It was seven o'clock in the evening, on the 7th day of June. The weather was very inviting. Our voices were drowned out by the sound of cicadas waiting for their mate. My heart was doing the same, calling out to you. The dance of the stars in the night sky was a sight matched by your name.
I spoke, for I had nothing better to do. “I like the park. Especially when we’re the only ones here.” Seeing your mane dance in the night’s slight zephyr made me wonder, Will you quiver like that when I hold you?
You looked at me as if I have said something silly, as you petted your cat that you had in your hooves. But, when you looked at me, the cat quickly darted away. You followed the cat, and I followed you.
The train came out of nowhere, a bloodcurdling scream heard as it struck you head on.
Your scent, in which I once relished in, was now tainted by the profound smell of blood. Another smell diluted your luscious redolence, the smell of iron, coming from this thing that took you from me.
I wanted to scream, but my mouth would not work. It refused to open. The sounds of the cicadas were drowned by my beating heart pounding loudly. Your scream was lingering in my ears, a sickening melody of pain and suffering that served as a catalyst for my sadness.
The innocent sound of the cicadas slowly turned deeper, and with that, the dark sky faded away.
....ooO0O0Ooo....
I woke up with a start. “Starlight Glimmer,” I muttered. I looked outside my room, it was sunset. Then, I looked at the calendar. It was the 7th day of June. The clock showed that it was 6:00.
I rushed off to the park, to the place we were in my dream. My heart was aching, hoping you weren’t there.
Seeing me, you smiled, but your eyes betrayed your plastered on happiness with a sad look, like you weren’t so pleased that I showed up.
“You know, it’s strange. Earlier, I had a dream of us, sitting in the exact same park.” Remembering the blood in the rails, I stopped. My heartbeat getting faster and faster. I was nervous. ‘I’ve no reason to be nervous. It’s not like that's actually gonna happen. It was just a dream... right?’
I knew I had to say something, do anything to eliminate the possibility of that happening.
“H-how about we go home?” I took your hoof.
I looked around, I felt that something was amiss. Was it the trees, the leaves? Was it the poles that holds the flags of the Crystal Empire or the lamps the lit the park at this hour?
But, before I could process things, I heard you scream. I knew it, it was there piercing your precious body in front of my eyes.
It was those damn poles!
The sound of wind chimes and your ear-piercing screams filled the air of the park.
As my vision blurred, I glanced at you, and I could swear I saw you smiling.
....ooO0O0Ooo....
It was, yet again, the 7th of June, when I woke up. I was confused. I’d read of dreams nested within dreams, but nothing quite like this. It was exactly 6 pm again.
That eerie feeling came back.
....ooO0O0Ooo....
There had been many times that I repeated this day.
I suppose it’s been weeks now, and not a second has passed. Every time, it’s same thing. I get to admire your precious face, only to fail at preventing your ultimate demise.
I tried finding a magic spell to fix this, a spell to keep this from happening. I tried every spell in my collection of books to no avail. There is nothing, nothing worked. I did try to ask for help once or twice, but either they didn’t believe what I was saying, or their help came too late. An hour is not enough to do prevent it, I’ve learned that the hard way.
It’s as if I’m suppose to watch you die again and again until the day I lose my sanity.
This is torture. What crime have I committed to be forsaken in such a way? What sacred ground have I defiled? What god have I angered?
There must be some way to end this perpetual cycle, to stop the flow of time. There has to be a way to stop this and create a time, a time when you don’t have to die.
....ooO0O0Ooo....
It was sunset once again. I didn’t have to look at the calendar to know that it was the 7th of June, but I did, anyways. I was a fool, in a cruel world like mine, how could I suddenly expect fate to be so kind? How dare I expect to wake up and just find myself out of the cage of suffering of which I am trapped in?
Some small sliver of hope was still alive in my heart, still alive despite repeating this nightmare over and over. That small ray of hope acts like a dagger that continually stabs my heart. It kills me on the inside, yet I am plagued by the evil that is life in the end.
I believe this will go on for all of eternity if it isn’t stopped. I know I wouldn’t last for another week without losing my mind.
You deserved to be saved, you deserve to live, that much I know.
The reason I had to go back and relive this time again and again, is because I was doing it wrong all along. I wasn’t trying to save you.
I wasn’t hard trying enough.
I know the answer to this riddle. I know how to make it stop, how to end this cycle of hell I live in.
I sat down at the bench in the park next to you, as I have always have. I hugged you tight and I whispered. “I love you, Starlight. I always have.”
The corner of your mouth tugged upwards into a smile, that same warm smile I saw when we were just innocent colts and fillies. It was the smile I saw on the night that this nightmare started. 'Never again.’
The cat ran out of your hooves again, and on cue, you started running after it. I ran faster than I could ever run in my life, following you then.
I’ve slowed you down before, stopped you, but it was no use. The train always comes as if waiting for you, intently.
….but not this time.
This time, it will come for me.
....ooO0O0Ooo....
On the 7th day of June, Starlight awoke in her bed. She stroked her cat and, with a sad sigh, said,
"I watched him die again. "
