The Flower of Despair

The lake in front of me sparkled as sunlight beamed down on to it. I griped my pocket watch tightly as I took in the scene. The watch was gold, with a inscription of a sun on one side and a moon on the other.

"Celestia, I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it."

(Age: 21)

I was sitting on a chunk of cobblestone that had been broken off of the castle, staring at my newly bandaged hands. It was morning, the sun shone through gaps in the clouds as I sighed and looked up. Tia was explaining my being here to the guards and Lulu was trying to catch a butterfly with her hooves in the remains of a garden.

"Are you sure, princess? I've never seen anything like... that," I overheard one of the guards say.

Tia looked at me for a brief moment, then back to the guard, "We are sure. He may seem monstrous, but he is trustworthy. His actions prove it."

"As you wish," he said. The guards seemed uneasy when I gazed at them, but I didn't care.

"Our sister may have fallen for your ruse, but we won't. We know thou art plotting something." I turned to my verbal assailant and raised my eyebrow at Lulu. "Don't give us that look, whelp. Who art thou working for?!"

I was about to lash back with my own harsh words, but a better idea hit me. "Someone," I shrugged.

The filly groaned, "Be more specific!"

"Someone important."

"WHO!? How important?! What do they do?!"

"A very important manager of sorts," I said smugly.

The blue filly's eye involuntary twitched as she glared at me. "We hope thy death is long and painful..."

"In a fire?" I asked. 'I guess a little bit of Solana rubbed off on me...'

She launched herself at me with a ferocious cry. However, she was caught in a golden glow just inches away from me. "Let go, Tia!" she yelled as she struggled to break free of her sister's magical grip. "He only acts as an ally, but he is evil! We cannot be wrong!"

The young, white mare trotted up beside me and sighed at her sister's antics. "Lulu, just because thou doth not trust him, doesn't mean that his purpose here is evil," Tia explained. She closed her eyes and hummed, "What could we do to make thou trust him... Oh! Let us play hide and seek!"

"No," we both said flatly.

"Oh well. Looks like chefs will 'forget' to make pie tonight..." she said with a fake disappointed frown.

Lulu suddenly glared dagger at me, "Thou will play, whelp! We will have our pie!"

"No, I won't. I don't have to play your games, I need to leave," I stated. I turned and started walking away from the two, 'I can't let them keep me here, I need to get back to master!'

"Oh~?" Tia hummed with a false tone of interest. "Even without this?" I turned to her and saw my knife levitating in front of her.

My heart stopped. Frantically, I swiped at the knife, trying desperately to get back what was stolen from me. "Give that back! You have no idea how much that means to me!" I yelled. However, every time I reached for the knife, it was pulled out of my reach.

"Then play with us. Thy weapon will be returned after the game," she explained.

I glared at her, "Fine! But it will be humiliating for you by how much you lose!"

"Fine, but thou art seeking. The rules are no magic and no flying, and we will only hide in and around the castle. The game ends at sundown if thy efforts are in vain," the filly explained.

"And thou must count to one hundred!" Lulu added.

I quickly turned around and closed my eyes, "One, two..." I heard them scamper off into the distance. I honestly thought about leaving, but the thought of losing that knife just after receiving it from my master made me reconsider. "...nindy-nine, one hundred." I turned back to where the fillies once stood.

I'd seen this game played before back at school, but I never participated mainly because I thought it was a waste of time. However, I did contemplate how someone could excel at that game, and I found my answer really useful.

I crouched down and gazed at my key to win. The rain from before had made the ground muddy, and the sisters had left tracks. Smiling at my fortune, I decided to follow the smaller tracks first. 'Catch the easier prey first and have more time to catch the other,' I thought. I got up and followed her tracks carefully, making sure not to lose them in the blend of all the others that were made by the guards. They led into the castle and luckily, muddy hoof prints continued where they left off.

I was led through several corridors, rooms, and stairs, but eventually the tracks ended up going through a hall that had hooves lining the walls. I was thoroughly creeped out by this hall's mere existence, 'Why would these sisters have something like this? They didn't strike me as the type to like creepy things...' I followed the tracks through the hall, but they suddenly made a sharp turn into a wall, where they suddenly ended. Confused, I started looking for a way into the wall without using magic. I found scratch marks on the stone floor, like something heavy had been dragged along the floor recently. There was also a hoof-sized hole in the wall, about a meter from the ground.

"A fake wall... I'm going to have to be more careful, there's more than meets the eye to this castle," I whispered to myself. There was a scuffling noise coming from the hole in the wall. I looked inside, but I saw only darkness. I was sure that she was in there, but I wasn't sure how she got in. 'Maybe there's a switch on the other side...'

