A little part of me breaks as her hooves echo down the corridor. I blink the last remnants of tears from my eyes. She will not see me give in to the pain.
"You have provided Canterlot with a great deal of energy. I applaud your strength."
"I do not care about your acceptance. It's not like I could escape."
"You could die."
"I'm not giving you that satisfaction."
She smiles. She finds humor in my truth. Figures.
She leaves, hooves clicking on the stone until she shuts the heavy door, and then silence. I let my head drop.
The ground is just below as far as I can reach. I can't rest on the stone. Instead, I hang. Each limb strapped to the walls by metal coils. Electricity - arcane or generated, I can't tell - courses through the coils and through my body. No blood drips. It's all caught, red and filled with raw power, and is whisked off through the wall to who-knows-where. From what she has said, I know it is somehow changed into energy. She uses it for her city and her castle.
But for me, it is not helpful. I am kept in the dark, all the time. The only thing I am sure of in the room is the coils, which I have traced to the walls with my tail, and her, when she comes in. No other sees me. No other knows I am here.
It has been more than three months. I know if I leave the darkness, my eyes will burn. I do not want to see the light. In fact, the light that shines from her mane is almost enough to hurt me.
But in knowing the path of the coils, and feeling the charges for so long, I know the weak points. I will escape tomorrow, if she comes again.
It is strange, that she comes so often. I would have thought a pony who had lived so many years around her dying family, and friends, and subjects, that she would be a loyal kind of compassionate to her prisoner.
I have waited long enough. My claws wait for her flesh under them, my teeth for her neck.
They say you cannot kill a goddess.
But sure as hell, I'm going to try.
~
She has not returned for three days. I hope she has died. Assassinated, maybe. Oh, that would be nice. Other than the fact that I'm going to be stuck down here forever.
No. I hear hoofsteps.
Her.
"There has been a problem. One of the coils has worn down, and needs to be replaced. Guards, take position."
On her call, at least twenty unicorns, each wielding a long spear - probably enchanted - enter the room.
I desperately search their faces. No pity among them that I can use. Steel glares, solid frowns, and not an ear twitch under my gaze. To be honest, I'm surprised. I did not know she trained her guards this well.
Pain!
I bit my tongue to hold back a scream, coppery blood filling my mouth. I look to my arm. The metal prong has been torn out! An entire chunk of my arm is lying on the floor! My god, the blood... I can't feel anything anymore. There's just so much blood. My vision fuzzes at the edges, and I force myself to look away, meeting the eyes of her.
She looked like a mean kind of sympathetic. "Does that hurt?"
I can't reply. There's too much blood in my mouth, too much on the floor. If I even try to open my mouth, I'll probably vomit. I can feel the numbness up my arm now. The blood isn't dripping as fast now, clumping instead in thick gobs. I am impressed by the resistance of the guards. None have moved.
"This won't hurt as much." She promises. I see her move out of my vision, behind me. My back legs drop to the floor, the needles in them jabbing as they shift before settling and numbing again. She has let me stand... on my own.
I'm not strong enough, though. My legs slide backwards, and I'm hanging by the metal vest and one shackle. The blood surges down my throat as I swing limply. I retch, and it spills over onto the floor, congealing with the blood from my arm. I hear a few of the guards back up from the spill.
She rears up, unbuckling the worn-out coil from the roof. It hits the ground, sliding into the sticky pool. I was waiting for that coil to break. I would have been able to fight her. But no. She's fixing it.
A tug on my legs. She's lifting me back up.
Ohhohoho no.
I kick out, despite the needles digging into my legs, and nail her somewhere on her shoulder. She screeches and falls back, the sound of her sliding down the wall revitalizing. I tear my final hand free of the prong, blood spraying on my side but I don't care. The guards are moving now, charging forward, honor and murder lighting their eyes. The first to reach me slide over in the concealed blood, crashing to the ground. A few more trip over the fallen, one of the tripped become impaled on another spear and screaming. I laugh, pulling my freshly-wounded claw close and striking out with the other.
Three more charge, despite their brethren backing away in favor of aiding the princess. I swipe them down with my tail, the fine hairs digging into their eyes and blinding them, their rubbing hooves only making matters worse. I turn, slam the door open, and cast meager light on the scene.
I can't look at my own injuries. With a growl, I drop to all fours and charge over the wounded, feeling bones snap under my weight. Despite their training, Celestia's troop scatters, leaving her vulnerable. I leap, a few vital moments where I am unprotected. I am not opposed.
My landing is on Celestia's side, tail lashing and claws digging into her soft skin. I still do not understand how ponies have been able to control things like hydra and buffalo, both more suited for survival, and extinguish the draconequus race completely.
She will not be able to overpower a single member.
I assess her wounds as I tear along her flanks. My kick has rendered her right wing broken, and by the way she is struggling, a few ribs had followed suit.
Good. All is according to plan.
With ease, I hook my claws under her flesh and lever a huge strip away form her body, blood spilling over my claws and her flanks as healthy arteries and muscle object to my force.
She screams.
I drop the bleeding flesh back on her body. I know the way of the Alicorn, the reason they survive. Biological material will reconnect with their bodies if it is still healthy. They heal quickly, seem immortal.
Just as the blob of flesh begins to settle, I tear up a corner. With a swift jab, I burrow my single fang into the gap, venom surging straight into blood and organs. Twisting my head for good measure, I pull my weapon back out, stepping back.
She is kicking, twitching, eyes rolling back as the poison takes effect. She will live until I return and finish the job.
