Azil

"I don't understand...," said the voice of a mare she recognized almost immediately "How could this have happened without us knowing?! How did we not see the signs sooner?". She didn't dare open her eyes, for fear of being pounced upon by the sure-to-be feelings and thoughts of concern and worry. She couldn't bear to face them as she was now...who could? Though, she wasn't sure of anything now, not anymore. Not even what day it was. Had days passed at all? Was it minutes, or years since she was back in that cottage. Perhaps it was months since the beauty who had captivated her soul and stolen her heart apologized so profusely for the turn of events that had transpired between them. 'How could I have done something so shameful?' she had lamented, 'To take advantage of you in your hour of need...I pray you find it in your heart to forgive me one day'. But there was nothing to forgive, she insisted. It was a purely adored and very welcoming escape from the bitter times that choked the unicorn's recent history. And it was that footnote, that Twilight found herself in the middle of an argument concerning it.

"Ah'm not rightly sure," sighed a weary sounding country pony "Things seemed so...gosh, normal weren't it?" Normal, as if anything about anything in her life was 'normal'. Though she had to agree with the apple-scented mare, things surely would have looked normal from the outside. She had done her absolute, one hundred and twenty percent best to keep things as under-wraps as possible. If anypony had found out about what was really happening, it would have ruined so many carefully laid plans and progress. At least...that's what she was desperately trying to convince herself of.

"So...where is-?" Begun the first voice, though sounding slightly further away. The sound of liquid, presumably tea, was barely audible over the sound of the apple-mare's response, already putting two and two quickly together.

"Givin' her statement. There's a lot te' go over apparently from what ah was hearin' when they carted Rainbow away."

Twilight winced as she heard the sound of the kettle being placed a little too harshly down on a counter top as the next few words sent a piercing cold bullet right through her soul:

"Good, hopefully by this time tomorrow that Rainbow-maned, vile, disgusting bastard of a whore-daughter will be hanging with the rest of those scum. Good riddance."

~~~

Twilight fell.

And she fell.

And she fell.

Falling, falling, falling for what seemed like an eternity. In the first minute since her mad dash through the window and into the seconds of falling through a snowy whirlwind of anger, Twilight found (at least through the lingering senses of any sanity she could still claim that were left) that she had found peace at last. Finally the pain would be over, she'd be free of the bitter torment that pulled and plagued at her soul for what seemed like eons. No more Rainbow...no more Azil...no more. A heavy, shuddering sigh that escaped through her lips was immediately lost in the fury of the laughing wind that roared and spun her about, the thick icy sheets of snow that swirled about masking both sky and ground from her view. Nothing could be seen but grey and specks of sinister white.

Her mind had begun to stretch, and stretch, the weight of her anguish and misery finally starting to lessen as the very real and sobering feeling of her impending death racing towards her gently wrapped itself around her bleeding heart. At last...the ground she felt she had been racing towards for so long would finally come to greet her and welcome her with open, muddy arms. At last her lungs would heave out laughter no more, the elation of her achieved victory and freedom over her murderous assailant finally reaching its peak high point and dissipating into a sense of calm and acceptance. Closing her eyes and twisting her body in the air until she felt the wind pressing at her back the heaviest, she spread her legs outwards in all four directions and waited.

She waited....

And waited....

And waited....

Where was the ground? Surely she should have been a mess of bone and twitching pieces of meat by now, right? She opened her eyes, looking over her shoulder against the angry rush of the wind towards the direction of ground. There was nothing but snow and sky from what she could see, a very concerning thought passing through the unicorn's mind. "I'm in Azil..." She thought, her eyes slowly turning back up towards the sky above her as Rainbow's home was now possibly an eternity away, lost behind a never-ending ocean of blizzard-like grey "What if...what if there IS NO GROUND?!"

Her chest started to tighten, her breathing growing more and more panicked as she felt a great tug at her insides. What had she done...WHAT HAD SHE DONE?! How could she have just forgotten in such a careless moment that where she was didn't obey the conventional rules of science or logical sense?! There was no telling what Azil truly was in nature or composition, and for all she knew she could have just tossed herself into a never-ending void!

She started to hyperventilate, her front legs hugging herself tightly as she shut her eyes and tried to gain hold of her senses. "B-breathe...!" She begged herself, manic thoughts racing through her mind as she started to count the seconds. One second...five seconds....twelve....seventeen seconds passed. "Terminal velocity...," she choked, shaking her head "That's impossible...w-with just the amount of time that's passed since then...I've already fallen thousands and thousands of feet...there's no WAY the cloud-house was that high!!!"

Most architectural cloud-homes were built at their highest point maybe four to eight stories off the ground, for any higher and the wind would throw the magical properties of the clouds off balance and would threaten to bring the entire structure down with violent force. A wail escaped her abruptly, her hooves pressing into her head as she shrieked and cried out in anguish. She was falling through nothingness, a void of unknowable length and measure that had captured her neatly in its never-ending net of infinite depth. Her eyes were bulging, her screams all but lost on the furious screams of the open sky as she plummeted further into her unshaped prison.

She could see and feel a blackness pressing in at the corners of her vision, her screams combined with the lack of stable air around her quickly bringing her to a point of unconsciousness. As Twilight's visioned blackened into nothingness...she could have sworn she saw something beyond the shimmering veil of snow before her eyes. Shapes...almost invisible, swirling around her at an impossible speed.

