A Window to Infinity

Chapters

Part 1: Drowning Fire
Part 2: Punching Water
Part 3: Burning Wind
Part 4: Silent Storms
Part 5: Bleeding Rainbow

Part 1: Drowning Fire

You.

You are the descendant of a tiny primordial protoplasm washed up on an empty beach three and a half billion years ago. You are the blind and arbitrary product of time, chance, and natural forces. You are a mere grab bag of atomic particles, a conglomeration of genetic substance. You exist on a tiny planet in a minute solar system in an empty corner of a meaningless universe. You have no essence beyond your body, and at death you will cease to exist. You came from nothing and you are going nowhere.

In short, you are a human, and your existence, your present life, is so aptly seen in the swift flight of a sparrow through a dining hall on a winter’s day. In the midst there is a comforting fire to warm the hall: outside, the storms of winter rain and snow are raging. The sparrow flies swiftly through one door of the hall and out through another. While inside, he is safe from the winter storms, but after a few moments of comfort, he vanishes from sight into the wintry world from which it came.

You have seen this in your dreams, human. You appear in this land, on this earth, for a little while, but of what went before this life or what follows, you know nothing.

So, human, how could you be so bold to pray to your god every night for protection from the clutches of primeval creatures such as me? You proclaim to the masses that you are a special creation of a good and all-powerful god, a string maker that pulls taut the thread of life. It was you, all of you, who said that you were created in your god’s image, with the capacities to think, feel, and worship that set you above all others.

You declared that you differ from the animals not simply in degree but in kind. You said that not only is your kind unique, but that you are unique among your kind. Bold statements followed, such as, “Our creator loves us unconditionally and so intensely desires our companionship and affection that has a perfect plan for your life. If you are willing to accept his salvation, you will forever be his beloved child.”

But where is your god in your dreams, human? Where is your god when your mind is freed from the bonds of thought and allowed to drift aimlessly into the void of voids, the empty space of the mind that your subconscious so wishes to fill with your dreams? It is your dreams that promulgate my existence, human. I exist within you. To destroy me you must destroy yourself.

I know you have thought of this, human. I know it surfaces in your mind every night before you go to bed. And you are afraid.

Be afraid, human. Be afraid.

For I will never leave you. You will forever be my body, my soul, until the end of days.

Find me, pathetic child.

Five hundred words exactly. I counted them when the dreams began to repeat over and over, night by night. Five hundred cryptic words that lulled me to sleep but kept me from rest.

It knew my name. It called me every night, and for months, years even, I searched and searched for the place that it wanted me to go to. It was as if it had left a calling card of sorts in my mind whenever I woke from restless sleep, but never could I find that place that it wanted me to find.

And then suddenly I knew.

Equestria.

Of course. Why wouldn’t it be there? Why wouldn’t the demon that haunted my soul and sucked freely the life from my body be in the land of happiness and friendship? A juxtaposition, yes, an endowed evil in the unlikeliest of places, but where else?

Of course, at this point you could pull Occam’s razor out of your ass and tell me that it’s impossible, ludicrous, unthinkable that I would assume a demented phantom of my own mind to be manifested in a children’s cartoon world, much less a world of happiness and friendship.

But a friend once told me that the brightest eyes have cried the most tears.

You may scoff, but I may not care.

I knew the ponies were real. I knew Equestria was real, and I had been dying to go there ever since I found out about the ponies. But now, I had to go for different reasons.

I was certain that it was there. It could be nowhere else. It hated this world, my world, so where else could it be? The land of the pegasi and unicorns, that’s where.

My mind was set, my nerves taut. I had to go to Equestria. That’s where it would be. That’s where I would face it.

Now, to actually get there.

Once a month I would slip out into the darkness of my neighborhood and steal away to the forests that flanked the cul-de-sac on which I lived. Clad in nothing more than my boxers and a T-shirt, I would hop the fence, walk into a clearing in the middle of the forest, and sit down, feeling the grass slowly rub against my bare legs.

Then I would look up, hoping Luna would come.

I knew she would, I just didn’t know when. When I looked up at the full moon I imagined her staring down at me, wondering if it was worth her time to appease this puny little boy and take him on a journey to the land of ponies. I imagined her wracking her mind to make a decision. Would she violate some code of law that had been set down in Equestria for a thousand years? Or would she treat it like it was no big deal?

All those stories of humans in Equestria, they all involved the human somehow getting hurt or otherwise upset in order to get to the land of the ponies.

But could it be as easy as just asking?

So I sat there, one night a month, praying to the moon. Occasionally crickets would leap into my shorts and frogs would try to lay eggs on me, but I didn’t care. I waited and waited, because I knew she would come.

And she did. September 3, 2013. Exactly 12:00 A.M.

I was only a little surprised to see her, as she detached herself from the woods so fluidly, so easily, that it was as if she had been a part of the shadow that surrounded me. Nowhere were her royal pegasus guards or her chariot. It was just her, just the mare in the moon.

Luna.

I stood out of respect, and she gazed upon me like a little girl would curiously inspect a puppy in the pet store window. I was a new sight to her, an unexpected guest, a blip in her nightly routine, whatever it might have been. She did not seem surprised to see me. It was as if she was expecting me, and yet I noticed a hint of reluctance to approach any further, like she was afraid of me.

I cleared my throat and uttered three words I never thought I’d say in my life.

“Hello, Princess Luna.”

She remained silent, always watching me like a beautiful hoofed falcon. Her lustrous flowing mane drew my eyes off of hers, and only when she spoke up did I snap to attention.

“For many nights I have seen you here, human. For what purpose, I do not know.”

“You watch our world from our moon?”

“You presuppose that the moon is under human control,” Luna said. “The moon is shared by every world it orbits, be it yours or mine.”

“I see.”

“You have appeared only on the nights of the full moon. Why is this?”

“Because I need your help.”

Her face tightened with confused realization. “My help? Why?”

I drew a breath. “Princess, there is a—a creature that has inflicted onto me injury upon injury since the day I was born. This creature is my nightmare, my inconsolable demon that lives only to torment me. It is in the eyes of my enemies, the mouths of my detractors. It is in the foot that kicks my chest and the spit that my face so helplessly bears.”

Luna was listening patiently, but I could tell she wanted to know how this all involved her, so I continued.

“This creature is not corporeal. It exists only as a phantom, a shapeless ghost that haunts the vestiges of my mind. It exists only in my imagination—as do you.”

She perked up. “What do you speak of, human child?”

“The demon exists within me. Only I can destroy it. And to do that, I must go to Equestria.”

“What?! You speak nonsense!”

“Indeed, my words seem a non sequiter. But you must understand this, Luna…if I may be so bold as to call you by your name alone.”

“It matters not. Continue.”

“I am merely a human, one of seven billion on this planet. You have no more reason to help me than you do a parasprite with crushed wings. But I know you will help me. You must.”

“I must?”

I nodded. “Do you wonder why I waited for you, and not your sister?”

She said nothing.

“I waited for you because of what Nightmare Moon did to you. You know what it feels like to have your body usurped, your mind wrenched from your control as an evil being uses you as a vessel for its misdeeds. It numbs your heart, separates you from your body. You exist as meaningless space, mere atoms in the farthest reaches of your usurper’s mind. You know how this feels, as do I. This demon has done such things, and far worse. And it will wreak havoc upon your land, upon my mind, until I face it alone.”

The princess of the night began to pace. “Why do you assume this creature to be in Equestria?”

