Chapters What would you have done?
Since I was young... I've had outbursts of magic... I never thought anything about it honestly. Most unicorns grow out of it though before the age of 3. How old am I? I'm 14 years old, living with my Aunt Good Heart and Uncle Creative Thinking. They take good care of me. My parents died when I was really young. I don't remember them at all. Their names were Fire Storm and Pink Stripe. Fire storm, (My dad) was a red unicorn. He specialized in welding metal with pyrokinetic magic. A rare trait in most cities, but not here.
My mother was a pink pegasus on the city guard. An easy job in most cities, but... Not here. They died in a fire at city hall one day. My dad was bringing my mom her lunch... She forgot it at home that day, and she was posted at city hall that week.
At least... That's how Aunt Heart tells it. Uncle Thinking believes that it was a murder-suicide. Aunt Heart would usually gasp whenever he said such things about her sister, but honestly, I like that story better. At least then maybe they believed that they died thinking they had some kind of purpose. I didn't want the ponies I didn't even know to have died in a freak accident. Maybe that's morbid... Or maybe it's just comforting.
My Aunt and Uncle are the only relatives I have left. Well... In a manner of speaking. Yes, I have grandparents. But they won't talk to us, because Heart and Thinking won't move out of this wretched town. No matter how much shit happens. In case you haven't heard, Fillydelphia is where Celestia decided to put any scum that just barely made the cut to not be banished. We have our own separate government. The politicians are corrupt. The streets are all concrete, ridden with litter. No house looks vaguely suburban. everypony is either rich and stuck up, or poor and violent. Except the mediocre few, the category in which my family circle resides.
I get tired of it, yes. But I also think that it's the safest place to be. On more levels than one.
As for me? There's not much to talk about. I have yellow fur, a blue and red striped mane and tail, misshapen ears, and as for my cutie mark... I have a scar there. Aunt Heart tells me that it was cut off for some reason. I was never told why, though. But I know this town well enough... if you have a scar where your cutie mark should be, it couldn't have been anything good. Maybe I was raped as a filly, and I got a cutie mark that was... obscene. Or maybe I accidentally killed somepony, getting a... Straight Saddle mark... I don't remember... and I don't care, honestly. My talent does not determine my fate.
I'm homeschooled though, because of this scar, I can't be with anypony my age without arousing suspicion. I hope that one day, I can move past that. I'm not unhappy per-say. I'm far from suicidal. But I'm not happy either. I have no reason to be happy that outweighs a reason to be sad. or vice-versa. So, here I remain... On the brink of feeling. The thin yellow line that devides Love and Fear.
Love... Fear... Many ponies say that these are the only two emotions. I disagree greatly. There are thousands of emotions, and simplifying them like that is a crime. I don't care how my psychology tutor divides emotions, but love and fear are the stupidest two things that could have been chosen to be "The only two emotions". What about anger? What about happiness? I think that ponies can be happy without love. And can be angry without fear. But, I'm not some stupid shrink, so I guess I have no place to talk.
It started like any other day... gloomy, tired, and bland. I woke up, to the faint glow of Celestia's sun in the distance. it was around 7:30, and I could smell something cooking. I walked out of my room, which in our poorly constructed house, was adjacent to the kitchen. I saw Uncle Thinking, making breakfast. This was something he only did on Saturdays in our normal routine, so in my mind, the first thing that clicked was another part of saturday routine. 'I guess I should get the mower started.'
With a slight wave to my uncle, I went outside and began starting the lawn mower. it was a rusty old thing, It didn't start easily, which was why they needed the only unicorn in the house to get it running. And they decided that if I'm going to do that, I might as well mow the yard each Saturday, too.
I didn't mind, really. It was nice to get out every now and then.
After I was finished decapitating the grass, I decided to sneak off and go visit the school. I opened my bedroom window, put on pajama pants, so as not to show my cutie mark. (Or lack there of) and left towards Fillydelphia middle school with a smug grin on my face. But on my way there, I came across a group of Stallions, no younger than 17 and no older than 19.
I tried to walk past them with no trouble, but another pony must have been looking out for the stallions, because before I knew it, I was grabbed by a tall, thin pegasus. He immediately punched me in the eyes with great force, causing me to close them. I heard their voices. A gruff, gravely stallion's voice said. "Look what I found, fellas~" I could tell that this was my assailant, but the other voices were a mystery to me. I had no clue how many other ponies there were. All I knew, was that I was in trouble.
The next to speak sounded big, but stupid. Kinda like Goofy from that one cartoon show that a lot of ponies watched 20 years ago. "Wow boss, as always, you got da first catch of da day!" To this I worried. 'What did he mean by "catch?" What are they going to do to me?'
Another voice came from the darkness that was the outside of my eyelids. This one was cunning sounding. almost like a right hoof henchman. "She's even gift-wrapped in pants! It's like she wanted somepony to grab her! heeheeheheeee!"
The boss spoke again. "Yes, quite. Let's get this off of you," His hoof slid to my pajama pants and began taking them off.
I had to speak, I had been frozen in fear as they were talking, but this was too far. "NO!" I screamed.
The right-hoof spoke again. "What?~ The little filly doesn't want a little fun?~"
The boss chuckled as he brought down my pants, past my flanks. He stopped laughing instantly with one look at my bare flank. "There's a scar here." he said as his head lowered down to my ear. "Now what could that mean, little missy? Was your cutie mark naughty? Were you a little whorse~?!" He laughed again.
I couldn't answer... Because I didn't know. I honestly had no clue what my cutie mark was. I didn't know what to say. But his hoof rubbed against my flank. I started panicking. I felt a tingling feeling in my horn, I... I felt this plenty of times before. I wasn't sure what was about to happen, but I knew somepony was going to get hurt.
The two lackies as well as some other voices started whispering and gasping. Something was happening. I was doing something. I felt my body lift above the cold ground, and any hooves that were touching me, draw back in surprise. My limbs were dragged into the air by my own magic. but I could see nothing. my eyes still hurt to much to look, but I wanted to see what I was going to do.
I heard a crunch. Like a large rock was moved out of a place it was set to be, or a wall was removed from it's building. The next thing I knew, I heard screaming, and the sounds of crunching bones. The scent of blood started to fill the air around me and I heard the boss's hooves running away. He yelled out to me. "I'll get you for this, you damn Straight Saddle!".
Then there was silence. I landed on my hooves. I stood there until I could open my eyes again. (which was a good 3 minutes or so) I looked to see the dead bodies of quite a few stallions. Skulls all crushed by bricks, which by the looks of things, I got from a nearby wall. Blood was contained for the most part. other than a few splatters. I shook the situation off, put on my now red, pants, and started walking. This was just something that happened. That was often the mentality of ponies here. if something bad happened, then it happened, and there was no use thinking about it anymore.
I walked more. I was startled by it. I had gone about another half-mile and then I bumped into a mare. She was green, with a gray mane. And she looked enraged. "Watch where you're going, you idiot filly! You could have ruined my posture! I'm sure that I will have a VERY strict word with your parents, young lady!" I just glared at her, as if to say, 'You don't know what I've been through today, bitch!'
She scoffed and walked away, and as she passed by, I noticed her cutie mark. It was a skull. A pony's skull...
I immediately ran straight to the school to get away from her. I wasn't about to deal with that shit today. When I got there. I hid in a bush. I did this every now and then. I'd go off to the school just to look at all the happy or sad ponies. I never wanted anything more. I didn't expect to find friends. Or love. Nothing like that. I just liked watching the ponies hang out there on weekends. Oddly enough, it was a popular hang out area on weekends. probably because of all of the benches, and hiding places for couples, druggies, or bodies... I didn't enjoy what the ponies did as much as I enjoyed the ponies themselves.
I often observed as they followed routines. Just as I did. I didn't like routines. Not that I would change mine. But that's what routines are, isn't it? Just ruts dug into the ground. and you get so used to them that you decide change is too much for you to handle.
I decided to go home after about half an hour. The ponies weren't interesting today. When I got out of the bush, I was face to face with a pegasus colt. He was about my age, and he had these really large eyes. They were HUGE! Amber in color. His body was gray, with a yellow mane. It kinda clashed. I loved that. The fact that his colors were so odd. He looked quite cute as far as body form goes. He didn't say anything, he only looked at me with those huge eyes of his. After a good ten seconds, his wings extended with a loud "POMF" they were great wings, but that was beside the point. His large wings becoming erect at the sight of me was both flattering and creepy at the same time. I couldn't help but blush though. This cute colt was aroused by my mere presence. I'd never seen that happen before. My lack of a cutie mark wasn't showing, so he couldn't have assumed anything dirty. It was just purely my looks.
My horn glowed and a few twigs behind me started to rise as I was flowing with infatuation and embarrassment. He was like a metaphor for lack of routine. A destruction of the status quo. I wouldn't have said that out loud though. I snapped out of my trance and began walking away without a word between us. I decided that after all the stuff I went through to get here, I'd just run home. I didn't want to spend more time out in the open.
When I made it home, I smiled. 'Just as I left it. I hope Aunt Heart wasn't worried about me. I can take care of myself.' I walked inside, and nopony was there. I got worried. 'They must've gone looking for me. I'm in huge trouble. I have to get stuff out of my room, and play it off like a surprise party or something.' I walked into my room, the lights were off, and the shades were down. 'That's odd...' I thought.
I turned on the light, and gasped. The room was full of blood. The entrails of my Aunt and Uncle were strewn about like streamers at some sick party. On the wall, there was writing in blood. "Your turn" it read.
"Oh Celestia no!" I saw the bodies of my aunt and uncle at the foot of my bed. Gutted, missing some bones. In my aunt's case this included a skull aswell as a leg. My uncle was missing a jaw, and his ribs. I ran to the bodies. My hooves splashed in the pool of blood, I slipped and fell right next to them. "W-why?.... Why would anypony.... What drove them to... Oh, goddess NO!" I cried. I screamed and my horn glowed.The closet opened, and I saw the missing bones aswell as my aunt's brain, which was in small chunks fall out. I used my magic, I knew it was in vain, but out of instinct, I began putting them back together. From under my bed, the vitals of my fallen relatives came out and began placing themselves in their respective bodies, with my magic guiding them. With a yellow glow that my powers create, the intestinal streamers flew into the body at great speeds. the bones were placed in aswell. My futile efforts to reconstruct the lives that were lost in my room were ill conceived and sick. I molded the chunks of brain into and uneducated ball and placed it in the skull of my fallen dearest mother figure. I mended the skin and the wounds and stood up.
