Beautiful Eyes
By John Keith Bone

It’d been eight months… Eight months since I moved to Equestria… Two months in, I had to murder one of my best friends… Pinkie Pie… A week later I had to kill her again… A month after that I had to murder another… Rarity… I hadn’t slept in two days… Sporadic sleep had taken me over the last two months, but it’d been far from restful… Nightmares plagued me constantly… Even when I was awake, I saw them… The faces of the ponies I’d murdered… My friends… Mares that had the most wonderful of effects on my life… Mares that made me feel alive… But… All I saw staring back at me in the mirror was… A… Monster… A demon, cold and unfeeling… I was a monster… I had to be… How else could I just turn on them like that…? End their lives with such… Ease…?
The mirror cracked under the pressure with which I was pushing… It fit… I felt broken. I was broken. I couldn’t sleep… I stopped eating shortly after Jinx had left back for Terra… I hadn’t even stepped outside in two weeks…

“Just stop it.” I told myself aloud, leaning into the mirror as though bearing down on one smaller than me.

“Get over it, Sebastian. You did what you had to. They would have killed even more if you hadn’t stopped them. You’re lucky they chose you when they did…”

“But what if you’re wrong?” I asked my reflection, scowling at him.

“I’m not wrong. You did it too. You were there! You urged me on!”
His brow creased in irritation.

“YOU were the one who did it! You were the one with the knife!! YOU killed them! It was all YOU!!!”

“SHUT UP!!!!” I shouted and tore the mirror from the wall and threw it across the room. The wood frame shattered into splinters and joined the rest of the glass on the floor.

“Are you talking to… Yourself?” a voice asked from the doorway to my bedroom.
I startled violently and spun about, fists at the ready to see a very striking Cyan pegasus standing there, a concerned expression on her face.

“How did you-” I began, but the mare cut me off.

“The door was unlocked…”
Rainbow Dash stepped in tensely looking about the room.

“This place is a wreck… Where have you been, Sebastian…?”

“Oh, you know… Here…”
She quirked her brow at this.

“Nopony’s seen you for two weeks and you’ve just been here? All by yourself?”
The awkward nature of the moment began to set in. My cheeks flushed and I suddenly had a speech impediment… Still, I managed through and replied with a curt: “Yeah.”

“R-r-right…” Dash said, elongating the “R” nervously. “Um, listen, Sebastian, you really need to get out… You’ll drive yourself crazy in here…”
She was right. One look about the room was more than enough evidence of that. The books that were usualy so organized and well-kept were strewn about, lying in massive, unkempt piles, including the one from a few minutes ago, two mirrors were shattered, and my bedsheets were thrashed.

“You’re right… Do you have somewhere in mind?” I asked.
Rainbow’s face lit up at this. I could practically see her bouncing within her own mind. I didn’t even need to take off my bandage to see that…

“Well, what about a movie?”

“Name the time and place.”

“The Ponyville 9, two hours from now?”
I nodded.

“Speaking of which, what time is it?”
Dash threw a glance down at her wristwatch.

“Eight.”
I nodded in notation.

“Ten o’clock. Ponyville 9. I’ll be there.”
Dash disappeared out the door into the dark after throwing back a smirk…

“Did I just get asked out…?”