Chapters Sometimes it is hard to forget, especially if you desperately need to.
Running. There seemed to be a lot of it recently, thought Rhyme Twister bitterly. The knowledge that there was no one to blame but himself hung over him like a dark cloud. But that cloud that was actually over him was nothing compared to the drenching he was receiving from the huge storm clouds that were high in the sky. All this, along with the lack of sleep didn’t do much to help his mood.
‘Stupid weather ponies.’ Twister thought. ‘They always seem to manage to schedule these storms whenever it inconveniences me the most.’
‘Where were they when?...’
Twister closed his eyes shaking his violently back and forth, trying to stop the onslaught of memories that he knew would snowball out of control, just like it always did.
It worked, if only barely. But it had the surprising side-affect of making himself dizzy. Stumbling onward, he managed a couple of more steps before his front legs nearly gave out on him.
‘No! Not here! It’s right in middle of a town!’ Thought Twister, feeling an odd mixture of annoyance and terror. ‘I can’t! I can’t stop now. I can never stop.’
But each step afterward was forced, causing pain with the motion. He had to stop. He had to stop before his body completely failed him. He had to...
“No! I! Will! Not! Stop!” Twister said aloud, breaking the semi-silence of the rain. No-pony was around to hear him, or to even see the azure pony stumbling onward towards his destination.
“I. Can. Not. Stop.”
‘Ever.’
Each word was immediately followed by a hoof-step, with every one of them smaller than the last. He couldn’t keep this up forever.
Then, out of seemingly nowhere, barely audible over the noise of the rain.
Laughter.
Twister stopped immediately, locking his legs so he wouldn’t fall over. Shivering violently, he peered into the dark, wet night.
“You think that you can run from your past?” Came a voice, to the left of Twister. Swinging his head towards the sound, he tilted his ears forward, trying to detect where the noise was coming from.
“Sh-sh-sh yourself.” Twister barked into the darkness, teeth chattering quickly, the downpour soaking him to the skin and chilling him to the bone.
More laughter. “Gladly”
Twisting his head quickly to the right, Twister nearly fell over in shock. There he was, a pony so black that it was hard to even tell where his outline was in the moon-less night. Twister’s eyes zeroed in on the one splotch of color on his coat. His cutie-mark was was muddy brown, and dull silver.
A scythe.
“You can’t run from your past. Not forever, little pony. Sooner or later, no matter where you stop running, your past will catch up with you.” The dark pony said in a sinister voice. “ And when it does, you’ll have no choice but to face it!” Walking towards Twister, the pony smiled, showing his teeth.
“St-st-st...” Shivering so violently, Twister couldn’t form anything better than that.
“Stay back?” Said the mystery pony, glancing at the pony in front of him, still advancing all the while. “Or what? You’ll hurt me? Excuse me if I’m wrong, but you’re in no position to give any orders. You never were, in fact.”
Losing the smile, the pony stopped about ten feet from Twister, fixing him with a stare that could kill.
“But I digress. Let’s get on to the nitty-gritties of why I’m here, shall we?”
“Why did you do it?”
There it was, the one question that Twister had tried to answer himself, and came up blank every-time. Squishing his eyes shout, Twister tried to hold back the tears that were welling up.
‘I didn’t mean to!’ Thought Twister, unable to form sentences anymore. But the other pony still somehow managed to hear him, and scorn him.
“Didn’t mean to? Didn’t mean to!” The other pony roared at Twister. “How could something like this be anything close to an accident!”
'I'm sorry. So, so very sorry.' Twister thought, crying openly now. It seemed like all of his remaining strength was slowly being sapped away by the other pony's very presence.
“Sorry doesn't cut it!” The other pony said, his voice calculated and disconnected from any feeling. “What matters is what you've done about it, which so far has been Nada ,zip, nothing!”
Suddenly galloping full tilt at Twister, the other pony started screaming bloody murder, and a long string of profanities, a murderous look in his eyes. Twister prepared for the blow. Most likely a death blow, as weak as Twister was, and a strong as his opponent was.
