Kill the five

But before I chase after the quiet cunt, first things first.

Nightglade avoided Apple Bloom´s strike with a swift, yet simple side step. He pushed his hoof into her stomach. Apple Bloom flung backwards into the sand and swiftly rose back up again. Though the little filly had proved Nightglade´s prediction wrong a long time ago he still wasn´t treating her with any form of kindness or respect. He still hit when she didn´t answer fast enough or if she didn´t perform up to his standards. Apple Bloom was starting to get accustomed to getting hit in the face or shoulder when Nightglade shifted to her wrist and ankles on her hooves. When she got used to that he switched back. He always made sure that the pain was always present when she did something wrong.

Sometimes it didn´t seem to matter what she did though. Whenever the little filly learned a new trick or got a little bit faster the old unicorn would move even faster and hit harder. He was always stronger. Always faster. Always better. It didn´t matter what she did or how hard she tried.

“Get up.” Nightglade said after knocking Apple Bloom into the ground a second time.

Apple Bloom took a breath through her teeth and suffered through the pain her shoulders and legs gave her.
Nightglade stroked his moustache. “Fifty pushups with weights.” He picked up his staff and turned his back on her.
She did as she was told and placed a pair of ten kilogram weights to the backs of her shoulders. Just at the sight of them she wanted to throw the weights into a fire and watch them melt. The cold, black iron burned when it pressed against her skin. When she started pressing herself up from the ground the muscles twitched. They felt like thin strings on the verge of snapping. Each time she pressed up her fore hooves trembled.

“Ten…” She said, wincing. In the bows of her arms it felt like needles pressed into the flesh, scraping against the bone.

“Twenty…” She said a few moments later. Now the shoulders started to give in. They didn´t want to have the weights. They practically begged for her to remove them.

“Thirty…” Something snapped in her right shoulder. Had the bones dislocated? Did something brake? She couldn´t stop though. If she did, Nightglade would make her do something worse.

“Forty…”

“Fifty…” Apple Bloom turned and fell onto her back. She laid with her eyes closed, not moving a single muscle. Only her ribcage moved up and down.

“Are you in pain?” Nightglade´s voice asked.

“Yes.”

“Then you are still alive.” His tone was hard and cold. “Get up.”

The little filly could hardly believe what he asked of her. Apple Bloom had just used up her fore hooves to the point where she thought she couldn´t walk anymore and Nightglade still had more things in store for her?
She bit into her lip, breaking the skin and got up. Large droops of warm sweat dripped from her muzzle. She could even taste the salty water on her lips, drying the soft skin.

Nightglade traced around her. His cold stare pinned her to the ground. The tone of his voice was something between a grunt and a sigh but somewhere in there, under the sarcasm and bitterness, was a strange kind of happiness.
“Weak.” He said. “After months of training you´re barely any better than when I found you.”
Apple Bloom stared into the ground. Nightglade had grown to hate her defiance. Once when she sneered back at him one to many times and Nightglade almost broke her neck with a simple movement. After that Apple Bloom never raised her voice against him or talked back at him.

“What´s keeping you alive, Apple Bloom?” He asked. “Why don´t you leave or just die?”

“Revenge.” Apple Bloom replied.

“It´s a powerful desire isn´t it?”

It has been the only thing keeping me alive for the past fifteen years. My hatred. My rage. My vengeance.

“Yes, it is.”

He laughed. It was the same deep, mocking laughter he made the first time they fought and it was the second time she heard him laugh. “Hatred and rage are the killers of reason and thought.”

My hatred is my reason. My rage guides my thoughts.

“Which one is stronger in you I wonder? Hatred or rage?”

“Neither.”

He laughed again. “That´s good. Means you´ll get yourself killed all the quicker.” He shifted to a muted chuckle. “Now let´s get started on the next part of your training.” He turned and waved his hoof for Apple Bloom to follow.

She did as her master bid. They walked out of the old door. Apple Bloom had only been out of the training area when Nightglade told her to fetch water at the well just a few hundred meters away.

He led her past the well and into the forest behind it. The leaves had turned golden brown and were starting to wither from their branches. The ground was devoid of any flowers or grass. Only dead leaves from the trees covered the cold, hard ground.

They walked past an Oaktree, so old that the branches were turned white and lichens hanged of the limbs. The fibers of the lichens had the same cold white color has Nightglade´s mustache, although much worse maintained and trimmed.

The old unicorn led her around the tree. His horn started glowing and the ground in front of them dissolved into the air, revealing the entrance to dark cave. When they stepped inside the moisture formed by the rain fall dripped from the walls and smattered to the rock laid ground.

A few of the drops landed on Apple Bloom´s forehead and in her mane, breaking her focus as she tried to think about something else besides the pain in her shoulders and forelegs.

Nightglade trotted forward. He didn´t have a lantern with him. Instead he formed a glowing, white orb and let it hover just above his head. The cave soon narrowed and Apple Bloom was forced to walk behind her master.

The little filly never had any problems with narrow, dark spaces before. She used to crawl into the hills of snow formed during winter and make long tunnels. At least they seemed long to her. But the cave she was in now was nothing like the soft, white tunnels she crawled through in the past. The walls were covered with long veiny branches. The ground was covered in cold, moist dirt that send cold shivers up her legs. Slender, thin strings sprouted from the roof and tickled the tips of Nightglade´s ears. The old unicorn didn´t let it show beyond just flicking his ears in annoyance.

But Apple Bloom did notice. It was the only thing that relived her with the pain in her legs and the cold floor beneath her hooves. The little filly laughed to herself, quietly, so he didn´t hear.

Nightglade came up to an old wooden door. The rusty hinges creaked when he pushed the door open.

