Previously: after a failed attempt to wrest control of Berry Punch's troubling emotions, Winter Breeze gives in to the idea of joining her patient in her drinking spree. Spike visits Celestia for his report about Twilight and her friends, coming to the conclusion that he is in fact a spy. Meanwhile, Twilight is surrounded by thoughts about her relationship with Rainbow Dash and Applejack, but unable to come up with a good solution. In the next moment, she is assaulted by Stud's lieutenants and gets sent to a place where a new nightmare will unveil to her...
The place where nopony goes
Dreams weren't always the safest place you had, nor the most satisfying. Just as easy as they could give you blessings of a sweet imagination of moving through clouds, it could likewise just curse you with a burning pool of lava. You could run forever from a hunter who never gave up, fall down an endless hole of darkness, experience the last agonizing moments before being killed, tossed in a crystal clear lake and pulled down by a hideous being demanding vengeance for his mother's death...
Or even something so remarkably annoying like drips of water hitting your head. They were small, yet felt like hammers of steel tearing her dream asunder. The darkened shades of her mind retreated for another time and let the poor, helpless unicorn go. Kindness was something a nightmare never showed. It knew that was about to unveil itself to the bearer of these thoughts. She looked up in her dreamworld and saw it pouring over her. This disgusting liquid that wasn't water at all, this putrid stench was nothing the nature of Equestria would create and nurture. She had no other choice but to wake up and see what it was.
Twilight could hear things around her. It was the resembling drips of water hitting a small puddle. Faint whispers and snickers ran past her senses like shadows. She turned her head back and forth until she was ready to open her eyes and see what was invading her personal space. Her reaction ended with a cry of fear when she saw the horrifying hunger in the pony's eyes above her.
Standing like a pack of wolves preying around a victim, a number of ponies had surrounded Twilight without leaving any space between them. The all stood around her in a circle, drooling on her and growling at each other. Feral senses and morbid appearances had turned those once normal ponies into beasts. Twilight panicked in stillness, fearing that the monsters would respond to even the teeniest twitch with lethal action. She could see their dirty teeth, the blood and dirt on their muzzles, the parasite infested manes and not to mention feel the disgusting stench coming from their mouths. It smelled like death.
"Wha... what the?!" she said as the ponies leaned closer to her. They opened their mouths wide, revealing their broken and infected teeth. Suddenly they twitched with wide eyes, turning their heads toward a common direction in front of Twilight. One of them moved aside so she could see what shocked them.
Standing tall without any sign of fear towards the creatures, the stallion walked carelessly towards the hungry pack. They scattered back into the darkness they came from, cracking surfaces of puddles as they disappeared. Twilight panted heavily in fear, that until she saw the emerald green eyes towering over her. She gasped.
"S-soul Hook?".
The tall pony emerged from the darkness, showing his usual expression of indifference. It was indeed him. The dark purple coat and black mane was unmistakeable aside from his height and cutie mark. Only difference with him was the saddle bag he carried.
"Hello, miss Twilight Sparkle" he greeted and then took off the bag with his mouth. Twilight wasn't interested in it for the moment. All she cared about was that somepony she trusted was in her presence. Hundreds of thoughts roamed in her confused mind, something Soul Hook cared about as much as she did about his bag. However, all she had to do was ask, and he would answer after his best ability. The first one seemed the most obvious one to Twilight after she slowly got up on her haunches.
"Where... am I?" she asked and looked around. It was a filthy sewer filled with water. You simply couldn't evade wading if you planned on walking here. The spot Twilight now sat on was the only dry one thanks to the pile of debris from what apparently once used to be a bunch of mattresses. Soul Hook paused unpacking his bag and stared at Twilight. He then resumed unpacking, taking his eyes off her.
"You're in the sewers of Fillydelphia. A sealed off part that only can be accessed from the surface".
Twilight shook her head. "F-fillydelphia? How did I get here? That's hundreds of miles away from Ponyville!".
"Yes..." he said and sat down, hoofing Twilight a corked clay bottle. "Here. Water".
The thirst ran through Twilight's mouth when she heard that word. She focused her magic around the bottle and uncorked it. After downing a number of mouthfuls, she dried her lips and sent it back to Soul, but he insisted she could keep the bottle. While the foul stench invaded the unicorn's nostrils, a new question had popped up in her mind.