I reached in to the hole with one of my bandaged hands and felt around. Suddenly, my hand screamed in pain and I pulled it out of the wall. I examined my hand to find a bite mark imprinted on the wrappings! "You bitch! You bit me!"

"Then we suggest that thou refrain from sticking thy hand in holes from now on!" The blue menace replied.

I was about to tear the wall down with magic and kick the living shit out of her, but I realized something and smiled smugly. "I really must thank you for that, Lulu!" She didn't respond. "You've saved me the trouble of trying to catch you!"

"DAMN IT!" She swore. She continued to swear up and down as I walked away to find her sister.

I went back to where the game started and looked at the sky. The sun was only a quarter way in its cycle. 'Plenty of time to annihilate her...' I thought. I looked back to the ground, found Tia's hoof prints, and followed them back into the castle. 'Fools. They have absolutely no experience thinking about how to cover—'

They stopped. The tracks vanished in the middle of the hall, without a trace! Gone! '...damn... I spoke too soon...' I looked around for any signs of disturbance, but found nothing. I sighed and walked down the hall that the tracks were leading to. At the end was a marble bench in front of a set of three, tall pedestals, the next larger than the last. Each one held a different coloured vase and behind them hung a red curtain.

I sat on the bench and thought about what to do next. There weren't many clues to where she went and I didn't know her well enough to predict where she would hide. I sighed as I realized that I would need assistance in finding Tia. Then, there was a set of hoof steps coming from my right. The pony stopped and sat on the bench with me. I looked to see who would be daring enough to join me, and found Lulu hanging her head.

She sighed, "We thought that we would have had a chance at victory this time... Our sister beats us every time, you see."

"So, you have no leads either. Great," I said, disappointed that I may lose after all. We sighed at the same time.

She threw her from hooves up into the air and stretched, "We might as well get comfortable. We will be waiting awhile before— Woah!" She lost her balance and fell backwards off of the bench and into one of the pedestals. It didn't topple over, but the impact made the vase wobble, and it fell towards Lulu's head.

I caught it nonchalantly and turned to the filly, "You really need to be more careful."

"Be quiet, whelp!" She countered. "Your filthy claws got our vase dirty!" '...But, my hands are bandaged...' Intrigued, I examined the vase thoroughly and found that there was a dash of dryer mud on the back of it. I then looked to the pedestal that held the vase and saw that there were traces of mud on top of it. 'Why would there be...' I looked at the other pedestals and the curtain. There was a small horizontal fold in the curtain near the highest pedestal. '...That sneaky bitch...' I thought.

I walked over to the wall and motioned for Lulu to be quiet. I grabbed the curtain and pulled down, tearing it from it's rod and letting it and Tia fall down. I caught the filly in both arms and looked at her in her daze. "You lose," I bragged. I dropped her and she landed with a "umph." "Where is my knife?" I asked in a stern tone.

"Not yet, thou still needs to win," she said, rubbing what she landed on.

"What do you mean!? I caught you both!"

"Thou still needs to hide from us!" Lulu explained.

I groaned angrily, "Fine! Start counting!" They turned around and started counting. I ran as fast as I could down the hall that I came from. 'Need a spot! Need a spot!' I urged my self. Halls and doors rushed past me as I ran.

I turned down random halls as I searched. Eventually, I opened a door to a spiral staircase. I looked to see if anyone was watching me, then I ran up the stairs. At the top was two guards and a door. I ran passed them yelling, "Orders from the princess!" I opened and ran through the door, closing it and putting my back to the wall.

I was in a light, sky blue room with a white bed with a sun in the centre, a blue bed with a full moon in the center, a large dresser complete with a mirror, a window with white drapes, and a purple carpet. 'This must be their bedroom...' I thought. 'Since I'm here and they've caused me so much trouble, I might as well find out what I'm dealing with here.' I walked around the room, looking for potential hiding places if the sisters were to walk in on me. After finding that I could fit under the white bed, I went over to the dresser to investigate.

As I dug through the various articles of clothing in the dresser, my hand hit something hard. Grabbing the object, I pulled it out to find that it was a book with no title. Curious, I opened the book and read the first sentence I saw.

"Dear diary," 'Jackpot.' Tia, or should I say Celestia's diary held many secrets for me to use against her. Oh, all the blackmail! There were mistakes, crushes, and parental issues! And I also learnt the real name of the blue one: Luna. If the worse came to pass, then I could just use it as a bargaining chip for my knife. However, I wasn't going to pass this up, there was too much gold!