“Because Equestria is what makes me happy,” I said, sighing. “The ponies of Ponyville, Canterlot, Appleloosa…all of them. They all brought happiness and pleasure back into my life, and the monster seeks to destroy it all.”

“But did you not say that this monster is a part of your imagination?”

I nodded. “I did say that, Princess. You are a figment of my imagination as well. When this is over, if I defeat the evil within your land, you will fade to the outlands of my brain, only surfacing when I see you on television or on the Internet. But not now. Now you are my only vessel to your land, my one chance at ridding myself and the world of this creature.”

Luna stomped her hoof on the ground. “You think it so easy? Nopony as ever done this before!”

“That’s why it’s going to work,” I replied slyly, suddenly picturing Keanu Reeves in my head.

The princess’s eyes softened, just a little bit, and she stopped pacing. Looking up at the moon, her moon, she sighed and spoke.

“You do not seem to be a being of cruel heart or spiteful mind. And something in me tells me that what you say is true. But how will you find this demon? And how will you defeat it?”

I looked at the ground, averting my eyes. “I’m not going to find it. It’s going to find me. And I will defeat it in the only way I know, in a fight to rid it from my mind.”

She stared into my eyes for the longest time, and I never blinked. I could imagine the cogs working in her head, trying to come up with a decision. Should she help me? Why would she?

“Alright. I will take you.”

I did not expect her to come to a decision so quickly, and she must have seen it in the way my eyes lit up at her words.

“You ponder my decision, human.” It wasn’t a question, just a statement. “I believe you. I believe that my ponies are in danger, that all of ponykind is in danger from this monster that you speak of. But I cannot ignore the doubt in my mind. How do I know you will not bring a monster to a land, instead of taking it with you?”

“You bring me, a monster, to your land, and I take the other monster away forever.”

“But how?”

“I will fight it, in whatever way it wants.”

“Fighting is abhorred in my world, human.”

“Well I’m not from your world, am I?”

I didn’t mean to sound sarcastic, but she didn’t let it slide. Eyeing me suspiciously, she turned around, and her mane glittered in the moonlight.

“I will take you, human. And you will rid my world of this demon.”

“That I will, Princess. That I will.”

And ever so faintly, she smiled. It was a shadow of a smile, just barely visible in the moon’s glow.

She carried me in her hooves over the forests and cities of my world, the human world, her wings motionless as we soared through the air. The wind bit at my face, but I hardly noticed it. Soon we were above the clouds, and at that point Luna abruptly changed direction, flying up toward the moon.

Something began to tug at my skin, and I could see little streams of white light following us as we pierced the sky. The light became brighter and brighter until it was too bright, too white for me to see. Luna disappeared. The night vanished without a sound.

It was in the spectrum, the world between worlds through which universes and timelines were connected, that for the first time I felt velvet fingers of time. They were like sand flowing across my body, brushing my skin with their cool waves. Time herself soothingly caressed my face as Luna pulled me through nonexistence. I could almost see the shining eyes and diamond lips of time through the haze of the void.

And then time, she disappeared.

I realized that I no longer held the princess of the night, for I had grown wings of my own, feathered, crystalline wings, twin blades that ethereally extended from the backside of my sweatshirt. And then my eyes could see, and I could see fire, drowning fire that never reached my skin. It was fire that was not fire but something else, some unknown energy that seeped from an impossible chasm in the middle of existence, and yet as it burned, it choked itself, engaged in a cycle of life and death where no outcome ever surfaced.

We entered the drowning fire, and Equestria unfolded below us. From above the land looked like Earth, with rolling plains and craggy mountains, but this land was far more idyllic than any land in my world. From twenty thousand feet in the air, I could feel its warmth and comfort, and it called to me, called for me to hold it, to embrace…

I let go.

She did not seem overtly upset that I had severed my grip with her hooves, and in a matter of moments she was a black speck in an azure sky, shrinking with every passing second.

I fell.

And then I landed.

Wouldn’t you know it, I was in Ponyville, and the many equines that had gathered in the town square looked at me in awe, gazing upon my gray sweatshirt, my blackened pants, my single black glove, and my wings of glass.

I looked up and heard a familiar voice.

Welcome, child.

Part 2: Punching Water

That voice. The voice of the demon.

Now I have leverage.

Leverage?

My eyes took in the sights of the world around me. Ponies were everywhere, each one staring at me with its big pair of eyes. Some had mouths agape, others were frozen in their tracks. A human had entered their midst. Of course they would be astonished.

But I was no human. I knew what I was, and I had to continue to know, or else I would lose it and forever wander in a void.

I closed my eyes and breathed, and on my back my glass wings folded. I didn’t have to move a muscle. They acted of their own accord. A pony approached me, a white unicorn with a mane like fire and a cutie mark of a shield. She did not have friendly eyes, and when she spoke, her voice was anything but cordial.

“What the heck are you? What are you doing here?”

“Brave,” I uttered, gazing at her. “Brave that you would be the first to approach a creature such as I. Forgive me, but I assumed your townsfolk would run and hide from an unknown being that had just fallen from the sky.”

“I ain’t afraid of much,” she said. She sounded like an Apple family member, but I doubted that was the case. Elsewhere, all the ponies continued to stare at me, drilling me with their piercing eyes.

“You didn’t answer my question. What are you?”

I knelt down, and only then did I realize how tall I was compared to these creatures. The unicorn only came up to my upper chest.

“I am a human. Well, an idea of a human. I exist in thought, as do you.”

“What the heck are you talking about?!”

“I don’t think I should explain any further, for it confounds me as much as it confounds you. I mean no harm to you ponies. On the contrary, I was brought here by Princess Luna, so that I may rid Equestria, and my mind, of a demon.”

The crowd of ponies murmured amongst itself. I imagined they were upset, maybe even scared by this news. I would be. I already was.

“A demon? What, you mean like a dragon?”

“No,” I replied, shaking my head. “Worse than a dragon. Far worse. This demon is here at this very moment. It seeks the death of happiness, and that is why it has come here.”

“Death of happiness?” the unicorn repeated, her eyes widening. I nodded again.

“This is my demon, my struggle that I have endured for many years, and it has now manifested itself here in Equestria. It has taken all elation from me already. The happiness of family, of friends, of the warmth of the human spirit…gone. And, ridiculous as it might seem, it seeks the destruction of my last true beacon, you ponies. You are my last wall of defense. Without you, the demon has a direct path to my shattered soul, and it will consume me as easily as you consume hay.”

“That’s pretty easy consuming,” said a pony from the crowd. I nodded for a third time. The unicorn placed a hoof on her chin and furrowed her brow in thought.

“You’re a human. I ain’t ever heard of a human before. You don’t have hooves and you walk on two legs like a minotaur! And you have wings!”

“Not all humans have wings. Some, but not all.”

“And you’re here because of a demon?”

“No,” I replied, taking another breath. “I am here because I wish to be here, because this place makes me happy, and my happiness is the only thing that can destroy the demon, or else it will destroy everything I hold dear, every joy in my life, and watch as I wallow in unchecked anguish. Then it will consume me.”

“How the heck do you know all this?”

I stood up. “This is no longer your world. It belongs to the demon and I. He sees it as a battleground, I a safe haven, the last line of defense for my beleaguered soul.”

And that line will fall, child.

I whirled around, searching for a spot of darkness in the sunlit town, but I realized I had no need. The sun had fallen, and moonless, starless night soared overhead, blanketing Ponyville in shadow.

It was going to make its move. But I couldn’t let these ponies get in the way. They were innocent. They did not deserve my punishment. But it was not as if the black shadows that rolled in cared at all for the innocent little ponies that inhabited this town.

