Chapters Spike's Writer's Block Chapter 3
“Woo…kinda…what’s the word? Light, I guess? Light-headed maybe…” Spike mumbles to himself, floating through some kind of space. His eyes drift across the monotone world, not a shred of color anywhere. “Where…?”
“You’re dreaming. I thought you’d figure that much out on your own!” A voice, Spike’s voice, says off to the dragon’s right. He turns his head, seeing his moustachioed self, stroking the handlebar with a grin on his face like he just cheated five gamblers out of every bit they had.
“Dreaming? Oh, right…I was thinking about the story,” Spike says, lifting himself off the ground. “My dreams seem kinda…blank today though.”
“It’s because instead of your mind being locked on Lady Rarity, you’re thinking about something else. Particularily…”
“Right, my story and where it was gonna go. Me and Twilight were talking about that…earlier, I guess. I figured out my villain.”
“Me, of course,” Evil Spike says with a chuckle, finally leaving his moustache alone.
“Right. I’ve also got a hero,” Spike says, looking off to his right as Hot Shot fades into existence. He doesn’t have his tuxedo anymore, though. “Where’s your coat and shirt? I thought they looked pretty snappy.”
Hot Shot simply shrugs in response, taking a seat on the snow-white ground. The stallion adjusts his mane, trying to get the bed-head-for-days look out of it, but getting nowhere fast. He simply lowers his hooves with a grimace, letting the locks fall down in front of his eyes.
“You still don’t have a voice, do you?” Spike asks, walking up towards the hero in his story. Evil Spike jumps up on Hot Shot’s head and grabs his mouth, opening and closing it in a talking fashion as he speaks, his voice a trying-but-failing-horribly impression of Derpy’s voice.
“I’m a big, dumb stallion who ALWAYS gets in the way of the handsome Evil Spike’s efforts to get his marefriend back!” Evil Spike loses his grip as Hot Shot clamps his jaw shut, glaring up at the dragon on his head. “What? No sense of humor, you big lug?” Evil Spike says with a chuckle before being thrown off by a quick flick of Hot Shot’s head.
“…Seriously? You’re EVIL Spike, not CHILDISH Spike. Death traps, dastardly plots, complicated plans that have you leave the room JUST as the hero is coming towards the mouth of the volcano.”
“Are you kidding? None of those plans work; I’m not the stereotypical villain that laughs and monologues all the time.” Evil Spike says as he throws his nose up in a pompous fashion, folding his arms with a ‘hmph’.
Spike simply rubs his forehead, sighing. “Alright, before I get more sidetracked and wake up without actually doing anything, how about we start thinking about setting? Any good story needs a good location.”
As Spike completes his sentence, the world begins to bend and fold on itself, walls shattering to reveal massive fences and the metal walls of a fortress. The atmosphere of oppression only grows thicker as the world builds itself, stockades occupied by tortured criminals lining the single red carpet that leads up a short staircase to a golden throne, standing upon it a rather royally-clad Evil Spike.
Both Hot Shot and Spike stare up at disbelief at the massive castle that now surrounds them. A courtyard, it’s just a courtyard with walls and tortured ponies! “Are you CRAZY? If I use THIS as my setting, I’ll be…I’ll be…LAUGHED AT!” Spike shouts, the walls beginning to crumble and blow away as a hurricane tears the castle down, Evil Spike’s royal crown and cape blowing away in the shredding wind. Just as quickly as the dark castle had been built, it had been swept away by something that could only be described as an Act of God. “If I DO use this, I’m just gonna blow it away with some Celestia-driven event.”
“Party pooper,” Evil Spike mumbles as he sits down on the ground where his throne used to be, pouting.
Spike takes a deep breath, ignoring the evil him, and looks around at the world. “Now, what would be a PROPER setting? Considering your background, Hot Shot, I think it should start in Las Pegasus.”
Spike closes his eyes and concentrates, the world once again bending and fading away from the pure white of his blank dreams, slowly giving way to neon-lit bars and casinos and fast-moving chariots going up and down the road, carrying all manner of celebrities and gamblers wanting to make their mark on the world with that fabled roll of the dice. “THIS is my setting. Well…at least at the start of the story before you come to Ponyville.”
Hot Shot looks around, completely taken in by the yellows, greens and reds of all the neon signs. Luna’s moon hangs in the air above the Pegasus Strip, allowing the night to be filled by the visual gold of the City of Sin’s blinding, gaudy lights. The moon even seems to be orbiting further away, as if embarrassed with this challenge against its celestial beauty.
“Sheesh…” Evil Spike says, getting up as he moves about the middle of the street. Two stallions drawing a chariot shout at him as he dodges out of the way, everypony seeming to be in the rush of their lives. Some drunkards walking out of a rather loud bar off to the left start squabbling, two in the group of four earth ponies quickly coming to blows with each other. “I think you over did it, Spike.”
“Are you kidding? I’ve only heard stories about this place. Always wanted to come here just to see the lights…this is probably exaggerating it, but c’mon! Isn’t it awesome!?” Spike says, gesturing to all the sights around them. Hot Shot and Evil Spike follow his gestures, both of them covering their eyes to protect them from some of the more dangerous depictions of mares pouring drinks, or stallions dancing with canes and top hats. One even depicts the Great and Powerful Trixie performing a rather stunning act using two Ursa Minors and a deck of cards. “Take in the sights, guys, cause this is definitely where my story is gonna start.”
“You’re crazy. Anyone who reads this is gonna go blind from IMAGINING this place…I know I am,” Evil Spike replies in his typically insulting tone, shielding his eyes. Hot Shot simply curves his mouth upwards in thought, nodding in approval of the setting.
“C’mon, it’s not that bad. Who knows? I know some villains had pretty cool secret bases, maybe you’ll have one too, Thorn?”
“Th-THORN? You’re calling me THAT?!” Evil Spike tears his eyes away from a bar called ‘The Liver Killer’ to stare at his doppelganger, a look of crazed disbelief on his face. “That’s the stupidest name I’VE EVER HEARD!”
“Alright, alright! I’m probably gonna call you ‘Boss’ most of the story anyway, plenty of time to think of a name.” Spike says as he sidesteps another racing chariot, one of the stallions turning around to raise his hoof in a cursing manner. “Jeeze, they should call this place the ‘City of Stuck-ups’…”.
“Fitting for the hero, don’t’cha think? Since ol’ Hot Shot here is such a stick in the mud…won’t even react when I insult him!” Evil Spike says, glaring up at his rival, Hot Shot quickly returning it. They slowly lean into each other until Hot Shot’s chin is against the ground, both their foreheads butting against each other as they glare burning holes into each other’s eyes.
“Alright guys, calm down. Now, since we’re here, what’s gonna happen? This is before Hot Shot meets Rarity, so what pushes him over to Ponyville?” Spike asks his cohorts, who both pull away from their glare and place hoof and claw on their chins. Spike joins them as they all start thinking.
“Maybe…the original idea was for him to get caught up in some trouble here, right?” Evil Spike starts, raising an eyebrow. Spike nods in confirmation, “So why not get him involved with the mob? Maybe a deal goes bad and he has to run.”
“He’s a gambler, not a criminal. Getting bad debt at a casino would be reason enough to run though. Alright, so let’s see…come with me, Mr. Shot,” Spike says, walking over to one of the sidewalks, Evil Spike and Hot Shot following behind him. “What’s a good name for a casino…?”
“The Hot Dice!” Evil Spike exclaims, wearing a toothy smile.
“Nah…” Spike strokes his chin in thought, stopping in front of a monolithic building covered in neon lighting; Pinkie would have a heart attack out of excitement if she was asked to host a party here. A massive sign hangs over the three pairs of double doors, a blank green across its front, surrounded by shining dark blue.
“Uhhh…The Stacked Deck,” Evil Spike suggests.
“That makes it sound like they’re trying to take your bits, as in ‘not fair.’”
“You’re busting me here, man!”
“You’re me! How could I be busting you without busting myself?! If…that makes sense. Stupid dreams…” Spike says as he frowns at his evil double. A strange feeling passes through him as the world begins to bend and fade, as his eyelids fall despite his commands to keep them open.
“Ah, guess it’s morning. We’ll see you later, Spike!” Evil Spike says, waving with Hot Shot as they fade away into white.
“Ngh…what a night…” Spike mumbles, blinking hard against the light streaming in from the window. “What was I doing today…? Hmm…well, I did just wake up, makes sense that I can’t remember immediately…maybe some breakfast’ll jog my memory,” Spike looks over at the bed, seeing Twilight snoring away, rolling occasionally in her covers. He smirks at the sight as he heads for the stairs, walking down while rubbing his eyes, the haze of drowsiness not quite clear from his mind. He stops half way down the staircase, looking at Castle Twilight standing in the middle of the room, the books that make up its walls still not taken and re-organized.