"How did I get here?" she asked and took another gulp from the bottle. Soul Hook was faster responding this time, sadly not making it easier for Twilight to remain calm due to his casually annoyed stare.
"I suppose Black-Eye used his unique spell. He can open a portal between anywhere in Equestria and here".
Twilight flinched as she suddenly remembered the last thing she saw before fainting. That horrible unicorn stallion that shoved his hoof into her muzzle without as much as a word. The memory scared her, but none the less triggered the logical part of her brain. A spell like that sounded useful for transporting, say, a group of ponies without leaving a trace. That would explain how Stud's gang got away so easily even due to their number. Twilight sighed and drank from the bottle again.
"What was up with those... ponies? And why did they suddenl-" she was about to ask, then remembered that not much could stand the presence of this stallion. Soul Hook looked over his shoulder to see if any of them remained. The pipe was empty.
"Stud's guard dogs. Degenerates who have fed on the flesh of others. Their senses became stronger than their brains, slowly turning them feral and monstrous, unable to reason nor speak...".
Twilight dropped the bottle with wide eyes.
"... in other words... cannibals" Soul ended from his shaded height. The truth was not easy for Twilight to take in, it had shocked her into a state of intentional disbelief. Knowing she was surrounded by carnivores hungering for her flesh just a minute ago tore up her sight on reality and thus formed a denial. If not, she would have most likely panicked. Her legs started to tremble, ignoring her demands to stay still so she could think. Soul noticed it, yet found no reason to ease her. After all, he if anypony knew what place this was.
"I assume you want to leave?" he asked the terrified Twilight. She stared back at his indifferent muzzle, asking herself how in Equestria he could be so calm. Was this the place he called 'home'? Was this horrible sewer a part of his life? No matter what his background was, he was absolutely right. There was no other wish she wanted to come true other than instantly escaping this tartarus. In that instant, Soul's eyes became cold as ice, like a plain of grass freezing over in a flash.
"I'm sorry to tell you this, miss Twilight. But you can't leave...".
The ambiance dropped to nightmarish levels.
"Wh... what?" Twilight whimpered, unable to hide the fear in her minimized pupils.
"The water I gave you was spiked with a magic-numbing poison" he explained and then got up on his hooves. "Now... we must go".
She was stuck. Her brain had laid off completely. Twilight could only look at Soul Hook with utter horror. His merciless truth had broken her to the little filly she thought herself to be on the inside. Chaos was about to wreck havoc in her head, driving her to the idea of testing if what Soul said really was true. She laid her eyes on the bottle again and tried to move it. Not even a spark burst from her horn. Panic was now a fact. She looked back at him and then returned to the bottle, jumping with her eyes between them as her fear grew stronger. She wanted to shrink and curl up like a foal, determined that she was going to die a slow and agonizing death for reason she never would understand. She was small, defenseless, alone, without her frie-
"Miss Twilight Sparkle" the deep voice said from just a hoof away from her. She twitched and met the green eyes beneath the furrowed eyebrows. "Nopony will hurt you. I've been told to guard you until we reach her".
A weak ray of light shed a few layers of fear from Twilight's mind. The eyes she looked into weren't that cold anymore. A wave of subtle heat showed her that there was yet still hope. Whatever there would be hope for was uncertain, but for now it was everything she needed to think straight again.
"Her... w-who?".
Soul Hook remained in the silence, then turned around and began walking towards the exit he knew of. Twilight didn't move until she heard the name. That cursed name she had hoped never would violate her ears again.
"Stud. She is waiting for us... for you...".
"Why?" she asked out of the blue. Soul looked over his shoulder and stopped for a brief moment.
"It is the will of Stud" he stated coldly, just like the very pony he just quoted...
The cold and unwelcoming sewers didn't bring much else than worries to Twilight. Her deepest wish was to get out of here, no matter what waited at the other end. Be it a dragon or a rampaging Ursa Major, let it be the return of Nightmare Moon or Discord, but for the love of everything good let it be something else than this sickening place filled with diseases and rotting corpses. Soul Hook was leading her through the long pipe, guarding her from the bright lights in the other channels. If he hadn't been there, she would have been assaulted a number of times until her sanity would crack and leave her defenseless. Was Stud really the queen of those things?
