Azil

"It was the wind...caressing and nipping at my skin. Trailing its tiny butterfly kisses across my warm belly and making me squirm in utter delight. Our movements were slow and sluggish, but heated and full of sensual pleasure. We were locked in a passionate embrace, a dance of lovers, a courtship of the most intense feelings of ecstasy.

I moaned and wept in lust and joy as the wind came to me, wrapped me in its tight arms as our dance reached its fruition...

...and cried in the happiest form of bliss as it strangled me to death."

Twilight Sparkle sat up and screamed. She screamed as if the very fires of Tartarus were licking at her precious fur, burning and cooking its way through her insides even though they could barely be heard over the sound of roaring wind. Tears spilled through her tightly clenched eyes like water through the cracks of a dam as she continued to screech. She tried to move her forward legs but found that she could not, her bottom legs responding to her commands only.

She felt cold, freezing even, the bitter chill of an unseen air sinking its rotten teeth into the very core of her inner being and delivering unto her a disease of frozen suffering and belligerence. It was a horrible feeling, a dead feeling, like all the love and happiness in the world had been encased in an ice of unbreakable disharmony, showing only a ghost of its former self deep within the dark, dreadful recesses of that frozen prison.

She snapped her eyes open as the screaming reached its end, becoming nothing more than moaning gasps of panic and terror. Her tiny violet irises whipped left and right, looking over the padded walls and ceiling of the room she was in. There was only a single iron door to this room, fit with a sliding peephole that was at this time closed. The rest of her room was bare, empty, and barren as the deserts of Appleloosa.

"Wh...where...?!" Twilight wheezed, her throat dry and raspy with dehydration. She looked down slightly and squeaked in fright as she beheld her front two legs secured tightly in a white sort of leather harness that covered the upper half of her body up to her neck.

A straight jacket.

"Oh gods, what the hell is this!?" Twilight cried, struggling in the pale prison that hugged her tightly. She looked up towards the door and screamed "Hello!? Is anypony there!? What am I doing in here? Somepony help!" Nopony answered or came to the door as Twilight sat there, staring at the iron entryway with a feeling of dread and hopelessness. Above her, the sounds of a raging wind and a furious storm continued to crash and echo about, drawing her to look upwards. A single window loomed over her, barred with heavy iron and open to the world outside.

Rain water trickled through the gaps steadily, damping the floor and even forming a few small puddles upon the padded ground. Twilight frowned at this, pushing her side against the wall in attempts to drag herself up to stand on her hind legs. It was a long, difficult effort, her grunts and breaths of strain echoing quietly off the walls as more and more rain water started to pour in. When she was finally able to stand straight and support herself upon her wobbly legs, she tried to look through the window. Her eyes barely peaked over the edge of the opening, her form wobbly despite the support from wall.

All she saw was black and grey, the form of a massive super storm raging outside like a hungry, predatory beast. A snarl of wind snapped at her as she felt her hind legs give out, sending her once more to the padded floor. She landed in a thick puddle, a grunt escaping her lips as icy water clung to her fur and mane. "I've got to get out of here..." she whispered to herself, looking down at her jacket and squinting her eyes in preparations to use her magic.

It was silly thing to forget, her magic. Why she hadn't used it in the first place, she'd never know. As she started to try to reach into her inner mana, a sharp pain cascaded from her forehead and burrowed its way through her body. She cried out in anguish as her body was wracked with such a shock, causing her to shake violently in the water. More and more water began to pour into the room from the window as she panted, the wave of pain finally leaving her.

"My magic...what's happened to my magic?" She moaned weakly, sitting up and pressing her damp back against a wall. "Think Twilight...think...what are you doing here? What's going on...what day is it?!" She looked around her room for any kind of clue, any kind of indication of what was going on...but only white and dark grey answered her. The water was starting to puddle worse, completely submerging one corner of the room in an icy, watery tomb.

She tilted her head up, looking towards the ceiling as she tried her best to reach into the back of her mind and remember why she was here. She strained, her eyes flicking across several spots of the ceiling as she concentrated, trying her best to remember. She let out a frustrated growl as she shook her head, unaware of the continuous stream of water that continued to pour through the wall, reaching the strength of a running bath. "Think dammit...there must be something!" She spat at herself, wondering just what in the hell was even going on. She took in a shuddering breath and closed her eyes as the edge of the water nipped at her rear hooves.

