Sins of the Mother

“Ugh, my head… What hit me?” I mumbled, pressing a hoof to my forehead to try and rub some relief into it.

“The road, I suppose.” A distinctly female voice replied, making my eyes shoot open and have me sit up in what apparently was a bed. The covers flew off and left me cold and confused.

“Who’re you, where am I?” I demanded, looking around the room furiously until my eyes caught upon a rather proper looking pony with grey fur and a darker grey mane and tail.

“My name is Octavia, and you are in my home. I found you in the early morning lying on the road bleeding profusely.” Octavia replied as she approached my bedside and opened a leather bag of what I assumed were either medical supplies or torture instruments. “I took you home and have been tending to your wounds for the last several hours.”

“Oh. I suppose I should thank you then?” I wondered aloud, taking the time to actually think about it. “Thank you, Octavia. For saving the life of an alicorn Prince.”

“I knew it.” Octavia hissed under her breath, halting her care of me. “When I saw those bound up wings, I figured you had to be either some kind of strange mutation or the first male alicorn I'd ever seen.”

“Yeah, Nightmare Moon is my mother. Was born on the moon… Not very interesting.” I remarked, lying back while doing my best to ignore what I figured to be some kind of stitching in my wings.

“You’re Nightmare Moon’s son? Why didn’t you come back with her five years ago?” Octavia asked inquisitively. My head shot back up again, ignoring the pain in my everything in the process.

“Wait, how long ago?” I demanded.

“Five years give or take… Oh, and she’s no longer Nightmare Moon, she’s Princess Luna now.” Octavia explained as she pushed me back down with a gentle hoof. “By the way, how old are you anyways?”

“I dunno, something like eighteen maybe?” I replied while my mind wandered to the fact that I'd been left behind for five years. “Did my mom never say anything about having a son?”

“I don’t think so. What was your name? Maybe I heard it in passing while working a Gala?” Octavia offered as she pulled the bandages from my right wing and rebound it in fresh ones. I managed to sneak a peek at what looked like some kind of sewing holding the wound together.

“Eclissi.” I muttered, more focused on my wings. “How’d you mend them like that?”

“Oh I had a friend who’s a doctor come in and do it. Couldn’t stand the sight of all that blood. Frankly, I'm only able to replace your bandages now that they’re mostly clean.” the mare replied, already looking ill just by thinking about what I assumed to be the scene of me on the ground in a pool of mostly my own blood.

“Ahh, well thank them for me.” I laid back again, staring up at the ceiling. “So my mom never said anything about me… Five years. She said she’d conquer Equestria then come and get me… She promised…” I hissed and closed my eyes. “We’ll see what she says when I go and see her.”

“Hah!” Octavia suddenly burst into a short fit of laughter that had my eyes open once more before instantly calming down and glaring at me. “You’re not going anywhere in that state!”

“I didn’t mean I'd go talk to her now!” I rolled my eyes at her before closing them again. “I meant after I healed and get a chance to fix my wings, I’ll fly to wherever she is and have quite the talk with her.”

“Uh huh.” Octavia eyed me over warily before turning from the room with the medical kit in her teeth. “I’ll be back in a couple hours to replace your bandages again. Get some sleep.”

“Yes mom!” I groaned and pulled the covers up over my black and red body.

As soon as I was sure Octavia was out of earshot, “I was serious about going to talk with mom now, by the way.” I whispered and crawled out of bed as quietly as I could. Crawling up to a window I looked out towards the city with it's huge buildings penetrating the skyline with odd shapes. Looking down I also noticed that I was a story up, meaning I'd have to find some way to climb down without being seen or using my wings.

Thank goodness I'm an alicorn with awesome alicorn powers!

My horn sparked to life and enveloped my body with the usual red glow before lifting myself up off my hooves and into the air. With a nudge of the nose I pushed the window open and gently floated outside a ways before sinking to the ground.

Evidently my body had acclimated to the gravity of the planet overnight as I found no issue in walking down the street.

A quick glance down both directions had me notice gold armour that made me immediately think, “Royal Guard” and turn in the opposite direction.

“Hey, look at that one.” I barely overheard of one guard. A quick look back and they were on me. “Hey, stop! We want to ask you some questions!”

Shit, somepony must’ve witnessed me coming from the house and now they’re out to kill me! I bolted as fast as my weary legs could carry me, aiming for a house at random and dived into the side yard before pressing my body up against the back of the house, my horn ready to go.

“He went this way!” A guard announced. Not that the sound of their hoof falls wasn’t a dead giveaway that is.

Three

Two

One

I activated my magic and grabbed onto some kind of shovel thing and swung it low and fast. The blade of the weapon dug into the first pony’s forelegs and severed the meat quite readily. The weapon came up and spun around before plunging the tip into the neck of the second guard and severed his spine.

The third one was quicker to react as he drew his weapon from a sheath on his back and brandished a sword at me. It’s too bad he didn’t realize that my glowing horn was not only moving the shovel but also the gate behind him. His rear end was struck by the gate and sent him forwards into my weapon as it came down on his withers and struck home.

Gotta get outta here! Gotta run! I thought as I took off, the adrenaline dulling all sensations of pain I may have been feeling in my heaving body as I galloped hard.

