Mistakes of the Past

Mistakes of the Past
By Cosmic Waltz

Warning: Grimdark Content. Read at your own discretion.

Warning: Grimdark Content. Read at your own discretion.

Warning: Grimdark Content. Read at your own discretion.

This is a Grimdark fanfiction story based on the show "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" by Hasbro. It will contain scenes of violence, gore, death, and heavy emotional content. You have been warned.

Warning: Grimdark Content. Read at your own discretion.

Warning: Grimdark Content. Read at your own discretion.

Warning: Grimdark Content. Read at your own discretion.

Chapter 3

Darkness...

Everything was dark...

Everything feels...

Clouds...

Was she in the clouds...

Cold...

Floating cold...

Somewhere...

She felt sick...

Was she awake...

Floating...

Clouds...

Darkness...

Red...

There was red...

Comfortable and red...

Perhaps...

Perhaps she would stay...

...

Voices. There were voices. Distant. Were those voices? Muddy, and hollow. They seemed to make words, but Twilight couldn't tell for sure. The sounds. Sound circled in her head. Voices. Was it hers? No. Not hers.

It was dark. Too dark. She tried to look around. Did she even move? Was she already moving? Or had she only thought she had moved? Were her eyes open? Nothingness. Blackness. Darkness. Where was she?

The sounds began to rise. Voices. Those were definitely voices. She could hear them clearly now.

"We've done all we can. Even magic restoration has its limits."

Magic.

"We were able to set her limbs and ribs. Most every bone was broken, but we were able to repair them. They're still quite brittle, however. Her body will have to strengthen them on its own."

Broken. Was somepony... broken?

"The bruising will also have to heal on its own, but we have reduced the swelling. We also were able to clear her eyes, reset her nose, and repair her teeth."

What happened to the pony? It sounded horrible.

"What of her horn?"

That voice. Princess Celestia? What was she doing here? Where was 'here?'

"We did find her horn. It was... 'in' her, Princess."

"How horrible... He would do something sick like that..."

The Princess again. Where was she?

"You'll be happy to know, we were able to reattach it."

A pony had lost her horn? What were they talking about?

"She should make a full recovery, it seems. At least, physically. Emotionally, it's another story. What she endured... it's horrible to imagine. The things he must have done to her... I don't even know where to-"

"Doctor, she's waking!"

The voice was loud, booming right beside her. Why couldn't she see who owned the voice?

Twilight pried open her eyes, struggling as though they bore a great weight. A piercing white flooded her vision, biting pain protesting inside her. She shut them quickly.

She opened her mouth, hoping her voice would cooperate. "Prin... Pr... Prin... cess Cel... Celestia?"

She heard steps scramble to her side. The soft voice of her teacher returned her call. "I'm right here, my little pony." There was pain in her voice. Was she crying? What had happened?

Twilight tried to see. Slowing raising her lids, the light dived to her again. She could only loosely make out shapes and colors around her, all cut with bright strings of light. She turned her head, barely recognizing the shape of the Princess. But it was her.

"Princess... where are... where are we...?" Her tongue fought her.

The Princess smiled. It was a mother's smile, Twilight remarked in her haze. "It's okay, Twilight. You're in the palace."

The palace? How did she get there? Last she remembered... What did she remember? If she wasn't here, where was she?

She remembered the library. She remembered wings. She remembered red.

She remembered a mirror.

Twilight tried to sit up.

"No, Twilight," Celestia insisted. "You'll hurt yourself. Please lie down. You need rest."

The purple unicorn looked closer at her surroundings, her eyes still fresh to the world. She was in bed, lying on her back. The mattress was soft, the covers thick and warm. A post at each corner held a large, beautiful canopy above her. She was in the Princess' bed. Why? Many ponies stood around her. They looked to be doctors. Princess Luna sat in one corner of the room, a look of worry surrounding her.

Something was wrong. Why couldn't she remember?

Books. Clouds. A fork. Darkness. A mirror. Stone. Eyes. Wings. Screaming.

Screaming? Screaming.

A voice full of screaming. Her own screaming. Oh, Celestia...

The memories flooded back to her. She remembered. She remembered it all. She remembered him.

The realization dredged up the pain and terror again. Snapped bones, percussive strikes. Her skin burning with magic fires.

She could not stop the emotion welling within her as she relived being abused and violated by the evil stallion. She couldn't fight the pain that rose within her, her tears streaming in rivers through wailing sobs. She broke down.