And suddenly, they were there.

Dozens, maybe hundreds of…creatures. It would be incorrect to call them anything else. They looked like ponies from a distance but were the farthest from the cute little creatures I had seen so often on television.

Skinless ponies. Necrotic equines that groaned and growled like zombies as they burst from windows, from doors, and even from underground and surrounded us all. Their eyes bled, their skin peeled, and from their throats came death rattles of the reborn dead.

They were dead. And yet they walked the ground I stood upon.

Dead, rotting ponies.

The mare who had approached me, the brave one, screamed like a banshee when she saw the undead horses, but I stood my ground. Many ponies ran and hid from the decayed beings that slowly approached, but I took one step forward and flexed the fingers of my left gloved hand, clearing my throat.

“You will not harm these ponies, demon. You have taken so much from me already, but you will not take them.”

On the contrary, my child.

“I am no child of yours.”

You are a child of fear and darkness. I am fear and darkness. You are my child.

“Then strike your child down so that he may be rid of his black-hearted father.”

Oh, if it were only that easy.

I heard nothing more from the demon, and the dead ponies approached ever closer. Something tingled in my fingers, a magic power of sorts, one capable of bending the very existence around me, and so I stuck out my hands and concentrated. I called upon the magic that I was sure I had in my body, even as ponies ran and screamed, even as shadow swallowed the little town.

And then I saw it in my mind, a small muscle mass brimming with neurons and electric pulses, only far more so than any other part of my body. It quivered as if something were trapped inside and very eager to get out, pressing against my brain. Now, to let it run free…

I felt the magic leave my fingertips, and I felt the very atoms of the world around me shift in the most peculiar and frightening of ways, yet I found no polarity between the atomic magic in the air and the air itself. But it was there. I could see it like one sees heat shimmering off of a road on a hot summer’s day. It begged me to wipe out the dead ponies that approached, shambled, groaned like dying bison. It pleaded in the air, pleaded with me.

I gave my permission, reaching out with my ungloved hand and closing my eyes, feeling the magic in me course through my veins like ice. My fingertips glowed, and suddenly through the darkness there was light, great light that blinded me, that nearly seared my eyes. I heard the screams of the necrotic equines as they burnt up in the ignited atmosphere, victims of an inner power of which I had no knowledge of. The light pulsated every three seconds, and in those increments I heard fresh screams of pain, howls of beasts unlike anything I’d ever seen except in nightmares. But then, little else filled my nightly void but nightmares, horrid illusions of terrifying specters and ungodly monsters that dined on my flesh and presented my still-beating heart to their master as a trophy…

The light disappeared, and I felt like a husk of a human, empty space devoid of power and energy. But the dead ponies were gone. They sizzled on the ground, blackened skeletons with no flesh at all, cooling in their own decayed matter. I sank to my knees, and my head became light as my fingers tingled once again, not from magical influence but from fear, fear of the power that I had unleashed upon these monsters.

Why did I have this power? Surely the demon would not want me to garner abilities that would match its own. I had already been surprised once that I had grown wings of tempered glass. Now I possessed the power of a unicorn within my body, and without need of a horn. Why? Why give your foe such an advantage?

“Why, creature?” I huffed. “What game do you expect to play now? The enemy’s pawn has reached the far end of the board, and you have let it become a queen. Why is this?”

Its voice filled my weary brain.

Foolish human. Your abilities are infinitesimal compared to the powers I and others like me so possess!

“Others like you? But there is only one of you in my mind!”

One being, many forms. An incorporeal creature can be in several places at once, child.

“Then why haven’t you killed me yet?”

Why do you think I want to kill you? Farthest from it! Without you, there is no body for me to inhabit! No, I intend to run you into the ground, to siphon your soul so that I may fill the void and possess your form, become corporeal, and end the miserable little piece of filth that you call a world.

“You don’t want to kill me…you just want to kill my soul.”

A soul, no matter how tainted, cannot be killed. Broken, yes. Wounded, yes. But killed? Never. The soul and the body are two different things, child. One dies, the other lives. A soulless human does not exist. Not yet.

“Why are you telling me this? You’ve tormented me all these years without telling me why, and suddenly now, in the face of your pathetic defeat, you surrender your secrets?”

Defeat? You think those rotting monsters were my only means of force? Your naivety never fails to amaze me, idiot child. I have other means of draining your soul.

“Oh yeah?” I said. “Bring it.”

As you wish. Look behind you and you will see the death of kindness.

The death of kindness?

I turned around, and when I saw what the demon had done, my heart stopped beating and a scream became lodged in my throat.

Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness, writhed on the ground as if she were on fire, and I could see blood pouring from her eyes and nose. She screamed, and her scream was louder and more terrifying than any scream I had ever heard. She was crying tears of blood, begging for the unbearable pain to stop, begging for death, even. I cried with her, frozen with fear, and I swear I heard the demon laughing.

“NO!”

Ponies had gathered around her, but my presence scattered them like roaches. Fluttershy was dying. Her mane blackened and her eyes filled with blood, and soon she stopped screaming, for she began to choke on her own blood, and I stood over her, thinking of something, anything that I could do for her.

“This is what you will do, demon?!” I yelled over Fluttershy’s gargling.

The tower does not fall when its spire is knocked off, but rather when the supports are destroyed.

My eyes widened, and I knew what it wanted.

I had no choice. I stared into Fluttershy’s blood-filled eyes, crying tears from my soul.

“I will save you, Fluttershy.”

And I plunged my hand into her.

Into her.

My fist was like a razor-sharp blade that punctured her skin and spilled her entrails, but she did not die, and blood did not flow from her wound. It was shadow that spilled, black and like fog, like ink underwater, floating in midair. But then it disappeared into my pale skin, running through my veins and turning them black, and soon coal-colored webs formed a lattice over my arms and face. I screamed as I felt Fluttershy’s pain. It was fire in my heart, poison in my veins that ripped and tore at my insides. I screamed even when there was no more air in my lungs. My very soul was screaming.

What is this?

“You…can’t live…without me…”

Ooh, I see. You plan to die a noble death to save a fictional cartoon character.

“I’m not…dying for anybody,” I managed. “Except maybe…you…”

It no doubt realized my intent, and just as I thought I was about to embrace death, the pain vanished. My veins returned to normal, and Fluttershy’s blood disappeared. She got to her hooves and was back to her old self, quivering in anxious fear at the sight of the barely-breathing human in front of her. I knew there was some remnant of the horrid pain that had befallen her somewhere in her head, but she did an impressive job of covering it up.

“M-Mister…?”

“My name is irrelevant,” I replied. “You may simply call me he who dreams, the dreamer in a nightmarish world.”

“Oh. Okay, um…but, that’s an awful mouthful. Do you have a shorter name?”

As much as I hated to do it, I ignored the yellow pegasus. She seemed all too happy to back out of the conversation, retreating to the comforts of the crowd, no doubt wanting to nurse her mental wounds.

“What the heck was all that?” shouted a pony from the crowd. “Were those zombies?”

“In a sense, yes. They were pawns of the demon that lurks in this world, intent on separating my body from my soul and occupying the former so that he may do God-knows-what.”

“But then who are you?”

I was too weak to answer any further questions. In the distance, I heard the faint sound of a bugle, and I raised my head, wondering why the sounds of brass music would be playing at a time like this. But then I noticed Twilight Sparkle in the crowd, trying to find some way to make sense of what was happening. As the pieces of an idea floated in my mind, I beckoned to the unicorn. She approached with great reluctance just as the pieces formed a plan.