“Well…she did say she’d clean it up…” Spike mumbles, still blinking his eyes on occasion to get the blur out of his vision. He sits down on the step, holding his head between his claws, and closes his eyes. “Sheesh…how bad a sleep did I have? The dream seemed a lot longer than usual…then again; I don’t normally have conversations with myself…does that make me crazy?” Spike asks the darkness, not expecting an answer. “Just the creative process, Spike…didn’t somepony say something about madness and genius…?”
Spike shakes his head, waking up a bit as he continues his morning pilgrimage to the kitchen, stretching as he reaches the bottom of the stairs. “Right then…breakfast, breakfast. Maybe I’ll go with emeralds today; the sour flavor might wake me up a bit…finish off with a glass of milk,” Spike says, nodding at his breakfast plan. He needed a sharp mind for writing today, and slacking off wasn’t an option! Though slacking just before breakfast was alright, as the dragon made a less-than-brisk walk into the kitchen. Soon enough, he’d assembled a good amount of gems and a glass with a milk carton next to it, and he stares off into space as he places the first gem between his steel fangs.
“So…I’ve got a villain. He’s…well, me. Twilight did say to give the characters some quirks…what did Evil Spike act like?” Spike quirks his mouth as he chews on the gem, the shock of sour hitting his cheeks and tongue and revving his brain like Pinkie after a small cup of coffee. “Woo! Plan worked better than I thought,” He says with a raise of the eyebrows. “Ok. Villain is me. How did he act in the dream and every time I went to my imagination?” Spike asks himself outloud, before frowning and furrowing his brow. “Like a foal…great. I’ve got a foalish, overconfident villain, and that’s just copying me!” Spike says with a grimace as he chomps down the other half of his emerald, “That’s kinda bad…maybe he just needs a bit of refinement? He’s clever at least, that’s a feature any good villain needs!”
Grabbing another emerald, his brain continues on the train of thought, thinking about villains and what makes them good. “A good villain needs a reason to be one…Lady Rarity is a good reason, isn’t she? Would I turn evil if it meant she’d be with me…?” He chomps on the emerald in his hand, considering the option. “Nah, Twilight would come after me, writing some speech on the way.” He chuckles at the thought of Twilight racing through Ponyville after his dastardly double, shouting something about a very scathing letter to be sent to the Princess about him. “Then Princess Celestia would get involved, and, well…that’d just end badly for everypony.”
“Morning, Spike…” A voice says from the door, and he turns to see the frazzled form of Twilight. Signs of yet another crazed night of research show through in her saggy, half-closed eyes and ragged mane and tail; somepony didn’t care how she woke up, apparently.
“Morning. I did some thinking about the story last night.” Spike chucks the last of his emerald into the air, it bouncing off his nose during its free fall and, thankfully, landing in his open mouth. He rubs his nose while chewing on the sour morsel, each chew providing more shock for the brain to wake him up. “Like a cup of coffee, only ten times better! Makes me wish everypony was a dragon; emeralds make a great breakfast!”
“I’m sure they do…but coffee’ll do for us regular ponies, I suppose.” Twilight says with a smirk as she goes over to the other side of the table, sitting down and placing her head between her hooves.
“Something on your mind?” Spike grabs another emerald as he raises an eyebrow, chomping down on it as he leans on the table.
“I’m trying to invent a new spell combining teleportation and matter reformation; don’t worry about the terms, it’s making about as much sense to me as it does to you. It’s wreaking havoc on my brain…” Twilight says with a defeated groan at the end, looking wearily up at her assistant.
“There’s always the Princess. Teachers help their students on tough questions, right?” Spike finishes off the emerald, grabbing another from the dwindling pile.
“I know, but this is a revolutionary spell, and I want to conquer it on my own. I might take a trip to Canterlot, see some of the material in the Archives…maybe somepony before me tried to make the same spell, took a different approach that I haven’t seen?” Twilight asks, looking over at the dragon. After receiving a few blinks of confusion and a quirk of his mouth in response, she gets up from the table to make herself breakfast. “Well, just thought I should let you know, right?”
“Yeah, still, talking to me about magic is like talking to Rainbow Dash about subtlety,” Spike grins as he gets a chuckle out of Twilight. She’d had a rough night of research, he thought, so a good laugh is always a great way to start a morning.
“Too true. So, you mentioned your story, how’s that going?” Twilight asks as she draws some materials from the fridge, all coming out in a large purple aura.
“Pretty well, actually; thought up a pretty good villain, something of a plot, and my first setting,” Spike says with a prideful smirk, tossing another emerald into his mouth. He pours himself a glass of milk as Twilight sets about setting up a sandwich.
“First setting, eh? Where is it?”
“Las Pegasus.”
“The City of Sin, huh…sounds like the right place to start off a story about a gambler down on his luck.”
Bread, condiments and several flowers float around in front of Twilight as she sets about making the morning fuel for her brain, Spike watching in half-interest as he takes a drink from his glass of milk. He stares up at the ceiling, letting his thoughts wander as he imagines the neon-lit streets of Las Pegasus, ponies coming and going, shouting about their crazy good luck, getting into bar fights, sometimes a combination of the two. “Maybe I’ll go there someday…”
“Ahhh, no. Las Pegasus isn’t the place for a baby dragon,” Twilight says with a raise of her eyebrow as she turns around, bringing a completed daisy-and-mustard sandwich to the table.
“C’mon Twilight, I’ve gotta go to the place that’ll be the setting for my story!” Spike says with a grimace, grabbing the last emerald on his plate and tossing it into his mouth, chomping on it.
“It’s a city of casinos, bars, drunks and other riff-raff; you think I want a drunk dragon coming home after a week?” Twilight says with a raise of her eyebrow.
“I’m not old enough to drink, you know that. I just wanna go there to study the Strip, see what buildings are there.”
“Still, no. They don’t call it the City of Sin for nothing, Spike,” Twilight says in a motherly tone, as if dealing with a child who just can’t sit down and accept what she’s saying.
Spike sighs, taking his milk in a claw and downing half of it in one glug, thinking. “Do you have any books on the city then?”
“The library carries a lot of historical books, fictional stories, and auto-biographies…I’m pretty sure that somepony wrote about a trip to Las Pegasus, and you might find it here if you look hard enough,” Twilight rubs her chin as she thinks of where such a book might be, ignoring the tasty sandwich in front of her. She looks over at Castle Twilight and sighs. “I remember going through the auto-biographical section for research material…”
“Don’t you usually go into the History and Magic sections for that?” Spike asks, sipping his milk.
“Yeah, usually, but I heard about a famous unicorn travelling abroad who wrote a book on various magical formulae he learned during his travels. It was an auto-biography, so I went through the whole section looking for it…what was the title?” Twilight looks at the ceiling as she finally remembers her sandwich, taking a bite before the shock of mustard lights her up. “GAH! Too much mustard!”
Spike laughs at the puckered face of the librarian, thinking about what could be going on in her mind right now. Probably spells to neutralize a strong acid or something, and to his surprise, Twilight’s horn lit up and surrounded her head in a bubble for a few moments before bursting, Twilight sighing in relief. “That took care of it…”
“Wait, what spell was that?”
“Acid neutralization.”
Spike widens his eyes and tilts his head. He was right? “I guess there’s a first for everything…” He mumbles to himself as he finishes off the milk, wiping his mouth. “Well, what else can I take care of before setting…?”
“You could try and think of a plot line,” Twilight suggests as she takes another bite, her face puckering up with a groan of anguish as the acidic mustard assaults her tastebuds and cheeks. She clenches her eyes shut and fights through the pain, moaning as the sting fades away. “Yep…not gonna finish this thing, am I?”
Spike shakes his head with a smirk, “You need the food, Twi’, and tossing out a good sandwich isn’t good.”
“As if I need a lecture from you, Mr. Devour Every Gem In Sight, you hardly need all the food you dump into your stomach every day,” Twilight replies with the same smirk.
“Hey, I’m a growing dragon, and dragons need food, don’t we? Split it in half, I’ll take some; brain’s still kinda fuzzy anyway,” Spike says, walking around to the other side of the table. Twilight tears the sandwich in half, handing one half to Spike as she takes another bite out of hers. Spike looks down at the sandwich, wondering what could be so bad about a ton of mustard, and he takes a bite.
He immediately regrets it as something between getting stabbed in the cheek and having a ton of powdered emeralds dumped into his mouth assaults his tongue like a bunch of angry ponies attacking a castle. “Hnngh…!”
“See?” Twilight says with a smirk, which is replaced by a pained grimace as she swallows her food.
