A Withering Fleur

"Fleur..."

Time seemed to stop as we stared at each other, if it wasn't for the chorus of gasps and now not-so-hushed whispers amongst the Canterlot ponies. A few recognised the name, either from my association with Fancy or the inevitable news from the dramatic end of my modelling career, and everypony who didn't was having it promptly explained to them that I was thought to be either dead or exiled.

"The Night Court is closed! All of thou, we bid thee safe travels and humbly apologize for the sudden change of events."

A sudden uproar let the princess get the general idea of how the ponies felt about the current change of events, one that only seemed to amplify when the Night Guard started ushering them out forcefully. Even behind the now closed doors of the throne room I could hear their cries of annoyance, albeit muffled.

"We hath arrested Fetlockstein, he is waiting in a cell in the castle's dungeons. If thou want, thou can speak with him before his punishment." I tilted my head curiously at what his punishment would be; I knew Celestia was sorely against execution, but banishment was too good for him. "We hath spoken with our sister, and we feel that were she to lay eyes on thou she would understand our pleas for death." The corners of my mouth - well, where they used to be at least - curled up in a wicked smile. I nodded eagerly and she lead me through a reinforced wooden door to the left of the throne.

The hallways we walked through slowly got colder and more infested with cobwebs, as well as an ever increasing amount of dust on the floor leaving a neat trail of hoofprints. We followed three tracks of prints through various twists and turns until we finally reached a long row of iron barred cells. I nodded at Luna and gave me the key to his cell and moved away to allow me some privacy. Breeze and I trotted down the line of empty cells, some of which had skeletons of various creatures including ponies still sitting in them, until we found the only occupant of Canterlot Dungeon: Master. My putting the key in the lock caught his attention and put a smile on his face.

"My puppet! Come to break me out, have we? And you brought your beautiful daughter with you, oh it's an escape dream come true." He tried to walk towards me but was held back by several chains around his waist and legs. "You see, I'm a bit tied up right now." I snorted, turning away from him to make my exit before he spoke up once again. "I see this is no rescue plan for me, puppet, so I will grace you with one final word." This I had to hear. I turned my head back, staring deep into his eyes as his grin faded into something more serious... like defeat? No, acceptance. "Apple."

Time froze, my mind took a back seat, my wings shot up from their previous limp position and I could only focus on one detail: How much I really, really, really wanted to kill the stallion chained up before me. My reaction was what he wanted, the smile returning to his face as mine gained a scowl. I crouched down and in one swift movement used my wings to propel me forwards and spear his neck with my horn. Breeze made no effort to stop me, though she was slightly scared as Fetlockstein gargled blood, a fair bit of it running down the length of my horn and down my snout towards my mouth. The smell, the sensations, filled me with euphoria and I desired more. I wanted to know his taste, wear it, imprint it on me for as long as I lived. He couldn't scream now, I learned that from him and he looked excited that I used the knowledge, so that meant I could have my fun.

Slowly, very slowly, I began to peel his skin off starting where my horn had pierced it. My work was anything but neat and soon I had stripped the colour off his entire neck, revealing the muscles below as they flexed and tensed from the painful sensations he was going through. I could see why he enjoyed messing with me, and while I had no intention to follow his example it set in a new sense of admiration as his coat was slowly lifted from his face. He had no eyelids now, no way to hide him from the sight of me tearing away at him, and no way to stop me from licking one of his eyes. I would save those for later definitely, but right now I wanted him to watch everything.

But I had to hurry. Hoofsteps were approaching.

I let out a silent growl of distontent as I wrapped his neck skin around mine like a scarf and loosely wore his face like a bandana. The steps were hurried now, time to wrap this up. I stabbed my horn into his right eye, closely followed by his left before repeatedly jabbing him in the neck and chest. Blood slowly seeped out of his wounds, as if there was little left to lose, and for good measure I bit a chunk out of his neck. The steps stopped. I turned back to see Luna and Celestia, their faces plastered with a look of shock as the scene they were witnessing. I jumped out of the cell and with a powerful flap of my wings leapt over them and sprinted for the exit. Breeze would be fine, she would understand my urgency. My running slowed down to a halt before I realised that I was stuck in the magical aura of Celestia, who had recovered from the initial shock a fair bit faster than Luna who was still frozen.

I was dragged back against my will, kicking wildly to no avail. I was right in front of Celestia when I had another brilliant idea: finding out her taste. I lurched forwards, my muzzle just getting close enough to pinch off a morsel of alicorn. It was sweet, probably the sweetest it be without turning into a marshmallow, but the distinct metallic taste didn't fail to make it's presence known either. With a yelp of pain I was pulled further away, nothinf I could do to shift forwards in the slightest as I was met with the angriest glare I had ever seen from the Celestial Sisters. It sent a pleasant chill down my spine, ruffling the feathers on my wings. I noticed that Fetlockstein was still weakly hanging on to life out of the corner of my eye, and I had to commend his effort.

"Sister, she is brainwashed. Look at her eyes, they are little more than pin pricks."

"She not only comitted murder, Luna, but in a way that is violent, gruesome, and violates everything Equestria stands for. She even wears her victim as a trophy!" I flashed Celestia a crooked smile, adjusting the skin around my neck and striking a pose while I was suspended in mid air. "She even mocks us! She is lost to the world, Luna. I give you two options, death... or reset. Pick one." The decision was directed at me, but that didn't stop Luna from speaking out against her sister.

"She can be saved! We need not resort to measures as drastic as a reset! Thou banned that spell before even WE were banished; if it were that bad then, how does that make it now?"

A reset. I didn't know what that was, but I assumed it meant keeping my life. I pounded my wings against the air, ran a hoof along the scars on my face and neck, then bit into that hoof hard enough to make the bones in my ankle crunch loudly enough to make the diarchs return their attention to me. I was going to respond, but this new realisation of how good I tasted distracted me as I began tearing the flesh off my foreleg and eating it, savouring the taste with every bite. It hurt, it hurt quite a lot actually, but the reward of the taste easily outweighed that pain and pushed it out of my head through my ear. I had stripped my bone up to my knee when I heard the alicorns beside me speak in unison.

"Death..." Their voices were sad, defeated, crushed by the forced loss of one of their valuable subjects. The edges of my vision started to darken, creating even more focus on gnawing at my own bone. It slowly expanded, creating an ever-narrowing hole of vision, one that as soon as it closed up entirely I f-