Chapter 2: Gloomy Prospects
"In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds." ~Robert Green Ingersoll
Sweetie Belle carefully closed the door (which still was screaming in protest) and then turned around. To her surprise, she found herself outside again. There was a muddy and well-trodden road ahead of her, and the sky was still overcast, thick with smoke and soot. Sweetie Belle whirled around to see if the other side of the great doors still held the narrow interior she had just exited, but she just found herself staring at the road, trailing off behind her. The entrance to this land had vanished.
Instead of the doors, the trail just stretched on behind her, just as it had before her. It led off to a colossal range of gloomy and grey mountains in the distance. These mountains, just like Ponyville, were giving off troves of smoke, and were horribly distorted. In the sky, however, the same jack-o-lantern sun leered down at her with its eerie and cold light.
Taking a deep, shaking, breath, Sweetie Belle slowly turned around and began to trot down road. The road side was teeming with rotting flowers. The once grand palm trees that had accompanied the said flowers were now either burned to a crisp or leaning over, with their insides decaying to nothing. It had been obvious that this road had once been grand, with rich colors, sweet-smelling flowers, and shining trees… But now…
Feeling sick to her stomach, Sweetie Belle continued to trot. After another couple minutes, she came across a cottage… Or… What was left of a cottage anyway. It had been gutted by fire. A rusty old sign hung beside the cottage, and it read: "W-L—ME T- EXP-CT-TI-NS." It had obviously once read "welcome to expectations," but now the some of the letters had been rusted off, or simply had become too disfigured to be properly read by anyone.
Sweetie Belle inspected the sign for a bit, and was about to trot on by, mournfully shaking her head, when she heard a long, low, creaking noise. Sweetie Belle leapt at least a meter in the air in shock, but then noticed the source of the sound: a gate.
This wooden gate had once been neatly painted white, and set in a neatly painted fence. But now its paint had been scraped off, and was really just a dull black. Curiosity overcoming her fear once more, Sweetie Belle trotted up to the gate and pushed it open. It led to a back yard.
She trotted into the backyard, and then screamed.
In the backyard, suspended from a rope hanging from a tree was a rotting body of a female pony. Skin hung of the corpse's body in rags, and her drying and rotting organs were visible through rips and tears in her body. She had bled dry. From the ravaged appearance of her lower abdomen, it was obvious that this poor pony had been raped to death first, and then hung from the tree.
Sweetie Belle turned aside and vomited onto the ground once more. As she threw up, she noticed a sign, nailed to the adjacent tree that the pony hung from like a stinking, macabre puppet.
The sign read: "Here hangs Doctor Reasoning."
"Poor Doctor Reasoning," muttered Sweetie Belle, turning her face away from the terrible sight, "I wonder what happened?"
"The Grief happened," replied a voice.
Sweetie Belle jumped a little, but not too much. She was getting rather used to being snuck up upon. She turned to face the source of the voice, bracing herself for some twisted horror. However, all that met her eyes was a fair mare, with a long, golden mane. She wore tiny spectacles, which were balanced on the end of her muzzle. Her eyes were a bright blue. She wore a flowing dress that had pictures of books on it. Sweetie Belle blinked. Were those books… moving? However, what really caught Sweetie Belle's attention was the physical state of the pony. She was not dead, but she looked quite close to it. She had a black eye, and long scratch marks ran across her face. Sweetie Belle could see that her back right leg was broken badly, and white bone was poking its bloody head out of her taught flesh. Sweetie Belle would have vomited again at the sight of such carnage, but it seemed that she had thrown up so much, that her stomach had nothing left to hold. All she could do was preform a violent dry-heave.
"Um… Excuse me ma'am," gagged Sweetie Belle, "Who are you?"
"I am Doctor Reasoning," said the pony calmly.
Sweetie Belle blinked in confusion. She then glanced back at the sign, and then at the pony. "You are Doctor Reasoning? Then who is this?" asked Sweetie Belle, "And what happened to you?"
