Room of Angel

Room of Angel

Chapter 17A

Special thanks to my editor: Rainbowsoldier94

‘Getting down that hole now is pointless…’ Twilight thought. ‘What if I can’t go back? I need to find something… and my only hope is that last door.”

She went to the last door that was from where Fluttershy came out. It actually was her friend’s house, neatly organized and identical to her real home.

Twilight was facing the front door of Fluttershy’s house as somepony knocked on the door. Fluttershy appeared and opened the door. At this time, Twilight felt a tug in her heartstrings. In a split second, she could swear that the yellow pegasus in her front was her friend, but it wasn’t.

“Hi there little Walter! Came to visit me?” Fluttershy asked cheerfully.

“Of course, I am so happy that I’m back to Ponyville after all these years at Wish House…” The foal came closer to Fluttershy and whispered: “I don’t wanna go back, you know?”

Fluttershy chuckled and said, “Oh don’t worry now, you’re with Dahlia right? I bet that she’ll take good care of you.”

“Yeah…” the colt seemed rather crestfallen at the moment.

“Why don’t you come inside and I make you a snack?” Fluttershy tried to cheer the little colt up.

His expression changed completely as he said, “Sure!”

The last scenery faded away as the room was left totally empty leaving Twilight confused.

“But if there’s nothing here, then this means that… oh no… I can’t lose faith. There must be something that I’m missing.” She stated.

She trotted in circles inside the empty room trying to think of something that she may have forgotten to look for, but nothing came to her mind. In her senseless trotting something sounded different on the floor, a spot in the room’s right corner was echoing the sounds of her hooves.

“A false floor?” she asked herself.

Removing the pickaxe from her storage she hit the floor with it which pierced easily in the ground and scattered splinters all over within the room. She hit it once again and a hole opened revealing a stairway. Twilight left the pickaxe inside her magical storage once again and headed down the stairs to the new area.

The way down was short. She went down one floor and reached a wooden door.  The lavender mare opened it and entered a small room that was dim-lit from a candle on top of a desk at the end of the room. Twilight closed the door and came closer to the desk. There was something hung on the wall that she couldn’t discern due to the poor light. A red box and a small black book at the table.

By her instincts she took the book first and opened it. The cover was totally black, no title, no author or figure in it. The tome had something around a hundred pages but they seemed mistreated from time and possibly humidity making reading hard and irksome. She skipped some pages until reaching almost the end of the book as the words were less blurred than in the rest of it. She managed to read:

‘Day 20: The walls seem to be closing in each day that passes by. I don’t know if I can take it any longer but I need to preserve these artifacts somewhere before my library is engulfed in this darkness… Has anypony noticed that I am missing? They don’t know me that well after all, I am new in Ponyville but… I don’t think that nopony would find strange that the library is closed for all these days… maybe I’ll wait to start panicking… maybe this is just a dream, and if this is a dream, I want to wake up soon…

Day 27: I found a book at the library that may be the answer to my problem… now I know what these strange artifacts means… these eight spears represent each one of his victims… I was lucky to find a piece of an umbilical cord inside the bathroom’s trash, the couple that lived here before me is crazy; why would they leave their child in here like they did? I don’t even want to think about this… my time may be running short. These ghosts are starting to invade my house but at least I can still hold them off with these strange candles… but one day these will be over and I don’t know what I’ll do then…

Day 35: If somepony finds this, then I still think that this carnage will have an end. Soon they’ll find me and I don’t know what will happen … I’ll hide this here, the eight spears and the only part of Walter’s physical body, his umbilical cord, the only thing that can defeat him… I don’t know who you are but please use this with knowledge, there will be only one chance… if I had found him I would had done it myself but I couldn’t, maybe I was too feeble to understand how this place works or where he could be… all in all, I need to sacrifice my last candle to preserve this place from Walter’s grasp and face my destiny… I can’t fight anymore… starvation will beat me so I think that it’s better to surrender to these things than try to stay hidden here… and I know that they’ll find me… no matter where I run to…

Day 36: I can’t take it any longer, these voices in my head… I give up… I’ll just go back to that haunted bedroom, lie down and wait… I am Joseph… and this is my last entry in this cursed diary…’

Twilight reached the end of the book. She decided to keep it so she put the worn book in her magical reservoir. Her eyes now landed on the small box that Joseph said.