"Wake up..." I shook their now reconstructed bodies with my hooves and great force. "WAKE UP!" I screamed naively. "WAKE UP AUNT HEART! TELL ME A STORY! UNCLE THINKING! READ THE PAPER. WAKE UP AND GO BACK TO WHAT YOU ALWAYS DO!" I cried. I sobbed. There was nothing I could do. I began realizing that. My horn glowed and my room was taken by that yellow glow that had cursed me to no end that day. I looked to the ceiling. "GIVE THEM BACK! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME! GIVE THEM BACK, DAMN YOU! I KNOW YOU'RE UP THERE!" No voice from the sky came to console me though. No great pony of power. No Celestia, no Luna, nopony. Nopony cared what happened to the ponies in poor Fillydelphia. Nopony cared who died that day.
The walls around me started bulging outward. within a few seconds, the room had comepletely exploded. and there was only a hole in the house, where I once slept.
It may have been rash... But what would you have done?
What would you have done?
Chapter 1 Screams, eyes, and a royal heart
I was in tears and blood, next to my reconstructed relatives. Rage surged through me. My routine was broken, my life shattered. 'Who could have done this? Somepony I met today?' This was just as likely as anything else in this town. "The tall pegasus had a motive... But the mare I bumped into must have had enough skill to gut them like this... Gah! What am I thinking? I need to bury them before I can even think about anything else.'
I lifted the dead carcasses of my family with magic, and began digging. My blood-ridden hooves weren't getting any friction on the dirt that was left where my room once was. I was overcome once again with emotion. "GRAAAAH!" My horn glimmered once more, up went a good 8 feet of dirt within a ten foot radius. The bodies were thrown into the ground with no regard for the decency that I had first planned, and the dirt fell back onto them. "DO YOU HEAR ME NOW?! DO YOU HEAR WHAT YOU LET HAPPEN?!" I screamed to the sky. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE IGNORED FOR SO LONG? WHY AREN'T YOU HELPING ME?!" I screamed as if some deity would actually listen to me. "FINE! I said as I floated off in a stream of rage. I wasn't sure where I was going, but it couldn't have been good.
I smirked as I found a tall, thin, gray pegasus with a red mane. 'NO! Don't do it! I don't know if he was the one who did it yet!' I screamed through my brain. "YOU!" I my mouth was moving, but my brain wasn't in control. 'No! He might not even be the same pervert I saw! I didn't get a good look at him at all!'
The stallion looked up and gawked. His mouth was like a limp lamb being carried by the surprised mother that was the rest of his head. He screamed. "NOT YOU AGAIN!"
To which my body replied. "DIE ASSHOLE!" 'NO!' I thought. But it was too late, the stallion was enveloped in the yellow flow that I had now grown to hate. "YOU DID IT! YOU DID IT AND NOW YOU WILL PAY!" He wiggled and squirmed. But the magic focused itself on his four hooves, his wings, and his head. "Slowly...~" spoke the mouth that I now believed couldn't have been my own. I could feel the magic around him as it began pulling. the magic around my own body became to bright to see through from either side. 'DAMMIT, WHY CAN'T I CONTROL MYSELF?' Said my sensible brain. I felt the tugging of the stallion's poor hooves. It was obvious he didn't do it. He was too scared to have done anything more than petty rape.
My body, however wasn't going to stop until it had finished its sick sacrifice. The front left hoof twisted with a loud crunch. 'NO!' The magic around my eyes dimmed, as though my body needed to see this sick "Justice" Play out. His front left hoof was twisted a full 180 degrees. No skin was yet broken. It was going to be a slow process.
He was crying... I saw him and felt so sad for him. But what could I do? My body was only listening to memories and assumptions that were in no way helping. "P-Please don't kill me, miss Straight Saddle filly! I-I'll never rape another mare, filly, or any other kind of pony ever again! You have my word as a stallion!" He squirmed more.
My body responded swiftly. "I KNOW!". And just as the words left that mouth which I couldn't tell was my own, I saw his front-left leg get ripped right out of its socket. I could hear sirens nearing our location. I couldn't close my eyes, I couldn't do anything. I realized that I was in control... But not my sanity. " A BIT LATE!" I said, referring to the sirens. Magic shone around the stallion's jaw and suddenly it was torn in half by the sides. He was screaming in pain and fear. a bottle from the street was picked up and shattered, and with the shards, he was gutted. Blood ran down his sides, his entrails were thouroughly sliced. He was dead by now, but that didn't stop me. Guards came to the scene.
"We have an unidentifiable object floating with a corpse!" One said.
My magic tore the head off of the stallion who had dared to be a suspect in a crime he didn't even commit. and as if to give one final "Fuck you" to the carcass, the testicles were crushed under magical pressure. The officers under me were baffled and didn't know if they should attack the bright light they saw, or just run. I swiftly dropped the carcass of my victim, and flew off faster than they could see. "It serves him right!"
When I finally settled down, I was behind Fillydelphia middle school. It was now around nine o' clock at night, and Luna was taking over the night shift. I was very tired, but how could I sleep? What I did was the worst. I couldn't believe myself.
"What have I done?... He was innocent, other than being a dick and a pervert... I was so angry... And I killed at least five ponies today... The first four, I can forgive... It was self-defense... But that last one... I... I still see his face... When I close my eyes..." I cried, I screamed, I wept. Tears didn't help much. I eventually cried myself to sleep.
"Hello, there." A voice called out to me. I opened my eyes, to see Luna herself. The world around me was psychedelic. "You're troubled." She said in her elegant, princess-y voice.
"Where am I?" I asked.
"Dreaming." She wasn't smiling. In fact, she seemed very serious at the moment. she backed out of my face and started walking, I found myself walking with her.
"And where were you when all of that shit back there happened?" I asked, somewhat angrily.
"At Canterlot... Believe me, if I could have done anything, I would have." She said as she walked beside me. I remained silent for a while. I wanted to hear what she had to say. "I won't tell anypony what you did, if you're wondering. I too, have been overcome with anger before. I twice tried to make the night eternal. You are in the company of somepony who understands." Her voice was stern, remorseful, and then kind. All of that emotion in just four sentences... It was mind blowing at the time. She knew more emotion than the average Love or Fear, that everypony said could only exist. She knew what I needed to hear; not in words, but in tone.
"So, do you know who did it?" I asked. Hoping one one side, that she had an answer so that I could have the true justice that I required, and on the other, that she didn't... So that I might be able to stay calm for our talk.
"No... I don't I began watching you when you yelled up to the sky. I can't reach you outside of your dreams though. I am so very sorry for what you lost..." She said. Her voice was elegant, and quite amazing. But just as she finished speaking, I heard a scream. I recognized this scream.
"Oh goddess no!" I covered my ears. This was the scream of that poor stallion. Luna placed her hoof on my forehead and suddenly it stopped. That gravely howl was gone... "W-how did you...?"
She smiled slightly. "All you needed was a snap back to reality. Now, as I said, I won't tell anypony. Instead, I believe I'll help you every night, for as long as I can, I will come to you in your dreams. I'll teach you to control your magic. My sister has her own pupil, but in all honestly, you are in much greater need. While Twilight Sparkle is powerful, she will never know pain the way we know pain. And I don't think that my sister understands that. Death and isolation can cause a lot of harm." When she finished talking, she began dissapearing. "It's almost morning. Survive until tomorrow night, We will have more time then. Don't do anything rash!" She said as she vanished into the dark colors of the dream.
I awoke to find somepony standing in front of me. It was "Big eyes". I jumped out of my skin and screamed. Nopony else was around, so I was unheard, thank the Goddess. "Who are you?" I asked.
There was no answer. He just kept looking at me. His yellow mane and tail blew in the wind as his gray fur remained still, as if they were in two separate universes. He kept looking at me. I still found him as intriguing as he was creepy. His wings, once again ascended. "POMF" The wings were easily the size of Luna's. I was impressed. But again, just as creeped out.
"What are you doing here? Do I even know you?" I asked. He shook his head and kept looking at me. He drew something in the ground. it was writing. It read "But you could." to which I replied, "How? You won't even talk." He erased what he had written in the dewy topsoil, and written something new. I looked down to read it "Find me"
"What the hell does that mean?" I looked back up and he was gone " I'm not playing some game of hide and seek, you pervert!" I walked away after that. I couldn't get three things out of my head. The scream, the eyes, and the heart of the three ponies I had interacted the most with in the past twelve hours.
What would you have done?
So there I was. Walking on a road, all too familiar for my taste. So to fight all familiarity, I decided to walk away from the school on the path opposite my broken home. "Broken" If any word described my weekend, it would be a tie between that and "Shattered". That Yellow line had faded. Sadness was a definite now.
'What are my options?' I asked myself as I walked slowly. 'I can't leave this forsaken town. I would endanger the good ponies that live outside these city limits. Can I hide? Probably not for very long. Hiding my emotions from myself is really taking its toll. It won't be long before I explode again. Suicide isn't an option either. No matter how many ponies I hurt, I have to think of myself before the rest. Besides, I still need my revenge.' These thoughts rushed through my brain. But after it all, the most prominent became revenge. My horn glowed and rocks began rising.
"NO!" I said as I snapped out of it. Pebbles and rocks fell back onto the concrete that haunted my hooves. "I can't go crazy now..." I sighed. I knew that one of these days, crazy was exactly what I would become. Insane, bloodthirsty, all the way through my soul. That's how it is. I must've been a straight saddle. And maybe destiny is chosen by what one's talent is.
I looked up from my sulking, to find that I was in front of a library. "Maybe some reading will give me some peace of mind." I said. Fillydelphia had the 4th biggest library in equestria. And that was actually saying a lot seeing as just above it was the Big Apple. I walked inside to find nopony around. "How idiotically convenient. The one time that I'd have liked to have friends, and this is what I get." I walked around to find the fantasy section, and I picked up an old-looking book, and opened it.
"Gah!" I said as a spider crawled out. I flicked the spider away and looked at the first page. It read "An Imperial addiction" I had never heard of such a book, but I took a look on the front cover for the author. All it said on the front was "I know what you did." I was thouroughly startled at this point, and I heard hoofsteps from behind me.
"W-who's there?" I asked, not wanting to turn around.
An elderly mare's voice came from behind me. "Just the librarian, sweetie." It said. I turned around and gasped. Where the librarian should have been, there was a unicorn corpse. Not like, an old mare. An ACTUAL CORPSE WALKING TOWARDS ME! "Come and get what's overdue!" She cackled as she walked towards me.
"What the hell?" I said. Then I screamed as I noticed strings on the body of my antagonist. I looked up, but nopony was visible. My horn glowed, and books flew off the shelves, and hit the walking carcass, one after another. It lost limbs, and even its horn, but with one remaining hoof, it walked closer. I had to do something.
"That's not how you treat library property! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She was so very evil sounding. I panicked, it was now only three inches away.
"FUCK OFF!" I wasn't in control anymore. 'DAMMIT, CAN'T I GO TODAY WITHOUT THIS?' I thought loudly. My body was ready to fight. Bookshelves elevated. And the Puppet corpse touched me. But just as I began flinging heavy objects at it, it fell down. My horn stopped glowing and all of the shelves fell. There was a note on the dead puppet's remaining hoof. I picked it up and read it.