They reached the end of the pipe. Twilight looked over Soul Hook's side to see the reinforced wooden gate. It was only wide enough to let a single pony through at a time, and too short for somepony tall as Soul. Next to it there was a metal pipe sticking out from the hard concrete. It was no intended construction by the original builders of this sewer, more like something somepony had put up far later. Soul bend down and spoke into the small pipe.
"Open gate number five".
He raised his head again and stared at the wooden door in silence. Nothing happened. Twilight wanted to ask what that was all about even though she understood that the pipe was probably connected to another part of the sewer where somepony could open the gate remotely. Suddenly, chains and cogs began to work behind the concrete walls, soon forcing a chain connected to the gate up, bringing the door with it. The still water the ponies waded in splashed under the growing opening and flooded into the other pipe, reminding Twilight that Soul mentioned a number. Was there more places like this?
When she asked, Soul Hook explained that the sewer was split into five different parts. He also figured out she'd probably ask why, so he furthered by revealing that this was the the deepest level. Ponies that were in Stud's gang were divided based on their mental condition. The deeper you go, the more mentally unstable you are.
This was information Twilight felt she would have been fine not knowing about, but she felt compelled to keep asking more about the sewer. Sadly, or luckily, the gate was fully open and Soul didn't waste any time waiting for it to close. Once they both had passed, the gate slowly descended and shut with a heavy thud echoing through the pipe. It was at this moment Soul Hook turned around and looked directly into Twilight's eyes. She nearly flinched when his eyes turned so deadly cold again.
He whispered. "Now you must remain silent at all time until we reach the other gate. And whatever you do... do not look directly at any of them. If you do so, I cannot help you" he stated silently and turned back so he could continue walking. Twilight took his words for granted and held back the question 'why?'. She was sure she'd find out eventually, even though Soul just told her not to look at anything directly. But if this part was supposed to keep lesser mentally damaged ponies, what could possibly be hiding here? Aside from the echoing drips of water, there wasn't much around here.
Twilight's answer came way too soon.
When she looked to her side, she nearly gasped at the sight of the pony standing right next to her. His eyes were blank like death itself. Soul glanced over his shoulder, staying silent as he recognized the pony standing with torn office clothes over his ravaged and gashed body.
The unicorn shifted her eyes to the earth pony, receiving the signal that she was to keep going. Her hooves moved ever so slowly, but she finally caught the pace and walked away from the staring pony. He reminded Twilight about something she had read in a fictional story about zombies. He fitted the description well, aside from the fact that he remained dormant even though she made a sound. It didn't even look like he breathed. She simply had to look over her shoulder to see if he was still there.
There was nothing behind her.
A chill ran up her spine. Had she just seen a ghost? That was a question she also pushed back for the moment. Until then she could only try her best to be quiet and keep up with Soul.
The stench wasn't as horrible here like it was back with the cannibals, but the light in the ceiling was weaker and flickered from time to time. The feeling of having a thousand eyes on you was still there, whispering things into Twilight's sensitive ears. Faint noises sounding like the wind went through the pipe. The whispers crept closer and closer. In the end, she felt so convinced there was something behind her that she had to take a quick glance over her shoulder.
There was nothing there. In fact, the entire sewer seemed empty. No trash lying around, no corpses nor any bright eyes in the darker parts. She was starting to wonder what the hay was wrong what this place. Why did it feel like she was surrounded when there was absolutely nothing nearby. Soul Looked back at her a few times to make sure she was still there and didn't wander off. She didn't plan on doing that. Even if her magic had worked, there was no chance in tartarus she'd decide to lose the trail and go exploring a malicious place like this. The walk went on without any interruptions, a fact that made Twilight even more anxious. She could have sworn she saw a shadow ran through another pipe. It was all fading whispers and creeping feelings. This part was without doubt the most dreadful when it came to mental torture. She looked back again, only to see there was still nothing behind her.
After a few turns, they had reached the next gate. Soul Hook whispered into the pipe, asking for the fourth gate to open. While he stared at the wooden blockade, Twilight crept a bit closer to the tall stallion. She longed for the gate to open, it just couldn't open too soon. Once the clacking chains started to work, she sighed weakly to maintain her silence. It felt less cold. She took one last look behind her.
Nothing there.
