Hyper Love Surprise: Minuit Sérénité

Was it Tartarus she woke in. At first, only her eyes worked. Then, her frost-nipped ears, then the warmth reddening her cheeks. Everything was dark. All she saw were wide light cones slipping away from a door crevice.

The room was cold and cruel, coating her in painful, crackling frost. Coco Pommel tossed and turned till her frigid body grew fluid. It kicked previously unnoticed blankets off of her frozen body. Before, she'd been struggling to stay conscious. Now, she couldn't rest. Not her mind. And not her eyes. It felt as though her lashes were forced open. Blinking, even the mere prospect of closing her eyes, was merely death, a great sleep which none could ever return.

A maddening fairness slayed all the feeling within her. Not sorrow, nor temperature could sway her body to feel. Coco Pommel pushed forward and rushed onto her hooves.

She broke the only thing in her way, a door too frozen to simply open. Crashing, splintering wood fell around her as she landed with a thud. All the ice dangling off of her coat came undone and shattered. The pain, the brief reminder of reality, urged her on.

'I am alive. My pain is proof I'm not insane.'

Crawling forward led her toward the light. The living room lights were switched on hours before. Coco knew because she groped the nearest lamp, popped the lampshade off and held it against herself. Splendid heat thawed her chest out and burned against her. The ice became vaporous about her heart region and coated the bulb in condensation.

Coco could only sigh in relief. She could only assume it was over. However, as the bulb flickered, she could hear barking from outside her apartment. A knot had incubated within her stomach. And every second she sat alone, nervous and shaking, she could feel it kicking. The knot toyed with her. It was telling her to move, lest it burrow out her gut to liberate itself.

She trotted over to the balcony. And there, she saw them: vicious, meandering canine beasts.

Their nature was grotesque and primal. They were thin, streamlined hounds made from flesh and intertwining equine body parts. Their legs were equine, pony even, but over their hooves were sharp, hooking components that slid down and locked into place when needed. When not, the hooking devices were pushed aside and rotated into a half-cocked resting position. Only to the opposite natural direction of each foreleg did the unlocking mechanism work.

She knew because Coco Pommel saw them using it on each other. A dog beast was mating with another, and they crashed wildly against each other. The violence of their copulation made her legs buckle. To see them bumping and grinding with cursing hisses and thundering claps, was to shake her heart. It shook her through and through to relive her childhood in such disgusting voyeurism. Coco Pommel stumbled backwards, overwhelmed with wooziness. She fell limply and broke her coffee table with the sheer weight of her barely-warm body.

It felt painless. But all her pain was bubbling internally. It had never gone. And that pain, streaming over her cheeks, was the very same force compelling her to move. It ached her newly capable forelegs and tore them apart when she lifted herself off the ground. Then and there, she knew what to do. Soon, that living shadow thing would come back for her. And who knew what Julienne would do. Who knew what twisted fantasies her captor might manifest.

Coco surged forward and broke her apartment door apart. If she could truly stretch and articulate her forelegs, she would've bucked it open. But all she could afford was battering them down with her skull. Equine skulls, especially earth pony skulls, were lined with thick layers of marginal calcium. Trickling blood stained her muzzle. It slid down and painted her coat with memories of sports club and Glace's football games.

A great silence sewed her lips shut as she peaked out the exit. The lights outside were prone to flickering. Most were dead. As far as the eye could see, a sea of black claimed the building. Narrow corridors and many, jam-packed doors stung her mind with horror. There was no time to panic... but Coco could easily be herded into a corner and turn helpless. The very thought propelled her forward and faster than she'd ever thought possible.

Her barely audible hoofsteps managed to birth creaks from the floorboards. Creaks and moans would litter her heavier steps, with the lightest never even heard. Hot, pulsing pain stabbed her flank regions. By the time she descended the third stairway down, Coco was gasping for breath. The air quality was poorer, more condensed. The chilling temperature forced her lungs to work twofold.

Outside, the darkness had no rule. The other world, apart from the abyss of her old home, was gloomy and well-lit. The night grew slowly and aged finer by the minute. She could already tell, choosing to glance up and gaze there, that night would fall quietly. Even the fog felt more subdued. It was thicker than usual, yet, easier to face.

Coco had studied Manehatten from above and knew exactly where to go. Keeping her sense of direction would be jarring, if not totally hopeless. That was the price of freedom... running till what lay behind her started to vanish. She struck the concrete with her forehooves and readied a crouch.

"... Coco, my love... Why do you run away?" Juilenne whispered, walking forward from the mist in front of her.

"I... I don't want to be here. You don't even know me- s-so why are you calling me that?!"

Julienne shook her head and rubbed her own lips with the palm of her free hand. Her knife hand, which was her left, had it's trademark rust and bloodstains. Only, the newest layer was fresh, almost sickening as the iron and hemoglobin took root in Coco's tongue. She wobbled in-place and shifted her eyes for an escape route. And though the shadow thing wasn't hostile... being around her hurt her chest. That old sting, in all it's sophistication, was having her heart bathed in acid.

"Of course I do... I care about you. Why else would I have covered you in blankets and cleared the building of monsters. Would someone who wanted to hurt you do that...?"

"Y-you... locked the door to my bedroom. You were going to leave me there... and then- you could've come back and... forced me. You were going to force me, weren't you!"

A wide tremble had shaken her ventricles. Coco was barely staying conscious. All because of her, all because of Julienne and her deathly presence. Even the air grew harsher as every breath stabbed her lungs apart. And though she would not see her, because her vision was greying, Juilenne caught her from tumbling forward...

"Why... Why are you holding me..." Coco wavered.

"Because I love you... I'll take you there, where She is. And then... you and Glace can talk for yourselves."

Her lids grew shut and stuck together.

"I... don't understand you."

"What is there to not understand? You were stricken by lightning when you fell in love. And so was I. Isn't it obvious, you child. You're all I have left. I won't let them hurt you anymore. I promise...."

The world became black. All she articulated was bandages and ointment being applied to her head and the many ways it'd split open from her own, reckless escape.