"You made the wrong move, it's your turn again." it said.
I crumpled it up "FUCK YOU!" With magic, I threw the paper wad straight through a wall. The sheetrock crumbled and fell onto the carpet floor. I then became like the sheetrock and fell to the floor. "Who are you? Why can't I know?" I Sobbed. I picked up another book. It was called, "One thousand tears for one thousand years." Written by none other than Celestia herself. I giggled.
"So Celestia actually cared about what she did to her own sister. Almost Quaint." I felt a pair of eyes staring at me from behind.
My horn began glowing as it spoke. "Oh yes, quite quaint." Said a quite unfamiliar voice. "I assume you've heard of me. Master of chaos~ Creator of destroyers,"
"Recent house pet? Yes I've heard of you, you're Discord, am I right?" I turned around to see the draconaquis that tortured ponyville, and left Fillydelphia alone just because it was worse than he could ever have made it.
"Oh my, quite a feisty little filly! Yes, I am Discord. And just because I'm tame doesn't mean I can't have a bit of fun when nopony is looking~ I heard a lot of chaos going on right here. Do tell me what you've gone through, little bag of entropy." He said. His voice was grinding. Not because it sounded bad, only because I disliked the idea of him being here when what I needed was somepony to put me in order.
"Well, did you see the puppet show a few moments ago?" I asked.
He nodded and chuckled. "Quite a spectacle. I can't see that in Ponyvile or Canterlot." He grinned.
I didn't like what he was implying. "Did you see who was pulling the strings? I asked. It couldn't have been him, he wasn't a killer, only a joyrider on the road that is chaos. He enjoys seeing death, not causing it.
"Unfortunately, no. And that's a shame, I really wanted to see you go crazy on whoever that was." He smiled, as if to say, 'You'd make a great me.'
"Fuck off, you're just the Princess's house cat." As I said this, the book I was holding turned into a kitten. I looked over to Discord. "That's not funny, asshole."
He laughed. "Well, what I do here is fair game. Nopony listens to Fillydelphia, it's not part of the Equestrian union, remember?~" He slithered by me, like a flying serpent.
"What do you want?" I asked, impatiently.
He suddenly had a fez for some reason as he spoke. "I want chaos, and you're good at chaos. So I was to follow you, invisibly of course."
"You're a rat, you know that?" I said angrily.
"I thought I was a house cat." He chuckled. "You won't even know I'm there, most of the time. Besides, I know what you want." He said, as if he knew what I really needed.
"And what is that?"
"A friend."
He was right. I cursed him and all of the chaos he stood for, the chaos that got rid of the routine that I had grown to miss. "Yes. But you're no friend of mine." I got up and started walking towards the exit of the library. He vanished, but I knew he was still following me. 'Damn, now not even my words are safe. I have no clue what I'm going to do now.'
I got to the door, and realized that I might be in the only true safe-haven in the city. Nopony would look for a teenage filly in a library. I silently hid behind the non-fiction section, and curled up into a ball of yellow fur that just didn't want to be disturbed.
What would you have done?
Curled up, and hating my invisible companion, I cried. I cried until my tears stained my fur. "Why can't you leave me alone? You don't even know my name..." I sobbed.
I couldn't see him, but I knew Discord was smiling. "What is your name then? I'm curious to know the name of my newform of entertainment is."
I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of an argument or insult. "I-it's Bright Shine."
He laughed out loud. "HA HA HA! That's some irony right there. Not that is wasn't something I expected, but that your name is so light, and from what I've seen, your mind is so dark! I love it!"
I grimaced. I had to not get angry at my invisible animosity machine, or I would surely go mad once more. "Yeah, it's kinda funny I guess." I said from my ball of me.
"It's getting late out, maybe you should rest up. I have so many ways to make you angry waiting for you as far as tomorrow goes." He must have been grinning when he said this, I find that only fitting. I felt an invisible lion paw on my back. and before I could protest, I was asleep.
"You're back early." said a familiar voice. I opened my eyes to see princess Luna once more. I got up and nodded. "I see that Discord has visited you. Please do your best to ignore anything he says."
I giggled at the idea that Luna wanted me to treat a being of chaos like an annoying little brother. "Got it." I walked with her once more.
" He isn't going to leave you alone, you know." Luna said as we walked into some kind of odd forest. I assumed she meant Discord, so I just nodded, and looked around. I was distracted by the oddity of the dream realm. I hadn't noticed it the night before for some reason. I could tell that somehow it was a shared dream. Both of our minds were making the world as they went, because on one side of the forest, was the faint screaming of my one true victim, a cloudy daylight, and dying trees. The air smelled of blood, and tears, it was a truly depressing sight.
However, if mine was depressing, Luna's side was downright suicidal. While my side was a cloudy daylight, there was little on her side of the dream other than darkness. While I heard a single scream, I couldn't hear her side of the dream, but I noticed a thousand eyes. Some angry, some afraid, and one pair of eyes... Was sad... Remorseful, as if the owner of said eyes had done something tragic, similar to what I had done only one morn prior. These eyes... I couldn't stop thinking of that specific pair. 'What could that mean? Luna went crazy and got sent to the moon. But those can't be her own eyes, can they? Did somepony hurt her? Did somepony really care for Night-mare-moon?' My mind turned to the book I had read some of earlier. 'A thousand tears for one thousand years...'
I looked at Luna herself. It was as if she didn't see the eyes. Her face was stern, she focused mostly on the dirt trail ahead of her and partly on me. She didn't seem bothered by the eyes, or a smell of tears or blood. She didn't seem to hear screams, or care that her forest was completely dead. She looked at me, her eyes full of kindness. I sighed.
"Why are we walking, Princess?" I asked, hoping to take my mind off of the screaming.
She smiled "We're going to perform a few tests. I want to know what sets you off the most, so that you can avoid these things when you're awake, where you can endanger other ponies." It was as if she was waiting for me to ask, because as her sentence finished, the forest disappeared, and we were in some sort of arena. It was empty, except for the Lunar Mare and myself.
I looked around curiously. Everything was an odd gray, black, or purple. It wasn't unsettling, just weird. Luna trotted to one end, while I remained in the center of this small Colosseum.
"Are you ready, Bright Shine?" She asked.
I nodded. "Do what you have to, princess." I said.
Her horn glowed, and out from the dirt under her hooves, climbed two, black, smoking, pony skeletons. Both of which must have been arguably as large as Celestia, yet oddly sleek. They had bat wings, and glowing yellow eyes. "Be careful." She said. Something about her voice changed for a moment as she said this. Almost as if it were a larger mare talking.
I would have thought more about it, but before I could think anything of it, the creatures flew towards me at great speed. 'They can't really hurt me.' I thought. I stood still and smirked as they closed in quickly. I closed my eyes, naively. 'It's only a dream after all.'
I was quickly proven wrong. Princess Luna stood still with an expressionless gaze as the two monsters tackled me to the ground. and in my shock, I looked around myself frantically. Noticing that my left knee was now bleeding. I screamed as they kept attacking.
They stomped my face, bit my ears, and batted their unexpectedly sharp wings on my body. 'W-why is this so painful? It's only a dream! Dreams can't hurt me!' I thought. It was these thoughts that kept me from going crazy for a little while longer. I was trying to rationalize something that I couldn't.
When I realized that they were slowly killing me, I stopped thinking. "No magic..." I said out loud. But it wasn't me. My intentions were as my mouth spoke. I wasn't going to use magic. However, what happened next, was something that I had no control over. My confusion turned into rage, and once again, my eyes and mind sat idly as my body began taking control. Like I was in a box within my own head.
I watched as my body kicked the two large ponies off of my body with great swiftness. The ferocity that coursed through its veins was burning my thoughts. As if I were dying and this thing was replacing me. The skeletal ponies got up, and as they did, their bones rearranged. The wings were nowhere to be found.
The two beasts were now more bulky, and shorter. They hissed at me as they both ran up to me and started throwing punches with their front hooves, while standing on their hind ones.
I blocked each punch as if it were nothing. And just as one of these creatures was about to hit me in the side, I threw dirt into its face. As it reared back, I kicked the other one in the hind-leg, it fell over and glared at me.
All the while, Luna watched. Her expression was still lacking any emotion.
The blinded pony started changing again. it's shoulders rose, and it became less like a pony, and more like a statue as claws grew from its hooves and dug into the ground, making it unable to move. A horn grew from its skull, and it began shooting red beams of magic at me.
My mind watched from the back seat as I dodged each and every beam, while taking the earth skeleton by the hoof and slammed it against the ground over and over again. 'Why aren't I talking? I haven't seen this happen before. Since when could I fight like this?' I thought as the beast's eyes went black and its body fell to pieces. I took a bone from the pile of bones that was once trying to kill me. and I walked towards the magical turret.
It fell to the ground just as it was within beating distance. "That's enough." I heard Luna say. But my body didn't listen. It expected another victim. It NEEDED another victim. I started walking towards her, I dropped my weapon. She was ten feet away and I was closing in. She couldn't tell that I still wasn't myself "Obviously, your rage comes from fear. I wonder if it's just fear, or if any expression of large amounts of emotion will do."
'Princess! LOOK OUT!' I shouted in my brain. She looked at me as I got within hoofs-reach of her. "Over..." I said.
"What, Bright Shine?" She said.
My body responded with a swift punch in her face. She punched back and held me down, as she tapped her horn against mine. Inside I was blushing. 'What is she doing? Does she know how suggestive this is? I'm only 14!' My body was soothed though, and I was back in control. "G-get off of me..." I said shyly.
She stepped to the side and I got up. "Sorry, you still weren't in control." She said, as if she'd only hit my in the nose or something.
I looked at Luna. "Whatever, what's next?" I asked.
Luna looked at me, and sighed. " I have two other tests to condu-" Her words were cut short by a loud ringing, and a shaking that made the coliseum crumble.
Everything went black.
When light came back to my eyes, I was awake. Discord was making loud noises and shaking me. "Wakey wakey! It's time to get up!" He said, as he now visibly was smiling. He stopped making noise when I opened my eyes.
I ignored him as I stood up. I looked around me, at the wrecked library. I could hardly tell what I had done the day before, and what was the doing of a bored Discord. Not a single book was on a shelf. and only two bookcases were upright. They were the two behind which I slept.
I walked outside, and noticed it was early morning. Celestia's sun had just begun rising.
"What, no hello for your new pal Discord?" Said the vain draconequis. I kept walking without a word in his direction. I walked further from where my house still hardly stood. Discord went transparent and silent for a while. It was a nice break from the banter that went on the day before.