“Twilight Sparkle,” I said, kneeling down. “I need the help of you and your friends.”

“What?” Her voice was so familiar, so wonderful, but when I heard it in such a tone it was not as cordial as I had so often heard. “What do you mean? You come here and expect us to help you?”

“You saw what I have done, and you will see more. I have made a mistake, and that mistake is the demon that nearly killed Fluttershy and seeks to kill all of you.”

Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “K-Kill us? Why would it do that?”

“Because you ponies make me happy. You were what kept me from suicide for countless months. And now it wishes to destroy you. All of you.”

She assumed a serious look, one of a noble and hardened woman that is about to take a stand. “That demon will never hurt my friends!”

“No, it will not. Not if you stay by me. You, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Spike must all come with me.”

“Someone say mah name? And what in tarnation is goin’ on here?”

Applejack emerged from the crowd.

“I heard all kinds a’ stuff comin’ from down here, and saw a bunch a’ stuff in the sky! What’s goin’ on, Twilight?”

She sighed and took a moment before answering.

“We were attacked by a demon. This human is the only thing that can stop it.”

“A what and a who now?”

“There’s no time to explain, Applejack! You’re right,” she said, turning to me. “I will follow you. My friends will follow you. But you must promise to defeat this demon.”

I smiled for the first time in a long time. “With you by my side, it will never take me.”

She smiled too. Meanwhile the stunned pony crowd remained silent, except for Applejack.

“Does somepony wanna tell me what the heck is goin’ on?”

“We’ll explain on the way, AJ,” Twilight answered. “Grab Pinkie, Dash, Rarity and Spike. They all have to go with us.”

“To where?”

“To wherever the human wants. If we don’t want an attack like this to happen again, we must trust him.”

“How can I trust ‘im? I ain’t even seen ‘im before!”

“Applejack!” Twilight snapped. “You have to trust me to trust him! Don’t you get it? I don’t know what you saw, but it was ten times worse than that! Fluttershy almost died! We were attacked by dead ponies! Dead ponies!”

“Dead ponies?”

“Yes, AJ. Dead ponies. And this human drove them off and saved Fluttershy! I can’t think of any reason not to trust him!”

Applejack looked at me incredulously, and I gave her a polite nod. I realized how ridiculous this was, but I had to go along with it. They were all I had left.

The orange pony sighed and nodded. “Okay, Twilight. I’ll round up the girls an’ Spike, but you gotta explain to me what the heck is happenin’ while we go to…well, wherever in Equestria we’re goin’.”

“Don’t worry, AJ. I will. I promise.”

She ran off, and the crowd of ponies began to disperse. The shadow cloud had disappeared, replaced by a storm cloud that dumped its rain right over Ponyville. Twilight shouted to me, but I couldn’t hear her over the sudden downpour. She ran off.

Every pony seemed to be ignoring me for once, and I sank to my knees, watching little puddles of water form in the muddy pits alongside the streets. As the puddles grew bigger, they became murky mirrors, and I did not see my face when I looked at the water’s reflection, but the face of the demon.

Part 3: Burning Wind

Why do you hide, demon?

Is it out fear that you have come to this world? Is it out of fear that you have attempted to destroy me by destroying the things I love?

I know you intend to possess my body. I know you will do horrible things to the people I love. But why me?

Because you’re afraid. You’re afraid of me, afraid of what I can do. You fool yourself into thinking that you have lured me here, to this sick, depraved parody of something I loved and treasured, and have trapped me here like a rat in a cage.

Fool yourself no longer, demon. Be not proud of your actions. You are still inside my mind, but my mind is the key that sets me free.

I will be free of you, demon, no matter the time it takes or the sacrifices that I make. I will be rid of you.

…

Good luck, child.

We were a considerable distance from Ponyville, the town being merely a dark smudge on the burning horizon. The sky no longer gleamed blue, but roiled and shimmered like a ruby in fire. I could not help but think of Hell as we walked. Religion never played a large part in my life. My parents raised me Catholic but I refused to believe many things the Church’s doctrines dictated.

But I knew now there was a hell, and I walked its rolling plains.

Ponies flanked my left and right, following me as we traipsed like forlorn soldiers across the field. The wind stung my eyes and rubbed my skin raw. The pegasi were suffering, their wings useless in this unbearable gale. I do not know why they were incapable of flying in this wind, but in my thoughts I suspected that far more than mere nature lay in this searing breeze.

As Luna and Twilight had both acceded to my requests far too easily, so did the other ponies. I knew they would. I had as much influence on the denizens of this world as did the demon that I hunted.

“So how do you know where we’re going?” Spike asked curiously, bobbing on Twilight’s back.

I stopped in my tracks. The fingers of my right hand tingled. I lifted my hand and pointed at a large mountain that slashed the burning sky.

“I can feel its presence. The demon’s attack on Fluttershy left traces, traces that I can use to lead us back to it.”

“Oh,” the dragon said, no doubt still roiling in confusion.

“Ah, Twi, everypony?” Applejack said loudly, making herself heard over the howling wind. “I can’t go much farther. We’ve been walkin’ fer hours. Can’t we take a breather?”

Twilight looked to me, and I looked around, but we were in an open field that stretched as far as the eye could see.

“We shall be like lambs to the slaughter later, or fish in a barrel now. Such choices.”

“What in Equestria are ya talkin’ about?”

“This field is vast, too vast for the eye to see. Should we bunker down we will be easy prey for whatever monster the demon throws at us. We must continue. Can Twilight not ease your discomfort and exhaustion with her magic?”

“Well,” Twilight said, “I suppose I could, but…”

“…help…me…”

The voice was petite, and had it not been so distinct it would have been lost in the wind. I looked around, but it was immediately clear where it had originated from.

Fluttershy’s eyes were black and blood seeped down her front, gushing from her mouth. She collapsed, and her blood pooled around her head, taking the shape of a crimson halo.

“FLUTTERSHY!”

All the ponies ran towards their fallen friend, but with swift realization I smacked them away with my wings.

“No! She is gripped with darkness. You ponies cannot, will not survive the demon’s shadow!”

“Then what do we do?!” Rainbow Dash screamed.

I wracked my mind, thinking as quickly as I could. “I must once again siphon the darkness from her body. But if I take it, I will be gravely injured. If you take it, you will die. Therefore someone else must take the darkness from me, lest we all die from its kiss. But who or what can—”

“Me.”

I looked and there was Spike, his green eyes determined and his scales ashen.

“I’m no pony, and I’m not afraid either! I’ve had magic done on me! I’m not afraid!”

“Spike,” I gasped. “This energy…it will kill you. Or worse.”

But he remained silent, and Fluttershy continued to choke on the darkness. In his eyes I saw determination unlike that of any human I’d ever seen in my life. He was a man—or dragon, I suppose—bent on rescuing his friend. So I held out my hand.

“Take it,” I said. “I will draw the energy from her and into you.”

“Okay. Let’s get this over with.”

That statement set off an alarm in my head, but the alarm was muffled by the ungodly pain that followed as I grasped Fluttershy’s leg and began to siphon the dark energy from her body. Spike was calm, too calm. Something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t think. There was too much pain to think.

Everything was moving so fast. The wind, the fires, us…

Too fast.

Spike suddenly grabbed my arm, opening a new channel into which the dark energy flowed, and suddenly I knew.

“NO!” I cried, but it was far too late. Spike had drained me clean of the darkness, and now he grew and grew to the size of a large ship, inflating like a balloon. The other ponies stood in shock, unsure of what to do.

I knew what had to be done.

