Walking On Broken Glass

Juniper hummed idly to herself as she meticulously smoothed the snow in front of her, slowly turning the turgid block of snow a more circular shape. She’d just rounded off the final corner of her snowman’s head and was prepared to stick on his nose when something struck her smack dab in the back of the head. Her vision began to blur as fresh tears began to spill from her eyes, running down her face and quickly freezing to the fur on her cheeks.

        Curious to see what had struck her, Juniper whirled around just in time to see her brother keel over from laughter next to a generously sized mountain of snowballs. Upon seeing this, her face contorted into a pout, her eyes still pricked with tears.

        “Ow, Whirlwind, that hurt!”

        Whirlwind wiggled his tongue at his sister, who’s teary eyed pout quickly turned vicious as she collected some snow in her hooves and launched it at her brother. Juniper’s aim was truer than she’d anticipated, the ball of snow sailing a considerable distance and striking her brother right on the nose.

        Whirlwind’s manic laughter was immediately reduced to a surprised gurgle as he was struck, causing him to fall backward in the snow. Bolting upright, the unicorn colt wiped the snow out of his eyes, his face turning serious as he noticed his sister sticking out her tongue at him. Not even waiting to retort, Whirlwind snapped to his stock of ammo and grabbed as many as he could.

Realizing what was happening, Juniper scrambled to find cover. Theorizing the house was her best bet, she took to the air, diving behind the edge of the house just in time to dodge a flurry of snowballs.

        Juniper didn’t dare move, staying perfectly still lest she expose herself to a face full of freezing snow. However, her brother was more deviously clever than she gave him credit for, and as she sat there with her ears flicking atop her head, she picked up the taunting voice of her brother from out in front of the house.

        “You have ten seconds to come out or the snowman gets it!”

        “No!” Juniper shouted, leaping out from her hiding place. “Don’t!”

        Juniper realized her mistake too late as, as soon as she stuck her head out, she was utterly bombarded by a rain of tightly packed snowballs. The pegasus filly screamed as her head, neck, chest, and forelegs all received a blast of wet, icy chill; and for the second time that morning, Juniper felt her eyes filling up with tears.

        “Whirlwind!” She wailed, plopping down into the snow. Her infantile wailing was ineffective on her brother, however, and as she continued to cry her eyes out, he was gathering snow for a third assault. But, before he could even throw a single snowball, a tired yet familiar sounding voice completely stole his attention.

        “Whirlwind...honey...” The voice that turned out to be his mother panted, looking unsteady on her hooves. “What...have we...talked...about?”

        The pegasus colt’s face twisted in horror as he watched his mother grimace and stumble her way toward the house. His petty vendetta forgotten, Whirlwind immediately dropped the snowball in his hooves and raced to his mother’s side.

        “Mom, what happened?!”

        “I’m...fine,” she insisted trying her best to smile but halfway across her face it slid into an agonized grimace.

        “Mommy!” Juniper exclaimed as she bounded over, still sniffling. “Are you okay?”

        “I’m...fine honey,” she panted, corralling her daughter in her forelegs. “Just need to...lie down...and rest.” The pegasus mare made it another couple steps before gasping and nearly falling into the snow.

        “C’mon, June,” Whirlwind said, moving to support his mother’s left side while Juniper took up the right side. Together, the three pegasi made it into the house, steering their unsteady mother past the kitchen, down the hall and into her bedroom.

        The two foals helped their mother to the edge of the bed where she immediately collapsed, chest heaving and limbs shaking. Both Whirlwind and Juniper stared down at the older pegasus, their faces wrought with fear and confusion.

        “Mom, what happened?” Whirlwind started, the fear evident in his voice.

        “I’m alright…” Their mother huffed, her already soft voice unusually quiet and frail, causing her foals to become all the more frantic. Whirlwind stared at his mother at a loss as to what would be making her act so strangely until he heard his sister gasp.

        “Whirlwind, look!”

        Following his sister’s eyes, Whirlwind noticed a trail of blood leading from where their mother lay to the hallway outside the bedroom.

        “Mom…” He began, the corners of his eyes beginning to fill with tears. But despite the grim situation and the way her kids were panicking, the pegasus mare smiled.

        “My...sweet...children…” She breathed, her voice barely above a whisper. “Please...don’t be...scared…” With that, the pegasus mare’s eyes fluttered closed and her breathing quickened, her chest rising and falling almost as though she were struggling to breathe.

