I was bored. Please don't hate me.
He wrapped his claws around my neck and lifted me until my hind legs could not touch the floor anymore. My one wing flapped helplessly. Gravity pulled me back to the marble floor and his talons scratched my neck.. We both heard them rip open my skin like razor blades but he did not let go. He chuckled and I could see a vicious joy in his eyes. Did he like watching my agony as I was being strangled?
"Please" I tried to say. I would beg him, fall on my knees and kiss the talons that just left a huge scratch on my nek, just to make him stop. He did not hear. There was nothing left of my voice, as the air had almost left my lungs.
I am going to die
Tears appeared in my eyes when I thought of Luna. What would he do with her? He was always so friendly with her, using that talon to gently poke her cheek when she made a joke. I forced myself to hold back my tears. I was not going to give him the joy of seeing me cry.
He had changed when he stepped through the garden entrance. Followed by dark clouds he found me watering flowers. Just like the last time we saw eachother. It had been so long scince he walked up on me and gave me a rose the color of my mane. When I could not answer his question the way he hoped, he left me alone with the light pink flower while its petals fell off one by one.
Now he did not ask, he just said me he had seized the castle, and he had come to seize me too. First I thought is was a joke, but when he filled the sky with black clouds by snapping his fingers, I knew he meant it.
"Why?" I asked. His answer was a blast of magic.
My thoughts went to luna, and as if he could read them he told me she was locked up in her chamber, just like everyone else in the castle. In a very short time, the sky turned into a piece of paper with me and him holding the pencils. Gold. Red. Green. Green. We kept firing our spells, using our wings to duck when needed. We danced like a pair of birds until the garden was turned into ash and we grew tired. He followed me everywhere. I was trying to get rid of him when he suddenly pushed me away. The wind got under my wings and I was thrown aside into the top of a tree. When I turned around I saw the pointed edge of a balcony.
If it weren't for the wind, my neck would be pierced on to that. I needed to end the fight before I got seriously hurt. The memories of us flashed before my eyes when I collected all the magic left inside of me and my horn let out a giant golden blast. I saw it getting closer to you while you flew towards me.
With your eagle claw you grabbed my wing while the gold blasted your pony wing off, leaving a red hole on your shoulder. You shrieked when you fell down, almost taking my wing with you. It hurt so much I thought is was going to rip off.
Together we tumbled through a treetop and one of the stained glass windows in my throne room. When we shattered the glass he finally let go of my wing, yet it bled so much I hit the cold floor just as hard as he did. I gritted my teeth and tried not to scream.
Tired as we were, we should have stopped. We could not use magic anymore, so why would we fight? I am not sure, but there was something mystical about fighting your enemy without the magic that defines you.
As if we would now, stripped of our magic and our allies, finally see what we're made of.
We ran towards eachother, like we were lost lovers who finally saw eachother again until our bodies collided and we became a mix of hooves, wings and muzzles. The black clouds outside darkened the room and it was almost impossible to see. With my horn I scratched your body while my hooves fought against his claws. One scratch went all over his muzzle, another started just under his eye and again another went vertically over his neck. His snake tail bruised my white body until it turned blue. I was lucky when he tripped over the carpet and fell on his back. I hit his body with all the power I had in my hooves. Which was not much, my physique was too frail for that. But it hurt, I could see the air getting pushed out of his lungs while he gasped. He hid his body behind his arms and turned his face away. My eye fell on a stone bust of princess Platinum, standing a metre or so before the throne. One hit with that and it would be over. Really over. My own thoughts shocked me, I did not want to hurt him like that. While I thought about princess Platinum I felt his tail wrapped around one of my hind legs tightly.
I understood what it meant, I had beaten him enough. Now it was his turn.
I heard it snap before I collapsed. My body hit the floor with a loud thud and I moaned. I had never broken a leg before. Luna said it was a miracle because they're so long. He stood up, looking even taller then usual. I laid on my back and looked up to him. He bowed down until his face was right above mine. Why didn't I have a tail like his? I crossed my front hooves before my chest like they would prevent him from hurting me.
"Are you afraid?" he grinned. He raised his claw and hit my muzzle. "Why?"
I tried to make myself as small as possible. This strike was just the beginning. I prepared for even more pain when he slowly removed my crossed hooves and placed them next to me on the floor. He put one talon on my body, right above my heart. I am sure he felt my breath was irregular. With his other talons he gently stroked the fur on my chest before they found their way up to my throat.
