~~~

The entire world was nothing but a void of color and confusion. Twilight was running, to where she did not know. Something had happened, that she knew at least, something that was her fault.

She couldn’t go back, though her heart longed to. But if she did, would her family and friends forgive her?

No. The damage was done, and there was no way she could fix it. Celestia knows she tried though. Nothing had worked, and now the people who once considered Twilight their friend were broken.

She tried to fix them. Trying was all that mattered, wasn’t it? That’s what they used to say back in magic kindergarten.

Except trying means nothing if the end results are worthless. No matter how hard or how long you work at something, it’s all in vain if the product doesn’t function.

Why did she go down into the workshop? If she hadn’t, Twilight wouldn’t have had to hurt her. If she hadn’t, Twilight wouldn’t have had to run from the ponies she cared about. If she hadn’t entered the workshop, Twilight might’ve found a solution. She might’ve even found a cure.

Eventually the chaos and confusion took the form of a forest, and Twilight found herself at a crossroad. At its center was a floating green lamp. From it came a mare’s laughter.

~~~

Twilight woke up to a blindingly bright light. She gave herself a moment to allow her eyes to adjust, and then looked at her surroundings.

She was no longer in the hospital’s hallway; instead she was lying on one of the hospital room beds. The room she was in was clean enough, if she ignored the dead pony lying in one of the corners.

“Hello?” Twilight called out, “Is any pony here?”

The door creaked open and Pinkamena stepped through with a large, if slightly frightening, smile on her face.

“Hey, Twilight!” Pinkamena said brightly.

“Um, hi Pinkie.” Twilight said, “Is everything okay? How long have I been out?”

Pinkamena shrugged. “Not long, maybe half an hour? Dread and I pulled you in here when you fainted.”

“I figured that. But-” Twilight’s heart skipped a beat when she remembered the news that caused her to faint in the first place. “Pinkie, have you seen the monster?”

“Which monster?” Pinkamena asked.

“The one that we electrocuted alive!” Twilight said, annoyed. “You know, the one that tried to… do unspeakable things to me? That one?”

“Oh, that one.” Pinkamena took a step back and looking at the floor. “I, uh, no. I don’t know what happened to it.”

“Do you have any idea where it might be?” Twilight asked.

Pinkamena winced and shook her head.

Twilight wanted to both hide under the bed covers and run away at the same time. She could still feel its unworldly eyes staring at her, wanting her in a way that no pony should ever be had. If Twilight was right, and that thing had survived the tesla coils, then there was no telling what that creature might do to her.

“Where’s Dread?” Twilight asked, wanting to get her mind off the monster.

Pinkamena's face brightened at the change of subject. “He went to go get something from his office. Said it was personal to him.”

Twilight snorted. “Great. Do you know when he’ll be back?”

“Shouldn’t be too long. His office isn’t that far away.”

“Alright,” Twilight said, getting out of the bed, “let’s go.”

Pinkamena looked at Twilight with concern, “Are you sure? You fainted and I’m not sure that you should be walking around just-”

“I’ll be fine!” Twilight snapped. Even as she spoke a sharp pain formed at the back of her head. Wincing, Twilight pressed a hoof on the spot to massage it. The pain slowly ebbed to the left, then faded slightly.

When the pain reached a bearable level, Twilight took a deep breath and said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap like that. I’ve been under a lot of stress lately, and-and I don’t know where I’m going with this. I’m sorry Pinkie, I’ll try not to let it happen again. Let’s just get going.”

Pinkamena smiled and leaped at Twilight, embracing her in one her spine bending hugs. “Twilight, it wasn’t that big a deal. I understand. At least you don’t have to have to deal with constantly wanting to eat your friends.”

Twilight shifted uncomfortably in Pinkamena’s arms. “Yeah, could you not bring that up when you’re hugging me?”

Pinkamena let go of Twilight and blushed. “Sorry.”

Twilight shook her head, “It’s fine, let’s just go and forget it ever happened.”

She made it halfway out the door when Pinkamena cried, “Wait a minute!”

