Frozen Moon

by brohooffanfic

Rating: mature
Tags: Romance, Tragedy, Slice of Life, Dark
Length: 17408

You are Thunder Seethe. A 19 year old pegasus stallion, you only have your sister left to care for.

[2nd Person Fic]

You are Thunder Seethe, a 19 year old pegasus stallion. The only thing left in your life you care about is your little unicorn sister Star. Your life is rough, living in the suburbs of the big city of Detrot without much bits to spare and having to take care of your sister all by yourself. Your step father, who stayed around after your mother died, is an aggressive alcoholic and you two don't get along at all… until one day, when you finally snap.

After a stupid decision you have to get out of the city. Fast.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-04-19 15:14:53 UTC

Chapter 2: On the run

Chapter 2: On the run

You wake underneath a tree in a snow covered land, the silence of your surroundings makes the hairs on your neck stand up straight; it’s one of those moments when it is ‘too’ quite. You lift up your wing and see Star still sleeping underneath, curled up like a ball. ‘At least she had a good sleep’ you thought. The whole night you have been thinking about your deed and the lack of guilt that should come with it; this caused you to have practically no rest… and the cold didn’t help either.

You nuzzle the small white filly underneath your wing. ‘’Star, wake up.’’ you whisper, no response. ‘’psst, Star!’’ you hiss quietly and poke her with your nose, causing her to groan, with irritation.

‘’Just five minutes more.’’ she mutters.

‘’Come on, Star, wake up. Now!’’ you say and begin to get irritated.

‘’…fine…’’ she mumbles and yawns. ‘’Morning’’ she says with a small smile and rubs a hoof in her eyes, ‘’You look horrible…’’ she states with a hint of concern and a clear giggle.

‘’…yes, my looks are super important right now…’’ you reply, sarcastically.

‘’You just look silly,’’ she giggles. ‘’Your mane is frozen… straight up.’’

‘’W-what!’’ you blurt, very shocked, and reach a hoof up to your head. As soon as you reach your mane you feel a hard piece of it and start to poke it gently. *snap* A frozen cluster of hair lands in front of you; you stare at it with wide eyes. ‘’MY MANE!’’ You wail, ‘’MY BEAUTIFUL MANE!”

Your outburst, as a stallion, was somewhat comical for practically everypony. Heck, even you would have laughed your haunches off if you saw somepony react like this. Star was doing just that, right now, while you desperately try to reattach the broken piece of hair.

After a few minutes you give up, as did Star, well… at least for a little while. She cracks up again when you give your lost piece of beauty a proper burial.

‘’Seriously, I have never seen somepony react like that because of his mane!’’ Star says between the gasps of breath she toakes between laughs.

You turn your head to her and glare into her, ‘’That piece of beauty will be lost forever! And I look hideous right now!’’

‘’Take it easy, sis!’’ she giggles, ‘’Let me just…’’ *snap* ‘’um… oops?’’ She regretfully holds another piece of your mane in front of you.

‘’After all I do for you…’’ you snort.

‘’Well… it doesn’t look that bad’’ she says, looking at your mane, ‘’and since when do you care about your looks that much? A-are you a coltcuddler?’’ she asks in shock.

You give her another glare, ‘’I am not busy with my looks!’’ you say angrily, ‘’…just with my mane…’’ you admit. ‘’and I am most certainly NOT gay!’’

She levitates a mirror in front of you with her magic, ‘’See... it isn’t that bad...’’ she grins.

You look in the mirror and sigh, ‘’Whatever...’’ you mutter and push the mirror away, ‘’Let’s eat something!’’ you say and start rummaging in the bag with your groceries.

‘’Well, all the vegetables and apples are frozen... so let’s eat this partially frozen bread…’’ you sigh with a very fake smile.

‘’Oh, jolly! I love frozen bread!’’ Star jokes, ‘’You do know that I know a heating spell right? I used it almost all night on the ground underneath us’’ she laughs.

‘’Uhm… yeah, of course I know that’’ you lie.

Her horn begins to glow and several apples float from the bag with food, her horn started to glow more intensely and the apples started to steam.

‘’Star! Just thaw them, not cook them!’’ You say loudly.

Star opens her eyes and stops her spell, ‘’It’s hard you know!’’ She snaps back.

After heating up three more apples, you take two of them, both slightly burned and still frozen in the core, but edible. She also warms up a canteen you had filled with snow, until it was boiling. You add some tea leaves that Star had taken with her and after a few minutes you two share the warm liquid and savor the feeling of the tea warming your insides up.

‘’uhm, Star… I was thinking a lot last night’’ You say with a hint of sadness in your tone.

She looks suspiciously at you, ‘’...about what?’’ She asks.

‘’You remember Mister and Misses Shine right?’’ You ask.

She glares at you, ‘’Yes… what about them?’’ she asks while still looking deep in your eyes.

‘’I don’t think that these circumstances are good for you. I think you should go…’’ You started when she interrupts you.

‘’NO!’’ she yells, ‘’I will stay with you! You are all I have left!’’ tears start to form in her eyes, ‘’I will stay with you!’’ She finishes.

‘’Star, listen to me… you are still a filly. You shouldn’t live like this, and I am sure Mister and Misses Shine are more than willing to take you in. I promise that we will see each other again, just give me the opportunity to settle down in a town. And besides, if the cops are looking for us, we are way more suspicious when together.’’ you explain to her.

She looks at you with tear-filled eyes, ‘’Y-you… you’re right’’ She admits, ‘’b-but don’t you think will be suspicious when I suddenly go back to school unharmed, while you are gone?’’

‘’You will go disguised, and hide with them.'' You say, ‘’and Misses Shine used to be a teacher, so she will be able to teach you.''

She wipes the tears out of her eyes, ‘’and how am I going to get there?’’ She asks.

You reach again in your bag and take out your wallet, ‘’I have about 200 bits left…’’ that is more than enough for a train ticket to Detrot. ‘’As soon as we find a town, we will go to an inn, I will write to Misses Shine about your arrival and then we’ll wait for a response.’’ you reply.

‘’And then?’’ She asks while looking downcast.

‘’Then you will go back with the train. You know the way from the station to the Shine's house right?’’ You ask, concerned.

She gives you a simple glance and a nod, ‘’And what will you do?’’ she asks.

‘’I will find a nice quite town, find a job and start a new life.’’ You say simply, already having everything planned out in your head. You look at Star, who looks quite sad. ‘’I promise that I will write you about everything that happens, at least once a week.’’ you say and pull her to you with your wing.

She begins to sob quietly into your coat, ‘'It is better this way.’’ she whispers.

You nuzzle her mane and give her a peck on the forehead. You sit like that for a couple of minutes until she stops crying. You rise to your hooves and arch your back like a cat, which causes your spine to make multiple popping sounds; you also twist your head which causes your neck to make the same sounds. You stretch your front legs, back legs, and wings and discover that your left wing is aching. After your morning routine of body stretching you look back at Star, who is looking at you with disgust.

You shrug, ‘’What?’’ you ask. She shakes her head and starts to pack the bags.

After she is finished packing, she places two saddlebags over your flank, she carries two saddlebags and a backpack. After securing everything she climbs onto your back and holds onto you tightly, ready for takeoff.

You stretch your stiff wing muscles and wince, ‘’Everything okay?’’ Star asks in a concerned tone.

‘’Yeah… just a bit cramped...’’ You say and stretch your wing again.

‘’Isn’t that the wing you had that injury on?’’ She asks.

‘’…yeah…’’ you say and wince again.

‘’I think we should walk, you shouldn’t strain an old injury’’ she says and tries to hop off your back.

You hold her in place with your right wing, ‘'Just give me a minute, normally after a few stretches it’s okay to go. It just feels stiff, don’t worry,’’ you say while looking over your shoulder and giving her a smile.

After a few more stretches you feel the pain reduce with each stretch. After about twenty stretches, the pain is almost completely gone… at least for now. ‘’Okay, I’m good to go.’’ You say and start to gallop out of the tree line, ‘’Hold on tight!’’

You start to flap your wings and the pressure underneath your hoofs reduce with each wing beat. The wind is flowing between your feathers; the well-known feeling which is very comforting. After five more beats of your wings you take off into the cold morning air. You have no idea what time it is, but the sun is still climbing and only half past the horizon. The few solar rays that it is emitting warm you a little and give you an energetic feeling. You always loved flying in the winter, the cold air over your body, the little heat that the sun gives and the beautiful white landscape.

After what only felt like minutes you look over your shoulder and see that Star is already fast asleep. The sight of the small filly sleeping peacefully warms your heart and causes you to smile, it also brings a small feeling of sadness with it. You are sure that sending her to a stable and trust worthy home is the best choice, but still you are sure that you are going to miss her. The longest time you two were apart from each other was a week, and that was only once when you were on a flight camp.

After a few hours of flying you feel yourself growing tired and want to take a small break, also a storm was starting to brew. ‘’Star!’’ you shouted through the howling winds, ‘’wake up Star!’’

You felt three taps on your neck, which indicated that she was awake. ‘’we are going to land’’ you yell, ‘’hold on!’’.

She grabs herself tight against you. You make a nose dive which increases your speed dramatically, ten feet above the ground you pull up again. You level out at an altitude of only a foot to spare between your hooves and the ground, ‘ooh yeah, I’m good’ you think to yourself.

While zipping between trees and looking for a small patch of clear ground you don't notice a hill of snow and fly into it head first. Luckily it is only powder snow and doesn't hurt you, but Star finds it incredibly funny.

After brushing of your snow beard you continue on hoof. All the snow in this area is very loose and very easy to move with a few wing beats. You walk to a tree with a small path of snow underneath it and you start to flap your wings, all the snow is blown away very easily and the brown frozen dead grass underneath it appears very fast.