‘So there is an umbilical cord in here?’ She felt her stomach doing back flips inside her. ‘This must smell terrible…’ she thought.

Despite her inner warnings she decided to open the box to know exactly what its contents were. Opening it slowly she saw a small piece of an umbilical cord resting in a napkin inside the box. It wasn’t reeking as she had thought. Closing the box again she put it in her storage and lit her horn so she could see what was hung on the wall.

It was a big black cloth bag being hung by a hook that was on the ceiling. Using her magic, Twilight took hold of it and removed its contents revealing eight spears, each one with a word inscribed in it: Void, Darkness, Gloom, Despair, Temptation, Source, Watchfulness and Chaos. She placed them back into the cloth bag and then in her storage as well.

‘So I finally found it… my only hope to get out of this world alive…’ Twilight thought, anxious to end her and Fluttershy’s nightmare.

She exited the small room and went back to the library’s secret room. She looked to the strange hole and thought: ‘So this is it…’

She did what Fluttershy had done and stood on top of the hole. Touching it at first it seemed solid, but as time went by, she slowly started to sink in. The strange surface was now allowing her pass in some way. She closed her eyes when it reached her neck and held her breath. Soon she felt a solid ground touching her hooves.

“So you found me, huh?” a male voice called.

Twilight rubbed a hoof against her eyes and said: “Walter?”

“Indeed… so have you enjoyed my creation?”

“If you mean this twisted world and all the pain that you brought to me, the answer is a no!” Twilight roared.

“Hahaha, you don’t even understand your mistake dear Twilight Sparkle… You…”

“It doesn’t matter what you think! Do you think that you can revive your mother? You can’t do this, you are already dead, DEAD! You’re insane! How could you think that a library is your mother?!”

“She is there….I know it…”

“This doesn’t matter… where is Fluttershy!?”

By now, Twilight could see the room better: it was a cylindrical room similar to the place where she had found Applejack but had something in the middle emitting a strange noise. Twilight could see Walter somewhat next to her. She backed a few hoofsteps and asked again: “Where is Fluttershy?”

“I think that you need to be quick if you want to see her alive…” He said pointing a hoof to Twilight’s right side. She turned and then realized where the strange noises were coming from. Fluttershy was tied to a metal slab with a big rotating saw at the other end coming closer to Fluttershy slowly and aiming at her belly horizontally.

“Fluttershy!”

The lavender mare tried to find a way to reach to her friend’s aid but it was impossible to reach by hoof and her magic wasn’t working on the knot that was tied to her.

“Twilight… please… help me…” Fluttershy said between her sobs of despair.

“What are you planning Walter?”

“A better question would be... ‘How do you expect to save your friend now?’” He said mockingly.

“I will destroy you and this twisted world!.” Twilight said decisively.

“May I know how?” He said and then removed a knife from his overcoat.

“With this.” Twilight removed the eight spears and the umbilical cord from her storage, showing them to Walter. Before he could execute any action, Twilight put the umbilical cord on one of the spears tip and threw it at Walter with immense speed, piercing into his shoulder.

“Bury part of the Conjurer's mother's flesh within the Conjurer's body…” Twilight stated.

Walter was staring with a dreadful expression at the lavender mare.

“You… where did you find these?!”

“Joseph… he managed to keep them safe, because he hoped that one day somepony would find it…” Twilight’s eyes were staring Walter back, she had no expression in her face; her pupils were small dots, her blood full of adrenaline… and hatred.

Fluttershy couldn’t behold the scene presented to her, she closed her eyes tightly. Even though she knew the bad that Walter had done, she remembered the good little colt that he used to be. But it was needed, all that bloodshed needed to be stopped… immediately.

Another spear flung into Walter’s direction, now piercing his other shoulder. He fell to the floor, not being able to maintain balance anymore. One after another Twilight pierced him unmercifully, frightfully staring at Walter. Now a single one was left.

Twilight came closer to him and without a word she pierced his skull. The cracking sound echoed throughout the room as his roars of pain finally came to an end.

The room fell in a deep silence. Fluttershy opened her eyes to see that the machine had stopped working and the ties that were binding her were loosening. She looked down to see Twilight using her magic to untie her. Once it loosened completely, Fluttershy opened her wings and hovered until she reached the floor without a sound.

