Author's Note
I didn't like how I had it before, so I chose to add a few things. I hope you all enjoy this more than you would have if I kept it the way I did!
A Vail of Night [Edited]
It's raining tonight, but that isn't why there is a commotion outside. The thunder is louder than other storms, but that's not why there is a commotion outside. Trees are cracking because of the wind, but that isn't why there is a commotion outside. Guards are outside tonight. Princess Nightmare Moon sent them. I stand at the front window in my tree, and watch. I can't tell how many guards there are because is is raining harder than before and it's too dark to see the amount of figures. They are shouting at each other in an in-congruent volume for me to hear properly.
My pet, Owlicious, stands on my back to watch with me. Right across the street from us, the guards walk. They bang on the door and I see a light turn on. A mare, I think is Bonbon, is dragged out into the storm and is beaten ferociously before taken back to the palace to be tried and executed. My face is like stone as I see, not hear, the ponies beat up Bonbon. I wait until I can't see any figures at all before I go to bed. Owlicious flies to her perch, awake until morning. Bonbon was against the crown in some way, so she had to be punished. It's like this all over Equestria, and I am shocked ponies fight for something better even after all these years of almost total darkness. It's always the stories ponies get told that were passed down generation after generation. Of the time when sun and moon were equal, but the long dead Princess Luna sought for the moon to feel as much love as the Princess of the Sun, Nightmare Moon was the result.
She has been on the throne for more than a thousand years. And for a thousand years, ponies only see sun for seventy-two hours a week before setting and the moon takes it's place. But ponies fight for freedom of the moon, they wined up dead in mere hours. I keep to myself, don't talk or trust other ponies not even when they return their books on time. Never the less, I know every pony by name and be polite to them when they enter the library. I don't want any trouble from the princess, or any pony for that matter. I had my bbbff for a while, he was the captain of the guard! Then, he was found out to be conspiring against the crown. I got to see him before he was hanged and he said that he would do it again, that we shouldn't be reduced to this state of pitiful anger. He was bloody and his right eye was swollen. He could barely stand himself up so I was sitting on the ground when we talked. I stared at him during the execution. He stared back at me. I heard the executioner ask him how he pleaded. Willfully, and with more strength than he had, as the noose was put around his neck he said,
"Guilty!"
That was the last word he would ever say.
I wake up to see the sun. I stare at it, not enthusiastically at all, and walk down stairs. I open the door and make sure I put the closed sign on the door. I turn to see a pool of blood on the street. Ponies walk through it like its water. They don't seem to notice that their hooves are stained red now. They are all used to it by now. They'll all get home this evening and say something like,"Shit, again? Blood is horrible to try and clean!" The rain water from last night mixes with the pool of blood, and as a result the dirt road is soaked more than usual when it rains. At least from the library and the general facility.
I briefly think about if Bonbon is dead already. If she is, it probably wasn't a hanging they are always public and all of Equestria is required to attend. My first hanging I went to was when I was three. One of the ponies hung was only a year older than I at the time. Only her parents cried as her and her three sisters hung like lifeless rag dolls. They looked lifeless any how with the acceptation of the light pink one with a darker pink mane. The executioner said that it was punishment to the parents for the thought of rebelling against Princess Nightmare Moon. For some reason, I can't explain why I felt a pang of loss for that pink pony I saw hang. Like, she was family. But I was clueless about the world then, I now know better than to feel sorry for any pony. Even myself.
I walk past the pool of blood, and towards the forest because I like to be alone on my days off. The government gives me paid days off when the sun is out. So here I am, just me, my owl, and the forest. I like the solitude and creepy darkness the forest has even when the sun is out. It reminds me that everything is not permanent and there for shouldn't be taken with joy. I keep walking, I don't know where I'm going admittedly, but I don't care if I get lost. But I immediately regret that thought because I hit my head on a hard tree or plant of some kind.
I rub my head, curse, and look up. But it isn't a tree, unfortunately. Why would I think that it would be a tree of all things. No, instead I am staring into the sickly yellow/green eyes of a Timber Wolf. That's right, a Timber Wolf. It looks as though it could kill me with one swoop of its paw, or even a bite of its jaw. I am frozen, and for the first time in a long time, I am scared. Sure my life is pathetic and hopeless, but that doesn't mean I want it to end! I can't move. I try, but I can't! It snarls at me and leans towards me.