I kept walking as I saw a crowd of ponies around my age coming closer. 'damn... It's Monday... They have school. That means my tutor will be at my house, and if I'm not already a suspect for my family's murder, I will be after she takes one look at my house.
The herd of fillies and colts ran past me. I noticed an earth filly, about two years younger than me, with a cutie mark that showed a heart being sewn together. She had braids in her mane, and wore glasses her coat was a dark blue.
She tripped on a rock, and fell, but the other ponies kept running. They were trampling the poor filly in their rush to go to that wretched school. "STOP! You're hurting her!" I said.
They didn't stop. She was bleeding on her tears, and crying on her wounds. When the stampede of idiots finally passed, I knelt down next to her. She was very much alive, but her glasses were broken, aswell as many of her bones. She was crying. I found myself shedding tears aswell.
She looked at me silently. I looked back at her, with sadness and empathy. "It's okay... You're going to be okay. Don't cry."
I reached out to touch her, and she tried backing away. "I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Bright Shine."
She backed away to the curb of the sidewalk and pointed behind me.
I looked back there to see a red unicorn colt. Older than me, but not by much. He smirked. "That's what you get, Sour Candy." He laughed and looked at me. I looked at his cutie mark. It was a coffin, with a knife stabbed through it. His mane was crimson, his pupils, small and shifty.
He kept staring me in the face. "You're helping this filth?" He kept going before I could answer. "You both deserve what's coming then.
He kicked me to the side. "She goes first, though." He placed his hoof on her head. "Survival of the fittest, kid. the last lesson you'll ever learn."
I had to do something... But how would I? If I went berserk again, I could kill the filly too... Or worse... He could kill me and then the filly... He's a straight saddle after all, so he must know how to kill pretty easily... But then I had an idea. "Discord... If you're still there, and you want to see me cause chaos... Transport me and this asshole somewhere else. I don't care where, just away from here." I whispered.
Discord laughed and I heard a flickering sound as he and I were suddenly in a warehouse, down the road. I recognized it, only because it was next to the park, which I could see out the window.
The colt looked confused as the filly under his hoof was now air, from his perspective. "What the hell?" he looked around, and turned to me. "What did you do?!" He screeched. "You took away my kill!"
I looked him dead in the eye. "I saved the life of somepony who needed help. But I think your life might have to be cut short." I felt proud of that line. Like I was some kind of superhero, like Sailor Mare, who's show I watched religiously as a foal.
He laughed. "You're going to fight me? Do you know how long I've been doing this? Do you know what they call me?! Do you know why a filly like you doesn't stand a chance?" He was definitely cocky.
"I don't care what your nickname is, or how long you've been a heartless bastard, picking school foals off on their way to get educated. I'm going to do what I can to stop you from doing it again!" I could hear Discord eating popcorn, though I couldn't see him.
The colt laughed insanely. "You talk too much. But just so you know, I'm Rake. Rake the Slayer!" As he said this, he pulled a scythe out from the ground. No... Not a scythe from the ground... A scythe OF the ground. With his magic, he was shaping stone into wood and steel, and creating a weapon, right before my eyes.
He charged at me through the nearly empty room, and with his magic, he swung his scythe at my neck. I barely dodged with a leap backwards. 'Why can't I lose control. I'm angry, I'm scared, what am I missing?' I thought as he swung again. I sidestepped out of the way, but he hit my shoulder.
My body started working its magic again, except, this time, I could still control myself. Whatever separated this time from the others, I have no clue. But I accepted that I would have to fight with wits, aswell as power. He grinned. "Oh, my goddess! This is the most fun I've had in weeks!" He said as blood dripped from my shoulder. He swung at my head from the side, and without missing a beat, I ducked and punched him in the face. He backed up and swung downward from above my head, and I stepped to the side again, this time getting a large cut on the cheek.
I was unsure of what to do next. I'd never fought with control before. 'Magic?' I thought. I took him by the neck with magic, as that yellow glow I hated so much, finally came into use. I rose him up by the neck, and he laughed more. "You really think that's gonna work?" His red magic enveloped my yellow magic, and broke it apart without a second wasted.
He fell to the floor, on his hooves. He smiled, having not even dropped his weapon. I realized that magic wouldn't work on him. 'Maybe... Can I use magic to help myself?' I kept dodging his swings. Until I focused my magic into my hooves rather than my horn.
I leaped into the air, and somehow landed on the other side of him. I charged at him, and just as he was turning around in surprise, my hoof collided with his face. He was finally bleeding. He dropped his scythe, and fell to the floor. I noticed that I had blood on my hoof. And though the thought was disgusting to me, I really wanted to clean it off while he was down.
I licked my hoof lightly, and as I tasted his blood, it felt good on my tongue. It was something that I hadn't tasted before. The blood of a killer. I'd bitten my lip before, but I was a little filly, and it was my own blood. This was something exotic. My eyes widened. I suddenly craved this colt's death more than anything else.
I looked at his scythe, and picked it up. He was creating a new one from the floor as I walked toward him with my new toy. "You made an oopsie!" I yelled.
I was still in control... But I wasn't myself... Like my mind and my body finally understood what they wanted. My thoughts weren't those of regret. They were thoughts of sheer bloodlust. He was finally panicking. While before he wasn't even trying, now he was scrambling. He took his new scythe with his magic, and swung it straight for my throat as he tried desperately to get up. "You... You got lucky!" He said as I blocked his scythe with mine.
I smiled insanely, and twisted my scythe so that the two weapons were tangled up in eachother.
I walked to him, and as he jumped back on his hind hooves, I untangled my scythe from his and slit open his chest before he could react. He screamed one last scream, and the next twenty seconds were like gravity was in shock, and wouldn't pull him down. As blood dripped from him, I heard nothing. It was like I was deaf from the need I felt. To destroy... He fell to the floor for one last time.
I dropped the weapon, breaking off the tip of the blade and picking it up with my bare hoof, and walking over to the dead stallion. The only thing left in my ears were his screams. I punched through his rib-cage, and began cutting out organs. I started by cutting out his lungs, and as blood got on my hooves, licked it off. Blood had formed a pool around us as I laughed. For a while, I thought that it was only me, the few boxes that were in the room, and this corpse.
I moved on to tearing out his stomach. I smiled as I threw it to the floor, and piece by piece, I performed the opposite of what I did when my Aunt and Uncle died on Saturday. Yet, even though they were opposites, they were both sick and disgusting.
I licked my hooves again. And pulled out his entrails. My wide eyes, staring at what was left. His kidneys were the next to go, then his liver. All the while, I left his bones inside of him. I pulled out his esophagus with great joy. I used the tip of the scythe that I had broken, to stab his heart, before taking it out and tossing it at a wall.
I placed my hoof on his skull, when I began hearing what was around me again. Somepony was crying. She sounded about my age. Maybe... Two... Years... Younger...
I looked behind me. To see Discord appear. He was holding the filly. Sour Candy... I snapped back into reality and realized what I had just done. I jumped back, in shock of what I had just done.
Discord grinned with glee, and remained silent. However, Sour Candy looked terrified. "Y-you... W-what did you do?..." Said the filly
'... what DID I do?...'
Author's Note
Seriously, if anyone can animate the battle scenes, I'd love that.
What would you have done?
Chapter 4 A dog among wolves
I glared at Discord. "WHY DID YOU BRING HER HERE?!" I screamed. Sour Candy was silently crying.
Discord snorted and laughed. " You never said I couldn't bring her." He smiled as Sour Candy climbed out of his lion paw, and began limping away.
"W-wait!" I yelled, as I ran over to her "You're hurt..." She kept trying to get away from the blood-soaked filly before her. I reached out to her as she slowly limped away. "Please don't leave... We'll help you..."
She finally began speaking. "Y-you're no better than he was! You might even be worse!" She yelled as she kept limping towards the door.
Discord rolled his eyes. "That's why it was so fun to watch~" He said in a sinister tone.
Sour Candy shook her head. "NO! And even if what you did was in good nature, which it obviously wasn't..." She said as she looked over to the mangled body of mister "the slayer."
"He's not the only one... He's part of a gang of straight saddles... And when they find out... They're going to kill me, and then you too..." She began crying more. "And then my mom... Because of something YOU did! He was just the tip of the cupcake..." She said sadly.
I sighed. "I was trying to protect you... And I can keep protecting you, if you tell me who this gang is." I smiled, trying to show that I was more gentle than my encounter with Rake would make me seem.
She glared at me, her swollen limbs giving in. She fell down and sighed deeply as she winced in pain. "F-fine... They're called the Wolf Clan... Their leader is Karron. She's a mean pegasus who wants to take over the city's crime... She's been killing important ponies for years, but only her targets seem to know about her... The guards won't do anything, they keep finding that all signs point to murder-suicide. My mom is in the city council... So that pony was here to scare her out of town by killing me... " She turned away and closed her eyes. "She would have been fine if you would have just ignored me like the others... If you hadn't tried to help me, she wouldn't be a target..."
Discord sighed. "This is boring. I'm going to the castle to see if I can make Celestia's coffee cold. Have fun being depressing, I'll be back in a few days or something." He clapped his lion paw to his eagle talon and disappeared.
I looked down at Sour Candy, and sighed. I picked her up with my magic, and took her over to a set of two boxes. She remained silent. Resenting me. I didn't blame her, either. I layed her down on the boxes, and took two pieces of wood, making a splint and wrapping it in cloth that I found in one of the boxes. "I'll protect you. Where does your family live?"
She shook her head. "I just watched you brutally kill somepony and play with their organs. I'm not going to tell you where my family is. You'll be lucky if I tell you my favorite color." She winced again as I wrapped the cloth around one more time and tied it up.
"Listen, you want me to save you, right? You obviously are in no condition to save yourself or anypony you know. Now, tell me before it's too late. Besides... You wouldn't be the only one in this place to have lost your family..." I said calmly, however inside, I was panicking. 'What am I getting myself into? I have no clue how many ponies are in this gang. I'm a target of somepony who may have been killing for years. I don't want to die...'
She looked at me, teary-eyed and cute. "My house is... Just down the road from the park. It's the one made of black bricks. They'll be safe for one day though. Karron won't notice anypony missing until morning. I may have been... Gathering information on them for a while now."
I lied down next to the boxes. "I'm tired. Goodnight, Sour Candy."
She didn't answer, she didn't want to talk to me more than she had to. I understood. I didn't want to talk to me either, after what I'd just done. I closed my eyes, and swiftly fell asleep.
My eyes opened once again in the land of dreams. Only, instead of seeing princess Luna, there was a much large alicorn mare. She was completely black, and wore a helmet. Her mane was a glistening purple, and it flew in the non-existant wind. The mare spoke in a loud, angry voice. "You disobeyed me, Bright Shine!"