Twilight had an unidentifiable expression on her face as Fluttershy was trying to find words to comfort her friend, but it was useless. Twilight seemed to have noticed her Fluttershy’s behavior and put a hoof on her shoulder: “Don’t worry Fluttershy… it’s over now… it’s over…”

“I… I know…”

Both mares turned to look Walter’s dead body.

“Is he really dead?” Fluttershy asked.

“Well I had…” Twilight speech was interrupted by a sudden flash of light that emanated from Walter’s body. His corpse had vanished leaving something in its place. Twilight rubbed her eyes to re-adjust with the light and came closer to the unknown object.

It was a little colt wrapped into a white blanket, apparently sleeping. Twilight took hold of it in her hooves and showed to Fluttershy, who stood open-mouthed.

“What in the world happened?” the yellow mare asked.

“I don’t know… I don’t have ANY idea.” Twilight answered.

“But I know.” A voice rang from behind both mares.

Twilight and Fluttershy turned quickly to see no one other than Princess Celestia standing across the room.

“P-P-P-Princess C-Celestia?!” Twilight stammered.

“Hello Twilight Sparkle… and hello Fluttershy.” the Princess said.

“What… what is happening?”

“You see Twilight… Some days ago, I noticed a strange power emanating from an unknown source…I tried to find it but it was invisible to me and my sister… I studied through the course of weeks to try to understand what was happening until I had found a certain book named the Crimson Tome… it was then that I had connected what happened to several ponies in the past…” she looked directly to the foal that was in Twilight’s grasp and continued, “and to Walter.”

Both mares stood with an astonished expression on their faces.

“So I understood what was happening… and also understood that the only that could stop it… was you Twilight.” Twilight seemed to have something to say but Celestia continued her speech, “I am sorry that I wasn’t able to help you all. This place was far beyond my powers… I needed it to lose power to enter here… and carry you all home.”

“But wait… ‘carry you all’? But it’s just me and… and Fluttershy now.”

“Actually no… All of your friends are alive and doing pretty well might I say.”

“But… how?” This time Fluttershy upraised the question.

“In your entire quest I was following you Twilight, I could watch everything in this place, but I couldn’t interfere in anything. When you saw your friend dying, only the ‘copy’ of their bodies had died but their souls not…they would stay alive until the ritual’s end. If your soul dies here, it dies in the real world as well, for example… you are in your home by now… and Joseph may be there too…”

“So… the ten ponies left to complete the ritual are not dead?”

“No… they are just ‘sleeping’ in the real world… I can’t save the first nine because they weren’t in this world… but you may have noticed that Walter is right in your hooves… he was purified by you.”

“So he had been… reborn?”

“This I can’t answer for sure but… it’s something like this.” Celestia took hold of Walter with her magic and brought him to her hooves.

Everypony stood in silence until Celestia broke it: “You may wake up soon… Luna and I will take care of everything…”

“Thanks… Princess…” Twilight said as she hugged Fluttershy tightly and added: “We made it!”

Fluttershy looked to Twilight with the most beautiful smile on her face and said, “You made it…”

The entire room filled with light, both mares felt as if they were levitating until they blissfully fell into unconsciousness.

A bright and warm sunlight was entering through the curtain-less bedroom window, illuminating every corner of the room.

But this time there was no fear or hate in her heart. This time she woke up to find a different world. Everything was as usual in her home. Everything was in place, just like she wanted it to be. The silence of her bedroom wasn’t scaring her anymore, it just brought peace to the lavender unicorn.

The only scar that she remembers of the dreadful experience that she had lived was her left eye. It probably wouldn’t heal since she went far too long without any proper care but at least… the nightmare had come to an end.

She got up and trotted downstairs and noticed a letter stood at the table in the center of the living room. She took it and read:

“Dear Twilight Sparkle,

If you had found this then it means that everything had gone well.

My sister and I had managed to help those lost souls get back to their bodies in the real world, but they are not yet prepared to come back into activity. The seven last victims of Walter are now at Ponyville’s hospital. So all of your friends are there and Walter as well. Dahlia had disappeared a long time ago so we don’t know of her whereabouts but I hope to find her soon and end this twisted religion that she partook.

All in all, everything may be back to normal. That world had disappeared after we managed to find everypony.

I think that your friends would be more than happy to awake from their sleep and find you, so please come to visit them as soon as you read this.

I’ll be waiting for you…

Yours truly, Princess Celestia”

Twilight finished reading the letter, set it back on the table and exited her home… after all, she had some ponies to visit.

THE END?

(Room of Angel)