The Unicorn and the Syrc

“Halt! Who goes there?” the harsh cry of a Crystal guard sounded from across the Palace gardens.

Rocky was off like a shot into the shrubbery. The voice of the Crystal guard,had most certainly not sounded happy. He was hiding under a blackberry bush. Blackberry bushes have prickles. He winced several times before his nerves calmed down enough to allow him to remain still.

Okay, okay, he thought to himself, you have to get a hold of yourself, you need to do this, okay? For mum.

Gritting his teeth in determination, he mentally counted down from three. On zero, he jumped out of the bushes. Carefully watching the Crystal Guards, (who, thankfully, had their backs to him) and keeping low, he scampered across the large open expanse of green grass. He could see the Crystal Place glittering in the sunlight. He needed to find Queen Glisten. Maybe, just maybe, she would sympathise with his mother enough to pay for Doctor Red Heart’s treatment.

He was almost there. Once he got inside, he’d be safe. He reached out a hoof, pulled the door open and...

...”What are you doing here, colt?” came the deep, threatening voice of a Crystal Guard. Rocky gulped, and looked up, his mouth dry. Just inside the door, had been a Crystal Guard. Rocky let go of the door, letting it slam shut behind him. It echoed in the dangerous silence, kocking against his flank and shoving him forward another foot or so.

“I...I...” he stammered. he seemed to have lost his voice

“Well, spit it out!” the Guard demanded,

“I seek an audience with the Queen.” He said, finding his voice, but in it's absence it had risen several octaves.

“Why?” the Guard asked,

“On the floor...sick...I need to see the Queen, she...she can help!”

"Why would you need to see the Queen? When somepony is sick you go to the Doctor, idiot."

"Yes, but I don't have any money to pay him, and-" he stopped as he saw the Guard's eyes narrow.

“Wait a minute...Aren’t you the one she ordered us to arrest?” he asked, and he lowered his spear threateningly.

“Please! I need to see her!” Rocky pleaded, “Just a minute, but I need to...My mother...my mother, she’s dying...”

“Your mother?” the Guard asked, “The one who owns the bakery?”

Rocky nodded. “The one who had a foal with a Unicorn?” the Guard asked, his tone acid. he didn't even pause for an answer, "Must be, after all it's you." his eyes darted to Rocky's dark blue horn.

"Please!" Rocky cried, "I need to see the Queen, my mother will die if I don't!"

The Guard did not move a muscle, aside from his mouth, “Let her die. She’s an insult to Crystal ponies.”

Rocky was stunned at first. A Guard was rarely so up front about his opinions, and wouldn't dare be so disrespectful in front of Lumi or the Queen. But this stunned shock lasted only for a fraction of a second, and then he realised, this Guard, this scum, was talking about his mother.

Rocky was not a violent pony, and preferred to fight with his mind rather than his hooves. But this was an exception. In that moment, all he wanted to do was to take that Guard and make him hurt.

Rocky reared back, and pushed out his two front hooves. They made contact with the Crystal Guard’s chest plate. Somehow, impossibly, Rocky’s hooves powered straight through the Crystal armour, and shattered the chest plate. The force of the blow knocked the Guard back, throwing him off his hooves and to the ground. His helmet and horseshoes flew off, and he was left, looking just like a normal Crystal pony. He looked up at Rocky.

“The Queen was right about you.” He muttered, “You’re a freak. No natural pony has a strength like that.”

“I have abnormal strength?” Rocky asked, his tone deadly,

“Are you deaf?" the Guard asked, "I said so, idiot. Just like everything else about you. It’s abnormal, unnatural and wrong.” He spat at Rocky, despite still being on the ground.

“But if my strength is so abnormally strong...” Rocky began, “...I suggest you choose your words more carefully.”

“And why is that?” the Guard asked, “You are a freak. And I’m not going to pretend that you aren’t. I’m not going to pretend your mother isn’t a disgrace, simply because it offends you. I said let your mother die, and I meant it. She is nothing more than a slut. She is not even worthy of the title Crystal pony.”

Rocky screamed in frustration. “YOU TAKE THAT BACK!” he yelled, and he reared up again. This time his hooves made contact with nothing but the side of the Guard. He heard several of the Guard's ribs crack, and the Guard gasped in pain. A small stream of glittering blood dribbled out of his mouth.

“ROCKY!” Luminescence’s voice cut through his fury. It was a scream of shock and disbelief, “What are you doing?”

Then Rocky looked. Really looked. He saw a Guard, injured severely, lying helpless at his feet. He saw shattered armour, done by a single blow. He saw the disgust in Luminescence’s eyes, the refusal to believe and yet irrefutable evidence of what she was thinking.

“I...I...”he stuttered again, “I need to see the Queen. My mother...she’s sick...she may be dying.”

“And so you try to kill a guard?” Luminescence was practically shrieking now, “Rocky...why?”

“He called my mother a slut.” Rocky growled, the fury rising again, “He called her a disgrace to Crystal ponies...he deserved it.”

