The end of an infinite tale

“She seems dressed in all the rings of past fatalities, so fragile yet so devious, a Dahlia bathed in possession. But she’s unable to see past her own volition, her own choicer will bring only misery and the false illusion of hope. How will she ever be freed by the voluntary imposition of a slave that believes itself a master? How will she realize where the immensity of the ocean is taking her?”

Pain and the taste of blood and dust flooded Moonlight’s senses, overwhelming her own thoughts; when she finally regained consciousness she looked around in dizziness and confusion. What exactly happened? Where was she? All she could see was some debris around her, and her ears could catch some voices coming from nearby. Little by little, the voices grew stronger, and as they did, so did the little light seeping through the debris.

“There is one here too! Hurry, she seems badly hurt!”

“Lift that wooden beam, that should release her!”

And as soon as the beam was lifted, everything became black again.

Strange dreams haunted the sleep of Moonlight, visions of sweet past, long gone, sorrow in the present, attacking its inhabitants, and the uncertainty of the future yet to come; a streamline of though, relentless, vicious, and terribly real. Nightmares begun about losing someone dear to her, filling every corner of her now troubled mind, doubt and despair preyed on her thoughts and her very essence. The only light that shined in that terrible slumber was so tiny and so far away an immense sea of darkness rose in her way, but Moonlight gathered all of her strength and made a run for it. And she ran. Ran for what felt to be days, until finally, she reached the light, and as she reached the light, she opened her eyes.

“Where am I? What happened?”, Moonlight lifted her head to see the room she was in. It was an unknown roof, with unknown walls; it looked an awful lot like a hospital, and there was a stallion in a white coat right next to a white mare besides him, bearing a curious red-cross as a cutiemark. Yes, it was a hospital.

“Whoa nelly! Easy now lady, don’t do any abrupt movement, you don’t want to hurt yourself again. You’ve been out cold for a couple of days now. You were found in the ruins of a small house in the outskirts of town; you’re very lucky”, said the doctor as he helped Moonlight to slowly sit on the bed.

“I… I was with Silver, in his house. We were trying to protect his dad, and Rosie Buns. But suddenly the house came crashing down over us; Silver pushed me away into the main room, and then… I can’t remember anything else. What happened to them? Are they ok? Are they here, in this hospital?”, Moonlight claimed agitated, clearly demanding for an explanation of whatever happened to Silver and his family.

“I’m afraid I do not possess all the details. Tirek went over the house, destroying it, and you most likely lost consciousness when he drained your magic from your horn and your cutiemark from your flank. Don’t worry, the danger is over now, but you did get hurt really bad, luckily that room was really sturdy and stood still even when the rest of the house was crumbling. As far as I know, other survivors were found, and were in better conditions than you, but I wasn’t informed if they took them here or somewhere else”.

“Oh! I see… Thanks doc. I’d Like to take a few steps to stretch my hooves, if that’s ok”, said Moonlight, hoping to escape the bed for as long as possible.

“Sure, just take it easy, and don’t overdo it”.

Once again, Silver saves the day, thought Moonlight. Well, it was his cutiemark after all, and he managed to save them before Tirek could seize his cutiemark from him. She planned on thanking him as soon as she laid eyes on him, but first things first, a little walk and some food, perhaps a hay burger would be nice; being out could for a few days definitely had gotten her hunger levels to an alarming scale. Even though the doctor didn’t say much about the other survivors, the simple fact of knowing they were relatively unharmed gave some relief to her heart and mind. Right now she needed to clear her mind of all the terrible nightmares; after all, it was just a bad dream. Or was it? Even though a little splinter in her mind remained, reminding her of her dreams, she convinced herself that everyone was just fine.

Soon Moonlight had left the hospital walking, hoping to find something tasty to eat, and even when she hadn’t eaten any food from the hospital, she didn’t feel like taking the risk of consuming a disgraceful meal after such a long time of having nothing. Outside it was a very beautiful day, it was hard to believe a couple of days ago the city was panicking in fear, and yet again, it was all true. As Moonlight walked through a nearby park, clearly disobeying the doctor’s orders, she spotted a little stand, selling daisy and dandelion sandwiches, which actually sounded tempting considering no better options were around. The city was practically undamaged, so the usual activities were retaken as soon as the threat was eliminated, and by the rumors Moonlight heard, that was just a couple of hours after the attack. Everything was returning back to its natural state. At any rate, she couldn’t just escape from the hospital, so a trip back was in order, and maybe the doctor could see she was feeling a lot better and discharge her that same day.

On her way back to the hospital, Moonlight heard somepony calling her.

“Moonlight! Moonlight Dust! Is that you?” yelled a familiar voice.

When Moonlight turned to see who was calling her, her surprise was big to find that it was no other than Rosie Buns, Silver’s wife.

“Well”, thought Moonlight as Rosie came trotting to her, “that is convenient!”

“Oh Moonlight! Where have you been? We’ve been worried sick about you! We couldn’t find you anywhere, we thought you were taken, or worse!” said Rosie, with tears in her eyes.

“I’m fine! Just a little bruised, that’s all. Apparently somepony found me and took me to this hospital, where I was unconscious for a couple of days. I bet the check is going to be outrageous!” joked Moonlight, thinking that it was probably true.

Rosie grinned a little in return.

“It’s so good to see you’re well, after all that happened I’m so glad!” Rosie was poking at the ground.

“How’s everyone? Where is Silver? I can’t wait to thank him! I’ll treat him some apples from Sweet Apple Acres! I know he doesn’t like them as much as I do, but I’m sure he’ll appreciate it!”

Rosie’s eyes were flooded with tears once more.

“What happened? Is Silver all right?” inquired Moonlight, worried about Rosie’s reaction to her so-called brother’s name.

“Silver… you were unconscious, so it’s only natural you don’t know…” That little splinter that had remained in the back of Moonlight’s mind began to hurt, an awful lot.

“Silver didn’t make it out of the house” stated Rosie, solemnly.