I woke up suddenly, my eyes flying open with a burning sting. From where I lay, almost no light reached. Little motes of dust flew around twirling almost invisibly in the ambient glow from above, almost dancing like Breezies in the wake of my breaths. I shifted for what might have been the first time in millennia, my chains rattling against the burning stone beneath me.
The rattling of my breath was the only sound that kept me company, aside from the rustling of my bonds. I wondered, for a passing moment, if the light from above was getting brighter. Alas, as I continued to stare up at the distant, burning light, I found it only to be a trick of my imagination.
Nopony was coming for me.
I breathed in again, finding that the stifling air didn’t do much to help my already parched throat. Absently, I found myself wondering when I had last tasted water. The ageless expanse of my memory didn’t seem to stretch as far back as I believe it once had. I couldn't remember when I hadn't been thirsty.
I rapidly blinked my golden eyes, trying to clear them of the dust that stung them. The rest of my red fur was matted and clumped from the thick air. My mane fared worse. Its black coloring did not help to shield me from the oppressive heat, as it stuck to my neck and body in hot, miserable clumps. With a sigh of resignation, I simply let my eyes close. It’s not as if there was anything worth seeing in any case.
Briefly, my heat addled thoughts spun around my mind, bringing me pleasure in their random cacophony. I found that I enjoyed their imagined sound, even if the only sampling of it was clacking and breathing. Before long, I decided that I must recompose myself, and I took in another breath. As I exhaled, it calmed my thoughts back into a semblance of order.
I jumped as I heard a different sound, one that I was unfamiliar with. It came from within and beneath me, seemingly from directly below my ribs. After a moment of confusion, I smiled as I recognized that rare sound. My stomach had growled.
I had no doubt that I had not eaten since I had last drank, so I didn’t bother to comb my memory for such information. I slid my numb and heavy tongue around my mouth, feeling the papery touch of my dessicated gums. They made their own sound, a strange sliding noise resounding in my skull. I didn't like that noise as much, but there weren't many noises that I didn't like after such a long time of silence.
I shifted again, the magic binding me rubbing against my bones through my papery skin. Another intake of humid air, and I could feel my skin stretch to accommodate my ribcage expanding, no doubt now in sharp relief against my hide. An absent smile overtook my muzzle, causing cracks to rupture my parched lips. I wondered if the heat would stay forever, or if somepony would come before then.
Nopony was coming, I knew. I couldn't wait, I hoped it would be soon.
I also found myself wondering why the heat was there. As with everything else, it simply seemed to have always been. It came from everywhere, as if I was resting inside some great, stone fire, or sleeping within a kiln. I furrowed my brow in concentration, trying to pick out where the heat was coming from exactly.
I quickly found myself gazing in awe around me as the world shifted in strange motions, spinning and spinning away. My smile returned again, and I found myself mutely laughing with the spinning dots in my vision. Sadly, it began to slow, leaving me back within my dark prison.
Prison
That word. Yes, that’s where I am. The word shocked me for a second with its poisonous implications, bringing strange images to my head. I saw thousands of ponies, their wings spread and their horns lit, charging upon a battlefield against a looming darkness. They crashed against it in waves. I too flew into the fray, my magic flashing as I struck against a wall of energy. The wall parted around the paw of a lion, which reached out and grabbed me by the throat, closing around my neck with crushing force and-
I jolted with a sudden cry, ending the painful memory.
I was left panting, my eyes wild and my body heaving with remembered purpose. I forced my legs to straighten, but they couldn’t hold me. As I fell to the ground, my eyes focused on the light high above me. Slowly, I reached a hoof out to it, the nearly skeletal appendage creating a dark spot against the radiance.
I giggled quietly again. My hoof fell in exhaustion, worn out by the simple act of being lifted, but my mind was elsewhere. I took another breath, the air whistling silently through the tears in my crushed neck.
The heat was starting to make me tired. My eyelids drooped, their papery surface burning my dried eyes as they slid over them. I wondered if I would be able to stay awake long enough for Nopony to come. I had been promised, and I promised back. Nopony would come, and I would wait for Nopony.
Nopony would take me from my torture.