“Jeeze, you weren’t kidding! That’s WAY too much! Should probably check that bottle…” Spike says as he rubs his cheek, looking at the menacing yellow bottle on the counter as if it were a weapon of mass destruction. “That mustard is too dangerous to be in pony hooves…”
“I’ll be sure to send it to the Princess to make sure it doesn’t fall into the hooves of somepony with less-than-noble intentions,” Twilight says with a giggle. Finishing off her sandwich with a groan and a grimace, she walks out of the kitchen to start work on disassembling her fortress. Spike decides to get it over with in one go as he tosses the remains of the sandwich into his mouth, and he falls to his knees as the taste attacks him relentlessly. His face turns red as he battles against it, but eventually it fades away, letting him exhale in a slow sigh.
“Another fight is won by Spike the Brave!” Spike says with a smirk as he gets up and walks into the library, which has already become a hurricane of books flying every which way as Twilight organizes them. Spike wonders how a unicorn could stay focused on a spell while organizing a whole library full of books. “It’s like the Pinkie Sense…something you just have to accept as true, I guess,” Spike says with a shrug as a frustrated groan escapes Twilight.
“Don’t mention that!” She shouts as she organizes the books.
“Right, sorry,” Spike grins apologetically as he walks over to his writing desk in the middle of the room. Ducking a few times to gather his supplies, and dodge a few book missiles, he starts writing down his ideas. “Ok…Las Pegasus is the first setting. What should the casino beeee…?” Spike mumbles as he taps the paper with his quill, leaning on his other claw. “The Big Bit? Nah, sounds like they’d be handing out five-foot chips made of lead…Gold Bar Casino? Instead of paying you in bits, they give you gold nuggets!” Spike says with a smirk, then begins to drool slightly. “Mmmm…gold. Way more chewy than gems, but it’s like a delicacy; smooth and sweet with a bitter aftertaste. Sticks to your teeth though…” He says with a grimace, scratching between two of his fangs with a claw to get some bread still stuck between his teeth out.
Dodging another book flying at him, Spike sees the cloud of books around Twilight is finally thinning out, seeing some of her biggest ammunition is still in the cloud; dictionaries. If one of those hits Spike, he’s done for. He takes cover behind his desk as a book flies overhead. “It’s always the dictionaries that hit you…” He says with a shake of his head, one of the massive tomes moving sluggishly by. “Why does Twilight have a dictionary on Olde Equestrian?”
“Helps me write to Luna; I like to send the occasional letter when I’m writing my friendship reports to Princess Celestia. She still uses the old dialect, so I use that old dictionary to help me write in a language that’s easier for her to understand,” Twilight says as Spike rises up over his desk, the hurricane of books finally gone. He sighs in relief, having survived the storm, and returns to his seat.
“I didn’t know you wrote to Princess Luna,” Spike says, leaning back in his chair.
“The seals look the same, so I’d be kind of surprised if you did,” Twilight grins, walking over to Spike. “So, nothing planned for today?”
“I thought about it as I was waking up and nothing came to me. Thinking about it now, I think it was just getting some more ink from the local market…we don’t need quills, do we?”
“Nor do we need sofas; I’ve got a pile of them in the basement,” Twilight smirks, still slightly confused by how a pony could sell quills and sofas in the same shop, and why they’d choose such a strange inventory. “You can write out your setting ideas then head out. I’m going to keep working at that spell; I know I’m on the verge of a breakthrough!” Twilight says with a determined nod, firing up her horn as she turns around. “I’m also on the verge of a breakthrough of how to build castles using books! My Northern wall was tilted a bit though…”
Spike rolls his eyes as they both set to their tasks, his imagination quickly taking over as he falls back into that white world again. He blinks and looks around, seeing only Hot Shot there waiting for him. “Hey, where’s Evil Me?”
Hot Shot replies with a shrug, looking around. He blinks before turning back to Spike.
“It’s gonna be really hard to talk to you if you don’t have a voice…what’s a proper voice for you to use though?” Spike asks himself as he folds his arms. He strokes his chin in thought as Hot Shot draws circles in the ground with his hoof, either bored with waiting, or simply not interested in finally being able to talk. “Voice…voice…well, who can I use as a base…?” He blinks as he looks at Hot Shot, who returns a half-interested stare. “Can you say something for me?”
“Alright. How about this, then? Why do I sound like a mare?” Hot Shot asks in Twilight’s voice, and Spike almost immediately breaks down into a laugh.
“Sorry…I guess the voice I knew best came up,” Spike says, letting a few laughs out. The voice didn’t suit the character at all; a tall stallion sounding like Twilight? Maybe when he’s writing a comedy. “Ok, ok, ahem…try this one.”
“Ahem, the Lucky and Amazing Hot Shot demands he stop sounding like a mare!” Hot Shot says in a pompous manner.
“Too familiar…” Spike answers with a grimace, thinking. “How about…this one?”
“OH YEAH, THIS MAKES ME SOUND WAY BETTER!” Hot Shot immediately belts out in a roar as he leans into Spike’s face. “HOT SHOT GUARANTEES THIS VOICE WILL MAKE YOUR STORY AMAZING, OR HE WILL PERSONALLY GO OUT AND WRESTLE THE WHINY READER, INTO SUBMISSION!”
“Woah!”
“Oh…sorry,” The stallion immediately looks down, using a small, meek mare’s voice.
“Well…” Spike says as he falls on his rear, sticking a finger in his ear. “It’s better than that other voice…” He rubs it after pulling his finger out, shaking his head to get that infernal ringing out.
“Maybe…maybe we should…well…focus on the plotline…if…if you don’t mind…” Hot Shot draws a small circle in the ground, more than just the voice coming through, apparently.
“Yeah…I’ll fix your voice soon, but the plot comes first. Let’s see…” Spike folds his arms and starts pacing. “Alright, so, gambler who gambles all his money away. The policy at a casino is usually…what? Throw you out?”
“Well…I think…things can get a little more…um…violent…”
“That’s true…alright, so you’re gambling. What’s the problem with using your own money, right? In order to get in trouble, you’d have to borrow money from the wrong ponies,” Spike says, a suited pony appearing in front of him. The pony has a brown coat, a white-gold mane, and a look in his eye that says he’ll make all your dreams come true for the right price. “Let’s say that you’ve got a problem, hopping from casino to casino looking for your big break, and the bad ponies keep lending you money. You say you’re good for it, yet keep wasting it…they come looking for their money, throw a couple threats around, and you’ve got to leave town. Travelling for a while, you come to Ponyville and meet some of the local ponies.”
“You owes us some money, bub, time youse paid up,” The mysterious pony says with a heavy Hooflyn accent, a toothpick appearing in his mouth. “Time’s up.”
“I…I’ll g-get you your money…I just…just need more time…” Hot Shot says, sweat falling like bombshells from his face to the ground as he stares at the other pony’s hooves.
“Da Boss ain’t got no more time t’ give; youse said you was gonna pay up, now pay up!” The other pony shouts, stepping forward. Spike backs off, everything about this pony setting off warning lights in the little dragon’s head; even in his imagination, the right pony can scare him!
“I…I-I can’t pay…” Hot Shot says, backing away.
“Then we got a problem…a big problem,” The pony says, adjusting the toothpick in his mouth as a devious smile crosses his face.
“This is good…” Spike mumbles to himself, watching the scene play out. “This isn’t good…this is PERFECT! A gambler with a problem goes to a loan shark, keeps taking money and wasting it all on gambling! IT’S BRILLIANT!” He leaps up in utter joy, the world falling apart around him as he returns to the library. “Twilight! I’ve got i-“
It takes a bit for him, but he finally registers that he is, in fact, speaking to a book. Not just any book, but a Daring Do novel; ‘Knights of the Lost Ark’, to be exact. He looks up at the ever-growing wall of books, all ranging from reference tomes to dictionaries to the occasional fictional work. “…Another Castle Twilight?”
“Ohhh…why is this spell so difficult…?!” Another book falls into rank with the others constructing the impenetrable wall; looking along it, Spike sees the beginnings of a castle tower. “It’s teleportation! A field that I know front to back! Why can’t I figure out mass movement of objects?!”
“Better just…let her work that out,” Spike mumbles to himself, looking back at the paper. “Maybe somepony can help me think…I’ve got the beginning of a plot worked out, so maybe I should move on to characters? I’ve got my first setting, that being Las Pegasus…got my first plot point, being borrowing from the loan sharks, and I’ve got my characters. Personality and voice…well, only one pony to go to concerning ‘personality’,” Spike smirks, thinking of a certain mare with an overbearing personality. “Then maybe I’ll walk around town, see if I can make a voice for Hot Shot and Evil Spike…sounds good.”
Spike writes down the short list of points he’d made during his trip through his imagination, and files the paper and supplies away in the desk. He hops off his chair and moves along to a rather well-constructed archway in the wall, moving through. “Is that a cloak and crown?”