~~~

"All rise...the honorable judge Mayflower presiding."

"Thank you Junebug. Now then...without further delay we're going to wrap this up and seal this case once and for all.
Has the jury reached a verdict?"

"We have your honor...we the jury, find Twilight Sparkle 'guilty', and may Celestia have mercy on her soul."

~~~

Twilight opened her eyes just barley to see more of the wind and snow...and then closed them yet again. She repeated this...over...and over...and over. She slept for what seemed like ages, her thoughts muddled and beyond all comprehension now. One by one she could feel every small strand of sanity she had left snap. Abandoning all hope of dying, either by falling, starving, or exhaustion, Twilight Sparkle resigned herself to sleeping and thinking of absolutely anything that randomly popped into her head.

Sometimes she thought of birds. Other times she thought of sunshine, or turning pages in her favorite books. She thought about her beloved for awhile before even that memory was too painful to bear any longer, and so she too was cast into the wind. She knew if she kept on like this, nothing would remain...but it didn't hardly matter anymore...and that was alright. She let out a comfortable breath through her nose, gently twirling and flipping through the air.

Snap....snap...snap...

She opened her eyes yet again, yawning as she once more woke up in the void of falling emptiness. She turned her body and muzzle downwards to watch the swirling void, unfazed by the sensations that tugged at her fur and skin beneath. For whatever reason, her eyes and mouth refused to dry out, no matter how much the wind roared against her. Then again it was hardly worth concerning herself over. It didn't even matter anymore, so what was the point.

She closed her eyes again, turning back to face upwards as she nestled in for yet another nap.

~~~

"Any last words, Sparkle?" a voice spoke to her from beside her.

"Why yes..." She said, turning her murderous gaze towards the pegasus on her right, her eyes swimming with the colors of violet and sweet, sticky blood "I hope that every time she beats her wings, she hears my screams in the wind she creates.
I hope that with every unfurling feather she stretches, she sees my face between them, staring into her soul. I want every waking moment she has left in her ruined, depressing life to be spent thinking of me, of what she did to me, and why she deserves every single ounce of never-ending pain that she's going to feel from now until judgement day."

