Just Beyond the Surface

It was impossible to say just how long it took for Twilight to trudge through that horrible dark dimension.

Violet Flicker seemed to have crafted her realm as a trap from which her victims would not hope to escape under normal circumstances. Without its mistress, however, the usual bizarre laws of time and space that normally governed her realm no longer applied. Even so, It could have been minutes or months before Twilight found the Dark Room where a seemingly endless array of photos of herself still hung over the shallow chemical vats. She didn't pause to look for long, but instead made her way towards a winding set of stairs. As she climbed, each step an agony unto itself, that was when she began to wonder just how long this was all taking her. It felt like an eternity. Twilight almost thought that she was climbing an endless staircase, a trick worthy of King Sombra, but a short time later she reached the cold iron of a massive door.

A door that wouldn't open.

Twilight tried pushing and pulling to no avail. She tried every spell and cantrip she knew. She even tried yelling that door open, thinking it might be sealed with some special password. The iron door might be rusted shut for all Twilight knew, but this had to be the way back to Equestria. The sparkling path Violet had left in her wake had ended here.

It was only by pure luck that Starlight Glimmer's horn grazed the metallic surface, as Twilight tried one last time to force it open by leaning her shoulder into it. The door swung open as if it were on well oiled hinges and had never been locked at all, leading the three ponies to land in an awkward heap in the muddy halls that made up the sub-basement in Twilight's Castle. While these levels that Violet had dug were filth stained and neglected, Twilight recognized that she was at last back in Equestria, and couldn't suppress a rush of relief that surged up from the depths of her weary soul.

She laughed weakly, taking the rich, earthy aroma of the halls in to her lungs in great gasps. The scent didn't even bother her, a welcome change to the horrid, dank miasma that had haunted the dark dimension she had escaped from.

Twilight's vision blurred. She felt light headed and dizzy, and realized that she was about to pass out. To make it this far, only to succumb to her wounds wasn't acceptable. She had to act now! Scraping up the last of her strength, Twilight used her magic to teleport herself and her surviving friends to Ponyville hospital. She collapsed in the waiting room after bleating a single weak 'Help' to the attendant on duty.

Twilight opened her eyes slowly, wincing as bright white light seeped through her eyelids. Her head felt like it was clamped in a particularly cruel vice that was squeezing her head in its grip. She could hear a rhythmic beeping and the sound of hushed voices. Twilight's mouth was so dry her tongue felt like it was glued to the roof of her mouth. She had to work her jaw back and forth to get some saliva flowing, just to loosen her tongue enough to say, "Too bright. Can somepony turn out the lights?"

The hushed voices rose suddenly in alarm. Thankfully, the glare faded enough that Twilight could open her eyes and take her first look at her surroundings. Everything was blurry at first, but slowly she could make out the silhouette of two ponies standing over her. For a moment, she had a nightmarish vision that it was the pair of 'Twilight Dolls' that had bitten her that loomed over her bed. Understandably, she flinched away.

"Rest easy Twilight, you are in no danger here," Twilight relaxed. She recognized the voice. As her vision cleared she could see that the speaker was Princess Celestia. Princess Luna stood beside her and both Alicorn's wore expressions of relief.

"You have been asleep for some time Twilight Sparkle," spoke Luna in a regal tone, "We had begun to fear that you would not wake."

"How many hours have I been out?" asked Twilight, her head still fuzzy, though it hurt less now that there was no light shining in her face.

The royal sisters looked at one another, their brows knit with concern. It was Celestia that broke the bad news, "I'm afraid it has been more than a few hours Twilight. You have been asleep now for many days. Weeks even."

"Weeks," Twilight whispered, unable to wrap her head around the thought. She then suddenly sat bolt upright in her hospital bed, "Starlight! Trixie! Are they alright!?"

Luna pushed her gently back against her pillows with one hoof, "Calm yourself Twilight, they are well. Or as well as can be expected." She smoothed back down Twilight's blankets before she continued. "Your friends were in much worse shape than you. When you arrived here their injuries, as well as yours, were clogged with filth. You were all on the verge of septic shock. I am afraid that, for a time, it was very touch and go."