Twilight turned around to see Pinkamena bending over the dead pony, peeling its flesh off with a scalpel. She was humming while she worked. Twilight looked away and exited the room quickly, resisting the urge to vomit. She knew intellectually that her best friend was a cannibal, and had even had a conversation with her while she ate a pony at least once, but to watch her friend butcher a pony with the intent to eat it was something Twilight still couldn’t quite stomach.

Pinkamena came out of the room a few minutes later, carrying her handy work in a trash bag.

Smiling, Pinkamena asked, “Ready?”

“Um, yes,” Twilight answered, trying her best to not look at the trash bag.

Pinkamena darted ahead of Twilight, who wasn’t quite sure which direction Dread’s office was. Twilight followed the energetic mare at brisk pace, just enough to keep up. Despite moving quickly, and listening to Pinkamena’s cheerful humming, Twilight still found herself on edge.

In her mind, Twilight tried to calculate every possible method that an unseen assailant could attack. There was no way to tell for certain that all of the bodies littering the hallway were actually dead, or how many inmates had taken up residency in the many hospital rooms.

Twilight began swiveling her ears around, trying to detect any sign of danger. Anything could attack them at any moment, and there was nothing she could do about it. Every detail needed to be observed, for even the smallest movement could spell her and Pinkamena’s doom.

Her heart began to hammer inside her chest as the dead gazes of the corpses turned into cold glares, the mouths twisted into malicious grins, and the limbs seeming to reach out to her.

“NO!” Twilight shouted. Her entire body was trembling. She wanted to run. She would’ve ran, but her legs refused to listen.

“Twilight?” Pinkamena called from a few feet away, “Is everything okay?”

Twilight blinked. She looked around at the corpses. They were all lying in awkward positions and many of them had large chunks of flesh missing, but none of them were particularly threatening.

Twilight took a deep breath. “I’m fine, just a bit jumpy is all.” A part of her didn’t believe it. There was something wrong and she knew it, she just couldn’t put her hoof on what.

They continued on, Twilight staying closer to Pinkamena. Eventually they came upon the door to the laboratory.

“Hey, Twilight,” Pinkamena said as they drew closer to the door, “I’ve been wondering, how come there’s a hospital right next to a science lab? It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Twilight sighed, “Probably the same reason that they built an over blown nightmare night house just to hide a secret entrance. Why?”

“Just wondering.”

They entered the laboratory and found that it was pleasantly cleaner than the hospital had been. There were a few puddles of dried blood and couple of smashed bottles, but nothing too bad. The lighting was better too; whatever electrical problems that had been affecting the hospital didn’t seem to reach the laboratory.

“Dread!” Pinkamena called out, “Are you in here? Twilight’s awake!”

A moment later the android poked his head out of his office and said, “Good. I will be with you two in a moment.”

The android went back into his office and from it came the sound of objects being haphazardly thrown around. Twilight clenched her teeth as she realized that most of those items were likely books that were having their pages ripped and their spines bent. She wanted to protest, but stopped herself as the dignity of a couple books wasn’t important at the moment, even if every fiber of her being told her otherwise.

A few minutes passed and the android came out wearing a pink crochet satchel that was decorated with glitter and a random assortment of stickers.

“Ooh, pretty!” Pinkamena dropped her trash bag and ran to get a better look at Dread’s satchel.

The android made a crackling noise. “I am glad to see that you like it, Miss Pie.”

Pinkamena beamed. “Oh yeah! I love this style. Where’d you get it?”

The android turned and looked away from Pinkamena. “It was made for me by some pony… some pony who was very special to me.”

“Oh?” Pinkamena asked, looking up. “Who?”

The android make a clicking sound and said, “Her name was… Her name was…” Dread gave off another click. “If it is all right with you, Miss Pie, I would rather not talk about her at the moment. Discussing her brings back painful… I would rather not discuss her.”

“Oh,” Pinkamena said, frowning, “alright.”

Pinkamena picked up her bag, and the three continued on their way. As they crossed the laboratory, Twilight looked around at the various pieces of broken equipment. For some reason the whole room seemed larger than Twilight remember, though she couldn’t figure out why. At first she attributed this to the mess left by the inmates, but the mess wasn’t large enough to have that kind of effect.

