Author's Note
The title of this book is actually where to find the song that inspired me to write this short story on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56xXtkTAyXg
Darkness
I can only feel pain. I struggle to get my eyes open with whatever energy I have left. As my eyes flicker open I am surrounded by darkness, that is all I can see. My mane is laying softly on my face touching a bruise I can't see. My hair is covering up my horn but there is no magic for me to use. I can feel indents of the earlier impacts on my face, I don't know how they got there but I can feel them. I can feel the hard wood floor beneath my head and body. The smell in the area is strong with the scent of rust and possibly blood. The metallic smell makes me want to vomit but the lack of energy in my body keeps me from doing so. The cast around my neck is very uncomfortable, but I know that the cast on me is because my neck must be broken or healing. I can feel a bruise under the cast on my left cheek. I can't think straight anymore I think I will take a nap. As my blue eyes try to shut themselves I know I must keep myself awake to stay out of shock. "It'll only be for a small while so I can take a rest," my mind tells me. Unfortunately, I agree and let my eyes shut.
By some miracle, I wake up an unknown time later. I can open my eyes easier just not fully. It is lighter that it was earlier and I can see the moon rising out of the corner of my eye. I stare up at the semi-collapsed metal-sheet roof and see the stars. I must be far away from the... where do I live? A flood of thoughts surrounds my mind all trying to be answered at the same time.
"Is this my house, why can I see the stars, why couldn't I see the stars where I was before?" I close my eyes tightly thinking that the thoughts would leave, unfortunately, that just caused an extreme pain all the way down my back. I feel tears are going to burst out of my eyes but none come.
"Such beauty in the sky and yet no pony sees it."
"Will any pony ever see me again, did any ponies even care about me?"
"Is any pony looking for me, if there are will they even find me?" All thoughts but no words can leave my mouth. I can feel my eyes moving or something inside of my right eye. I can see something, is it blood? I wouldn't be surprised if it was.
"Why would any pony do this to me, completely beat me senseless and abandon me in the woods?" Wait is that where I am, am I in the woods? That would explain why I could see the stars. The metal-sheet roof is rusted is most of the spots, if it were to fall down and cut me I could be seriously in trouble, that is if I survive the weight of it. My stomach is completely empty, I could use a cup of tea or anything to get rid of this feeling. My left eye starts to wander upwards in its own control. The feeling of seeing two different things is a weird feeling, I wonder if this is what Derpy sees? I don't know who Derpy is but my mind brought her up to compare to my eye being messed up. What do I even know of beauty, what do I even know of stars? How could I compare luna's night with beauty when there is... why can't I remember, it's like my mind knows but my thoughts don't know how to finish.
"Look I know you're worried and we have been working our flanks off to find her."
"We have to find her and who could have kidnaped her, do you even know any leads"
"Listen honey were going to find her and I don't even think you know what a lead is, go stand outside with dad and your sister's friends."
A pony in a dark hood strolled into the police station and walked up to the counter where a police pony was standing, "I know where she is but you won't get it out of me."
Suddenly he was thrown at the wall nearest to him, "Where is my daughter," she shouted in the pony's face.
He pulled back his hood, "I'm here to confess not help you find her," he said laughing with a small bit of blood coming out from his head. "You were stupid to leave her alone after I tried to hurt her the first time, I just asked what room she was staying in."
A police pony was already over by him when he finished the sentence, "What is your name?"
"I'm surprised ponies don't recognise me, I am Trenderhoof."
"Why did you try to hurt her in the first place."
"She took my fame, I told her to shut down she didn't so to kill her would be the next best thing." "I didn't get to kill her the first time around and I knew she would rat me out if I let her live so I had to come back." "I can tell you where she is but you will be too late."
It's been at least 24 hours. The moonlight is back, plenty of time to think, plenty of time for me to try to move and regret doing so. I don't think any pony is coming for me but I am tired again so I think I will try to sleep. Before I go to sleep I want to reflect on my emotions. So around the morning, I was feeling hope. From there till noon I was angry and sad. From noon till the sun started going down I was hot. During that time, I thought of where I was going when I died, Heaven or Hell? Around ten I regained some memories like when I was a filly I always thought hell was a swear word but my mother told me it was only bad when you're not speaking about the place. I will sleep now, I don't know if I will wake up but I am not worried. I prayed to our gods Luna and Celestia. Hopefully, I can die in peace. Wait what is that sound. I can't yell, I can't speak for them.
"Hello, is there any pony out there, make a noise" I must show them somehow that I'm here, wait my horn! With all my energy I tried but all that came out was a small light.