“It’s Castle Twilight; why can’t I wear a crown?” Twilight asks back, looking at Spike from behind her rather oversized golden crown and regal cloak, reading book after book before sending them into eternal service as pieces of her castle wall.
“Your North wall’s a bit short,” Spike points to the top of the wall, about three layers of books shorter than the others. Twilight growls in frustration, moving some dictionaries off the East wall to compensate.
“Great, now I’m going to be doing THIS all day…I’ve got science to be doing!” Twilight grumbles in frustration, moving books around. Spike chuckles a bit as he heads for the door through another, larger archway; he figures it’s the main entrance to Queen Twilight’s throne room.
“I’m heading out, Twilight! Off to study for my story!”
“Alright, have fun! And be back in time for lunch! Or it’s off to the dungeons with you!” Twilight shouts with a commanding tone before putting on a friendly smile.
“Will do, Your Highness,” Spike says with a bow before heading out of the library, leaving Twilight to her duties of fixing her castle and figuring out whatever crazy spell she’s trying to invent; time to go bother a certain baker pony…
“D…dead…?” Rarity whispers, looking from Twilight to Fluttershy’s shivering, sobbing form, to the Pegasus under her; Rainbow Dash, Equestria’s greatest flyer, the invincible Pegasus who would fight dragon and villain in order to protect her friends…dead from a flying accident? “But…how could she…how did she hurt herself this badly…?”
“I-I don’t know! She’s hit things far harder than a wooden roof or floor! She’s run full force into a CLIFF FACE and come out completely unscathed!” Twilight shakes her head, trying to process the situation. She’s crashed and flown into so many hard objects, that her skeleton had to have been made of STEEL in order to survive it all! Did she just get unlucky?
“We have to get her to a hospital, have her checked properly!” Rarity blurts out, a weak smile growing on her face, as if Rainbow will simply shrug this off like she’s always done.
“I…I…I ch-checked…myself…” Fluttershy speaks up between sobs, immediately grabbing the attention of the two unicorns beside her. She looks up, cheeks damp and eyes bloodshot, the waterworks still cleanly flowing. “She…she…” A hiccup interrupts her sentence as she looks back to Rainbow.
“Agh…look, we have to get her to a hospital. I know you have medical training, Fluttershy, but it’s best we just get the official word from a doctor,” Twilight says with a grimace as she picks up Rainbow’s slack form with her magic, shivering as she sees it move. “This…really doesn’t feel right…”
“Come, dear, we need to get a diagnosis. We may still be able to…well…get her heart started again, maybe?” Rarity makes her own grimace, moving over to the door. “We have to hurry though.”
“I think I can teleport us there, just let me focus…come over here,” Twilight beckons with a hoof as Fluttershy and Rarity close in. She lays Rainbow’s body on the floor a few inches from her hoof, and focuses. “C’mon…” She whispers, an image appearing in her mind; a hospital reception room, chairs lining the walls of the small room, a desk in the back with a door off to the right leading into the hospital proper. Her horn sparks up and envelops the room in a near blinding light, and with a crack and the suck of a vacuum, the group is gone.
The next thing the group sees as they come back into the world is several very shocked ponies looking at them, the receptionist behind the desk seeming the most surprised. He blinks a few times, staring at the group. “Usually, ponies use the front door…” He says with a bored tone, rubbing his hoof against the stubble on his chin. Twilight rushes up to the desk and stares the brown-coated Earth Pony straight in the eyes, panic possessing her like a demon.
“Listen! We need a doctor, NOW! My friend is in cardiac arrest and we need help!” She shouts, receiving a blank stare with a few blinks from the stallion in front of her, “NOW STOP STARING AT ME AND MOVE!”
“Y-Yes ma’am!” He says with a salute before throwing himself over the desk and heading through the white double doors on the right side of the room. Shouting comes through the shut doors before a doctor comes through the door, two nurses at his sides. Twilight looks at his forehead to see a horn; good, a Unicorn, treatment tends to be faster with them.
“Where’s the patient?” He says in a calm tone, betraying the worry written on his face, before he looks around the room, locking on the prone form of Rainbow Dash. “Nurse Breeze, get the Pegasus on the gurney and into the ER! Nurse Summer, come with me and we’ll set up the room!”
“Right, Doctor!” The Nurses reply as they go to their work, Breeze running over and picking up Dash with her hooves before hefting her onto her back. The Doctor and Nurse Summer run down the hall as Breeze carries Dash over to the gurney, placing the slack Pegasus onto it and pushing it down the hall with surprising speed.
“C’mon!” Twilight shouts as she follows the medical team, Rarity and Fluttershy looking to each other before registering that they’re meant to be running after the lavender unicorn, and not sitting there enjoying the scenery. They both dash down the hall, weaving around corners, trying to keep Twilight in their line of sight, while she tries to do the same with the Doctor and his assistants. “Grrr…great time to not be as fit as you can be, Twilight…those three are fast!”
She skids to a stop outside a room with double doors, but these lack windows, unlike the doors leading into the hospital area in the reception room. A red light blinks on over her head, and the clang of tumblers in the doors signal that the room’s been sealed off. “…Well…it’s in their hooves now…” She grimaces with a twinge of guilt for not being in there before the doors locked, when Fluttershy rounds the corner and slams right into her. “OOF!”
“AH!” The Pegasus squeaks as she gives her wings a flap, moving up off the tumbling Unicorn and crashing into the floor six feet away. “Ohhh…ow…”
“Fluttershy…you’ve got to look where you’re going…ngh, my head…!” Twilight rubs her forehead, now having a headache on top of her twisted stomach and tornado of negative emotions.
“Oh! I’m sorry!” Fluttershy says as she comes into Twilight’s view, a sigh coming from neither of them.
“Ladies…this is a hospital. We shouldn’t be running, let alone crashing into each other,” Rarity comes into the bottom of Twilight’s view, offering a hoof to help her up. Twilight takes it, getting up into a sitting position, and she places her left hoof on her temple, drawing slow circles to try and soothe the pain as she looks at the door. “Did you see anything?”
“The doors locked before I could get a good look. I know about as much as you do right now…” Twilight lowers her hoof, looking down at the ground. What kind of injury could Rainbow have suffered to put her in such a state? Broken neck, concussion, heavy impact sending her brain on a roller coaster ride in her skull…what else?
“Fluttershy, you checked Rainbow, didn’t you? Did you find anything out of the ordinary?” Rarity interrupts Twilight’s train of thought, Twilight stumbling over an answer before turning to Fluttershy, the question being aimed at her. Fluttershy simply blinks in response before looking at the ground, drawing a slow circle in the ground. “Fluttershy, you have to speak to us…”
“I…she…” Fluttershy simply shivers, trying to assemble a coherent sentence that would at least half-answer the question, but nothing representing a solid train of thought could fight its way through the storm of despair currently clouding her mind. She simply squeaks before looking away from the pair.
“Guess we’re going to have to wait for the doctor,” Twilight groans. Nothing about this is right…not even what she’s feeling right now. Her friend is, for all she knows, DEAD, and all she can do is take an analytical approach to what injury she could’ve sustained? “Get your mind out of it, Twilight…” She whispers to herself, starting to feel alienated by her own thoughts.
“Shall we head back to the reception area then…?” Rarity asks the pair, both of them pulling their eyes off the floor to look at the white unicorn. They exchange a glance before nodding, and the trio starts their slow, uneventful walk back to the reception area.
The next half hour drifts by in complete silence, the ponies preferring to sit away from each other, despite the occurrence. Despair seemed to hang over Fluttershy’s head like a terrible thunderhead, while simple confusion turned Twilight’s mind into a hurricane; Rarity seemed to sit between them in mentality, unable to tell how she should feel. Even the other ponies in the room seem weighed down by the atmosphere, a single look at Fluttershy own pathetically saddened eyes being enough to crush your own soul.
A glorious break in the silence comes with the doctor stumbling into the room, looking as if he’d just seen something that doesn’t seem to work; a puzzle piece that seems part of the bigger picture, but it just doesn’t fit with its brethren in the design. He clears his throat, looking over at the trio who brought him his mystery patient, “Er…i-if you three could come with me, please?”
“Of course,” Rarity quickly answers, hopping off her seat and walking up to the doctor. Fluttershy and Twilight quietly follow her example, and the four head back into the hospital proper.
“Now, if I’m right, you three are Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Fluttershy, correct?” The doctor turns his head, his accent a note of Canterlot’s higher style of living, as he heads left down a hall.
“Yes, we are,” Twilight nods in confirmation.
“And the Pegasus you brought me is a Miss Rainbow Dash?”
“That’s right.”
“I apologize for not knowing you beforehoof, I’m a new transfer from Canterlot, and I’ve always been more tied up in my medical terminology than the goings on of celebrities. The only thing I heard about Discord’s defeat was how he went down, the names never stuck. My name is Sye Ringe, most of the ponies here simply call me ‘Doc’,” Doc says with a quick nod and a smile, before it fades into the more serious look used by doctors with a lot on their shoulders.
