"Losing Faith" (Grimdark short

MLP short - "Losing Faith"

"Celestia, people were dying. There was nothing I could do."

"Twilight, there is always something you can do!"

"How do you know so much about this anyway! We didn't even know creatures like this existed before this!"

There she sat, as tears streamed from her face. Broken and helpless, unable to do anything.

"It pains me to see you in grief."

"WELL IT SHOULD! Ponies died and there was nothing I could do! NOTHING!.."

Silence fell into the courtyard.

"I'm sorry... I've just never seen anything like this before. None of your training prepared me for anything like this."

Neither Twilight or Celestia talked. Their eyes washing over each other, examining every bit of the other pony's face. The nervous twitch in Celestia's ear, the now drying tears on Twilight's face.

Then, Celestia spoke.

"Do you want to know the truth, Twilight Sparkle?"

"Yes, I do."

9:46 AM

Faith sat at a table in her favorite cafe in all of Manehatten for breakfast, "The Morning Milk".

Salad, toast and a tall glass of orange juice were placed on the table. The sun outside was bright, and it was a beautiful day. She felt sure that nothing could go wrong. Today was the start of a fresh new weekend. She had a few activities lined up with some of her friends, nothing much, but she knew it was enough to take her mind off her job, where she worked as manager for a slowly dying fashion shop chain. The door opened and the bells attached to them jingled to signal the arrival of a new customer. Looking up, one of her friends, walked in to the Cafe.

"Hey Rose!"

"Hia Faith, how's your morning turning out so far?"

Rosebud, or Rose as Faith liked to call her, was a childhood friend. They had spent countless hours together over the years, to the point where they sometimes knew the other more than themselves. They had done whatever foals were into at their age, from combing each other's hair, playing dress up to even flirting with colts when they were older. They were the kind of friends even a fight between them could not separate them.

11:31 AM

It had taken Faith a hour extra to escape the Cafe. Time just seemed to fly when she was enjoying the company of a good friend like Rose. She had finished her breakfast fairly quickly, but still had spent a fair amount of time afterwards in the cafe. Not that she minded, of course, but now she was late. She rushed off to the market, as she had planned a picnic at one with her friends and had promised to bring the food. Luckily the market wasn't far, and she didn't need much. One large potato salad and a few packaged sandwiches later, and she was ready. She realized she had forgotten a few things at home, although anxious about the time, she headed back home for the last stop.

12:35 AM

She rushed around her house, grabbing the things she would need for the picnic. A blanket, a frisbee, a board game and few other things. She tossed them into a bag along with the food. Halfway out the door, she turned around and rushed back inside. She opened her oven and removed a slow-bake cake that she had set to cook earlier that morning. Carefully placing the cake inside a container, and then on top of the other contents of her picnic bag, she ran out the door to meet her friends in the park for a perfect picnic, on the perfect day.

5:20 PM

The picnic had gone perfectly. She and her friends had eaten, played games and talked while enjoying the warm daylight. Time once again that day had flown by.

Tired from the days activities, she fixed herself some instant food, watched a hour or so of TV, then prepared for and went to bed. A day well done.

2:03 AM

She woke to the sound of a loud scream. She lived in the middle of the city, often the overtired and most commonly drunk Ponies out at this time made sounds of laughing and screaming, so she didn't even think to open her eyes. At the time of the second scream, a loud crash and the smell of smoke her eyes flicked open. Her room was illuminated with dancing red light, streaming in from her closed drapes. She got out of bed within milliseconds. Normally she took a few minutes to get up in the morning, but not today. Adrenalin coursed through her veins. For the second time, she ran full flight out the front of her house.

2:45 AM

At first she had rushed through the smoke in an attempt to find any other pony stuck or trapped that she could help, but soon fear overcame determination as she became hopelessly lost in the smoke and fire. Running panicked through the chaos, she tripped over something and came to a crashing stop. Looking back, she saw she had tripped over a corpse, burned and badly cut. Starting at the top left of the head, a long and deep cut ran down the dead ponies face, ending just beneath the chin. Making the mistake of further looking down, she saw that the corpse's belly had been torn open, revealing a terrible sight. Instantly she felt sick, almost ready to collapse next to the dead body. Unable to look away, she noticed the last detail that sent her over the brink.

"Rose...? Rosebud..!? ROSE?"

She simply sat and screamed, as if maybe her screams would wake the clearly dead and ravaged body of Rosebud. Then, she passed out.

"Lost in smoke, choked in flame, rattled by the sounds of death.

