TANTIBUS

CHAPTER SIX

Aeon was flabbergasted. The first pony to ever believe in his stories, to ever feel sympathy for what had happened such a long time ago.  He stood there for a few seconds, confused and not knowing what to do. He looked over at the nurse, who didn’t seem to care about this incredible finding. They never believed his stories, the ponies of this world. They were so used to everything being so perfect and harmless that when the gruesome truth came out about something terrible, they would choose to ignore it and pretend it to be lies.

It was several years ago, the games had finally ended and a weak pony, shaking by fear and covered in blood, stumbled out of the Everfree forest. Somepony saw this poor colt stumbling around outside of the dark forest and came to his assistance. Driven by his fear, he rambled like crazy about a place in the forest who had forced a gruesome battle between fellow innocent ponies. As he entered the village, and more ponies were witnessing his desperate stories, they began to suspect madness.

They sent him to Canterlot for examination, that’s where he stopped talking and lost his power of speech. The doctors found nothing wrong with his physical shape and they suspected that maybe a curse had been laid on his soul. That forest was a dark place and no major expeditions has been made there, and its secrets where remains a mystery. For what the doctors knew, anything could’ve happened to Aeon in there, as they suspected that he had gone lost in there. They thought that spending days in that forest must’ve driven him crazy and that he maybe even stumbled upon a curse.

The psychologists suspected a traumatic experience in his childhood had cost a refusal of speech that later lead to the loss of the ability completely.

Nopony quite knows why he never talked. The doctors called it a curse, the psychologists blamed the traumatic experience that they didn’t even know of. Maybe they were right, maybe the memories from Tantibus alone caused it. Or perhaps, in his deeper self, he did not want to speak.

The mysteries called for the authorities to give up the empty search for a cure and simply put him in the mental hospital as a temporary solution. There, he was forgotten.

The first few weeks of staying at the mental institution he could not sleep because of his hauntings. He stayed up whole nights and drew images on his black board. By the mornings, the nurses could find horrific and vividly detailed drawings of a mansion, and the gruesome murders of its soulless hall. This eventually led to the confiscation of his chalk, only given to him while a nurse was present. Eventually, knowing that it wouldn’t change anything, he stopped with his drawings, got the chalk back and became a very stiff and mute prisoner of this hospital.

In this moment, one thing he knew for sure, if he told this Twilight Sparkle of his memories the nurse would easily suspect a relapse into the madness he was driven by at first. So, in order for this visit to lead anywhere, they had to be alone.

That’s when he turned around, grabbed the white and tiny piece of chalk and got drawing. He starting writing on his sentence: Leave me alone with her.

But the worst case scenario occurred just after finishing “ALONE” and he dropped the chalk and saw as it rolled in deep under the bed.

The nurse got the wrong message as she could only read “Leave me alone” and told Twilight that “I’m sorry but you will have to leave now. Maybe you can come back later?”

Aeon started to panic. He knew he didn’t have the time to lie down and try to reach for the chalk as they would’ve left the room by then. If he tried launching himself at them in order for her to stay, they would put him to sleep for violent charge or aggressive behavior.

This visitor is the only pony so far, perhaps in all of Equestria, to know of his experiences. Maybe she knew more about Tantibus. Maybe she knew how to end it, the memories and the nightmares. But now she was leaving, thinking that Aeon was a stubborn hermit not wanting any visitors.

As the mute mental patient he was, he was in the dead center of panic.

He had to act, and he had to act fast. There was only one way he could make himself understood now… speech. He put all of his efforts and mental focus onto his rusty vocal cords. Pushing it further than ever before as he knew that the key to the secrets of the most miserable part  of his life was depending on two words: with her

He felt the vibration and made a short and silent screech from his throat. The nurse looked back confused, but then preceded with leading Twilight out the door.

“Aaargghh!” Aeon yelled. It was painful and it wasn’t loud, but it was more than enough for the nurse to rush over to him with a worried expression. Twilight on the other hand, was significantly confused as to this sudden outburst.

“Are you alright?” The nervous nurse asked him. “Where is your chalk?”

“with her…” his rusty and painful throat expressed, but it was indecipherable for the nurse to hear. After the failed attempt he gave more effort than he ever thought he could as he this time clearly shaped the words “with her”.

The nurse was surprised by the fact that he actually spoke for the first time in years but was of course confused by these two, seemingly random, words. “’With her’? What do you mean, Aeon?”

After pointing at the black board with the unfinished text “Leave me alone” the nurse finally got the message. She was feeling so many mixed feelings and was unsure whether to take him to a doctor or alert all personnel by these words, coming from a mute patient. But since he had given so much effort into his request, the nurse decided to leave him alone with her as it must have meant a lot to him.

As she left the room and closed the door, Twilight rose up from her seat and approached Aeon in sympathy. “Are you okay?”

Aeon decided to draw instead of speak again. He wrote two simple words; IT HURTS

“I understand that, Aeon. You haven’t spoken for years! Of course it hurts.”