In my mind I rang out, pleading for a weapon. I stretched out my ungloved hand, and in mere seconds a sword appeared, shining steel that would bring swift death to those that unfortunate enough to get in its way.

I readied my sword, but it was too late.

Spike had become a monster, a black dragon with hate-filled eyes and fire-rimmed nostrils, a dragon the size of a three story house. It turned and roared an earsplitting roar, nearly shattering my wings. The other ponies fell over in shock, but I stood my ground.

“So,” I muttered as the mutated Spike pawed that ground. “This is what your plan is, demon. You intend to turn my pony and non-pony friends against me. You have begun with Spike.”

I heard no answer, but wasted no time.

“You want me to kill Spike. That is your wish. Kill him in cold blood.”

Still no response, but I knew what had to be done.

With a mighty roar the dragon leapt at me, trying to stomp me and simultaneously impale me with his serrated teeth. I ducked and weaved, slashing at his legs while tucking in my wings to avoid further injury. The ponies screamed in absolute terror, but none of them stepped forward to aid me in my fight. I didn’t blame them. I wanted to back out as much as they did. Spike was as favorite a character of mine as the ponies were, and to think that now I had to kill him…

”Fall to me, dragon!” I cried, slashing at his legs again. He howled in pain and anger. Again I ducked out of range of his fire breath, his crushing tail, and his terrifying teeth. I slashed and hacked, and the dragon spewed black blood, shadowy substance that seemed to float aimlessly in the air like ink underwater. All the while the ponies stood back in utter shock, their mouths agape and their eyes wide with fear. Spike roared angrily, and his eyes glittered with hatred and rage. I knew what I had to do.

I lifted myself into the air, the wind comfortable on my glass wings. Soon Spike was below me, and before he could take to the air I hacked at his wings, drawing more shadowy blood and rendering them useless. He roared, but it was a pained sound, fueled less by rage and more by misery and suffering. Spike was dying, and not from my blade. The shadow was consuming him so fast that…

I’d only been in the air for seconds when the dragon moaned and toppled.

The crash was enormous, and I saw the six ponies get knocked off their hooves. Spike stopped moving, groaning in anguish. I flew down to him and stood in front of his giant head.

“The shadow,” I realized. “It is eating you alive.”

Another moan, and I detected no rage in the sound. His eyes were weak and helpless.

“Even the dragons of Equestria cannot survive under your spell, demon,” I muttered, expecting no answer and receiving none. “And this means that…you heartless bastard.”

But even as I said it, I knew what had to be done. Taking my sword, I walked up to Spike and patted his head.

“I’m sorry, friend. But your friends cannot bear to witness your suffering any longer.”

Then I killed him, driving the sword through his eye and listening to his final breath. He shuddered and died, and before the corpse even had time to cool, black shards began to melt off of his body as he disintegrated into nothing. In mere seconds, where there had been a mighty dragon there was nothing but a charred, gruesome skeleton.

I gasped and fell to my knees, tears welling up in my eyes. The ponies drew closer but were still very much afraid. I said nothing, but instead cried my eyes out.

This time the demon had won.

Never again, demon. Never again.

Part 4: Silent Storms

Part of me wanted to believe that Rainbow Dash’s offer to race in Ghastly Gorge was innocent, that she was merely trying to lighten her friends’ moods, all of whom had just witnessed the horrible death of one of their best friends. But something wasn’t right. Rainbow Dash wasn’t a good liar, and I knew she out of all the six ponies hated me the most. I saw it in her eyes, that fiery rage that flared like a blacksmith hitting a red-hot piece of iron with a hammer, every time she looked at me. The way she poked the ground with her hoof whenever I spoke, the way she walked, far from my presence—to her, I was disgusting. And now she had challenged me to a race through the valley in which she had once nearly died.

At first I thought the demon was back. I knew Spike hadn’t been enough. As devastating as his death was, it would take a lot more to break my spirit. But Rainbow Dash—if it did anything to harm her…

But I knew I was smarter than the demon. I felt like Pandora opening the box: the demon would come out of the box with all its horrors, but I would still have a sliver of hope, a shining beacon in dark uncharted waters. That hope would guide me through this mire, and in my hands it could be more powerful than any weapon.

But I had little hope that Rainbow Dash’s claim was innocent, but who was I to not oblige her? It was as if we could no longer lift our spirits. Spike was dead. Fluttershy had almost been killed, and Ponyville nearly destroyed. Morale was at the breaking point, where I thought that more ponies than merely Rainbow Dash would mutiny my quest to defeat the demon. But I still had little doubt that these ponies felt the same way about the demon as I did, chiefly because of what it had done to their friends. I knew they would continue to follow me in these dark times. For how long…that was the mystery.

She looked at me expectantly, and it seemed that her deep eyes were peering into my ravaged soul so fervently that they might as well have been driving holes in my skin. I don’t know if I was blushing or merely staring at the ground, perhaps both. The other ponies were gathered around a campfire that Twilight had conjured up. Applejack and Rarity were whispering quietly. Pinkie Pie was asleep. Fluttershy was resting alongside Twilight, who was staring very hard at the ground, as if eager to not look at me.

“Why not?” Rainbow Dash moaned when she heard my refusal. I sat down next to Applejack, who looked uncomfortable but did not move or speak.

“It is dark. One of us could get hurt in that gorge. You yourself nearly lost your life in there once.”

“Oh, that was—wait, how did you know about that?”

I felt as though I should have been guilty or embarrassed, as if I had slip a secret that I had promised to keep under wraps. Twilight finally broke away from her staring contest with the ground and looked at me with genuine awe. I drew a breath. Telling them that I knew of their past because they were characters in a beloved TV show would make me look more insane than I already was. I decided against it. Sometimes, the truth is just too strange to tell.

“I know of all your exploits. They have come to me in visions that only encompass my mind once every few days.”

It wasn’t exactly an untruth.

“Well, butter mah biscuit. Does that mean that you cin see th’future?”

I smiled. “No, Applejack. I know only of the past. Unless…”

Rainbow Dash was fuming silently, and her friends were oblivious. I wanted to draw the attention away from her, so I turned to Twilight.

“How long has it been since your brother married Princess Cadence, Twilight?”

She looked shocked, but composed herself. I knew my explanation hadn’t appeased her, but she apparently had put aside her irritation.

“Shining Armor and Cadence are still on their honeymoon. They only got married a few weeks ago.”

I crossed my legs, thinking. So they did not yet know of King Sombra or the Crystal Empire. Perhaps…

“Perhaps I will face the King.”

“Huh?” Twilight frowned. Fluttershy woke up and yawned.

“Is it daytime yet?”

I looked up at the clouds and noticed that all the while we had been talking, a storm had been wreaking havoc on the sky above us. It was one of those silent thunderstorms, the kind whose lightning is fast and deathly bright but makes no sound. The wind had died down, but the biting cold was no better substitute. I was very grateful for the fire as I warmed my ungloved hand.

“I fear we may not see the light of day for a while, Fluttershy.”

“Are you sure?” Rarity said in her breathy, dramatic voice. “But my tan! Oh, good heavens, first we have filthy monster ponies running around, then Fluttershy almost dies, and now my tan is going to fade!”

“First of all, you ain’t got a tan, Rarity,” Applejack said bluntly, narrowing her eyes as if to say, Are you serious? “Yer white as a ghost. Secondly, do ya really think this here’s the best time ‘n place to worry about fashion? Seriously?”