“Pleasure to meet you, Doctor Inge. Have you found anything out with Rainbow?” Twilight asks, bracing herself for the answer.
“That…seems to be the problem. Miss Dash has suffered no surface, muscular or skeletal injuries; her spine, skull and brain are all in perfect shape. How did she end up here?”
“She…crashed through the roof of my shop, and we found her there. Fluttershy was the first to check on her, but couldn’t tell us anything…Twilight said her heart wasn’t beating, so we brought her here,” Rarity says, looking over at Fluttershy, whose eyes seem locked to the floor.
“I see…well, I can tell you now that she didn’t suffer from any injury related to a broken neck. For everything that we’ve checked…she shouldn’t be in this state at all,” Doc grimaces as he speaks. “I’ve never seen a case like this in the past, where the patient simply enters cardiac arrest for no reason at all. I’ve still to see her medical record, but a quick look over her body revealed that she is quite fit and healthy.”
“It’s confusing us just as much, Doctor,” Twilight says, wearing a serious look to cover up the derailing trains of thought in her head. She wasn’t injured in the accident? Her heart still stopped, randomly at that! Was she doing something in secret? Drinking? No, that’s not like her at all…
“My staff are currently drawing blood for a test…that said, where are they?” Doc stops in his tracks, looking down the hall. “Around the corner is the ER…they should have run past us by now…”
“You don’t have the equipment in the operating room?” Twilight asks, walking up to his side.
“No, the equipment is too large to move from room to room, so we have a central lab where we perform our tests. It’s all within walking distance of the numerous holding areas and operating rooms. What are those two doing…?” Doc furrows his brow and moves forward, rounding one last corner before coming to the door that separated Twilight and her friend before, the red light above it now off. He pushes the door open, seeing the two Nurses staring back at him. “Both of youl Why haven’t you-“
“Doc! We-We’ve got a problem!” Nurse Breeze blurts out, empty syringe in hoof. She looks like she just saw a ghost!
“A problem? What do you mean?” Doc asks as he walks over, the nurse whispering to him. He quickly nods, looking back over at the trio. “Did you see any blood when you found Miss Dash?”
“N-No, we didn’t. Why?” Twilight blinks. Why ask about blood? The floor was as clean as it usually is, except for all the shrapnel from the roof…
“Then this is going to sound very strange…there’s a reason my staff couldn’t perform the blood test. That reason being…well…there’s no blood to use for a test.”
“No…blood…?”
“None. She’s been bled out…” Doc turns back to his staff, “Did you see any kind of hole? Any spatter or blood stains?”
“No, just these bite marks…” Breeze answers, pointing to the half-circle of cuts in the right side of Rainbow’s neck.
“What the hell…?”
“Wait, what does this mean, then!? I don’t know of any monsters that can fly!” Twilight steps forward.
“I-I don’t know! This is completely new to me! The Guard needs to be informed, there’s something out there; this injury isn’t in any way natural,” Doc says before heading to the door.
“Hang on, I can get a letter sent straight to the Princess! Just give me a minute!” Twilight shouts, and Doc turns only to see her wink out of existence.
“T-Teleportation…?” He says, rubbing his eyes. A Unicorn that can use teleportation? “Letter sent to…so that’s why the name seemed familiar.”
“Doctor, is there anything else we can do here?” Rarity taps him on the shoulder, breaking his short trance.
“Uh, no, I don’t think so. With no blood for the heart to pump…well…it doesn’t really matter if we can get the heart started again or not…” He looks at the ground, then over at his staff. Everyone stares back at him, as if seeking answers for this. “Just…record the time of death and add it to her record…keep the body in the morgue, ready for release upon request of friends or family.”
“…Right,” Nurse Summer answers, moving to the counter to collect a clipboard and pen.
“Miss Rarity, Miss Flut-“
Thud.
“Fluttershy?” Rarity looks over at Fluttershy. “Fluttershy!?”
“She must have fainted, hang on,” Doc says as he walks over, feeling her neck. “Yes, there’s still a pulse…the poor mare must be having a hard time.”
“A harder time than you would want to know, Doctor Sye…” Rarity looks over at Dash’s body, now being covered up with a white cloth. A harder time than anypony would want to know, and now Equestria’s most gentle pony has to endure it…
“Give me a hoof, we’ll move her out to the reception area.”
“No, don’t worry…I can do it,” Rarity lifts Fluttershy with her magic, placing her gently on her back, and still holding Fluttershy up so she can handle the weight, Rarity walks out of the room, leaving the Doctor and his nurses to their work. A small magical explosion catches her attention, turning to see Twilight through the open door. Twilight looks around before settling on Rarity behind her, and walks over.
“Did they find anything?”
“Dash has been drained of blood…she was a lost cause before we even got there…” Rarity slowly shakes her head. “Fluttershy just fainted, so I’m moving her out to the reception area.”
“So…she’s really…dead?” Twilight looks at her as if Rarity were a book that contained all of Equestria’s worst nightmares, spells summoning horrors as soon as the pages were opened. Dash couldn’t be dead, not now!
“Yes, dear…and now Fluttershy has to deal with the heaviest burden of us all…”
“Tell me when you get back to the library.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve got some reading to do,” And without another word, Twilight winks out of space again, leaving Rarity and an unconscious Fluttershy to their walk.
“Reading? What could she possibly read at a time like this?”
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Duet Of Sorrow Chapter 15 Part 3: Party Of Negative One
The knife crashes straight into the horn and cuts through, severing the unicorn’s pride from her body. The knife flies off behind her, embedding itself in a wall as Twilight grabs the stump of her horn, crying out in hellish agony. Dash grabs one of the Health Drinks, running forward and popping the cap.
“Stop screaming and drink this! Hurry!” Dash shouts at Twilight as she grabs Twilight’s head with her wing, the flames curling around her forehead. Twilight stops her screaming, shaking uncontrollably, as Dash takes the bottle in both hooves and tips the open top into Twilight’s mouth. She drinks it quickly, and her shaking seems to subside a bit. “Lemme get another.”
“N-No…I’m fine…just…”
“Now isn’t the time to act tough, Twi’. You just cut your horn off; the pain isn’t going to go away that quickly.”
“No…it’s…punishment for…what I asked you…to do…”
“You…wait, YOU asked me to do that, not the crazy Twilight?”
“I’m…I’m still missing my eye…aren’t I? I felt…” The words fall away as Twilight groans in pain, holding the stump of her horn. “I…felt something…clawing at the back of my mind…making me say things, making me do things…”
“That doesn’t really help answer the question, Twi’. Did you, YOU, ask me to cut my wings off, or did Crazy Twilight do it?”
“…I wish I could answer that honestly. I saw what you did, Rainbow, to Cloudsdale…I thought it was retribution…” Twilight rubs her forehead, pushing herself up into a sitting position. “I thought…I guess I thought it was payback for everyone that died.”
“Revenge? You asked me to cut off my wings for revenge? It’s not like you, Twilight. Cloudsdale was like that when I got there!” Dash says, sitting down as well.
“How? I know I saw you marching in with that Hemoran force! You were commanding them, giving them orders…joining in the massacre…”
“It wasn’t me, Twi’. You know me better than anyone; how could I have willingly ordered soldiers to kill Pegasi? It’s not like me, I’d never do that.”
“True…she still looked like you, and wore the same fatigues as you.”
“She was wearing a beret instead of this cap though, right?” Dash adjusts her hat, surprisingly undamaged from the fight, though splattered with blood from her ear.
“…Yeah, she was,” Twilight nods, thinking back. “That…’Dash’ was…how do I put it into words? She…well, she was like a one-man army; for every Pegasus that one of the Hemorans cut down, she’d kill six more. She didn’t show mercy or regret, not even a hint of pain at the screams…she just enjoyed herself, shouted out point totals for every Pegasus that fell to her blade...!” Twilight grits her teeth as she recounts it, shivering. “She has to pay for this…that monster has to pay…”
“She will, but our friends come first. We need a way out of this tower and back into that other room,” Dash says, looking around the tower. The structure looks just as impenetrable as when she first entered, despite the cracks, scratches, and debris left behind by the fight that took place within. Taking in the details more clearly, the bricks seem as big as Dash’s house.
“Do you think we could fly out of here?” Twilight asks, Dash bringing her eyes up to the darkness above them.
“Well, it’s worth a shot…I can’t see a ceiling, and the walls would take forever to get through…wait, the drawbridge,” Dash turns to the wooden impurity in the tower’s otherwise impeccable stone walls, running over to it. It looks like a regular wall, besides the black steel reinforcement holding the wooden bridge together. “I know this leads back into the library…and I left something behind in there. Help me get this down!”