"Wait I just saw a light over there, maybe it's her."
Yes, they see me! I am saved but I'm so tired. Maybe they can carry me while I sleep.
I can hear a small squeaky voice of a familiar filly as it embraces my body, "Rarity oh my gosh we found you." "She's over here!" I am surrounded by voices, I can't make them out of who is talking but they are there. I close my eyes again and try to smile but I can't do it. I can feel myself being carried away. I heard a voice, no crying all it was crying was "no." I don't understand why they are crying that word but I imagine its because they are happy. Another voice a familiar voice, may be it was one of my friends they were crying out, "We were to late." What were they too late for though? I can see now what they were too late for as the tears finally come from my eyes. I can see my lifeless body being taken away from the hardwood floors, from the metal-sheet roof, from the beauty of the night, from the moonlight.
Author's Note
The revised story.
2 Darkness
===========
I wake up to the sound of crickets off in the distance. I don’t remember anything, a type of amnesia maybe? I can’t move and I can’t open my eyes leaving me blind with my other senses numbed. I can feel a cast around my neck and it's not very comfortable. I must have broken my neck which must mean that I am in a hospital of some sort. I am lying on a poorly made wooden floor as some hair rests gently on my forehead, covering my horn. There is an overwhelming sent of metallic blood scent surrounding my body. I don’t actually know if it’s actually coming from my body but the scent makes me want to vomit, the lack of energy in my body keeps me from doing so. My stomach is empty which means the hospital staff is being very lazy. I don't know my name or even what gender I am.
If I have amnesia why am I still remembering things? It's like a flash of a memory that soon fades away after remembering it. I can sense it fade away but I can’t retrieve the memory or go back into it.
“Why would you want me to close down my store?”
“Your store is taking all of my customers and you are doing exactly what I do.”
“Well, what do you want me to do because I can’t just close my store and hang a sign in the window telling ponies to go to your store.”
“That would work.”
“I can’t do that though I have a family and we will lose so much money if we have to close this store down. Can we work out another solution?”
There it goes. Another memory that has wandered away from me. I am so tired and I want to go back to sleep but considering how hungry I am and my broken neck I should consider it a miracle that I am even alive and awake. If I go into shock I might not even be able to wake up. My subconscious whispers in my ear, “You can sleep because you need it.” Unfortunately, I listen and allow my body to relax, not that I could move anyway, sending me closer to the edge of sleep. If I wake up then I will consider trying to open my eyes.
I wake up some amount of time later by some miracle and feel just a tiny bit better and with just a tiny bit more energy. I struggle to get my eyes open with whatever energy I have left. When I open them I am surrounded by darkness, well other than the illuminated night sky above me. I am in what looks like a shack with a sheet metal roof. What makes me scared is the fact that the roof has a massive hole in it. If the sheets collapse, that means that they would fall and possibly crush me and even if I survive that; If it cuts me, and is rusty, I might not survive without a tetanus shot. Looking past the hole I can see trees which makes me think that I must be in a forest but being here allows me to uncannily see into space. There is a long strip of highlight blue weaving in between a stretch of cobalt blue blankets that almost seem like they are moving. A wave of turquoise entangles itself above the ocean of stars sending the white balls of light closer and closer to the earth. I am soon drawn from the stars as a dark red something comes across my peripheral vision. I soon realize that it is blood that is crawling across the inside of my eye.
“Will you calm down!”
“No, you aren't listening to me at all.”
“I have made plenty of suggestions to help your store grow that doesn’t cause me to lose mine.”
“I need one thing and you won’t help me with it because you're being selfish. You are going to keep growing until my store fails and I am sent into poverty.”
“Psh, do you know who I am, do you know my role in Equestria? I want to help you but I can’t close my store for you. Can we come to a different suggestion so that we can both be happy?” He suddenly threw a punch at me directly between my eyes sending me to the ground.
I can feel a steady drip of blood coming from the end of my snout that is followed by them saying, “If you are still here when I back tomorrow you’ll be sorry.”
As my mind lets go of the memory a sudden flood of thoughts enters my mind. Where am I, who am I, do I live here? Is anyone looking for me, is this where I live, why can I see the stars? Why couldn’t I see the stars where I was before, who is my family, where do I work? All the questions are fighting over who gets to be answered first but with my memory being gone, it just goes in a circle. I close my eyes tightly thinking that it will make the question loop end but instead it just sends a sharp cutting pain all the way down my back. I can feel the tears come to my eyes but none leave.