Twilight shook herself out of it. Now wasn’t the time to be wondering about a room possibly changing sizes. In all likelihood, Twilight’s memory was simply inaccurate. It wasn’t like she spent a significant amount of time in the lab in the first place.

They reached the entrance to the hall of undersized cells without incident. Pinkamena asked a question or two about Dread’s satchel, but conversation never exceeded small talk. The hall itself hadn’t changed much since Twilight had escaped from it, save for few half eaten corpses and the fact that the cells were all now open.

They proceeded slowly. Their hoof steps echoed throughout the hall, announcing their presence to anything that might’ve been in the room. Twilight had expected being reunited with Dread would relieve her of some of her paranoia, but she still found herself eyeing every shadow, and listening for the faintest hint of a foreign noise.

Twilight wanted to tell herself that she was being silly, that she was with her friends now and that there was nothing that could hurt her. But her mind kept telling her that she was wrong. Something was following them, and Twilight knew it. She couldn’t hear its hoof steps, but she could feel it. Something evil was watching them. Watching her. Waiting for the chance to…

Without realizing it, Twilight had gotten a hair-like strand stuck in her mouth. She sputtered, and then spat. The strand came out and hit the floor with a soft splat.

“Is everything alright, Miss Sparkle?” Dread asked.

“Yeah, just a hair on my tongue.” Twilight chuckled.

A brief second of curiosity caused Twilight to look down at the floor where she spat. What she found was a series of small, silvery threads that all seemed to hang roughly an inch above the floor.

“Dread, do you know what these strings are?” Twilight asked.

The android followed her gaze to the floor and ansered, “They would appear to be small strands of silk, Miss Sparkle.”

“Okay.”

“Why would there be silk on the floor?” Pinkamena asked before Twilight could.

As if in answer, a loud shriek filled the hall. Within a split second, cells came crashing to the floor and a large white blur rammed itself into Twilight. The alicorn flew backwards and slammed into one of the cells on the other wall. Her vision blurred, but she was vaguely aware that the thing was still coming after her.

Twilight’s vision came back just in time for her to see the creature’s eight sapphire eyes staring at her. She watched in a daze as the creature opened its mandibles, giving her a clear view down its throat. She came to her senses just in time to avoid having her head bitten off. While it was recovering from its attack, Twilight rolled beneath the monster’s multi-jointed legs and darted in a random direction.

Behind her, the creature shrieked in outrage. Twilight didn’t stop. She had vaguely realized that the monster wasn’t giving chase when something hot and sticky struck her on her hind leg. She managed to get another two or three steps in before whatever hit her pulled, and she fell face first to the floor.

Twilight tried to get back up, but whatever was pulling her kept her off balance. She managed to roll over and see that the monster had hit her with some kind of web and was pulling her in through its mandibles. Twilight dug her hooves into the floor and tried to slow the monster down, but it was no use.

Twilight frantically looked around the hallway for something she could use to fend off the creature, but there wasn’t anything within reach. As she was pulled closer and closer to the monster’s drooling mandibles, Twilight once more tried to fight back. She pressed her hooves into the ground and tried her best to stand up. She managed to get back on her feet, but the web pulling her in kept her from getting much farther than that. Twilight pushed her wings against the ground as well, hoping that they would add the leverage she would need.

It was when her wings touched the floor that Twilight realized how to fight back.

Twilight spread her wings out and kicked off from the floor. As soon as she had reached the height of her jump, Twilight twisted and turned to charge horn first at the creature.

As she took a moment to aim her attack, Twilight got her first glimpse at the creature’s back. Three blue diamonds marked its chitin hide, distracting Twilight enough to lose focus and slam head first into the floor beside the creature.

The monster shrieked in triumph and before Twilight could react, two large pincers bore into her left hind leg. Pain filled Twilight’s every thought, spreading like fire from where the monster bit her to the rest of her body. She wanted to scream, but the sound caught in her throat. Tears rolled down Twilight’s eyes as a single, coherent thought formed in her mind; ‘This is the end’.