----Only to disappear right before actually touching Twister. But Twister's body still reacted as if he had been hit. Hitting the ground hard, Twister tried in vain for a few seconds to get back up, only to give up as he realized how impossible it was.
He lay there on the ground, every fiber of his body aching. But the aches and pains that his frail body was feeling was nothing compared to the emotional wounds that the black pony had reopened, ones that had never really closed. And as he went under, he saw them, and grieved, for the moments before reality shut down, and the feeling of bliss that sleep provides.
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And above all this, the weather ponies desperately tried to get the storm under control before it could hurt anypony.
“I thought that this was only supposed to a spring shower!” Shouted a pegasus.
“It was! We stopped feeding it over an hour ago! It must of gotten a magic boost from somewhere!”
And as the pegasus got the storm slowly under control, and slowly dissipated. They went home to bed, and it was well deserved after the battle that they had just fought with the storm. All of the pegasi were to tired to noticed much, including a blue pony, shivering and crying against a giant tree in the middle of town.
Waking up is the Hardest Part
The sun rose. The birds began to sing their song, each one intricately combining with the next to reach harmony. And with that, ponies all around the town began to wake, each on getting ready for their day, doing this and that, things that kept the town running. Most went on with their lives, unaware of the life sleeping near the tree in the middle of town. And of course, a certain pink pony was not to be clumped with the word ‘most’.
“What are you doing sleeping there, silly?”
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And in that certain tree that the pony slept against, there happened to be a purple pony that also happened to be trying to sleep, as she had been up all night trying to perfect a spell, and a spell does not just simply be impossible for this certain purple pony. Groaning, she buried her head her pillow, wishing that the pink pony would go away for a few more minutes.
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Twister felt himself being prodded. Repeatedly. And more rapidly than seemed possible.
Sleepily, he pushed himself up into a sitting position. And promptly fell over again, albeit in the opposite direction. He now found himself staring at a pink pony.
“Why’d you do that? In seems so uncomfortable just lying there on the ground.”
Twister just grunted. ‘No duh’ he thought. But then a more pressing thought struck him.
'What happened last night?’
Memories of the past night filled his mind. The rain, the black pony, and….
‘Crap, I’m in the middle of town!’
And with that his brain decided that it needed more time to decide whether it was going to go crazy, or whether it was going to be able to cope with the shock of seeing… him, again when it was impossible.
“No! Mr. Blue Pony, don’t do that again! It’s after sunrise, and only lazy ponies are sleeping now!”
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And there was a decidedly non-lazy pony that was indeed trying to sleep in, without any help from the pony outside. She sighed, resigned to the fact that she wasn’t going to get any more sleep.
“Spike?” came a voice out from under the pillow.
“I’m up.” Came the reply, and the annoyance in getting woken up this early showing in his voice.
‘And on a Saturday too…’
The covers shifted, and the purple pony managed to extract herself from them.
“I guess that we should find out what Pinkie Pie wants.” She said, and sighed again. She had a gut feeling that it was going to be one of those days.
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Down the stairs and through the library, Twilight walked through the door and breathed deeply, all thoughts and annoyances gone from her mind. Zeroing in on Pinkie, she walked towards her somewhat erratic friend. And small purple dragon followed, the annoyance at getting woken up early still evident on his face.
“Hey Twilight!” Said Pinkie, not even turning around.
Twilight shook her head. ‘I will never get how she does that.’
“Hey Pinkie. Can I ask why you’re outside the library this early?” She asked, not really expecting a straight answer.
She got on, much to her surprise.
“Because of the blue pony, of course!” Exclaimed Pinkie, acting as if shocked that Twilight hadn’t already known that.
“And where would this blue pony be?”
Pinkie moved aside, revealing the blue pony to Twilight.
