Chapter 9

What Now?

The last words that I heard coming from Violet were echoing loudly in my ears. Over and over, replaying like an old entertainment holotape from the Stable. Serenity, I'm sorry. The stab of agony which lurked within each of those three words was still as sharp as when they were just spoken. I could not help but sob, and scream, burying my head in the cushion of the chair which we sat on.

Time was irrelevant. It could've been easily an hour, two, or more. I had no heed or sense of the passing of time, sitting there, on that chair. Somewhere, in the depths of my heart, I could feel a rift opening. A divide, as wide as a thousand miles and as deep as to the planet's core itself.

The pain, which so violently gripped me initially, now was beginning to lurch in a different direction entirely. What was once a stabbing agony, was becoming dull, and numb.

The world around me was changing, my body becoming equally as desensitized to what was happening. What once seemed brighter, became drab and muted. The chair of which I sat, which I could barely take notice of save my body's contact with it, was once a brilliant shade of red. Now it was graying, darkening, becoming a shadow of its former self. All but Violet now, seemed to personify this new world; this, this dark, despairing world, which my mind was creating.

The shouts and hollers and low words being had were slowly fading farther and farther from me. It didn't matter, I was trying to shut them out anyways. My ears lowering to my head, I began snuggling closer to what was left of my close friend. My brilliant, lovely, witty, intelligent, caring, protective, friend.

I could still hear her voice, even when I was shutting out the world. It was those three words, and nothing more; as I laid gently against her side, my head resting next to hers. Here, I could still look into her eyes, trying to hard to see life where there was lifelessness. Where once brilliant pupils, ringed by pink irises were, only a dank gloom remained now that stared so blankly back at me.

I must've fallen asleep like this, looking into her eyes; because it was the soft, dainty light of the night itself that greeted my puffy eyes when I opened them. A small yawn, which I barely recognized as my own, came from my lips. Raising my head slowly, as to not set the world spinning, I slowly looked around with a slight cough coming from my hoarse throat.

Apparently, I was not alone, though I felt still so far from everypony else. Ginger and Harkness were sitting across from me, sharing a small couch which they had seemingly been on for some time. They were the only others in the room, but I could hear voices coming from the main store itself, just beyond the confines of this small back room.

I was choosing not to focus on what they were saying too much, and instead, I found myself looking at the two others who shared the room with me. Ginger was leaning against her husband, sleeping. Her eyes looked as mine felt, and her cheeks were stained with tears. Harkness wasn't even pretending to rest though, as he was looking back at me and by extension, violet. His expression was tired, mired in thought; at least, until he saw I was awake.

"Ginger." He whispered, nudging his wife softly. "Ginger, she's awake."

My friend mumbled something, before her eyes opened and she too yawned quietly. Her droopy eyes looked up at her husband a moment, before slowly drifting her gaze to me. Her eyes widened a little, before she jumped down from the couch and made her way over to us.

"I'm sorry Serenity." Ginger whispered, as her hooves extended out and wrapped around me.

Those three words, again spoken, sent a fresh wave of pain into my dulled, numb heart; but I didn't say so. I only barely returned her hug, but there was no feeling in it to me. I didn't get any sensation, aside from the contact of our fur and skin to one another. For minutes, it was like this, and silence was all that reigned between the three of us.

That was when I heard the sound of hooves approaching from back in the store.. The form which stood in the doorway, revealing itself as it stepped into the light. The Pegasus which was before us looked just like the much younger, smaller colt we'd met earlier in the day. The only difference, was that where the little colt had a patchwork robe of skin, this much larger and imposing stallion was a literal patchwork quilt of different colors of skin. Grays, whites, even scorched black pieces. His eyes were the same though, a deep black pupil with red irises which stared intently.

Not at me, he wasn't interested in me at all. He was looking solely at Violet. His expression, frightening as it was in his indifference, shifted slightly to become an almost terrifying visage of seriousness. His brows furrowed, as if in deep thought, and, after a brief moment, he spoke. His thunderous voice was surprisingly quiet and respectable, as he looked between the three of us with a gaze that spoke volumes of knowing the pain that we all were suffering.

"We have been talking for the past few hours with thy friends and learning all we could about thy friend that lays in her forced sleep." He pointed with his hoof towards Violet, before pointing to me and then letting his hoof fall back to the ground. "We art not of a technical mind. We have little understanding of thy friend's inner workings. But thee knows how to work with those of the machine. Thy proved that well."

I sat up, my head tilting slightly downward, in both shame, and sadness. Tears already threatening to overcome me, at the mere mentioning of my own actions which had caused Violet's condition.

"In our conclusion, we haveth decided that if thee would aid us in coming on a quest of sorts, we would go to the military facility of which I discovered that combat robot so many years ago. We would ask thine help, perhaps in locating the tools and parts thee might need in the event of attempting to repair the damage done."

The words that this pony spoke made my eyes widen considerably. Within what he said, laid the answer, potentially, to what could save everything.

The darkness, which had come so stealthily and split my heart in two, now seemed to be receding somewhat. It wasn't entirely gone, but, it was a welcome change to the melancholy Hell that had become my world.

"Do thee wish to partake in this quest?" He asked.

I blinked, and the world had lightened somewhat. "Yes."

Author's Note

Hello once again audience, this is author Derpyness Maximus here. I'm just checking in with you all to see how you feel about both chapter nine and the story thus far. Did you enjoy it? Did you dislike it? Are you somewhat in the middle? Either way, would you kindly leave me a comment or even P.M. me about your thoughts if you'd like; and remember to thumbs up or down the story. Also, I'd be interested to hear from those who do dislike the story especially, more so for their reasons of dislike and to see if I can change to become better at what I do.

As always, I give thanks to my proofreader friend whom catches most of my errors before publishing and has decided to finally name himself.

My good friend and fellow author Tempest Knight is my proofreader for each and every chapter. Give him as much credit for my work as you do me, because he works just as hard.

This is author Derpyness Maximus, signing off for now.