Star's horn started to glow and the patch of grass and dirt started to steam, after only a minute all the left over snow and all the ice was gone, and Star was exhausted. You stepped on the warm ground and let Star jump off your back. As she stood, she wobbled a bit on her hooves from exertion.

‘’Star, are you okay?’’ you ask and support her with your wing.

She nods her head, ‘’cold air makes using magic a lot harder’’ she says and shakes her head, trying to regain focus.

She sits down on the warm ground, staring in front of her. You pull out the blanket and wrap it around her; you also warm her with your wing. But this leaves you open for the freezing winds that are howling through the trees, not that it bothered you. You always preferred cold above warmth, actually you like the cold winds rushing and blowing through your mane and coat.

You pull out the flask with the tea in it. The flask was isolated so the tea stayed hot in it. The flask is half full with the warm liquid; you unscrew the cap from it and hold it in front of her. She eagerly drinks it and you see an immediate change of awareness in the filly.

‘’ooh yeah’’ she gasps after taking another gulp from it, she offers you the tea and you accept it, drinking the last bit out of it.

You stand up and do a few wing stretches, also brushing off the small forming of ice that had formed during the flight. ‘’after half an hour we go again. Okay?’’ you ask.

She nods, ‘’where are we going anyway?’’ she asks and pulls out a map from the bags.

‘’you had a map…’’ you groan in irritation.

‘’yeah… didn’t you know?’’ she asks and looks confused at you.

‘’I was all this time flying with my feeling and sense of direction’’ you mutter.

She giggles and unrolls the map, ‘’okay, what was your target?’’ she asks while looking at the map.

‘’Trottingham’’ you answer.

‘’okay’’ she says and rubs her chin, ‘’ I have no idea where we are’’ she admits.

‘’girls and maps’’ you say with a chuckle and take the map from her. You sit next to her, ‘’look’’ you say and point at the map, ‘’here is Detrot and here is Trottingham. This is probably where we will have our first night’’ you point at the far edge of the first of the two forests of the route, ‘’we are just past these mountains after approximately six hours of flying. That means that we are around here’’ you point at the forest next to the mountain, ‘’which means that if I fly for four hours more we will reach Trottingham already’’ you say.

Star looks wide-eyed at the map, ‘’So, what are we waiting for?’’ she asks.

‘’Well, last night I didn’t sleep that much and I have flown a lot today…’’ you say and rub the back of your head, ‘’and you said that I shouldn’t strain my wing’’ you say with a smile and flap your left wing softly.

‘’...Whoops’’ she mutters.

‘’I can walk for a few more hours’’ you state, ‘’only my wings aren’t built for a snow storm…’’ You glare at her.

‘’Okay, so we rest up for a bit now and then we walk until nightfall?’’ she asks.

‘’Fine with me.’’ you say and shrug.

After half an hour of resting  and both eating another apple you continue on your way, only this time on hoof. It is much slower and more exhausting to fly through the snow than to fly through the cold air. The winds picked up and made it impossible for you to fly above the tree line with Star on your back, alone would be possible but still very challenging. Sometimes you would fly up and look if there was any sign of civilization in sight, but every time was to no avail. You could only see a few feet away, due to the snow that was flying around blocking your line of sight.

After a few hours Star is exhausted, and you take her on your back again. You still have enough energy for at least an hour or two. By the time the sun starts sinking behind the horizon, you are getting pretty tired and decide to call it a day. You clear another patch of snow underneath a big tree and Star uses her magic to melt and heat it. Even though her horn was warmer now because she had wrapped herself in the blanket when she lay on my back, it was still a challenge for her, probably due to her fatigue.

After clearing the snow and warming the ground, you lower her on it and cover both of you with the blanket. Under the blanket you pull her close with your wing and let her cuddle up against you. Her horn glows faintly to keep the ground on the temperature as it was now; this spell probably didn’t take much energy or focus from her, because she was able to maintain it while sleeping. You made sure to pull your head underneath the blanket completely this time, making sure that there was not a single part of your mane sticking out from underneath it.

After finding a comfortable position, and making sure Star was. You feel at peace and let the sensation of sleep consume you and take you away into the dark void of dreams.

You wake up and slowly open your eyes; you are still under the blanket… alone. You shoot up and look around desperately for your little sister. ‘’Star!’’ you shout in panic, ‘’Star, where are you!?’’

You run to the edge of the snow and saw hoof steps; you follow them at a running pace. After a minute you hear a stream of water, ‘’Oh no...’’ you gasp and pickeup your pace even faster. You reach the source of the sound and see Star sitting at the edge of a small creek. You sigh in relieve and pant from your sprint.

Star turns around and looks questioning at you, ‘’What are you doing?’’ she asks confused.

‘’Why are you here!’’ you say angrily.

She points to the creek, ‘’Water…’’ she points out simply.

‘’Couldn’t you melt snow or something?’’ you ask harshly.

‘’Melting and heating stuff takes energy, maintaining the heat is nothing’’ she explaines, ‘’and I had to pee so I walked away from the camp site and then I heard this creek, and why melt and warm something when I can take it here and only have to heat it’’

You sigh in relief, ‘’I’m sorry Star. I was just worried’’ you say.

‘’It’s okay, I understand, I shouldn’t have wandered off’’ she admits.

‘’Come on, let’s eat something. I want to reach Trottingham before noon’’ you say.

She screws the cap off of the canteen and follows you, ‘’How much food do we have left?’’ she asked after putting the flask in her saddlebag.

‘’About ten apples and a lot of vegetables’’ you respond with a smile.

After two minutes of walking, you reach the camp site and discover that the bag with food was torn up , the other bags were all opened and the blanket was moved: dragged through the dirt.

‘’What the hay!?’’ you exclaim when you see the chaos.

‘’What the hay happened here?’’ Star asked when she notices the torn bag and scattered belongings.

You look around to see who could have done this. You walk around looking for clues. You walk towards the edge of the circle and see the tracks of an animal… a big animal.

‘’Uhm Star… take a look at this’’ you say and gulp, ‘’Are these what I think they are?’’

‘’B-bear…’’ she stutters in fear.

‘’I was afraid for that…’’ you sigh and glance over at Star, who is looking off into the distance.

You follow her gaze and in the distance you see a big black figure staring in your direction, standing on its hind legs. ‘’Star… grab the bags’’ you whisper.

Star steps back and starts repacking the things that have fallen from the bag while you kept your gaze on the huge beast in the distance. ‘’Okay, I’m done. Let’s go’’ Star wined quietly before placing your saddlebags on you back.

In the distance, the black form lowered itself to the ground and sat on its rear. The beast opened its huge mouth and let out an astonishing… yawn. You felt Star climb on your back as you start to run. As soon as you were in the air, you use the sun to guide you where you need to go. You flew west with the sun to your back.

‘’Uhm, Star… I don't think that the bear was aggressive’’ you say once you had reached flying altitude.

‘’Sure… so you want to go back and have a nice chat with it’’ she sarcastically responds.

‘’No! Of course not, hell, didn’t you see how fast I took off?’’ you ask, ‘’I didn’t even stretch my wings!’’

‘’I know, just don’t take any risks!’’ she said as she nuzzles you.

The first few minutes of flying strained your left wing, especially the first few wing beats. But after a little while the pain starts to fade away, but the hunger didn’t… you had only eaten three apples in the past three days, and you didn’t eat at home right before you left. ‘Home’ you thought, what a silly thing to think. That was never our real home, we moved in with that stinking, fat fuck after our mother died. But now he is gone and that place is gone too.

The thoughts make you somewhat smile, ‘’no regrets’’ you say softly.

Star pricks her ears up, ‘’Hmm? What?’’ she mutters.

You turn your head and look at her, ‘’What?’’ you ask as if there was nothing.

‘’I thought you said something’’ she yawned.

‘’I didn’t say anything,’’ you lie.

‘’Ooh… okay,’’ she says as she placed her head again on your back, ‘’How much longer?’’ she asks.

‘’Well…’’ you look up at the position of the sun to see how long you have been flying, ‘’I think about an hour and a half’’ you say, unsure.

‘’Okay’’ she yawned again before cuddling up in her blanket once more.

‘’I’ll wake you when we get there’’ you say and feel her nod in response.

After a few minutes you look back and see that she had fallen asleep. It surprises you that she could sleep this much when she lie on your back, but you did have a comfortable back.

Seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours and hours into hunger. You have never been so hungry, your belly is constantly grumbling, at some points even so much that it woke Star. You were starting to feel noxious from hunger; you have to eat something soon. Due to your old lifestyle you don’t particularly have a real energy reserve, so you had to do with what you had… while flying day after day.

At some point your vision became blurry, the hunger was getting to be too much. You even start to hallucinate buildings in the distance… wait a minute. ‘’Star! We are here!’’ You cheered, ‘’We can eat!’’.

Star lifts her head and looks confusedly over your shoulder, ‘’Finally!’’ she said with a yawn, ‘’I’m tired of sleeping on the floor… and I have to pee… and I’m hungry!’’ She whines.

‘’That is all over now sis.’’ You say gleefully, ‘’Except for that pee part… that’s something you have to do alone.’’ you chuckle.

The city is getting ever closer, you could almost smell the food already, when you suddenly realize that it is very possible that they are looking for you. You descende in the outskirts of town and walk into an alleyway.

‘’Aren’t we going to eat?’’ Star complains.

‘’Not yet,’’ you state. ‘’We have to get a disguise’’ You rub your chin.

‘’Ooh ooh, I have an idea’’ Star says, suddenly awake. She pulls off the blanket and uses her magic to tear it into pieces.

‘’...and what is the point of that…’’ you say, confused.

She unfolds the pieces and reveals two white cloaks, ‘’The color isn’t right…’’ she mutters.

‘’Yeah, with these we will stick out like sore hooves’’ you point out.