Rarity looked genuinely horrified. “My dear Applejack, how could you say such a thing? You know my love for fashion goes wherever I go! For example, this human has a ghastly sense of style. For the love of Celestia, black with blue pants? It’s so utilitarian! And the single glove, made of wool—my dear, did you really have to come to our world dressed in such a dark way?”

“Oh, hush, Rarity,” Twilight snapped. “Applejack’s right. This isn’t the time. Besides, I doubt he even cares.”

Rarity huffed and said nothing, primping her mane with her hooves. Fluttershy was asleep again. Rainbow Dash came up to us and sat down, and for the longest while we sat in silence. Finally the rainbow pegasus broke the silence.

“Where’d you get the wings?”

I could hear the strained curiosity in her voice, so I decided to placate her. “I don’t know. I supposed I was blessed with them when I came here. They appeared on my back when I fell from Luna’s grasp.”

“You were with Luna?”

I nodded. “She brought me into your world. She is the princess of the night, is she not? She pulled me into this living dream.”

“Dream?”

Dream?

Was it a dream anymore? It felt so real—and what could you call a man’s trip into his own soul? A dream? A quest? An escapade? No, no words could describe it. Not a dream.

“It’s not a dream,” I said. “But it’s not real. It can’t be.”

Rainbow Dash did not pursue my words any further, for which I was truly grateful. If I started to question the impossibilities and metaphysicality of my journey to defeat the demon, I would play right into his hands—or whatever he had for appendages. I would go insane. I couldn’t think too hard about it.

“You know, you’re the only one who seems to have any answers to anything around here,” Rainbow Dash said, her eyes drilling into me. “So tell us why this stuff is happening. Why did Spike have to die?”

“Rainbow Dash!” I snapped, admonishing her, but Twilight merely made a little gasp and then regained herself. I sighed.

“You are wrong, Rainbow Dash. I have few answers. I can only tell you that your world has been corrupted by a demon, and that it will continue to rot unless I destroy the beast. Spike…there was nothing I could do about Spike. The demon corrupted his soul.”

Rainbow Dash did not seem satisfied with my answer, and I found myself thinking that she was probably still miffed about being rejected for a race in Ghastly Gorge.

But I was going to accept her offer, as soon as I had formulated a plan about what to do when she betrayed me.

Everypony began to drift off, and I found my eyelids growing heavy. Soon I was asleep, and I felt no comfort or rest in my unconscious state.

I awoke, and she was over me.

“I know what you want,” she whispered. “Meet me in Ghastly Gorge.”

She flew off as silent lightning flashed overhead. I sat up and looked at the faint rainbow streak heading east. This was it. She would betray me now. How would she do it?

There was only one way to find out. I spread my wings and flew through the air after her, letting the cold wind pummel my face. Silently, swiftly, I flew.

We reached the gorge in less than an hour. It was a veritable pit filled with black shadow, through which pointed peaks jolted out of, poised to skewer anything unfortunate enough to fly low through the gorge.

She was waiting for me.

“You came.”

I settled down on a rock about ten feet from where she hovered. “I know what you’re going to do, Rainbow Dash, and I don’t blame you in the slightest.”

“What, now you can tell the future?”

“No. It’s your behavior that gives you away. I know you hate me. I know you brought me here to kill me.”

She looked surprised. “How—then why did you come?”

I sighed. “Because I know you won’t kill me. You don’t have it in you. You and your friends are creatures of love. You do not know what it means to kill.”

“And you do?”

“I killed the monsters at Ponyville, did I not?” I answered, egging her on. “I killed Spike, did I not?”

“Shut up!” she screamed. “Spike didn’t have to die!”

“He was not himself. I was putting him out of—”

“No you weren’t!” she countered. “You—You weren’t! You killed him!”

“You refuse to believe me,” I said, sighing once again. I kept calm, but that only seemed to anger her further. Her eyes brimmed with fury.

“Why the heck would I believe you? Since you got here, you nearly killed Fluttershy, you killed Spike, and you think you’re in a dream! This is no dream, you idiot! This is real! Spike is dead and it’s your fault!”

At that point I lost my temper, rising into the air and producing my blade. “So what will you do then? Kill me? With your bare hooves? I do not wish to harm you, Rainbow Dash, as that would be counterproductive to my cause.”

“What cause?! Hunting this—this demon?! Do you know how crazy you sound?”

“I am crazy, Rainbow Dash. We all are. If we weren’t crazy, we’d all be dead.”

“And according to you, we are.”

“I never said that.” She was getting more unstable by the second. I could almost see the fire that burned behind those beautiful eyes of hers. “You’re not dead. Not yet.”

“Is that a threat?”

“No. It’s a promise that I’d very much like to break. If you insist on fighting me, I will break something else, and may just keep my promise.”

“You would kill me?” Rainbow Dash growled, getting closer and closer, and suddenly her voice changed. It became deep and throaty, as if she had sandpapered her throat. Her eyes turned red, as though scarlet inkwells had burst behind the glass of her eyes. She was beyond livid. She was in a state of incomprehensible anger, of rage that pumped pure spite into her heart, stoked the raging fire in her chest, and accelerated her breathing.

No.

“Demon.”

“Hello, child.”

Rainbow Dash was gone. The beast…

He had taken her.

“Where, demon?” I asked as my knuckles grew white. “Where is she?”

“Why, whatever do you mean, buddy?” the demon said, in a weird, twisted version of Rainbow Dash’s voice. Suddenly her hooves morphed into two blades of sharp black ice, and I knew immediately that these weapons would snatch my soul from my body as easily as they could take off my head.

“I’m Rainbow Dash! I’m loyal to all my buds! I love to read Daring Doo! Daring Doo! DARING DOO! *DARING DOO!*”

She attacked.

I had barely enough time to produce my sword before she was upon me. Her blades touched my skin, and instantly pain of a hideous sort raced up my arms and into my heart, and for one moment it pumped venom throughout my arteries. Every pore suddenly vented the toxic shadow. I nearly collapsed, but kept my sword up with just enough strength to ward off her attacks. With eyes like twin bloodstains and her teeth clenched so tight I thought they might shatter, she fought. She swung and plunged and stabbed and had me at the brink of death.

But I had not come here to be betrayed by the one I loved.

I saw an opportunity, and took it.

“NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOO!”

Having lopped off her blade arms, the black ice weapons fell into the abyss, a trickle of shadowy blood following after. Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, her eyes paling, the stumps of her limbs bleeding. She looked at me.

“I’ll kill her, child. I’ll kill her. I can’t kill you. I shall kill her.”

“No you won’t, you beast.”

“What will you do then, child? How will you escape this time? I don’t need weapons to destroy you.”

“Nor do I.”

“Pray tell, what then?”

A spark. It was all I needed.

Two sparks, actually. One in my head and the other in my palm.

The magic burst from my hand and circled the wounded pegasus, forming a golden sphere until she was completely entombed. I brought the sphere closer, until the poor girl and I were eye-to-eye.

Through the magic prison I saw her eyes, paling ever faster. Tears ran freely down her cheeks.

“H-Help…”

Then her eyes turned red again. “Your pathetic magic cannot contain me! I will—”

I did something then, something that I would have nightmares over. I did something that cursed me to an experience far beyond any human semblance of terror, of misery. I did something that would plunge me into a world where humanity was a farce, and where only the most potent of pains, the most horrifying of horrors lay.

I plunged my gloved hand into her head.

Shadow spilled from the cut that my hand had left. She screwed her eyes up to look, her jaw wide open. The demon could not speak. I would not let him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the others. Only their forms. I could see nothing of their faces, of their expressions.

I saw only Rainbow Dash’s look of terror as I plunged my hand into her mind and gripped it like a vice.