        “Mommy…” Whirlwind asked, prodding her shoulder. The pegasus mare let out an agonized cry, startling Whirlwind so badly that he stumbled off the bed and onto the floor. Both Whirlwind and Juniper looked on in horror as their mother continued to cry out, her back arching as she writhed on the bed.

        Then, in the midst of her fit, she cracked an eye open to look at her children, a solitary tear slipping out of her eyes and rolling down her cheek.

        “I’m sorry. I love you both so very much.”

        Whirlwind and Juniper gasped as their mother was surrounded by what looked to be fire, stumbling backward slightly as it erupted through the roof of the bedroom and continued on into the bright morning sky.

As the flames died down, the two foals stared on, horrified as a sickly green aura took hold of their mother’s limbs, enveloping each of her outer extremities in its light. Inch by inch they watched as the normally pristine yellow shine of their mother’s coat was replaced with hard brittle looking chitin.

        Next were her wings, the sleek, velvety soft looking feathers being easily swallowed up by the aura before going still and falling out, being replaced with the thin, translucent wings of an insect. Finally, the aura enveloped her head. Twisting her once beautiful face into a visage that, to her children, was utterly unrecognizable.The creepy, eldritch magic finally finished its transformation at the tip of the mare’s tail before fizzling out and disappearing completely.

Whirlwind and Juniper — who’d been hiding in the bathroom connected to their mother’s room — peeked out from the other side of the door frame once they saw the terrifying green glow recede from the room. Whirlwind was the first to move, cravenly slinking back into the room but still giving the bed a wide berth. Juniper remained where she was, looking like she was just moments from passing out from the sheer shock of it all.

Whirlwind made it to the door leading to the hallway before motioning Juniper toward him. Juniper shook her head, her eyes wide with fear. Whirlwind danced on his hooves impatiently, waving her forward more insistently than before. Still, Juniper refused to move, her eyes darting between him and the unknown entity lying on their mother’s bed.

Whirlwind realized he needed to use a more direct approach, crawling back over toward the bathroom and grabbing his sister’s hoof. It took a few hard tugs to get her to finally move with him, and even as she did, she never once took her eyes off the strange creature now taking up residence in their mother’s bedroom.

They made it halfway back to the other door before they heard something stirring on the bed. Whirlwind immediately stopped in his tracks, turning his head ever so slowly toward the bed to meet with a pair of beady, blue eyes.

“Whirl...wind…” The creature wheezed. “Juni...i...per…”

Whirlwind felt stale fear seize his limbs as the unknown creature addressed him by name. Giving a hard tug on his sister’s hoof, Whirlwind tried to get her to move faster but when he glanced over his shoulder he could see her standing there, frozen in fear as she stared at the abomination.

“June, quit staring at it we gotta go find mom!” Whirlwind demanded, tugging on his sister. But the pegasus filly found herself unable to move. Just then, something crashed through the bedroom window, startling Whirlwind and successfully breaking Juniper out of her stupefied state.

Whirlwind’s head ping ponged from the brick lying near the wall to the broken window and back again as he tried to make sense of what exactly was going on. Then another object flew through the newly broken window, this one exploding once it hit the wall, coating everything it touched in flames.

        Whirlwind had managed to shove his sister up against the wall just in time to shield her from the shock of the explosion, however, it wasn’t long before the flames spread, turing the carefully crafted foundation into acrid, suffocating smoke.

As Whirlwind and Juniper tried to regain their senses, a loud bang echoed from somewhere near the kitchen immediately followed by the hurried stomping of hooves. Panic and desperation filled the young colt’s eyes as they zipped around the bedroom in search of an escape. HIs eyes fell upon the broken window and he took to the air, zipping over to it and preparing to pull him and his sister through before the stocky hooves of an angry looking earth pony and jabbed at them from the other side.

Flitting back toward the middle of the room, Whirlwind considered the hallway again, his head whipping around the doorframe to meet the eyes of more angry looking earth ponies.

“There it is!” One of them shouted, prompting the rest of the group to begin charging down the hallway. At a loss, the pegasus foal looked back toward the being on the bed, its gaze meeting his before its eyes flicked up to the hole in the ceiling. Whirlwind didn’t need to be told twice, taking a firm grip on his sister’s hoof as the two foals zipped out through the roof and into the air.

"Wait!" Juniper yelled, her voice fading as she was shepherded away.

The changeling lying on the bed watched the two foals escape through the hole in the ceiling, a wide, happy smile on her face as she watched their silhouettes until they disappeared completely.

“I love you both, so very much.”