He dropped me like I was dead already. Or maybe he thought that I was. He smiled a little as I laid before his feet coughing and chocking up blood. "Please" I said again, loud enough for him to hear this time.
Think of something, I said to myself. Tell him he is still your friend or something. I scrolled through all my memories with him, looking for one that could calm him down. He just needed to be calm enough for me to... To what? Kill him like he just tried with me? I did not wanted him dead. I just wanted my friend back. Then I got an idea, it was dreadful, I would be playing with his emotions just like he did with the victims of the mind games that I hated him for.
Lie. Lie if you want to live.
"D-do you love me?" I said softly. The question must have genuinely surprised him because the grin on his face disappeared for a second.
It was stupid to say something. I was a broken, helpless pony laying on the floor at the mercy of a sick and twisted mind. But words are like the arrows pegasi used and once they leave your side you can not take them back. One wrong word and he would have picked me up again, broken my neck and left me bleeding in my own throne room. I felt my heartbeat in the scars on my neck. When it raised, more blood came flowing out of them. I watched with disgust as the sticky red fluid colored my hooves. First he gave no reaction, I suspected he was putting his grin back on his face, then he stepped back and sat down on the steps a few metres before the throne. He stared at the ground and I did not know what he was looking at, but he whispered so quietly I almost could not hear it: "Yes."
I got up very slowly, I could not go any faster because of my ankle and wing, but also because I did not want to trigger him. He just sat there, staring down as I moved towards him. Carefully, I sat down next to him and tried to look at his eyes. In the eerie silence that followed, he put his clawed fingertips in my neck, pulling me closer until I laid my head to rest on his chest. I held back a tear when I rubbed my cheek onto the fur on his chest. It was just as soft as all those years ago.
Some ponies used to say that they did not want to touch him, they found him too scary. Back then, he was too much of a coward to fight. He instead ran away to a place where I comforted him. Then he gave me a hug just like now. But we were not covered in scratches. We did not use magic to remove eachothers limbs. I gulped when I imagined him ripping one of my wings off. I found the thought of it so horrifying I wanted to apologise. But how do you apologise for blasting a wing off?
He buried his muzzle in my mane and held my hoof with his paw. I felt my heartbeat rising.
"I know you meant it Tia." He said to my hair. "You always blushed and bit your lip when you lied, and a moment ago you did not."
Or maybe I just got better at lying, I thought. I bit my lip.
"Even after all this- this... Even with your messed up mane, your scratches and the red on your body. You are still beautiful."
With his muzzle in my mane it was hard to hear his voice. It always made me feel bad when he said things like that, knowing that I could never say something in return. I felt my cheeks turn red. Why couldn't we go back in time, to the time when my mane was pink and my smiles did not mean anything. I looked up. The vicious fire in his eyes was gone. He wrapped his arms around my back and stroked my wings. His touch was lovely in a creepy way. Nothing like the playful bumps from years ago.
It took him only a second to find my lips and press his against them. His kiss was warm and passionate. In a reflex I moved my head back, but his paw held my bad wing and every movement hurt so much it set half of my body ablaze. He did not care. He just leant forward, closing his eyes. When he opened them he must had seen a look of terror on my face, because he immediately stared at the floor. It was nice of him to feel ashamed. Behind his antler I saw the bust of princess Platinum. I totally forgot about it. I did not want to meet his eyes again but it was my best chance right now. With my right hoof I lifted his chin. Briefly, I saw a small tear in the corner of his eye. With my left hoof I pulled him closer to me as I kissed him. Just as I thought, he let go of my wings and even better, he closed his eyes again.
Please let my magic be strong enough to levitate!
It was. Halfway through our kiss the stone bust hit his back, breaking something in the progress. Part of me hoped it was his spine. He would be unable to move so I could get far, far away from here. He let out a groan when he pushed the bust aside and stood up again. His bat wing was strangely attatched to his side, hanging down like it was going to fall off.
The vicious fire in his eyes turned into an inferno. I betrayed his feelings and now he wanted me dead. I had never seen something so scary in my whole life.
I flapped both my wings and flew a short distance before I fell back on the ground. I crawled to the door, leaving a red trail on the already red carpet, only to find it closed with cotton candy clouds. I could not escape him.