I single tail flick renders the few remaining guards blind and helpless.
I limp away, wings fluttering to try and work after so long, needles stinging in my legs and blood oozing from my arms.
I force myself to stop, wobbling before slamming into a wall.
I turn my leg around, using my teeth to slide each needle out of it's place, watching the silver rods clatter to the ground. It only takes moments to be free from that wound.
My hands are healing, slowly. Free of the draining coils, my natural magic is returning, working its controlled biological havoc on my cells. They multiply, spreading over my scrapes, slowly filling in the gaps left my the needles and the prongs.
I am grateful. I can stand up easily now, can move my talons without blood pouring from them. I still want rid of the ugly harness around my chest - now spattered with the blood of both me and my victims - and the outer-spiked collar about midway up my neck. I suppose it's meant to keep me from being able to see behind me easily, but it was probably designed for a pony, with a much smaller neck.
It isn't hard for me to twist my head, to see the door slide quietly shut behind me. I can feel a single drop of blood run down my neck, trail around to my chest, and fall to the ground.
I am fully aware that her sister has also been returned to this planet. She will surely notice if her sister does no return.
Unless, like she used to in her childhood, she still sleeps during the day...
Oh, this is hilarious.
I flex my healed claws. Luna will have to wait.
With a feral growl, I dropped to all fours, evening out my weight and loping down the corridor. My tail itches as the hair grows back, a few drops of blood leaking out around the new hairs.
The doors up this far are weak and thin. It's no stretch of the imagination to believe that I shoved through them, the locks at the center splitting and sending little golden flecks out into the neatly tiled hallway ahead.
My blood spatters the ground again as I roar, servant ponies scattering in fear of my reputation. A lucky few escape unscathed, but many skid into the walls or are caught in the leeway of others.
And there she is, another one of their feeble kind.
As frilly as something living can be, this pink Alicorn believes she's the incarnate of love, of all things. I've been despising her ever since she stopped my slow decay of those stupid pixie ponies.
I growl and leap the space between us, her evident shock leaving her no time to escape. I hit her side, hard, the spikes of my collar digging into the flesh under her wing. I hear an ugly scraping sound, echoed by her unearthly screams. I pull my head back, hissing in anger. Her voice tears at my ears, the glint of bone shining amid pools of blood. I have nearly severed her wing.
The taste of blood other than my own spurs me on, and my jaws clamp down across her primaries. With a slow crush, the solid bone beneath her feathers bends and snaps. She's no longer screaming, acidic bile dripping from her mouth as she fights for consciousness.
My jaws meet again, and her wing falls to the ground, the feathers twitching slightly. The pony faints dead away in my arms.
I throw her back onto the ground, ignoring her feeble squeals of protest as blood gushes from her wound. Ponies are still watching, sickened but determined, waiting to rescue their princess.
I consider feeding now - that damned Celestia kept me from eating since I was imprisoned - but this scrap of flesh is not worth the struggle.
I turn away from her, back to my original path, and stalk away. I hear the ponies calling for help, screaming for her to wake up, praying to Celestia and her shallow sun, but none of them are worth it.
A drop of venom courses down my fang, and I lick it off, the tangy acid a sweetener to the copper sea in my throat. I hiss softly, my own breath wet with blood.
There are two paths here. I can go up to the tower, to where I know Luna is resting soundly. I could also go back down into the dungeon and find my prey.
A guard has finally caught on that I've escaped, and a wave of them are coming from the dungeon side. I sweep them aside with a wave of magic, the lucky ones breaking their necks and avoiding the agony of broken ribs and blood loss as their end.
With a wave of fiendish glee, I lope up the stairs, each one smeared with scarlet life of my latest prey. I pick up speed at a regular pace, the stones bleeding together into one meticulous gray. The door looms ahead, I can sense the magic seeping from the locks. They are weak, suitable for a goddess in recovery and still too complicated for a common unicorn. I am neither.
The combinations click and slide, the door swinging open before I can even see it. I slow my pace as to not wake her; it would be unfortunate if the guards arrived. I am silent as death as I enter, her sleeping form still innocent under her starry covers. I close the door again, and reinforce the lock on both sides.
Careful not to tread on discarded stuffed animals, I stalk up to her bedside, propping back up on my hind legs as I go. I much look like a monster, I realize, more so than I truly am.
I cast a force-field over the windowpanes, drawing the blinds as well as to not infect the public eye. With a grunt of effort, I pry the spikes from my neck, fresh blood roiling down my fur as the torture collar drags free. I drop the device to the side, careful not to spatter any of her beloved toys. What little innocence remains after this will need affirming anyways.
She is partially awake now, her eyelids flickering and her ears twitching. "Celestia? Is it nighttime already?"
I climb in alongside her. "No, it's still day. Go back to sleep."
She almost obeys before her eyes shoot open. "Who are you?!"
I wrap her in her own blankets with a deft twirl. She struggles against them, but I stuff the tip into her mouth before she can scream. I cast a soundproofing spell as an afterthought, and release her mouth.
"Hush, moon princess."
She trembles, every atom of her being attempting to free herself. "No! You'll never discord me! I'll never succumb to your lies!"
I frown, leaning on one elbow. "Oh, that's what you think this is all about."
"W-why shouldn't it?" Her voice is laced with fear now. She never knew me as anything but a brother or an enemy.
Hm. Time to add lover to that list.
"It's simple, little moon." I lay her back down on her bed, letting her relax but still holding her down. "No pony is ever as fun in bed when they're broken."
