Hard Truths

  "Nightmare!"

  The teenage mare looked up from her book, sighing deeply as she closed it with her left hoof. Great. Here we go again, she thought, getting up and trotting to her bedroom door.

  Out in the living room, her father was stumbling over his own hooves, drunk off his ass, as he tried to navigate around the furniture. "Nightma- oh, there you are! What the fuck took you so long?!"

  Ignoring his question, Nightmare trotted up to him and let him lean against her as she guided him towards the stairs. While she did that, Brute continued to blather on and on, the smell of cheap beer filling the air. "Too bad your momma thought we weren't worth it, eh? Look at us now! W- we famous! The stupid bitch! Hope she rots in Tartarus with that Celestiadamned Rex!"

  Nightmare simply let him rave, knowing he would only be saying mainly ridiculous things tonight. Too bad one of them wasn't what he spewed out at that last part, right after the untrue famous bit. Her mom really had left to go with a stallion named Rex. Guess they should of seen it coming, a pony doesn't get named after one of those asshole birds without being an asshole themselves.

  Still carrying on about marriage, commitment, and sex, Brute didn't even really notice where he was going. He simply let his daughter do the walking for both of them.

  Just like every other day.

  Nightmare's dad didn't used to drink a lot. In fact, he was once one of the most controlled drinkers around. But after that night, the night Peacock told them, and he went berserk, Brute could no longer contain himself. He'd now lost his job, his wife, and his daughter's trust.

No. I can't keep thinking about this.

  Shaking her head, Nightmare finished taking her dad to his room. She just managed to peel him off her, and he now stood in the middle of the room, looking around in confusion. Then his gaze landed on her again.

  Hiccuping, Brute stumbled closer. "Ya know, I sometimes think our family is cursed. Does that sound crazy?" Before Nightmare could answer, he spoke again. "How else you explain those eyes o' yours, eh? They look like something from a Celestiadamned horror story. Like this one my mom used to read to me as a colt, about this crazy bitc-"

  Nightmare cut him off. "Dad, you need some sleep. You look really tired. I bet everything will be better in the morning."

  Brute's eyes blazed, and he rose to his full height, towering over his daughter. "What did you just say to me?!" he scream, raising a hoof.

  Nightmare simply stood there and watched it come down. Then she was on the floor, with Brute standing over her, the anger slowly fading from his eyes. "Oh no. Honey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

  Before he could finish, Nightmare got up and walked out, a fresh, bleeding gash now joining the other ones healing on her head. She did not look back to see her father hang his head dejectedly and close his door, heading to bed.

  The black unicorn mare did not cry. She had lost all her tears long ago. Instead, she simply stepped outside and withdrew a pack of cigarettes hidden under a small crack in the staircase leading down to the grimy street in front of her house.

  Her godmother Disco Light had gotten her hooked on the things. Said they helped relieve stress, which Nightmare found entirely true, even though she knew they were also bad for her.

  Of course, Disco had only been able to come over when Brute was gone, for her presence upset him. A lot. Really. He had gone on another rampage like when mom left the moment he saw Disco.

  Taking one of the white and light brown tobacco sticks, Nightmare also produced a lighter from the hole and lit it. Taking a drag, she released it, and watched the smoke drift into the air.

  "Hey! You're a minor!"

  "Hmm?" Looking down, Nightmare saw one of Luna's Night Guard approaching, an angry expression on his face. This only served to amuse Nightmare. "Wow, really, hotshot? I never would've guessed."

  This made the guard's face twist deeper into anger. "Hey! Watch your tone, bitch!" Unfazed, Nightmare took another drag and puffed the smoke in his face, for he was standing that close now. "Temper, temper. Well, whatcha want, hotshot?"

  The guard was obviously finding it very hard to control his fury, and Nightmare was clearly trying not to laugh. "As a minor, you are hereby to be escorted to the Royal Flight Orphanage!"

  Now Nightmare really couldn't hold it back. And as she finally looked up, giving the guard full view of her eyes, she laughed. "Oh yeah? Ya gonna make me go, dipstick?"

  The guard's jaw had hit the extremely dirty street. "Wh- what are you?" he whispered in fearful awe. Chuckling, Nightmare leaned toward him like she was about to whisper a deep, dark secret.

  "I'm a cursed little mare," she said in a low tone, baring teeth made sharp by some of the more odd, unhealthy things her family had been forced to eat, like small rocks, or frosted-over dirt and grass.

  The guard was now running down the street like a frightened child, yelling something about quitting or finding a way out. Whatever, Nightmare thought, continuing her smoking.

Craw!