And once she looked forward again, she looked into the blank, dead eyes of the same pony again.
Twilight's scream echoed through the sewer. Soul Hook turned around with wide eyes and saw the screaming Twilight falling on her back. He quickly threw himself over her and covered her mouth with his fore hoof. His gritting teeth was a sign that even he wished to get out of here before what resided here woke up. Twilight's horrified yell died in a muffle, but it was too late. Soul looked up from her and saw the absolute terror crawling out from the sewers. The water cracked beneath the hooves of the twitching ponies. Their legs and necks convulsed uncontrollably as they flooded out from the pipes and formed a horde of screeching monsters. They only varied with flesh wounds, lack of lips, eyelids, eyeballs, ears, hooves and even entire chunks of meat. All of them joined forces and rushed recklessly towards the two ponies at the end of the pipe.
Soul Hook arched his eyebrows and looked back at the slowly ascending gate. There was no time, he simply had to throw Twilight over his back and slide past the gate. Using raw strength to grab the shocked unicorn, he tossed her up over him and then threw himself sliding beneath the gate. He then without hesitation dumped Twilight to the watery ground and reached for the axe that was placed only next to this door for exactly this reason. This was the only gate with an exposed chain coming from the ground. Soul Hook had never taken the time to learn the schematics of the construction that bound these gates to the control panel, but he knew that if you broke this chain, it would instantly shut the gate. Thus, he quickly grabbed the heavy tool and got up on his hindlegs, using his full strength to swing the axe and crush the chain in one go.
The screaming horde was only a few hooves away from the opening, giving Twilight scare of a life time as the front row of disfigured monsters leaped forward. She screamed again... and fell back as the heavy gate slammed the ground, sealing the horde off. Suddenly it was silent again.
A thousand horrors overwhelmed Twilight's mind as she sat on her spot, shaking like a leaf and eyes wide-open. She embraced her hindlegs and rocked carefully while her lips tried to stop whimpering. Soul hook dropped the axe to the floor and sat down on his haunches. He also flipped up his pack of cigarets and stuck one in his mouth so he could lit it. After a deep breath, he looked at Twilight and decided to let her have a moment to calm herself down.
"We call those back there 'the condemned'. They are victims of Stud who are kept alive after various ways of torture. Mindless monsters who no longer can return to a normal life. What you probably saw was just an illusion some of the unicorns in there can conjure up. That's how they get you... just for the sake of killing".
Not much of what Soul hook said reached Twilight's ears. But she now understood what he meant by 'don't look directly at them'...
The nightmarish part of the sewers was over. As much as the whole place was an endless resort of agony, it got less worse for each channel. After the monstrous horde of mentally malformed ponies, the silent psychopaths and drug addicts in number three and two were a delightful sight. Twilight wanted to smack herself for feeling like that when passing through the poor souls. She had already seen too much for her innocence to remain sane. This world Stud had built from the ashes of a wanted criminal was without doubt impressive, but none the less even more disturbing and unforgivable. The sinister murderers in channel three scared her even though they kept their distance. She felt the eyes undressing her coat and skin, rendering her flesh just for their sick amusement. The drug addicts in channel two didn't bring her much peace, even though these were the only ones who didn't stare at her with danger written all over their foreheads.
"Miss Twilight, don't..." Soul said over his shoulder when he saw the unicorn stopping by another victim of Stud. Her eyes were wide with shock and horror. Her intelligent brain couldn't decipher the point of this, nor even try to find a solution for it. What she saw was something nopony should have to see...
A filly. A young, dirty filly with a needle in her foreleg. Her pupils were heavily enlarged, her mouth hung open like she tried to catch snowflakes, her mane was torn and cut to pieces, her wounds deep and infected and her thighs were swollen like somepony had ra-
"Miss Twilight" Soul Hook repeated and laid a hoof over Twilight's neck. She was in shock. Tears poured from her eyes in a sorrowful display of empathy and pity. The pain ravaged her heart and mauled her hopes of finding something forgivable in this place. But now she had seen it all. This truly was a nightmare. A tartarus for any sane pony. Stud hadn't only commit crime against all that was holy an innocent... she had commit every single crime possibly known to ponykind...
