Band of Five Attributes (Re-Written)

Twilight sighed, shaking her head as her hoof connected with her face. Her horn flared up, and from thin air came another metal band which then placed itself on the stallion’s horn. She removed her hoof from her face and found herself trotting towards Tenmei, who had been sitting in a chair at the table with wide eyes and jaw agape.

01 was also seated, the lopsided smile and shrunk pupils adorning his face once more. “I have lost the ability to even…” He trailed off, his body trembling.

“Comprehend what the fuck just happened in the last five minutes?” Nagare finished for him, his head hanging low as he spoke. His wings fell slack at his sides, the bare tips of emerald feathers just touching the floor.

“Something of the sort…” The elder stallion replied, his ears twitching.

“This could’ve gone a lot better.” Twilight murmured as her magic suddenly yanked Tenmei into the air, this time slowly spinning him around as though he were locked in a sphere of some kind.

“Watashi wa yori ōku o gōi shite iru koto ga dekimasendeshita. [I couldn’t have agreed more.]” Kaguya murmured, shaking her head as her eyebrows twitched. Her ears rested on her skull.

“Hmm?” Twilight asked, hearing the older mare’s remark.

“Nothing.” Kaguya lied, backing away slowly to the stairs. “Nothing at all.”

“Uh-huh.” Twilight said rather sarcastically with an arched brow. Once she saw nothing wrong with the tan stallion, she let her magic set him down.

“Um...still paralyzed, here?” Yuuki called out, still being held in a firm grip of magic. The unicorn nodded, and her aura left the young mare who then fell onto her stomach with her legs and wings splayed wide.

“How do we fix this problem without adding swords to the equation?” 01 asked at last, slowly turning his gaze to Nagare. The green stallion still let his head hang low, and he may as well have been a statue that acted as if he did not hear the remark.

“As it stands right now, I don’t think there’s a way to fix this.” Twilight answered, eyelids slanting. A frown was on her muzzle.

“But...can’t ‘Discord’ reverse this since it’s his fault to begin with?” Tenmei interjected, an eyebrow arched.

“He could, but it’s probably going to take a lot of convincing. He isn’t called the spirit of chaos without a reason, sadly.” Twilight answered, shaking her head.

Tenmei removed his glasses with a hoof, slowly handing them over to 01. The elder stallion took the pair of lens and watched as the teen’s face promptly hit the table. A muffled groan of annoyance resounded soon after, followed by two front hooves also slamming the table.

Mimu looked at the spectacle and watched as Tenmei rose his head, only to slam it once more. “Someone’s not a happy camper.” She commented, her ears twitching.

“I’m...uh, going back upstairs. You know where to find me.” Koto stated, getting off her rump and hobbling her way to the stairs.

Yuuki, at last, scrambled to her hooves, her own wings being allowed to droop. Her eyes were hidden under her messy bangs, and her ears flat on her skull. “I’m...also going upstairs.” She murmured, trudging her way to the stairs. She sauntered past Nagare and Kaguya, both of whom looked at her with arched brows.

Hours passed, and night fell once more. Only the very faint light of the stars illuminated Yuuki’s room. She laid on the floor, eyes locked in a hypnotized stare towards the window. The steady rising and falling of her chest was her only movement, with the occasional twitch of the ear or blinking of eyes.

She continued to stare blankly. The house was silent, but she did not take notice or even care. Her body began to ache, pain tingling throughout all her nerves, but she still did not move a muscle.

The soft clip-clop of hooves hitting the floor echoed in the hall beyond, and her ears twitched as they caught the sound. It ended on short notice before her door slowly creaked open, the hallway beyond so ill-lit one could very easily think it had merged with the darkness.

Hooves hitting the floor sounded once more, followed by the creaking of the door as it was shut.

All fell silent for a few moments, everything once more locked into a state of paralysis. Surely, it felt almost as if time had frozen still.

“Yuuki?” The intruder asked at last, the voice a masculine sort.

The mare’s ears twitched once more, and only then did she begin to stir. She rose onto her legs, still staring blankly at the window, her muscles screaming at her to stop, having been numbed all these hours just laying on the floor, but their owner failed to comply. Her wings still drooped as though broken and completely useless addendums on her body.

“Yuuki.” The intruder repeated, this time a bit louder. His voice, if his tone of voice was anything to base his gender on, was the only thing that dared break the serene silence of the house. The mare turned to the door as if she begrudged something, only to see a dark silhouette illuminated by the faint starlight beyond her window.

It was one she knew all too well, for nobody else she knew had half his mane concealing his right eye. “Nagare?” She asked, her voice hushed. It was as if she wanted to avoid speaking altogether.

“Yes.” The intruder answered, slowly walking until he was face to face with Yuuki in the near-bleak darkness of the room. “Who else would it be? I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Well, then spit it out.” Yuuki said, turning her head away from the stallion.

The stallion sighed, then sat on his rump. He kept his wings tucked neatly at his sides. “Look, I’m sorry for those accusations I threw at you a few days ago.” He said quickly, putting a hoof on the mare’s shoulder.

Yuuki failed to respond with words. She did turn her head back to him, however, and sat on her own rump.

The other hoof was placed on her corresponding shoulder. For a few moments more, a deathly silence had overtaken the duo.

Then, the stallion’s eyes widened as the mare inched closer to him. She was close enough for her breath to touch his pelt. Her forelegs soon grasped him at the waist, pulling him closer to her.

“W-what are you doing?” Nagare asked, inflection rising just a bit from shock.

Yuuki failed to answer with words once more, instead putting her head on his chest. It was as if the silence clutched her by the throat, rendering her vocal chords useless.

“Earth to Yuuki?? What are you doing?” Nagare repeated, his wings twitching nervously.

“I feel...like I can’t keep up.” The mare murmured at last, her head resting under the stallion’s chin.

“Hmm?” Nagare hummed, arching a brow. He noticed that the stars no longer glimmered in the sky, as if clouds had concealed their delicate, shimmering forms beyond the window's frame.

“All these problems. Every single one of them.” Yuuki replied, her wings slowly moving to her sides in a folding manner. “First, being a pony, then nearly losing both my freedom and my right eye, and then getting pregnant...and now these wings…”

Nagare closed his eyes, then moved his forelegs around the mare. He felt the mare inch so close to him full-on contact was inevitable at this point. And then the gut-wrenching sound of a soft, frantic sobbing hit his ears. A feeling of wetness hit his chest once the sound began.

“I just don’t know what to do…” Yuuki murmured, her voice shaken with sobs. Her wings fell limp once more as she continued to cry, and her ears fell flat against her skull.

Nagare kept his eyes closed, and he could feel tears of his own forming in their corners. As they swelled and threatened to trickle down his face, he wished there was something he could do to keep them at bay. He felt lost. He didn't know what to do aside from hold a wounded friend tightly in his forelegs and keep silent.

Anything would suffice at this point, and his mind scrambled for options, but in the end the tears had won. He too began to mourn, wrapped in a tight embrace with a sobbing friend. As he silently wept, his wings slowly spread wide before concealing much of Yuuki’s form like a feathery blanket in the darkness of the otherwise-still night.