Curses and Consequences

Pinkie gave me a few hours of silence; I needed them to process everything. The knowledge that not only her death but the death of all of the ponies she captured and tortured as well as the death of every pony here in Ponyville who was caught by the things that were haunting the darkness were on my shoulders wasn’t something I could deal with quickly.

It was my fault Pinkie went mad and died in a fit of suicidal psychosis.

It was my fault that Rainbow Dash died horribly on a slab in a dark and stinking basement.

It was my fault that all of my friends were suffering from broken elements.

And it’s my fault that Princess Celestia is risking her life fighting that… thing… in the basement at Sugarcube Corner.

To be honest I felt dead inside, all of that weight, all of the guilt was too much. It didn’t even hurt anymore, I just felt… nothing. I felt a light pressure on my shoulder as Pinkie sidled up and put a comforting hoof there.

And the dam cracked.

I saw her smiling face and her sad but accepting eyes and instantly I felt a torrential wave of hot tears falling down my face soaking my fur and the pillow I was resting against, a hot, wracking sob broke out of my throat and Pinkie pulled me into a tight hug, I buried my face in her mane and screamed my grief and sorrow out, tears cascaded like a waterfall as my muffled wails rent the air of the small underground nook we were inhabiting for the time being, two more pairs of hooves wrap themselves around me, one smelled like flowers and fine perfume, the other smelled like sweat and apples.

“A-apple…jack…. Rarity…” my voice cracked as I sobbed, “P-pinkie Pie… H-how c-can you even look at me? H-how can you e-ever f-f-forgive me?”

“Aw sugarcube…” Applejack whispered softly, she didn’t need to say anything else; she just hugged a little tighter.

“Darling… you’re the world to us, no matter what has happened,” Rarity’s calm and cultured voice broke through my sobs as she stroked my mane.

“Silly-filly…” Pinkie whispered and she pulled me closer, the smell of candy and bubblegum filled my nostrils and I sobbed violently again as a fresh wave of tears and grief swept over me.

+=+

We stood there as I wept and cried my eyes out for almost twenty minutes until it felt like there wasn’t a drop of water left in me. I felt drained and empty, it was different from before though, this time I felt like I’d gotten something out of me that needed to be released, I drained down a tall glass of water that Rarity had brought and took in a deep breath. It felt like I was breathing for the first time since this whole thing began. I knew deep down that I had a lot to atone for but there wasn’t time for that now, Fluttershy, Sweetie Belle, and the Apple family were all waiting for me, for us. I opened my mouth to say something but all words were forgotten or drowned out by the voice from outside.

It sounded like metal being dragged violently across metal; it was the voice of that thing, that horrible colt that Rarity had delayed for us. Speaking of which, at the sound of the voice I saw Rarity’s features twist into a look of hatred, her eyes turning pitch black, the pupils and whites swallowed by an inky darkness, her lips were curled into a snarl that revealed a gleaming set of needle-sharp fangs.

Pinkie scooped up Scootaloo and Applebloom, they’d been there for the entire show, and if I’d been thinking I would’ve tried to make them to be honest there nowhere really private in this small space anyway. They were smarter and stronger than they looked though, especially Scootaloo, she was keeping Applebloom strong. Fortunately neither of them knew the truth about what Pinkie had done, why she had died, they’d been told there was an accident, I knew Applebloom trusted her sister enough not to question something like that but I had a feeling Scootaloo knew more than she was letting on. She still trusted Pinkie though, I allowed myself a small inward grin, ‘Just like Rainbow Dash would’ve’ I thought to myself. I shook the thought away as quickly as it had come, it wouldn’t do me any good to think about Dashie here and now.

“Pinkie, we need to move, that thing has obviously figured out where we are, or at least that we’re in the area,” I said quickly as I grabbed what few supplies we still had, “where exactly are we?” The question had been somewhere in the back of my mind since we got here but frankly it hadn’t been on the top of the list of ‘Questions to ask your recently back-from-the-dead friend’.

Rarity was the one who answered, “We’re in an orchard less than a mile from the Apple Family Farm, it’s one of our bolt-holes, Pinkie’s and mine.”

I blinked and shook my head, “Wait, since when did you two have time to build bolt-holes? I’ve read up on them and by the look of this place it would’ve taken at least a few days to clear out, and that’s with magic.”

Rarity nodded, “I did the bulk of the work, it’s… do you remember the disappearances darling? Before the event itself? How I and a few others would vanish and then come back without any memory of what had happened?”

I put two and two together, “So wait, Pinkie was bringing you all here?” I asked incredulously.

Pinkie finally chimed in as she swept past carrying the two foals on her back, “Heh, no way silly-filly, they were just falling through the cracks, but since Rarity and I were so close back when I was alive I could feel when she was near a crack and…” She made a comical popping sound by shoving her hoof in her mouth and pulling it out rapidly that made Applebloom and Scootaloo giggle uncontrollably, “…I popped her in.”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘the cracks’ exactly?” I asked as I ventured towards the door and gingerly poked my head to check if the coast was clear.

Pinkie screwed her eyes up and wrinkled her nose as she tried to come up with an explanation that would make sense.

“It’s sort of like this…” she started, “that thing in the basement of Sugarcube Corner was like a sleeping monster, but it was waking up, and y’know how when you wake up you feel all creaky so you stretch out and stuff? Well those cracks were what happened when it ‘stretched’ I guess.”

I just cocked my head and started as I tried to take in the analogy, it wasn’t exactly Metaphysics 101 but it sort of made sense, I knew that really powerful magic could bend the rules of reality, I guess this thing would have to be powerful to actually break them to pull off what it was doing here. “So… since this thing was basically in the basement of Sugarcube Corner then the closer you were to it…”

Pinkie nodded excitedly, “Yup! The more likely it was you’d fall through a crack!”

