Project: Underground

Now soaring quickly over the roof of the oddly shaped castle, I could barely hear the mad flapping of Violet's wings behind me. She was catching up, and fast. Struggling to keep my speed as fast as possible, I watched the old shingles on the castle roof slope up steeply into a spire. 'I could maybe lose her up here...' I thought to myself as I steered up sharply to conform to the slope of the roof. I ignored the sounds of Violet's flapping and the strain in my shoulderblades as I found myself pointed straight up, my flight path now parallel to the skinny tower. Noticing that it had a balcony around the top of it, I quickly hatched a plan.

Hooves outstretched in front of me and pulling back as my flight took me over the circular balcony, I felt some absolutely wicked forces acting on my body as I pulled down over the pointed tower. I could literally feel my insides being pressed against my spine, which was both exhilarating and painful at the same time. Making sure that Violet saw where I went before, I stretched my wings as far out as they would go, slowing me to a near-stop as I felt a horrendous amount of pain in my shoulderblades. Taking full advantage of my slow speed and the fact that Violet couldn't see me, I grabbed hold of the railing on the other side of the balcony with my forehooves. In one smooth move, I swung underneath the balcony, grabbed hold of a loose shingle with my back hooves, and stayed as still as possible.

Hearing the 'whooshes' of wind above me coming from Violet's wings, I made a prayer to the dead Celestia that I wouldn't be found. Heart pounding and my lungs wheezing, I tried to keep as quiet as possible as my grip became sweaty and shaky. Looking down at the ruins of Canterlot below, I realized two things:

One. We were really fucking high up.

Two. The lower part of Canterlot had developed a massive, jagged, darkened fault in the middle of the suburbs that tore the entire city in two from the ground up. It looked like a lot of the dust had cleared, giving me a better look at what appeared to be hundreds of dead bodies lying in the streets below. There was death everywhere.

Chocking back a feeling that drew the line between vomiting and sobbing, I could feel my grip becoming shakier and shakier by the second. Knowing that Violet was actively searching for me, I knew that I would have to change location soon. With that thought on my part, I started inching my way clockwise around the underside of the balcony. Vertigo struck me more and more for every inch I moved.

I made about a meter in distance before my hooves caught hold of a loose shingle and ripped it off, making a scratched tearing sound like cardboard being ripped in half. The sound echoed over the balcony, and I knew at that second that I was in huge trouble. In a sudden state of panic, I let go of the balcony entirely. Suddenly in an intense free-fall, I could see the roof of the castle get closer as the sensation of insane speed took over me once again. The shingles of the tower walls flew past me as I though about what I could do next that wouldn't get me killed.

I had no time to think. I had no time left. The roof had pulled up to a point where I had to pull up or I would die. Suddenly feeling an unreal amount of pressure on my ribcage and my wings, the landscape in front of my eyes quickly changed from the roof to the night sky above. Now having to face the challenge of avoiding the oddly-shaped rooftops, I found myself heaving my own body over mounds of marble and glass, headed for the mountain.

I heard a searing scream behind me, easily comparable to a mad banshee. I instantly knew it was Violet. Trying ever harder to get to the edge of the castle with a plan, my mind almost froze in midair. Almost as if time itself had bent it's way around my thoughts, I was suddenly able to think clearly as Violet was hunting me down.

Still in what felt like a state of near-pause, I realized that I had something that Violet didn't: My gun. Reaching the end of the castle and soon finding myself looking at the ground from several meters up, I rammed a hoof into my own side, whipped out the gun, and loaded it as fast as I could. I looked back to see how far back she was from me, nearly having another heart attack at the sight of Violet only being a couple meters behind me, war face and everything.

Thinking quickly but feeling slowly, I decided to surprise her. Pulling down as hard as I possibly could, I felt my entire body cramming down on my spine and wings while I watched the grassy mountainside tumble over me as I nearly grazed my back on it. Trying to hold my gun as steadily as possible, I realized something else: I couldn't kill Violet, but I could beat the fuck out of her as much as I wanted.

Trying to keep the element of surprise on my side as I came full circle with my loop, I spotted Violet once again. I aimed the gun at her back, I found myself with the perfect shot: Her wing. Doing without thinking as I struggled to keep the gun up with the insane forces on it, I crammed my hoof down on the trigger hole as a small explosion was summoned at my hooftips and an explosion of crimson was summoned at Violet's right wing. She went tumbling and spiraling straight out of the night air, spitting out screams and blood the entire way down until she hit the grassy mountainside with a wicked 'THUD'.

My mind instantly snapped out of it's slow motion state as I flung out my wings, bringing me to a sudden hover over Violet's point of painful impact.

"Oh shit... What have I done..." I painfully asked myself as I thought about where to go next. Cringing at the writhing body, I pushed over the sight with the thought that I did what I needed to do.

A thought suddenly came to me. Where were Pick, Boldkey and Luna? They had to be on this mountain still, right? Tossing aside both the question and the immense amount of tiredness that flushed through me in midair, I made a sudden decision to head inside the window that I had come out of just a minute before.

Back at the window a few minutes later, I desperately tried to recover from my shaky flight. Flying through the broken window and down onto the second floor of the library, I stretched my hooves out in a klutzy enough manner to make me tumble down to the ground in both defeat and victory. Once I realized that I was inside the building safely, I looked back up and noticed that the  jagged edges of the shattered window frame had blood dripping down the entire lower side.

Knowing instantly what that could have meant, I got on all fours and swiped a shaking hoof across my back, causing a tearing pain to rip through both my back and my leg, letting some of my blood soak into the fur on my leg. Disgust, pain and hate swept through me.

"Sweet. Fucking. Celestia."