“Here! I don’t know what his name is, which is strange, because I know almost everypony! Scratch that, I do know everypony! But not this one, which is strange! Do you know him Twilight? Ohhhh, maybe he’s new! I have to go get a ‘Welcome to Ponyville Party!’ ready for when he wakes up! Bye Twilight!”
And with that, the not-really-on-a-sugar-rush-but-acting-like-it pony jumped up and took off in midair, impossible for everypony except Pegasus, and apparently Pinkie, who seemed to be able to break the law of physics at will.
“Pinkie!” Called Twilight after the already out of sight pony. She sighed, glancing at the sky blue pony, whose body was still and peaceful. “Just who are you? And why are sleeping under my tree?”
Using her magic, Twilight managed to get him inside and on the spare bed. Going back downstairs, she decided it was about time to get breakfast going. But she seemed to be out of everything, and that surprised her.
‘Spike had better have some excuse for not telling me we were almost out after he made dinner yesterday.’
Sighing one more time, she had one last thought before heading out to the market.
‘It’s definitely going to be one of those days’
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Despite Twisters calm exterior, his mind and emotions were suffering from turmoil. His mind was at war with itself, and one knows that in every war there must be a loser, and in either case it was going to be Twister that suffered the consequences.
‘Is sanity really that important? We’ve already seen the impossible, and that’s proof that our sanity is going.’ Said one side of the argument. saw himself in the room, nodding. It made sense.
‘But sanity has most of our favorite things! Like reality! And everything included in the said reality!’ Argued the other side. Twister also saw the wisdom in that. was a hard choice to
make.
‘Muffins!’ Shouted the third side of the argument, that up until then had been trying to think of something to say. really saw the greatness of that idea, although he didn’t see how it applied to this particular case.
‘See! Even they agree with me!’ Shouted side one and side two at the same time. Twister sighed. This was going to be a very long argument with himself.
The three sides continued to argue, while Twister sat in some corner of his delirious mind, giggling and thinking about his choices at the same time.
‘What’s going on over here?’
‘Great’, thought Twister. ‘More company…’
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Time passed, and morning passed into day, day into evening, and then evening into night. Everypony went around their business, unaware of the pony in Twilight’s spare bed, suffering from some form of delusion, and that it had reached a crucial decision in it’s head.
‘SANE!’ Came the verdict, and Twister had to say goodbye to himself several times.
‘Are you sure about this? I mean think about how much fun it would be!’
‘You’ve made a wise decision, and you’ll most certainly regret it in the morning.’
‘Blueberry muffins.’ Said the third one, deciding that those were their favorites.
And with those words with himself, Twister was slammed back into reality, wakening with a
start.
He took stock of where he was. He had been outside, but now he was inside. It made no sense!
Being inside was a bad thing. Being inside meant that someone was eventually come in to look for him and ask him questions. Questions that he really didn’t want to answer, because answering them would mean answering them for himself first.
‘Have to get outside, have to get away.’
Stumbling out of bed, he stumbled towards the stairs. And landed on his face. Again.
‘I really need to stop doing that.’
Focusing now on where he placed his hoof, Twister managed to make it to main floor without anymore… incidents. Glancing around, he was surprised to find himself in a pretty good sized library.
‘I wish that I could stick around. I haven’t read a good book in ages’
He quickly chastised himself.
‘I am the poster pony for ADD, and a majority or other mental problems.’
Reaching the door, he chanced a quick look outside. It was that time of night that there was a few stragglers finishing up their business outside in order to go home. There seemed to be a forest in the background, and a pavilion a little ways off. Venturing outside, he started running towards the forest, as in his experience, there was always a way to hide in one.
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Lady Luck definitely seemed to either be on vacation that day ( or was just sitting back and laughing at their antics.) Just as Twister had turned a corner, tripping over his hooves by the way, a certain Pinkie Pie entered the library. And about 10 seconds after that she came streaking out of the door again, nothing but a pink blur.
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“What? What do you mean he's gone!” Shouted Twilight. “He was asleep when I left!”
