What Could Have Been

        I have been looking for others in this town for a few hours. None have been found aside from my younger companion, who is rather disappointed with this turn of events. I glance at her, she seems tired. We haven't been searching for particularly long, but she is fairly young.

        "Why don't we rest here?" I phrase this as a question,  but I mean it as a statement.        "Yes. Let's rest."        We enter one of the abandoned buildings. It's completely empty. I wonder if they all are. An idea enters my mind and I act on it.        "I'll tell you a story,  if you would like that," I ask her this, half expecting her to say no.        "That would be really nice!" I am pleasantly surprised by her enthusiastic response.        "In a long-forgotten time, a pony was born." I pause briefly before continuing.        "She was treated horribly and unfairly for years by a town that thought her to be the foal of a demon for having both wings and a horn." I pause again,  but for less time. The half-remembered words of this tale were coming back to me.        "She had never known much kindness in her life, only harsh punishment and chains, so it surprised her when one of the ponies in that horrible town protested her condition. This unicorn's beliefs were laughed at when he tried to talk the town into changing its treatment of her."        "One night, he removed her from her from the chains that bound her and tried to escape with her. "        "She could barely walk,  so he has to support her. She does have wings, but they are still bound to her body and even if they weren't, she doesn't know how to fly. "        "This slows them down considerably. They are almost out of the town when they are noticed."        "They are detected by the town's mayor, a powerful unicorn."        "The mayor strikes with his magic before either of them can think, incapacitating the young filly and killing her benefactor." At this, my companion grimaces. Perhaps this is too dark a tale... I stop there.        "Please, can you continue? I want to know how it ends."        I decide to oblige her request.        " She is forced back into her chains kicking and screaming. "        "She could hear the town talking about her, gossiping. "        "She eventually managed to fall asleep. "        "The next morning, the town's interest in her was at an unusual low. She wondered what happened to attract the entire town's attention."        "She was left watching the sun's journey across the sky, interested in understanding how it managed to do that."        "As she watched, she heard a voice: the sun's voice."        "It told her that she was no longer alone. "        "Sure enough, the next day, there was another prisoner chained next to her, a small filly with both a wing and horns, just like her."        "The day to day lives of the two were horrific. Every day, they were tortured in some way." I deliberately omit the specifics here, because I know they would horrify my companion.        "Despite this, the older one managed to learn some magic."        "She eventually learned enough to escape from her chains. Instead of escaping, she slowly learned how to fly, so that some day, she could fly away with the other."        "The evening after she finally finished learning to fly and was confident with her abilities, she heard an unfamiliar voice."        "It was the voice of all of ponykind. It told her to leave now, to fly away. "        "Despite it  still being daytime, she used her magic to undo the chains holding both of them."        "She picked up the younger one, who she could never imagine leaving behind, and flew off, directly towards the setting sun."        "The town saw this and was outraged."        "However,  the two were too far away for the town to do anything."        "Is there any more?" The question surprises me.        "No, that's where it ends."        "Did that actually happen?" This question surprises me much less.        "Who knows? I used to think the legend of Nightmare Moon was just a simple foal's story, but it turned out to be true. This story could be like that." This answer seems to satisfy her.        We sleep, regaining our energy slowly.