"Follow me, miss Twilight. We are soon there" the stallion told her. Without warning, Twilight viciously smacked away his hoof and turned her face to his with nothing but anger and fear in her expression. "What is this, Soul Hook? What is so wrong with you that you decided to abandon Winter Breeze and return to this sick place?!" she yelled and instinctively shoved the tall stallion by headbutting his chest without harming him with her horn. Push after push finally sent Soul back to the ground. Twilight followed him and pinned him to the dirty sewer floor where she could yell at him in the presence of the poor filly next to them.
"WHY ARE YOU SO INDIFFERENT TO THIS?!" she roared at the top of her lungs,
The sever gashes on her mentality paid off with splashing tears over Soul Hook's muzzle and mane. His empty eyes stared back into her horrified face, greeting her with nothing but his poverty in sympathy. Twilight was on the edge of a mental breakdown, her mind sprung more fires than any pyromaniac ever could dream of. Just as her terror was about to turn into uncontrolled rage, all her thoughts shattered like glass in the background of her mind, and her eyes shrunk into near nothingness.
"Because he has seen the truth... Twilight Sparkle...".
The female voice was like that of a whip cracking right next to her ear. A flashing vision of the morbid eye hiding behind a waterfall of black hair charged towards her eyes and scared her with a jump and scream. The clear silhouettes of two monstrous eyes and a razor sharp mouth painted the inside of her eyelids with torment and fears beyond pony minds. She knew she'd regret turning her head, but there was no other choice now. She stared straight into the madness of red surrounding the endless pitch of turmoils in the tall mare's only visible eye. The name echoed in her head like a never-ending bell ringing out the sorrows and miseries of hundreds. A slight puff of warm air slipped through Twilight's teeth before she uttered the names so many more would curse if they were alive.
"Stud..." she said with deep regrets. In that moment, she was suddenly assaulted by the large body of crimson red, wrapped in the forelegs of a physical vision of insanity, and stuck in the embrace of a bloodthirsty mass murderer. The disgusting eye was barely visible through the thick strains of ravaged hair.
"YES! You remember me?!" Stud shouted and stuffed her muzzle into Twilight's, nearly forcing her lips open as she spoke. Twilight was paralyzed by fear. She was fully aware of what that malevolent eye could do if its bearer felt like it. Seeing it from a distance was bad enough, but forced to behold this instrument of death and nightmares so up close made dying slightly less mortifying. In fact, it started to sound tempting.
Stud was sitting down with Twilight in her forelegs, holding her like a mother would with her baby. Sadly, none of the rules applied to this relationship was legit. "Why... oh why are you here, Twilight Sparkle? Why do you come and ask my beloved Soul Hook so many mean questions? Oh well, I suppose they could be meaner. Nopony has ever died due to mean words, right?".
Silence lingered long enough for the two mares to stare at each other like an answer was expected. Stud held a dumbfound expression until she cracked a hysterical laughter. The vile voice slammed the walls of the sewer, summoning a foreboding cackle of demonic laughter that bounced out deeper into the pipe. She threw her head back with all her long hair splashing up water to the ceiling. She then struck down her head and revealed for a second a nightmarish set of eyes and infected scars on the surface of a dry and dying coat.
"YES!" she roared right before her muzzle turned back into normal, sending her behavior into a more calm state as she furthered her meaning. "Lots of ponies suffers the mean words of others who finds themselves on a higher seat on the hierarchy. They see the lower and weaker as tools for their dirty work and selfish desires. Everything from bullying to terrorism are forged from what once was harsh words. Just like the royal sisters' battle over this kingdom. These mean words often leads to others self-inflicted harm and suicide. But they feel no shame over it. They are just happy to know they got away without sacrificing as much as a fetlock for the cause".
Twilight didn't listen, even though she felt that would have been wise – for suddenly she was faced with a question.
"How is that truth treating you?" she asked with an empty stare just like Soul Hooks, only this one was more fearsome with the dead glimmers in Stud's pupil.
Thoughts rushed Twilight's head as she asked herself what she was going to do. Her magic was still crippled and her physical strength was not far from being a joke; what other choice was there than to try improvise something. She gulped a thick bulge of regrets and slowly separated her lips, only to have them stopped by Stud's sudden input.