It hit me then that this may have been what luna looked like when she came back from the moon. The one time I read a newspaper, and that happened to be the picture. "P-princess... You don't understand, I was helping somepony who needed me-"
"ENOUGH!" She interrupted me with great anger. "IF YOU CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO LIVE PEACEFULLY OUTSIDE OF THE DREAM, THEN YOU WILL NOT BE UNDER MY GUIDANCE ANY MORE! IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?"
I nodded and sulked. "But what would you have done?"
"I WOULD HAVE LEFT WELL ENOUGH ALONE! I WOULD HAVE LEFT ALONE THE LIFE OF ONE TO KEEP SAFE THE LIVES OF MANY! I WOULD NOT HAVE RISKED SUCH THINGS ON A SINGLE STRANGER!"
I looked at my hooves. "I should have known... That you and her were the same."
She looked confused. "WHO MIGHT... Who might you be referring to?" She calmed down.
I looked dead into her eyes. "Your ignorant sister. Who won't try and solve the troubles of Fillydelphia, just because it's too much FUCKING trouble! If you truly want to help, don't teach me how to fight this thing! Teach me how to control it! Teach me how to become something more than a pony. I want to be a symbol of hope. I want to fix my town, because you and your sister don't FUCKING feel like it!"
She was drawn aback as if to say "You dare?! And I hate how right you actually are..." At the same time.
"Fine. I will teach you how you can harness what you have. But you must never speak to me in such a tone ever again. You may have amazing abilities, but you're speaking with a princess. One who can move the moon, no less." She spoke in a much calmer voice, as she shrank, and her helmet disappeared. Her mane and coat turned back to that of the Luna whom I had known. She looked at me, with teary eyes. As if my words actually brought her physical pain.
"I-I'm sorry princess. I won't talk to you that way again..." I said, sadly.
We began walking once more. This time, there was more than one scream. There was the scream of my first victim, the tears of Sour Candy, and the screech of Rake. It began overwhelming me. I could live with one scream. But the idea that three voices were going to haunt me every time I slept... I shuddered at the thought. "Princess... Do you... Do you ever hear the screams?" I asked quite nervously.
She looked at me. Eyes full of kindness, and guilt at the same time. "Every night. Thousands of ponies. For over a thousand years." She said. I was discouraged.
'I don't want that... But I suppose I'll have to live with it... I told Sour Candy I'd protect her, and her family.'
Luna stopped walking. "Tell me something. Did you have control over yourself when you were fighting that colt?"
I stopped walking also. My eyes widened. 'Oh no... She's going to find out that I did all of that on purpose... She's going to find out that every bit of my gutting him was me... And not just my body.' I turned to look at her. I couldn't lie to a princess. It could end up badly if she found out somehow... "Yes... I was..." I said solemnly.
She smiled. "Do you know how you did it?"
I drew back. 'She should be worried about my mental state right now.' I thought. I was truly surprised. "Not really... I couldn't even fight until he started bleeding... I licked the blood off of my hoof and went insane..." While this was all true, I might have glazed over the fact that I wanted more blood... More death. I wanted to see him die as soon as I could.
"I see. Well, I think if you keep doing it more often, you'll get better control over it. It might be something that you need to get used to. Dare I say... That maybe it was something you were meant to do... You have scars on your flanks... Was your cutie mark cut off at a young age?"
I glared at her. "What are you implying, Princess? Even if I am a straight saddle... That doesn't determine my fate! I'm done here!"
Before she could protest, I jumped off of a ledge nearby. Effectively waking me up with a jolt.
It was around midnight when I woke up. I looked around and saw that Sour Candy was still asleep. But she'd somehow moved next to me. I blushed and smiled, her broken glasses had fallen onto my side. I picked them up, and with my magic, I fixed them as best as I could. Honestly, I was content this way. Having her comfortable next to me. Despite her broken limbs. All I wanted from the start was to help her. I wasn't sure how I got her into a mess like this, but I was going to fix it. She reminded me too much of myself to let her slip down the slope that I was.
I placed her glasses back on her, and got up quietly. I wasn't about to fall asleep again. I felt far too angsty, and guilty to go back and see Luna. I walked over to the door, and looked outside. Only to find mister Big Eyes, right in front of me. "What the fuck?" I accidentally said out loud.
His wings opened up with a loud POMF noise.
"Yeah, I get the picture. You think I'm hot. How did you find me? And why do you keep showing up?"
He didn't answer. He just walked into the warehouse without a word.
"HEY! You can't go in there!" I said.
He walked over to the dead body of Rake, and nudged it, before walking over to Sour Candy. His face remained still, and he left out the way he came.
I was surprised by how calm he was. He left before I could think of something to say.
"I wonder what the fuck his deal is..." I said as I walked inside. I heard the sound of hooves on concrete. I looked behind me to find a white, tall unicorn with a pink mane. She looked as though she had once been very rich. But now was homeless, and scared.
She looked into the door. At the blood-stained yellow unicorn that stood twenty feet from her, the gutted red pony on the floor just behind me, and the broken pony, breathing heavily next to me. "S-so this is why he led me here... I have to stop you to get back into the spotlight!"
'That big-eyed asshole led her here?' I thought as she charged me. Her long horn, sharpened as though she were trying to be regal before losing everything. Her shaggy pink mane flowed like wheat rather than hair. Overuse of hair product, no doubt. I stepped to the side and let her charge right by me.
She turned around and ran over, throwing rocks at me with her magic. I dodged each one with relative ease, and punched her in the face. She immediately fell to the floor, unconscious. "Obviously not from around here..." I said, as I picked her up with my magic, and walked her a few blocks away.
"You're a real bitch, you know that?" I said to the unconscious grown mare. I set her down on some trash bags, and began walking back to my temporary home.
About half way there, A newspaper flew into my face. The wind had been taking it for a ride around town. I looked at it while walking back to where Sour Candy was sleeping. I saw my picture and gasped. "Pony suspected of the murder of Good Heart and Creative Thinking? May be in league with the Wolf Clan?! More murders on the rise?" I flipped the page it was written over with blood. Pony blood...
It read "Don't think I haven't already noticed you take your turn. You're getting close~ But now maybe you'll want to make faster moves"
"FUCK!" I tossed the paper to the side as I sat next to Sour. I sighed and sat there until dawn.
'So... They must have done it... The Wolf Clan'
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What would you have done?
Chapter 5 Sympathy for a forgotten princess.
I had made it back to the warehouse, and sat next to Sour Candy once more. She was just as I left her. "You know, maybe you were more help than harm, my friend." I smiled. "I'm worried about what's going to happen today though. If I take you with me, you might be in danger... But you could be even worse off if I leave you here, defenseless..." I thought about it for over an hour, and decided that I'd take her with me. Worst case scenario, I could let her family take care of her while I fought whatever may try me.
I rested until Celestia's sun rose. I wasn't tired, despite the lack of sleep. I looked at Sour, and shook her until she woke up. "Mmmn... What is it?" She looked around. "Oh yeah... So, are you going to my house soon?" She said tiredly.
I nodded and picked her up onto my back. "And you're coming with me. Your parents must be worried sick."
She sighed. "Fine. Just... Be careful, okay? Let me explain all of the blood on you, because I don't think they'd trust you."
I nodded and we headed out the door. Her broken limbs dangled on my sides. I couldn't wait until I could get her to ponies who could help her. She may be useful in the long run, and having to carry her around like this wasn't going to help at all. Well... Maybe I also felt bad for her... She was in pain, and I wanted to fix it.
We reached the house she had previously described, and I smiled at her. I walked up to the door and knocked a few times.
I could hear yelling and crying inside. A mare's voice said "IF YOU'RE SELLING SOMETHING, WE'RE A LITTLE PREOCCUPIED!"
Sour Candy yelled back at the voice. "MOM! IT'S ME!"
The door opened a crack and a green mare looked out. "SOUR!" The mare pulled Sour Candy and myself inside. "Who is this? Where were you? Why is this pony soaked in blood?!"
I felt somewhat insulted that she referred to me as "This pony" but I was in no position to act out.
"Mom, The Wolf Clan came after me on my way to school yesterday. This is Bright Shine, she saved me from Rake... He won't be bothering us anymore. And I'm also very hurt... My legs are broken..." Sour said.
I nodded and lowered my head. "Hello, ma'am..."
Sour's mom looked at me. "It's nice to meet you... I think... I'm Lime Green. Give my daughter and I just a moment." She said. She picked Sour Candy off of my back and onto hers, and they left the room for a few moments.
I took this time to look around the living room. The walls were all a dark purple. I could have mistaken them for black at a glance, but as much as I'd have liked sleek black walls, they were purple. So close, and yet so far. The furniture was cheap, I decided to sit on the couch, which was an ugly shade of tan. It was made out of cotton, and had no pattern. Only tan. It was ill fitting with the Zebra striped floor, and the plaid furniture. Nothing in this house looked very good, honestly. All I could think about was how stupid it all looked.
But then again... I was the pony with red splashes on yellow fur. I chuckled as I thought of it. And then i sighed. 'Red splashes...' And suddenly, my thoughts turned towards death, agony, and the idea that Sour Candy might have to live with what I was living through.
Just then, I heard Sour Candy yell. "MOM! SHE CAN PROTECT US!"
'I...Is she really defending me up there?... After what she saw yesterday?...'
Lime was the next to yell at the top of her lungs. "ARE YOU INSANE? SHE'S COVERED IN BLOOD! WHEN YOUR FATHER GETS HOME....!"
I stopped hearing anything after that. I decided to stop listening. It wasn't my business. But I didn't have to stop. They weren't yelling anymore. I waited for twenty minutes in silence. Nopony came down the stairs.
After a while, I decided to get up, and right as I did, a note blew in from an open window. It fell face down, and I hesitated to pick it up. I decided that it would be better than being surprised when something happened. I picked it up and it read.
"Bread, butter, wine, roses, MY TURN!"
And as if on cue, the window broke and in came a black earth pony. Larger than average, with a dagger for a cutie mark. "WHAT'S UP? BITCHES!" He yelled. He was obviously grown, but he had such a baby face. It was odd.
Just as this happened, Lime peeked out from behind a wall, with sour on her back. She brought her to a door that had stairs leading down. 'They have a basement. They might be safe there.' I thought. 'I'll be able to take this head on.'
He looked around. "You the only one?!" He said. "Doesn't matter. Everypony will know Jack Alaska when I'm done with you!" He said as he pulled daggers out of his black mane. He pointed one at me. "It's Bright Shine, right? Your mom probably misses you in hell."
I glared at him. "WHAT WAS THAT?!"
"I should know. I killed her myself. I caused the fire!" He said as he grinned at me. "I just wish I could have killed those others too. I heard that they screamed a lot." He laughed and I charged him, punching him in the face hard.
He looked at me. "That wasn't very nice, you BITCH!" He cut my shoulder with his dagger and began trying to comprimise my footing.