Torture
I recoiled again as more terrible memories flooded before me.
A patchwork, evilly grinning monster threw me down through a gap in the air and into a strange void. My magical bonds tightening as I fell. I watched in pain as countless others dropped around me, falling through the darkness of the unknown dimension.
Instantly, I was overcome with the heat, and I felt my body contort instinctively as I writhed in the invisible fire. My screams were lost within my crushed throat, my cries of pain filtered to silence by my destroyed vocal cords. Finally, I fell into a prison of stone at the bottom of the darkness, its unbearable heat a searing reminder of my failure as my armor melted around me. I watched the light of the now unreachable world above as my tears fell freely-
I gasped, my breath now coming in deep, jagged, motions. I slid my hoof up to my chest in shock, my muzzle set in a grim look. I had to defeat Discord. He had to pay for what he had done to me and to all alicorns. I had to... I had…
My grin returned, as I stared at the dust motes dancing in the light above. They were so pretty, spiraling down and up to their own little song. I tried to hum with their dance, but I couldn't seem to make any sound save for a strange whistling noise from my neck.
That was okay though. I could pretend.
My eyes closed once more, bringing the stinging pain back again. It was alright, it made it's own song with all the other pains that I had, like a big symphony. I couldn't hum to that either.
I opened my eyes again when I realized that my hoof was still on my chest. My brow furrowed slightly, but only enough to send little dots down my vision. I felt like something was wrong. My hoof rested against my chest and was completely still. I could feel nothing from it, nor from my chest. It was silent, and it bothered me. Something should be there, I thought. I thought I remembered that there was once another sound in my symphony, beating away beneath my hoof.
I smiled slightly. I thought I remembered lots of things, like... well, I'll remember them again later, I'm sure.
I turned my eyes downwards, again, to find that there were strange, whirly scratches in the floor. I frowned and shifted what weight that I had onto my stomach, and rolled over so that my hooves were beneath me again. After giggling from the world spinning once more, I looked down at the scratches.
The scratches were quite neatly arranged; some flowing into each other and some standing alone. They looked very familiar, but I had a hard time seeing them past the dots in my vision. What I could see was lots of little circles and swooshes, and lines with dots, all lined up in rows with spaces between them sometimes.
I yawned, my skin around my lips cracking open as I did. Maybe I could take a quick nap before Nopony came. I remembered a male voice laughing, telling me that Nopony would come for me.
I hoped Nopony came soon, this place was too hot for me.
My eyes closed completely, my lungs stopping in their needless battle to push oxygen to a dead heart. I felt my damaged mind quieting, my immortal form drifting again to sleep.
I woke up suddenly, my eyes flying open with a burning sting. From where I lay, almost no light reached. Little motes of dust flew around twirling almost invisibly in the ambient glow from above, almost dancing like Breezies in the wake of my breaths. I shifted for what might have been the first time in millennia, my chains rattling against the burning stone beneath me.
The rattling of my breath was the only sound that kept me company, aside from the rustling of my bonds. I wondered, for a passing moment, if the light from above was getting brighter. Alas, as I continued to stare up at the distant, burning light, I found it only to be a trick of my imagination.
Nopony was coming for me.
The light becoming too much for my eyes, I looked down at the ground in front of me. When I did, I saw a strange column of words in front of me. Curious, I began to read.
I'm so sorry, mother.
A pouting frown caused my lips to droop. I didn't want somepony to be sad, because ponies were usually sad when they said "sorry." I looked around to see who wrote the word, but the only pony here was me. Shrugging slightly, I read on.
I failed.
That was another thing that ponies said when they were sad. My mind tumbled those words over and over within itself, until it forgot where I had read them anyways. I looked down again, the long line of "apologies” and "fails” stretching out to cover the entire floor.
A little smile lit up my face. Maybe if I found the pony who wrote that, I could make them happy. We could sit together, and I wouldn't be so lonely as I waited for Nopony to come. I looked around dreamily, but once again, I was the only one there.
Oh well, I had waited and could wait some more.
After all, Nopony was coming for me.