The Princess was quickly to her student, her hooves wrapped tightly around the unicorn. She was crying as well, her own woeful lament sounding into the still room. "I'm so sorry, Twilight..."

The doctors had all left. Only Twilight and the two royal sisters remained in the room. The air was bitter with lingering emotion.

Twilight had managed to stop her crying. The pain and weakness still thrashed within her chest, but she had to tell the Princess what she had done. She knew she was to blame for releasing the creature that had attacked her. She confessed through shamed words, fearful of her fate. Celestia would hear nothing of her numerous apologies, only returning her own.

Her recalling of the events concluded, Twilight had questions of her own. "Princess Celestia... who is that... that 'pony'...?" She tried not to picture him in her mind, the very image bringing a vile sickness over her. At his thought, she swore she could feel his magic constricting her throat again.

Celestia let out a shaking breath. "He... he is a mistake from my past, Twilight. My biggest mistake." Celestia's eyes were wet with tears of her own. Luna tried to support her sister, her forelegs around the older mare.

Twilight could hear the pain in the words. She hated to ask the troubled mare further, but she had to know. The questions burned violently inside her, swarming like wasps in her gut. "You... you knew him?"

Celestia brushed away her tears with her hoof. "It's... it's a story I wanted to forget. But things are never that simple. And if Sevic's back, that means the story continues..."

Sevic. The beast had a name now. The purple unicorn needed more. She didn't want to hear it, but she had to. "What story?"

The Princess of the Sun looked down, a frailness in her voice as she spoke.

"I'll tell you..."

You must understand, Twilight, that this story takes place in a time far from ours now. Equestria was a very different place, detached from the one you know. It was a warring time, when pony raised blade and magic against his brethren over land and title. Chaos reigned over the world.

It was over thirteen centuries ago. My sister and I resided in our old castle. The Everfree Forest did not yet exist, the castle instead encircled by a small township of our followers. Luna and I did then as we do now; I raised the sun to start the day, and she raised the moon to start the night. Many looked up to us for our power. Sevic was one of those ponies.

He wasn't then as what you saw. Far from it. When I knew him first, he was only a unicorn, no wings upon his back. He was no taller than any other stallion. But as much as he's changed, one does not forget that face, nor that burning determination in his eyes.

Sevic was a curious one. He never had a cutiemark of his own. If anypony asked, he quipped that it was because he was good at too many things to have one mark. He had a talent with magic, however, far beyond that of the other unicorns within the township. He could easily cast spells over his own level of study, maneuvering between rainbow magic, telekinesis, and alteration. He also had experience dabbling in necromantic arts, being able to reanimate the corpses of simple animals; an impressive, if dark power. I noticed his gift, and sought to refine it. I accepted him as my first apprentice. He took quickly to his lessons, and I took quickly to him. Soon, we found ourselves as lovers.

As warm as our love for each other was, there was always a rift between us. I refused to fall to the chaos that seethed across the land. I loved all of my subjects, and sought to always forgive their mistakes. Sevic, however, harbored more radical notions. If a pony was caught in a lie, he sought their tongue to be pulled from their mouth. When a pony trespassed beyond their welcome, he desired their hooves bound in vices. I tried to change his thinking, hoping to have him see the positive side of the world, but he always scoffed at my optimism. He felt that if a pony was left unscarred from their mistakes, they would never learn. It hurt me to know that violence burned so hot within him.

Another thing, too, was his growing affection for being called "Prince". I did not mind sharing my life nor title with him, but he always pressed it further. When a pony would forget my designation, I always let it go unnoticed. When one overlooked his self-claimed rank, he demanded its correction. In time, utterances of "King" could be heard around him. He reveled in the power of his name, and fear of my subjects. But, as much loyalty as he drew, he knew he was respected only through his connection to me.

Then one night, within the castle walls, he found an opportunity to make his own name. A chambermaid, just a young filly, had pocketed royal items in her rounds. Unfortunately, Sevic was the one that found her first. He later told me "her eyes caught what she could not hold." He had her blinded with coals, boasting the act to the city below the castle.

I was furious with him. Within my own home, he had taken wicked justice into his own hooves. He had betrayed me, and my love. I met him in the royal library where he often studied, two guards in tow. In righting a crime, he had committed one worse than I dared imagine. He was no "Prince," nor "King." I banished him, casting him to the world he sought to drag my kingdom into.