She focuses intensely, her horn starts to glow brightly and sweat began to drip of off her forehead. The color of the larger cloak changes slowly to a much darker one before your eyes, and became a very dark tint of purple. The smaller one is next, first it turned red and then it turned… pink. Star drops both cloaks looking a little bit fatigued.

‘’Uhm, Star… yours is pink...’’ you complain.

‘’No it isn’t!’’ she says with a smile.

‘’Uhm, yes it is’’ you respond.

‘’No, it is very light red’’ she giggles.

You sigh and pull on your own cloak. Somehow she knew managed to stitch the ends and make it look neatly. ‘’These are nice, Star.’’ You praise, ‘’good work!’’

She thanks you with a smile, ‘’So, now the disguises are done…’’ She says with an even wider smile.

You grin, ‘’Let’s feast!’’ you dart off towards wherever your nose leads with Star following, giggling.

After having stuffed yourself like a gentle colt with the fine cuisine in Trottingham, you feel a lot heavier and your wallet a lot lighter, ‘’Worth it’’ you smile while lying on a bed in the local inn and let out a loud belch.

‘’Eew! That’s gross!’’ Star complains.

‘’Don’t care’’ you say with a smile, as the taste of the food returned in your mouth with the belch. You liked your lips, ‘’hmmm, apple-pie’’ you almost moan.

‘’Dude! What’s wrong with you!’’ Star yells in disgust.

‘’Nothing, what’s wrong with enjoying a belly full with great food?’’ you ask to the grimacing filly.

‘’I swear to Celestia… if you are going to fart tonight, you’ll sleep in the bathtub!’’ she threatens.

You laughed and rolled on your back, ‘’Don’t worry, you won’t hear them!’’ You evilly grin.

‘’Ugh! What is wrong with you colts!’’ She asks herself and lets herself slump on her own bed.

Her horn started to glow and a small protective bubble shapes around her head, ‘’Now I can’t smell or taste your farts.’’ she says with a smile, ‘’and they won’t burn my eyes.’’

You look confused at her, before shooting into a burst of laughter. Star rolls her eyes and lay down onto her pillow; her horn glows once more, making the bubble around her head sound proof.

‘’Kill joy...’’ you mutter before lying down comfortably on your own bed.

You yawn and close your eyes. Finally, you have a warm comfortable bed, which is the reason why sleep didn’t wait long before taking you away into the land of nightmares…

‘’Thunder! Give me my dolly!’’ the young Star wines.

‘’Thunder give your sister her doll back!’’ your mother ordered you.

‘’…okay…’’ you say with a sigh and release the doll. Star stuck out her tongue at you and skipped away gleefully with her doll.

You slump towards your mother and sit down next to her and look over the lake, ‘’Thunder… how much do you care about your sister?’’ she asks out of nothing.

‘’w-what?’’ you ask confused, ‘’she is my little sister… she means the world to me’’ you answer.

‘’good’’ she says and smiles, ‘’and never forget that’’ she pulles you in a tight hug.

‘’m-mom? What’s wrong?’’ you ask concerned.

‘’nothing dear, mommy is just a bit tired’’ she lied.

You blink and suddenly you are in a hospital, but only one or two years older. Nothing seems strange to you; you are too concerned about the sick mare in front of you.

‘’m-mom, what’s wrong?’’ you asked and feel tears well up in your eyes.

She coughed, ‘’mommy won’t be around much longer dear’’ she says with a weak smile.

‘’w-where are you going?’’ you ask as tears started to roll over your cheeks.

‘’m-mommy don’t go away, I’ll miss you’’ the foal Star said, also crying.

‘’don’t worry my dears, just remember that you will always have each other’’ she says and pulls you both in a weak hug. ‘’mommy is just very tired’’ she whispers.

‘’Star, remember what I told you. Always be prepared’’ she says and gives the filly a kiss on the forehead. ‘’Thunder, you have to take care of your little sister from now on’’ she finishes with another weak smile.

‘’…b-but… mom! Don’t die! We love you! We need you!’’ you shout and hug your mother.

‘’don’t worry dear, I’m sure that you will be just fine’’ she says weakly, ‘’mommy is just going to sleep for a little while’’ she coughs again.

A nurse walks into the room and sees the heart breaking scene, ‘’excuse me…’’ she says softly, ‘’It’s time for your medicine ma’am’’ she says to the dying mare.

‘’I don’t need any more medicine, thank you’’ she responds with a smile.

The nurse looks a bit shocked, but eventually nods and waits in the door opening.

‘’my dears, never forget that I love you two very much, never forget that you two have each other and remember that everything will be alright’’ she says right before closing her eyes.

‘’mom!’’ you scream and shoot up in your bed. You are panting heavily and looking around the dark room. ‘’fuck that was real…’’ you exhale and get up from your bed. You walk to the bathroom to throw a splash of water in your face, after that you look in the mirror. Your face is covered in blood…

You jump back and shake your head. You look in the mirror again; your face is back to normal. You throw multiple splashes of water in your face, ‘’what are you doing?’’ a voice asks from the door arch. You look at the source and see Star, who is looking confused at you.

‘’nothing… just a nightmare’’ you say and dry off your face with a towel.

‘’me too…’’ she says and rubs her hooves together, ‘’what was yours about?’’ she asks.

‘’…mom…’’ you say and look downcast, ‘’yours?’’

‘’…you…’’ she says with the same look on her face.

‘’about me?’’ you ask confused.

‘’yeah… what you have done with… you know’’ she admits.

‘’ooh…’’ you say and feel guilt building up in your guts.

‘’b-but to be honest… I think you did the right thing’’ she says and rubs her hooves together again, ‘’I don’t know the exact details, but he was a bad pony and needed to be punished’’ she confesses.

You walk up to her and hug her, ‘’c-can I sleep with you?’’ she asks quietly.

‘’sure thing’’ you answer.

You walk back to the bedroom and lie down on your bed, you pull her close against you again with your wing and she snuggles up to you. You give her a kiss on the head, ‘’goodnight Star’’ you say and yawn, ‘’goodnight Thunder’’ she mumbles. In no time you fall asleep, this time not being tormented by nightmares.

You wake up by the first rays of the sun shining through the curtains directly into your face; you let out an irritated groan and cover your face with your wing. You hear that the shower is running, and you don't feel Star anymore in the bed. Your stomach is rumbling and begging to release some surplus pressure, and it seems you are all alone in the room so you let out a very loud fart.

With a smile you turn away from the window and its wretched light in try to get some sleep again. Tasting a rancid taste in your mouth, you snuff as the smell of your monster fart fills your nostrils. You open your eyes and they instantly started to burn and you start to gag. ‘’dear Celestia’’ you yelp, jump up, out from your bed and sprint to the window. You open it and use your wings to get fresh air inside of the small room.

After a few minutes there is only a slight smell left of your released daemon noticeable in the room. Right before Star got out of the shower the smell was gone.

She steps out of the bathroom, ‘’ooh, did I wake you?’’ she asks and sniffs, ‘’what is that smell’’ she says and grimaces.

You give a simple grin, ‘’I’m gonna take a shower now’’ you say and shoot past her into the bathroom and close the door behind you.

‘’ah dude… come on!’’ you hear her complain.

After you are done showering you fix your mane up as good as possible, to your surprise it doesn't look that bad. You step into the bedroom and see that Star has already packed all her stuff and yours too. She is staring out of the window to nothing particular. She sighs, ‘’are you sure this is the best thing we can do’’ she mumbles.

You walk up to her and place a hoof on her shoulder, ‘’what do you think?’’ you ask and sit down next to her on the bed.

She turns to you and hugs you, ‘’I want to stay with you’’ she says and starts to sob.

‘’you know that I have no other choice. I promise it will be no more than one year’’ you say and return the hug.

‘’but misses Shine is so old and boring!’’ she wines.

‘’do you have a better idea then?’’ you ask.

‘’well…’’ she stops to think.

‘’I thought so’’ you say and pull her closer to you, ‘’I promise that everything will be alright’’ you say and nuzzle her head.  You glanced at the clock ‘’come on, we have to go’’ you say and stand up.

Star nods and puts on her cloak and backpack, ‘’I’m ready…’’ she sighs.

You do the same and open the door of the room, you let Star past first, and after her you walk out and walk through the corridor towards the checkout counter and return the key. After that you walk out of the inn towards the train station.

Every step towards it increases a pressure inside you. You look at Star, who is walking with her head lowered. She turns her head to you and looks at you with watery eyes.

‘’did you write her that I was coming?’’ she asks suddenly.

You face hoofed, ‘’damn it, I forgot’’ you muttered.

‘’what a pity, now I can’t go…’’ she says and smiles at you.

‘’ yes you can’’ you say silently.

‘’ooh…’’ she says and lowers her head again.

‘’I only wanted to write her to give her a heads up about your arrival… and we don’t have time to wait any longer’’ you add.

‘’fine…’’ she sighs.

The rest of the walk is in silence, both of you feeling sad. Every step towards your destination becomes harder, at some point you are even struggling to keep on walking. You don’t want this, she doesn’t want this… but it has to be done for her sake. The train station is in sight, only one street more to pass.

You walk into the building, ‘’this is it…’’ you sigh and feel Star leaning against you. You walk towards the ticket window with Star close next to you.

‘’yes, can I help you’’ a small old grumpy earthpony asks.

‘’one ticket to Detrot please’’ you ask with a small smile.

He gives you a contemptuous stare, and turns to the register. He hits a few buttons and turns back to you, ‘’that will be thirty bits’’ he hisses.

You reach in your saddlebag and take out the bits. You place them on the counter, were he eagerly swipes them away. He places the ticket in front of you, ‘’thank you for using Equestrian Rail company’’ he mutters and turns away.

You pick up the ticket and hoof it to Star. She hesitates to take it first, but eventually takes it and tucks it away. You look at the train schedule and see that the next train to Detrot will arrive in five minutes. You walk to the platform where the train will arrive, with Star close at your side.

