Prelude
"Stop! You're scaring them."
I heard the voices of many ponies around me. They were all rushing about and yelling for this or that. I didn't quite understand what they were saying, demanding blood packs or crying about what was happening to me. My little body was in so much pain that screaming only made my hurts worse. I couldn't open my eyes to see what was going on around me, I wished I could, if only to see what was happening. My tiny limbs being wrapped up in wet healing bandages by medical ponies and doctors scrambling to cast healing or purging magic over my wounds. Through the noise, I could hear a quiet sobbing. I was sure it had to have been my own voice that I heard, but I could imagine in that instance that it might have been my mother or my best friend. Tears flowed into the bandages covering my eyes and matting the fur around my face, between my screams caused by rising and falling waves of pure pain, I found the time to sob from the hurt. The other sobbing sounds I heard were of fear and guilt. Suddenly I let out a howl of unbridled agony mixed with anguish.
"AAAaaahh! Stop it! Please stop! Stop! Mommy! Help me!" I cried, and a fresh wave of that burning, needling pain hit me, running though my veins like steam through copper pipe. I tugged and pulled against the bandages being put over me but was held down by two pairs of hooves.
“Hold her still!” I heard one mare command.
"Stop it! Quit hurting her!" came the pleading voice of my friend, I realized, who’d been crying too.
I cried wretchedly, the pain altering to a sickly feeling under my skin and twisting my tummy. The doctors didn't stop their spells, I could feel their magic trying to force its way into me. I couldn't think straight, I couldn't even scream out coherent words any more. All I know right now is the unending pain washing through my body.
Just kill me! Please just kill me! My thoughts tried to reach my mouth but it was just gaped open in an endless scream and my tongue stuck out into the air trying to escape my body.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry..." I heard through the din. Poor Stardust had been crying and apologizing to me since this had happened.
"I told you to give her an anaesthetic!" I heard a stallion holler over my own voice. I couldn't hear a reply, but I heard the doctor again, "Damnit! Nothing works on her?!"
My cries had stopped, fading to wheezing sobs. My throat hurt and burned from my wailing. I opened my mouth again to speak, forcing myself not to scream, and I heard the surprise in everyone's voice when I finally spoke the works I'd been thinking. "Please! Kill me! Stop hurting me and kill me." I begged, to nopony in particular.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." I heard my friend mumbling over and over, her little hoof-steps getting closer to me.
The doctor sounded angry? No, frustrated. "Haven't you finished yet?!" he called after the ponies purging my body.
One of them stopped and I felt the pressure of the magic on me lessen, "No, and it's all we can do to keep the poisons from spreading. Unless Celestia herself comes down and fixes this little filly, then there's not much more we can do!" He started up his cleansing again and I gave a short howl as his magic re-joined the others in an assault on my body.
"Damn. Damn, damn, damn!" the doctor cursed.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." I heard again, much closer to me this time.
"Wait! Stardust you stay away from there!" the Overmare called to her daughter.
Slowly, I felt myself being washed in a light I could feel, like magic much purer. It was warm on my skin like the light over the doctor’s table and much more pleasant but cool like air from a vent, and it forced away the pain of the poisons in me and pushed away the invasive magic from the medical ponies. I relaxed and felt sleep finally take me. "Thank you...." I whispered softly, a small smile curling my lips.
I thought that maybe somepony might finally be granting me death. I could feel my limbs going slack and my ragged breathing calming. I slept. I dreamt for what seemed like days. I was sure I had died and that the Princess of the Night, Princess Luna, had taken me with her to play with her among the stars. I wanted to stay there with her on the moon, but she told me that I had to go back.
I begged her to keep me there with her, not to send me back to the pain agony. But she simply smiled and nuzzled my cheek telling me, “All pain ends, little Berceuse.” She promised to watch over me, and with that, I fell. I fell back to my body like sinking into a tub, back home to my life in Stable 6, back home... to the weeping friend laying over my tired, bandaged body. She, who always loved and cared for me like a sister, my best friend.
A dull stiffness weighed on me like too many blankets. My right eye burned, my body ached, but neither was over powering. I laid on a hospital bed, covered in bandages and a sheet. I gave a little groan and whispered, "S –st –star –d –dust."
The filly lying next to me twitched. I then felt her slowly stand up and lean over me. "Angel? Angel, are you awake?" her voice sounded timid, hurt, and most of all, concerned.
"This is my fault. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry," I told her softly and a smile crossed my lips.
I was suddenly aware of the pat, pat, patting which I thought were tears falling on the sheets.