I suppose no amount of epinephrine can dull the sudden explosion of pain that usually comes from suddenly getting stabbed in the side. Keeping my pace I looked back at the wound that had reopened on my wing in all the exertion and shook my head.

I should’ve been watching where I was going because as soon as I turned back forwards my face ended up planted firmly in the side of a mailbox, my horn protruding into and out the other end of the thin metal.

~~~

“Ugh, we doing this again?” I moaned as I finally came too. I was completely expecting to wake up in some kind of dungeon or prison or whatever, so imagine my surprise when I pulled the covers off the same bed I'd only just escaped from with a very angry looking grey mare watching over me like a hawk.

“Yes, it appears we are doing this again, Eclissi.” Octavia replied with a scoff before turning away from me to work on my wing now outstretched. “I told you to rest and off you go, gallivanting through the streets and killing guards looking to solve a murder! Come to think of it, I don’t suppose you had anything to do with that massacre, did you?” Octavia asked, pausing her care of me.

“If I said yes, what would you do?” I asked, turning my head to watch the pony as she wearily applied some kind of medicine to my wound. She gagged at all the fresh blood and I winced and the sharp shooting pain coming from the wound.

“Well, I suppose I'll have to hide you regardless of what happened now. You can’t possible heal like this with the Royal Guard out for your head.” Octavia replied once she’d set down her tool.

“Yeah, beheading usually isn’t beneficial to a healthy lifestyle.” I remarked with a chuckle that lasted for as long as it took for Octavia to glare at me again.

“This is not the time for jokes! Your life, and my life by extension is at risk right now!” Octavia exclaimed, forcefully putting the same medicine onto my wing to achieve gaining even more wincing from me.

“Why? Anypony who theoretically saw me should be dead now.” I shrugged back once the pain died down. “Easiest way to keep from being stopped is to eliminate all witnesses.”

“I- You- Celestia’s mercy, what did your mother teach you up there?” The mare exclaimed in disbelief as she packed up and helped me out of bed. “Come on, there’s a place you can hide that a friend of mine uses to hide her valuable equipment. You won’t be found there should anypony come knocking.”

After a sigh, “Thanks again, Octavia. I appreciate everything you’re doing for me.” I gave my best smile, despite the existing pain.

“Oh don’t get me wrong. I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this for the son of Royalty.” Octavia really did put it quite bluntly, didn’t she?

“I remember that if or when I get a crown.” I replied with a smirk as Octavia lead me to a halt before an otherwise plain section of floor.

“Wait a second.” Octavia ordered before moving to the nearest wall and pushed a candle on the corner table over a few inches with her nose. A few barely audible clicks followed by a heavy thud had me raise an eyebrow before a panel of wood in the floor popped open; the edges of the hole tracing the ends of the floor boards. No wonder it was impossible to see, the floorboards would sit neatly in place and no one would tell the difference.

“Dare I ask what your friend hides down here?” I inquired almost afraid of what I'd find in such a perfect hidey hole.

“Just her more expensive DJ equipment. She says the stuff goes for thousands of bits so I offered her this. Used to be a storm shelter in case of extremely bad weather.” Octavia replied, backing down into the hole and turned on the light behind her. “Well, don’t just stand there, let’s get you situated!” Octavia called up. I sighed and began the slow descent down the impossibly steep staircase before tripping and ending up falling forwards into Octavia.

“Ow, sorry Octavia…” I mumbled, feeling my chin resting on something soft and warm. “Gravity sucks.”

The only answer I got was from a sort of whimpering as I gently prodded at whatever it was my chin was resting on.

“What is this anyways? It’s soft and warm…” I muttered. Then it hit me. “Oh shit.”

“You pervert!” Octavia screamed, spinning off her back and dropping my head off what I found out to be quite personal and not my business. Giving a quick kick to my shoulder, Octavia skittered off into a corner and curled up, glaring at me.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to end up touching that!” I replied, remaining where I lay with my black fur covering up the reddening of my face. “I just fell and that’s how I landed!”

“I- I never!” the mare remarked, curling up tighter. “You still seemed to have enjoyed it, even a little bit!” she accused, pointing back at me.

Raising an eyebrow, I dropped my head before dropping to my stomach with wide, embarrassed eyes.

“That’s just biology! I absolutely did not enjoy anything about what just happened!” I exclaimed defensively. “I absolutely do not think about you that way! Never!”

“Never?” Octavia suddenly switched to anger. “Never! What, am I not good enough for the ‘Royal Treatment’?”

“What? What just happened?” I asked, completely dumbfounded.

“You think you’re so above me just because you were born to a Princess on the moon, well let me tell you-” Octavia bellowed before a rapping at the door had us both freeze.

“Hello? Is anyone home?” A male voice inquired from above and outside. “I heard a commotion from next door and I thought I'd come make sure everyone was alright.”

“Uh, yes, thank you. I’m fine!” Octavia called back quickly, shooting me a glance before trotting up the stairs to the main floor and shut the door behind her; killing the lights in the process.

With a sigh I lit up a small light from my horn and delved deeper into the room, taking note at all the black cases that likely held all the equipment. Finding a sheet I spread it out on the larger, sturdier looking boxes and climbed up onto it to try and rest.

“So, first couple days on Equus and I'm already a criminal and a sexual assailant. Great job Eclissi.” I whispered to myself, the light dying off completely. “I hate this planet.”