Anger boiled over him. He shouted curses to my name, condemning my foalish ways. He threatened me as though we had never shared our lives, vowing his hate would always drive him back to me, more powerful than ever. He was no longer the stallion I had loved. This was something I had never seen before.

As my guards went to remove him, Sevic lashed out. He tossed aside the stallions with his magic, before sealing the two of us alone in the archives. Try as my soldiers might, his spell held the doors firm.

He screamed for my death as he charged me. Though his magic was powerful compared to the ponies in the village, it was no match for my own. But no matter how I tried, he continued his attack relentlessly. He fought possessed, letting loose attack after attack. And when I made a misstep in our deadly dance, he took the opportunity to strike at me. I panicked. I never intended to use as much of my magic as I had in my defense.

When my senses returned, Sevic lied limp on the floor. He was barely conscious, and fading fast. He swore, with his dying breath, that he would always haunt me for my actions. Then, his body fell lifeless. I had killed him. In all my anger, I had never wanted him dead! I was mortified at what I had done.

Deep within his body, though, I could feel a spark of magic burning still. It was weak, barely a wisp, but it was undeniably "him." A fragment of the pony he once was had survived through his magic, lying weakly within his corpse.

It was a piece of him. I couldn't bring myself to destroy it. I couldn't destroy the one spark that remained of the pony I had shared my heart with.

The guards at the door, I quickly took the broken remnant of the unicorn, placing it within a mirror on the wall and binding it with my own magic. A moment later, the spell wore free of the door, the guards bursting in on the still scene.

It was over. Sevic had been dealt with. A hushed whisper of his death spread through the streets. From then on, people held a fear of the Princess that would kill her own lover.

No pony knew of the magic I had sealed away. I couldn't forgive my mistake. Many nights, I found myself shedding tears before that mirror, the glimmer contained within hidden by my spell.

He was my biggest mistake. And try as I might, I could never take it back. What I had left of him only served to remind me. So I turned away. In time, it faded from my thoughts, as a bad dream often does.

In the centuries that followed, my sister was taken by Nightmare Moon's influence, and I was forced to banish her to the moon. In the years following her banishment, I found the empty castle to be far too cold. Bad memories hung in the air, all reminding me of my failings. One night, I felt it too much. I fled, leaving all the dark memories behind me. Eventually, I found myself on the mountains of Canterlot, where I began again.

Twilight took in the story. She saw a side of the Princess she had never imagined. She wanted nothing more than to leave her bed and hold her crying teacher.

Celestia added, "I never imagined he could come back! I never knew he could grow within the mirror in my absence, or find the power to manifest again. Though he had the gift of magic in life, it was nothing like it is now. Before, he could not have even stood up to you, Twilight. Somehow, he's drawn power to himself, changing his very form." The Princess began to cry again. "I never once thought he could hurt anypony again. Least of all you!"

Twilight felt at a loss for words. There was nothing she could say to comfort her teacher, and nothing that could right the situation. An eerie silence came over the room.

The painful quiet was broken by a knock. Before anypony could answer the call, the double doors were opened, Captain Strongheart stepping forward. "Princess, there has been an attack on Ponyville!"

Both Twilight and the two Princesses were suddenly alert. Celestia turned to her Captain. "An attack?! What do you mean?!"

Behind the guard, a small group entered the room. Twilight immediately recognized them as her friends. Rarity held Sweetie Belle close, both looking exhausted and scared. The young unicorn sobbed gently, tightly wrapped around her sister's foreleg. Applejack seemed in better shape, but was covered in dirt and mud. Her hat was missing, a sight that Twilight had hardly seen before, and her eyes seemed full of a deep pain. Pinkie Pie was not herself either. She smiled as she always did, but the look was almost forced. Spike sat on her back, holding Gummy within his arms. Above the trio hovered the two pegasi. Fluttershy held Angel tightly in her arms. She was trembling in fear, thin tears dripping down her face. Rainbow Dash was possibly the only one who didn't look out of sorts, but her angered expression undercut her usual appearance.

Strongheart answered his commander. "Intel is scarce, most details coming solely from the survivors. There are a few more refugees downstairs in the main hall, and scouts have reported seeing small groups headed to Cloudsdale and Manehatten. These ponies with me are the elements, are they not? I knew you would request their audience."

As delighted as Twilight was to see her friends, a new fear gripped her. An attack on Ponyville? There hadn't been an attack on any settlement in centuries. But why there? Why her home? Why her friends?

She knew that this had to be the work of Sevic. The image of the monster burned again in her mind.