Twilight left the library and closed the door behind her. After locking it, she began walking through the town.
Her head lowered, she slowly plodded along the path. She didn’t look up as she continued on past other ponies. Keeping her gaze firmly fixed on the ground directly in front of her hooves, she followed the path that had been drilled into her mind.
Turn left at the crack shaped like a forced smile, she thought. Right at the mournful line. Past the frown. Stop at the scythe….
Twilight glanced up to see a building, but quickly returned her gaze to the ground. It was a boxy, uniformly shaped building. It projected an air of heartless caring, living death, happy sadness, miraculous curses. It was the Ponyville General Hospital.
She pushed her way through the doors. The metal felt ice cold against her hoof and chilled her to the bone.
Walking in the room, the few ponies sitting in the identical chairs spared her a glance of thinly veiled scrutiny before returning to quiet conversation or silent reading. She walked past the ponies who were now ignoring her and up to the counter.
“Afternoon,” said a cheerful mare behind the counter. “What can I do for you today?” She spoke without looking up, filing her hoof gently.
Twilight cleared her throat softly.
“Hmmm?” The mare looked up to see Twilight’s despondent form.
“I’m here.” Twilight spoke with simplicity and finality.
“...The princess?” the mare choked out, hastily attempting to bow while still in her chair.
Twilight didn’t answer; she didn’t look up.
“Why are you here?” asked the mare.
Twilight didn’t answer; she didn’t look up. She grabbed the visitor sheet and signed her name on it.
“Are you here to see someone?” asked the mare.
Turning away from the mare, Twilight began her long journey through the halls.
“Hello? Princess? Are you all right?” the mare called.
Twilight just kept walking.
The sound of her hoofsteps echoed hollowly in her ears.
The hospital staff hardly spared her a second glance; to see her was not an unusual experience. They went on with their work, their breaks, and their lives. It was just the princess. It was just another broken mare. To them, in here, she was nothing more than a crushed soul, begging for hope that would never come.
The patients occasionally called out to her. “Princess,” they would ask, “why are you here?” Sometimes they would offer an encouraging smile; others would give her a spite filled glare, hating her for walking past them without doing anything.
Twilight used to stop and talk with them—used to stop and see if she could do anything for them. But she couldn’t anymore, so she just drifted past them.
The halls mocked her as she walked. “Weak….” they whispered. “Foolish….” But she ignored them and carried on.
She stopped at the door: his door. The door read: “666”. Any of the hospital staff would say that the room was cursed; they would swear that the room was cursed. The hospital records seemed to reinforce the superstitious idea—patients who went in never came out alive.
She sighed and pushed it open.
There was a single bed in the room. It faced the window overlooking the town. The pony lying in bed was asleep; he had been for the last fifteen years.
“Hey.” Twilight finally looked up for the first time since leaving her house. The pony didn’t respond.
Twilight shook herself and smiled—a hollow, empty smile that would scare foals and bring about nightmares. “How are you today?” she asked brightly, with that same broken smile: that broken, hopeless, yearning, pleading smile that she always seemed to wear now.
The pony in the bed didn’t respond.
“I just came over to see how your day went and to tell you how mine went.” Twilight walked over to beside the bed and smiled down at the pony. She wrapped her hoof around the pony’s and pulled it to her chest.
The pony didn’t respond—couldn’t respond. His eyes were shut, and his face was expressionless.
“I had an absolutely wonderful day today! My friends and I went to breakfast together and all ordered the same thing completely by accident. We had a good laugh over that.” A hint of a real smile graced her cheeks as she thought of the memory, but the painful one soon regained dominance.
“Next we went to the spa.” She gave a single heartless laugh. “You don’t know how hard it was to convince Rainbow to go through with it. But eventually she relented, and we had all had a great time. Rainbow still won’t admit it though.”
The pony didn’t respond.
“And finally, we went to lunch. You wouldn’t believe the fuss Rarity made over a slightly over cooked salad. It was ‘Oh, I can’t possible eat this’ to ‘I’ve got crisp lettuce in my teeth’ to ‘I’m going to starve because my food is inedible’.”
The pony still didn’t respond; the pony still couldn’t respond.
“Well, that was my little adventure so far. I know you like hearing about my day, but I really want to know.... How was your day?” The smile was real now, and the amount of pleading hope in that statement was immeasurable.
The pony didn’t respond; the pony didn’t move; the pony hardly breathed.
Twilight’s smiled cracked and shattered into a million peices. She lost the will to even stand up by her own strength and sat down roughly. Burying her head into the pony’s chest, she began crying. Thick, salty tears poured down her face and onto his chest.
He didn’t even twitch.
She lay there sobbing for hours. Tear after tear matted the pony’s coat.
“Why?!” she screamed, her voice muffled.
He didn’t respond—couldn’t respond; he just lay there, barely breathing.
“Why did it have to be you?...” She threw her head back and let out a high-pitched wail at the ceiling. “Why!”
The door burst open behind her, and a nurse rushed in. “What is happen…” Her face softened upon seeing the distraught princess. She quickly walked forward and put a foreleg around Twilight’s shoulder. “There, there,” she cooed.
Twilight turned into her and grasped her with everything she had. “Why?” she whispered into the nurse’s ear.
“I don’t know,” replied the mare, returning the hug. “I just don’t know.”
“There has to be a reason,” sobbed Twilight. “Something, anything. Explain this to me,” she begged, pleaded.
“I can’t,” answered the mare, holding the sobbing princess.
“It just isn’t fair!” she shouted.
“I know it isn’t,” answered the mare over the ringing in her ears.