Behind the door was a large chamber with a small lake and a rock in the middle. The little filly took a moment to draw a sigh of relief that they were out of the narrow corridor. The chamber was large compared to the rest of the cave even if it still had the roots coming out of the roof and crawling along the walls.

“Get on that rock.” Nightglade pointed his staff towards the rock in the center of the lake. It was more than far enough of for Apple Bloom to get to it without getting into the water. And at first that was what she feared, that she would have to swim out to the rock but Nightglade´s horn started glowing and he lifted her to rock.

The rock was just small enough for Apple Bloom to be able to stand on her back legs and it was slippery has well, making it difficult for her to stay up.

The old unicorn sat down by the edge of the lake and stared at Apple Bloom. He stroked his mustache. And then he swiped his staff towards her. His staff was more than long enough to reach Apple Bloom and moved far too fast for her to avoid.

It swooped her legs out from under her and send her crashing into the lake. The black water swallowed her in one large gulp.

Apple Bloom couldn´t see anything, she couldn´t hear anything besides the water moving in her ears. The cold water filled up her nose and pressed deep into her nostrils. She scrambled and fumbled madly, looking for the surface or something solid. Everything was blurry and the cold water stung in her eyes. The little filly felt her lungs pulled inwards involuntarily. She didn´t shallow any water but she soon felt another jerk. This time it was harder to keep her mouth closed.

Suddenly she felt her hoof breaking the surface. It was her back hoof and Apple Bloom realized why she didn´t see the surface. She was swimming down.

With a clumsy movement and her lungs burning with desire to breath she turned around broke the surface. The air was a sweet relief on her lungs. She swam for the rock and only now felt her shoulders reminding themselves of their conditions. She could feel the pain bite and burn, despite the cold water she was in.

“Get up.” Nightglade said.

Apple Bloom climbed up the rook and now saw that the edge of the lake was steep and overhanging. It was practically impossible for her to climb out of the lake unless Nightglade helped her. She balanced on her back legs again and Nightglade took another swing with his staff.

She jumped up to avoid it and succeeded, but when landing she slipped on the wet rock and fell back into the water. This time she didn´t manage to stop her breath before hitting the water and the swallowed a large chug of it when the water engulfed her. Upon breaking the surface her shoulders began aching again, harder than they had before. Every stroke she made the muscles felt like they were tearing of the bones. She struggled to keep her head above the surface until she reached the rock. The filly coughed violently to get the water out of her lungs.

“Get up.” Nightglade said after smacking her at the back of her head with his staff for not getting up fast enough.
The filly climbed up on the rock and stood back on her back legs.

The old unicorn took another swing with his staff and Apple Bloom jumped to slowly.

Once again the water swallowed the little filly. This time she sank.

Apple Bloom descended down slowly. The cold water pressed into her ears and up her nose. She opened her eyes and felt like a hundred small needles pressed into them. She saw nothing but a black empty void.

This time I was considering just letting myself drown. They killed Ma, they killed Pa, they killed Big Mac, they killed Granny they killed Applejack. Death would have made it all go away.

Suddenly the darkness disappeared. Images flashed before her eyes. Old memories and faces. Ma taking her to the market, Big Mac carrying her on his shoulders. They were warm fuzzy memories but the just passed by briefly. Ma´s flesh burned on a stake and blood flowed from Big Mac´s throat.

Her barrel jerked inwards. The muscles on her ribs burned and she began swimming. When she reached the surface Nightglade sat on the edge, glaring at the little filly with his cold green eyes.

“Death is tempting isn´t it?” He asked.

Apple Bloom nodded.

“It would put an end to all of it. All your misery, all your pain, all your memories. Gone.” He stroked his mustache. “It would also be a damned waste. If you die here and now, all your efforts would be in vain. All the time you have spent here training would be all for nothing. And they would be getting away with killing your family. Living their lives while you turn to dust.”

Apple Bloom climbed out of the water. She started shivering uncontrollably when she stood on the rock again.
The sound of the old unicorn´s staff tapping the rock echoed in the chamber. “Is death still tempting?”

The filly shook her head.

Nightglade stroked his mustache. “Let´s put that to the test.” He swiped his staff towards Apple Bloom´s feet.

Apple Bloom jumped up and, to her surprise, she managed to land back on the rock and keep her balance. Even if one of her hooves was slowly gliding towards the water.

A subtle smile flashed on Nightglade´s lips. He tapped his staff on the edge of the rock. “Learning in just three tries. Either I´ve underestimated you or I´m making it to easy. Let´s find out which.” A spark flung from his horn and the glowing orb vanished. A pitch black darkness swallowed the chamber.

The only sound Apple Bloom could hear was the clanking sound of Nightglade tapping his staff on the edge.
“Is death still tempting?” He asked again.

Before Apple Bloom could answer the tapping sound stopped and was replaced the sound of the staff cutting through the air. Once again the filly was knocked into the water.

When she breached the surface everything was still just as dark and cold. She fumbled and felt around madly for the rock. The shoulders cramped up and she struggled to keep her head above the water. Every other breath she took was under the water and the rest she coughed.

Soon she started sinking. The water dragged her down and her hooves stopped paddling. A quite stillness fell over the little filly as the water swallowed her. The lake was so dark and cold yet so silent and peaceful. She felt her hoof resting on a cold, slippery rock. Apple Bloom pulled herself out of the water, shivering, crying, coughing, her arms burning and her body soaked in cold water.

“If you want it to end, all you have got to do is let go.”

Apple Bloom forced herself back on the rock. She stared at what she thought was Nightglade. Despite the cold and pain there was a fire in her heart.

“Well?” He asked. “What do you choose? Life or death?”

“Life.”

Death for them.

Nightglade stroked his mustache. “And pain.”