“GET OFF OF HER YOU FREAK!” Some pony cried from somewhere far away.

The next thing Twilight knew, something slammed into the monster, managing to knock it off her at the expense of a good chunk of her leg. Through her tear blurred eyes, Twilight could just make out a pink thing wrestling with a larger white thing. She felt like she should be concerned about what was going on, but her mind felt fuzzy and Twilight couldn’t quite get it to focus.

“Miss Sparkle, are you alright?” an electronic voice asked.

“L-leg.” Was all Twilight could say.

“Yes, I see it. Do not worry; the wound does not seem to be serious. We need to do something about the bleeding though.”

Twilight wanted to say something to that, anything, but a bitter cold sensation spread from her wound to the rest of her body, seeming to gnaw at every one of her nerves. All she could muster up was a whimper.

Some feet away, Pinkamena gouged two or the monster’s eight eyes. The monster tried to bite at her, but she was too quick, slipping beneath its legs. Pinkamena slammed a hoof into a chink in the monster’s armor, causing it to shriek in pain.

Something coiled around Twilight’s leg, just above the wound, and tightened, sending needles of pain through her body.

“There, that should keep you from bleeding out, Miss Sparkle, at least until we are able to apply some proper bandaging.”

A loud screech filled the hall. The monster had redoubled its efforts in killing Pinkamena, spraying bits of webbing in all directions. Pinkamena rolled out of the way of these attacks, grabbing each set of silk as the monster stopped spinning them.

“Miss Sparkle, I was able to slow the bleeding but we need to get you back to the hospital. Can you walk?” Dread asked.

Twilight tried to get up, but her legs wouldn’t obey her. The icy chill that bit at her spread to her lungs. Breathing became difficult, as if some pony had placed large slabs of lead on Twilight’s chest. Twilight wanted to cry out, but all she could manage was a weak croak.

“Miss Sparkle?” Dread asked.

Twilight felt the android place two of his claws on her eyelid and pry it open, but she didn’t register what was happening. The whole world was a blur of chaos, and it was fading quickly.

Dread made a loud beeping sound and said at his highest volume, “Miss Pie, do not let it bite you!”

“Wasn’t planning on it!” Pinkamena called back. She had collected enough webs from the monster to form a crude rope. As the monster continued to thrash randomly in a vain attempt to hurt her, Pinkamena wrapped the rope around the various chinks in the monster’s chitin, laughing as she did so. When she was nearly out of rope, she made a final lap around the monster’s legs and pulled on it with all her might.

The monster buckled under itself as the rope tied its many legs together. The monster screeched and struggled against its binds, but to no avail. Pinkamena skipped over to where Twilight lay, giggling softly.

“I hope she likes her new silk scarf.” Pinkamena said happily.

“Now, is no time for jokes, Miss Pie. Please help me get Miss Sparkle back to the hospital.” Dread said.

“What’s wrong?” Pinkamena asked.

“No time, just get her on my back.”

Twilight felt herself being lifted onto a hot, metal surface. She was dimly aware of a soft ticking sound coming from within it, but she couldn’t guess at what it was. The air shifted around Twilight as a series of metallic clinks echoed inside her head.

As they moved, the cold that had gnawed at Twilight earlier turned into a blistering heat. She began shaking as her body tried to fight off whatever was plaguing her. Tears poured from Twilights eyes, and the alicorn felt herself grow weaker.

“Hold her still, Miss Pie.”

The images of Twilight’s parents flashed through her mind. She remembered how they used to comfort her whenever she was sick or sad. But Twilight was sick then, and her parents weren’t there. Where were they? Didn’t they know their little girl wasn’t feeling good? Weren’t parents supposed to be there for their children?

“Set her down right here. We will have to treat her here. Go find some water packets to wash the wound, and a clean syringe, I will need to take a blood sample.”

Noises echoed around Twilight, but they were fain and distant. Every inch of her body felt as though it were engulfed in dragon’s fire. The cold had returned as well, mixing with the burning to form a concoction of pain and misery.

“Get some ice too!”

“Ice? From where?

“I am not sure, Miss Pie, but we need something to cool her down!”