"Luna has kept your friends in magically induced comas," explained Celestia. "Once they have had more time to heal, she will awaken them as she has awoken you. It was fortunate that you were able to bring them here when you did. Neither they nor you would have likely survived were it not for your heroic efforts."

"My 'heroic' efforts?" Twilight whispered bitterly. "All of those awful things happened to them right under my nose! I'd hardly call that heroic."

"We are aware Twilight," said Luna, stroking Twilight's mane. "This is not the first time we have spoken. I have walked your dreams, and I have seen the horrors you witnessed. It was not your fault that such vile atrocities occurred. My sister is correct to call you a hero. While it was the doctors that Celestia and I requested from Canterlot that saved your life, and that of your friends, if it were not for your actions all three of you would have undoubtedly met a most terrible end."

"So the three of us were taken care of," Twilight mused, looking down thoughtfully. The bed linens were white and crisp, but there were a few stains where tubes were still running into Twilight's body, feeding her medicine and fluids intravenously. "What about Spike?"

Princess Celestia's features clouded. She looked away towards the window, though there wasn't much of a view with the blinds closed. "We discovered Spike much as you had left him. I am afraid that the curse he suffers under is one far darker and more powerful than any we have encountered before. We were able to unbind him from the magic circle inscribed in the Cutie Map, but I am afraid removing the dagger in his chest is impossible until we learn more of the nature of the spell that was cast upon him."

Twilight's face fell. She had thought that might be the case, but it was still terrible to hear. Princess Luna must have read the look on her face, because she lifted Twilight's chin until the two were looking into each others eyes. "Worry not, Twilight. We have taken him to a facility that specializes in dispelling dark enchantments of just this type. Celestia and I ourselves will be heading up the research into Spike's condition. There will be many sealed tomes and forbidden grimoires pried from their dusty resting places, but we will save Spike, you may rest assured of that!"

Celestia gave a weak smile as she turned back to her former student. "We've actually already made some progress. We were able to banish that horrible dark dimension that was linked to your castle. That dread place no longer exists in our reality. You need never fear any danger from it again."

If they thought that would reassure her, they were sorely mistaken. It was somehow worse, to Twilight's thinking, to know that those ruined corpses that resembled her were still out there floating in the ether. She would've preferred if the royal sisters had told her that they had scoured the place with fire and reduced everything to ash. Still, she didn't want her disappointment to show, so she gave a weak smile of her own. "Thank you. Both of you. But I'm tired. I think I may need to rest."

"Of course Twilight," acknowledged Celestia, "You have been through much. Perhaps when you are better rested, you can join us in our research into Spike's affliction. But for now, by all means, rest."

"I will see that you have a dreamless sleep Twilight," promised Luna. "Worry not. You are safe now."

Despite their kind words, Twilight wasn't certain she'd ever truly feel safe again.

Twilight did sleep dreamlessly, at least for the first few nights, as Luna had promised. But in time her rest grew fitful. She would wake, terrified, but only with the vaguest idea of why. She tried not to dwell on these night terrors, and instead she sought to occupy herself speaking with the hospital staff. Unfortunately, there was not much else she could learn about Trixie and Starlight's condition and the most she could learn about her own situation was that she would be kept under observation for another week or two at the least. It wasn't long before all other avenues of conversation seemed to be exhausted. It seemed the staff were nervous about conversing with a Princess and kept the topics light as possible, subsequently keeping Twilight at a respectable distance. Despite having ready access to books, even a few she had not read, Twilight soon found herself restless and bored.

Fortunately, her friends came regularly to see her. Pinkie Pie was the first to bound into the room with so many balloons Twilight was afraid the pink party pony would float away. She put on a bright smile for Twilight's sake, but the bed ridden Princess could tell that Pinkie had been crying. It had been hard for the party pony to see her friends suffer, and Twilight found herself comforting Pinkie as much as her friend was comforted her.

Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash were all close behind. You would think that the atmosphere would have brightened with such a colorful procession crowding around Twilight's bed on a daily basis. Instead, things seemed to only grew more uncomfortable. Each of Twilight's friends would smile brightly each time they saw her, but even as they gave their hugs and well wishes to her she could tell that there was something eating at them. It took longer than Twilight thought it would to pry the reasons out of them, but apparently a lot had happened while Twilight was unconscious.

Her friends had been busy.

The first thing they had done upon learning what had happened from the royal sisters was sweep the castle to make sure that there weren't anymore 'Violet's' hiding anywhere. Celestia had made sure every group had at least two unicorn's that knew the spell to send clones back to the Mirror Pool. In the end, she needn't have bothered. It seemed Twilight really had taken care of all of them on her own.

Instead, what her friends had found were a series of chambers under the castle that they had never noticed before. They wouldn't tell Twilight explicitly what they had found hiding beneath her home, but she understood that many rooms contained things she wouldn't like to know about.

As they continued with their visits with her over the long weeks of her recovery, however, Twilight caught snatches of whispers when they thought she couldn't overhear. Hushed words about rooms wallpapered with pictures of Twilight in various compromising positions and others crowded with dark tomes that Celestia had forbidden anypony from touching directly. There were even quieter whispers about salvaged lab equipment and the purposes that they had been put to. The mutilated and carefully dissected bodies of dead ponies were among only some of the things that they had found in the dark and twisted labyrinth beneath their hooves.

Fluttershy was apparently having trouble sleeping because of it, but did her best to hide this knowledge from Twilight herself. Pinkie Pie had thrown several parties to try to get everypony to forget what they had seen, but Twilight's absence from such frivolity was a constant reminder of what had happened. Applejack and Rainbow Dash seemed to be taking it all in stride, Applejack spending more time with her siblings and fixing up the farm while Rainbow Dash had doubled down on her Wonderbolt's training. Only Rarity had reacted in a way that Twilight hadn't really expected. The fashionista had shuttered her shop in Ponyville, and had taken to sitting by Twilight's bedside every hour of the day that she could, waiting on her every need.

Rarity had even taken to sleeping in a cot beside Twilight's bed, unwilling to return to her own home for the night. It was comforting to Twilight having her friend nearby, especially in the long and dark hours when visitors usually weren't allowed. Rarity had simply insisted to the nurse staff that they were practically family, and that had been all that was said on the matter.

In the end it was very good that Twilight had a companion during those lonely nights in the unfamiliar hospital. In retrospect, it shouldn't have been a surprise that her friends whispered details would lend shape to her dreams. Nocturnal repose that had started out as merely fitful had quickly taken on a darker tone. Twilight would often wake screaming from nightmares and, in those times, it was Rarity that calmed her down enough for her to realize that she had only been dreaming.

She knew she had to rest if she was going to heal, but even so, Twilight grew to resent sleep and tried to avoid it as much as possible.

It was only natural that her bad dreams would star Starlight and Trixie. That they would be about how they had looked hanging in that horrible dimension that Celestia and Luna had thankfully banished. She dreamed about the Twilight Dolls as well, and how their mouths had felt as they had bitten into her flesh. There were nights where she dreamed of herself being devoured, over and over, by the many mouths of the hungry dead. Violet would be watching over her of course, with hungry eyes of her own locked on Twilight's body. In her dreams, Violet was always horribly scarred as she had been in her older form. She would still have the form of a giggling filly though, albeit a deformed one. It would be her sand-papery tongue that licked over Twilight's lips right before she'd bite out Twilight's tongue.

Those nightmares were bad enough, but It was dreams about Sunset Shimmer that Twilight had the most. Twilight had wept bitterly when she had learned of the condition Sunset had been found in. Not just for the cruel loss of her friend, but also the destruction of the Crystal Mirror. With it gone, the connection to the human world would be severed, and there would be no way for Twilight to inform her human friends about what had happened. They'd be left with the other half of Sunset's corpse and no answers as to what had taken place. Worse, whatever problems had driven Sunset to cross over to seek Twilight's aid would go unresolved.