"Well," said the pony, answering the first question, "She is Doctor Reasoning, and I am Doctor Reasoning, but we are two different doctors. I am Miss Reasoning, Ph.D., and she is Miss Reasoning, Ed.D."
"What's the difference?" asked Sweetie Belle. Her eyes were wide, and she could not take her eyes off the broken leg of Doctor Reasoning.
"Oh, so much," replied Doctor Reasoning, "You see, she was the doctor of educated reasoning, and I am the doctor of emotional reasoning."
"Why would we need doctors like that?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"Look around you," replied Doctor Reasoning, "Do you know what this place is?"
Sweetie Belle nodded her head. She was rather glad that she could finally answer a question, as opposed to asking one. "I know! This is Expectations!"
"Tell me," said Doctor Reasoning, not really listening to anything Sweetie Belle had to say, "Where are you going?"
"Well, Mr. Madness told me that I needed to get to the Maze of Isolation, so that I could find Mrs. Which," replied Sweetie Belle timidly, "Is this the right path to it?"
"Well now, this is where my sister, Doctor Reasoning, would have been quite helpful," mused Doctor Reasoning, "She had many school-facts and the likes in her head. However, I will do my best to be of assistance. I suppose my answer would be…"
Doctor Reasoning took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment while she thought. Then she said, "I'm sorry, it slipped my mind. What was the question again?"
"Is this the right path to the Maze of Isolation?" prompted Sweetie Belle.
"Well, as Mr. Whether would say, I don't know if there ever is such a path as a wrong path. All paths lead somewhere, and if this path doesn't lead to the Maze of Isolation, it must lead to somewhere else. And if it leads to somewhere, and not nowhere, then it still is a right path to somewhere, and not a wrong path."
Sweetie Belle just stared at Doctor Reasoning. After a long pause, she said, "What is this place?"
"This is the land of Expectations, as you yourself said not a moment ago," replied Doctor Reasoning.
"Oh yes… sorry," said Sweetie Belle, "I know that. However, what kind of place is this place?"
"Oh, excellent question!" exclaimed Doctor Reasoning. She winced as she moved forward a bit, dragging her ruined back right leg along, "Expectations is the place you must go to first before you get to where you were going in the first place!"
Sweetie Belle cocked her head on to one side. "What?"
"Well," continued Doctor Reasoning, quite into her explanation now, "Quite a few ponies never get past their Expectations, so it was my sister's job to make them confident enough to hurry along. With all those factual things in her head, my sister could help nigh anyone! I even heard tell that once she even managed to help No One! Now that's incredible."
Sweetie Belle looked mournfully at the rotting body of Doctor Reasoning's sister, Doctor Reasoning, and said, "What happened then?"
Doctor Reasoning sighed, "Ah… The Grief happened."
Sweetie Belle's eyes widened at the sound of that cursed name. "What?"
"You see," said Doctor Reasoning slowly, "Whenever The Grief comes along, calm, cool, calculating Reasoning is always is the first to go in the MIND. I was fortunate. Thanks to The Grief being so partial to ravaged emotions, my degree saved me from certain death. They only roughed me up a bit."
Sweetie Belle shook her head. This pony did not look like she had been lightly roughed up. "I suppose I really should be going then," sighed Sweetie Belle, "Can you point me in the right direction?"
"I could point you in any direction," replied Doctor Reasoning, "Any direction is the right direction to somewhere, therefore making it a right direction in general, as I said."
Sweetie Belle gave Doctor Reasoning a small smile. She was starting to like this pony. "Why don't you come with me?"
Doctor Reasoning shook her head. "Oh no, I need to stay here. There must be some kind of Reasoning to help ponies past their Expectations, and emotional Reasoning is better than no Reasoning when there is no educated Reasoning present."
Sweetie Belle bowed her head respectfully. She then began to trot down the path. As she trotted, Doctor Reasoning suddenly called out, "And if you are going down the path to the Maze of Isolation, be careful to keep a look-out for Sir No One! He is a nasty, egotistic pony, but he can help you get through the gates of Denial! That's the first step! Watch out for The Grief!"