"Fuck!" I think to myself. "Why does this have to be how I die?" I can imagine the beast tearing my bones, skin, and muscle inside its jaw. My blood spattering against the ground and every tree that is remotely close. It barks, and I run! It is catching up fast, but I don't give up. Duh, Twilight! you're a fracking Unicorn! Use teleportation! I think of being at the boarder of Ponyville, and I ignite my horn. Instead, I find myself in another part of the forest. What the hell? I hear growling from behind me, and run into the bushes. I hit myself square on the head, and pass out.
"Hoo!" I can hear in the distance a sound, unfamiliar, but I hold onto it. "Hoo?" I hear it again. My brain is churning, trying to figure out where its heard that sound before. "HOO!" all at once I understand. Owlicious! I wake up fully, and knock my owl off of me as I try my best to get up. I think I gasped, but I'm not quite sure. I get up, tumble to my knees, get scratched, start bleeding and get up again. It's night again. I missed day two of sunlight which means I was out for at least an entire day. Owlicious flies beside me as I try to find an exit. About two hours later, I'm in a clearing. I hear singing. What? Who sings in this horror of a town?
"Oh, Angel. Isn't this a beautiful night? Princess Nightmare Moon truly out did herself tonight," the voice that was singing says. It is soft and barely audible to the ear, a mare's voice.
"H-hello?" I ask, wanting help for my leg. I hear a sequel of fright from the pony. She is a Pegasus that is yellow as a daffodil with a mane as pink as a rose petal. I walk out of were I came from, and see how she hides, crouched and cowering between her forelegs. "Sorry," I say. "I'm hurt and I was wondering if you could help me get bandages," I explain. I don't want to admit it to myself but, I need help.
She looks down to see my bleeding leg. "Oh my goodness!" She exclaims. Well, it was honestly just above a whisper. "I'm Fluttershy! I'll help, follow me!" she explains hurriedly. I follow her the best I can with only three legs. About five minutes later, we're out of the Ever Free and at a cottage inside what looks like a tree. "Hurry, Angel. Open the door for our guest and fill a bowl of hot water, I'll get the bandages," It is then I finally notice the little white rabbit beside Fluttershy. It salutes, and scurries towards the cottage. It opens the door, waves, and enters. I wish I had an assistant.
Fluttershy leads me onto the walk way to the cottage, and welcomes me in. It is small with a stairway leading up stairs to a single room. The room is decorated with bird cages, animal beds, animal bowls, and claw scratches. There is a sitting table, and a couch that's leaf green. Across the room is the kitchen, that I can't really see clearly from here. Fluttershy leads me to the couch as I get bombarded by all sorts of animals. Goats, dogs, cats, lizards, birds, need I go on? "You should be ashamed of yourselves! Bothering a guest like that. Go on, away with all of you," Fluttershy demands, again little more than a whisper.
Then Angel carefully walks in with a steaming bowl of water, and a cloth. The pony thanks it as she takes the bowl. I wince at the heat that I am about to experience. Fluttershy puts the bowl down, rings out some of the water, and goes in to clean my wound. She looks up at me as soon as I take in a sharp breath. "I'm sorry," she says. "But I have to get it clean," She explains. I nod in pain as she repeats her action. The heat surges through my leg and to my thigh, ouch! When she is finished rubbing the dirt off of the cut, she leaves me alone with Angel on the couch sitting beside me and the rest of the animals on the floor and in their cages, staring at me. I look at the hot water and my blood mixing with it.
Fluttershy returns with three bandages on her hoof. She gives two of them to Angel, and gently but firmly wraps the one she kept around my leg. It stings, but I try hard not to pull away in pain. Blood instantly seeps through, and she grabs a second one from Angel. She wraps this one slightly over top the first one, and ties it tight. Again, there is excruciating pain running up my leg constantly while she does this and it takes every single fiber of my being not to scream in agony! Finally she is finished putting the third one on which is underneath the second one, but still over top the first one. My blood is trapped in cloth. "Thank you, Fluttershy," I say, truly grateful. She nods. "Say, we're not close to Ponyville are we?"
