Alicorn Song

Alicorn Song

Chapter 6

The other me

Lulu awoke in her room, alone. Celest and Candy Cane had gone out earlier to get something. She didn't really know what, but she knew that it was supposed to help her...

It was then that the mare noticed that the pain in her flank was all gone. There wasn't even an itch left. Lifting the blankets with her magic, Lulu stared at her scarred flank. Sure enough, there was a nasty scar running down the length of her flank, but it looked like it had healed quite some time ago. There were even some tufts of hair growing on it.

The big mare didn't understand, at first, until she saw the folded piece of paper that lay next to her right hind leg. She unfolded it, and a little bit of fear began to rise up inside of her. The coppery smell of the paper made it quite obvious that this message had been written in blood. Her blood.

        “I have no idea who you are, or how you came to be. All I know is that we seem to share one body for the moment. While you were asleep, I was awake briefly and took the liberty to heal our wounds. Since I couldn't find any writing utensils, I had to use the only liquid that was available to me at the time. For that, I apologize. Now that I am aware of you, and the way you are, I promise to do my best so you do not have to suffer needlessly. You must know, however, that it could very well happen that you will one day go to sleep and never wake up again. There are Ponies out there that are hunting us for what we are. Sad and shortsighted as this may seem to you, it is the truth. I have only one Pony, except you, that I want to find. Once we do, we will have to leave Celest and Candy Cane. We can't live with them. They will never understand. I am very sorry about this, since I am quite aware of your childlike nature. Therefor I promise you, that I will do what I can to keep them safe for as long as we remain here. I also suggest that you enjoy your time with them for as long as you can.

Your other self

Luna”

Lulu was still staring at the piece of paper, when it suddenly burst into flames. She jumped back in surprise a bit and watched in amazement as the message burned up completely. Not even ashes remained as the flames disappeared.

The unusually huge mare began to cry uncontrollably as she thought about what she had just read. It wasn't fair. She didn't want to leave! Sure, she didn't remember anything before waking up in this bed a few days ago, but did that really mean she had no say in this? And who were those Ponies who had hurt her? She was a good filly, so why had they hurt her?

All Lulu wanted was a nice home, where she didn't have to worry about Ponies wanting to hurt her. She wanted to take naps in the sun, while Candy Cane was stroking her mane. She treasured every little moment she got to spend with those Ponies. The purple mare was happy here, so why should she leave? It just wasn't fair...

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Celest and Candy stood a little ways away from the ticket booth for the ferry to the mainland. Quite a lot of Ponies had gathered here, but none of them were going to leave Acorn island today. The booth was closed and the ferry hadn't come at all. Several soldiers in camouflage uniforms blocked of the pier, where several smaller private boats were tied.

        “This is an outrage! Why the fuck should we stay on this island?” a brown buck shouted at one of the soldiers. Due to the big suitcase standing next to him, Celest assumed that he was one of the many tourists that came here. That, and his obvious Manehatten accent were a dead giveaway.

The mare he was shouting at didn't flinch, nor did she show any emotional reaction at first. Suddenly, the black mare lashed out. Her gray mane and tail whirled around her like a tornado for a second, obscuring everyponys sight of what was actually happening. A moment later, her one golden eye looked down at the stallion. He was lying in his own blood by now, looking as if his head had been bashed into the ground several times in a row.

        “Now listen up Ponies! I have no idea who you think we are, but we are no ordinary soldiers! File a complaint against me, or my men, and I will come and kick your rumps! While we are here, we will keep you safe. For the meantime, however, you will NOT leave this island. Sea travel is way too dangerous right now, and this island does not have an air field. If you're a Pegasus, you're free to leave as long as you are comfortable with becoming dragon food! So, anypony else want to make a scene, or can we finally get to work?” she shouted at everypony in attendance.

Nopony acted up afterward. They just looked, shocked, at the stallion who was now being hoof cuffed and dragged away by two other uniformed Ponies. It didn't take long for the crows to disperse after that. Celest could hear some of them grumbling, but none of them dared to approach the soldiers directly.

Candy Cane and his cousin decided that it was for the best to leave as soon as they could as well. There was nothing to be gained by arguing with these Ponies, and the sole local police officer was an old stallion who stood no chance against them. None of them noticed a widening golden eye following them as they started to trot back towards their home.

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A clanging sound could be heard from behind the thick door Textbook was looking at. He knew who was making that sound of course. Number fifty-one, who had been brought here before her parents ever got the chance to name her. He himself had come to call her Frosty quite some time ago, due to her uncanny talent to freeze almost anything in a radius of about twenty feet.

The gray stallion also knew that the clanging sound was not caused by her trying to escape. Instead, it was the result of an experiment that was run almost constantly. It was a cruel one, but it served a purpose.

