Mechanical Angel

Chapter 2: Just another night in the life of Twilight Sparkle

The mare had galloped, and galloped, and galloped, and galloped some more. When her legs burned and her lungs begged for air, she galloped to rejuvenate for energy, when her vision swam and her legs tripped over themselves in exhaustion, she galloped to clear her head. She just had to… gallop! To flee!

She had to get away from that Voice! That hauntingly familiar voice!

“You are now leaving Ponyville. Safe travels.” Read a sign as she ran past it…. Only to jump to her hooves to stop her momentum.

“Ponyville.” She read out loud, causing distant memories to frantically surge through her mind. Sharp, agonizing, disorienting pain shot through her skull.

The mare collapsed to the ground screaming as unspeakably, mind-numbing pain, gripping and beating at her head in a feeble attempt to rid herself of this horror.

Her nose and eyes dripped fresh dark colored blood, her fur matted as the blood began to cake through her fur. She, in a stupor, ran back in direction of town. She had to figure out what was so important about this “Ponyville”

“Ye-yeah. Applejack was right. N-nopony could survive something like that. S-she's dead. Dead! Dead! Dead! And NOT coming back. N-nopony can just come back from the dead!” Twilight reasoned with herself as she walked into the full bathroom in the master bedroom as she finally put Fluttershy to bed for the night…. again.

For the grace of Celestia! She loved that mare to death, but when Fluttershy gets into one of her fits at night, nothing can pacify that mare… or beat her strength.

Twilight sighed as she went into the medicine cabinet, grabbing the rubbing alcohol and clenched her teeth as she began to pour it over her wings. Purifying all of the fresh bite marks and bruises that littered the purple mare from her recent ordeal with the terrified yellow ball of fluff and screams.

That done, she took a paper towel, dozing it in more rubbing alcohol as she patted her shiny new black eye with the paper towel and sighed.

“Damn. Just got all healed up too.“ She groaned as a combination of puss and blood oozed from her swollen eye, slowly dripping into the sink.

“The things I do for friends!” Twilight said to herself in disbelief as she gazed at herself in the mirror, putting cream on her muzzle to help the skin on her cheeks heal from Applejack’s assault earlier in the day.

Just then, a muted scream cut through the air.

“For fuck’s sake, Fluttershy! I just want 5 Cerberus damned minutes to myself!” She growled to nopony in particular as she trotted to the yellow mare’s room.

She hoped tomorrow would come along soon enough, then it would be Rarity’s turn to provide housing to the yellow demon mare.

Trotting into the room, she found Fluttershy… still asleep.

Then, it hit her. That scream, that Voice!

It was her.

Dropping the open bottle of rubbing alcohol, she jumped out of the nearest open window, frantically taking to the skies. Yes! She is alive! Twilight didn't give a damn how angry Applejack got at such things and judging from how hard Fluttershy was punching and screaming, she agrees too!

She was alive and only Twilight could see that. She knew it. It was like her little secret.

Just then, she found herself being surrounded by a group of bat-like ponies, clad in armor and weapons.

“The Night Guard!” Twilight growled, reading herself. "My most notorious and evil nem- nemi- nemesises!” She yelled.

“Halt! By the order of her Majesty of the Night, you are not to leave your home at night, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” One guard said with boredom etched in every word.

“Twilight. Have you been drinking?” A second guard asked in a condescending, fatherly tone.

“S-so what if I've had a little! I- I'm big mare!” She yelled back, her earlier drinks starting to hit her system from all this flying.

“How much is a little?” He asked.

“The…” She hovered in midair and vomited. “Usual!” She finished her statement, wiping her mouth.

“How much is the usual?” Asked a newer, third guard.

“A shot of whiskey to forget whatever trouble her friends put her in for the day. Two heavy swigs of wine to wash down the whiskey and to numb the pain of physcal abu-”

“It's not abuse!” She yelled, interrupting a fourth guard. “They're my-” She burped, a little bit of vomit coming out of her nose as she forced her mouth closed. “FRIENDS!” She yelled to finish her sentence.

“Oh, and she chugs a forty ounce of moonshine until she either passes out or can't breath and coughs it back up to forget that incident three years ago.” A fifth guard said, getting hit upside the head by a few of his squadmates.

“You're not supposed to mention that in front of them!” A sixth guard chastised.

“Yeah.” One of them acknowledged as they continued their nightly routine of backing her towards the Castle of Friendship, talking amongst each other all the same.

“Stop!” Twilight pleaded, trying to fly around the closing circle of guards. “I heard her! She's calling for me! I have to go to her.”

“Who i-” The guard was interrupted by a light hoof to the ribs and a shake of the head by one of his squadmates.

“SHE IS!” Twilight screamed with vigor as she fired a bolt of magic at one of the guards and flew off as fast as she could to where she thought the sound had come from.

She let off a loud slew of curse words as she shot straight into the sky, gaining more altitude. Those pesky guards distracted her and she lost her direction of her call! That's the second time this week, but she was sure it was her this time! This time wasn't like all those other times!

Just then, she saw a flicker of movement just outside of Ponyville’s city limits. It was too dark for her to be able to distinguish looks, but she knew who it was. It was her! And Twilight was sure!

Before she could fly in the direction and prove to the girls that she definitely wasn't crazy like them for all these years, she was tackled in midair by another night guard.

He grasped her close as he dived bombed back towards the Castle Of Friendship, taking her with him.

“You idiot!” She growled as she was dragged further and further away from her. Twilight started punching and biting, and squirming and scratching at the guard with all her adrenaline induced strength.

”Let me go!” She managed to kick him right where the sun doesn’t shine. And Oh, sweet Celestia it felt good to do so.

The guard yelped like a puppy who's been kicked a little too much and dropped like a rock, letting her go in the process.

That done, Twilight tried to find her again, only to be tackled by not one, but three guards as they slowly made their way to the castle with the biting, spitting, hissing, cursing, kicking and screaming lavender alicorn mare and locking her inside.

She screamed in outrage. She had been foiled by the Night Guard. Again!

Twilight let out yet another hard sigh as all the doors and windows locked from the outside all at once. She slowly drudged into the kitchen and half-heartedly grabbed her closest friend. A forty-ounce bottle of moonshine, she kept hidden under a small compartment she drilled under the sink.

Twilight decided she doesn’t care what everypony else told her. She wasn’t crazy! She was telling the truth! Therapy be damned! If Twilight herself wouldn't believe she was alive, nopony will and she would be forgotten forever.