"I will! Thank you for everything!" Sweetie Belle called back. Taking a deep breath, she then began to trot down the road… soon she was past Expectations. However, though she passed a rotting sign that stated: "You are now past your Expectations," Sweetie Belle had not noticed any change in the environment. The air still stank of decay, the sky was still black and foreboding, the leering orange sun still shone with a cold light, and any trees that were not cut down were burnt and ravaged.
"Expectations was certainly gloomy," muttered Sweetie Belle to herself. After another minute of silence, she was about to break into song about how gloomy everything was when she noticed a pony, polishing his hooves, on the side of the road. He was a black male Pegasus, with red eyes and a red mane, and he was rather… translucent in appearance.
Though he was quite a distance from her yet, she could hear him faintly muttering to himself:
"In darkness of the night, I spied him in a tree. Sat I froze by the sight. He was looking at me."
Rubbing her tear-stained eyes, Sweetie Belle trotted in closer to get a better look of this translucent pony. To her surprise, the pony became more and more transparent the closer she got.
She was now only a meter away, and she could now see nothing but his polished hooves. Suddenly the hooves stopped moving, and a disembodied voice echoed out, "Why are you staring? Can I help you?"
"You could," said Sweetie Belle, her eyes still wide, "However, I can't see you!"
"Oh… THAT. That is a common problem. Just back up to the other side of the road, and we can communicate across the dusty gridlock," echoed back the voice.
Sweetie Belle nodded and trotted to the other side of the road. When she turned around, she could now see the translucent pony.
"Who are you?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"It doesn't really matter who I am, and more of who I am not," replied the pony, "Another important question is who you think you are!"
"I-I-I'm Sweetie Belle… I think," said Sweetie Belle in a small voice.
"At least you think that," replied the pony smugly, "That's a start. As for me… I am immortal, omnipotent, omnipresent, amazing, and glorious."
Sweetie Belle blinked in surprise. Even Rainbow Dash had never boasted about herself like that before, and at such short notice too.
"Um… excuse me sir… But why are you all those things?" asked Sweetie Belle. In her mind (which was still rather numb with grief) she was somewhat cynical over all the balderdash this pony had spouted, but she was still too terrified of every inhabitance of this twisted land to be cocky.
"Oh, it is easy. I know you think I flatter myself with those saying, but it is not flattery if I know it to be true," replied the pony smugly.
"Could you show me then?" asked Sweetie Belle, now rather curious.
"Of course," said the pony cheekily, "You know of the Wonderbolt Rainbow Dash, do you not?"
Sweetie Belle's reddened eyes lit up with the mention of her friend's name. "I do!"
"Well, do you know a pony faster than Rainbow Dash?" asked the pony with a grin of triumph.
"No!" exclaimed Sweetie Belle, knowing that this foolish Pegasus could never hope to outfly the Great Rainbow Dash, "No one if faster than Rainbow Dash!"
"Thank you my friend!" squealed the pony in delight, "There you are! I am faster than Rainbow Dash!"
"I said no one is faster than Rainbow Dash!" exclaimed Sweetie Belle indignantly in reply.
"Oh, you flatter me, my dear, but there is no need for you to repeat yourself. I already know I am amazing," said the pony, polishing his hoofs.
Sweetie Belle just stared, speechless. What was going on?
"I am Sir No One," said the pony smugly. He gave her a small bow.
"You… you are?" asked Sweetie Belle, still dumbfounded.
"I am. That is the reason why you could not see me close up. It is a trick of the eyes. From a distance, one can always believe that they see someone, but as they get closer, the clarity of their vision increases, and… in the end… the see No One. Sadly, not a single pony can see me truly, so I resign myself to pretending to be someone as No One so that a pony can talk to me. Rather like the average High School, don't you think?"
Sweetie Belle just stared.
Clearing his throat, Sir No One, who was always more than glad to talk about his brilliant self, then said, "I shall elaborate on how amazing No One is. Look down the road, who can you see?"
Sweetie Belle peered down the road. Her vision was still a little blurred from tears, but it was clear enough for her to see fairly far into the mist. "I see no one."
