"Hello," I heard from in front of me while I was reading my latest book. Looking up I saw a smiling, but inquisitive face.
"Hi there," I returned back, not too upset that I'd been interrupted, it was a slow day anyway. I looked at the mare in front of me, recognizing her from town, but not remembering her name. "How can I help you?"
She turned her head away from my counter to look at the shelves behind her and then back to me "I'm looking for a book on carrots. Can you help me find one?" She asked me and I agreed.
"Of course," I replied, placing my bookmark in between the pages of my hardback and walking around the counter. "What is it that you're looking for? Do you want to start a garden?"
She smiled and shook her head, "Oh, nothing like that, Dawn, a friend of mine just needs a favour."
I mentally recoiled for a second before I remembered that Dawn Star was my new name. I thought I'd be used to it, but it seemed not. It was only a year earlier that I was Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. I was happy. But like with everything good, it was all gone in an instant, a pop and a flash, a simple teleportation spell. There was...there was no way I could have known. Known that I'd end up in a place worse than my most vivid nightmares and be there for over a month. There was no way I'd know that it was my second last spell.
There was no way anyone could have known that on that day, when I landed in a void, a space between spaces, that I'd be gone. That I'd lose a piece of myself that could never be returned. That I'd spend the rest of my life haunted by the terrors that took place the following weeks.
"-Dawn?" the mare asked, concerned that I'd been silent. I hated to admit it, but I'd been zoning out more frequently lately. "Are you okay?"
I smiled at her, grateful to her for showing concern. "I'll be okay," I said before I started walking again, entering the section that had a book or two on vegetables I knew she'd appreciate. "There are two books I think you might like."
My smile seemed to deter her worry and she returned to her previous happiness. "That's great, thank you very much." My bookstore was small, so it didn't take me long to find what I was looking for. Two books, Vegetables: A Farmer's Digest, and Common Roots and Their Uses.
As I reached my hoof out to grab the first, she spoke again. "Are you sure you're okay, Twilight?" but I just lightly nod, I appreciated her concern, but I didn't want her to wor-
But then I realized what she said. "I'm sorry, what did you call me?" I asked, worried as I turn to look at her, but she was gone. Confused, I looked around, not only was she missing, but everything around me was missing as well. My bookstore was gone, replaced with nothing.
Nothing but an empty void. It didn't take very long for it to occur to me where I was. I felt my legs tremble below me as my eyes opened wide. I couldn't be here, I, I just couldn't! It didn't make any sense, I couldn't use magic anymore. And I'd never in my life teleport again even if I could!
My head darted every which way, looking for a way out, for something familiar, somewhere I could escape to. but it was no use, I saw nothing but dark red static void in all directions. I felt tears start to well up in my eyes and I couldn't take it anymore, I started to run. I didn't care which way I was going, I had to get away from there. I had to escape. But just as I picked a direction to move in I spotted it.
I recognized it immediately, no amount of therapy or time could ever erase the image from my mind. The rotting pile of death. My death, my decomposing bodies, many of which have been partially eaten. They were all in front of me. The hundreds of Twilights that had teleported before me. and even my friends occasionally dotting the mountain of horrific terror that lay before me. And just as the image hit me the smell hit me harder. The rotting smell of death and disease I'd never be able to forget.
Before I could even begin running I fell backward on my flank. There's nothing I could have done. No escape. No saving me from this nightmare. I was about to vomit before I heard it again. "Are you sure you're okay, Twilight?" a voice asked me. I didn't know what to say.
I thought that my customer was asking me that. She...sh-she couldn't be here, "I...I don't understand."
Before I heard an answer I saw movement from the pile. Some of the dead Twilight's are writhing and squirming before me. The sounds they made were like a thousand blood-soaked maggots. Slowly I saw it. Several broken limbs piling on top of each other, sickening cracking sounds echoed all around me, flesh ripping mixed with blood spurting, forming the soundtrack of a dozen mutilations. What I saw happening before me was unnatural, something, not even the sickest necromancer's could conceive of.
A creature stood before me, made up of countless different versions of myself. Made of only the worst components. The rotting, disgusting mesh of bone and flesh had no eyes, only soulless sockets staring directly at me.
"Because there's nothing okay with what you've done." It spoke in a voice so much like my own, only wrong, distorted. The amalgamation of my dead selves slowly stepped towards me, flashing me a horrifying smile as it approached me.
"There's a balance to the universe, Twilight, and you've upset it." The sound of a skull cracking could be heard under its hoof, "You were meant to die in here, alone and unloved. You weren't supposed to break the cycle and destroy the latest version of yourself."
"There's a balance, a perfect, fragile balance to the way things are. An order of operations that start with life, and end with death. But not you though. Oh no. You had to be the one to break the cycle. To get the message out and cheat death." It reached the bottom of the pile and stared deeply into my soul. I felt tears sting my eyes, but I was unable to look away. "You were supposed to die Twilight. And every second you're breathing is another second things are uneven."
"Y-y-you're wr-rong!" I yelled in terror, I didn't have anything to say, but my mouth spoke anyway.
There was a spine chilling chuckle from the creature as it's decomposing lips upturned into a smile. "Come now Twilight, you're a scholar, are you not? You can disagree all you want, but in your heart you know it's true. That you're just living on borrowed time. That you were never meant to see anything ever again after you entered the sphere." It raised my chin and wiped a tear from one of my eyes. "The fact that you're out now is meaningless, because one day, when you least expect it, you'll end up here again. And no matter what you do or where you go, you'll never escape it, because this inescapable sphere is your home."
I pushed away from it, having no plan for where I was going to go, but just knowing I needed to get away from it. Finding strength I got to my hooves, turned, and ran. But it was no use as I heard it's voice speaking in my ears.
"How endearing. You think there's a way to escape me. Like I'm just some bad dream. But there is no escape. Not from your fate. You're a cannibal, Twilight. A murderer. And it doesn't matter how far you go, you'll always carry the taste of organs in your memories. You ate the flesh and drank the blood, this place is where sickos like you belong, and until the day you die, you'll always carry the weight of your mistakes with you. You'll be a cannibal until you curl up and die."
'ENOUGH!" I heard suddenly. I turned back, almost afraid to, but against my better judgment I turned my head, and through my tear soaked eyes I saw the most beautiful thing I could ever lay my eyes on.
"Princess Luna!" I called, running toward her now that I understood that this was all a dream. She banished the creature from my head and embraced me as I cried into her shoulder.
"I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner, Twilight, I'm truly sorry." She said to me, but I didn't care, I didn't care about anything, I was just so happy she was there, I held onto her for dear life.
I don't know how long I cried for, but when I was finally done, I looked around to find that the scenery had changed, no more was I in a dark void surrounded by my dead bodies, now I was in a colourful meadow with a creak running through, lightly trickling past us, making a nice sound.
She smiled down at me with the same warmth I usually felt from Celestia, and I smiled back, genuinely happy she'd stayed with me for the time she did. She looked for me, she found me, and she saved me.
"But she didn't save you, did she?" I suddenly heard whisper in my ear, I screamed in response, "I may be gone now, but I live inside you head, and not even Luna can save you from me."
Author's Note
Revision 1: fixed all past/present tense confusion (hopefully everything is now consistently in past tense)
Bluh, the ending could have been better.
Well, I hope I did you guys justice and gave you the "Recovery process" Saved!Twilight has deserved.
Please leave a comment telling me what you think, what you liked, what I could have done better. You know how this goes ^-^ and as always, thank you for reading.
