Burgundy Kings and Blind Sultans
It was a pleasant day in Ponyville, one of many. Knit Stitched trotted briskly through town, loving the crisp autumn air stirring his mane. He was a stallion on a mission: Winter was coming, so he needed yarn. There weren’t many places in town to buy yarn, but there was one place that gave amazing discounts. It helped that the owner was the Element of Generosity.
The bell tinkled slightly as he pushed the door open. Rarity looked up from a dress she was stitching. “Knit! How nice to see you. I just got a fresh stock in, it’s in the baskets over there,” she said with a smile, pointing with a hoof.
Knit mumbled a “Thank you,” and started rooting through the stash. He noticed some of the skeins levitating and turned to Rarity. “Thanks, but I can-” He froze. The entire room was covered in green slimy moss that let out wheezing breaths. Rarity hadn’t noticed. Rarity was bleeding an inky black substance out of gashes in her body but was engrossed in her work.
“Darling, are you quite all right?” Rarity asked with concern.
Knit’s mouth opened and closed, unable to scream. He turned and ran out the door. The buildings were floating randomly, the sky was shifting through violent, obscene colors, and the sun was flickering like a broken strobe light. The moon was hurtling through the sky in an arc that reached around the world, moving so fast it was a blur, with a screaming sound. A stallion ran up to Knit and grabbed him, terror in his eyes.
“Please!” the stallion screamed with a frightened whinny. “Don’t do this! I don’t want to die! I don’t … want … to…”
The stallion’s flesh turned to dust in front of Knit’s eyes, until a skeleton was grabbing him, before it fell to the ground with a clatter, also turning to dust. The streets were full of ponies in grey hooded cloaks, all carrying signs reading “The End is Neigh!”
Pinkie Pie was sitting down, twitching and shivering so fast that she was moving on her own. “Oh, boy, it’s a DOOZY!” she screamed. Her limbs separated with a loud “Squelch!” before they kept clattering down the road in different directions, leaving trails of green blood in their wake.
“Mommy? MOMMY!!” A filly screamed. She exploded, before her flesh recombined into a fleshy goop that began to pull itself down the road in search of its mother.
“I … I …” Knit didn’t know what to say. This couldn’t possibly be his fault!
The door to the Boutique behind him opened up. Rarity clambered out on her spider legs; her face split open like flower petals. “You’ve doomed us allllllll…” she sobbed; her mascara being ruined by the flood of tears leaking out of all twelve of her eyes.
The world shook and swayed. Gravity stopped working. Knit saw a cat and a dog buying a home by the sea together. The sea was made of boiled blood and iced tea.
Lightning zapped down around the town, incinerating ponies and melting the flesh off their bones. Rains of fish and frogs poured down around town, the fish flopping frantically before they too died.
Shadows came to life and swirled around the town, trying desperately to find a way out of this nightmare.
Knit spotted Celestia wheeling through the sky, leaving streaks of fire in her wake. “PONIES!” she said in the Canterlot Royal Voce, “DO NOT FEAR! IF WE ARE STRONG, WE CAN HOLD OUR WORLD TOGETHER! WE CAN…” Celestia snuffed out like a light, leaving a small puff of ash streaking away in the wind.
Doctor Whooves ran up to Knit. “Please, you don’t understand what you’re doing! My God, you’re killing us all, man! Don’t wake u-” The Doctor exploded, the fire leaving streaks in Knit’s fur.
Knit backed away and did the only thing he could do at this point: run. He ran faster than any living thing had ever run before him. The ground broke away from under his feet in great clumps of floating trees and dirt, until he was walking on Nothing. The sky unraveled, strings of bright orange leaking down and leaving puddles of liquid amber on dripping down into the howling void.
Reality was being torn asunder and unraveling at a frightening rate. Soon, the only thing left was Knit, running, trying to find a way back to the world. He tumbled through the Empty, screaming at the top of his lungs …
And Then He Woke Up
An eye large enough to hold a galactic cluster in each of the corners of its pupil cracked open, the secondary eyelid flicking open to let in the starshine.
In an alien tongue, a mind older than time and more powerful than gods desperately thought,
Ṉ̩̟̙̈̎͆̕̕͜Ǫ̨̤͈͓̃̃̈́͆͡
The being screwed its multitude of eyes shut, drew the stars over itself like a blanket with its tendrils, and forced itself back to sleep.
“Darling? Knit, are you ok?” Rarity asked with worry. “You’ve been looking at the same skein of yarn for nearly an hour.”
Knit shook his head to clear away a massive headache. “Yeah, sorry. I’m fine, I just … kinda spaced out there.” Knit glanced out the window of the Boutique. The edges of the sky were flickering like an old movie. Knit wasn’t sure what color the sky was supposed to be. After a moment’s thought, he figured that blue … sounded … right. Maybe.
“Well, can I wrap up your order?” Knit nodded. Rarity tallied up all of the yarn he’d put into his bag. “Well, that comes out to twenty Bits. Anything for my favorite customer,” she said with a coy wink. Knit stood there like a zombie. “Knit, are you sure you’re doing well?”
“I … maybe…” Knit said uncertainly.
“Well, I’m a designer, not a doctor, but I think you should go home and get some sleep.”
Knit placed his yarn into his saddle bag, his brow furrowed as he tried to remember … something. “Yeah,” he said, sounding almost normal. “Sleep really sounds good right now.”
Author's Note
"All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream..." 