The knowledge I was going to die soon calmed me in a weird sense. I just hoped it was not going to hurt that much. I coolly turned around as he came walking towards me. If I was going to die, I would do so with dignity. He would have to look me in the eye before killing me.
Don't look away. Don't look away.
I looked away. I stood nearly as tall as him, but when he stood before me and his eyes met mine I found him strangely intimidating.
With the tip of his paw under my chin he put my head back in place so I looked in front of me again, right into his staring eyes. He began to touch me, very gentle. He put a curly lock of hair behind my ear and followed the side of my face to my jaw line. The point of his claw felt lovely and creepy, just like a while ago. His thumb stroked a little old scar just above my necklace and went down to my scarred chest, over my shoulder and over my back, following my spine until he stopped at my tailbone. He stared at every detail of my body from my horn to my feet. It felt so unnerving I wanted to cover myself with my wings.
"Stop it. You've won. You got what you wanted." I spoke with my most regal voice, but I was sure he could hear my hesitation.
The grin faded from his face as his claw formed a fist and struck me just above my eye. I felt my legs became weak. Don't fall, I told myself. He struck me a second time. My eye would turn black soon. A third. The fourth time, my broken ankle sent pain through my leg and I fell down like a house of cards. I moaned and let my tears go. I would die here laying here on the floor, so what did it matter if I cried or not? I did not even bother to look up because I knew he picked up the bust and held it, ready to drop. A weird tranquillity filled the room as we both waited. Just drop the thing already! What was he waiting for?
The bust did not crush my head, instead, he dropped it on my crown, which had fallen from my head. It split in two uneven pieces. I picked up the small part, holding it in my hoof like it was going to comfort me. He pulled me up by grabbing my mane and I let out a cry of pain. He slammed my back onto the large marble column next to the door. I cried out again. It hurt so much I thought I would break in two, just like my crown. When I fell on the ground again I tried to shield my broken body with the one wing I had left.
He liked it. He liked tossing me around the room, beating me like I was his toy. Now he could not use his magic anymore to play his twisted mind games, he would play with my body instead.
And everytime I tried to hold my body together while standing up I played the game with him. I folded my wings back in place, put my chin on my chest and curled up like a ball. I was not going to play anymore. He must had noticed it too. It was way too quiet for a way too long time. I imagined he'd be thinking of new rules for this game. Break Celestia, I'm sure it is called.
He pulled my head back on my mane, exposing my neck. Luckily it hurt less than the previous time. When he put his sharp talon on my throat I did not react, although I could feel the blood flowing from my wounds. I held the piece of my crown a little tighter. I waited for him to slice my throat, but he only pushed his claw into my skin a little. Instead he bent over so I could feel his breath in my neck. He must have of something new to convince me to continue his game a little longer.
"Do you know what I am going to do to you" he whispered slowly in my ear "when you are dead enough not to resist, but so much alive that you will remember every second?"
His voice sent shivers down my spine. I closed my eyes. He took a dramatic pause before he continued. He was taunting me and everytime I gave no reaction, he made his threats a little more gruesome. With his snake tongue he hissed the most horrifying things. I forced myself not to move while this words slipped into my mind and almost made my stomach twist. He would never do that, he would never cause physical harm like that, I told myself but I was not sure wether I really believed it.
"I will bring you to your sisters chamber, she will point at each of your scars and bruises as I tell her exactly how you got them. And then I will do the same to her."
Please don't! I thought as I rolled on my other side and stretched out my hoof to hit him. If he was going to show my body to Luna personally, I would make her see that I did not let him beat me so easily. He moved a little to the side in an almost gracious way and my hoof missed his head. He smiled with his teeth visible. The taunting worked. I was such a fool.
"I knew.." he was saying when my hoof came down on his neck. He fell on the ground gasping for air with his paw around the side of the crown. The sharp edge found its way into his neck and pierced one of his veins. I stared at the hoof that I just used to kill.
As he lied in front of me the cotton candy began to melt and the black clouds drifted away. I opened the doors and looked over my shoulder where his body had just stopped twitching. I left him there, I knew he would come back. Unlike ponies, spirits can not die. You may extinguish a spirit's flame, but after a few hundred years it will rekindle and not long after that, he would show up again.
I decided I would wait for him. My spirit of chaos. I smiled when I repeated that in my head. My spirit of chaos. After all, what is a few hundred years in an alicorn's life?