Twilight feared for what would happen in that other dimension in Sunset's absence. The only comfort to be had was in the somewhat poetic nature of Sunset's ultimate interment. Part of her would be buried in each dimension, both worlds having been so important to Sunset. Celestia had seen to it that Sunset's body had been turned over to the local mortician, Mr. Knacker, and apparently there had been a very beautiful service that Celestia, Luna, and all of Twilight's friends had attended while she was still unconscious. Twilight was sorry that she had missed it, but planned to visit Sunset's tomb after she got out of the hospital.

Such comforting thoughts did nothing to stop Twilight from having countless bad dreams about what had happened to Sunset. Dreams about what it must have been like to be ripped in half by the explosion of the Crystal Mirror. Worse were the dreams about her friends in the human world, suffering attacks from some faceless foe and screaming for Twilight's help, all while she watched powerlessly a world away. It was the utter helplessness that Twilight felt that truly made her sleep dreadful.

Even those dreams, however, were pleasant compared to the ones she had about Moon Dancer.

Of her fillyhood friend, not a trace had ever been found. Twilight hoped that meant that Violet had lied about killing her, but seeing what the crazed filly had managed to do to her other friends, Twilight doubted that she would be so fortunate. The uncertainty about what had befallen her had led Twilight to dream up thousands of different scenarios. She watched as Moon Dancer drowned in the shallow sludge of Violet's dark dimension, or danced on the end of a chain with wings sewn to her back in a mockery of Twilight's image. She watched her be eaten alive, stabbed, ripped apart, burned to death, suffocated, and vivisected over and over in the theater of her mind.

Not knowing what had happened to Moon Dancer, Twilight was sure, would haunt her for the rest of her days.

It was a small blessing when Twilight was at last released to go home. She'd come to hate the bed she was forced to lay in and all the night terrors that sleeping there had brought on. It would be nice to leave that hospital room far behind, even if doing so meant returning to the place where so many of those nightmares had been forged.

Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Twilight Sparkle found herself to be in something of a foul mood when it came time to leave. Though Twilight protested that she was fine to walk, a wheelchair was brought to her room and an orderly wheeled her to the front of the hospital as she grumbled the entire way. Rarity was there waiting to collect her as Twilight knew she would be. The two had grown closer over the course of Twilight's recovery. Rarity greeted her with a warm smile that Twilight did her best to return.

"Are you ready to go Twilight?" she asked, her smile faltering only slightly as she noticed Twilight's mood. "Do you need a helping hoof?"

"I'm fine," Twilight replied tersely, perhaps more sharply than she meant. She mollified her tone as she continued, "Really. Everypony is treating me like I'm made of glass, but the doctors say I'm fine to go home. So if I'm going, I want to do it on my own four hooves." Saying that she gingerly pushed herself out of the wheelchair. "See, I'm perfectly fi-" Twilight faltered and stumbled forward as part of her hospital gown had gotten wound around the front wheel of her wheelchair. She would've fallen flat on her face were it not for Rarity catching her.

"Careful darling!" Rarity chided, "You wouldn't want to injure yourself again before you even had a chance to leave the hospital, would you?"

Twilight blushed, but pushed Rarity away, and tore off her hospital gown rather violently in one swift motion. "I'm fine. I just stumbled is all," Twilight replied. "Lets go. The sooner I'm out of this place the better I'm sure I'll feel."

Part of the cause for Twilight's dark mood was readily apparent as they walked through Ponyville. It seemed every pony they passed had some kind of well wishes for her, false concern hidden behind fake smiles. There was no way that these ponies could really know what she had been through. While that wasn't their fault, since Twilight had agreed with her friends that it was better that the more sordid details of what had happened should remain secret, there were more comments about her welcome home party than questions about how Starlight, Trixie, or even Spike were doing. Everypony just seemed to be happy that Twilight was well and didn't have a single thought to spare for her friends who were still recovering.

Twilight felt her temper flair, despite knowing full well that these ponies didn't know the full extent of what had happened.