"What is this, Soul Hook?" she said and turned a befuddled face to her stallion. "Is this the mare who outsmarted and defeated me in an open conflict? No... you must have gotten the wrong one" she then guessed and arched her eyebrows into a rage induced curve. The hidden eye started to glimmer again, pulsating weak rays of worries. Soul Hook simply stared back at Stud without any answer. He knew this was the mare in mind, but sharing that certainty wasn't worth anything here. He knew that.
"It's horrible!" Twilight suddenly yelped from nowhere, forcing both Soul and Stud to look at her. "It... it... it's indescribably horrible and beyond reason! I don't know why it happens, but... but".
Stud looked with an extraordinary amount of curiosity into the eyes of the crying little unicorn in her embrace. Twilight had forced herself to remember the days back in magic kindergarten. Those were the days when she couldn't take a step out on the yard without facing the brutal words blurting from her peers. They still hurt to this day, just like the lack of hopes she received from her poor teacher. There was no hope for her according to everypony. Only her parents and big brother denied the words, yet their eyes were always doubtful when they had to call their little baby a talented filly.
But that was also long before she met Celestia...
Stud was changed once again. Now she acted more serious and understanding than ever, radiating false emotions of care and interest. To Twilight, they were none the different from the genuine feelings, but that was a world she yet had to learn about.
"You know... pain, Twilight?" she asked softly and stroke the lavender mane she found so beautiful. "You know what it means? You know the hurtful words?" she asked.
These were all confusing questions. Twilight felt herself going mad because of this impossible mare's behavior. There was no way she could predict acts, words, or even feelings without looking left when you had to look right. Glancing at Soul didn't help. She was still wondering what made him so immune to Stud's presence, even though she also knew that he kept that face wherever he went for reasons she back then didn't understand. Suddenly she had answered her own question.
"Yes" she answered weakly and put her forelegs together like a fetus. "I've been through awful things too. Not so bad like... well, a lot of other ponies, I gue-".
Out of nowhere, Stud once again broke out in a hysterical laughter. Her voice echoed to the far end of the sewer, unnerving Twilight into another shock as she suddenly was released and dropped to the damp concrete. The maniacal cackle knew no end, and Soul Hook merely watched without a flinch as Stud pushed aside her long mane from her muzzle. In a moment of swiftness, the crimson mare threw herself over the downed Twilight and revealed her disfigured secret. Once Twilight looked straight forward after hitting her head, her eyes were guided to the bottomless pit of madness and evil that was Stud's right eye. Absolute terror broke out in her mind when the pulsating strings of blood dragged out her worst fears and fed them to the dark pupil. She screamed and beheld herself getting dragged into an abyss few had walked out from...
Then there was silence.
Twilight thought her eyes were still closed. When she realized she could blink, all of her other senses came back to working condition. Sadly, her ears could only tell there was nothing nearby, her scent said nothing smelled, her sensory said there was no surface she stood on, and her sight was as mentioned all blinded. Oddly enough... she had something on her last sense. The tongue determined she was tasting something. It was chilly and warm, like cold sweat during a panicked run. She had tasted this before. This awful taste of not knowing what is hiding in the darkness, but at the same time knowing it's looking at you from it. This nausea haunting her head and guts, that feeling something is right behind her, the conviction she is going to die, and all things that she knew deep inside her would terrify her to death was here.
Yet... she didn't feel a thing.
"Do you taste that... Twilight Sparkle?" Stud asked from behind her back. Twilight carefully looked over her shoulder, somehow knowing for sure that was the mare who just a few seconds ago glared at her with her disgusting eye. She was remarkably calm and collected, looking at Twilight without a hint of her usual self. Twilight nodded. She watched as Stud walked around her and seemingly lit the world around them. She could see the tall mare's crimson coat and unnecessarily long mane dyed in pitch-black. A large field of plain ground unveiled before her. It was like this place never had seen a drip of water, yet many had trampled what once stood here. Twilight followed Stud with her eyes. There were many questions she wanted to ask, but her voice was numbed for reasons she couldn't explain.
"You claim you have seen 'horrible' things, Twilight Sparkle. But I know, now when you no longer have that protective veil around your mind... that you know nothing. Nothing at all" she stated and turned to her company. In an instance, Twilight was grabbed around the hooves by dark tendrils coming from Stud's strange shadow. She noticed that her own was missing, and that she also was overpowered in a second, forced to the ground on her back with spread legs like a foal doing a snow pony. Stud looked casually at Twilight as she pinned her forelegs. Their eye contact became clear as day and everything stopped carrying any meaning whatsoever. The crimson muzzle hung low over the lavender one. Breathes collided. Twilight seriously thought for a second that Stud was going to kiss her.