Those were the last words that I remember saying before I collapsed into an epic faceplant right there in the library.

I awoke to two things: An insanely bright light and the sound of Pick's voice.

"Starnote? Boldkey? Luna?! Anypony?!? Help me!!" His voice hinted panic.

I snapped out of my sleep deprived state and opened my eyes all the way to find nothing but a bright light completely impairing my sight.

"Pick? Where are you? Were are we?" I tried to respond as I tried to follow the sound of his voice, revealing to me my own position. I was cuffed to a metal bed, standing up with my limbs spread apart. Even my wings, which had a bizarre sensation of throbbing soreness that I can safely say that I had never felt before and never want to feel again.

The sudden change in my position scared the hell out of me, and I started to panic. Heart racing, I tried to piece together the pieces of the newly presented puzzle: Where was I and why was I here. Before I could think any further, Pick responded, clearly just as scared as I was. "Starnote? I hope that's really you. I'm not sure, but it can't be good. Where were you when you were knocked out? I mean, you just woke up, so..."

Through uneven gasps, I responded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I guess I was in the library... And I had just shot Violet about a minute before."

"You did WHAT?! Good fuck, you're sounding just as bad as Celestia!!"

"Calm the fuck down. It was in her wing, and it was just to get her out of the air. Anyway, you're a unicorn. Can you get us out of here?" There was a silence.

"No... I have no idea why... But about Violet. Where is she now?"

"Just outside the castle against the mountain. Trust me, it was just as painful for me as it was for her."

"Bullshit." His voice grew with anger.

"Can you even see me? My back has no fucking flesh attached to it by now, for Celestia's sake!!"

Just to make sure I knew what I was talking about, I looked down at my own body to check that my description matched my physical state. What my eyes saw were even worse. My entire chest was completely torn up, letting now dried blood flow out of several open gash marks and down the entire way to my back legs. It had dried long ago, forming a sickening pool of my own blood beneath me on the blue tiled floor. I threw up a little out of disgust and sudden confusion.

"What the fuck happened? What do I look like from over there?" I asked hastily.

Pick responded. "I can't see anything! Just a blindingly bright light. That's it."

"Look down. Are you hurt?"

"I don't think so, but I can take a lo..." He stopped talking for a moment, gagged, then continued. "Holy shit. Oh no. Oh shit. This can't be happening."

"What? What's wrong?" I regretted asking that, knowing that the answer couldn't be good.

"M-my legs... Oh shit..."

"What the hell is it?!"

"Oh no. This can't be."

"TELL ME WHAT IT IS!!"

There was no response.

Without warning, the light in front of me shut off. My eyes tried adjusting to the sudden darkness, hurting my skull as it did so. After an entire minute of furious blinking, I opened my eyes a final time, revealing once and for all where we were. We were back in Celestia's bedroom, messier and darker than ever. At least the guard was gone. Directly in front of me, in the exact same position as I was and facing me, was a now unconscious Pick, attached to a tilted metal bed. I panicked.

"Pick? Pick?! PICK?!?" There was no response. "SHIT!!!" My heart raced. I observed his body further. His legs were ripped to shreds, with bloody strips of flesh barely holding on to the muscle. Blood was running down his entire lower body. His head hung low, and the second I looked there, I realized why his magic wouldn't work: His horn had been sawn off at the base, revealing the sickening white ivory beneath it.

It was too much for me already. I threw up then and there.

After several moments of trying to regain my sanity and feeling in my throat, I looked up again in agony. What now?

Almost as if my mind was read like a predictable book, I heard a female voice behind me. It sounded insane. It was Luna.

"Hello again, Starnote. Having fun?" Her menacing voice made my gut cringe as I tried to respond.

"You bet your royal flank I'm not. What the hell was this all about?"

"Oh, I think you already know. I drugged you two, but I only had time for one of you before you both woke up."

"Time for what? Brutally lashing somepony's legs and then sawing off their horn?! You fucking creep. Where's Boldkey?!"

"Wouldn't you like to know? Dead."

I could feel my eyes suddenly widen. It couldn't be. "Bullshit."

She laughed menacingly at me before responding. "Truth."

"Now what are you going to do with me?" I regretted asking already.

"You'll see." With those simple words, I heard the sound of magic. I felt a sharp jolt in my neck. Everything went black once again.

When I awoke once more, the first thing that I noticed that it was still night. Fuck. That meant that Violet might still be the Nightmare version of herself...

The second thing that I noticed was that I was out of  the restraints of the cold metal slab that I was imprisoned with earlier.

The third thing that I noticed was that I was now on the floor of the library, laying down on the bloody floor. 'It wasn't bloody before, was it...?' I though to myself.

The fourth thing that I noticed was that the blood was coming from me. The second I comprehended that bit of information, a searing pain exploded throughout my back. I could still be bleeding from the glass incident... Or worse. Fearing just that, I turned around to look at my back.

My heart nearly self-destructed as a result of what I saw. Rather than my wings still being on my back, I was left with two short, bloody stumps protruding from where they used to be. Blood was slowly flowing from both of them, dripping onto the ground the entire time that I was staring at them. I panicked.

"NO nononono PLEASE NO. AaaaAAH SHIT!!" I said with a dry and shaky voice as another wave of miserable pain overcame me. The pain only increased exponentially from there once I remembered that Luna was responsible. How could she? Why would she? More importantly... Where was she? My mind suddenly became restless, trying to wash out the intense pain while it was at it. She was gone.

Making sure that Pick wasn't gone as well, I tried calling out for him.

"PICK!!! DAMNIT, YOU'D BETTER FUCKING BE HERE!! PICK!!!"

I waited. There was no response. I was alone.

Or so I thought.