Aeon looked up with a slightly angry expression. He wrote a large ‘NO!’ on the black board.

“No?” Twilight questioned.

Aeon then proceeded with erasing the ‘NO!’. He also erased ‘IT’ and replaced it with ‘EVERYTHING’.

EVERYTHING HURTS

“I see.” Twilight understood now. “You are reliving them, aren’t you? The memories.”

Aeon nodded silently in response. He covered up a small ‘sniff’ and then drew on the blackboard, without even looking at it, ‘What do you know?’.

“I’ll tell you. But first I want to help you.” Twilight responded. Aeon looked confused as Twilight let her inner Fluttershy activate. She led the sniveling colt to the bed and laid him down comfortably. Then she pulled out the chair again and took her seat as she told the story to the veteran breaking down in tears.

“You see, during the past few days I have had… erhm… visions about you and what happened in that mansion. The visions never showed me how it ended, though. That is why I came for you. Not only to know what happened, but also because I thought you needed a friend, someone who believes you and can be there when you need it.” She lied a bit about the whole ‘friend’ part, but now when she saw what this challenge really can do to a pony, the pure sadness broke her apart and she wanted to say anything to make him feel better. It worked; he looked like all hope was not lost. He maybe even just got a cause to keep living.

“Well, I can tell you what I’ve seen. Is that okay?”

He nodded.

“Do you think you can tell me the rest after?”

He shrugged his shoulders as ‘maybe’. That’s good enough, Twilight thought and told him what she saw in her dreams. She never mentioned anything about seeing it all from Maverick’s point of view, being afraid that that might scare him. He’d maybe think that she was the killer all along, somehow. She just wanted to be careful.

She described, in third person, what happened that time. The waking up, the appearance of the rules and the arsenal. She finished her story with Maverick’s killing of Dawna. She told him that it wasn’t intentional by Maverick, but he didn’t seem to get the message about that.

“That’s all I saw… before… the connection to the visions broke…” She really had to get a better excuse but now it was too late, obviously. “How are you feeling?”

“Oh-kay…” He spoke to her. Then he took a grip around his throat and moaned. Twilight thought he was choking himself at first, but then realized it was just so painful to speak.

There is no way he can tell me anything like this, writing it on the blackboard would take too long and be so tedious… “Aeon, do you have anything against pain?”

He looked up for a second and stretched out a hoof, pointing on a cabinet door on the bookcase. Inside, there was a small jar of pills with a note. ‘Painkillers, Take Responsibly.’

She took the whole jar to Aeon, not knowing how many he is supposed to take. He opened the jar and took one. After a few seconds Twilight asked if he was feeling better. He waves his hoof around as ‘a little’.

No, this was going nowhere. Twilight had to help, with magic. “Aeon, let me try something…”

She leaned over to his throat and her horn glowed. Aeon shivered a bit in surprise but realized what was happening. Soon, the pain was gone. “It only lasts for ten minutes. This has to be quick.”

Aeon felt a little bit on his neck and throat, but then rose up, hugged her and said: “Thanks.”

“Can you tell me what happened after the death of her? Dawna.”

He closed his eyes and squeezed out a tear in the process. “I’ll try.”

His voice was very rusty. But since he was feeling no pain it was okay. The rusty voice is something that must’ve come with the years of being mute, not something that Twilight could cure with magic. At least not that easy and without intense studying.

“It was terrible. Everybody was screaming.” Aeon paused and embraced the upcoming story-telling. “Quickly, we scattered all around the hall, away from the killer that you call ‘Maverick’, but not before he could grab one more. It was Skydance, the pegasus. He grabbed her in the wing before she could get away from him. Then he stabbed her too…” Aeon let out a tear and leaned over at Twilight, who hugged him back. He redeemed himself in upright position and continued with his rustling voice.

“She dropped to the floor and… and we were screaming… I was pushing myself at the door, thinking it would maybe open… He was in the center of the room, with all weapons around him. If we were to try and grab a weapon for self-defense, he would kill before we would even have the time to touch one…” He took a deep breath, thinking of the fact that he had only ten minutes to talk. “Nopony moved… We were all waiting, for a first strike… Eventually… he picked up a spear.”

“Who? Decker?”

“No. The MONSTER.”

“What was Decker doing?”

“I don’t know. Probably writing in his book. I don’t think I would pay attention to such details when THERE IS A KILLER IN THE ROOM!” He stopped for a second... “Sorry.”

“It’s okay… Continue, please.”

“He threw the spear with incredible accuracy. He hit in the skull of Glory, sticking her to the wall. It was brutal… Why would he do such a horrible thing…” Aeon started to cry even more openly. Twilight thought that this might be the time to tell the truth. Well, partly at least.

As they hugged again, Twilight whispered to him. “That wasn’t him. He wasn’t himself…”

“What do you mean?”

“The mansion took him… as a final resort to start the challenge. He was just a puppet. Please don’t hate him. He couldn’t help it.”

“But he killed everybody.”

“No, Tantibus did. He just witnessed it. He couldn’t control his body.”

“How do you know all this?!”