  Nightmare looked up to see a bright orange and red bird circling overhead. Removing the cigarette from her mouth, Nightmare doused it out and continued to watch as the bird swooped down and landed on her shoulder. She smiled at the warm glow the odd creature provided.

  "Hey, Flamina, nice to see you again."

  The fire bird simply let out another craw and hopped off, standing in front of Nightmare, the cigarette under one of her talons. Nightmare could swear she saw the raised eyebrow. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But hey, can ya blame me? Dad's always giving me these new shiners," she informed the phoenix, pointing to her head with a hoof. Flamina let out an angry call at the sight of drying blood on her friend's forehead.

  Nightmare could not understand this bird. At least, not most of the time. One day, she simply showed up out of the blue while she was crying over the loss of her mother, and she hadn't stopped coming every other week since. Nightmare hadn't questioned it, learning to go with the flow long ago.

  Huffing, the black unicorn shot a look at her father's bedroom. "Yeah, well, one day he'll get his." At a disapproving grunt from Flamina, Nightmare sighed. "Ok, ok, I know, too harsh. Seriously, though, I got over mom a long time ago, and they only got together a few days before my birth after finding out mom was pregnant, which means I've known her for just about as long as he has. He needs to grow up."

  Flamina sat looking at her for several minutes in silence, then opened her wings and took to the sky. Nightmare sighed as she watched the bird leave. "Fuck," she muttered, "talk about being a dumbass."

  Having obviously finished her smoke and insulted herself, Nightmare went back inside to finish her book.

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Craw!

  Nightmare's head snapped up from her reading, having started on another book. "Flamina?" she questioned, getting up and trotting through her open door and then outside.

  Circling high above again was the phoenix, obviously waiting for Nightmare to come out. Upon spotting her, she skydived, pulling up at the last second and dropping down at the bottom of the stairs.

  Raising an eyebrow at the unusual turn of events, for the bird never visited more than once a day the times she did visit, Nightmare stepped off the small square of cement that led to the door past the last stair step.

  Joining the bird on the street, Nightmare realized Flamina had something gripped in her talons. The phoenix held it up, revealing a necklace of simple design. Really simple. It consisted only of a worn strip of leather with a fading silver charm that swirled like a lollipop. Removing it carefully from Flamina's claws in fear of snapping it, Nightmare examined it closer.

  "Uh, thanks, Flamina."

  The bird let out a proud call before once more taking to the sky and disappearing around a corner.

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  Nightmare had never really given much care for magic. She was perfectly well aware she had the power of two unicorns, but it didn't matter to her. In this part of the city, it was rather useless anyway. There were all sorts of wards preventing too much magical use as it was. So, she only cared to learn important and simple one, such as levitation, teleport, and push/pull.

  That was why she found it so difficult to learn anything new. That was why she was having such huge trouble with her defense spell.

  "Come on, you stupid thing, work!"

  Her horn spluttered with a dark grey aura, and a shield the same color began to form in front of her, its bottom was pointed, and the top had two wave-like drops, forming a spike tip in the middle, and two tips on either side of the top.

  Unfortunately, the spell did not last long, and the shield vanished. Grunting in exhaustion, Nightmare looked up in defeat. "I should've thought to learn this before that incident with Liquor!" she chided herself.

  Suddenly, her horn shone, and Nightmare gasped. Concentrating, she shoved her magic back down, her breathing coming in shallow gasps at the difficult prospect.

  Another reason why Nightmare rarely used her magic: she would always have to force it back down before it could explode. As previously mentioned, she does have the power of two unicorns, and as such, it proved rather difficult to keep it from surging once summoned. It took all her might not to let it take control. That had happened once, and, well, it hadn't been pretty. Let's just say it was in public, and a lot of blood was washed down the storm drains that night.

  Of course, growing up in an area such as this, death was a trivial thing, and many simply shrugged it off, including children. After having lived there for twelve years, for she was twelve when it happened, Nightmare had been desensitized to such things.

  Now, a sixteen-year-old Nightmare kept a repeat from happening.

  Laying down in her bed, Nightmare sighed tiredly. "Maybe sleep will help," she mumbled, closing her suddenly heavy eyelids.

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KRA-BOOM!

  Nightmare shot from her bed, eyes instantly alert and searching the area for what had made the noise. Realizing her bedroom was empty, Nightmare galloped towards her bedroom door. Lifting her hoof, she took hold of the knob and turned it. Her door flew open as she stepped out into the living room.

  Just in time to see the jagged remains of the front door come flying at her by some invisible thing's magic, spiked edges ready to spear her.