Shackles

by Enigma Cube

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Dark, Alternate Universe, Sad
Length: 1416

Do you know where I am? I'm scared, cold and alone. Why's it so dark? Oh wait, I'm starting to remember now...

It's so dark, it's quite scary.
There's this little rattling sound, as soon as I recognizes it, all my memories come back.
Well, some of them at least.

Just a short story that I decided to have a bit of fun with, enjoy, or not, whichever you prefer…

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-04-28 23:40:02 UTC

Shackles

I awake with struggling breaths and pains in my chest.

The world is silent except the pattering of rain and my rapid heartbeat.

And how can I forget about the rattling of my shackles.

Grasped on my left hindleg, is the bronze colored shackle that keeps me against the wall. Three steps is all it takes, i could walk from the wall to the center of the room before my shackles drag me back.

It's too dark to see anything.

Couldn't even see my own hooves any more. Not that it mattered, I knew they were grey.

But they weren't always grey, no, I remember a different color once upon a time. All my  color has been stole from me as punishment. Even my cutie mark had gone, replaced by a grey blank flank.

Colors were happy, and I wasn't meant to be happy.

The shackles came later though, once I was able to touch both ends of the cell. But I was a bad pony and that was taken from me to.

At least I got to engrave a reminder onto the wall in front of me.

Murderer...

I couldn't see the reminder, but I remembered it. I gasped as I let the word sink in, Murderer, I can't recall what that word means, but it makes my heart ache.

My wings hurts.

I don't know where I am, it's too dark and my leg is hurting.

I want to go home...

I must of blacked out, it's hard to tell against the darkness.

It's lighter now. Not that it mattered, it's still dark. The bolts and latches are pulled from my door. Somepony what's to come in.

The heavy iron door swings open. A unicorn with blue hair and a white coat storms in. Hovering a small candle that burned like a miniature sun.

“Listen up.” he demands, my ears fold back at the volume of his words. “You are about to be visited by one of the most important ponies in Equestria. You will answer all questions and do as you are told, understand?”

I nod.

He hoof raises and flexes towards the door. A most beautiful sight stands in my doorway. A tall alicorn with a pure white coat and a flowing mane of many, many different colors.

“Thank you Shining Armour, you may go now.” she dismisses him. Her voice calming and as gentle as the raindrops were outside.

“Are you sure that's wise Princess?” 'Shining Armour' questions, regarding me with a disgusted look.

“I'm sure she won't hurt me.” she to, regarded me with a look. Not of disappointment or revulsion, but sympathy.

'Shining Armour' left begrudgingly, saying that he would be waiting outside. Outside sounded so far away, at least ten hoofsteps.

The pretty pony when to sit down on the floor. Looking directly at me with her piercing eyes as if she was trying to piece me together.

“How are you feeling?” she asks.

“Fine.” I answer.

“Do you know why you are here?”

“No.”

“Do you want to leave?” she gestures to the door. I stare dumbfounded at her, was she offering or asking?

“I don't know what's out there,” I look past her and to the door. A void was out there, nothingness.

“Happiness awaits outside, your freedom should you want it.”

“I don't deserve happiness.”

“Why? Everypony deserves happiness, why not you?”

“I've done bad things...”

“What bad things?” I point to the wall with my reminder on it.  She looks at it and recoils at the word.

Maybe she knew what it meant. An emotion swells in my chest, unable to put a name to it for sure, yet I want to call it, hope.

“Do you know what it means? I've forgotten... what does murderer mean?”

She shifts uncomfortably under my dead eyes. One question on her mind, 'How do you explain what taking a life mean?'

“Everyone's life is like a big book. Long, complicated and sometimes, very dull. Yet every book has a end, a murderer makes the book end quicker than expected.”

She stands up, looking down at me with an emotionless look on her face. Then departs, leaving me to ponder, alone...

An eternity and a day pasted before I see her again.

She looks calm, collected and prepared. She sits down directly in front of me, any attempt for me to avert my eyes results in failure.

“Do you know why your here?” she half asks, half demands.

I point to wall as my response.

She wasn't satisfied.

“Do you who you murdered, who's life you ended?” I shake my head.

“Does the name Scootaloo mean anything to you?”

My wings crack open at hearing that name, for it was a pegasi natural reaction to falling. Without realizing I have already begun to curl up into a protective ball, hooves covering my ears in an attempt to stop hearing her.

“No, no, no...” A violent shiver ripples down my spine.

“A filly, still in school... You took her flying, remember?” She continues her relentless assault on my conscience. “But you dropped her, she fell, you tried but couldn't catch her in time,”

“Then, you forgot...” her final words echo in my head even after she left.

Long after the clicking at the door, I mutter, “I'm sorry sister, I'm so sorry.”

She came to visit again. But was accompanied by more guards this time and a hooded young mare that I can't remember from before. Though I don't recognize many ponies these days.

I have taken the time to decorate my cell some more, scratchings of happy times with me and my sister so I don't forget her again.

“Are you ready?” the alicorn asks me.

“For what?”

The guards approach, pulling me up forcefully and locking hooves with my own. I hear the long anticipated sound of my shackle being detached from my hoof.

The hooded mare steps in front of me. Holding her hoof to my chest, she looks deep into my eyes.

After many more rituals and the exchange of words. She gives her final blessing, “Faust protect you.”

The guards carry me away out the door. I can no longer see my reminders, how am I meant to remember all the things I'd done now? I try to express my concern to the guards, they ignore me and pretend I'm mad.

Their not far off.

I'm dragged out into the blinding sunlight. They force me across the different courtyards that I have never see before.  I want to admire them and look at them, but I'm not allow to.

They are keen to take me to one particular courtyard. One that has a large wooden platform with a raised beam that would be my height if I stood on my hindhooves.

A pony in full black held a long length of rope. At the sight of me, the pony began setting up the apparatus for me. Winding the rope around the tall beam and ending it with a circle that I could fit my neck through

Carrying me up the stairs to where the pony stood. The pony took me from the guards, dismissing them away like my savior would.

Whisking me away to stand under the apparatus, wrapping the noose of rope around my neck and tightening it.  I chock at the tightness, he pauses to look at him.

I can't see his expression tucked under that black mask

He moves over to a lever, tracing his hoof up and down it. “Are you ready?”

“No...”

He moves his hoof off the lever, “Just tell me went you're ready,”

I close my eyes, trying my hardest to recall the reminders on my wall. The time we went camping, the time when I helped her with homework.

The time I killed her...

I swallow the lump in my throat. Moving off the past, I look to the future. Our books may be ending, but doesn't mean it's the end of our stories. We'd have an eternity to laugh, fly and play...

I open my eyes, the pony hadn't moved at all, waiting patiently for me to be ready.

“I'm ready...”

He moves his hoof back onto the lever, but doesn't pull it yet. “Don't worry, every rainbow has a end, even yours.”

I don't reply. In one swift motion the lever is pulled and the floor beneath me disappears. I fall, my body flopping lifelessly.

One last whisper escapes my lips, *“I'm on my way sister.”*