Rarity, at least, seemed to sense Twilight's irritation and helped to deflect the more annoying questions and move ponies along that over stayed their welcome. It doesn't matter much though, Twilight thought glumly, I'll be seeing them all again shortly. It seemed everypony who was any pony had an invite to Twilight's homecoming party. There was a steady stream of ponies moving towards the distant crystal castle.

Twilight's friends were supposed to have taken care of cleaning up and clearing away all of the terrible things that had come to occupy her home. It had been decided that the lower floors would be best boarded up after they had been cleared out. Twilight doubted that the evil that had been done there could be easily dispelled with something as mundane as a good cleaning. Too much had taken place in those rooms for them to ever be considered fit for occupation. Twilight feared that the corruption would only fester given time. As she looked down the long dirt road that lead to it, Twilight couldn't help but feel there was a darkness hung over the castle that had nothing to do with her own melancholy mood.

As she walked through Ponyville, Twilight's thoughts drifted back to the events that had led up to this.

How had things turned out so terribly?

There were no good answers.

Twilight had warned Starlight that any changes in the past could snowball into catastrophe for the future. Those words haunted her now. Twilight had never expected such catastrophes to be so personal, so intimate and deeply felt, or so truly terrifying. As they continued towards the castle, she had jumped a mile when she had heard the laughter of a group of fillies running through the streets, probably on their way to attend the party that Twilight was slowly realizing she was in no condition to attend.

Rarity was by her side to lay a reassuring hoof on her shoulder, but Twilight was already wincing at every shadow, and jerked away from her friend. Once she realized what she had done, Twilight gave Rarity an apologetic look and allowed her friend to kindly lead her to the front door of her waiting abode. The doors were wide open, and already Twilight could hear the sound of music drifting out from within.

Sure enough, all of Twilight's friends were gathered in the main foyer, and greeted her warmly with a happy cheer! All those smiles made Twilight's face hurt. She tried her best to return them as pony after pony came up to her and offered their well wishes, condolences, and their fervent insistence of their sheer joy at her recovery. But for all the love and attention that was lavished on her, Twilight felt more alone than ever. Being back in the castle, her castle, was only making her mood worse despite all the fun and frivolity going on in its crystalline halls. The sad truth was that it was clear this had all been arraigned to cheer her up, to make Twilight smile, and it was having the exact opposite effect.

Maybe it wasn't her friends fault, or even the party itself. Twilight didn't know if she'd ever be able to smile again so long as she dwelt in this somber place that had served as the setting of so many nightmares, both real and dreamed.

Once her friends had set about their partying, things had become a little less awkward, but there was no relief for Twilight. She sat, staring at her friends, wondering how they could feel anything like joy after so many terrible things had happened here. She knew it wasn't fair. They hadn't lived through what she had. They hadn't seen, smelled, or touched the quivering flesh of the dead, or trudged through the thick mire made up from their fluids and remains. They hadn't been stalked by a psychotic mad mare in the form of a filly. They knew that tragedy had occurred, but they could not feel it as keenly as those who had lived through it. Twilight was like a raw nerve, scraped free of its protected sheath of flesh. She felt numbness now, but she knew all it would take was one wrong word or a hoof out of place to send her jumping at shadows again or off into a sobbing fit over everything she had lost.

Even now, Twilight felt an uncharacteristic pang of jealousy at her friends ability to behave in such a carefree manner. It was only then that she noticed that she wasn't the only one who was uncomfortable. Many of the ponies huddled in small knots, well away from the castle walls. Some ponies gave furtive glances to the chandelier that hung over the Cutie Map, undoubtedly recounting the sorry state it had been found in and the hours of work it had taken to restore to anything like its former glory. Other ponies eyes shifted back and forth, as if they were scanning the room for a potential predator.

Twilight realized that what everypony was the most nervous about, however, was herself. Though everypony that approached Twilight wore bright smiles she could see now just how forced they were. She could see how their eyes didn't fit with their grins, tiny pupils trembling slightly as some of her guests even forgot to blink in her presence. With a wave of sardonic mirth, Twilight realized that she was ruining her own party. The smile this thought brought to her face must have been unpleasant indeed, for it made the fake smiles of the party goers slip almost entirely into looks of worry.