Chaos has no bounds, knows no limits and spares no mercy."

3:10 AM

The smoke had cleared a little when she woke, but not by much. Feeling sick, she attempted to rise to her hooves. She stood for a few seconds, just enough to see the dark misty form in front of her. Her knees shakes violently and she collapsed to the ground. The shadowy figure bent over her, as she trembled, paralyzed in fear. Her fear was broken however, when a golden beam of light irrupted out of nowhere and struck the shadow. Then another. Turning to look at the source, she saw a group of six young ponies collectively working together to cast the spells. A shadow crept over their faces. Their looks of confidence bled to fear and helplessness. Turning her head to look back at the shadow she saw that the golden flashes of light simply bounced off it. The shadow recoiled for a brief second, then launched it's self into the air at the group of ponies. There was a flash of light, and the ponies disappeared, leaving the beast to land on empty space. Knowing this may be her best chance at an escape, Faith began to run in the opposite direction of the shadow. Then she collided with a wall. Hard and solid. She gasped at the shock of the impact. Confused she turned around dizzily. Two hands caught her. Sudden fear hit her. The hands pressed her against the wall, out of the smoke came the shadow, long arms stretched from its body. The shadow grew close, and seemed to watch her for a moment, then recoiled showing short teeth. Then it pounced on her.

Twilight hadn't taken her group of friends far away from the beast when she had teleported them. Just far enough to escape the beast, it had proven it couldn't be defeated, not easily anyway. Defeat coursed through all the ponies bones. Manehatten was a wreak, ponies were dead and they hadn't defeated the beast. Twilight hung her head. She had failed. Failed Celestia, and by doing so, herself. Suddenly screams split the air. Terrible screams of unbearable pain, mocking Twilight. Then she made a decision.

Five ponies found themselves in Celestia's castle.

"Where's Twilight?"

She ran towards the sounds of the screams. She knew the beast was keeping her barely alive just to toy with her. Rounding a street corner, there she saw it. The shadow, slowly dragging its teeth down Faith's belly, leaving long wounds and making Faith scream in pain. Twilight could only watch for a minute. Then with unbearable hate, hate for the shadow, hate for what it had caused, hate for even Celestia, who had sent her on a mission that she could not fix with friendship, she began a spell. A spell intwined with chaos. Dark purple and green magic sparks flew from her horn. The shadow exploded into thousands of bits. A dirty smell fled through the air. Now that the shadow was gone, she could she the pony the shadow  had been torturing. Bleeding out, but still alive, Faith whimpered. The spell that defeated the shadow had left her exhausted, but there was one more spell that needed to be done. With a few more sparks of green and purple, Faith's heart stopped. No more pain.

Twilight used the last of her strength to teleport to Celestia.

"Welcome back."

"Celestia... I failed."

No answer back.

"Celestia, it was torturing her! There was nothing I could do."

"Twilight, there is always something you can do!"

"I DID DO SOMETHING! How do you know so much about this anyway! We didn't even know creatures like this existed before now!"

There she sat, as tears streamed from her face. Broken and helpless, unable to do anything.

"It pains me to see you in grief."

"WELL IT SHOULD! Ponies died, and we're ripped apart and there was nothing I could do! NOTHING!.."

Silence fell into the courtyard.

"I'm sorry... I've just never seen anything like this before. None of your training prepared me for anything like this."

Neither Twilight or Celestia talked. Their eyes washing over each other, examining every bit of the other pony's face. The nervous twitch in Celestia's ear, the tears on Twilight's face.

Then, Celestia spoke.

"Do you want to know the truth, Twilight Sparkle?"

"Yes, I do."

"Everything you have faced... I have set up."

"What?"

"Except for discord of course and my sister of course."

"C-Celestia..? You..."

"Please don't be angry."

"You made me go through all this?"

"Yes, but only to have you learn, I would never wa-"

"So I'm just part of your game then."

"Twilight..."

"I'm just your puppet. Forced to do whatever you will make me."

"Never forced Twilight. You always have a choice."

"You killed hundreds of people tonight by unleashing that monster."

"I made you learn more than you ever would've without that challenge."

"What if I died? How would you feel then?"

...

"That would be... Very unfortunate, but-"

"But all this is a game to you? Unleash devastation and see what I learn from it!?"

"It's not like that-"

"It's exactly like that! That shadow wasn't the monster! You are!"

"I'm sorry, you weren't ready for this yet."

"This conversation, or the beast?"

"Both."

"How can I trust you anymore? How do I know I'm not just cleaning up your mess?"

"You can't."