“Look, mam, we have a whole lot of officers out looking for your daughter and we have not found anyone.”
“Well, why can’t you put more officers out there looking for her.”
“How about you slow down and answer some questions. Where do you remember seeing her last?”
“Well it was when he was in the hospital, we were just leaving as they were putting a cast around her neck, she was about to go into some procedure.”
“Ok, does she have any enemies or do you know anypony who would want to harm her”
“Ha, well, you have to be a bit more specific. She makes plenty of enemies in her line of work.”
“Obviously, but has anyone threatened her personally.
“Well there was this pony who works near her, she came home one evening with a bruised and bloody nose, she said that it was...
“Why him?”
The officers walked up to the front door and knocked very loudly yelling to open the door. After a few seconds, there was a head looking in the hole above the door. In a split second the head was gone and the sound of running feet left from the front door. The officer waved at the one behind him to go to the back door while he opened up the front door. As soon as he entered he saw the man from the window running out the back door. Both officers were on him within a minute and easily had his hand in cuffs behind his back.
“So what do you know about Rarity?”
“She works next to me and is trying to run me out of my job.”
“From what we’ve been told that is not the case and if you didn’t know she is missing.”
“I didn’t”
“Well she is and you so far are our only suspect.”
“Well, I didn’t kidnap her if that’s what you think.”
The door was opened and was quickly followed by a voice saying, “Excuse me officer but we have a tape that you need to see.”
The officer came in a few minutes later and returned to his seat next to the man. “It seems that you are lying because we have proof of you taking him away from his hospital room. Mind the cliche sentence but we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Easy being you tell us where she is, hard going to jail for the rest of your life.”
The man looked up in silence, “ I know where she is.”
It's been at least 24 hours since I opened my eyes and the only reason I know that is because the stars are back. Those beautiful stars and their blanket of blue. I have had a really hard experience with that stretch of time. After I looked at the stars for a while I went back to sleep against my own judgment and woke up in the early morning. It was nice and warm as the birds chirped and sang their songs. I heard chipmunks or squirrels on the metal roof above me with their soft steps. Although it was nice at first it quickly began to heat up in the little shed roasting slowly with me inside it, and just as I thought it would the sun shone down directly on my face for three hours in the middle of the day. When I tried to move I regretted doing so because of the pain that shot down my back. From there I got angry at every little thing. I got angry at the fact that I couldn’t move, I got angry that no one was looking for me, I got angry at the birds for singing their stupid songs. I was caught in the middle of the most annoying place and I couldn’t do anything about it. I even hated the stars that I had come to love and I stopped hating things when the sun left my eyes. I watched for hours as I could see the sky turn from blue to yellow to gold to pink to purple to dark blue to black, and during all of that time, I began to cry about all of the things I started to miss. I began to miss the birds singing, I began to miss the animals on the roof, and I missed most of all the leaving warmth. I loved seeing the stars but I began to lose the sense of touch. I couldn’t feel the wood beneath my body, I couldn’t feel any warmth, I couldn’t feel my face. My body was starting to shiver although it didn’t hurt my back it took whatever energy was left in my body. After a while, my body stopped shivering in all and my breathing became slower and shallower. I could feel my heart slowing down but I couldn’t do anything about it.
“He said that Rarity is somewhere out here in this area of the forest so keep your eyes open.” The large group of ponies was all yelling out her name and expecting an answer. They searched out the ground with their flashlights looking for a body but it wasn’t going well. After an hour of searching while the temperature dropped the officer and a few others were the only ones left looking. Another hour went by and the officer and Rarity's sister were walking back to their car when they stumbled upon a shed. The officer thought for a moment before he stretched out his hand for the handle. He slowly opened the door as it made a loud creaking sound. Inside lay Rarity who was staring blankly at the sky. While Rarity's sister ran to his side the officer quickly picked up a radio and called an ambulance to their location. Within eight minutes the ambulance was there and they had Rarity on a stretcher and getting ready to go. Rarity's sister got into the ambulance as soon as she was in. Rarity looked up at his wife whose face was red and cheeks were wet from tears. She was already holding her hoof as the sirens started. Rarity looked up at the sky that was now taking her. The ocean was welcoming her into the highlighted waves that weaved into the cobalt blue blankets that entangled itself into the new ocean of stars. There was something new about the sky now, there was a bright white light that stretched out arms to take her into a warmer place. She stared happily at the light that welcomed him as the tears that wanted to leave so many time finally emerged to roll down her cheeks.