'Dodge, dodge, attack, dodge' I said in my mind as my body prepped for battle and I dodged and punched him. Every punch missed, and I grew angrier and angrier with him. 'So this is the MOTHER FUCKER who made me grow up without parents? And he's one of the wolf clan? My lucky FUCKING DAY!'
He punched me in the face and I flew back about fifteen feet. It was obvious that he wasn't normal. He started throwing daggers at me.
I jumped around and dodged as many as I could. But eventually, one hit me on the front-left leg. "FUCK!" I yelled as I fell to the floor. I looked up at him as he walked over to me.
" Did you like the knife show? It's my specialty. Throwing daggers are so fun. Better than arrows because I can hide so many so easily. Better than a gun because I don't need to reload." As he was talking, I moved my hoof over to a nearby dagger. I grabbed it, and waited until the right moment. "All I have to do is move around until I find one that I threw, and throw it again." He said. "And it's very effective on twerps like you." He smiled as he took the knife from inside my leg and positioned it above my head.
I grinned as I looked at him. "You know, you should check if your victims are immobile before you yammer on about shit!" I said as I stabbed him in the hoof with my new dagger. He screamed and fell to his knees. I licked the dagger and my bloodlust rose to a new level.
I jumped onto my hooves, and with my magic, I rose Jack above my head and smiled sadistically.
"W-What are you doing?!" H began panicking. This was the best part of the kill, the panic in his green eyes.
"I'm killing you. You should understand. It would be business... if you didn't MAKE it so personal!"
But as I spoke those words, my magic diminished and he fell to the floor, getting up on three of his hooves.
I writhed downward in pain. My stomach was wrenching, and I looked up. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
"I didn't do anything, you brat! But I'll take advantage of what I can!" He said as he swung his dagger at me. Despite my pain, I grabbed his hoof and forced it to stop, then I thought about what I would do. It was a stale mate. I couldn't move my hooves without him being able to move his. We were in an equal struggle. Two injured ponies with nothing to lose. Fighting to the death for different reasons. Two souls who had killed many times before, with two different feelings about what they had done, ready to make a kill that hopefully wouldn't be their last.
"You're pretty strong for a twerp!" He said.
"You're not bad yourself." I smiled.
"Then why are you smiling?" He grunted.
"Because you forgot something about me. Something I have that you don't."
He laughed. "Ovaries?"
I laughed back. "Nope!" I grinned as I rammed my head into his throat. My horn went right through his head, and I grinned as he wheezed one last breath before I turned my head and snapped his neck.
I pulled my horn out from the bottom of his head, and let him fall down. With a THUD he landed on the floor, and as my bloodlust hadn't dropped, I took one of his daggers out of the nearby wall, and cut open his throat, licking the blood out of his neck happily.
I was ashamed about what I was doing. But I wasn't about to stop. It was so much fun! So tasty! So much potential. I realized that I was once again deafened. I heard nothing, and could only see, smell, taste, and touch my victim. The grotesque noises could only be heard by the walls and the tacky couch.
"Hahaha....hahaha HAHAHAHA AAAAHAHAHAHA" I laughed as I tore him apart, skinning him slowly. His head was the first thing to go bare. I carved his eyes out of his sockets and grinned mischievously. By the time I got to his neck, I felt another pain in my stomach. "Fuck... What the hell is going on here?" I regained my sanity due to the stomach pain and I decided to go to the basement, where I was instantly hit on the head with a blunt object, and knocked out.
I could hear the screams of my victims. The crying of Sour Candy. The wheezing of Jack Alaska and the breathing of somepony who had been crying for a while. I opened my eyes to see Luna again. Her eyes were teary, I could tell that she was the source of the heavy breathing. "What do YOU want?" I said as I closed my eyes again. I felt sorry for her, but I was too stubborn to think of her before my petty defensiveness
She poked me with her hoof. "I told sister about Discord. He won't be bothering you again any time soon. And... I'm very sorry about my previous comment... I... I was inconsiderate. And I won't insinuate such things again. I'm sorry I was angry with you... and I'm sorry I offended you." She said sadly.
I looked at her reluctantly. "I-I'm sorry too... It wasn't nice of me to just leave like that." I sighed. "Thank you for fixing my discord problem. Have you been watching today?" I asked.
She looked at me and nodded. "Good thinking, using your head." She tried to make a joke out of it.
I laughed slightly. The joke was lame, but she meant well. "Thank you. So, what are we doing now?"
She smiled at me. "You can relax. I didn't really expect to see you yet." She laughed a little.
"I wasn't expecting to fall asleep either. It was a surprise to both of us." I smiled. "If we're going to relax... Can I hear a story about you and Celestia? I'm curious." Curious... That was a word I Hadn't used often before.
She sat down next to me and smiled. "Sure. Do you want to hear a sad story? Or a happy one?"
I rested my head on her back. "Sad please. I find those stories the best." I nuzzled her as if she were family. That's what she felt like now. The big sister I never had. The big sister I always felt like I needed...
She looked at me and smiled. I think she thought of me as family as well. Family without wings, that is. "Here's the full story, of how I was banished to the moon." She said gently. Her words stopped seeming casual. They became like music without music. A song without singing. "It was a warm night. I was feeling especially cocky that night. I wanted to see all of the ponies look to the sky as I showed them a spectacular night time. I made each star brighter. I even had some shooting stars prepared. I had the moon in its full glory and even made it shine a little brighter. I thought that nopony would dare sleep through a night so spectacular. I looked upon my kingdom... Expecting so many ponies to be looking up and screaming in joy at the spectacle... But truly, they were all inside. Most were asleep, in fact... I felt such a pain race through me. I grew angry... But I held it in as best I could. I waited until dawn, and as Celestia had her normal sunrise... Everypony woke up, smiling and happy. The guards congratulated my sister for another sunrise." She paused for a moment as a tear dripped from her face and she wiped her eyes with her hoof.
"Are you alright?" I asked.
She nodded. "Yes. Now, to continue... This went on for 4 years. Each night I would find another way to make my sky better... And yet nopony was awake to see it... Not even my sister, who each morning, would make a sarcastic remark about my hard work... When all she had to do was raise one object and stand under it. On the dawn of the longest day of the 5th year... I Appeared in front of my foolish sister. I confronted her calmly at first. Telling her that she had to do something about it. She laughed in my face... saying she was aware of this, and that it was just something that I had to deal with. and that maybe ONE DAY!..." She grew angry as she spoke the next sentence. "ONE DAY YOU COULD MAKE THE NIGHT HALF AS GOOD AS THE DAY! THOSE WERE HER WORDS! I decided that if she was going to disrespect me, she was going to pay a hefty price. I Shot a burst of magic that would trap her in the moon, so that she would be forced to see my nights at every moment. And her day would be a thing of the past. However... she quickly used a protection spell that deflected the magic back at me... The magic formed around me, and for the last ten seconds of my freedom... I saw her cry. She knew what would become of me, and that I would not return with harmony in my heart... I watched as every night became as average as the day... for one thousand years, she sang the same lullaby to the moon, as if I would forgive her for her ignorance. And I would eventually come to sing back to her, though she would not hear me... I sang of vengeance... and sometimes of forgiveness... But I was shunned for a thousand painful years. She did nothing to stop my anger, and with her ignorance, I was punished..." She finished... I felt so sorry for her... I wasn't sure what I could say to a princess who was trapped and shunned for a thousand years. "That is why I took an interest in you. When you yelled to the sky... It reminded me of how I yelled to the ponies... And nopony cared... A unicorn of great ability... And a tragedy so grand... I could not settle on the idea of somepony becoming what I was for a thousand years. That is why I am here now... to stop you from becoming the monster that you could have."
I was stunned. "Y-you really care enough to pull through all of this..." I said.
She kissed my forehead, just below my horn. "I suppose you could say, I'm the sister that you need. The sister I needed..." She smiled at me, and I looked at her with eyes full of tears.
"Tell me, princess... If we had switched roles... and nopony were there to save you from my fate... What would you have done?" I asked.
"..." she didn't give me a verbal response. She just looked down and sighed.
I knew what she was saying. In a silent way, she was telling me that it could not have been much different from what I had the potential to do. Pain is difficult to deal with... And sometimes... You need somepony to help you. But in reality... Is this actually any different from what it could have been? Have I truly learned anything from my Princess of dreams? "Princess... If you want... I don't think I can sleep tonight. So when I lie awake... I will walk outside. I will use my magic to tear open the clouds. And I shall show your night to all of the ponies of this city... this city which needs a beautiful sight... And even if nopony else walks out to see your light of darkness, you know I will be there to see it all. I will bring out who I can to watch your spectacular show! So... If it's not too much trouble... Could you make this night like the nights over a thousand years ago?" I smiled at her. Hoping to make her as happy as I was to become when I watched the show that was yet to come.
She looked at me. and as tears of joy fell down her purple face, she nodded. " I shall make it the most spectacular night of all. For you, my little spirit sister. Be sure to clear all of the clouds that have been building up for so long on your neglected city. I will be watching more closely than ever before. But your time outside of the concious realm is over for a while." She touched my head with her horn as it began to glow. "Go help your own little sister. I cannot wait to show you my masterpiece."
I woke up, lying in a bed of metal. A large bump on my head. I was looking at a white ceiling. It was very bright in this room. As I looked around, I noticed machinery. I followed a cord to see what it could be hooked up to with it's rhythmic beeping. As I followed the cord, it lead closer to my body. The machine beeped faster as I realized what it was attached to... ME! I looked to my side, and I saw Sour Candy in a bed next to mine. With casts on her legs, but no machines. Only magazines and books on a table between us.
"H-hey, sleepy head." Said the filly who had only 24 hours ago, had nothing but fear of, and distain for; my existance. "Welcome back to your life."
I felt my forehead. "W-what happened to me? Where are we?" My machine beeped faster and faster as I grew anxious.
"Calm down. We're in a hospital. My mom thought you were Jack, and hit you on the head."
I calmed down a bit, "And where is madame conclusión?" I asked.
Sour giggled. "She's in the hall. Visiting hours ended a few minutes ago. And my mom reads the news. She signed you in under an alias as thanks for saving us. Nopony will know you with that cutie mark she drew on you." She smiled at me as she turned her head to look at me.
I looked down and pulled up the robe that I had been put in while unconscious, to see a dolphin on my flank. I giggled slightly. "And what's my new name?"
She winked. "New name? I don't know what you mean, Lemon Swirl." She giggled.
I found it to be an alright name, if not a bit creative. "Listen, can I ask you something?"
"Sure" She said.
"Can you stay up with me tonight? I have something to show you." I looked at a clock to see that it was 4:30 pm. In two hours, the sun would set. And in 4 the night would be nearing its great beginning.
"Sure, I guess. But what would you want to show me at night, that you can't show me now?" She said, suspiciously.
