The colors… too bright, too overwhelming. They spin, they dance, but they're no celebration; they're a nightmare. Why can’t I stop them? Make it stop. MAKE. IT. STOP.
She sees it. Laughing, spinning, but not with joy. What’s so funny? I can’t grasp it. All I see is the chaos, the storm of colors swirling in a sickening frenzy. It’s alive and it’s mocking me.
Where is she? Where did she go? I need to find her. I must. But everything is slipping away. My thoughts shatter like glass, scattered by the wind. Gone, lost, erased.
I remember home. I was there. But it's obliterated now, just like the colors swirling around me. Just like… them.
Mom? Dad? Where are you? I was just there, lost in the embrace of the familiar. But it’s all fading, like a dream quickly turned to a nightmare. But it wasn’t a dream, was it? I saw them. We were all together. But the colors… they suffocated everything, drowned out the light. And the noise… so deafening, so relentless.
I was trying to make it stop. I just wanted it to cease. Why wouldn’t it stop?
Then there was red. An ocean of red. It splattered across the walls, pooled on the floor… splashed across my skin, my hooves. But it wasn’t mine. It wasn’t… theirs. Was it?
No. No, no… I didn’t mean to. I didn’t understand. I was trying to restore the silence. But it just kept coming, the riotous colors and the screams. So much red. Too much red.
And then, the faces. They drift through my mind like ghosts. So many faces. So many eyes, wide with horror, pleading. They won’t leave me alone. They just… stare.
I see them now—each face, each terrified expression. Bright eyes, bursting with fear. One of them—crying. Why was it crying? What had I done? Was it me? Did I…?
Then the screaming came, a cacophony that twisted my insides, an unending spiral of despair. Why wouldn’t it stop? I just wanted it to end. But there was always more—always more. They haunt me. Over and over. Their faces—contorted, bleeding, their screams echoing in my mind.
They came one by one, drawn like moths to a flame. One by one… they fell. I didn’t want to hurt them. I didn’t intend to. But the colors were stronger. They consumed me, didn't they?
I remember another one. A smile once bright but flickered out like a flame snuffed by the winter wind. Those eyes, once warm, turned cold. I didn't want to see it, but it seared into me. It’s all I have left now.
Another one, perhaps? I think she was… smiling with someone. But now, silence reigns. So eerily quiet. Like the rest.
All their faces return, each one like a knife burrowing into my mind. Ponies I knew, ponies I loved. They won’t leave me be. They’re imprisoned inside my head, inside my dreams, mingling with the colors, mocking me. I can’t escape them. I can’t escape what I’ve done.
And then there was her. Not a pony—an entity. Strong. Fearless. But even she crumbled. She tried to resist, to fight back against the colors, but I was stronger, fueled by the chaos. Her eyes—alive with defiance. But then they dimmed, hollowed. Just like the others. Empty. Cold. Dead.
I didn’t mean to. I didn’t want to. But the colors… they warped me, didn’t they? They took over. They forced me… They twisted my mind.
And then… it all led to her. The fastest, the boldest, the one who never flinched.
I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to shatter her trust. But the colors—they possessed me. I remember her face, a frozen expression of shock and betrayal. She believed in me. She had faith. But I betrayed her. I tore her apart.
I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to feel that rush of power. But the colors, oh, they consumed me whole. They stripped everything away. They took her away.
I won’t ever forget the last look she gave me before it all fell apart. Her eyes—filled with agony, brimming with betrayal. I couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t rescue any of them.
And now… now only the red remains. The red, thick and viscous, dripping from my hooves. It’s suffocating. It’s consuming. The silence—an oppressive weight. And the colors? They’re all I know. They’ve stolen everything else. They’ve taken everyone.
She’s still there. Still smiling, still laughing. But it’s warped, grotesque. Her laughter—hollow, echoing like a death knell. Doesn’t she see it? Doesn’t she feel the shifting, the tearing, the horror?
It’s clawing at me now, ripping me apart. Piece by piece, thought by thought, until I’m a shell. Just the colors. Just the relentless spinning. Round and round… round and… round…
I need to get out. I need to flee. But I’m frozen, shackled in this nightmare. The colors—they encircle me. They’re everywhere. They’ll never relent. I’m lost within this nightmare. Forever trapped.
But she’s still laughing. Why? Why does she fail to see? Doesn’t she know what I did? What the colors made me do?
Red coats my hooves. I don’t remember whose it is. I just know… it’s everywhere, drenching, saturating the world.
But there’s more. More red. It drenches everything. It’s like rain. Like blood.
She approaches, too close now, the smile stretching unnaturally across her face. She carries something—a tray… treats. Made for me. For… them.
She offers me one. It’s warm, inviting. But the odor—so wrong. So foul. I take a bite. Sweet, but… tainted. Something’s wrong. Something is terribly wrong.
She’s still smiling, still laughing. But the taste, it clings to my tongue, my throat like a noose. I struggle to swallow. It won’t go down.
What’s in these treats? Why do they taste like this? What did she… what did I…?
I glimpse her, searching her eyes for sanity. But they’re vacant, like glass; a shell. But she’s alive, still laughing. But it’s all off; it’s twisted. None of this makes sense.
The taste lingers like a curse. It’s not just from the treats. It’s in the air, in the colors, in the red. It seeps into my being. It’s… them.
I didn’t want this. I didn’t…
But it’s too late to turn back. Too late to undo the horror.
The colors—they commanded me. Didn't they?
But now there’s nothing left. Nothing but red.
Red… and laughter.
And the deafening silence.