You sit down on one of the benches, ‘’Star, promise me that you will behave’’ you sat with a small smile.

She sits next to you and hugs your front leg, ‘’promise that you will be safe first’’ she says quietly.

‘’I promise’’ you say and hug her back.

‘’then I will behave’’ she says with a forced giggle.

You sit like that until the train arrives. It stops in front of you and the doors open, you get up and walk towards it. ‘’well… this is it’’ Star sighs and gives you another hug, ‘’I love you big brother’’ she whispers.

‘’I love you too lil sis’’ you respond.

She steps on the train and looks at you with a smile and tear filled eyes. ‘’promise to write me as soon as you can’’ she demands.

‘’I promise’’ you say with a reassuring smile.

The doors of the train close and it starts to move. You look to your left and see Star taking place on one on the seats in the train. She looks at you and waves a hoof, you respond with the same gesture. You watch the train as it rolls out of the platform and towards the snow covered open fields, taking away your little sister for a long time.

Chapter 3: All alone

Chapter 3: All alone

You have been sitting on a bench at the station’s platform of which the train had left; it must have been almost two hours since she left. You simply sat there staring at the hooves that had caused all this mess.

You felt the bench move a little as somepony sits next to you.

“Excuse me, is everything alright?” a gentle female voice to your right asked.

You look to your right, to see who was talking. It was a unicorn mare with a light pink coat and a white mane; she was also wearing a police uniform. Your stomach made a somersault and you quickly look back in front of you.

“I’m o-okay, nothing to worry here” you say obviously nervous.

“Sir, you have been sitting here for at least an hour without moving an inch. Someponies told me that they thought you were dead” she says with a chuckle, trying to cheer you up.

“I’m just minding my own business” you say without looking at her.

“Rough day huh?” she asks

You let out a long sigh and nod in. You were getting more and more anxious every second. What if there was already any news on the investigation floating around, and what if she knew about it, and what if she knew that it was about a murder. Of course these were all speculations. But still, just the thought about getting arrested made you almost panic.

“Marefriend?”

The question takes you by surprise, but you manage to shake your head in reply.

“Good, because that filly you put on that train would have been way too young for you” she says with another chuckle and pats your shoulder.

“I should be going” you say and get up from the bench, your anxiety reaching its breaking point.

The police mare gives you a questioning look, “am I bothering you?” she asked with a hint of guilt.

“N-no… I just need to get going, I’m already late” you trot away as fast as you can, trying to suppress the urge to run. ‘Great, now you are also making others feel bad’ you think to yourself.

“Hey wait up!”

You turn around and see the officer heading towards you with a slow gallop. You unfold your wings and beat them as hard and fast as you can, shooting of towards the snow covered plains.

“Come back here!”

You feel a telekinetic pull on your leg, almost making you lose control of your flight path. Panic kicks in and adrenaline begins to rush through your veins, you kick frantically to get away from the magical grip.

You manage to break free from the aura and speed up as much as you can in an effort to put as much distance between you and the city, as fast as possible. You can hear the police mare yell something after you, but the wind in your ears blurs out the meaning of the words. The only thing you could think about, with your panicking mind, was getting away from there.

You fly for half an hour alongside the trees of the edge of a forest. You almost collapsed due to the exaction as soon as you land. You stumbled on your hooves, panting loudly.

You look around to see where you are. In the distance you can see a few trees and hills, but the city was long gone in the horizon.

You look inside the forest; it’s dark and very lush in plant life. There was something in the back of your mind that screamed at you that going in here was a very bad idea.

You try to catch your breath and make some distance between you and the forest; even if it was just a few yards, it felt a lot more comfortable. You sit yourself down underneath a tree and pull out the map from you saddlebag. You look at the area around the city and then at the position of the sun, after some quick calculations you have a good guess of where you are now.

You look at the large forest on the map, “Everfree forest” you read out loud. The name sounds somewhat familiar to you, but you can’t put your hoof on it. You shrug it off and return to the map and look on the opposite side of the forest from where you were now.

A little town called Ponyville caught your eye; it’s directly on the other side of the forest. It’s probably a good place to make a quick stop and fuel up before going any further. It is also close to Canterlot, which you figure, nopony will be looking for you; seeming it’s the capital with two goddesses who each control a heavenly body. And come on, what criminal will go straight towards there. Only idiots will, that’s who. This is also the reason why they’ll never expect you there. Besides, the forest wasn’t that big and you could probably fly over it in less than two hours if you keep up a good pace.

You stretch out your wings and wince as your left wing aches; the strain, of the fast flight you just made, making itself noticeable. It wasn’t a good idea rushing towards here; your wings are feeling numb and tired now. You decide to rest for a couple of minutes longer before heading out over the forest.

You look in the direction the city is supposed to be, a cold fear runs over your spine. What if there was a pegasus patrol unit looking for you right now, closing in at you when you are just sitting here. Leaving with tired wings right now didn’t sound half as bad all of the sudden. You hastily stuff the map back in your bag and take off over Everfree forest.

You fly over the dense forest its canopy. The constant silence around you, except for some birds and the wind in your ears, keeps your ears pointed up for anything that might be heard.

Suddenly a crow flies up from the trees right beneath you and squawks as it almost flies into you. Your heart makes a barrel roll in your chest and you nearly lose control of your flight, “stupid bird!” you yell after it. But the crow just flies off towards another tree below.

You were still trembling out of shock. The forest was getting to you, making you very jumpy.

“Okay, take a deep breath and relax” you order yourself, “It’s just a dumb forest, nothing to be afraid of. Just some trees, shrubs and small critters”

Right at that moment a whole flock of colorful birds flies up, also scaring you nearly to death… again. “That’s not bucking funny!” you yell at the birds.

Your yell was answered by a deep loud growl out from underneath the trees the birds just flew out of. You stop dead in your tracks and hover in place, gazing down at where the trees were moving. A low snarl, this time accompanied by barks and yelps of what sounded to be dogs or wolves.

You went through you options. Stay where you are and be ready to run like a little filly if something comes out or run in advance and be gone before it has a chance to reach you. There was also the option of going down there and check out what was happening. But you weren’t tired of living just yet, so you tossed that one aside.

As sudden as the sounds began they stopped, only the sound of a whining dog lingered for a few more seconds. You sigh in relief and begin flying again; you want to get away from here as soon as possible.

As you fly you get confused, yet again by an unfamiliar sound. It sounds like your wings beats have an echo to them, while you didn’t notice this before. You stop beating your wings and glide through the air for a moment, listening if you could still hear the second pair of wings; which wasn’t the case, to all your luck.

You turned your head and look back, nothing. You continue beating your wings and the echo reappears. You stopped and the echo stopped as well. “What the buck” you mutter.

You have got an idea. You begin to make a wing beating motion but stop halfway through; still there was a wing beat. You look around, searching for whom or what is making those sounds.

Your stomach turns as you look up. Right above you is a lion like creature with bat wings and a scorpion tail flying just a few feet away from you. When it notices that you are looking at it, with cheer horror in your eyes, it starts to beat it wings more powerfully and makes a dive towards you with out to you with outstretched claws.

Your survival instincts kick in and you make a nose dive straight down, while the beast starts its pursuit after you. You drive towards the canopy, pulling up right above the tree tops, your hooves touching a few of the tree tops. You can hear the beast crash into the trees, but that didn’t stop him, only slow him down. To your right you notice a small opening in the roof of leaves and branches, perfect for you to zip in and make it a lot harder for the significant larger beast to follow you.

You dive between the trees, barely managing not to crash; which was hard with the speed you were flying at, not to mention the lack of light. The beast growled in anger as it realized that it was going to lose you. You keep on flying until there was nothing to be heard from behind you anymore.

You land on in the mud, making a sliding stop. You sit down under a tree, gasping for air while chuckling like an idiot. You can’t believe how lucky you were just now. It could have easily taken you down if it wanted to, but luckily it was toying with you by mimicking your wing beats, pretty smart for a wild animal you have to admit.

After a moment you catch your breath for the second time this day and stand up. You’ve had been flying for a while now, if you were right Ponyville should be in sight with a bit of luck. You fly up above the canopy and look in the direction you’ve had been flying in. There is nothing but a mountain far off in the distance.

You’ve been flying in the right direction at the right speed for the right amount of time; you couldn’t understand why you couldn’t see it yet. It is one of the few things you were good at in school, acing in math, physics and geography class. You lowered yourself back under the tree tops again and let out exaggerated sigh.

This was about to go very wrong if you didn’t play your cards right. You were stuck in an evil forest with dangerous monsters lurking all around you, and all above that you were exhausted. You decided to fly for a few more minutes in the hope to see any sign of civilization, without being chanced by one of those things again.

You fly up again after your short break and head in the direction you were originally going. This time being more aware of your surroundings, making sure to throw a few glances up and back to see if you had any unwanted visitors. At least you are able to shake them of, being a lot smaller and faster.

You shake your head, you shouldn’t think like that. Just focus on the matter at hoof, fly and don’t think back of that beast, or the creepy forest below, or the crippling cold, or the fact that the sun was already half gone in the horizon. You just have to keep your head calm and collected, and everything will be fine.

Every wing beat was starting to take an effort, you are not sure you can hang on much longer. The sun has sunken behind the horizon completely by now, taking away your only source of light and little warmth. The stars and the moon provide are the only dim a light sources now, providing just enough light to make out the forest below and hopefully some clearings.

You are looking for a spot to land; the exhaustion is starting to take its toll on your body. You spot a very small clearing, thanks to the contrast between the snow and the dark branches. You descend towards it and make a clumsy landing, nearly toppling over.

After a few more wing beats you were up in a tree on the edge of the clearing. You climb up to the thickest branch you can find and plonk yourself down. Even with the little comfort of only a cloak for warmth and the discomfort of your position, you find it easy to relax a bit. After only a few second you can feel your eyelids grow heavy and you welcome the feeling of sleep. Now just hope you don’t fall out of the tree.