Celestia tersely smiled down from her throne at her visitors as only a practiced diplomat could, giving them a small nod. Before her throne, Fluttershy smiled warmly. Next to her, Discord slouched with a bored expression, obviously wanting to get their meeting over with so he could go back to something he believed was far more worth his time.
Suppressing a sigh, Celestia cleared her throat for her greeting. "Hello, Discord. Hello Fluttershy. It is always good to see you again, my little pony."
The draconequus smiled grimly, before Fluttershy prodded him on, an encouraging look on her face.
"Ah, Princess Celestia, so boring and cordial as always.” Discord chuckled, turning to float on his back. “What could your royal highness possibly need with little old me?” Discord batted his eyelids, his snaggle-tooth gleaming in the most innocent face he could conjure up.
"I would like to speak with you alone. It is a matter which has been on my mind for quite some time, and that I think you will find quite interesting, considering your reformation."
Fluttershy nodded politely before leaving the throne room with a gentle wave, the Royal Guards exiting quickly behind her. Discord plopped down in a bean bag chair that had not previously existed as Celestia strode down from her throne. As the echoes of the door closing faded from the room, her eyes turned hard.
"Release them."
That caught Discord off-guard. "Beg your pardon?" He asked, rolling one eye over to face Celestia in a look of confusion.
"You heard me. Release them!"
"Them who?" Discord sighed, as he got up and and teleported his chair away with a snap. "Celestia, please, you’re making less sense than usual."
"Don't play dumb with me," Celestia growled. "I've spent more than a thousand cursed years waiting, knowing full well what you have done to my people and unable to do anything to help them." Celestia's voice cracked slightly, tears beginning to stain her muzzle. "Now, release them!"
Understanding dawned in Discord's eyes and he looked down, seemingly unable to meet Celestia's eyes any longer.
"Ah," he said, his voice small and tinged with something Celestia could never have dreamed hearing from him.
Guilt.
"So... that's the real reason why you wanted me reformed," Discord sighed, his ears drooping.
Celestia raised a hoof uneasily, unsure of what she should do. She had expected this to devolve into a fierce confrontation, not into a moment of weakness.
Discord turned his head to face her again, his eyes seeming to bear a heavy weight. "Celestia, I can't."
"What?" Celestia reeled back, stumbling slightly. "Of course you can. You were the one who put them there, you can bring them back!"
"No, I can't." Discord snapped angrily, before falling back into his uncharacteristic gloom. "There's nothing left of them to bring back. My magic was meant to seal them, not preserve them. Their minds are gone, and their bodies aren't much better by now. I can't bring them back because they aren't really there anymore."
She felt her breathing quicken, the room spinning slightly. "But...They're waiting for me and Luna to defeat you, and find where you hid them. T-they're waiting for us to set them free."
Celestia's look became pleading as her tears burned her eyes. "We have to set them free."
With a solemn look, Discord held up his claw, seeming as if he was preparing for his trademark snap. "I can’t set them free, but I can end their pain," he said, his voice calm and placating. "Nothing can bring them back to you whole. Though I'm... I'm sorry. For all that's worth."
He waited, watching Celestia’s face for any signs of a response. After a full minute of trembling in silence, she collapsed, her legs giving out from under her. Discord recovered from his shock quickly, and dived just in time to catch the falling princess.
Celestia couldn't see him anymore. All she could see was the face of a kindly alicorn stallion, happily laughing in a meadow beside her as the sunset's colors stretched up around them. Beneath him, she saw a little red and black filly, her eyes filled with wonder as she watched the fading light, a smile stretched across her face and her laughter pealing out like the ringing of silver bells.
She nodded silently, her eyes shut tight as if the truth would go away if she couldn’t see it, as if in the silence she could make those memories last forever. From somewhere above her, she heard Discord snap his claws. For a moment, her memories seemed sharper, as if they were becoming real, as if she could reach out and feel the warmth of her husband and child next to her. But then they dulled, their purpose melting away as those she loved vanished from all hope of return.
And Celestia cried as her people faded away forever into the peace that they deserved.
Author's Note
This may be the most disturbing thing I have ever committed to words. Despite -or in light of, I don't judge- that fact, I hope you found this an acceptable story including an OC alicorn. Have a nice day.