Fortunately, Rarity was there to guide Twilight away to a more secluded part of the castle.

"Twilight, I need you to tell me what's wrong," Rarity whispered once they were in a mostly unoccupied hall.

"Nothings wrong Rarity," lied Twilight. "Why would anything be wrong? I'm having a party thrown in my honor, in the castle where my friends were tortured and murdered. How could there be anything wrong?"

"That's not what I mean and you know it, Twilight!" Rarity fumed. "You've been looking forward to leaving the hospital for nearly a month now. You were telling me just yesterday how much you were looking forward to this welcome home party for pony's sake! You're treating your guests like strangers and, frankly, scaring the daylight's out of them!"

Twilight raised a hoof to her forehead. Her head hurt and her fur felt greasy with sweat. Why was it so hot in here? "I know. I know. I just..." Twilight hesitated, unsure how to put it into words. "I thought this was what I wanted, but now that I'm here I just wish that I was anywhere else!"

Rarity's stern look melted into one of concern, "Are you feeling alright Twilight? If you want, I can send everypony home. We don't have to do this right now if you're not up to it."

"No," refused Twilight. "I know how much trouble everypony went to for this. I know how much it means to them to have something familiar like a party to try to get things back to normal. I just wish it felt normal to me. I just wish I didn't feel like a stranger in my own home."

Rarity put a hoof to Twilight's forehead. "Gracious darling, you're sweating like a pig. No offense of course." Rarity wiped her hoof off on a nearby rug, before turning back to Twilight. "Oh my. Of course! But could it be that simple?"

"Could what be so simple?" Twilight asked, trying to not let her irritation show and failing miserably. It didn't help that her mood had only grown all the more sour as she had drifted away from the node of light and laughter in the castle's main halls.

"Well you've had no time to settle back in. You've been gone for weeks, darling, of course this castle doesn't feel like it belongs to you anymore. With all of these ponies here, we hoped to brighten things up for you, but maybe what you need is to take a few moments for yourself." Rarity tapped one hoof against her chin thoughtfully. "I bet after all that time in the hospital, you could do with a nice long soak in a proper bath. Why don't we try that?"

Twilight hadn't been able to do more than awkwardly shower while she had been in the hospital, and the thought of a good bath did sound appealing. Perhaps Twilight would feel better after she had a chance to clean the antiseptic smell of the hospital out of her mane? "But we're in the middle of a party! I can't just sneak off to take a bath. What if somepony notices?"

"It's your party darling," Rarity answered with a smile. "You can bathe if you want to! Besides, what does it matter if somepony notices? Royalty is allowed to be whimsical on occasion. If bathing ends up making you feel better and raises your spirits, then all the better. You can rejoin the party, renewed and recharged! I'll soon see to any gossip that might arise, worry not!"

Twilight didn't doubt that if any pony could, it would be Rarity. So it was that she quietly relented to being led upstairs. Rarity drew her a bath and sat in a chair just outside the door.

"Just call out if you need anything dear. I'll be right here," Rarity had said reassuringly. The smile she wore was as fake as her eye lashes and as forced as the ones worn by the ponies pretending normalcy in the party downstairs. At least, that's the way it seemed to Twilight. Truthfully, she didn't want to feel that way about one of her friends.

Twilight was beginning to think that her problems didn't lay with other ponies and that it may instead just be her.

Perhaps it was envy? Twilight thought herself better than that.

"Thank you Rarity. I'll try to be quick," Twilight replied, trying her best to hide her feelings as she closed the door behind her. Rarity had been so kind to her, she didn't deserve to have even more of Twilight's baggage foisted on her.

