Songs of Innocence

Chapter 33: Unfinished Business

Fluttershy's cottage, many moons later

The next day, the filly returned, galloping along the path to the old mare's home, excited to hear more of Innocent Sun's dramatic tale. The young mare burst through the door like a brazen bull, startling Fluttershy so much that she nearly dropped the old book from her hooves. She chose to think of the filly's eagerness as charming rather than thinking about how she almost went into cardiac arrest.

"Somepony's excited, isn't she?" she grinned. Although, she knew that telling this next part would be a little hard to explain to a filly. Sure, it wasn't as mundanely depressing as the part which Fluttershy chose not to tell, but it was far from easy for someone so young to understand. But luckily for her, she knew the fantastical elements would at least catch the filly's interest.

"Things get better." Fluttershy began. "Those are the words that gave Sun the motivation hang onto hope for most of her life. But things won't get better if you run from them instead of making them better. Sun was told that many times, but she only learned it after she was forced to. How? Well... she suddenly found herself in a place far from the path she walked along, and was forced to wade through a nightmarish swamp, where the air reeked of the smell of her fears and failures, and the stormy clouds laughed at her constantly. She thought her nightmares had disappeared long ago, but they had returned, and made her life a living hell. Even with a light to guide her way through, she struggled to find the strength to find her way through the darkness."

Sun's dream, many moons ago

Sun found herself leaning against a wall in a decrepit bathroom. It was utterly disgusting. Every single surface of the room was stained and scarred from decay as a result of years of neglect. A collection of half-melted lit candles on the edges of the room's sink were all that lit the dark room. It was completely unlike the colorful, well-designed architecture of the real Equestria. Only Sun could dream of something this gritty and grungy. 

She spent what was likely minutes on end staring at herself in the dirtied mirror. She wasn't thinking anything in particular, but only one question came to mind: "What am I doing?"

Suddenly, the door to the bathroom stall slammed shut by an invisible force, startling Sun to the point of eliciting a frightened yelp. Perhaps the reason why she knew who this poltergeist was was because it was a dream, where not everything needed to make sense, but nevertheless, Sun knew that the spirit in this bathroom was Avalonia... At least, a dream version of her.

Interrupting Sun's train of thought again, the mirror she'd been staring into before suddenly exploded into countless glass shards, none of which actually touched Sun. Following that, the candles' flames began to weaken until there was only one small flame lighting the room with a dim flickering. The surprises didn't stop there, as something began to pound on the door to the room violently, shaking the room with each forceful bang of the steel door.

Sun began to panic, and looked for a way out as whatever was outside began to get closer and closer to getting inside. To Sun's surprise, the mirror that had shattered actually had a hole behind it, which was connected to a tunnel that stretched on to the outside of the building. Sun whimpered as she desperately attempted to climb into the hole as the door was beginning to give into the intruder's force. She struggled greatly at trying to stay on the sink, but she managed to climb in just in time.

The monster burst through the door just as Sun entered the hole, and she crawled the fastest she could, while mumbling curses under her breath from fear. But in her desperation, she failed to realize that she actually wasn't getting any closer to freedom. In fact, she started to feel like she was being dragged backwards, but the hole was too small for Sun to turn her head around to look and see what was going on. But as she began to be dragged back faster and faster, she knew what was really happening. The monster was effortlessly dragging its prey back, preventing it from escaping its hungry maw that salivated with the thought of its new meal. The only thing Sun could do was scream, but nobody was around to help.