“Perhaps so.” Luminescence replied, eyeing the guard with distaste, “But Rocky...there’s no excuse for doing...this...to anypony.” She bent down and helped the Guard up. He leant against her, not seeming to care that she was the Crystal Princess, and it was his job to serve her. Luminescence led him to the infirmary, all the while Rocky trailing behind them, both satisfied at how much pain he had caused the guard, and sickened. Luminescence did not look back at him. Her stature showed much of her mother in her. However much she hated some aspects of being royalty, Luminescence had been born into it, it was in her blood, and now, more than ever, it showed.

Only after the Guard was safely in the infirmary, and being cared for, did Luminescence even acknowledge Rocky again.

“After how you treated him, I would send you home right now if it wasn’t for your mother being ill.” Luminescence told him, tears sparkling in her eyes.

“So you’re going to help me?”

“No.” she said, her eyes still shining.

“What?!” Rocky exclaimed. No...he thought...no, she wouldn’t let my mother die...

“I said ‘no’, Rocky.” She repeated more firmly this time, “It’s not my place to judge or to help you.”

“That is correct, daughter.” Came another voice. A voice cold as ice and strong as steel, “It is mine.”

Rocky turned, and saw Queen Glisten, in all her divine fury. He thought about all the times she had been angry at him. But they were nothing, nothing compared to this.

But he had to try.

"Please..." he said quietly, "Please help me...help my mother.

"You break into my Palace, you assault one of my Guards, you directly defy my wishes...and you expect help?"

"It's my mother," Rocky persisted, "She's dying! I need money to pay the doctor!"

"It matters not." Glisten told him, her tone clipped, "You could have been wanting to save Luminescence and I would not help you after how you behaved, breaking two laws and my word - which is as good as law."

Rocky couldn't believe he was hearing this. She was refusing...his mother was going to die...

"NO!" he cried, "You have to help my mother! All she was to you! Did that mean nothing?" he immediately regretted saying that. it was a challenge, and challenging Queen Glisten only made matters worse.

"No." the Queen replied, her voice deadly quiet and her gaze sharper than a Crystal sword, "It meant everything." she hissed, "But apparently nothing to you. The law is the law. I will not help you. No circumstance justifies what you have done today. GUARDS!"

She cried this last word, and two Crystal Guards came running. They grabbed Rocky's forelegs and dragged him out.

"Believe me when I say this is your very last warning, Rocky Spirit." the Queen told him as he was dragged off, "You set hoof on Palace grounds again, and you will be executed on sight."

"HOW COULD YOU?" screamed Rocky, over the Queen's words, "HOW COULD YOU? MY MOTHER'S GOING TO DIE AND IT'S ALLYOUR FAULT!" he took a deep breath, "MURDERER! YOU HEAR ME? MURDERER!"

Luminescence's eyes then spilled over with tears, and she buried her face in her mother's chest as she watched the one pony she had considered a true friend, dragged off.

"I'm sorry, daughter..." the Queen whispered, "I know how much he means to you."

"No..." Luminescence said bitterly, "No...he doesn't mean anything to me anymore..." she couldn't quite believe what had just happened. That wasn't her Rocky. Her Rocky didn't assault Guards, or call her mother a murderer.

But he had.

The Guards dragged Rocky through the Palace Gardens, and once they reached the gate, threw him through them unceremoniously. He crashed to the solid paved ground in a crumpled heap, landing awkwardly on his right foreleg. He felt something twist, and gasped in pain. He groaned as he stood up, but he tried to ignore the pain. He had to get back to his mother, try to save her...do something.

The bakery was dark and quiet when Rocky finally reached it. His right leg was screaming out in pain. He had only just pushed through the door when he collapsed in a heap, his leg giving way underneath him. It was agony as he forced himself to stand once again, he was now sure his foreleg was broken. On three legs, he limped over to his mother's unmoving form. Her crystalline coat was dull with sickness and her mane was completely flat, lacking it's usual lustre and bounce. Reaching down, he nudged her with his muzzle. Her head tilted from the force, then rolled back again as soon as the pressure was gone. Her cheek had been cold and still.

Rocky lay down awkwardly on the floor, and placed a hoof to her chest. He felt no heartbeat, no pulse, no warmth. He'd known as soon as he'd seen her earlier that it was too late, but now...now he could no longer pretend.

He wrapped his good foreleg around her body, crying into her once-glowing blue coat. And he truly thought about what he had done. To the Guard, to the Queen, to Luminescence. And he knew his mother must be sickened by what he was becoming.

He thought back to that book. About Crystal hybrids being cursed. At first he had rebuked the myth as just that, a myth. But now it was starting to ring true.

"I'm sorry..." he said to his mother. Not just for failing to save her, but for how he had come to be, what he had done in an attempt to save her, every piece of trouble he had caused her. Now he knew the myth was true. He was cursed.

And what's worse, now he had nothing to lose.