No One bowed his head. "I am omnipresent. I must compliment you on your eyesight though, my dear. It takes most ponies on a good day all of their eyesight to see real ponies, and there you are, seeing No One without a difficulty in the world."
Suddenly, Sweetie Belle spotted something. "Wait! I see something!"
If No One had been eating something, he would have spat it out is surprise. His face full of bewilderment, he looked down the road as well. A Pegasus pony, who was shining like a dull light bulb was galloping down the road.
"Stupid Messenger of the Body," muttered No One, "ruining everything. Come, little one, let us have a bit of fun, shall we?"
As the pony passed the two by, No One called out, "Hey there! Messenger of the Body! Did you pass anyone while you trod this road?"
The Messenger of the Body stopped and looked at No One with squinted eyes. "No one. I saw no one."
No One arched his neck and sighed in contentment. It seemed that compliments were as soothing to him as a salve was to a burnt patch of flesh. "You are most certainly right," he said, "This young filly said she saw me down the road as well. However, I am not here with me yet, so it is obvious No One walks slower than you."
The Messenger of the Body's eyes opened wide indignantly. It was generally not a good idea to insult a Pegasus about his speed. Disgruntled, the Messenger of the Body muttered, "I've been training for this job ever since I was a little electrochemical particle in my home town of Axon. I am sure No One is faster than me."
No One just laughed scornfully. "You fool!" he chuckled harshly, "If No One was faster than you, than he would be with me, myself, and I! Generally No One is faster than ponies like you, but I suppose he stopped for a nap or something. It is mid-morning, and generally No One takes a nap at this time anyway."
The Messenger of the Body just stared blankly at Sir No One for a moment. Then, shaking his head in resignation, he turned to Sweetie Belle.
"Sweetie Belle," he said earnestly. Sweetie Belle herself started a little. No pony yet had already known her name, except for him, apparently.
Eyes wide in surprise, she stuttered, "Um… yes?"
"You are going to the Maze of Isolation?" he asked.
Sweetie Belle nodded slowly.
"The BODY is telling you not to," continued the Messenger of the Body, "They are saying that the welfare of Lord Eneigyh and Lady Htlaeh are by far more important. If the BODY stops working, then the MIND stops too."
Suddenly Sir No One shoved the Messenger of the Body out of the way.
"Of course, you don't want to listen to this idiot," said No One briskly, "Too much is at risk to worry about the BODY. The MIND is what matters now. Are you ready to go?"
Sweetie Belle looked at the Messenger of the Body in confusion. What was she going to do?
"You have to go back," said the Messenger of the Body sternly. He was about to say more when suddenly his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Sweetie Belle began to back up in fear. How had he fallen unconscious all of a sudden? However, as she backed up, No One came into focus, next to the fallen body of the Messenger of the Body. He had approached the Messenger of the Body from behind (and thus turned invisible to Sweetie Belle thanks to his proximity to her) and struck him upside the head. It was he who had knocked him out.
"Stupid messages," he muttered, "Your MIND comes first… ALWAYS."
No One then turned his face to look at Sweetie Belle. "We must go now!" he exclaimed dramatically, "The Grief may yet be upon you, and we still have not reached the gates of Denial!"
With that, he began to trot off down the road. Sweetie Belle gave the unconscious form of the Messenger of the Body a fearful glance, and then followed Sir No One at a respectful distance, as to keep him visible.
After about an hour of trotting, No One stopped. Sweetie Belle pulled up several meters behind No One and looked off in the direction he was looking. Through the thick, depressing mist, she could see huge gates made of black iron in the distance. There were millions of spike jutting out of the metal bars every which way, and more than a few of those sharp spikes had bloodstains on them.
"Welcome to the gate of Denial!" exclaimed No One, "No One may accompany you through these gates, since it leads into the Maze of Isolation. Thus, you will have me to lean on."
Sweetie Belle was about to ask about the eerie appearance of the gate when she stiffened. Far away… screaming could be heard.
"The Grief!" yelled No One, "Come! We must hurry!"