Every time when there was a sound nearby you wake up with a shock; if it was a bird that flew up or a critter running shooting out from a shrub. It didn’t matter; your mind was on edge. Not that you had suspected to have a good night’s rest in this place. But still it was very irritating to have a small panic attack every time you hear something. The worst was when the sounds were from larger creatures, these kept you up for at least half an hour, listening if it was coming closer or if it was just passing by.

The whole ordeal was very tiring none the less. You could feel yourself doze off again, letting it wash over you and hoping not to wake up again. But then you heard a grumble all to close for comfort. You sat up and pressed yourself up against the tree, trying to be as much out of sight as possible.

You peeked down, seeing a rabbit run by in fear. You gulped in fear. ‘Maybe it is nothing, just a scared critter nothing more’ you think to yourself, right before you hear a sharp yelp and a rumble of something big hitting the ground. Your heart stops for a second, but then it feel like a pint of adrenaline is shot directly into your bloodstream, making your heart almost jump out of your chest

The bush the rabbit shot out from shook vigorously and one of those lion things stepped out, this thing almost double the size of the previous one you had encountered earlier today. Also this one seemed to be missing an eye and had a lot more scars over its body.

You fought the urge to fly up and flee, but you were sure the thing would go after you, so you stayed put, trying to breathe as silently as possible. But with all the adrenaline rushing through your body it was a nearly impossible task. You could only sit back and watch as the beast walked towards your tree. You notice that it is holding something in its mouth, probably the poor animal that had yelped before.

Your luck hadn’t run out just yet. The beast lay itself down underneath the tree and placed the still squirming, now noticeable, rabbit in front of it. You could hear the little creature pant a whine in fear. The beast had it pinned down under its massive paw that dwarfed the rabbit.

This wasn’t feeding; this was fun for that monster. The rabbit was seriously hurt, leaving a small puddle of blood where one of its back legs was supposed to be. The beast lies itself down on its belly with the rabbit between its paws. It whacks the rabbit around between them, just like how a foal plays with a ball.

When it was done with playing it started hitting the small creature, letting its paw land on it, resulting in multiple painful yelps. It pinned the rabbit down and started to lick it, its rough tongue ripping through the wound of the lost leg. The pain was getting too much for the critter and it passed out, or died of a heart attack. The beast however found this less than amusing that its toy had broken.

It took the head of the rabbit in between its yaws and ripped the head off, followed by sickening crunches as it chewed up the rabbit its head. You feel nauseous and struggle against your gag reflex. You can only wait for the beast to finish its snack and hope for it walks away when it is done. After a horrifying and sickening minute the rabbit is gone.

The beast lies its head down on its paws and closes its eyes. You curse under your breath when the realization dawn upon you, it was going to sleep here. If the sun comes up the monster would easily spot you here, catch you and devourer you, just like it did with the rabbit. There is only one option left; Wait for it to sleep and try to sneak away as quietly as possible.

You waited for what felt like an eternity, just to be sure the beast was actually asleep. You very carefully peeked over the branch again, looking at that monstrosity. The beast lay curled up in a ball, taking slow deep breaths, its ears flat on its head. You slowly and silently make yourself ready to get out of the tree, fastening your bags a bit tighter and tucking your cloak away underneath it so that it can’t get caught on anything, which is one of the last things you want to have happen now.

You carefully lower yourself down to a lower branch and repeat this process as carefully as you can. You slowly make your way down towards the ground, but the lowest branches aren’t anywhere near the ground. You are now as low as you can go and the only way down now is making a silent glide.

You waited another few minutes to make sure the beast was still asleep and to gather some courage. You take a quiet deep breath and open your wings. You think that the beast idea is to carefully glide towards the clearing, getting as far as possible without flapping your wings.

You leap from the branch and glide towards the clearing. You don’t make it very far, but still manage to land silently. You sneak away from the tree, throwing a glance back towards the tree. The beast was still sleeping underneath it, which was a big relief to you. You continue slowly inching away, while throwing back glances all the while

You are now almost in the middle of the clearing and the monster is barely visible in this darkness. You stop for a second to make sure it is still there, focusing on the spot, you can still make it the silhouette. At least that is the thing right? You step a little closer to it and your heart sinks. The shape in the darkness you were focusing on was just a shrub, but that was not the worst part.

You hear a snarl from right behind you, causing the hairs all over your body to stand up straight in horror. You just made the biggest mistake in your life, only if you had focused a little better. You stood still for a few second, not hearing any movement behind you.

You dared to look back. The beast was in position, ready to lunge at you. But it was waiting for you to make the first move. Without a second thought you bolted back in to the tree line. The loud disturbances and growls behind you letting you know that it was following you. You ran as fast as you could, letting survival instincts taking over.

The straight path in the clearing gave the monster the opportunity to close some distance, but as soon as the two of you were in the thick woods it had a bit of a harder time to follow you. It still was very close to you, and through these woods your size wasn’t a real advantage. It was a lot denser here, but the trees a lot thinner.

You dared to peek back a glance, only to find the beast a mere meter or so away from you. It was literally smashing through the trees behind you. Your heart was beating painfully hard in your chest and your breathing was in rapid bursts. You aren’t able to keep it at this pace, your body hadn’t had any real rest whole night and you were tiring yourself out all day.

You want to get out of here, but the beast is too fast. You make a sharp right turn, nearly avoiding a tree that was in your way. The monster crashed right through it, not expecting the sudden obstacle in its wake.

Maybe if you can fit in some more of these agility tricks you are able to outrun it after all. There was another tree in front of you. You made a sharp turn to the left this time also using your wing to propel yourself into the right direction.

Behind you was another crash and snarl. You look back and see that the beast had lost another meter of distance. Maybe if you can find another open spot in the canopy you can dart out of here. And if the thing doesn’t see you fly away, by making enough distance, it will lose you.

You make another sharp turn to the right, however this time the beast expected it, and had more time to react to the sudden movement.

*whack*

The paw struck your ribcage with the force or a sledge hammer. The three sharp claws on it digging in your flesh. The air is knocked out of you and you are sent flying in the air, coming to a very sudden stop against a big tree trunk. You fall barely conscious on the cold muddy floor.

Your head is ringing, caused by the impact with the tree. There is a sharp pain over your side where the claws had struck you. But this pain is compensated by the pain in your wing, which is most certainly broken. You aren’t sure if you heard a crack on impact, heck you aren’t even sure where you are right now.

You realize that you haven’t been breathing for the past few moments, making your inhale reflex kick in. You take a deep gasp of air and find it already easier to think, although the pain wasn’t helping at all to clear your mind.

Out from behind the big tree that monster emerges. Stopping as it is in visible range to lick its claw clean that some of your skin and blood on it. This was pure intimidation; it was just trying to make you squirm in fear. Well, it is working.

You make a futile attempt to get up, but your body is too weak. The beast slowly makes its way over to you, clearly enjoying you in pain. In the mean time you have managed to get up on two legs by using the tree as support.

“Buck off!” you yell at the thing.

It swings its paw to your foreleg you were using for balance, making it collapse from underneath you with a crack and another wave of agonizing pain.

“You son of a bitch!” you scream out in pain while squirming on the floor.

It clawed towards your face, its claws barely missing your left eye, but still resulting in two deep cuts on your cheek and one on your forehead. Blood pours into your eye and blinds you. You tremble in pain and fear, but still look the beast in the eye.

It presses one paw on your cutie mark the other one on your neck, pinning your head to the floor. There is no escape anymore, you are certain that you are going to die. Now just awaiting the fatal bite and for it to start eating you alive. You can only brace yourself for the incoming pain of which you are sure is going to come next.

It presses down a bit harder and nearly closes off your windpipe. You can only take shallow wheezing breaths. In the corner of your eye you can see the beast lower it head. It prods your broken wing with its nose, making you wince while you would have screamed if you had the air for it. It licks away the blood that is seeping out from your side, its rough tongue ripping through the cut on your ribcage.

The pain was unbearable; you had the feeling of throwing up. You have to make an end to this, but there is nothing you can do. You start to panic and flail your legs around, causing even more pain since you also use your broken foreleg.

You somehow manage to strike the beast hard enough under its chin to confuse it. It flinches away from your squirming body, an amused look on its face. It sits down and watches the scene before it. A defeated pony with no way to escape, flailing around in pain and panic. To that thing it must have been an enjoyable sight since it was watching you with gusto.

You manage to calm down a bit and stop throwing punches and kicks in the air. You look at the monster that is calmly looking at you. You use your good foreleg to pull yourself towards the tree. But the beast does nothing, just watching your every move.

It is probably going to wait until you succumb under your injuries. You pull yourself a bit closer towards the tree and sit up against it. Your broken wing is hanging limply from your back, one eye closed by a constant stream of blood from your forehead and your broken leg resting on your lap. You must have been a horrible sight to see.

“Well” you say with a wince as another jolt of pain runs over your whole body, “You’ve got me”

The beast grins in return.

“So you understand me?” you ask.

The monster doesn’t reply.

“Scaredy cat” you say with a weak chuckle.

It gets up on its legs and lets out a bellowing roar, almost deafening you.

You are sure you are going to die anyway so there is no reason to be scared anymore. You’re either going to die now or within the next ten minutes, what’s the difference?

You chuckle again, enraging the beast even more. It raises a bloodstained paw, showing of its claw, and lets out another thundering roar. Okay you had to give him this; he sure knew how to be intimidating. You gulp and press yourself up against the tree a bit more. The beast sits down again after being sure that it had made its point.

Then it was silent, neither of the two of you making a single sound. Only the sounds of the winds and the dripping of your blood were to be heard. You can feel yourself grow weaker with every passing second. But still you manage to remain eye contact with your killer.