“Right!” Twilight runs over, and they both place their front hooves against the bridge and shove as hard as they can.
“C’mon, you stupid wall! GO DOWN!” Dash shouts as she opens her wings, shoving as hard as she can. Blood starts rushing to her head as the red tunnel returns, and the wood begins to buckle under her hooves. Something cracks in the stone barrier as the bridge begins to move, the grinding gears and machinery trying to keep the bridge where it should be. “GO DOWN!!” Dash screams at the door, pushing harder. Twilight moves away from the furious Pegasus, realizing her efforts aren’t contributing, and simply looks on at her friend.
The bridge continues to creak against the pony shoving it, the squeal of unoiled gears matched by Dash’s own laborious shouting. Deciding that a steady push isn’t going to bring it down, Dash pushes off and throws herself to the back of the room with a flap of her wings. “Fine, you don’t wanna cooperate?! We’ll play this the hard way then!”
“Dash! Wait, think for a second!” Twilight shouts, realizing her friend’s typically stubborn plan; if it stands in your way, knock it down. “What if the door’s stronger than you think?! You could injure yourself!”
“I don’t care, I have to get back to Fluttershy!!” Dash shouts back, and with a flap of her wings, she crosses the distance between her and the door in a moment, slamming full force into it. She flies through like a cyan bullet flying through plywood, the drawbridge exploding from the impact, as wind tears through the open hole from Dash’s own speed. Twilight shields herself with a foreleg, shrapnel from the door flying in every direction.
“Jeeze…has she gotten stronger…?” Twilight asks herself in disbelief, blinking a few times as she lowers her foreleg. “She got rid of the door, at least…”
“Twilight, c’mon!” Dash shouts from the other room, her voice fading as she sprints away.
“Coming!” Twilight shouts back, exiting the tower and following the Pegasus already a good distance in front of her. “Same old Dash, charging into everything head-first…” She whispers to herself with a smirk.
Twilight finds herself running down a single pathway, a trail of blood drawn clearly, even in the red carpeting of the hall. “Rainbow! Slow down!” Nothing answers her cries, and Twilight growls to herself in frustration. “She knows I’m not athletic…”
Within a few moments though, a blue wall consumes her view as she runs into something. Both her and the blue thing fall to the ground with a thud. “Ow…why’d you stop so suddenly, Dash?!” Twilight shouts, rubbing her muzzle as she looks at Dash’s collapsed form.
Instead of answering, Rainbow simply gets to her feet and walks forward, her breathing raspy. Twilight follows her, looking forward, and spotting what Rainbow is so freaked out about; a pool of blood with a single sword sticking out of it. “It’s…blood. Why is this here?”
“Where is she?” Rainbow steps forward, quickly moving into a sprint to close the distance between her and the pool. She stands at the rim, looking over it for something.
“Rainbow, what’s with you? It’s just blood! Well, blood and a weapon…but sti-“
“Fluttershy was here…” Rainbow slowly turns around to her friend, pupils small and breathing quick. “Fluttershy…I left her dead body here…and it’s gone. GONE, TWILIGHT!”
“What?!” Twilight squeaks before Rainbow runs up, grabbing her by the shoulders.
“Who could’ve done this?! Who’d take her body?! WHO!?” Rainbow shouts, standing on edge of losing her mind.
“I-I don’t know! You know this world better than I do!” Twilight shakes her head, shoving Rainbow back and stepping away, holding her forehead. She looks past her hoof to see Rainbow sitting at the edge of the pool, shivering. “Rainbow…”
“Where is she…? I…I said I’d get her out of here…I’d bury her…” Rainbow sniffs, bringing a hoof up to her eyes. Were those tears falling from her face? Twilight steps forward, looking at the pool that once held the corpse of her friend.
“You’re sure she was here? This blood could be somepony else’s,” Twilight says, walking up to the edge of the pool. There was no certain way to know this really was Fluttershy’s blood, unless there was some blood-scanning spell out there that could tell Twilight who the owner of this blood was.
“I’m sure! S-She was here…I left her here, saying I’d be back to get her out of here, but…”
“Is there any way to look for her?”
“…This world…it hates me, Twi’. Hates me with a passion that I’ve never seen before…i-it’s always looking for some way to stomp on me, kick me when I’m down…whenever a friend’s in trouble, I’m always a split second too late…whenever something’s threatening me, I always hesitate just long enough…whenever I’m wounded, the world gives me supplies, just so it can hurt me later! I don’t wanna be here anymore, Twi’!” Rainbow quickly spins around, grabbing Twilight by the shoulders. “End the spell! End it NOW!”
“S-Spell!? Rainbow, calm down! I…I don’t know how to end it!”
“What!?”
“This may be the third time I’ve used the spell, but it’s the first time I’ve actually SEEN this world! None of it makes sense, and my magic doesn’t work as well as it does outside! I…we have to make it through whatever trials this…place throws at us. When we get back home, we’ll…bury Fluttershy,” Twilight looks down, feeling the effects of Fluttershy’s death creeping into her. First was denial, next comes sadness…
“…Right,” Rainbow lets go of Twilight, moving back a few steps before sitting down. They both stare at the floor for what feels like a week, simply searching the crisp green carpet for some kind of answer, some hint to saving their friend…but no such clue appears. The cloth remains static, just like the world’s intent to destroy the souls of those who cross into its borders. Rainbow breaks her gaze to look across the pool and down the hall, the black vault door in view. “Well…there’s the exit. Once we go through there, we’ll be back in the room with the statue, and I can use the next key. We…we should get going.”
“Right,” Twilight breaks her own stare with a nod, looking at the pool. She instinctively tries wrapping her magic around it, but to no avail. “Right…no more horn.”
“Just grab the sword, I’ll head back and get the knife,” Rainbow sighs and turns back to the hallway. Twilight simply nods to her back as Rainbow walks off, and turns back to the sword in the middle of the blood pool.
“Of course it had to be in the middle of a sea of red…nngh, this is gross,” Twilight quirks her mouth as she looks down at what used to be the life blood of another pony. Why was it still red, anyway? Shouldn’t all the cells be dead? Or was it just the world itself breaking the reality Twilight was so used to? And was this really where Fluttershy was? “So many questions, so few answers…I wish I knew this world better. Why didn’t anypony tell me about what they saw?”
Twilight walks forward a few steps, raising a hoof over the blood. “Sorry, Fluttershy…if this really is what’s left of you…” Twilight mutters as she steps down, the floor taking her step like a wet sponge. The splatter of blood sent trembles down her spine; the blood still felt warm! “Somepony really was here…” Twilight grimaces and slowly proceeds forward, every step seeming to her like walking all over Fluttershy. It wasn’t right…
A short while passes before Twilight finally reaches the blade in the center of the pool, looking over its design. It seemed familiar to her, but alien as well; the sword was a typical design, colored black with red wrappings around the hilt. A sheen along the darkened blade catches her eye though; somepony had etched something into the side.
“Diamond…Esmerelda?” Twilight furrows her brow, whispering the words. “Did somepony name this sword?” Deciding to get out of the blood before investigating further, Twilight clamps her jaws around the hilt and draws. The sword rips out of the ground with a sound too much like a blade tearing from flesh, and a short whimper echoes through Twilight’s mind. “What was that?” She quickly looks around. Was somepony here with her?
“Twi’!” A familiar voice breaks Twilight from her search, and she turns to see Rainbow running down the hall towards her. Clanking armor could be heard from behind her. “Run, Twi’! Something’s after me!!”
“W-What?!” Twilight shouts back, moments passing before she sees what’s chasing Rainbow. That had to be the ugliest stallion in armor she’d ever seen, but the sword in its mouth seemed large enough a threat to run away from. She turns and runs as quick as she can down the hall, but even at top speed, Rainbow overtakes her as if Twilight were standing still.
“C’mon Twi’, pick it up!” Rainbow shouts, Twilight trying to keep up; she wasn’t all that athletic, but Princess Celestia did say she should work out more once or twice…maybe she should’ve heeded that advice.
“I’m trying, Rainbow! You know I’m not that fast!” Twilight gasps between breaths, turning slightly to check if that monster was still after them. It sure as heck was, and every step brought it closer to them, brought Twilight closer to the edge of that rusty blade. Adrenaline pumped through Twilight’s system as quickly as panic crushed her mind, and she turned around, every step throwing her further and faster. She has to run, run faster, run harder, run like she’s never run before, or else the last thing she’s going to see is that monster tackling her to the ground and-
“Twi’, the door! There it is!!” Rainbow’s shouting breaks Twilight out of her worst-case scenario, and sure enough, the light at the end of the tunnel was there in the form of a black vault door. Happiness was fleeting for poor Twilight as she feels something cut through her tail. She yelps, nearly dropping the sword she walked through so much blood for, and clenches her teeth harder as another swing from that abomination just misses her tail.