Alone again, Twilight's gaze roved over the tiny bathroom. The cracked wash basin, the dingy towels, the dust that clung stubbornly in the corners of the room. It all looked so cold and dismal to her eyes. How had she never noticed how stark and uninviting everything in her home had been? Even the tub, with its puke green shower curtain, seemed less like something you'd see in a welcoming abode and more like the utilitarian trappings of a hospital room or some similar facility. Twilight gave herself a shake and mentally reminded herself that she was not in the hospital anymore. She was home.

Or, at least, she was in a place that had been her home.

A painful reminder of that was hiding just beside the wash basin. The stool that Spike had once used so that he could reach the washbasin to brush his teeth stood dusty and forlorn. Twilight could still see his tiny claw marks in the varnished wood. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she forced herself not to cry. Twilight had done enough of that while she had been recovering, when neither her friends nor the nurses had been around. Now wasn't the time.

Twilight stared at herself in the mirror. There wasn't a scratch on her anymore. The surgeons that Celestia had sent were among the best, and had used a combination of medicine and magic to heal her wounds so completely that they hadn't even left so much as a mark. Even so, she still felt deeply wounded and absolutely violated on a level that no medicine or magic could ever truly repair. There were dark circles under Twilight's eyes and her mane hung in greasy locks from her head. She hadn't realized how much of a mess she truly looked. It was no wonder everypony was nervous around her.

She was just so very, very tired, all the time these days. Despite this, she was certain that she would get no sleep tonight. There were just too many reminders of what had happened and what she had lost. Twilight was already working on a plan to ask Rarity if it would be alright for her to stay with her at Carousel Boutique for the night. Maybe for a few nights actually.

Perhaps Violet had been right about one thing.

Twilight did seem to find comfort in the company of unicorns. Probably because they reminded her of her parents, although she'd rather eat live coals than admit this to either her mother or Rarity.

Still, if there had ever been a chance before, Twilight doubted she could ever look on any pony with anything like attraction ever again. Violet had ruined her for that. Twilight would never have a special somepony, unicorn or otherwise, if she had anything to say about it. The thought of being intimate with anypony like that now just made her flesh crawl. The memory of Violet's unwanted advances, the touch of cadaverous tongues, and the smell of that horrible dark place were just too vivid. Perhaps it would fade in time, but it would always be there at the back of Twilight's mind.

Was this just how things were going to be from now on?

Twilight shivered.

She missed Spike terribly.

Twilight hadn't realized how much she had come to rely on the dragon in moments like this until he wasn't here anymore. Her heart felt like it was going to burst in her chest.

She turned away from her reflection to the full tub of still slightly steaming water. As she gazed into its placid depths, Twilight could see her reflection wobbling slightly on the surface. She didn't look so bad in the green hued waters as she had in the bathroom mirror. There were no bags under her eyes or the seeming weight of the world on her sagging shoulders. Her edges were softened in the reflective pool, the sharpness of her pains dulled in that watery image.

Why, it was almost as if Twilight were looking at another pony altogether.

Perhaps she really would feel better for the bath? Twilight doubted it, but she needed something normal right now. She needed to be clean. If she was ever going to be herself again, she needed to do something to wash off the horror and despair that clung to her like a sickness.

If only doing that were as easy as taking a bath...

A bubble gurgled up from the tubs depths. That was strange. Had Rarity put in some kind of slow acting bath salts? More bubbles broke the surface, distorting Twilight's reflection. She knit her brow, staring hard into the depths of the water, trying to find the source of the disturbance.

Something about the water was wrong. "No," Twilight whispered, her eyes growing wide, "No, no, no, no, no!"

She could see them. The Violets! All the shy little Violets, staring back at her with empty eye sockets and blood stained smiles. One, the Violet who had been studded with fragments of the Crystal Mirror, was reaching towards her!

The Mirror Pool clones rose from the depths of the clear water, staining it crimson with their still open and seeping wounds! They reached out with their tiny hooves, laughing all the while as they latched tightly onto Twilight, refusing to let her go no matter how hard she struggled! The army of Violets pulled her under the waters surface. Twilight thrashed and bucked but they had her now!

They would never let her go!

"Twilight, is everything alright in there darling?" Rarity called as she opened the bathroom door. "I thought I heard a scream. Is everything... okay?"