"Don't worry about it. It's a surprise. I'll tell you when it's time."
What would you have done?
As I ran towards the window, I noticed a door open in the room. Somepony was by Sour's hospital bed. "Oh no..." I said as I jumped into the window. "HOLD IT!"
The pony looked at me. All I could see was a silhouette of a unicorn. Definitely a mare. She turned on the lights, and smiled. She was a shade of yellow slightly darker than mine, with an orange mane, and sky blue, slanted eyes.
"Oh, hello Lemon. I'm just here to give Sour her painkillers." She said. She was in a nurse's outfit, but I wasn't about to let her lay a hoof on my friend without proof that she was doing as she said.
"Before you do anything, let me see your cutie mark." I said. and in reply she lifted her uniform enough for me to see her flank. It was a medical needle. 'Dammit... That could mean anything from PhD to poison!' "Do you have any other proof?" I asked. She looked at me angrily.
"Why are you being so difficult miss Shine?" She asked. I instantly tackled her to the floor
"What did you just call me?!" I asked, slapping her in the face.
Her eyes widened as she realized her mistake. "Dammit! Why couldn't you just be an idiotic foal?!" She squirmed, but I kept my grip.
Sour woke up and saw me on top of the assassin and gasped. "MOM!" She yelled.
When nopony appeared, the nurse impersonator grinned. "Looks like my friend has already started talking to the city council mare.~"
I looked down at her with great anger. My horn began to glow. 'No... Sour is in this tiny room with me. I'll just have to control myself a bit more this time.' I stomped on her chest, trying to crush her ribs, only to hurt my hooves on some kind of metal under her uniform.
She quickly pushed me to the side and smiled. "The name is Altonette. My friend, Brown and I are going to be the end of you!" she said as she got back on her hooves.
I got up. "You guys should stop sending me notes before you attack." I said, as I threw a false punch, and grabbed her outfit, pulling it off to reveal a small plate mail armor, that was attached to a furtight shirt of some kind.
"You didn't think I'd be ill prepared to fight the pony who killed Rake? If you'd only killed Jack, I wouldn't have been impressed, but Rake was one of the best." She said, pulling a dart of some kind out of her armor.
I glared at her. She threw the dart and I caught it with my magic. "And what is happening to Mrs. Lime?" I pushed Altonette back down and pointed the dart at her after taking it from the air with my hoof..
"She's only being taken by Brown for a talking to. Boss says we're supposed to take you alive. But I think she'd understand. For all Karron knows, you're too powerful to let live!" She laughed insanely. The noise of the high-pitched laugh grated my ears until they bled. I glared at her angrily. The only thing keeping me from collapsing was my determination. My need to protect Mrs. Lime and Sour Candy.
I couldn't move though. I couldn't budge an inch. The two centimeters I would have to move to puncture her jugular were untraversable. "W-what did you do me?" I asked as beakers, bulbs, and windows all over the room shattered, cutting everypony except for the well-covered Altonette, who had me and a suit of metallic armor as cover.
"GRAAAA! IT HURTS SO MUCH! BRIGHT SHINE HELP!" I heard Sour scream.
"NO! SOUR!" I said as I got cut by the shards of broken glass that were now scattering across the room. My blood dripped onto my assailant, and when the glass stopped falling, she jumped out from under me as her laughter finally stopped. She jumped around the room, and just as I regained mobility, she lunged for me.
"You're dead!" She shouted as she punched me in the face.
Much to her surprise and my own, I was still standing. My horn began glowing, and I realized. 'Oh shit... I'm not in control... But maybe I can control myself just enough to take the fight elsewhere.' I glared at her as she stood just next to me. And with a wave of my head, she was flung out the door into the hallway. Where, as bad luck would have it, there were many dead doctors and nurses. I hadn't thought that she'd get rid of anypony who could help in the entire hospital. But I wasn't out here for help. I was out here for a battleground without collateral damage, and she'd set the perfect one up for me.
I watched as my body took over, a bone from a dead nurse was taken out of it's body, and sharpened with my magic. "DIE! HEARTLESS BITCH!" I yelled as she quickly got up, drew two blades from the sleeves of her outfit, and came at me.
"YOU'RE THE BIIIIITCH!" She screamed as she ran towards me, swinging blades with her magic. I took the bone with my hoof, and with one swoop... It was over... I watched as it pierced a spot between the neck and the torso on her armor.
She coughed up blood, and with her last breath, she wheezed out. "Brown... why?" as she slid off of my bone blade.
I didn't have much time to question it, as I saw a spike of some sort was dug into her back. It was crusty, and red. I couldn't believe my eyes. I hadn't killed this mare... this was somepony else's doing. I looked across the hall, to see a brown unicorn stallion with a blood red mane. He was around the age of Altonette. And he had Mrs. Lime lying down next to him, coughing and bruised. "You weren't even worth keeping alive if you were gonna get stabbed in the throat. Brown Sugar's gonna take it from here."
My eyes widened. I couldn't believe what I had just seen. "S-she said she was your friend!" I yelled as I regained control of myself. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER? SHE WAS YOUR FRIEND!"
He laughed a low chuckle. "Friend? She was my weapon. My tool. She worked for me. I took priority over everything for her, and I was the one to kill her. I was her everything, and she was nothing to me. She would have been useless to me as a vegetable, so I killed her. It's that simple. Oh, but you're a naive little brat aren't you?" He said as I trembled in a mix between relief, sadness, fear, and anger.
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" I Screamed as I used my magic to pick up her blades and start swinging wildly as I ran towards him.
He caught me with something about half way there. Something had my hind hooves, and I was down right terrified. I looked behind me to see that not only had the spike disappeared from Altonette's back, but so had a lot of the blood on the bodies around me. And around my hooves, were crusty red shackles. 'W-What is this?!'
He walked towards me and I felt something take my horn, covering it. And the swords fell to the floor. I looked at him with what can only be described as a look of pleading. I was asking for mercy with my eyes, and he was laughing. He was laughing at me as he took a blade and cut open my cheek.
The blood crept upwards and I realized what was happening. 'He had control over blood? T-that's not normal magic...'
The blood created a solid edge that cut my face more as it traveled upward. And without my magic, I was helpless to stop Brown from killing me slowly. I whimpered as he slowly ran the liquid blade around my body. He truly took his time when it came to this. I squealed, screamed, and groaned, as I couldn't help but feel like he was getting off on my pain.
I glared at him as tears rolled down my face, onto my cuts and scars from the previous days. The pain became unbearable, my eyes grew heavy, my legs grew weak. I was fading out of consciousness. "Most ponies don't stay awake this long. You've lost a lot of blood. Let's see how much more you can lose before you finally pass out!"
I closed my eyes. Everything went silent except for one thing... -Ba-bump!- I heard the sound of a slow heartbeat. -Ba-bump!- It was becoming faster and faster. -ba-bump-ba-bump-ba-bump!- I opened my eyes, they were no longer something my brain used to see. They were windows out of a body that my lifeforce barely held onto. But as I held on, something snapped. I felt the power surge through me more than ever, and I realized... 'I'm not in control... FUCK YEAH!'
Never before was I so happy to see the yellow glow of my magic as a bright yellow light broke through the crusted blood along my horn, and melted it around my hooves, as Brown's eyes began to widen. "W-what are you?!" He asked, trembling in surprise, fear, and anger.
"I don't know... But I LOVE IT!" I heard myself say. As I began fighting hoof-to-hoof with the strange unicorn before me. Every now and again he would try and attack with needles of blood, I would dodge most of them, but it wasn't enough to keep him from hitting me sometimes. I laughed maniacally, as the struggle to survive became a struggle to kill.
He attacked furiously whenever he got a chance. But it seemed as though we were evenly matched, despite the amazing power that I had feared in myself for so long. And while I felt no pain, I could tell that I was weakening. I used magic to enhance my physical attacks aswell as throw large objects at him. And yet, he would always use surrounding blood as a shield or a weapon. The much larger stallion in front of me was doing everything he could to stop my attacks, while getting his own through pretty well. I finally landed a punch in his face that sent him flying, but he caught himself in mid-air and flipped onto his hooves.
"YOU LITTLE BRAT!" He yelled as he sent a thousand tiny needles of blood hurtling toward me. I dodged them with little apparent effort and ran at him, when I realized what his plan was. 'NO! IT'S A FAKE OUT!' But my body wouldn't listen to my mind as I tried so desperately to get myself turned around. I kept running forward, and as such, I became victim to an impalement.
A massive needle of blood had gone right through my stomach and into the ground, suspending me on a pillar of dried blood. I coughed up blood, which was swiftly used as a way to pin my ears to my head in quite a gruesome display. I looked at Brown Sugar, realizing something. 'He has no weapon left. my legs are mostly free! And I have magic still!' But my body just stood there, hooves dangling above the ground, head hung down. Almost lifeless.
Brown drew closer, as I noticed one pony behind him. One nurse, still alive, and becoming conscious once more. She looked at the situation, grabbed a syringe, and quietly crept up behind him. "So, brat! How does it feel to be helpless? How does it feel to know that you died for nothing?! Lime Green is going to be our tool, or she's going to disappear. You're dead! And nopony can stop the Wolf Clan anymore!" He laughed, and just as the nurse got to him with the syringe, he drew the red out of his mane and stabbed her in the head with it. His real mane color was black... He was hiding blood in his mane the whole time as a backup... and now that poor mare was dead...
I quickly used my magic to take the needle from her hoof, and inject him in the neck with whatever was inside it. "GAAAAH!" He screamed. Whatever it was, it must've burned for a moment before taking effect. I took this time to take the blood spike from the nurse's head, and jab it into his with magic.
As he slowly silenced, all of the crusted blood around me, and in me melted into what it was when the ponies from whom it came were living. And I quickly ran over to Lime. "Mrs. Lime! Come on, we need to get Sour and you to a new hospital!" I said as I regained control, and unfortunately also pain.
I coughed up blood and picked up the bruised mare, taking her towards Sour Candy's room. "Tonight... Has been a bit crazy..."
Author's Note
Brown pulled a total Vegeta right there. Damn. Did I really just write that?
What would you have done?
I gathered my injured companions, and levitated them with magic, doing what I could to help them immediately. I did my best to resist the urge to dismember every dead body in the hospital, and instead, focused on finding somepony to take us to another hospital. I walked out of the hospital, carrying my barely breathing frie- no... Family. They were family to me now, and I wasn't going to give up on them. The same way I didn't give up on the corpses of my aunt and uncle.
I looked up from the ground the second I saw a set of hooves, only to find a familiar, and unwelcome face. Big-Eyes Mc-muteface was back. "Dammit, leave me alone..." I said, as I stumbled, growing dizzy from loss of blood.
He grabbed my hoof with his own, and helped me stay up. She then began walking towards the eastern hospital, while holding my hoof.