With that, the two ponies galloped at full speed. But the closer they drew to the gate, the farther away it seemed to be. Soon tears were streaming for Sweetie Belle's eyes as naked terror took control of her body. The Grief got closer… and closer… and closer. Soon the two could see a massive tidal wave of black liquid thrashing along the path towards them. It came closer… and closer… and closer… Then it struck. The Grief lashed out with a tentacle and hurled Sweetie Belle to the ground. Then another tentacle reached over her head and seized No One. With a shriek of terror, Sir No One was drawn into the writhing mass of black. It a second, The Grief deposited No One on the ground, and vanished into thin air.
Sobbing in horror, Sweetie Belle stumbled to all fours and began to back away with her ears flattened against her skull. As she did so, No One began to breathe heavily. His body distorted and bulged, as if he was having steroids pumped into his body. Soon he was ten times his normal size, and his body had turned form a translucent black to a solid black, with green fluids leaking out of every pore in his body. The monstrosity turned to face Sweetie Belle. His face was horribly disfigured, as if he had been stung in the muzzle countless times by thousands of hornets. He still had his eyes, but they were no longer in their sockets. Instead, they were dangling by the nerves and ligaments, with blood bubbling around them. His teeth had all grown to the size of tusks, and were black as obsidian stone. Each molar jutted out of his mouth at twisted angles.
"HaViNG nO oNe hELpS ThE GrIEf gROw!" shrieked the corrupted Sir No One.
With that, the horrendous monstrosity bumbled towards Sweetie Belle, its mouth agape.
Sweetie Belle screamed, and ran away. However, just as luck would have it, the gate suddenly loomed in front of her. They had been less than a dozen meters away from it when they were caught. Sweetie Belle stopped short of the spiky metal bars, and cowered on the ground. Heart nearly giving out in terror, Sweetie Belle covered her eyes with her hoofs and waited for it to end. Suddenly, a terrible noise of flesh tearing and blood splattering echoed above her head. And large amount of blood splashed over her head, covering her in a hot, stinking mess. This new predicament knocked Sweetie Belle clean out.
A little more than an hour later, the poor, blood-covered filly came-to. She was shaken into wakefulness by a stern hoof.
Sweetie Belle opened her eyes and saw a pony standing over her. At first, she did not recognize him, but then the bowler hat tipped her off: it was Madness.
"Mr. Madness!" croaked Sweetie Belle, getting up and doing her best to ignore the blood and dirt covering her frail frame, "What happened?"
"No One is dead," said Madness quietly, "Of course, if No One is dead, then that is a good thing. There obviously would be some form of mourning if someone was dead, but they're not."
"W-w-w-w-what h-h-h-happened?" stuttered Sweetie Belle. Tears began to flow anew from her eyes, and she began to shake uncontrollably.
"Well, you ducked down while No One was charging you, so, just as he reached you, I gave him a hearty kick from behind," whispered Madness, "He flew over your head and into the spikes of the gate of Denial. As I said, Madness helps quite a bit when you are dealing with Grief… most of the time."
"W-w-w-what h-h-happens n-now?" chattered Sweetie Belle.
Madness motioned to the gates, "The Maze of Isolation is expecting you," he said in hushed tones, "You must go on. The gates will accept you."
"B-b-b-but I w-w-want y-you t-t-to c-come w-w-with m-me!" stuttered Sweetie Belle.
Madness shook his head sagely. "I cannot," he said, almost sadly, "No One can accompany you into isolation, but since No One is dead, you must make this journey alone. Remember, this can only end with knowledge, so keep a look-out for Mrs. Which."
Sweetie Belle, who was too numb with shock to argue or plead, simply turned around. She trotted up to the gate like a machine, and stared blankly at the gate. Suddenly, the screaming of the tortured woman began as the gates of Denial slowly swung open. Still shaking with horror, sickness, and grief, Sweetie Belle stumbled into the gloomy mists of the Maze of Isolation. Isolation is one thing, loneliness is another. Are the two related?
Initiation is the first step. You move your knight from G1 to F3. The Unknown moves their knight from G8 to F6.