She giggles. "Sorry to laugh, but yes we are, Ponyville is just right of here."
I thank her and leave. Owlicious, who was out of my sight the entire time, lands on my back as we head for Ponyville. I hate my life. I hate my life. I hate my life! Why did I have to walk into the Ever Free? Why did I have to bump into the Timber Wolf? Why am I the one who lives? Why can't I just die already? My brother is dead, Bonbon is dead, those four fillies are dead, countless ponies are dead, why can't I be? I live in a ditch town, I have a job the government barely pays me for, I am always paranoid, always on alert, never happy, never trusting of ponies, I don't deserve life. I sulk as I walk head down towards Ponyville. No pony asks me if I'm alright, no pony notices the tears leaving my face, no pony hears my broken soul, I am alone.
I put the open sign on the door of my library as I walk in as Owlicious flies to her perch in the corner of the room. I wait at the table in the middle of the room and wait for patrons. A group of ponies walk in moments later all cheery, each looking for a book. I find them each the book they want, sign them out, and give them each their books. I walk back to the table and wait five more minutes waiting for more ponies. A stallion, red with a sandy orange mane, comes in looking for a book on plows and I help him out too. I wait an exact time of two hours before I put the closed sign up and go up to my bed and sleep.
My sleep is dreamless as it usually is, but I don't wake up tired. I wake up alarmed. I hear a shout, and I bolt up from sleep. Three of the princess's guards surround me. Two on the side of my bed, and one at the foot of it. "Get up, Twilight Sparkle!" One of the guards on my side orders. I do as they say. "Bring your dragon with you!" orders the one at the foot. I look confused at them and don't know how to respond. Dragon? Who in their right mind would associate them self with a dragon!? "Do as he said!" the third one demands.
"I don't have a dragon!" I protest. "Only and Owl!" I explain.
"Follow us then!" The first one that spoke says. Two stallions and one mare. all of them cyan blue. One stallion has a brown tail, the other has a blue and black tail, and the mare has a rainbow tail! I say tail because they are all leading me back through the Ever Free Forest to the palace.
"What did I do?" I ask, risking an answer.
"Silence!" demands the mare.
I do what she says. twenty-five and a quarter minutes later, and the guards are leading me through the front doors of the palace. I gulp in fear. I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my life! I see her. The carnation of night and fear herself, the ruler of Equestria, Princess Nightmare Moon. She speaks. "Earlier I was visited by a strange pony." Her voice is loud but she isn't yelling, more like trying to intimidate me, it's working a fuck ton. "Would you like to know who it was?" She asks.
I nod, not wanting to anger her, and say, "Yes, Prin-princess." She ignores my stuttering and continues. "It was an Alicorn. One from an alternate reality," she explains further. I am trembling, and my leg is killing me, but I continue to lock on to those beautifully menacing eyes as she tells me her story which I dare not contradict. "Her name was Twilight Sparkle," Her voice is steady, and smooth. I collapse on my knees. One of the stallions, the one with the brown tail and now I see with eyes as green as the streak in the moon, lifts me up to my feet and orders me to never collapse in front of the princess. I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my unfortunate, unforgiving, never ending torture I call life.
"I know you are not truly she who spoke with me, but you have the same mind. I want you to create a spell in one week that will allow me to cross to other realities," She commands. I don't know how to speak or even to shake my head 'no', so instead, I nod my head up and down unwillingly. A week? How the hell am I supposed to create a whole new spell in a week!? It took me 'til the age of twelve before I cast that spell to get my cutie mark. How the hell am I supposed to create a spell like that in a week? Two guards, different ones, one brown with a cyan tail and one orange with a purple tail, both unicorns, lead me to the dungeons. "If you disappoint me, Twilight Sparkle, you will die," The princess explains simply.
I become deaf to everything around me. I blindly get lead to stairs, wooden, going down a passage lightened by gas lamps on each side of the wall. The guard in front of me takes me down the wooden stairs as the second guard disappears. I don't register he is gone until I am at the bottom of the stairs. I am once again surrounded by beaten up and condemned ponies like years ago when I visited my brother. Some wailing of pain, others bagging to be free, some begging to be killed, and a few who are wailing to be killed to be freed. The guard finds me an empty cell in the middle of the noise, and leaves. Soon after the second guard pushes through a huge scroll of paper, several bottles of ink, and a quill. "Don't waist this opportunity, mare," he says before he leaves.