I closed my eyes.

“Be vigilant, Rainbow Dash. I am coming.”

Part 5: Bleeding Rainbow

I fell for what seemed like millennia, and when the dark ground finally came rushing up to meet me I did not feel my bones liquefy or my body erupt in pain. I felt nothing at all. I was in a veritable pit of nothingness.

And then, impossibly, there came form, swirling at first and then coalescing into discernable shape. The dust-like forms made no sound as they looped and whirled around in the blackness. It was like watching an explosion in reverse.

It took about a minute to form completely, and when it was done I was in a new land.

The first thing I noticed was the sky. It was bright, bright blue, so bright that at first I had to shut my eyes. Then I looked down and realized I was standing on a fluffy red cloud.

Not a fluffy white cloud. A fluffy red cloud.

Red like blood.

“Hi there!”

I whirled around and stared at…

Oh God.

“Derpy?”

It was indeed the odd-eyed pegasus, but there was something much different about her.

She didn’t have eyes, only bloody, empty sockets. And yet she was smiling like she was holding a newborn puppy. Did she not realize?

“Hiya, mister! Welcome to Cloudsdale! I’m Derpy Hooves!”

“Derpy…your eyes…”

“What’s that, mister?”

“What the hell happened to your—”

Demon.

You’ve done this.

I remembered what happened—Rainbow Dash had been taken. The demon that plagued this land had kidnapped her, and I had gone in to save her.

I was inside Rainbow Dash’s mind. But this wasn’t just Rainbow Dash. She had an unwanted guest, the demon that wanted nothing more than my death but was having too much fun to kill me.

“This is the work of the beast,” I whispered to myself. Derpy lazily rolled over.

“East? East, west, south, potato…”

“What?”

“Nothin’.” She smiled so bright that I wanted to smile too, but I could not stop looking at her eye sockets. What kind of monstrosity was this?

No. Focus. Find Rainbow Dash.

“Um…Derpy?”

She stopped doing loop-de-loops and looked at me, and I briefly wondered how she knew I was there if she didn’t have eyes.

“Where is Rainbow Dash?”

For some reason, I thought I knew how she would react. I thought she’d grin and do a somersault through the air. Why did I think that?

Instead, fangs poked out of her mouth and she screamed like a banshee. Twin flames burst in her eye sockets, and she came at me with full force. I had no time to react. My sword was gone. My wings were gone.

My wings were gone?! Then how did I…

“DIE!” Derpy screamed. And suddenly I was tumbling. She had knocked me off.

I fell through rain, but it wasn’t rain. It was blood that rained down from the crimson clouds above me. The sky itself was no longer blue but a pasty whitish color, and I could see nothing below me. I did not feel air rushing by me as I fell, only blood that fell in torrents.

Then the ground appeared.

Once again, I felt nothing as I ran out of sky. It was as if the ground was marshmallow, bouncy and chalky and white like snow. But a few moments after I hit the ground, color began to form over the shapeless forms as though inkwells had burst all over them. The forms began to sharpen, and soon I could see the faint outline of a town.

I knew what town it was. What else could it have been?

Sure enough, Ponyville appeared before me, but like Cloudsdale before it, this wasn’t the Ponyville that I had come to know and love.

The town was a wreck. There were burned out buildings everywhere. Some houses that had not been completely torched floated upside down over their foundations, slowly spinning in the misty air.

The marshmallow ground had turned to hard cobblestone, and I rose and observed my surroundings further. I couldn’t see any ponies. The whole place seemed deserted, abandoned. But I knew better. It was the work of the damn demon, and I knew it wanted to humiliate and torture me before it killed me.

I knelt down and felt the cobblestone. Under my palm it felt nothing like rough rock, but more like glass. It was smooth and a bit slippery. Another illusion in a sea of deception. The sky above was gray like soot, and though smoke and ash swirled around me, I felt none of it in my nose or lungs.

This was not Ponyville. How could it be? And yet it was plain as day…except day did not exist down here. Night held no credence either. What could it be, then? A place where time was nonexistent? Or perhaps something more sinister.

Was I…in hell?

I never imagined Rainbow Dash’s brain would be so…caustic. But I had to remind myself that this was not Rainbow Dash’s mind. This was the mind of a foul, cruel demon. I had to find the real Dash. I could not bear to let her suffer any longer. I could no longer search with my eyes or my mind.

No, I had to search with my soul. Because that is what the demon wanted most. My soul. He wanted it for himself, wanted to corrupt it, twist and turn it until it was a vile mess. But he could not have my soul, not while I lived. Thus, I had to die. But he would not let me die. He was having too much fun.

So I would search with my soul, and welcome the dangers ahead.

I found a staircase that led into the clouds, but it descended. There were clouds beneath my feet.

I could think of no other choice but to descend the steps, and as I walked, the clouds formed images that I instantly recognized. There were images of ponies, of dragons and minotaurs and all manner of creatures in their daily lives, existing happily, being content with themselves. But I would not let myself be fooled. The demon was corrupting Rainbow Dash’s mind, playing games with me like it always did. It loved to play games, to prolong my suffering and watch with glee.

I neared the end of the stairs, and suddenly the clouds grew dark. An iron door appeared at the foot of the staircase, and I reached out and tugged. It would not open.

Suddenly I heard voices behind me, but I couldn’t make out any intelligible words. I turned around.

The clouds turned dark above me and formed a scene. I recognized it as Ponyville, and sure enough, there were Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. They appeared to be at some sort of construction site. Rainbow Dash was gesticulating, no doubt going on about how awesome she was as Twilight listened patiently. A construction worker set down a few boxes of nails and accidentally bumped a propane tank, loosening the nozzle a little. A pegasus was welding above it, hot slag raining down around the tank.

“I’m not worried!” Rainbow Dash said, not looking where she was going. “I’m too awesome to worry about anything! I mean, if something bad is going to happen, I’m so fast I can stop it from happening! I am THE Rainbow Da-”

Before I knew what was happening, it was too late.

BOOM!

Rainbow managed a half turn before the nails ripped through her body. She didn’t even get a chance to scream before her flesh was ripped from her body. The explosion shred one of her wings right off, with feathers, bone, and muscle flying off in all directions. One of the nails went into her eye, and blood flew through the air. All this happened in the span of a millisecond. Once the shrapnel stopped flying, Rainbow Dash spun and fell to the ground.

She landed hard on her belly. Twilight stared in horror as her friend started to twitch. The maimed pegasus managed a few sobs, then tried to speak.

“T-tw-wil-lig-”

A flat piece of metal suddenly fell and embedded itself in the ground before Twilight, cutting Rainbow Dash in half. Her one remaining eye went wide with horror. She twitched and writhed as she started to pull herself forward. Her mouth opened and closed, desperately trying to form words, but only blood poured from her mouth. She lifted herself up on her remaining hooves, looked up at Twilight, twitched once more, and fell.

Twilight remained frozen, staring at what was left of her friend.

Then she screamed.

I screamed with her. I could not believe what I had just witnessed. But before I could fully process what had happened, the iron door opened and an ethereal black hand grabbed me and pulled me into darkness.

“You cannot save her from me. Just as you cannot save yourself from me.”

I sat up, heaving as if I had woken from a nightmare, but I realized quickly that the nightmare had only just begun.

The darkness that was around me suddenly melted away, and I saw image after image of Rainbow Dash…but the images were gruesome, disgusting, and horrifying. I tried to shut my eyes, but it seemed that the images had penetrated my mind, as they would not leave my sight.