The clanging stopped as the door slowly creaked open. Textbook made a mental note to get one of the maintenance Ponies to take a look at that once he was done here. He didn't really expect Frosty to be able to catch Luna, but it was an order from his superiors. All she might be able to accomplish was weaken the other mare enough to be recaptured by his soldiers. Ninety-four and Ninety-nine though... They might be able to do the job.

Shaking his head, Textbook cleared his mind of thoughts of stalling. He could have stalled until the other two arrived, but that would have meant that he was risking more than he was already. The stallion did not want to admit it to himself, but he kind of liked this one. She was very cooperative, and had never once tried to escape. She wasn't even particularly violent... Well, not towards him at least...

        “Papa!” she called out, hanging from chains on the wall. Her beige coat was red in places where her skin had split, while her blue eyes betrayed her obvious bad physical state. Those deep blue eyes looked at him with such affection that he almost felt bad for putting her through all this. Of course he was not really her father. She just had started to call him that one day.

All the ice covering the floor melted instantly, and the temperature began to rise to a pleasant level. Textbook looked at the canon balls that littered the floor of the chamber. Only very few of them had managed to actually reach Frosty. Most had been frozen in mid air, or pulverized by her magic. It was quite interesting how solid the bones of an Alicorn were. Even at so young an age, this mare didn't suffer any terminal injuries when hit with a canon.

The only projectiles that were able to actually shatter their bones, were armor piercing super sonic rounds. These experiments had also proven that at least some of these creatures could actually catch projectiles that were slower than the speed of sound. Frosty was not one of them. Her biggest strength, however, was her range. There was only two other Alicorns he knew of who had a similar or greater range then her. Those were number ninety-four and ninety-nine. That was her only chance, if she actually found number ninety-five...

        “Frosty? Do you think you can help me with something?” he asked, trying to put some warmness into his words that he wasn't feeling at all as he unlocked the chains holding the mare. It didn't take long, and she was jumping towards him. Textbook didn't flinch, but he stiffened a little as the little one hugged him close. She was only fifteen years old, and already bigger than him...

        “Mhhmmm! I'll help Papa! Of course I will!” she shouted, giggling slightly. It wasn't often that she got to move around freely, and she enjoyed every second of it.

        “You remember Luna?” he asked quietly. Frostys giggling stopped instantly, and she stepped back a few steps, shivering in fear. The gray stallion had expected as much.

One of the experiments that had been conducted on Luna and Frosty alike, had been a comparison of their powers. For that he had put both of them into a chamber with a movable wall in the middle. Both had been told that they'd get a reward if they managed to push it all the way back to the other side of the room, not knowing that there was another Alicorn on the other side.

On that day, Frosty had almost died. She had been three years old at that point, and they never expected her to be able to stand up against the much older mare. Yet they hadn't expected Luna to not push against the wall gradually, but release one massive burst of magic against it. Frosty had been crushed against the far wall, knocking her out and actually breaking a few of her bones.

Neither had they expected Luna to carefully blow a hole into the movable wall to look beyond. Textbook still remembered her horrified shriek and finding out that she had nearly killed a child. It was her healing magic that saved the young mares life, repairing the damage she had done before being knocked out by a hundred slumber spells herself. She hadn't healed her unintended victim completely, but enough for her to wake up and remember the mare who had done this to her.

Now, Frosty nodded silently. Her blue irises had shrunken to mere pinpricks of fear.

        “I need you to find her. If you can, bring her back. If you can't, kill her. Do you think you can do that?” Textbook said, making it sound like a question. As a matter of fact, this mare didn't have any other choice. If she didn't agree to it, she'd get a control helmet stuck on her head and somepony else would look Luna, using her body like a doll. Differently from Luna or most of the others, number fifty-one wasn't strong enough resist the magical influence after all.

        “If... If you want me to do it... then... then... I'll go...” the young mare stammered, looking down, then added quickly, “But... can I get a reward if I do it, please?”

That took Textbook by surprise for a moment, and before he knew it he had asked her what she wanted. Her answer actually brought a smile to his face, and he agreed. There was no harm in this, was there?

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Celest stared at Lulus flank. Where there should have been a big nasty wound, there was just a scar. Not just any scar at that either. It looked as if it had healed ages ago, and tufts of the mares purple coat were already growing there again.

        “Impossible...” she muttered, while Lulu refused to meet her eyes. The mare had decided not to tell her two guardians about the letter that had been left for her by... well presumably herself... or how her flank had been healed. Besides, even if she had wanted to do so, she didn't know how. There seemed to be some kind of pressure in the back of her head that prevented her to even think of the incident.

        “I don't know either, but maybe the healing bandages finally worked. Took them long enough.” Candy Cane said dismissively, taking a look into the dust bin where several bloody bandages lay.

Lulu was glad for that comment, and began to nod vigorously in agreement. It looked very suspicious to both Candy Cane and Celest, but neither of them said anything. Deep down, both of them were simply glad that the lock down that was forced upon their home would not endanger Lulu...