I forget what sleep is as I think of rhymes, thoughts, and actions of spells that might do it, and scratch them out when they don't work for the princess. And there is a constant noise of the other prisoners as they wake and fall asleep. But I know how to block them out now, so it doesn't bother me too much. I can feel my brain start to unwind, and I can feel my limbs start to move like they haven't before as I continue to try to conjure up and fail the spells. I hate my life, I hate my life, because I haven't slept in who knows how long, I've forgotten how to speak and my name, among other things. Half of me wants me to fail so that I can be free of this hell, but the other half that wants to live, and that's the part that keeps me awake.
I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my life. I've always hated my life, especially when my mom kicked me out of the house after my brother was hanged. Even before my life was miserable, although details are very fuzzy at the moment. I must conjure this spell! I must! I can't fail! I can't! "Twilight Sparkle!" A guard is at my door. His voice is loud and it makes me jump in shock. "Is your next spell ready?" he asks more calmly. I nod, incomprehensible are his words, and hand the sheet of paper to him. I don't look at him, I am scared and focused. When my paper is away, I write on the walls. But I am running out of room, and I nearly scream in anger, fear, and sadness. Two minutes later, the stallion returns. "Cross it out," he says, I do so and keep going. "You have seventy-two hours left, use them wisely," I barely hear him over my own thoughts, murmurs, and shouts of the prisoners.
The walls are covered but ink and smell like piss and ink. These conditions aren't right, I think I'll ask Mom to clean this cell a little before I leave for my new life! I don't know what I'm writing, but I know it's important I write them down. What should I eat today? Did I eat today? Spike! My dragon assistant! Make me food! I'm mad, aren't I Papa? I need to write, I need to write, I need to write!
I come to me senses when I here a cough of impatience at my door, It is one of the guards that come for the paper. It feels like minutes, but I know is really hours since the last one. "Is your next spell ready?" he asks. I give him the paper. It has become a routine. I get a little more than twenty-four hours to work on a spell, a new guard comes and fetches the paper, I scribble on the wall for two minutes, or in this case my cot, he comes back-always a he- gives me the paper, and the cycle continues. He comes back.
"Final chance," he says, with hard ice in his tone. I hear it this time, and I stare straight in his eyes. My insane/dead purple ones to his sane/alive grey ones. I see tiny reapers in each of them, and I write as fast as my brain will let me. I don't even blink anymore. The next guard comes way too soon. Only this time, I am escorted with him. He drags the paper with his mouth behind me as I am nearly blinded by the fire on the stairway. Was the fire always this bright? I can't process what is happening in front of me. The princess looks angry with me though. I can't process her voice either, but I can see her lips say the words "Twilight Sparkle, you have failed to create the spell you were-" now I can hear her.
"- tasked with creating. Because of this, I am sentencing you to be put under the guillotine in a public execution!" I am dragged to the dungeon once more, for the final time. I am not crying, I am not shouting, nor am I bagging for freedom. I am silent. Completely and utterly still. My brain has stopped all functions but thought. I am alone, completely alone. I don't even have Owlicious with me, that bird is always there. I am empty, completely empty. My heart is beating, but I feel nothing. Have I always felt nothing? I felt something when my brother died, I think. I am calm, completely calm. Weird that some pony would feel calm before their own execution, but here I am.
Hours later, I am brought up to the execution yard by the mare I saw a week ago, the one who escorted me to the palace, and a stallion whom I never met before. Even now I am silent. Even now I show no emotion. I fallow the mare as the stallion walks behind me. I am greeted by ponies who don't know me, and who I don't know. I'm sure my parents are in the crowd, but I just can't see them. The stallion places my head where my head is about to be chopped off. The executioner starts talking. it's raining, but that's not why every pony is outside. It's starting to thunder, but that not why every pony is outside. Trees bend to the wind, but that's not why ponies are outside. I am being executed,that's what every pony is outside. At long last, I do something amazing. I lift my head up to the sky, close my eyes and I smile. And wait for the inevitable.