The clank and crash of tumblers and locks letting go echo through the hall like explosions, and the vault door screeches open. “Run faster, Twi’! We’re almost there!!” Rainbow shouts, rushing ever further ahead of her friend.
“W-Wait up, Rainbow!” Twilight shouts back, no longer worried about the monster catching her, instead she starts panicking about being left alone in this damned world again. She could at least fight the monster with her new weapon, but being locked up here again after a taste of freedom? No, that couldn’t happen, she wouldn’t be able to stand this place again. She pushes herself further, harder, as the light of the room ahead slowly envelops her. A final leap and swing from the monster throws her past the threshold.
What she wasn’t expecting was the floor to be made of flesh and fencing. She splatters face-first into it, the sword flying out of her mouth from the impact, and she eats some of the floor. The next few moments are filled with Twilight’s gagging on something horribly salty and hot, tears finally falling from the prospect of Fluttershy dying in this Celestia-forsaken world, and vomiting from the horrible taste of whatever the heck ended up in her mouth.
After clearing her mouth of the vile concoction with a mix of bile and her breakfast, she pulls her eyes away from the red streak drawn in the ground by her face to look at the room. It looked like they were in somepony’s stomach; all the flesh was moving as if it were alive, and the rusty fencing peeking through flesh gave Twilight a good view into whatever was outside, the darkness beyond the fencing making her feel isolated from the world. This room…where was it in the world as a whole? Was it isolated from everything, or was it part of a greater landmass?
“That stuff doesn’t taste too good, does it?” Rainbow’s surprisingly-happy laugh pulls Twilight away from her inspection of this new hellhole over to the Pegasus.
“No…no, it doesn’t,” Twilight spits again, poking around in her teeth with her tongue to find any pieces of meat or blood stowaways that were still in her mouth. “It tasted like burnt leather with three-year old daisy heads…”
“That was a pretty face plant you made,” Rainbow smirks, another chuckle rocking her body. Guess she was trying to cheer herself up…how long was she in here for? And where’d she get the knife and clothing? And what about Fluttershy?
“There’s a lot I need to ask you, Rainbow,” Twilight wipes her mouth with her foreleg, looking at her friend. Rainbow simply stares back with a grimace.
“Ask me once we’re out of here, Twi’. We’ve got ponies to save,” Rainbow’s grimace disappears as she shakes her head, turning away and heading over to the door. Whatever happens, and if they live through this, Twilight’s going to have to find out about this world sooner or later. May as well save the questions for when they’re back in the library, hopefully safe and sound.
“Alright, door, what’re you gonna show me next?” Rainbow mumbles as she approaches the black monolith. This world’s torn into Rainbow in more ways than she can count, the worst trials being everything she’s seen Fluttershy go through; being kicked off the cliff, seeing Fluttershy stuck to the ceiling…her dying in Rainbow’s hooves…”C’mon, Rainbow, focus…you can bury her after. Dying here would make all your efforts useless,” Rainbow whispers to herself, shaking her head. The only direction left was forward, since Twilight couldn’t undo the spell.
“First was Twi’, now Pinkie…sorry Rarity, but eye injuries come first,” Rainbow reaches around to her bag, taking out the sapphire and holding it in her hooves. She looked down at it as if she were holding Pinkie’s right eye, rather than the gemstone. She looks up at the Cutie Mark symbol at the top of the door, seeing the starburst has been completed. It looked like it was simply drawn onto the door, the gemstone at the center having vanished.
Rainbow looks over her shoulder at Twilight, who still seemed to be fighting physical sickness from her collision with the ground. “Twi’, we’re moving on. Come over here.”
“Right!” Twilight shouts back, grabbing the sword in her mouth before running over. She takes the sword in her hooves and spits out the blood that she managed to get in her mouth. “How’d the knife search go?”
“It was stuck too high up the wall, and before I could think of a way to get it down, Mr. Ugly showed up and started chasing me.
It feels strange... a hospital really shouldn't feel this ominous, right? The white walls signifying purity, all the doctors wandering about, fixing ailment and injury with their magic and skills. It should all bring hope and pride, right?
To come here is to be offered a chance to recover... to discover that one of your friends is well and truly... well...
"No, no... now isn't the time to think about that... stay strong, Rarity. Fluttershy needs you to be, if no one else," Rarity whispers to herself, a look thrown back to her near-comatose friend; a spirit like that shouldn't suffer such an emotional bomb.
Ponies walking by look to Rarity as if she were a ghost; did news really travel that quickly? They either pulled their eyes to the side in shame, or gave a sympathetic nod to the mare as they went passed. The simple acknowledgement causes Rarity's stomach to flip, keeping her eyes fixed to the floor. Her hoofsteps sounded hollow, as if she were walking through plaster, rather than across tile.
"Still hard to believe... though I doubt I'd get over something this quickly. Hmph, and to think... the only things that troubled me this much were Rainbow crashing in through my shop, and the weather playing havoc with my mane," She smirks; what cruel fate should befall the invincible pegasus... well, as they say: misery loves company.
The double doors give way to a gentle shove of her magic, the lobby within view, as well as all those eyes. They all simply stare at her, as if expecting some form of news. Rarity shakes her head, and they all move their eyes to each other; so few ponies, four or five at best, yet the air of sadness feels like a million pounds on the unicorn's shoulders. She walks through the lobby, head held high and eyes fixed on the door; strength at this point was her greatest ally, if only to hold back the ever-growing tsunami of emotion in the depths of her mind.
It, thankfully, isn't a long walk to Carousel Boutique, though the weight in Rarity's mind isn't what pushes her forward, it's the eyes. The eyes belonging to everypony staring at her... all staring with some sense of knowing what transpired. Twilight didn't tell anypony, did she? No, she couldn't have... the town would be in a panic. Those knowing eyes, though... they feel like a disease burrowing into her stomach.
With a heavy slam of the door, she stumbles into the center of the Boutique and simply collapses, Fluttershy rolling off her back as she falls into her depression. She barely manages to keep her wails to a volume that can be contained within the walls of the shop, simply allowing her tears to flow.
"What happened to you, Rainbow?!" she shouts at her drawing board, though it may as well have been a pile of orange jelly in the muddled, wet world shown by her tears. "Why did you die? How? How could a pegasus as arrogant as yourself succumb?!" she pounds the floor out of rage, a flame borne of the tide crashing against her sanity. Her horn lights up in response, and a chair flies across the room; thankfully nothing of value was struck, besides the wall which now sports a rather wide crack...
A knock at the door causes Rarity to freeze, her heart skipping a beat; who could possibly- wait...
Was that humming on the other side of the door?
"Weird, Rarity usually leaves the door locked," A voice from the other side; foallish, light... oh no...
Rarity quickly picks herself up and wipes her eyes, her eyes darting about the room; Fluttershy! Rarity quickly picks the poor pegasus up and near tosses her into the couch, slowing her down before she hits the velvet cushions. Quick Rarity, reasoning, reasoning! She's uh... t-taking a nap, she wanted to stay for a while after the spa! Yes, perfect!
The door opens to reveal the barely lit Boutique, and a smiling Rarity sitting in the ray of light from the hole in the roof. The short unicorn furrows her brow and walks in, looking around. Ok... Fluttershy's here, and there's a hole in the roof, and her sister seems to be freaked out about something, if that psychotic smile was any notice. "Uhhh... Rarity?"
"Yes?!" The quick response jerks Belle back like a lasso; ok, freaky, very freaky.
"Are you... ok?" Belle backs away to the door, squinting her eyes at the crazy unicorn in the middle of the room. Maybe she should go get Twilight...
"Fine, fine, perfectly f-fine!" A sniff quickly follows.
"So why do you look so... creepy?" Belle raises an eyebrow, still unsure of whether to cross into the lair of a psycho-mare; she's seen what Twilight can do when she goes crazy.
"Er, well, y-you can see why something would trouble me!" Rarity points up at the new window in her roof, "A c-certain Pegasus put a hole in my roof!"
"Fluttershy?" Belle raises an eyebrow, looking over at the supposedly sleeping form of Fluttershy; could she really put a hole in somepony's roof? For some reason, Belle doubts it.
"No, of course not," Rarity sniffs, a shiver running through her legs, "R-Rainbow did it."
"Ahhh, yeah, that make sense. So where is she? Shouldn't she be helping you fix it?" Belle walks inside, looking around; at least they'd have a skylight now.
"No, s-she went home, flew off after me and Twilight gave her a lecture."
Were her eyes red?
"That... so...? Rarity, are you ok?"
"Yes, perfectly fine, Sweetie!"
"Not when you're looking from here. Have you been crying?"
"N-No..."
Belle sits down, sliding her saddlebags off. "You have been. Your eyes look the same as mine after I cried for a while."