"She's awake!" I heard somepony call out from the door. Multiple gallops followed swiftly after and they all stopped at the edge of my bed. I heard my mother whimpering softly and then I could feel her nuzzling me as gently as she could. All the while, I just smiled. In my dream, I hadn't realized how happy I was to be back with the ponies I loved.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," I still heard those soft words next to me, begging and constant.
I lifted a hoof out to my left and felt around for Stardust's face. When I found it, and I knew I'd found it by the amount of tears I felt and the sudden jerk, I rubbed her cheek softly. She threw herself over me as gently as she could, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," still echoed from her lips.
I hugged her, my momma hugged me.
I heard the doctors and nurses leave. Stardust trembled under my hooves. I was still in a daze and I think I began petting her mane. We laid there holding each other.
“Ms. Minuit ‘’ Lune,” the doctor, a mare I hadn’t heard before now, called my mother over. She had a light pink coat and faded lime-green mane –a lighter color like her eyes– and a dark cutiemark of two musical symbols I didn’t recognize shaped into a heart. Momma walked over to the doctor and the door closed.
They were standing just behind the glass window when the doctor spoke up. Momma looked scared, hurt, and even a little angry as the mare that spoke went on. I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but soon momma started yelling. The other mare didn’t even flinch. Everyone flinched when momma yelled. There must be something wrong with that mare. Watching them, a pit formed in my stomach and I felt a bit sick –well sicker– than before.
Stardust was still clinging to me. Her brilliant blue mane was as matted and dirty as my own. I pet her mane again, but stopped when I felt bandages. I looked down at her. Her light-blue mane was knotted, grungy, and had bandages wrapped beneath them. Her deep blue eyes were blood-shot and the dark-blue fur under them was stained from her crying. And then I looked past her face and saw that she had bandages around her ribs right where her…
“Oh… Star, your¬–“
She pressed her hoof to my lips and smiled sadly at me. Her tears had matted her face, “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. It’s not like I could use them in this cramped space anyways,” she said softly.
My heart sank. I felt absolutely horrible, and I knew it was my fault she’d gotten hurt. Just then, the door slid open and momma trotted in angrily.
“At least give us time to pack,” she said, looking over her shoulder at the other mare she’d been yelling at.
“You have forty-eight hours. Not a minute longer,” the mare said with a huff. She looked annoyed. Good. Momma wasn’t somepony to be pushed around. The mare left, sticking her snout in the air like something stunk.
“Good riddance,” momma huffed. She looked over at me and her anger faded. She smilled pitifully at me and trotted over, “How are you feeling, my little Berceuse?”
“I’m sore. My right eye hurts,” I rubbed it with the back of my hoof, the bandages itched like mad. Momma and star looked at each other then back at me. Momma’s sad smile was back, but Stardust looked ashamed, “What?”
“I’ll show you later, little Berceuse. For now, just rest,” she said and rested her hooves over the side of the hospital bed. She nuzzled my face and I returned the gesture.
The door opened again and the Overmare stepped in. Now momma looked scared. The Overmare was a tall pony with a long horn spiralled horn. Her coat and mane were nearly identical to her daughter’s but her eyes were bright yellow like her fancy cutiemark.
“Stardust. Out. Now,” the Overmare demanded. Stardust gave me one last nuzzle and then lept off the bed and ran out of the room, “Now then. Angeldust. For the crime of hurting my daughter you and your mother are banished to the commons area in the lower areas of Stable 6. You are not permitted to regain your standing here in the Upper Areas, and, to my personal gratification, you are here-after suspended from using magic until further notice. Should you break these punishments, your horns shall be cut off and you will serve the dirt ponies below as you now serve us.”
Momma sighed and nodded her head. I couldn’t say anything. Everything was such a shock that I couldn’t understand what was happening.
We weren’t allowed to use magic? We were going to live with the dirt ponies? What’s going on?!
The Overmare turned quickly and exited the room. This was so strange. Momma and the Overmare –Star’s momma– were friends. What’s going on?! “M –momma?”
Momma just smiled and nuzzled me. I started crying again, hot tears rolling down my cheeks like marbles on the floor.
Footnote: No Level-up
Quest Perk Added:
Corrupted Vision — Your eye has been mutated, it cannot see in normal light, thus halving your vision and causing pain in bright light. On the plus side, you now have near-night vision and irradiated creatures stick out like glow rods from a reactor core.
Author's Note
Chapter one has been pulled for the time being until I can fix it and add in a lot more to the plot and characters. It'll be back up soon-ish.