“I just know.”

“Is there something you are not telling me?”

“No, I swear. Please continue, we don’t have much time. Please?”

Aeon broke the hug and continued, in an even sadder tone that before. The voice was so broken down, combining the unused vocal cords with the sobbing as a fatal combination. Without the spell, that really had to hurt. It sounded that way to Twilight, at least.

“With only me and Decker left, he turned to me of course. The weakest of the pack…”

“Don’t say that.”

“But it’s true. I am weak and pathetic. That is why he walked up to me with a katana. Then he saved me.”

“Who?”

“Decker. He shouted at Maverick, to leave me alone. He challenged him with a sword, just to have him leaving me alone. If just weren’t such a coward!”

“It is not your fault. Nothing of this is. There is nothing we can do about it now…”

“They were dueling, fighting each other. Blade against blade… But Decker was losing… badly. He even got stabbed in the front leg! I had to do something, and then I saw a sledgehammer… Not too far from where I was.”

“What happened next?”

“I grabbed it and used all of my strength to make a fatal blow to head of him.”

“How was Decker?”

“It was too late for him. He was already on the ground… dead… with a sword in his heart… Deadly precise.”

Finally, Twilight had the answer she came to Canterlot to know. How could Aeon win?

Dawna was stabbed in the throat by a sword.

Skydance was grabbed in the wing and then stabbed by the same sword.

Glory received a spear straight through the head.

Decker got stabbed in the heart with a katana while trying to save Aeon.

And Maverick got hit in the head with a blunt weapon, a sledgehammer.

But there was one question that remained unanswered. What happens when you win?

“What happened after that?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

“What? No announcing or anything? Did the doors open?”

“No, I was stuck in there. The doors were still closed. I spent almost an hour doing everything in my way to open them. I took Decker’s notebook, tore out an empty page and made it my tombstone, using his quill and blood.” That’s how it was made, Twilight thought. It makes sense now. The empty field must’ve have been the location of the mansion. Does it change places?

Aeon continued; “Dead fellow ponies all around me, one of which I killed. A pony that you now say was INNOCENT? Oh Celestia, what have I done?!”

Woops, Twilight thought as the pony broke down into tears while in her arms. It must have been horrible for him… Being stuck in a room with five dead innocent ponies… With no escape from the blood and the horrifying smell. Having the sight of death all around you for that long. No wonder people go mad. But why didn’t the doors open? I thought you were released when everypony but one was dead. At least that’s what happened to Flaming Ace. Wait a minute… What if…

“Maverick weren’t really dead, was he?”

“No… How would you know that?!”

“It was just a guess, calm down. But what happened then?”

“I thought he was dead, until he actually moved.”

“Did he try to kill you again?”

“No. If your theory was right before, I don’t think the house had control of him anymore.”

“What did he do?”

“He took his sword… and ended his suffering. I just sat there and watched.”

“I guess it is possible that you paralyzed him with your hit to his head and that Tantibus lost the control of him at that point.”

“You mean he was awake the whole time? He felt the pain, unable to move and talk, and just watched me the whole time? For more than an hour?”

“Now, that I did not say.”

“But that was what you meant! It was so, wasn’t it? Oh no… Why didn’t I do anything?! I just let him lie there and suffer for so long! What is wrong with me?! Why am I so stu… argh!”

Ten minutes had passed. The spell was over and he could feel the pain again… the pain of both sobbing and the rustling of years of inactivity. He screeched a bit, not loud at all but very meaningful. The nurse did not hear it from the other side of the door since the noise wasn’t loud. If it would’ve been louder it would’ve hurt so much more, which was something Aeon was well aware of.

His pain turned in to anger as he charged Twilight, commanding her with pain in his silenced screams. “WHO ARE YOU? HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ALL OF THIS? HOW DID YOU KNOW HE WAS A PUPPET? HOW DID YOU KNOW HE WAS ALIVE?!”

“Urhm.. I…” Mostly shocked, Twilight could not produce a valid response to Aeon.

”Argh! WHAT ELSE DO YOU KNOW?” He coughed, “DO YOU KNOW HOW TO STOP MY SUFFERING?”

It was clearly painful, but his anger pushed him to the limit, still talking. It was so strange to Twilight, how he could sound so angry with such a low volume. “DO YOU?!?!”

“Uhm… no?”

“DO YOU KNOW HOW TO STOP THIS?! PLEASE!”

“No, I don’t. I’m sorry, Aeon.” Twilight felt the guilt for reminding him of all of this. Just for her research…  “So sorry… For everything.”

“THEN THIS… argh! Then this discussion is over. Leave.”

“But Aeon! I can help!”

“Leave, NOW.”

As Twilight felt like she had no choice but to leave out the door, she patted his back before going. He pushed her hoof away, went sobbing for the jar of painkillers and poured a whole bunch of pills out, ten at least.

Should he take that many? Twilight walked out the door and the question of ‘What happens when a victor is declared?’ remained unanswered.

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“TAKE RESPONSIBLY”

In the next chapter, the games begin...