Waking up sucks...

So, I've decided to make the dreams involving ponyville less frequent. This is going to play into later chapters, and I'm hoping I can use it to throw in a plot twist, or something. I dunno. And I promise the story isn't over, so don't ask.

The unicorn merely chuckled as he walked over to collect the battered remains of the blue mare. A lavender aura emanated from his horn as he slowly lowered the gruesome carcass onto his cart. It was all she could do not to vomit as she watched blood drip from the mare's dirty white mane, obviously coming from the killing blow. Twilight looked at her hoof as she thought of the impact, the feeling of the mare's skull shattering under her hoof still fresh in her mind.

She heard the doctor clear his throat, looking up to meet his piercing violet eyes. "You're coming with me" he said in a cold voice, devoid of any form of emotion or life. "We have a few more tests for you, but first, we've decided that a bath is in order". She looked at him with a bewildered expression, still clueless as to what exactly was going on. The doctor didn't seem to notice, slowly trotting out of the small room, his cart magically in tow behind him. Twilight counted four bodies on that cart. Four mares who all met with the same eternal fate.

She tried not to think of it as she trotted behind the cart, only slightly attempting to keep up with the doctor. The cart was all she focused on, trying to drown out her bleak surroundings. The bodies only made her urge to vomit worse, and the mare that she had added to the cart herself was peeking out at her from behind it's mane, it's glassy eyes shining through the caked blood. If she didn't know any better, she'd have thought it was grinning at her. She quickly dismissed the thought, remembering the clear feeling of the mare's miserable life slipping out from under her hoof.

She almost slammed into the cart as it came to an abrupt stop. She looked up over the bodies, meeting the doctor's cold gaze. "Inside this room, you'll find food, a bed, and a restroom. Get yourself cleaned up, rested up, and ready to go first thing in the morning". He didn't even wait for her response, quickly turning from her and continuing his routes. She watched in horror as she watched the blue mare slowly shift it's position, it's grin cutting through Twilight like a hot knife.

She tried to shrug it off, watching the cart slowly fade into the gloom as the doctor walked away. There was no mistaking it; That mare had moved. Not in a "I'm falling" kind of way, but more of "Oh, let me get comfortable". The dead don't get up, the dead don't come back to life. Everything she had ever learned told her this, it slowly starting to bother her more and more with each passing second. She slowly felt the contents of her stomach start to creep up her throat, the slightly acidic taste joining the already overwhelming taste of copper and bile.

Opening the heavy metal door, she walked into her new room, sizing up the depressing space. Her first stop was the bathroom, slowly making her way to the toilet, emptying her non-existent stomach contents into the murky water. She wiped her mouth, looking in horror at the blood-filled water. Of course she had thrown up blood. With the brutal treatment Fluttershy had given her, it was only to be expected.

Speaking of her brutal treatment, Twilight slowly started to realize what Fluttershy had meant when she mentioned something about healing at an astonishing rate. The ribs that were so clearly broken, were now in one piece, a little sore, but in considerably better condition. The few injuries she had sustained in her encounter with the blue mare had started to fade as well, leaving little more than slight discolorations on the skin under her nasty fur.

Her second stop, was the shower. Lucky for her, she simply had to turn her body, quickly fiddling with the knobs of the shower. Hot water jetted out of the shower head, quickly fogging up the glass enclosure. She was pleased to find two bottles of shampoo at the bottom of the shower, sticking out against the drab surroundings. She quickly got to work, rubbing out the mats and tangles that riddled her fur and mane. The hot water seemed to melt her problems away, relaxing her aching muscles with the searingly high temperatures.

It wasn't long after she had dried off that she decided to get some rest, her muscles heavy and tired. She slid under the hospital-grade sheets, wrapping up as tightly as she could. She didn't want to think about tomorrow, or even about today. She simply wanted to figure out what the hell was going on. She could start on that in the morning, she decided, her eyes slowly closing, bringing her into a deep dreamless sleep.

_ _ _

Twilight awoke to an obscenely loud crash, shattering her slumber. She almost slapped herself, absolutely mortified at the sight before her. The blue mare (though much less "mare" than stitch-work) stood on it's hind legs in the doorway, a fire axe resting in her cracked hooves. She smiled a horrible grin of daggers, showing twilight teeth made of pointed metal. "Did you miss me?", the blue mare asked in a half-mechanical voice, slowly stepping forward into Twilight's room, the axe bouncing in her hoof with each step she took. Her fur was now riddled with patches, giving her a look that seamlessly combined a wax-dummy of the mare, with a patchwork quilt.

It wasn't long before the mare charged at her, the axe narrowly missing twilight by a few centimeters. The head was buried in the wall, plaster dust swirling through the air. Twilight leaped off of the bed, rushing the blue mare with a precise hit. The blue mare coughed up blood as twilight slammed her through the shower door, impaling her on some of the larger pieces of glass. It wasn't long before the blue mare was up, though, grabbing a piece of the metal trim and rushing at Twilight.

Twilight nearly screamed in pain as the sharp metal made contact with her side, cleaving into her flesh and snapping a rib. The blue mare chuckled with wicked glee, swinging again, taken by surprise when Twilight was able to counter. Yet again, the blue mare found herself body checked by Twilight, sending her into the wall. Twilight was fast enough to pick up the piece of metal, slashing at the blue mare as she rose. Twilight had good aim, though, and instead of contacting her ribcage, she slashed along the pony's softer underbelly, enticing a scream out of her foe.

Twilight's eyes went wide with shock as she dropped her makeshift weapon. Innards spilled from the gnarly wound, rotting and vile as they hit the floor. This wasn't what bothered her though, not at all. The pony got up. The blue mare rose to the occasion, simply standing back on her hind legs as if nothing happened. According to everything she'd ever read, a blow like that should be incapacitating at the very least! The blue mare walked over to the shower slowly, picking up the other piece of metal trim from the shower. She gritted her teeth, a low scream heard in the back of her throat as she slashed at her rotting entrails, severing them completely.

Twilight barely dodged as the Mare rushed at her, slicing off a part of her mane with her wild swings. Twilight dodged what felt like hundreds of swings, the room now covered in long slash marks. Twilight stopped the next swing with a hoof, wincing as the metal rebounded off of the hard surface. She drew back, clocking the mare in the jaw, sending her sprawling out of the room. Seizing this opportunity, she went to retrieve the axe from the wall, barely making it in time to parry the next slash from the blue mare.

The two of them knew it was over the second Twilight had the axe out of the wall. The blue mares eyes went wide with shock, not even getting a word out as the heavy axe head came down on her. Twilight hacked and hacked, blood now coating portions of the walls in the room. The mare was dead, and Twilight made sure she stayed that way. She continued to hack until she was tired, reducing the once-blue mare into little more than rotting hamburger and basic mechanical parts.

_ _ _

The doctor came in a short wile later, looking pleased as her surveyed the room. Twilight rushed him, axe still in hoof as she tried to take the unicorn's life.

Tried.

She was met with a small "tsk, tik" as she stopped mid air, her body being violently thrown into the shower. Glass stabbed into her flash areas, embedding itself in her flesh, as she slowly felt the blood start to drain from her body. The last thing she recalled, as the world started to grow black, was that horrid smile the doctor was wearing...