Rarity looks away from the filly, staring at her drawing board. "I haven't been."
"Yes, you have," Belle taps her sister on the cheek; yep, coat's damp.
"I haven't been! I just... needed to have a shower, that's all."
"C'mon, stop lying to me, sis. What's wrong?"
"Nothing!"
"I know there's something wrong when you can't even look at me!"
Rarity turns back and stares Belle right in the eye, her own eyes shaking. "Nothing."
Belle stares back, eyes squinting. A rustling from the couch catches the sisters' attention, and they both turn to see Fluttershy rising from it. A cloak of pink hair hides her face from the other ponies as she makes her way to the door, every step as slow and deliberate as dredging through a swamp.
"...Fluttershy?" Rarity moves around her sister, managing to take a step before Fluttershy raises a hoof. She shakes her head and lowers it, wordlessly speaking volumes to her friend. Rarity simply sits down and watches Fluttershy make her exit, the click of the lock as the only sign to the door ever being closed. "Fluttershy..."
"... You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, sis," Belle looks over her shoulder at Rarity, "If Fluttershy acted like that after it... then I don't wanna know what happened."
"The sad part is, Sweetie Belle," Rarity blinks away a few tears, "You will end up finding out eventually..."
What word could describe Fluttershy right now? The way she stomps through the street as if her hooves were lead, the way her face hides behind the mask of her mane, unwanting to see the light of reality, the way her head is hung low like a pony on the gallows. What single word could describe what ponies see moving through the streets of their town?
Is there such a word? If there is, then it rests on the tip of Fluttershy's tongue, never taking that final step into recognition, yet always there in the back of her mind, giggling as it teases. Nothing passed through the pegasus' mind as she made the slow trek home, simply protecting herself from the images, the words... that doctor.
She knew something was weighing her down, making every step painful, every thought a stream of black through her mind. Any thought that turns to that multi-colored mane, that deafening sonic boom, that raucous, confident laugh, it all just melts into a disgusting poison in her Fluttershy's stomach, causing her to retch every time it came up. What did she want? Need? What's eating at her right now, and what can be done to make it all just stop?
Stop the country, stop the world, stop Time itself... to make the world simply freeze solid so she wouldn't have to suffer this dreaded feeling any longer. To wish all that is horrible... think of the ponies that would be affected. They wouldn't fall apart though, they would never feel pain such as this.
"What are you doing, Fluttershy...? Wishing that on everypony," she whispers to herself, a volume barely even audible to herself.
Her mind remains blank for the rest of the trip home, a long trudge through the muk of what occurred. She opens the door with a shove from her forehead and walks inside. Everywhere around her, there's silence. Complete, deafening silence, despite the multitude of birds, raccoons, badgers and squirrels. All eyes lock to their caretaker as she makes her way to her room.
Even Angel simply stares on in silence, moving back slightly as Fluttershy passes.
Silence. Maybe that's what she needs... silence. The silence of her bedroom, of a house full of guests that respect their host enough to know when to stay quiet.
She climbs onto her bed and sits down, staring at the covers under her. Brushing a hoof through her mane, she moves the worn mask to reveal bloodshot eyes, tears still flowing from them. How long has Fluttershy known that rainbow-maned speed demon? That ever-present sign of motivation in her life, all the way from Flight School to Ponyville. Always holding her up when she was down, always defending her when she was being bullied... and she only returned the favor once with that dragon.
For a pony to know that they'll never get the chance to pay another pony back for all that was done in their life... it feels like a betrayal. Fluttershy, sadly, is no different in her thoughts, the same thoughts currently suffering a tide of black wishes and dark feelings, spreading through them all like a virus. C'mon, what does she have left of her friend? What does she have that still reminded her of that pillar of strength?
Fluttershy looks about her room, wiping her eyes occassionally to get that look of drowning out of her sight. Nothing beyond a picture of her friends sitting on her nightstand could be considered a memorium of her friend. She takes it and places it in her lap, staring into the magenta eyes of the pegasus who stood up for her for so long. Tears fell from her chin onto the spotless glass, muddling the faces behind it. All she has is a picture?
She has a book from Twilight's library, "101 Ways To Make Animal Food"; not very helpful, but the techniques shown are interesting. She has a scarf from Rarity, sewn specifically for Hearth's Warming Eve, along with her spa visits with the fashionista. The crazy parties and infectious giggle were given to her by Pinkie; who couldn't start laughing when she managed to faceplant into a pie after bouncing off the walls? Nothing from Applejack, but that's to be expected; the two never shared much in conversation.
What hits her hardest is her lack of things that belonged to Rainbow, a pony she'd known for most of her life. She simply stares into the pool of tears that once contained a clear image of Dash and everypony else, then closes her eyes and retreats to the things she holds closer than anything: her memories.
"Harder!" A shrill cry echoes through the sky, sounding more annoyed than supportive. Fluttershy flaps her wings as hard as she can, but barely gets up two feet in a single beat. "C'mon, Fluttershy!"
"I'm trying, Dash," Fluttershy pouts, looking at her friend; who knew launching into the air was so hard?
"Yes, I know, but you need to try harder. Watch me again," Dash stamps her hoof into the cloud before standing up. She spreads her wings and moves them above her back. "I'll do it slowly, so pay attention."
She slowly moves her wings down, keeping them stretched and spread as far out as possible. She completes the movement with a quick flick of her wings back above her back, keeping them in towards her sides. "Alright, what'd you see from that?"
"I saw that you, um... kept your wings out as far as you could... and moved them down," Fluttershy nods sagely at her analysis; it makes sense!
"Right. I kept my wings above me as far as they could go, then moved them down, spread as far as possible. Now, what are you doing that's different?"
"I'm, um... well..."
"Do it again, and copy me."
Fluttershy nods, standing up and spreading her wings. She moves them back and above her, then moves them down. Her wings move in as they move below her back, then stretch back out as they come down to her legs. She blinks, doing the motion again, and watches her wings. "Huh?"
"There's the problem. Something up with your wings?" Dash raises an eyebrow as she walks over to her friend, stretching out a wing and moving it.
"I-I'm not sure... can you please not do that...?" Fluttershy winces as her wing is brought down past her back, forced to stay stretched out by Dash.
"Weird. Do you fly a lot?"
"N-No..."
"Ahhh. Your wings aren't getting a proper workout then."
Fluttershy looks down at the cloud, folding one of her wings and pawing the cloud below.
"Well, how about a quick fly around then?"
"Um... b-but I'll just... slow you down..."
"I want you to try and keep up with me anyway. I'll go slower this time around," Dash lets go of her friend's wing, walking around to her front, "Remember what you learned in Flight School?"
"Rhythm is everything."
"Right. Keeping a consistent beat of the wings will keep you in the air. From there, it's all pitch and pause, right?"
"I-I think so..."
"Then let's go."
Dash lifts herself off the ground and ascends, the sun burning away her color until she's nothing but a black silhouette staring back at the shy pegasus on the cloud. As the world begins to bleed away, Fluttershy ascends toward the rainbow mane and magenta eyes, every flap beating in her mind like a drum, every beat of her quickening heart like punch to the chest.
Every foot of distance lost between her and Dash like a vile knife in the leg...
Everything moves without constraint in her eyes, swimming like a soup made of reality itself. Nothing pieces together into a clear picture, except for the vivid colors of the picture in her lap.
"Why, Dash...? Y-You stayed beside me all this time... always pushing me forward... why did you have to leave?" Fluttershy sniffs, shivering. Tears cease running down her cheeks, trying to comfort Fluttershy by blurring her sight of the harsh future before her, "Why did have to leave...? Leave me, leave us all behind..."
That picture was all that remained; the picture and her memories. No more overconfidence, no more supporting hoof, no more raspy laugh as Pinkie told a joke...
She turns her eyes to a window, the forest outside a mess of green and brown. The blue sliver of sky seems to strike through clear as day, and gears turn in Fluttershy's head. She would need a lot of help, but maybe she could have something of Rainbow's... something that would help her remember.
Her cloud house wouldn't have a resident anymore... moving out would be quick. Images of a sunrise over the city of Canterlot, shadows receding in the massive valley below move through her head, the sky painted red and pink in a beautiful rendition of Celestia's glorious Sun. Sleeping on a cloud again would be a liberating experience, and Luna knows how much Dash talked about another great nap she had on those clouds dotting the sky.
The only problem, or rather, the only things to take care of, were her animals. Who would take care of them if their caretaker left for a new home? Could Rainbow's house be moved over the Everfree? If it were to hang over her cottage, then the animals would all be a quick flight away, and carrying out her care for the animals would be just as easy as any other day.
Something that belonged to Dash, and being able to take care of her animals still.
For the first time since that hospital visit, a smile grew on Fluttershy's face; the sky looked so inviting when she thought back to Dash's lessons... maybe flight would be something to try?