You think about your life, your pitiful life. You never managed to achieve anything in your life, just mess things up. You have no real friends, just a few acquaintances. Heck never even had a real filly friend, just a quick buck after a party once or twice. The only relief you have right now is knowing that Star is safe. She is the only good thing in your life, or at least she was, she’s gone too now. You are doomed to die alone. All of this mess just because of a single pony.

“What goes around comes around” you say silently, feeling even more strength slip out of you.

You never really believed in karma or in that kind of mumbo jumbo. But this made you doubt your decisions you made in life. Well no changing it anymore.

Your thoughts are interrupted by a sudden crash to your left. You look in the direction of the sound and spot a large silhouette that just had pulverized a tree by making an airborne crash with it. The newcomer was even bigger than the thing in front of you.

Two flames came out from the creature its nostrils, identifying itself as a dragon. The lion like creature was already standing in combat position and snarling at the dragon. You doubted if that thing even had a chance against to harm the dragon.

“Wasn’t the last warning enough for you?” the dragon said and stepped closer.

The monster snarled and lashed its scorpion tail around like a whip, but still stepped back as the dragon closed in.

“Now shoo! Or I’ll take your other eye as well!” the dragon bellowed and breathed a flame to mere inches away from the lion hybrid its face.

The beast yelped and jumped back. Then it quickly shot away in the cover of the darkness. You could hear it run for a few more seconds before the sound fades away. So instead of that thing eating you a dragon was eating you.

You looked at the dragon, concern in its face. It stepped forward and kneeled besides you. It waved a talon in front of your face.

“Are you okay?” he asked in a low but gentle voice.

You aren’t sure if this was sarcasm or sincere, is it offering help to you?

“Can you walk?” it asked.

It is all getting a bit too much for you. Your head is spinning, you feel nauseous and you are tired. You open your mouth to say something, but there is no sound, only a weak breath.

The dragon gently shakes your shoulder, “Hey stay with me”.

Your head feels heavy and it took effort to keep it up. Your head is bobbing from side to side.

“Ah fuck” the dragon mutters, “try not to fall sleep, can you do that?”

You weakly shake your head, so weak that it goes unnoticed.

“I’m going to pick you up now and bring you to a hospital” it explained carefully, “do not start to panic, and just try to stay awake”

The dragon gently picks you up. But still you groan in pain with the slightest movements. It flies up and beats its mighty wings through the night sky. Every wing beat send a wave of pain through you and makes your head spin even more.

You aren’t able to keep your eye open anymore and you let it fall shut, you need to rest. The feeling of sleep washes over you and you embrace it with open arms.

“No, don’t g…-“are the last things you hear before losing consciousness.

Chapter 1: Vengeance

Chapter 1: Vengeance

It was a cold winter evening. You were walking through the streets of Detrot, going home after having worked a long shift at a local restaurant as a waiter. Your boss almost fired you today because you spilled hot soup over a costumer after somepony shoved his chair back and hit you, making you fall over. Luckily, he promised, after a free meal and a V.I.P treatment, that he wouldn’t sue the restaurant or you. But you had to pay with your salary, and the food costed more than half what you earned. You were used to living with only a few bits to spare, but this month would be particularly hard to overcome, and not to forget the money that son of a bitch 'step father' drank away.

As you were deep in thought of the disappointments of today, you accidentally missed your turn and walked in the wrong direction. You found yourself in the ‘bad’ neighborhood. You look around and realized where you were. You decide that the best option is to go back the way you came as fast as possible.

As you turned around there were three earth pony stallions standing behind you. They were eagerly glaring you, especially your bag of bits strapped at your sides which only contained half of your salary due to the events of today. You were in dying need of the money to sustain you and your sister; you couldn’t just let them take it.

'Not that way!’ you thought, and stepped a few paces back. The stallions closed in step by step. You were ready to sprint off, right before realizing that you are a Pegasus, and had wings. You gave yourself a mental kick for being so stupid, and opened your wings.

One of the three stallions brought his hoof to his mouth gave a sharp whistle, followed by the sounds of wing beats. "Why does this always happen to me?" You sighed at the sight of two Pegasai shooting up in the sky.

"Give us the bits and you are free to leave unharmed!" The pony who had whistled said. ‘Probably the leader,' you thought.

"P-please let me go, I need the money for my family," you said to the earth pony.

"Yeah, sure you do, but we want to go to the pub!" He said with a snicker.

You looked at the two Pegasai and realized that you could easily out fly them. "Ugh, I wanted to walk home today!" You sighed and took off.

The two Pegasai immediately started the chase, and as expected, you were way much faster. As you kept making distance you could hear them swear at you in annoyance, which brought a smile on your face.

After a few minutes of flying, you started your descent, and landed in front of an old apartment building. You folded your wings and walked inside the building. You were worried about your little sister, your always drunk step father would pick her up from school, seeing as you didn’t have the time for it since you were working. You stopped at the fifth floor and took out your keys from your saddlebags and opened the door of the apartment.

"Star, I’m home!" You call as you walked, and you closed and locked the door behind you.

"Star?" You call again with a tint of concern in your voice after not getting a response from her. Usually as soon as you walked in, she tackled you with a huge hug.

A loud snoring came from couch. You walked towards the sound to investigate it, but you already knew what you were going to walk in to. You found an dark brown earthpony stallion fast asleep on the couch, lying on his back, covered in empty liquor bottles. You growl angrily and bucked him, causing him to shoot up and spastically wave his hooves around.

"No I haven’t been drinking, pony police mister!" He babbled and fell back asleep.

"Ugh, wake up, you useless piece of shit!" You shouted and bucked him again. "Did you pick Star up from school?"

The stallion peeped one of his eyes open and looked at you. "W-what, oh yeah sure," he mumbled and turned around in a more comfortable position, trying to nap again.

You bucked him again. "Where is she then!?!?" You shouted at him. The kick caused him to grimace, but he turned around and was now facing you.

He smacked you across the face with his right front hoof. "Listen here, you little worm! If you kick me one more time…" he stopped to think. "Then I’ll do… stuff that’s painful… and such!"

You feel a little stream of blood running over your cheek where he had struck you. You punch him back and place your hoof on his throat, pinning him down on the couch. 'How much I would like to push through right now,’ you thought but didn’t do it.

"I’m not gonna ask you again… where is she?" you demand calmly while glaring at him. ‘Why does this feel like an interrogation?’ You thought and forced yourself not to smile at the silly thought.

"S-she’s just showering, she got in a fight or something!" He stuttered between gasps of breath.

You let him go and walked towards the bathroom, indeed you heard the shower running. You sighed and turned around, and a hoof connected once again with your face. As you were stunned, your stepfather pinned you down on the floor. He unfolded one of your wings and started to bend it in a wrong direction. You didn't notice the shower stop running.

"Say 'I'm sorry, daddy, for hurting you'!" He commanded.

"You are not my father, you useless filth," you replied with your face on the floor while being held down by the fat stallion.

"You are a bad colt, aren’t you?" He mocked as he applied more pressure on your wing. "Say 'sorry' to daddy!"

You started to struggle against his grip and noticed that the simple struggle made it hard for him to keep you in place. You tried to get up with all your might. You slowly rose from your hooves and he let go from his grapple hold. You bucked him again, causing him to stumble on his hooves.

Your rage took over as you attacked him, giving him a hard right in his face. The pony in front of you stumbled again and collapsed, barely able to keep his eyes focused. You made another hard blow, this time against the right temple of his head. He was still conscious and was looking around the room vaguely. You place another punch in his face, busting his upper lip. Another hit, this one aimed directly on his left eye.

Another blow, and another, and another. You lifted your hoof to make another fierce blow, as you want to bring it down you found that it is held back. You looked at your hoof, it was covered in a white magical aura as it was in blood. Furiously you look back over your shoulder, directly into two bright green eyes that could melt glaciers. The eyes of your sister.

"Please stop," She said, and she started to sob at the sight of you in such a rage.

"S-Star...I-I" you stutter, the whole situation became suddenly real.

"Why do you two always have to fight?!?!" She shouted and ran away to her room.

You wiped of your hoof on the carpet, next to other stains of Celestia knows what. You climbed to your hooves and walked to Star's room, and there she was sitting on her bed.

Tears were running over her light pink cheeks, causing your heart to break. You walked up to her and sat next to her on the bed. You pulled her in a hug, but she pushed you away, and looked at you in disgust.

"You know that mom never had wanted any of this!" She shouted, causing you to recoil. "I am fourteen years old, and you are almost twenty! Learn to behave for Luna’s sake! What the hay is wrong with you?" She yelled and glared deep into your eyes, hurting your soul.

"Make that little bitch shut the fuck up!" The earthpony mumbled from across the hallway.

A pot with a wilted flower in it levitated flew towards the sound covered in a  with a white aura, and shattered against the stallion's head.

"Fucking hell!!! Right against my nose!" He yelped almost like a filly.

"I’m sorry Star, something just snapped… I just can’t stand that piece of sh-’’ you stopped, as you didn’t want to swear in front of your little sister.

"I know, but that’s not the reason to kill him…" She whispered and wiped the tears off her face.

"I didn’t want to kill him..." you stopped to think. "I just wanted to beat the living crap out of him!" You said in defense.

"Yeah, sure, for my standards it’s the same thing, but sure, if you want to think like that be my guest!" She said simply and walked away towards the small kitchen.

You looked back to the out stallion who was rolling on the floor with his hooves covering his face. You picked him up and tossed him on the couch. You snorted and walked to the kitchen after your sister who was already preparing the simple salad you two had to share. She turned her head and looked at you when you walked into the kitchen, and she gave you a small smile.

"Those were some good punches though!" She giggled and continued with cutting vegetables

You replied with a simple chuckle and walked towards the kitchen table. You took off your saddlebags and threw them in the corner of the kitchen

"So Star… I heard you have been in a fight?" You asked, and looked at her with a smile.