She let out a quiet sigh, bowing her head as she gently reached towards the back of her mind, hoping to pull any kind of piece or shard of memory she still had left. But as she reached deeper, she-

"EEEE HE HE HE, yes, delicious! Oh yes that's so good, COME TA MAMMA!!!!!" somepony screamed, drawing a shrill scream out of another mare. The slippery sounds of liquid on floor could be heard as a mare tried her best to scramble away, only to be dragged back to an unknown assailant. "Don't you understand sweetie?!" laughed the first voice "We're going to be together! Right after I get little bit more of you! Harmony tastes DELICIOUS!"

There was nothing left but the shrill, panicked, terrifying screams for a few moments until all went silent.

And then the wind started to howl.

Twilight opened her eyes and gasped, panting heavily as the water spilled over her hind legs, lapping at her firm flank as a roaring sound blasted through the window. The unicorn looked up in terror as water was utterly gushing through the window at an intense speed and volume. "What!? What's happening!?" She once more used the wall for support in dragging herself up to her hind legs, screaming at the door loudly "Hello!? Somepony help, the room is flooding!!!" No one continued to answer her as the water continued to rise violently, reaching the joint of her hind legs and submerging most of her tail. "Come on, somepony has to be there!!!!" She shrieked, the room continuing to transform from a place of isolation to a tomb of icy death.

As the water ran up against her flank and between her thighs, she let out a shudder across her body. It was an odd sort of shiver, one that sent mixed feelings through the veins of her body. There was cold, of course, terror even. But what she also felt, if only for a brief moment, was the stinging feeling of pleasure. "Come on Twilight, THINK!" She suddenly screamed at herself, the water rising over her flank and lapping at the bottom of the straight jacket. She pushed one of her hind legs through the water, the icy pool serving a sort of semi-anchor for her weight. She waded sluggishly through the pool, her teeth chattering loudly as the freeze of the liquid started to seep deeply into her.

"H..hello!? S..s...somepony..? Anyp..p..pony!" Twilight chattered, shaking as the water rose up against the legs that were secured firmly in her straight jacket. "N...no!" She wept, banging her head against the door "Not like this! Please! Don't let me die in here!!!" Nopony continued to answer with whispers of impending doom as the water started to strangle Twilight around her neck, its icy fingers starting to caress her cheeks. She shuddered in the water as an icy tongue of water licked into her ear, whispering to her the promise of her soon to be demise.

"Bullsh-ack!" she started to swear before the water pushed its way into her mouth, forcing her into an icy embrace with her killer. She struggled against it, whipping herself about violently in the water. But alas, no matter how much she struggled, the water continued to rise over her head, having its way with her despite her vain efforts to stay afloat.

She was fully submerged.

Twilight looked about the filled room in a panic, her tears of despair and anguish gently kissed away by the calm lips of her icy murderer. She struggled with the jacket across her, the strings and ropes of her device starting to fray and dissolve from the liquid. Her vision darkened considerably as she felt the water slip deep inside of her, drawing a staggering moan out of her lungs as she felt them start to freeze and crackle with a sheet of deadly ice. Her lips mouthed words as she felt herself sink lower and lower to the bottom of the room, her vision blackening further as she succumbed to the will of her assailant.

As her flank hit the bottom of the floor, she gave in. She gave herself to the water, begging at least for a quick release, to an end of her suffering. The water seemed almost too happy to oblige, preparing for its final surge into the bowels of her heart. Just as the final strand of life left in Twilight Sparkle started to fray, a raging roar came from the water as the iron door was suddenly thrown open, the unicorn and her murderer being sent cascading through the sudden opening.

She felt herself carried swiftly from the room and thrown through the air, crashing into a hard, firm surface before landing in a heap on the ground. She let her tongue hang limply out of her mouth, her eyes shut gently and her front legs sprawled out in front of her while the rest of her body rested in the shredded remains of the straight jacket.

Her heartbeat was weak and labored, her life continuing to hang upon a thread of sweet blood and golden lace. She couldn't move, but she really didn't care. To her, she was already dead. Already gone.

As the water continued to rush all around her, spilling out of her room in desperate attempts to once more drag Twilight into an early and predetermined grave, the sounds of wind started to whisper across the area. It reached out towards the near-dead unicorn, tugging at her mane slightly as to get her attention. She did not respond, however, her icy body continuing to lay limp upon the floor.

The wind laughed as it raced over her, disappearing with its signature howl and gracing her with only one word that tickled at the fur in her ear, a word that whispered:

"Azil..."

A word she quite didn't understand. A word that was left ignored as she let out a groaning cough, expelling all she had of her swallowed assailant. A word that meant nothing, but at the same time...

...meant everything.

Somewhere, the wind laughed.