Memories of foals played themselves in Twilight’s mind. Children were playing in the fields that surrounded the house, coming to her whenever they found something new and exciting, asking her about seemingly everything. Twilight loved it, but most of all she loved the sound of their laughter. Was there anything that could compare to the laughter of children?

The memories swept through Twilight, and for the first time since waking up in Sleipnir, she felt truly happy.

Outside Twilight’s mind, Dread and Pinkamena were scrambling around the laboratory, searching for anything that could help their friend. They had nearly ransacked the place, throwing useless bits of junk around in their haste. They had managed to wash and bandage Twilight’s wound well enough, but beyond that, neither one of them knew how to help her.

Finally, after throwing a box of scalpels across the room, Dread said, “Miss Pie, would you please go and collect Dr. Layne? He knows more about biology than I.”

Pinkamena nodded a dashed toward the door, only face first into a solid wall. She staggered backwards, clutching at her snout. “Owie.”

“Miss Pie, are you alright?” Dread asked.

“I’m fine just, what happened to the door?”

Dread limited a loud beep. “I was afraid that might happen.”

Where before there stood the door that led into the hospital now stood a concrete wall, blending seamlessly with the rest of the room.

Pinkamena stared at the wall, her mouth agape.

“We do not have time to worry about it, Miss Pie, help me find-” whatever Dread was going to say was cut off by the sound of the intercom coming on.

“We at Sleipnir would like to apologize for your current inconvenience.” The Administrator said in its genderless, singsong voice. “It would appear that our facility’s proximity to Creation’s edge has caused some of the architecture to become temperamental. If you have any complaints, please file them at the head nurse’s office in section two.”

Dread’s eyes shined a brighter red. “Enough with the act, Administrator, you are not fooling anyone.”

Twilight opened her eyes, aware that she needed to do something, but not sure what. The world around her was a void of disjointed sounds. Her body was a blizzard of fire that threatened to consume her. Colors blurred together in series of colors that sent an acidic sensation through her body.

“Act?” The Administrator said, “My dear Silver Platter, why in the cosmos would you believe that we are an act? We at Sleipnir have only the interests of our patients in mind. Why, if you would only allow us to complete your treatment, then we can assure you that you will see how foolish you are acting.”

The icy inferno ebbed from Twilight’s body until all that was left of it was in her head. The cold and heat stabbed at Twilight’s mind, sending long daggers of pain into her and twisting them. Twilight shook and spat and vomited, the pain in her head threatening to tear her from what was left of the world she knew. Already she could feel herself falling into the void. All sound had gone silent. All feeling had gone numb. All color had turned green.

“It can’t be for our own good!” Pinkamena protested. “My friends have nearly died because of you, you monster!”

“We at Sleipnir would like to thank patients Pinkamena Diane Pie and Twilight Sparkle for playing with some of our more rambunctious guests.” The Administrator said mockingly. “We are however disappointed by their lack of interest in helping their fellow patients in fully exercising their frustration out in a healthy manner.”

Pinkamena screamed and lunged at the ceiling, only for her hoof to get caught on the edge of table and fall on her face.

“Really now, what were you trying to accomplish with that?” The Administrator said. “Simply pitiful, we must get you into counseling for these delusions.”

“Enough!” Dread said, stomping a hoof, “What do you want, and why now?”

The Administrator answered, its voice even more cheerful than normal, “Why Dread, we merely want to know why you’re not dead yet.”

A cold laughter filled the room. It was the first sound Twilight had heard in several minutes. It was distant, echoing off invisible surfaces. It was a cruel laugh, one that would chill the blood of any normal pony. A laugh without joy or mirth, a mare’s laugh, and to Twilight’s amazement, it was coming from her own throat.

Twilight’s mouth smiled of its own accord, and in the voice of an old stallion said, “That, dear brother, would be my fault.”

When the Administrator spoke its voice became deeper, little more than a roar of rage and hatred.

“Puck, you meddling bastard!”

Author's Notes:

So what does everyone think of the story so far? I've been writing it for practice and would like to know what I need to improve upon, aside from my lack of understanding of psychology, biology, and the english language.