She didn't.
"Our worlds differs too much for you to understand, Twilight Sparkle" Stud began softly before looking around at their empty surrounding. Twilight followed and turned her head to wherever Stud looked. In the horizon she could see images of trees growing carelessly into a huge grove, and ponies farming them. A large sun set over the canopy of the images.
"We are born into a world that doesn't discriminate us. None are rejects to walk on this earth. We are all equal in worth no matter specie. We start out humble and hard-working, welcoming our own as family so we all may prosper under the same soothing sun".
Twilight suddenly felt Stud hooves grabbing her cheek so she had to face forward, forced to look into the intrusive face's eyes. "We are all innocent at birth" she stated clearly like she didn't want Twilight to believe anything else. In that moment, the images changed into large silhouettes of ponies gesticulating what the narrative mare said. "The potential that flows in our veins are carried on into legacies and birthrights that our sons and daughters then put to use for their own goals. But we all live with the same instinct as any other living being: the need for power. It grows ambition and great deeds, furthering the prosperous lives of our ancestors and securing the future strength of our clans and races!".
Stud became passionate about her speech and started to gesticulate on her own, leaving Twilight laying on the ground like a doornail. She didn't make any expressions nor said anything. She wondered for a moment if this was how it felt to be like Soul Hook. All cold and indifferent on the inside...
" BUT THEN!" Stud yelled and jumped at Twilight again like a beast. Her deformed right eye was plain without any sign of a pupil ever to have existed in that ghostly pool of white. The images raised in size and now hovered over them like intimidating giants. The aura changed drastically into something much darker together with Stud's tale.
"A fact called 'prestige' grew in the hearts of ponies. The need to be better than everypony else turned harsh and every little detail could change the fate of thousands! Desperation chased the young lives and forced them into decisions nopony had thought of before: power. If you could subdue the others, there would be no need to prove yourself better! The sloth in our soul was created and took control over our decisions. A leader was born and an heir with him that grew up unaware of what the elder ponies had built. All he could see was that he had the power in his hooves and didn't need to move a single one of them to earn it".
Suddenly, Twilight was released from the dark tendrils and instead held up in the air between Stud's ruthless hooves. The images changed into burning villages and ponies killing each other, leaving the survivors to starve and die. There were strong pulses of depression coming from Stud's right eye. Even her eyebrows curved into sorrow.
"The ponies were pushed to their edges and eventually enslaved by the power of their leader, forcing them into revolt against him, starting war that craved the souls of another thousands, then millions, and soon billions! The weaker ones are forced to watch in pain as their loved ones succumbs for nothing, wasted away into realms of poverty and disease! Jealousy and suspicion became another part of who we are, tainting our souls further with a pitch-black color not even a god can crea-".
Everything stopped for a moment. Stud was frozen with wide eyes staring at Twilight. The moment was long and silent, that until Stud heard what she just said herself.
"God...?" she murmured and lowered Twilight to the ground. "God! Yes, something even greater than us! There is no way to explain or prove there is a god! But if I claim there is one that has chosen me to be your king and leader, there is nothing that can stop me! I go to the weaker ones and spread the good word of everything they don't have and promise them that they will receive it all in death! Once we are many, I can finally rule them all with my limitless power! But this god is how I envisioned it! God says that everything I dislike is correct and must be considered wrong for everypony else to do or speak of!".
The images all sunk into a pool and then rose into the grand display of a pony with both wings and a horn. Twilight widened her eyes in shock.
"For I! Am! Princess! CELESTIA!" Stud roared at the top of her lungs. She stood up on her hindlegs and posed like a warrior shouting his battle command to the other soldiers. A malevolent shade fell over the plain ground and blew up into a giant monster displaying the rage and evil that was Stud. The giant had just two arms and a large head attached to its pitch-black torso, but the length of those arms was enough to reach down to the ground and snatch Twilight like a toothpick. The unsettling feeling of despair infected Twilight's mind, cursing her to feel fear again. She grimaced in horror and instinctively struggled to break free from the clenched fist, sadly failing to even twitch. Dark smoke steamed from the giant, covering all of it so the shape could be redesigned into an enormous version of Stud. Twilight fell flat into the large hoof and stared in a paralyzing fear at the scarlet rings in Stud's right eye. The whole world burst into flames, creating the absolute image of what tartarus would be like. Stud's long hair blew in the ash-filled wind and her coat turned into a massive layer of pony muzzles screaming and moaning in agony. Twilight couldn't even cry so scared she was.