Rainbow Dash with her eyes plucked out.

Rainbow Dash being violated by a manticore.

Rainbow Dash being flayed alive.

Rainbow Dash with meat hooks through her body.

No…no…

Raped, murdered, violated, mutilated. Burned, flayed, cut, shot, skewered, melted, beaten…

Senseless…relentless…

“You cannot save her.”

I forced myself to stand up. If I were corporeal I might have thrown up. There was so much debauchery, so many foul images that penetrated my consciousness. But then, there came an even greater horror: the sound.

Screams, bloody and pained and horrible, ripped through the air. They were so loud that I thought that my ears would start bleeding. They had to be Dash’s screams, and I could no longer hold back my tears. I let them fall freely as fear, pain, and confusion seized my body and twisted my insides.

“No…Dashie, no…”

“You cannot save her.”

“SHUT UP!”

There was nothing I could do. The screams continued, and the images flashed by so fast that I could barely see anything except the blue skin of Rainbow Dash and the harsh red color of blood.

“Why…why, why, WHY?! WHY DO YOU TORTURE ME?”

“Because it’s fun.”

“I am not…” I said, gasping. “…your plaything!”

“Oh, but you are. You are my pet, my prized attraction. I could kill you at any time, but I choose not because it is so much fun to watch you suffer. In a way, you are already dead, child.”

“No…”

I slowly stood up, the pain in my gut receding.

“I will kill you, demon.”

“Ha. You are but a pathetic weakling. Your mind is weak, your body is weak, and the weakest of all is your soul. You have let darkness in before, and you will always let darkness in until it consumes you. No amount of fighting will ever free you from my grasp.”

“You’re wrong. Your arrogance blinds you.”

“Does it now? Am I the blind one? Tell me child, is this all a dream? Are we in your head or are we in the real world? Does the real world really have ponies and friendship and kindness? When you came to that spit of land they call Equestria, did you honestly think you were really there?”

“I…I don’t understand…”

“And you never will. You will suffer. You will die slowly, alone, in a cold, dark place. You will be weak. You will have no one to save you. You will die, knowing that I have won.”

“Won?” I looked around. “You need me. You need a body.”

“No, child. I need only to feast on a body. When I have sucked your soul from your bones, when I have crushed your will and ripped your mind from your body, then I will eat you. I will consume you. From your bones I will create a new body. From the shattered shards of your soul, I will forge a new being.”

“You’ll never take me,” I growled. And then, from the outer reaches of a mind, a thought surfaced like a piece of timber in a pond.

“You can’t kill me. Not yet.”

Silence for a few moments.

“Can’t I?”

“No. You can’t kill me any more than I can kill you. We are on a different plane of existence, demon. This is my mind. Do you have a bad memory, you sadistic mongrel? You may remember that you didn’t let me die when I saved Fluttershy. You need me, demon. Without me, you can’t resist.”

“Your mind is mine, child. I don’t need you. I shall prove it.”

Suddenly…

Pain. Very, very intense pain. Invisible hands tore the skin from my bones, feasted on my heart and poured molten slag over my wounds. I tried to scream but no sound came from my mouth. The pain only grew. My body was on fire. He was breaking me.

Not this time.

If I could just…

My blade found its way into my hand. How it got there, I did not know. But I did not question my fortune. I swung, and the invisible hands stopped tearing me apart.

Then I fell, and I still had no wings to help me.

More darkness.

“H…Hello?”

A familiar voice.

“Who’s there? Is somepony there?”

Rainbow Dash.

I was in some sort of dungeon, a pitch-black room with walls of stone and a cold hard floor. I felt around, trying to make sense of my surroundings.

I was in a dungeon. Rainbow Dash was somewhere near me. I had to get her out of there. I had to save there.

“Rainbow Dash?”

“Who’s there?” Her voice was shaky. She was terrified.

“Rainbow Dash, it’s me.”

“Who?”

I sighed. “You should know by now.”

Silence for a moment, and then: “You. It’s you!”

“Yes.”

“Oh, thank Celestia! Where are you?”

“Follow the sound of my voice,” I said. We fumbled around for a minute before I finally felt cold pony skin. I gently moved my hand up.

“Is that you?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Oh, thank you!” She hugged me, and even though we could barely see each other, I knew she was happy to see me. I could feel her quivering with fear, and as I felt her face her warm tears flowed down my hands. She was sobbing.

“Shhh,” I said, cradling her in the darkness. “It’s alright. You’re gonna be okay.”

“It…It…”

“Whatever it did to you, I’ll do to it ten times over. I promise you that.”

“We can’t…stop it. Too powerful. I…”

She sounded like she was in immense pain. Every breath from her mouth was forced and short. For a moment, I feared what I would see when we finally found light. How bad was it?

“We’ve got to get out here. Do you know where the door is?”

“It’s…to your left. I think it’s a little high. But…where am I?”

“This is your mind, Rainbow Dash,” I said, holding her close. “The demon thinks we’re trapped, but I know we can get out.”

“How?”

“I just know,” I said. In truth, I wasn’t sure. Would the demon leave a back entrance? No…unless I made one myself.

“Hold onto me,” I told her. “We’re getting out of here.”

I closed my eyes, and suddenly I could see. Somehow everything was visible. Whatever madness this was, I had neither the time nor the patience to question it. We had to escape.

“Rainbow Dash…I can see.”

“What?”

I looked to the left, and there was the door, black like tar. I pulled the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. Not that I expected it to. But every puzzle has its answer. There had to be another way. There had to be…

…nothing. I couldn’t think of anything. We were trapped.

“I…I can’t.” I opened my eyes and everything turned black again.

“What?” said Rainbow Dash again, shuffling close to me.

“I don’t know how we can get out. I’m sorry. I lied.”

Silence for a moment.

“No.”

I thought I could see her expression change, but I couldn’t. Closing my eyes didn’t. But there was something in her voice, something different.

“I was wrong not to trust you,” she said. In the cold darkness, her voice was like a comforting blanket that warmed my soul. “I believe in you. You came here to get rid of a horrible monster that threatened all our lives, and you’re doing a much better job than any of us could have ever done. I know we can escape, but…”

She stopped. “You are uncertain?” I said.

“I…well, I don’t anypony can be one hundred percent correct all the time. I don’t back away from a challenge, but then again, I’ve never faced anything like this before. So I guess I lied too. I don’t know if we can escape. I don’t know if we’ll survive much long. So…”

She moved closer to me, resting her head on my chest. “I have a small request. Please. If I die here, there’s one thing I want to know before it happens.”

“What is it?” I asked, though I almost knew what she was going to ask. Her head left my chest, and I knew she was looking up at me with determined but tearful eyes. She asked the question I knew she would ask, I knew they would all ask. The one question I didn’t want to answer. If the demon knew the answer…

“What is your name?”

My grip tightened on her back, and she gave a small yelp, as if she immediately regretted asking. But I stroked her mane reassuringly, shushing her as I held her in my arms.

The demon could not know. If revealed, it would be a deadlier weapon than any sword or gun or spear in any world. But I would not let him know.

And yet…she asked so nicely. I didn’t know how to get out, and even with her determination, she was still uncertain. We could very well die here. Who was I to deny her last request?

So I leaned close, put my lips to her ear, and whispered two words.

A loud sound broke through the darkness, a noise like a hammer on an anvil, and then the black melted away as light filled the room. I tried to hold onto Rainbow Dash, but I felt my grip loosen. I felt my whole body loosen, as if I was becoming undone. The light blinded me, blinded my thoughts, and when I passed out, even that darkness was bright.