“Well, obviously he woke up and wandered off.” Came the witty reply, this time from a cyan pony.
“Not helping Dash.”
“Okay then, what are we going to do about it?” Said Dash.
“Well, can’t Pinkie just find him with her pinkie sense? I don’t understand how it works, but right now it seems to be our best bet at finding him.”
“That’s just it Twilight, I can’t find him! I looked all over town before coming back! This can’t happen. What about the party that I had planned!?” Said Pinkie.
“Pinkie, bigger problems.” Said Dash.
“Well, couldn’t he just have wandered off? I mean, we don’t know him, and he doesn’t know us. He could of just had gone on his way.” Came the reply from the white pony to Twilight’s left.
“He could’ve Rarity, except he’s not well enough to go anywhere, and he wouldn’t be for a while.” Twilight said factually.
“And what does that mean?” Came the response from Dash, everyone’s sarcasm-o-meter going off except Twilight’s.
“While he was sleeping, I did a medical spell on him. He was twitching and jerking a lot, and it worried me. What I found was that his body was suffering from mental and physical exhaustion. He doesn’t have the energy to do anything to strenuous, and-” Twilight got cut off from a hoof in her mouth.
“If he was sick, then why did you let Pinkie plan this party?” Said Rarity.
“Because he needed to get out and recover, and sleeping the day away is enough time to get enough energy for a few hours at least. He might’ve been a bit loopy, but perfectly alright for a party.” Came the answer.
“Well, I guess that we should postpone that party for now. Terribly sorry Pinkie.” This came from Rarity, who was already leaving. “I must get back to business. I’ve got an order that I simply must get done before I head off to bed.”
And with that, she was gone.
The other’s all made their way to the door, making excuses and apologies, and left.
Pinkie just sat there, wondering how the hell somepony had managed to win hide-and-go-seek against her.
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A/N I know, I know, sucky cliff-hanger. And the stories tone. It was grim and dark in the first chapter, but what about this chapter? I’m going to try to vary the mood a little. Well? Post a comment! Tell me you liked it, tell me you hated it, heck, if it’s possible, tell me why you think the way you do! I can’t get any better if I don’t get feedback and critism.
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Twister ran though the forest, the same forest that he had ran into minutes before. Or had it been hours? Twister didn't know, and quite frankly, didn't care. He was out of town and into the wilderness. That was much, much better than being in town, no matter how weird and freaky the wild forest seemed.
Twister tripped on his face. Again.
Getting back to his feet, Twister glared at the offending root. He was absolutely sure that the same root was following him around and tripping him on purpose, just to spite him. Lowering his head, Twister bellowed a guttural scream, then promptly turned around and ran further into the forest. Or was it out of the forest? Twister didn't know, and quite frankly, didn't care.
---0000---
“Calm down.”
“I can't Spike, not when he's out there. I know that he could've left and gotten on with his life, but when I left him on the bed he was too unstable to sit up, let alone leave!”
“What? Can you explain that a little more?” 'And in English?'
“How can I explain this simply...?” She sighed. “His mind was at war with itself. It seemed like there was a battle going on inside his head. I'm not sure what caused it, but I am certain that he's been through something tragic, or something so shocking that his mind refuses to believe it. His brain shut down his body to protect itself. It probably happened where we found him outside.”
“So something tragic happened.... right outside the window?”
“Or shocking. But yes, that's about it.”
“Okay...” Spike said, drawing out the word for several seconds.
“We need to find him, and before he hurts himself!”
Spike saw where this was heading, and tried to calm the situation down before it hit the critical mark on the total melt-down-o'meter. It was already quickly reaching the yellow-orangish section.
“Let's look at this logically. We've searched the town, nopony saw him leave, and where does that leave us? It's just as if he vanished into thin air!”
“Yes, you're right, but he couldn't have just done that! He was sick, at least mentally. He must've gotten up and wondered off in a stupor. He didn't leave by the roads, he's not in town, and, logically there's only a few places left, and we can cross off all but one, and that's...”