"He went in there, Princess," I heard from the hall. "He said it was an order from you." I quickly closed the dresser, stashed the diary in my cloak, ran over to the window, opened said window, and dove under the bed. As the door slammed open, I turned onto my back to a more comfortable position.

I heard two sets of hooves gallop towards the window. After a few seconds, Luna shouted, "He must have gone out the window!" One of the set of hooves ran out of the room, but I didn't hear the other pair.

After a few minutes, my heart was pounding. I was positive I had heard only one set of hooves, so why wasn't she moving?!

I was then suddenly crushed between the bed and the floor. It took all of my will power to not make a noise. I took a quiet deep breath in and out to deal with the sudden pressure on my body. "Oh, what shall we do!?" Celestia lamented sarcastically. "This creature is so hard to find! Truly a formidable foe!"

'She's bluffing, She's bluffing, She's bluffing, She's bluffing, She's bluffing,' I repeatedly told myself. Then, Celestia started jumping on the bed, killing me even more. "What, ever, shall, we, do?!" She said with every bounce.

It was at that moment that I realized the unbelievable power of my semi-immortality.

When she finally stopped, I was laying with my body limp, eyes closed, and mouth open. I involuntarily groaned as my body ached with pain. The filly jumped off the bed and joined me under the bed. She sandwiched herself between me and the bed. Our noses touched as she said, "Caught thou."

"You cannot comprehend how much I hate you right now," I groaned.

She giggled, "We can understand. Thou may not believe it, but we wished for you to come."

"What?" I questioned.

"We are the same. We both feel that we are... out of place. Our sister and I have not had real friends since birth. We wished that someone who could understand us would be our friend," she explained.

I stared into her eyes before announcing, "You have one hell of a way of making friends." She giggled and I closed my eyes. "So, this is your real reason for stealing my knife?"

"Yes. We apologize for our actions," she apologized. Her horn started to glow and my knife levitated on to my hand. "Here is what was taken from thou."

I sighed and wished I hadn't listened to her: I felt guilty for trying to leave. "Congratulations, your plan worked," I said. She gave me a quizzical look and I explained, "I'll stay, but only for a short time."

Celestia wrapped her front legs around my neck, "Oh, we thank thou to no end! Please, stay with us for at least three days."

"...Fine," I sighed.

She gave me a small kiss on the cheek and rolled from underneath the bed, running from the room. I stayed under the bed for a while afterwards, gently rubbing the cheek she kissed. 'I've never been kissed by a girl before...' I thought.

I ended up staying a month. They roped me into doing the craziest things imaginable. I mean, they made me dance! Who in tartarous makes the demigod of despair dance! If anybody had found out about it, I wouldn't hear the end of it.

However, they made me feel things that I had never felt before. Something inside me changed. Eventually, I started willingly joining their escapades.

I was happy. I had made friends.

I smiled for the first time in a long time.

Celestia got Luna to warm up to me after the first few days, then we would do whatever we wanted. We took walks, played pranks on the guards and servants, and talked like normal people. Well, as close to normal as you can get with a hairless ape and two ponies with wings and a horn.

I'll never forget the night before I had to leave. We were on a balcony that faced the horizon at sunset. I was lying down on the railing with my back against the wall, watching Tia and Lulu argue over who was going to raise the moon that night.

"But, you said we could do it!" Luna complained.

Celestia sighed, "Lulu, we just don't want you to get hurt."

"Besides," I added, "there's a difference between wanting to do something and being able to do it, Blue-butt."

Luna glared at me, "Stop calling us that!" She turned to her sister, "Tia, please! We know we can do it!"

The sun princess closed her eyes, shook her head, and sighed, "Fine... But if thou starts to fail, we will intervene."

"Yes!" Blue-butt cheered. Luna did a little victory dance while chanting, "We're gonna raise the moon~! We're gonna raise the moon~!"

I turned my head to Celestia, "You sure about this, Sun-butt?"

"What could possibly go wrong?" she sarcastically asked.

I looked to Luna to find her stretching her limbs. I pinched the bridge of my nose, 'Oh for the love of Zero...' She then leaped into the air and flew towards the horizon. She stopped not to far away from us and threw her hooves up into the air. Then, she started flying up over us, pushing the moon into place. However, Luna's face was contorted in stress and she started losing altitude. "Uh oh, she's going to fall!" I announced.

Celestia leaped off of the balcony towards her sister, opening her wings majestically and soaring through the air. She speeded underneath Luna as she started to fall and caught her on her back. Celestia then glided back to me and landed with grace.