"W-what are you doing?" I asked. I couldn't put this colt together. 'He catches my attention, then disappears with an eerie message. Then when all seems okay, he brings some poor mare to me who decides to try and kill me, all be it with reason, but still... Then he writes another message and ruins a night that didn't belong to him in the first place... And now... He's helping?' I had no clue how to react. I decided not to look a gift friend in the mouth, and follow him.
We eventually arrived, and all three of the girls in our little party were swiftly carried into rooms, and given many painkillers, some magic health therapy sessions, and any immediate treatment they required. And as I lay in my hospital bed, practically paralyzed by the painkillers mixed with the leftover pain.
I sighed. "I... Mus... Pro....tect... them...." I said, trying to get up in the hopes of finding Lime and Sour's rooms. This, however was to no end. But as I struggled, the door opened, and three officers, as well as a doctor walked in. The officers were somewhat odd. One was a skinny unicorn stallion with a weaselesque voice. Another, a rotund pegasus stallion, who looked as though he could not fly. And finally, a professional looking, red-maned, earth mare with a peach-toned coat of fur. The doctor was a blue stallion with a black mane and glasses, and had an average body shape.
The doctor spoke in monotone. "This is the filly you asked to see, officers. We don't have a name. The pony who brought her in here appeared to be mute, and she was too injured to speak. She came in with two other ponies. A grown mare, and a filly just younger than this one."
The professional-looking mare took one look at me, and nodded to her associates. She looked to the doctor, and spoke in a voice much like a mare in the military would. "Could you give us a moment?"
The doctor nodded and left swiftly, closing the door behind him.
The big pegasus looked at me and nodded. "This is her. Bright Shine. She's injured, captain. Are you sure we can just start asking questions?" He said.
The mare was the next to talk. "Chief says she's our primary suspect. If we let her heal, she could just leave whenever. This may be our only chance to clear things up." She said as she walked towards me, and in a calm, but serious voice, she asked. "Do you know of the death of your aunt and uncle?"
Unable to speak audibly, I just nodded. It was better to tell certain truths, and to keep a few secrets, than to keep it all secret and seem suspicious. I felt my eyes start to fall. I was getting quite tired. It was around noon, and I hadn't slept the night before.
"And do you know the state they were in when we found the bodies two meters underground in an unmarked grave under what ponies say was your room before it became a gaping hole in your house?" She seemed to be trying to guilt me into telling the truth, though I had nothing to hide.
At the image of what I did in my mind... The way I reacted to my dead family... I began crying. The pain was not tear worthy. The sleepyness was nothing. And the intense hunger was also unable to drive me to tears... But I couldn't help but cry as I pictured the entrails of my family strewn about like streamers. I relived the pain of trying to put them back together.
The mare nodded, understanding my pain. "I suppose you couldn't have killed them then... The odd thing is, their bodies were found perfectly fine other than some fractured bones. Which means we couldn't find the cause of death. Do you have any clue as to what happened, miss Shine?"
I nodded, and spoke the first, shaky words to them. "D-draw... paper... pen...cil... but... hurts..."
"Get this filly some drawing materials!" She said sternly to what I could only assume by the pins were her lieutenants.
They ran out and came back in with a red crayon and some paper. It was pretty fitting that the crayon was red... But not in the laughable way.
I took the crayon and paper, and drew in great detail, the terrible fate of my aunt and uncle. And on the wall, I wrote "Your turn" On top of the page, I wrote "How I found them... I tried to fix them..."
I passed the paper to the skinny unicorn, and lay back on the bed, closing my eyes from a little bit while they inspected my sick still-frame of memory. I heard mumbles from the group, "Can we trust this?" Said the weaselly one.
"I don't see why we can't." Said the chubby one.
"This obviously needs to be brought to the chief. But I think we can let her go for now as far as this goes.She's obviously not in a position to answer our questions." Said the mare, and they quickly left.
They turned off the lights on their way out, leaving me in the dark with nothing but silence. I decided the best thing to do, was sleep.
I fell soundly asleep, and watched as the dream world flowed around me once more. I saw Luna, being as happy as I'd ever seen anypony.
"Thank you, Bright Shine."
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What would you have done?
Chapter 6 Hunger pains, story time, and a stolen show.
I looked around, bored, and yet excited. In just a few hours, I would part the clouds above my disgusting home town, and hopefully change at least one life. That life being the life of a princess, it was well worth a 3 and a half hour wait.
Within the next twenty minutes, my stomach began acting up again. "GAAH! OWowowowowowowowow!" I pushed my hooves against my stomach, as if I were trying to toss out the foul thing.
"What's wrong?!" My hospital buddy inquired with panic. As the beeping of my machine got faster and faster. A nurse walked in and started asking questions. With my eyes closed, I could hardly tell whether her voice was on one side or another.
"Miss Swirl. When was the last time you ate?" she asked.
"What kind of question is tha-!..." I hadn't eaten since the day before the incident! "I-it's been four or five days..." I said.
The nurse left for a moment and came back with food. "Here. It's hayseed soup."
I opened my eyes for a moment to take the spoon and drink some soup. I found it quite satisfying. As the pain slowly faded, I gave a nod to the nurse and said. "I'll have more in the morning. I think I need to make sure it all settles first."
The nurse left quickly out the door to attend to another patient.
Sour candy looked at me. "Five days?" she inquired.
I looked back at her. "Something like that." I said.
"I never got a chance to ask... Why didn't you go to your own house after the fight with Rake?"
"I...I don't have a home anymore. Your mom reads the paper, right? Has she not told you what the police say happened?"
Sour Candy just shook her head.
"My parents died a long time ago... and so I was living with my aunt and uncle. At first I thought my parents died of suicide, or a freak accident... As it turns out, Jack Alaska killed them. My mom was on the city guard. Nopony ever told me her rank. But she must've caught the attention of the Wolf Clan... Anyway, my aunt and uncle were murdered on Saturday... I got the blame because I'm a teenager, and the room the bodies were in... Which was mine, i might add. Was exploded with my magic.. out of sorrow."
Sour sighed. "I...I didn't know... Now I suppose I understand your ferocity against Rake..."
I nodded. "It hurts a lot... And now that I know your situation... I'm not about to let that happen to you."
I looked at the clock. It was already 7:30. "In 30 minutes, I'm going to show you... And the entire city... How much I mean that."
She smiled. "You don't even need to be in that bed anymore, do you."
I winked. "I have to get some rest somehow, right?"
We chatted for the next 28 minutes, and I got up when the lights went out in the hall and they turned our lights off aswell.
I was gleaming with anticipation. "Time to go." I said as I walked up to Sour.
"Got it." she said as I helped her onto my back.
We walked outside, and as luck would have it, we were on the bottom floor. We quickly escaped the lobby, and exited through the double doors. I looked to the sky, and smiled. "Let's wake everypony up first~"
I used my magic to bang trashcans together all along the block. and as ponies turned their lights on, and stepped outside, I dropped the cans and pointed my horn to the sky. With all of my might, I cut through the clouds with glee, and the bright yellow glow, that was finally more of a blessing than a curse. and as beams of moonlight cast a faint glow through the cracks, I parted the clouds entirely. Ponies around me were ooh-ing and aah-ing at the sight they were experiencing. As the clouds parted, we could finally see the moon. Luna's masterpiece, however... Was being blocked by the light of a city that was used to needing it. I glared at a streetlamp, and one by one the yellow aura broke them, letting us escape from the light pollution, and finally see the stars. Those beautiful stars that shone brighter than any diamond. In shapes that I thought I would never get to see. In the sky, a certain constellation caught the attention of the two young fillies who watched in front of the hospital. I pointed to a shape amongst the stars... and surely enough, Sour Candy was already on the subject.
"OH MY GODDESS! YOU'RE IN THE STARS!" She said, looking at my profile of stellar proportions.
"Yeah... Looks like she really did want to make it special..." I smiled at the sky, knowing my royal big sister was watching. among the still stars, there were falling ones, clouds of brightened nebula filled the sky with orange and purple glows as ponies inside and out of the hospital cheered the name of the princess who dared to care for a land that nopony wanted any part of.
"LUNA! LUNA! LUNA! LUNA! LUNA! LUNA!" They cheered. I backed into a corner with Sour Candy, so as not to be recognized with my face in the sky. I smiled brightly. The first smile that I felt I deserved since Saturday.
"You know, I'd love to know your explanation for this." Said a content Sour Candy from behind me.
"You might believe me now that I have this as proof." I smiled and looked at Sour Candy. "She's been visiting me in my dreams since the night after my aunt and uncle died. She's been doing her best to get me on the right track. And I promised her a favor in return. She wanted to see her night sky be enjoyed by ponies just once. I told her that I'd do what I could to part the clouds, and get ponies to look to the sky. It looks like after a thousand years,she got her only wish." I smiled and looked directly at the moon.
I then decided to see what other ponies were doing. At a glance, ponies were climbing to the rooftops, and pegasi were sitting on the few remaining clouds. And for one moment, I thought everything to be perfect. No routines, or destruction of such. Nopony telling me that all of this is out of either love or fear. It was all just respect for beauty.
"Hey, Lemon?" Sour said. "Do you know that colt?"
I looked at her, and then in the direction she was looking in. And as I expected, the only pony who could possibly have ruined this. The only pony I knew, who was alive to ruin the perfect night. Looking directly at me, was the big eyed stallion. I decided to ignore him. "He's nopony." I said.
But as if to spite me, my mute annoyance flew to the sky. His gigantic wings attracted the attention of most of the ponies. Distracting them from what I had promised to show them. He flew in circles, and began lining up clouds to form letters. I watched with anger as he spelled out the word "Meaningful"
"Find me.... Meaningful?" I looked at him with great amounts of anger for stealing a show that didn't belong to either of us. Find me meaningful. I was sure this was a message directed at me. He kept looking right at me. His huge, amber eyes, trying to tell me something.
The ponies on the rooftops all seemed mesmerized. Like something inside them had clicked, and they decided that this was more important than Luna's hard work. He blew the clouds away with his wings, and landed on the street. Ponies followed him, unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi alike, followed him down the street.
"Where do you think those ponies are going?" Asked Sour.
" I don't know, and I don't care." I said.
"Do you want to go inside?"
I sighed and smiled. "Not really. But you can if you want to." I used my magic to open the window of our room, and I walked over to it.
"Unlike you, I didn't get any rest today. So I need some sleep. Thank you for understanding."
I nodded and lifted her gently. Floating her onto her bed, where she would hopefully be safe for the night. I closed the window and walked over to a patch of grass in front of the hospital, sitting in it. I looked up again, and in the beautiful sky, there were more words in the form of clouds. "My turn so soon?" It said.
"DAMMIT!" I said as I looked back at the hospital and began running towards the window of my room.