The guard looked at her, slightly unnerved as Twilight leaned forward in her restraints, her front legs folded neatly against her. She could feel the fabric against her back tightening significantly as she smiled her dazzling smile, whispering to the captor who had addressed her in a very crystalline voice of unmatched purity and wrathful sin:

"Eu câștig."

~~~

Twilight opened her eyes in alarm, a scream billowing out of her as the ground rushed up to meet her. She landed in a thunderous explosion of snow and dirt, the wind falling silent in an instant around her as she whipped her head about in confusion. She took in several gulps of air, the snow starting to settle back around her from the impact as the realization of what just happened hit her. In the seconds before her impact, she felt as if her mind had 'rubber-banded' itself back to her. Memories flooded her vision, saturating her brain in thoughts and feelings. Events of the past and present, lining themselves back up neatly in her mind started to race before her, and within mere moments she felt as if she had only just jumped forth from the window mere seconds ago.

She looked up, seeing no cloud-home or any indicator of any figures or ponies lingering about, and instead cast her vision to her surroundings. She was nestled in a wide, open expanse of snowy plains. Trees littered the landscape here and there, dead and still like the grave. "What was that...?" She breathed, putting a hoof to her head and shutting her eyes "I...I felt...oh stars above how do I even describe it...?" She shook her head, trying to snap herself out of it as she tried to move her limbs and found them too heavy. She had been falling for so long, it was no wonder that she had forgotten how to move. She willed herself to move though, focusing her mind intently on her legs as she tried to align herself to stand.

Her muscles ached and her limbs responded slowly to her commands, weak at first but slowly coming back to life. She put one hoof down, then the other, her front legs poised before her as she tried to do a push-up maneuver to get herself back up. She made it about a foot off the ground before her legs gave way and her face hit the solid ground beneath the snow. She squeaked, whining in pain as her muzzle now joined the list of aching parts covering her form. She remembered then that it had only been mere moments since Rainbow bruised and beat her. But...was it truly just moments? She knew it had just happened but...it had felt so far away at the same time.

Twilight let out a weary sigh and once more tried to raise herself up to her hooves. She fell a second time, and then a third time, each one more painful of a landing than the last. Just as she attempted a fourth, a voice suddenly shattered her concentration, the unicorn letting forth a frightened shout as she beheld a Pegasus before her, standing barely a few feet away. "Hey there! Wow, you loo- YIPES!"

The Pegasus, a colt, jumped backwards slightly as Twilight took a swipe at him, shouting "Get the FUCK away from me! Who the hell are you, what do you want, where do you come from?!" She eyed him up and down, panting heavily as she observed his unusual attire. He wore a brown cloak that covered his body and flank, his fur the color of a dark, azure sky. His eyes were as red as rubies, and across his back was slung a sword and a concerning assortment of exotic looking knives.

"Whoa, whoa!" The Pegasus cried out, leaning away from her swiping hooves "Take it easy...just relax! You're experiencing the after effects of the bubble spell you were just released from...it's going to take several moments to get yourself reacquainted with the ground."

Twilight frowned, narrowing her eyes at the peculiarly dressed Pegasus as she growled "What do you mean, what spell...what are you talking about?!"

The Pegasus bit his lip slightly as he looked around for a moment then back at her, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head and chuckling slightly "Y...yeah...sorry about that. The spell was the only way to sort of...'save' you from the other inmates. There really wasn't any other choice...the side effects should wear off after a couple of hours so...try to take it easy until then."

The broken unicorn felt a surge of emotions flood through her. She didn't know whether to be angry, sorrowful or curious. Instead, a deadpan look crossed her visage as she blurted out without nary a thought "How long was I falling?"

To this, the Pegasus's eyes flicked away, unable to meet her gaze as he whimpered "We...didn't really intend to have you in there that long. The magic of those bastards is absolutely unreal...going unchecked since the last uh...well since the last head honcho went and...'left'." He looked back at her, seeing the look of an uncaring nature on her face as he sighed.

"It'll take some time getting used to this fact...in reality you fell for about a minute...in there? It's been about Three years, one month, and sixteen days."