Twilight sniffed and wiped a few of the tears away from her face, but they were replaced seconds later. “I can’t do this anymore….” she whispered. “I just can’t keep seeing him like this…. I want you to do it today.”
“Do what?” asked the mare.
“Do it today. Do it right now.” Twilight pulled away and willed herself to stop crying, but the tears kept coming.
“I’m not authori—”
“As princess, I give you the right.”
“But…”
“Please… do it now...” murmured Twilight, lowering her head. “I don’t know if I can make the choice again.”
The nurse took a long look at Twilight. “Yes, your majesty.” She nodded and walked over to the patient.
“Make it quick…. I don’t want him to suffer any more than he has to.”
The nurse looked over her shoulder at Twilight to see a determined expression staring back at her. She nodded again and reached into a cabinet. Pulling out a small red vial with the poison symbol on it, she grasped a syringe in her hoof and stuck it into the vial. The blood red fluid quickly filled up the syringe.
“Are you sure you want me to do this?” she asked, turning to face Twilight.
“Do it,” she pleaded, commanded, begged, demanded, whispered.
The nurse turned around and slowly slid the sharp needle in between the pony’s ribs. Injecting the fluid directly into the heart, the weak pony died within minutes. He took one shuddering breath and breathed no more.
Twilight walked out of the room, tears leaking down her face. Her cries echoed eerily around her as she left.
The room was silent. The nurse lowered her head and began prepping the body for the morgue.
The lights darkened.
A sound like a thunderclap echoed through the room. It came again and again, faster and faster. Other too loud noises joined in, earthshaking stomps, shrill whistles, and more thunderous clapping.
The curtain closed, hiding the stage from view.
“What a wonderful addition to the talent show by your very own... Princess Twilight Sparkle! Give it up, Ponyville, for a magnificent performance!” yelled Mayor Mare over the applauding citizens.
Twilight walked out from behind the stage with a large smile on her face. She took a few bows and the cheering increased. Wiping the fake tears from her eyes, she picked up a rose that a pony had thrown at her and held it in her teeth, blushing slightly.
After the sounds of approval finally died down, the Mayor continued speaking, “Now, lets see what our royal judges have to say!”
“We found it most enjoyable!” shouted Luna, pounding on the desk in front of her and causing everypony in a twenty foot radius to cover their ears. “We could see that thee definitely put forth much effort in making this play to the best of thy ability!”
“I agree.” Cadance’s melodious voice soothed everypony’s aching ears as she spoke. “Your actions, expressions, tone, just... everything about you spoke of the sorrow and love you were feeling for that pony. Out of curiosity, who did you imagine him being when you wrote the play?”
“We would know as well! Speak!” shouted Luna.
“I kinda imagined him being my brother, Shining Armor. In fact, I even convinced him to play the part.”
“He's all right, though, right?” asked Cadance quickly.
“Of course, he just held his breath to give the illusion that he stopped breathi—”
“I’ll see you at home, honey!” interrupted Shining from behind stage.
“See? He’s fine,” finished Twilight with a smile.
“That is good news to our ears!” shouted Luna.
“I agree. The needle looked so realistic from here.”
“I thought it was fine, but you could have used some more random,” said Discord, teleporting Luna’s and Cadance’s mouths off of their faces so he could speak. “A little bit of backward speech here, a bit of levitating floor boards there, some jumping chairs there, you know what I’m talking about. Really would have spiced up your play. It was just so… dull and dreary as it was. Final score, al dente, hold the chips, extra hot sauce, medium rare, no takesies-backsies.”
Luna and Cadance stared at him angrily. “Hmmm? Oh, sorry ladies.” Discord snapped his fingers and the mouths reappeared. They slowly worked their jaws to make sure that they there were no ill side effects.
“Right, now for my opinion.” Twilight’s expression became fully focused on her mentor, her role model, her idol. Celestia cleared her throat gently. “You could have easily done better. The nurse was clearly just there to kill Shining, you were so mopey that I could hardly stand to look at you, except when you were clearly faking it, the entire thing was rushed, and I definitely saw Shining’s eyes open on at least three occasions. I’m disappointed in you.”
Twilight died. Right there. Dead. She fell over face first and hit the ground with a thud. Her heart seized up at the very mention of those words; not even the powers of her newly bestowed body could save her. Breathing out her last breath, she felt nothing but hatred at herself for not being able to please her mentor.
Nopony said anything for a few minutes.
“... Are you all right, my faithful student? I was simply jesting… seeing as it is a day of joy and merriment. You know I’m proud of whatever you do…. So, can you get up please?” asked Celestia hesitantly, as the other immortals gave her looks of pure disgust.
A nearby paramedic rushed over to Twilight and began furiously checking her vitals. His eyes met with Celestia’s, and he slowly shook his head.
“What do you mean ‘no’?” asked Celestia frantically, standing on her chair to get a better look. “How can you say ‘no’!?”
“She’s dead,” replied the paramedic. “Stone cold dead.”
“But…”
“Splendid job, dear sister, thy have killed thy faithful student!” shouted Luna, throwing up her hooves in exasperation.
“Now what are we going to do?” asked Cadance, tears forming in her eyes.
“I didn’t…”
“Looks like we’re going to have to find a replacement Element of Magic, know where we can get one?” asked Discord, filing his nails.
The crowd was still much too shocked to actually do anything besides stare.
Celestia sat down and buried her face in her hooves. “What have I done!” she wailed.
Honesty: It saves lives.
Author's Note
This is over a month old. I wrote this for a recently disbanded collaboration. I hope you still enjoyed it, though.