You noticed her shock and panic slightly. "Oh really? M-must be those rumors again!" She said and continued.

"Yeah... sure thing… rumors. Right. The last time they turned out not to be a rumor… remember?" you stated in a parenting tone.

"Hmm oh yeah." She turned around and set two plates with a simple salad on it on the table. "This is all we had, tomorrow you have to do some grocery shopping."

"Star… what happened at school today?" You asked concerned.

"I-I… Thunder, I do not want to talk about it!" She whispered in response and lowered her head. "Just eat please!"

"Star is everything okay? I’m your big brother. You can tell me everything!" You said and reached a hoof out to lift her chin up.

"I-it’s nothing" She said and lowered her head again, and pushed your hoof away.

"There is clearly something wrong," you said and tried to make eye contact. "Please Star tell me, I only want to help you."

"Fine, there was this stallion who touched my… umm private areas, and I bucked his teeth out"

‘’what did he touch?’’ you asked in a serious voice and looked angrily.

She sighed, "My rump, horn, lower belly, and, uh, er, my... vagina."  She said with a blush, and looked away from you.

"Who did this?" You demanded, infuriated.

"S-some senior, please don’t do anything!" she begged you.

"Those scumbags deserve their balls to be cut off!" You shout and hit the table.

"P-please, Thunder don’t, I’m begging you! Remember the last time?" She whispered and looked at you with teary eyes. "It was only this once, they aren’t allowed to come close to me ever again!"

You sigh, "If it happens again you’ll tell me and then I will get them! Understand, no matter if you have to change school again!" You said and received a small nod.

You gave her a peck on her forehead and wiped her tears away. "Come on sis, lets finish up and go to bed, we both had a rough day."

"You mean the fight with the lazy fart or something else?" She asked curiously.

"Almost got robbed again, luckily I flew fast enough" You responded and took another bite from your salad.

"Why is it that trouble always revolves around you?" she asked with a giggle to your misfortune.

You give her a simple stare and stuck your tongue out towards her, causing her to giggle even harder. "I also spilled some soup over a customer, which costed me big time. We have to take it easy this month, sis"

She looked at you with a concerned face. "Oh," she said and looked at the last bits of food on her plate in concern. "Guess we’ll have to take it slow on the food then?"

You lifted up her head again and stared in her eyes. "You mature way too fast," you say with a sigh. "I want us to get out this dump so that you can have a future…"

"I know," she said with a smile and walked up to you. She gave you a kiss on your cheek. "Goodnight Thunder. Love you."

"Goodnight Star. Love you too," you reply and looked as she walks out of the kitchen.

You sighed. ‘How much I would like to get out of this dump.’ But there simply wasn’t enough money, you were just barely able to pay the rent for this place. You were so short on money that you couldn’t even provide enough food for you both.

You realized that you have been in thought for almost an hour, calculating how to get through the month with only half your salary and about the well being of Star.

You decided to go to bed and think about it in the morning, as you walked from the kitchen you found your step father fast asleep. Not that he would remember anything of his beating in the morning beside the bruises.

You glanced at your hooves followed by your light blue coat, still covered a bit in dried blood and food stains from working. You decided to take a quick shower before going to bed.

You trot in the bathroom and step in the shower and choose to take a nice cold shower, it would calm you down better and it would cost less bits than a hot shower would.

After you were done showering you dried yourself off quickly and went to your bedroom. As soon as you reached your bed you let yourself fall down on it. Sleep didn’t come easy, for your mind was too busy with planning the next day. After what felt like an eternity you finally felt sleep creeping and putting you in a light slumber, every little sound of the city waking you up.

It has been months since you had a good night sleep, ever since your mother died you were always worrying about money and Star… especially Star.

You shot up in your bed and looked at the digital clock on your nightstand. ‘1:28 PM,’ it showed. You jumped out of your bed and quickly fixed your dark purple mane in front of the mirror, it was a complete mess after a sleepless night. You dashed off into the kitchen and looked for something to eat.

"Uh… what are you doing?" Star asks you while you were rumbling through the cabinets in the kitchen.

‘’I’m late for work!’’ you almost yelped, ‘’fine, than nothing to eat’’

"It's Saturday… you know that, right?" Star asked with a giggle, causing you to stop in place and face hoof.

‘I am way too stressed,’ you think to yourself and slump towards the kitchen table.

"I just wanted to come and bring you some coffee, but now that you are here..." she shoved a mug with the black deliciousness in it towards you.

"Thanks Star," you mumble and take a sip form the hot liquid. "Did that useless mutt wake up yet?" You ask.

"What do you think?" She asks sarcastically, but with a giggle.

"Guess that’s a no," you respond with a sigh. "So what do you want to do today?"

"Well… seeing how I bucked out a pervert's teeth, I think I will complete the extra work they gave me as punishment," she said and sighed.

"Why do it? He harassed you!" You responded angrily.

Star looked down to the table and blushed. "Yeah… well, he shouldn’t touch me. I warned him three times." She said almost silently. "And I didn’t quite leave it with one kick."

"Well, well, what did you do to this poor colt, then?" you asked and leaned over the table towards her.

"I busted one of his… you know... thingies," she said and blushed.

"How the hay did you do that?" you responded confused.

"He touched my rump after the thousand time I told him to stop, then he turned around to brag to his little friends about how cool he was and such… and then I kicked, and struck his jewels," she said with a bright blush, and you grimaced at the thought.

"What about his teeth then?" you asked

"I wasn’t done with him yet," she said. "As he fell down I charged him and punched his teeth in!"

"Must be a family temper!" you said with a chuckle. "Guess you will stay at home, then.

"Yup," she said a bit crestfallen.

"It’s okay," you say and ruffle her mane, receiving an irritated groan. "Besides, I have to do some groceries anyway so I guess I’ll leave you alone with your work." You said with a chuckle.

"Just go already!" She muttered and stuck her tongue out at you

You laughed and took your saddlebags from the corner of the kitchen and trotted to the main room of the apartment, to no surprise there is a fat, drunk, earthpony still sleeping on the couch. You shrugged it off. ‘As long as his fat ass doesn’t annoy me,’ you thought and walked out of the door.

You walked through the ‘normal’ neighborhood, with that you meant the few streets in the city with the fewest number of crimes. You were heading to one shop in particular, here is where you always went for your groceries.

The shop was ran by a old unicorn couple, the only few people who remembered you and your mother. You always got a family discount and sometimes even some stuff for free. They probably knew about your financial problems, but you didn’t care, food was food and you needed it.

You reached the shop and walked inside. "Hello and welcome to Un… oh hello, Thunder. Long time no see!" the old mare said to you as you walked inside.

"Hi there, Mrs. Shine," you say to the old mare with a smile. "Indeed it has been too long, but I simply didn’t have any bits for…" you were saying as she interrupted you.

"Nonsense, you know we will always be there for you and that angel of a sister of yours," she said in a mothering tone.

"Th-thank you, ma’am!" you responded with a smile. "Why are you always so nice to us?" you asked with a chuckle and already knowing the answer. Your mother always took you to this store, and Mrs Shine always gave him candy. For a minute, you were lost in the memories of when your mother was alive, and when your step-father wasn't such a useless, ugly, fuck.

The old mare gave you a warm smile and led you to the counter of the small shop. "What can I do for you today son?" she asked, still wearing the same smile.

You looked over the counter at the products. "Some lettuce, beans, carrots, and apples. I like apples," you said as if you were a foal again.

The mare chuckled and started packing the groceries in a bag and hoofed it to you. "Here you go, that will be three bits."

You gasped, "B-but… this thing is heavy," you said as you placed the bag in one of your saddlebags.

"Three bits, or take it for free," she says with a smile. "Your choice’’

"Th-thank you ma’am," you said and placed five bits on the counter.

She sighed and placed some more apples on the counter. "Take them, too," she almost demanded. "The youngsters of today don’t know how to count anymore."

You blushed and put the apples in your bag as well. "Thank you," you said very sincerely.

The mare chuckled, "Have a nice day, boy!" she said now with a satisfied smile as you left the shop.

As you walked out, you saw Mr. Shine. He tipped his hat to you, and a smile crossed his face. It was slightly mischievous, but you thought you were just imagining it. Little did you know, he put the five bits back in your saddlebags.

After a few minutes of walking, you were almost back home, and to your surprise no one had bothered you on the way towards the shop as well as the way from the shop back home. ‘Maybe today won’t be so bad after all,’ you thought and felt a little bit at peace to your own surprise.

You reached the old apartment building and walked inside while whistling a song. ‘Talking to Mrs. Shine always cheers me up,’ you thought as you trotted to your door.

"Star I’m back," you say cheerfully. "Guess what Mrs. Shine gave me!" No response.

You walked into the kitchen and found a piece of paper on the floor, and you looked at it. ‘Must be her assignment,’ you thought. You looked at the last line and saw that the words abruptly stop and ended in a cranky line.

You were getting suspicious and walked down the small corridor of the apartment and knocked on the bathroom door. "Star are you in th…" you stopped as you heard a muffled yelp and rumbling of a struggle coming from the other side of the apartment.

You quickly ran to the kitchen and took the biggest knife you could find in your rush, you slowly walked towards the door of the room of your step father, the room where the sounds were coming from.

"No one can hear you," a voice said from the room in a sick snicker. "And where is that brother of yours now?"

"GET OFF ME!!!" Star yelped in terror.

"Shut up and lie still!" the voice commanded.

You bursted through the door and were shocked at what you saw: your step father was lying on top of Star with a sick grin on his face and a fully erected penis swinging about, full intention of raping your little sister.

Your vision blurred in hatred, you could only focus on the stallion and think about how to make him suffer. You shot forward and rammed him with all your might, and he shot back and crashed hard against the wall. His penis was flopping around as he stood dazed against the wall.