A pony stood on the bathroom rug. She was absolutely soaked. Water, dripping from her mane and tail, had already formed a puddle on the bathroom tiles.

"Oh my, were there no clean towels?" Rarity asked, all fussy concern. She opened a cupboard to find several large, fluffy white towels ready to use. She quickly wrapped the pony's mane and body in two separate towels and began to rub her down with her magic. "Why ever were you just standing there dear? You'll catch your death of cold!"

"I'm sorry Rarity," replied the winged unicorn. "I must have just spaced out for a minute. I'm better now."

She smiled at her, and Rarity found herself smiling genuinely back. She'd been doing her best to nurse Twilight back to health for some time now. Though her body had mended, it had seemed that her spirits were hopelessly dashed. It was good to see Twilight smile. There was a slight leap in Rarity's heartbeat from knowing that it had been her that had finally gotten their dear friend to smile again!

Pinkie Pie would be so jealous.

"That's quite alright dear," Rarity replied. "But you need to take better care of yourself! Come down when you're nice and dry. I'm sure everypony will be happy to see your smiling face again."

"Rarity, actually..." the purple pony looked down at her hooves sheepishly, "There was something I wanted to ask you."

"Yes darling?" asked Rarity, her eye lashes fluttering.

"Would it be alright if I spent the night with you?" she blushed rosily as she said this. "Only, I don't think I could stand sleeping here by myself. After everything that's happened I just..."

"Say no more darling, I completely understand," answered Rarity swiftly. "We'll all leave this drafty old castle after the party winds down. You're welcome to stay with me as long as you like."

"Thanks Rarity, I really appreciate it." She flashed another smile like summer lightning. "It means a lot to me."

"Tish-tosh! Think nothing of it dear," replied Rarity, and she meant it. "Come down whenever you're ready. I shall inform the others of our plans!" She skipped off, with a spring in her step.

The door closed with a click. The winged unicorn took her time drying herself off. She'd been soaking for some time. The feel of the fluffy towels whisking away the moisture from her skin was luxury itself. Her smile grew wider, and a shade more wicked as she paused to smell the towels, catching the lingering scent of another pony on them. It was a naughty act, but she felt she had earned the right to indulge. After all, it wasn't every pony that came back from the dead. She sighed heavily, longingly, but she knew well now that her love was just not meant to be.

"Well, if I can't have you, I'll just have to settle for being you I suppose," the wicked mare said in Twilight's voice as she gave her false wings a few experimental flaps. "It seems like a fair compromise with my clones. They get you, and I get your life. Don't worry though. I'll take good care of your friends. At least until they bore me..." Violet laughed as she stared into the placid surface of the water filled tub.

If only Rarity had stayed a little longer! If only she had looked into the tub! She would have seen Twilight, the real Twilight, banging her hooves on an invisible barrier just beyond the surface of the bath water. She would have seen her and the legion of fillies that were swarming over every inch of her body, writhing like a nest of maggots, pulling her ever further down into the bottomless depths.

Violet finished drying herself and laid the towels aside. She looked into the mirror. Violet had made of herself a far better likeness of Twilight than any of the dolls on which she had practiced. There were a few imperfections here and there, but if she looked good enough to fool one of Twilight's closest friends, then she doubted that she'd have any trouble in the short term. With the flicker of a cruel grin playing across her face, Violet leaned down and used her magic to pull the plug at the bottom of the tub with a muffled 'pop'. As the water swirled away, so too did any trace of what had happened.

She allowed herself another grin, but dialed it back a bit to look more natural on her borrowed face. She'd need to restrain herself, to make sure to keep up the act around Twilight's friends. Of course, once she had them alone, it wouldn't be Violet who would be... restrained. She couldn't quite hide a wisp of dark magic as it licked gently along the length of her horn. She would have to be careful about that as well. Wicked thoughts so easily led to wicked deeds. There would be plenty of time for that later.

"Time to meet my new friends~" Violet chirped in a sing song voice, before turning out the bathroom light and plunging the tiny room into darkness.