enough, he had quickly dismissed himself to the bathroom during whatever political discussion kept everypony at the table. The reeking stink of meat-based diarrhea had wafted through the room, growing in strength and stench, until the fillies started gagging and choking on it and fled the mansion. Even so, Silver still would have preferred it to the smothering, deathly odor enveloping her then.

"Remember me, okay? Not like--" Diamond coughed, spattering Silver's face with blood and something even more putrid. "Not like Daddy. Remember me."

Even as Diamond Tiara's flesh started to disintegrate into little chunks of meat, and her eyes dried to the size of raisins, she added her final word. She said, in earnest for the first time:

"Please."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

I shoved my plate away and ran as nausea started to overtake me. I caught Silver Spoon's smirk out of the corner of my eye, but that was a lot less important than finding a toilet. Somepony yelled at me to slow down, but I didn't have a choice. The hallway was starting to spin around me, walls and doors approaching at weird angles -

The floor hit me in the face. I stumbled, trying to right myself, and hit a wall, then my muzzle met the floor again. When I yelped in pain, vomit spewed out in place of a cry. Darkness settled around my eyes, and I was glad to pass out.

Chapter Three

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.