Her face suddenly took on a look of slight terror, not for her, but for a total stranger. She whispered something, and then took off, running full-tilt. Spike walked to the door, and being unable to find her on the horizon shrugged and went to go get a snack. He worried about her, but she knew what she was doing, right?
Except.... the word that she had whispered had been....
“Everfree”
---0000---
Twister kept on running for a while. He didn't know how long, and the sun was no help to him as it had been hidden by the canopy of the thick trees. He had managed to trip over that certain tree root almost five more times since when he last saw the sky, and he was covered in scraps and bruises. In other words, Twister was not in the best of moods. Talking to himself wasn't helping his attitude at all either.
“Why are we just romping out all over the place again? Whose idea was this anyway?” Said Twister.
“Don't look at me like that, it certainly wasn't my idea!” Twister said, somewhat irritable.
“Well, it wasn't mine! You aren't implying that I actually enjoy this are you?” Said, well, Twister.
“I'm hungry!” Whined Twister.
“You think I'm not?
“I'm hungrier! And thirsty!”
The last sane portion of Twister's mind went off to hide somewhere in his crazy head, unsure whether it was a good idea to stick around or not. Hopefully sometime soon things would start to make sense again.
“WHERE DID YOU PUT MY MUFFIN!”
“Nomgffwffeereree!”
“THAT WAS MY LAST ONE!”
“What muffin?”
“Just wait until I find you.... Then you'll get it!”
“Where did you even get the muffin? You don't have pockets, and I would've known if you were carrying one!
Hopefully was going to need a miracle to even have a chance. And it had better come soon.
'Please, miracle? Please?'
---0000---
“...put my muffin!”
Zecora's head popped up. She could've sworn that she had heard somepony. But nopony ever comes this far into Everfree except for her. Going back to picking herbs for her soup, she gave another little jump as the apparent argument continued.
“... was my last one!” The voice was getting closer, but Zecora couldn't hear the other person involved in the argument. Concentrating, she could make what seemed to be the cause of the argument. It seemed to be... a muffin? Time to make herself known to the as-yet-unseen pony.
“Hello, who is out there hidden by the tree?” She started forward towards the voice.
“Why don't you come out and meet me.”
She cringed at the rhyme. Whenever she had decided to rhyme everything, she hadn't thought it would be this hard.
Silence was her only response.
Still going forward, she soon reached the point that she had judged to be the source of the argument.
The only problem was that nopony was there. She knew that the voice still had to be there, she hadn't heard them run away. So it must be still here, only hiding.
“Playing games is very meek.”
“I don't have time for Hide-and-Seek.” She said, her thinning patient running out already.
The trees rustled behind her. Twisting around, she saw a sky blue pony, one that looked like they had been through hell and back based on the condition of his coat. He was glancing out around a tree, and his back half was hidden from view. Hoping to convince him out farther, Zecora walked towards him, smiling.
That didn’t work. The pony looked like it was about to run for it. She thought fast, as there was a very good chance that he could die. This far in Everfree there was creatures that didn’t appreciate being looked at, or for that matter, being bothered at all.
“Do not bolt,
Like a little Colt”
She needed more than that, as it still looked like the pony was planning on running. Looking closely at the pony, she gasped. She had seen this pony before. Or if it wasn’t, his exact twin. Knowing this gave her an idea, one to keep Twister from running.
“You’ll need help my friend,
before you can finally reach the end.”
This got his attention. He came around the tree, and stared at Zecora. He was still at the edge of the glade, but it was still an improvement.
“What? What did you say?” Said Twister. “The end of what? Tell me!"
His eyes betrayed him, showing the hidden turmoil deep inside. Sanity won for the moment.
Zecora smiled.
“The end of running.
It is quickly coming.”
A/N: I suck at regular updates.... I'm sorry about this, but this chapter was literally thought of 100 words at a time.
Same deal as last time. Tell me what you liked, what you hated, and what I need to change/develop.
-Listener/TB