I nodded, grasping the gist of what Pinkie was saying, “But wh-” another roar split the air and cut off my words, “Uh, maybe we’d better do this later,” I said, as I poked my head out, I saw a massive shape move out of sight, it still hadn’t found the bolt-hole but it wasn’t far off. “We’re gonna have to make a run for it girl, Rarity, you said that the Farm was only a little ways off, Pinkie, can we make it? How fast is that thing?”

“Uhm, faster than it looks I guess?” she answered unhelpfully, my gaze turned deadpan as I shook my head.

“Well it would pretty much have to be since it barely looks capable of moving at all,” I said, “Can it chase us?”

Pinkie nodded glumly, “Yea, he can, he’s probably the worst of the all the nightmares, they call him Cauchemar, I’ve never heard him talk though.”

I stopped; something about how she had phrased her words struck me as odd, almost as if… “Pinkie… who is ‘They’ exactly?”

Pinkie looked forlorn at my question, I was pretty sure I knew but I had to ask. “The others… you know… ‘Them’, Contempt was the worst, I’m glad she’s gone, Shame was almost as bad though.”

“Pinkie…” I moved close and put a hoof around her neck, “who are you talking about?”

Pinkie sniffled but met my gaze, “You killed something that looked like Fluttershy remember? Well… that was Contempt. And that other one that looked sort of like Rainbow Dash? That was Shame. They’re like… the opposite of what they should be... like everything good about them turned sour and bad.”

I shook my head trying to organize everything, “But wait… you said Rainbow wasn’t changed she wasn’t…” I didn’t want to put it into words but Pinkie got the idea.

“Because they’re not really us, they’re… the Elements of Harmony… only they’re broken… Rainbow Dash was the bearer of Loyalty so that’s why Shame looked like her. Same with Contempt.”

I nodded, finally getting it, “Pinkie… did you know them?”

Rarity cut in before Pinkie could answer, “Girls, I’d love to play explain-the-horror, really I would, but can we perhaps conduct this little soiree elsewhere before the large gentlecolt in chains and shackles decides to mount us on his trophy rack?” She was prepared, all the supplies were in saddlebags and the girls were safely secured, Applebloom to Rarity and Scootaloo to Pinkie Pie.

“Yea, sorry Rarity, alright girls, let’s go.” I said, quietly opening the door, the coast was clear so we moved softly into the ashen mists on the ground. “Pinkie, once we get to the farmhouse how will we… y’know… move back out of this….” I searched for a good word, “…Place?” I finished a bit lamely.

“Don’t worry, there are cracks all over the place, I’ll get push you three through one,” she whispered back, “Just leave it to Pinkie Pie!” I winced at her volume and she hunkered back down and covered her mouth, shooting me an apologetic look.

We stopped and glanced around but it didn’t seem as if anypony had heard her Pinkies little exclamation, somehow I wasn’t surprised, sound didn’t travel very well here, nothing did really, everything seemed frayed and dull. As we continued I finally ventured another question that had been plaguing me since I had first been pulled into this horrible place.

“Pinkie?” I whispered as we moved quietly though the orchard, “Where… or what… exactly is this place?”

“I don’t know Twilight…” she said softly, her previous enthusiasm deflated somewhat, “I’m sorry but… I really don’t… but I’ve spent a lot of time here and I can tell you it’s not a good place, not at all. There’s no laughter here and no parties, not ever. There’s never anything to celebrate, it’s all just… wrong… it’s…” she trailed off trying to find the words; oddly enough it was Scootaloo who supplied them.

“It’s where all the bad stuff goes…” the little filly whispered, she’d been listening in, she’d always been curious, I briefly wondered what all this was doing to the young pony’s mind.

Pinkie nodded wryly, “Yea, that’s it, it’s where all the bad stuff goes, and none of the good.”

“Pinkie, I need to know something else and I think you can answer me,” I started as we ducked into a section where the rotten and dying trees were thicker. Pinkie didn’t say anything but she nodded, sensing I was about to ask something unpleasant but unwilling to hold anything back. “Contempt and Shame… those were their… names?”

Pinkie cocked an eyebrow to the sky but answered, “Yea, basically, I guess they’re like titles too but it’s the same thing.”

“So… what about the others?”

Pinkie heaved sigh and nodded in understanding, “You mean the other broken Elements dontcha?”

“Yea, I do, Pinkie… if they’re as bad as the other two… I need to know what I’m, what we’re, walking into…” I said grimly, I wasn’t willing to be caught with my flank in the air again, I needed to know who my enemies were.

“I know what you really want to know and I’m sorry that I don’t have an answer, I’ve never seen the Element of Magic Twilight, I don’t even know if you have an ‘Other’,” Pinkie answered, she’d cut right to the heart of the matter.

“So what about your ‘Other’?” I wasn’t willing to let it drop without some new answers but Pinkie shook her head.

“You don’t have to worry about that Twilight, I…” she hesitated, for the first time possibly since I’d known her she looked… truly scared, “Twilight, I am the ‘Other’.”

I went to a dead stop, staring cock-eyed at the shade of my dead friend, Rarity had stopped too, she had a look on her face as though she had expected this which at least told me one thing.

“Rarity? You knew?” I said and the white unicorn winced at the accusation in my tone before steeling herself and standing up straight.

“I did know Twilight dear, but hear her out.”

I stared hard at my friend but nodded, I trusted my friends not to betray me, now I was about to find out what the really meant. I took a deep breath and turned back to Pinkie, or the thing that used to be Pinkie Pie and said “Ok Pinkie, let’s hear it.”