A Superb Case of Evil

The dreams were coming back to her in such frequency that she almost felt numb to them now. Everything was a blur when she was trapped inside her own mind like this. It was enough to drive anypony else insane just thinking about them. In her dreams, she could barely tell what was even real anymore. She swore that she could hear faint giggling echoing through the recesses of her fractured mind.

But whats more was the thought that continued to nag at her.

It was getting to the point where she couldn't even tell what was real and what wasnt anymore. It was clawing at the back of her mind. Was Twilight dreaming or just hallucinating? She felt like tearing out her mane right now. The silence was overwhelming, if not outright disturbing. Twilight wanted so badly to wake up right now and hope that what she was hearing was just an auditory hallucination.

The thought nagged Twilight now more then ever. What was wrong with her? Why was her mind so empty and black as of late? She swore she could feel something trying to drag her into the blackness at times. That there was some hidden force that waited for the opportunity to pull her down there and rape her. Long lost words with no comprehensible meaning were starting to form in her thoughts.

Was this why she felt so hollow as of late?

There were times it felt as thought something otherworldly was watching her, and wanting her in some sick way. There was always a pounding in her head now, followed by these dark dreams as of late. She kept telling herself that none of this was real, that she'd wake up to her friends surrounding her, comforting her. But was that all wishful thinking?

Come to think of it, was anything that occurred between her and Amon even real? There was something that was keeping her here, in this dream state. The only one with power over the dream realm was Luna. But she was nowhere to be found in Twilight's nightmare.

Is Luna forcing me to stay like this? Twilight started to ponder. Her mind was dark, black, and devoid of anything remotely happy. Was what she felt towards her own friends even real? If it was there should be at least some sign of it in here.

As she tried to call up a happy memory, it was replaced with another twisted version. this one was of her four year anniversary of dating Rainbow Dash. But instead of the memory of the two of them sharing a moonlit dinner, it showed a drunk Rainbow Dash back hoofing Twilight for asking if the pegasus had forgotten their engagement.

Every memory was now like a shattered mirror that dangled from the hallway of her mind. She tried to look at them, but every time she did, one of them shattered. It was like some outside force was playing with her mind, twisting it in every direction possible. Twilight picked up a shard and stared at it, trying to remember the memory that was encased in it.

What she saw was a twisted version of Pinkie's birthday party. Inside this twisted version the Pink Mare was standing over the corpses of her friends, a twisted smile forming over her muzzle. The atmosphere of the memory made Twilight feel like she was in a crypt. It felt cold on her fur. Even though it was taking place in her mind, everything about this felt very real to her. As if she were in a waking dream.

She also felt like something was silently watching her, waiting for her to misstep and fall through the ever encroaching darkness. At times it terrified her how empty or distorted her own mind could be. Why was everything in here so demented she thought to herself. Even after everything that had taken place with Amon, and then Tirek, why was her own mind still like this.

Could everything that had taken place been her fault and no pony else? Had she been so far gone mentally that Amon was just an aspect of her own personality that she had wanted to ignore? Everything that had happened in the basement of the library had to be meticulous. Everything had to be measured out and executed like a finely honed knife.

Had everything in the Tribunal with the voices in her mind, and the interdimensional portal, been nothing but a smokescreen? Had Celestia secretly known it was Twilight's doing all along and simply used her own magic to create a series of false memories for the mare to experience?

That was when she started to feel a tug on her tail, and looked down to see Applejack crawling towards her out of the darkness, her fur now a pale orange color. And her eyes. Applejack's eyes were completely hollowed out, two blackened orbs peering at Twilight as the mare crawled towards her. She could hear the sickening smack that this thing's hooves made as it continued to crawl towards her.

The smell was that of rotten flesh, and overpowering towards Twilight's senses. She had to put a hoof over her nose to block out the smell as "Applejack" got ever closer to her. She felt like she was going to wretch.

"Why...", the earth pony croaked.

"But..", before she could even finish the eldritch horror that looked like Applejack cracked a sickening smile before disappearing back into the blackness of Twilight's mind. As she did so, she also spoke.

" Three of our friends are now dead because of you sugar cube,", the voice echoed from the blackness.

She could feel the breath of another pony behind her. a breath that was cold as the grave. Along with it, there was also a familiar giggle. It sent a chill down Twilight's spine.

" I'm going to have so much fun with you now Twilight," the chipper voice spoke," Since i always love to make my friends Smile."

Out of the blackness came the visage of Pinkamena, a butcher's knife clutched in one hoof. The most sickening grin spread across her face as began to speak, the words that came from her mouth containing a trace of rage.

"Let's put a smile on that face."