You gave him a head-butt and placed the knife against his throat. "Star… pack your stuff we are leaving," you hissed, causing him to chuckle.

"Finally the place for myself," he said mockingly.

You gave him another head-butt and pressed the knife harder against his throat. "You think this is funny? You think you will get away with this?" you said while glaring at him.

"Kinda! What are you going to do, beat me up? Report me to the police? Ooh are you going to kill me?" He asked with a chuckle.

Star was still lying in shock on the bed "Star leave… now!" you shouted. "Pack your things and get ready to go. Pack warm!"

Star got up from the bed and was shaking on her legs. She found her balance and walked out of the room. She was quietly whining, and the sound of your little sister in pain made you even more furious.

The earthpony looked after her and looked clearly at her rump, and not at her cutie mark. He made a little kissing sound, probably just to make you even more angry, well it was working.

"So what now, slit my thr-" the stallion was interrupted as you pushed the knife closer to his throat, already a little bit of blood streamed from it.

"Shut up," you hissed. "You useless freeloading fuck! I never knew what my mother saw in you. You are only a leach, A USELESS, FUCKING, ANNOYING, LEECH!"

"Guess why?" he asked with a snicker, and pointed at his now only half erected penis. "She sure loved it!" he let out a howl of laughter.

You have never been this furious; your mind was only focused on making him suffer. You pulled away the knife from his throat and punched him in his face.

"You see? I knew it! You are weak, just like your father," he taunted.

You spun around and punched him again in his face, his head bashed against the wall. You grabbed his dick with your left hoof and brought the knife in your right hoof down, cutting it clean of and causing him to scream out in pain.

"Who is weak now, filly?" you shouted as you threw the penis aside and plunged the knife in his stomach, and drew it from the right to the left.

A wave of blood and organs streamed out of his belly, he desperately tried to keep them in. "You sick fuck, fuck fuck fuck fu-" he stopped as you cut his tongue out of his mouth and replace the swearing with a gurgling sound.

"DO NOT swear if Star is home, I told you many many times!" you said and inspected the knife. "Any last words?" you asked calmly as if you had done it a thousand times, which you did in your dreams.

"FUGGGCCCCHHH GGGGHHHHUUUU!!!" he gurgled.

"Okay, bye bye!" you said with a smile as you slit his throat. A fountain of hot crimson covered you. You stepped back to admire your work, and you couldn’t help but feel somewhat proud of what you have just done.

But only for a split second, realization kicked in. "W-what have I done? How do I get away with this?" you asked yourself in horror, when it struck you. You placed the knife in the hooves of the now dead pony.

"STAR, LOOK AT THE DOOR, AND DO NOT TURN AROUND!" you shouted through the apartment.

"O-okay. W-what have you done?" she asked quietly.

You stepped out of the room, closed and locked the door behind you. You shoved the key towards where the body was supposed to be. You quickly ran across the room in the bathroom and jumped under the shower.

After a few minutes, the blood was all gone, but you still felt dirty. ‘Why did it feel good?’ you thought in guilt. "I’m sorry mother," you said quietly.

You dried yourself of and walked out of the bathroom, and you noticed the blood trail that had dripped off of you, and that Star wasn’t in front of the door.

"Star, where are you?" you shouted in panic, then you saw her walk out of her room with some other things she couldn’t leave behind.

"Star!" you said loudly, drawing her attention. "Wait by the door!" you ordered her.

You walked to the liquor cabinet, and to your surprise there were still some bottles of the good stuff left. You took five bottles out and placed two of them in the few bags you were taking with you, because the other three were used for other reasons.

You walked to the curtains and ripped three rags from them and tucked in each of the bottles on a rag, then you walked to the kitchen and took a lighter from the drawers. You also opened all of the pits on the stove and the oven.

You took the bottles and lit the rags, you threw one of the bottles towards the bedrooms, one in the corridor and one in the main room.

"Come on Star. Let’s get out of here," you said and took the bags and Star on your back.

You reached the main floor of the building and walked outside, and you adjusted the bags and made sure that they were properly attached.

"Okay, Star. We are going to fly for a little while okay?" you asked with a hint of concern in your tone.

You felt her hold you tightly. "Get us the hell out of here..." she said, barely audible.

You took off and flew towards the sunset into the cold winter air, away from all the problems of the city and the murder you just committed.

"Star, are you okay?" you asked after a few minutes of flying.

"Did you kill him?" she responded quietly.

"W-well… um…" you stuttered.

"Yes or no?" she said just loud enough to hear above the howling winds.

"You saw the blood trail… didn’t you?" you asked.

"Yes or no?" she demanded again.

"Okay… yes! Yes I killed him!" you respond ashamed "And the worst is that I enjoyed it, I enjoyed seeing his intestines, I enjoyed seeing him suffer, I enjoyed killing him!" you blurted out and felt tears starting to well up in your eyes.

She lowered her head again, held you closer and nuzzled your mane. "Me too" she whispered.

After few hours of flying you were exhausted and decided to land in a little patch of trees. Star had fallen asleep during the flight while you covered her from the winds. Luckily she was just a small young mare which made her easy to carry and gave her enough room to find a comfortable position.

When you were thinking this you thought about the times when she was a foal, she always loved sleeping on your back or on your wing. As she grew older she often slept under your wing, even at this age she often snuggled up to you.

It struck you, you suddenly knew why you enjoyed killing him. He was hurting the one thing you love in this world, the one thing you care for. ‘Nopony will hurt her,’ was the last promise you made to your mother, minutes before she passed away. You just kept your promise, except for the whole murder thing the idea made it feel… right.

You started your descent towards the few trees. "Star, wake up. We’re landing, I can’t go on anymore." you said and nudged her. Her head peeped up and she yawned, she grabbed you tight and embraced herself for the landing.

Star jumped off your back into the thick snow, causing her to yelp and desperately try to get back up on your back. You chuckled at the sight and received and annoyed glare from the filly.

She ran towards a tree where there was snow underneath and shook the snow of her coat. "That... was not... funny…" she said in annoyance.

In the time she was shaking off the snow you already walked next to her and placed the saddlebags down on the ground underneath the tree.

Star looked around the pitch-black area. "What time is it?" she asked

"I don’t know, and honestly don’t care… I’m exhausted!" you said and let out a long sigh. "And I’m freezing my ba- ears off!" you corrected yourself, causing her to giggle.

"So do you know where we are?" she asked.

"I have no idea…" you said and looked around the few trees. "But we surely made some distance!"

You slumped under a tree and let yourself fall down. "I only want a break and to close my eyes a few hours," you said and yawned. You lifted up you wing. "Come here. I’ll keep you warm," you said and tapped the ground under your wing.

Star walked towards the bags and took and blanket out then towards you. She covered you with the blanket and placed herself beside you, she cuddled up against you and yawned again.

'So what’s the plan?' she asked.

'Well, I hope my plan worked, and the kill looked like and suicide, and make them think that we are dead. And for the rest I guess just make some distance… right?" you responded.

"Okay, and what about the food?" she said through another yawn and snuggled closer to you.

"I think we have enough for a day or three, maybe four. After that we need to find a town," you responded.

"And somewhere stay? I don’t think sleeping outside in the winter will be such a good idea." another question from the filly.

"I don’t know, we are fugitives you know… well I am. At least if my plan didn’t work." you mumbled the last part.

"No, we are both, do you really think that if he had his way with me I wouldn’t do the same while he was asleep?" she muttered.

"Okay…" you said a bit confused. "But we have to stay together, I will never let anypony hurt you again." you said and nuzzled her mane.

"You are the best brother, you know that?" she whispered.

"W-what?" you remark with eyes widened. "I just brutally killed somepony, I probably burned down a whole apartment building, hell, maybe even blew it up. And brought you here to the middle of nowhere outside in the winter!" you say even more confused.

"I know," she said simply. "Goodnight Thunder. I love you."

"I love you too, Star. Goodnight sis"

She snuggled up closer under your wing and closed her eyes, after a few minutes she was breathing slowly which indicated that she was asleep. A few minutes after you also felt sleep taking you away.

Mrs. Shine was fretful. Sirens were blasting all over. She wanted to visit Thunder and Star, but instead found a burning apartment. She immediately got help, but soon after, the building exploded. 'I have to believe that they are still alive, and that they got away from that cruel bastard of a step-father.' She prayed to Celestia. She had just received news that the drunken stallion had set fire to the apartment, then killed himself. There were no signs of the two ponies she cared about so much. Mr. Shine trotted up to her.

"Don't worry, sweetie. Thunder has wings. He could've flown far away by now." The wise old stallion always had a way of knowing things.

''I love you too Star. Goodnight sis''

She snuggled up closer under your wing and closed her eyes, after a few minutes she was breathing slowly which indicated that she was asleep. A few minutes after you also felt sleep taking you away.

Meanwhile in the city of Detrot, Mrs. Shine was fretful. Sirens were blasting all over the streets. She wanted to visit Thunder and Star, but instead found a burning apartment. She watched the building being consumed by flames, 'I have to believe that they are still alive, and that they got away from this' She prayed to Celestia. There was still no clear data about what had caused the fire and the explosion. The flames were still too thick for any fireponies to go inside and they were still to busy evacuating the building, luckily they were able to contain the fire on only one floor. The only known victims by now were the ponies who were still in the apartment were the fire had started.

She lowered herself to her haunches and was sobbing quietly, she didn't notice a stallion walk up next to her.

He sat down next to the mare, placed a foreleg around her and pulled her in a hug "Don't worry, sweetie. Thunder has strong wings and is a smart colt. He probably has flown far away from this mess already." The wise old stallion always had a way of knowing things.

the mare tilted her head up slightly and looked her husband in the eyes with a smile, ''yeah, you are probably right as always'' she said and nuzzled the unicorn in front of her.

over the shoulder of his wife he had a worried expression on his face, 'probably' he thought.