Luna leapt off of her sister's back and glared at her. "Tia!" She complained. "Thou did not have to catch us! We were fine!" As she started to bicker with Tia, I noticed something different about her. On her flank was a large ink stain with a white crescent moon in it. However, before I could point it out, Luna shouted, "We hate thou!" and stormed off.

Celestia looked distraught as she sighed, "Oh, what are we going to do now?"

"Don't worry," I comforted her, "she'll forget about it after she finds out that she got her cutie mark."

She whipped her head to give me a quizzical look, "What?!"

"Yes. You didn't notice?" I asked. Tia shook her head and I shrugged.

"Will thou wait for us here? We must make amends with our sister and put her to bed," she explained.

"Yes, yes... I'll be right here when you get back," I said as I waved my hand at her to go. Celestia walked off into the castle and left me to stare at the newly raised moon.

I hummed to myself as I waited for my friend to return. I closed my eyes and tapped my foot with the rhythm of my song.

Suddenly, something light fell on to my lap. I looked down to see a small letter laying there. I picked it up and examined it. It had no send or return address on it, and the seal bore no symbol of any kind. I opened it and read it in the light of the moon.

The content of the letter still gives me shame, even when I remember it. To paraphrase the letter, "Shame on you for not even trying to find a way back. I'm glad you have made friends with the two princesses, but you had a mission. Someone will come to bring you back in the morning." My heart sank at the fact that I had failed my master, but it sank even farther to know I was leaving.

Celestia trotted out on to the balcony when I looked up from the letter. She sighed, "Luna is asleep and we think we've made up..." I didn't respond, and this caused her to turn to me, "Why the long face? And where did thou get that letter?" She asked.

"I..." I paused to steel myself for what I was about to say, "I have to leave. I'm going tomorrow."

She waited and stared at me with anticipation. Celestia's look then turned to one of disappointment, "Aw, we thought that thou were building up to something..."

I became frustrated with the filly, "Tia, I'm being serious here! I cannot stay any longer! My master is already furious with me! He's sending someone to pick me up tomorrow morning!"

Her look turned to one of sadness, "But... But... We don't want you to go..." Tears formed in her eyes, "This is so sudden...
Do you—?"

"Yes! I was supposed to return immediately!" I explained.

Celestia looked down, letting her tears drip on to the floor. "B-b-but, t-thou wi-ll s-ta-y for t-tonight...?" she cried.

I sighed, "Yes, the only time we have left is tonight. I'm sorry that we don't have more..." I hopped down from the rail and gave the filly a tight hug.

As she buried her face into my shoulder, she asked of me something that I'll never forget or disobey. "P-please, w-whate-ever thou d-do, come back! Pr-romise us that thou will come bac-k! We don't c-are how lon-g it takes! Just come back to us!"

I held her even tighter, "I will. I promise."

We sat there for a very long time. So long that Tia actually fell asleep in my arms and I had to carry her back to her bed. She was heavy, but soft and huggable. It was an enjoyable experience.

As I walk past Luna in her bed and lay Celestia on her's, I began to pull away. However, I felt the filly's hooves pull me closer. I looked to see her sad, tired eyes staring at me. "Please stay here. We don't want to be alone," she whispered. I sighed and reluctantly slipped in beside her. She snuggled closer and I wrapped my arms around her. "Zero Two?" she asked.

"Yes?" I responded.

"...thou art our only friend."

"I know. You're my only friend, too."

And with that, we fell asleep together.

I stood on the edge of the forest with Luna and Celestia at my back, waiting for my pick-up. Both of my friends were sad I was leaving, but they sat and waited with me, which was nice. I waited with my back to them because I couldn't look them in the eye without tearing up. Also, I could feel their despair and I wad trying not to feed off of them.

"There you are!" came a sudden voice from the forest. A small dark figure was running through the trees towards me, but stopped before they could be seen.

The voice seemed very familiar, "Scarlet? Is that you?" I called out.

"Yes! Now hurry up already!" she urged. "Your master has been throwing all kinds of excuses for your disappearance!"

I turned to the two fillies behind me and opened my mouth to say something, but nothing would come out. Instead of talking, the sisters ran up and gave me a tight hug together. I tried to hug back, but each one of them had one of my arms pinned. When they let go, Celestia held out a golden pocket watch, with a sun imprinted on one side and a crescent moon on the other. "It's to help you remember us..." Tia said.

"Thank you... I will keep my promise to you, Tia," I said. She nodded in confirmation and I then turned back to Scarlet. I walked to her and asked, "How do we get back?"

She held out a hoof-sized gem, "With this." The gem started to glow, but then it got brighter and brighter! And then suddenly, we were gone...