"THERE IS NO GOD! CELESTIA IS NO GOD! WE ARE ALL LIVING IN DIFFERENT LIES UNTIL THE DAY WE DIE FOR THE GREATER GOOD THAT DOESN'T EXIST! EVERY SECOND ON THE CLOCK IS THE DEATH OF ANOTHER HUNDRED SOULS! WE LIVE TO CAUSE MISERY, PAIN, AGONY, AND DEATH! DEATH! DEAAAAATH!"
At the last roar, a tempest of fire sucked the images of the horizon and brought the flames as well as Stud with it into a screeching pit of heat. Twilight fell screaming into the abyss and flailed her legs in panic. At the bottom she could see the monstrous grin and sharp eyes looking at her. The jaws opened as she flew into the gaping hole surrounded by teeth and...
… she could have sworn she just hit the foundation of a tarmac. All other senses returned in an instant, shaking loose all the bottled emotions Twilight unfortunately had to store during the ordeal. Her only possible action was screaming. Her voice cracked as she grabbed her head and rolled back and forth on the ground. Soul Hook sat right next to her, watching indifferently at the hollering mare. They weren't alone, nor in the sewers anymore. Above them was a large, broken concrete highway that covered the blue sky that has some thick, gray clouds occasionally covering the sun. Large chimneys from distant plants oozed the sky with mild pollution, houses with clotheslines between them were on every street, closed stores and abandoned houses were even more common, posters of wanted ponies were stuck on nearly every wall, streets made of cobblestone were mixed up with asphalt, vehicles resembling smaller and less sophisticated versions of the Flim Flam brothers' cars flooded most of the remaining blocks that had escaped the slum on the other side of town. But all this was far from where Twilight resided. The southern part of the town was basically nothing but ruined buildings and streets littered with debris from past riots and massacres The base of the pillars holding up the highway had piles of wrecked cars and carriages supporting as stronger parts of a huge concrete wall. From the outside, it just looked like an enormous pile of rubble, but on the inside it acted as a fortress taken from a post-apocalyptic movie.
This was the hideout that had served all the generations of Stud's heirs. In here, all the worst kinds of not only ponies, but also gryphons, donkeys, minotaurs and other civilized beings lived here. Murder was a daily routine and slaves were so common that nopony could tell the difference from them and the actual prostitutes and drug addicts. There wasn't any difference even between sex and rape. Trashcans were located all around camp and used to lit on fire during nights and winters, and then you still had to pay with spread hindlegs to get a spot around them. There were tents and makeshift beds in the corners infested with disease and death, mostly because this was where the manholes down the sewers lead to. Ponies in all ages were kidnapped and strapped up to poles and tortured for days before either being killed and cooked or killed and dumped. The unlucky ones were left to survive and see it all happen. Here, public executions were as common as apple trees were in Ponyville. Suffering and death were part of your everyday here. Either you adapted and became a monster, or you hid like a prey until the hunters raped and tortured you. There were dozens of former convicts for foal molestation sitting just a couple of hooves away, and even more rapists and murderers around the corner having fun with the latest catch of careless mares and stallions.
While another mare watched in terror as a psychopathic murderer slowly cut open the throat of her baby foal, Twilight opened her bloodshot eyes and hollered in fear from the pit of this place. The place were nopony goes.
To be continued...
Author's Note:
Hello guys! Yep, it's been about four months since I last updated. I don't have much to say, in fact... I'm going to just sit down and try come over the anxiety this chapter has brought me. Why has it done so, you ask? Because it really took me almost 4 months to get this up for you, that's why.
I've been going back and forth between running away and staying to fight through this. A promise is a promise and I will see the end of this. Sorry for no sex scenes, I just didn't get around to it.
Hopefully I get to write another of these AN's for you guys.
Brohoof on ya all!