She found herself above the clouds and facing towards the sun. She was weightless, floating, and free of pain. The sun was blinding and made it difficult to see. So, it was over, it was all over, and this was horsey heaven. Or maybe, this was like one of those tunnel of light things people saw when they died.

The sun blazed ever brighter, burning star bursts into her vision, causing her to squint. She lifted up a foreleg and held it out in front of her face, trying to shield herself from the piercing, dazzling light. There was something in the light, some silhouette, some shadow, but she couldn’t make out what it was, as it stopped being a shadow, a silhouette, and then, it too, shone as bright as the sun behind it.

“Violetta Eventide,” a voice boomed, “you have not been a very good pony.”

Oh no, the horse-god was here, and she sounded just a bit like Principal Celestia making announcements over the intercom. This was a hallucination of her dying mind as her brain finished its death processes, it had to be. The burning, blazing figure drew nearer, and Violetta raised her other foreleg to shield her eyes.

“But you have so much potential to be a good pony.”

Squinting, Violetta tried to look at the burning, blazing, fiery horse-god.

“You are vulgar, you are crass, you revel in your own lack of sophistication, you fall into temptation with far too much ease due to a lack of willpower—”

“I get it!” Violetta cried. “I was a terrible human and I wasn’t a very good little horse!”

“You are also very brave,” the blazing figure said in a far more gentle voice. “You do have a sincere desire to help others. You are aware that others suffer. You think of others, how they feel, and how you might help them, which is more than can be said for most of the girls your age.”

The burning figure drew nearer, and half blinded, Violetta was unable to make out any details of any sort. She cringed and drew away, feeling both ashamed and comforted by what she had heard of herself. She began to sniffle, then wondered how she could cry if she was dead.

Horsey heaven was very confusing.

“Look,” the being made of sunlight said as she drew nearer. “Look and see what potential you had.” As she spoke, a small screen appeared beside her, and it sort of looked like a flat panel television. It hung there, connected to nothing, and the blazing entity made a gesture for Violetta to come and have a look.

Looking into the screen, Violetta’s vision cleared. She saw herself, lifeless, withered, a husk. She saw her captor. He was young again, youthful, and… he was growing wings. She blinked, not understanding what she was seeing. She squinted, staring into the projection screen, not comprehending anything.

“My former student has stolen your potential… what you might have been. All of the good that you had within you, all of the great possibilities that were in your future, he has taken them. He will now twist and corrupt them to meet his own ends.” The blazing figure’s voice sounded sad, mournful, and full of regret. “His own good potential died when bitterness, jealousy, and evil took over his heart. It left him without purpose, without meaning, without direction. For us, that is a terrible state of being.”

Violetta nodded, even though she did not understand. Lifting her head, she could see the faint outline of the being speaking to her. She was a pony, and she had wings and a horn. But that was all that Violetta could see, the outline, and nothing else. She could not see the face of the brilliant pony made of sunshine.

“He cannot be allowed to steal away your potential, your strength… he will do terrible things, awful things, the world will suffer in a way you can scarcely imagine if he is not stopped—”

“But how do I stop him?” Violetta asked, not worried at all that she had just interrupted the horsey-god. “I’m dead! He won! I was young! I was stupid! He completely fucked my shit right up!”

The brilliant illuminated figure shook her head and let out a horsey sound of disapproval that made Violetta cringe. She looked at the screen and saw that her captor’s wings had grown larger, fuller, and he was sucking the life out of the other ponies around him. As the horsey-god continued to make disgruntled horse noises, Violetta stared at the screen, tears pouring down her cheeks.

“To be honest, I didn’t try very hard,” she admitted, “and a part of me wanted the power he promised. It appealed to me. I thought of all of the wrongs I could right and all of the changes I could make.”

“You can still right a few wrongs,” the sun horse said in a voice thick and husky with emotion.

“How?” Violetta asked.

“Well,” the sun horse replied, “you can start by taking my former student a message.”

“And what would that be?” Violetta tried to peer into the face of the glowing pony beside her and found that she could not. It was like staring into the sun. The pony with the wings and the horn was just too beautiful and perfect to look at.

“To put it into terms that you would understand and appreciate, my message is as follows: ‘Get rekt…’”

Violetta stared up at the pony beside her in awe. The horsey-god sounded an awful lot like Principal Celestia. She didn’t know how to respond, and she wasn’t given a chance to do so, either, as she was suddenly on fire. She screamed, but then realised that the flames weren’t hurting her. No, something else was happening… the guilt, the shame, it was all melting away. As she burned, she saw the face of the pony beside her. Her eyes were as pink as the first rays of dawn. Her face was wise, majestic, her beauty was beyond description.

It was the most wonderful thing she had ever seen and as she looked upon it, Violetta wept.

“Go forth and protect your ponies,” the sun horse commanded. “Fix your mistakes, Violetta Eventide. Make the most of your second chance. Let my sun shine upon his darkness!”

Teary eyed, Violetta watched as her benefactor began to turn around. Why was she turning around? She was turning away and bringing her backside around. Before Violetta could ask a question, before she could inquire as to what was going on, the sun horse bucked out both hind legs and kicked her.

“Begone from this place, my filthy mouthed, vulgar little messenger, and mend your ways!”

She had never been kicked so hard in her life. The impact made her see stars, it blinded her, it sent her reeling. Little winged horsies circled around her head, and they all pointed and laughed at her. She realised with some small sense of dismay that she had just literally been kicked out of horsey heaven for being a right shit. She had been offered a second chance, an opportunity to make things right. She shot through the clouds and went streaking down towards the ground below like a comet.

As she plummeted towards the ground, Violetta held a sincere hope within her heart that the kick had knocked some sense into her. She felt a searing pain on her ass, it felt as though she was being branded. Now, she was a profanity spewing comet plummeting towards the ground as her ass burned like the sun. The pain was a good pain though, something about it felt right, felt good, it was a purifying pain, like popping a big fat pimple that had lingered for far too long right on the tip of your nose.

Blinking, Violetta found herself back inside of her horsey body and her ass was still on fire. She lifted her head with caution, she was dizzy but okay after having been kicked out of horsey heaven by the almighty horse-god. She felt strength in her body, new strength, a strength unlike anything she had ever experienced before. Violetta had discovered religion, she had become a true believer, and she was here to do the horse-god’s business.

“You! You’re supposed to be dead! I killed you!”

Violetta felt a sense of satisfaction that she had never experienced before when she looked upon her captor’s face. He looked quite surprised to see her, afraid even. She could see the fear in his eyes. Rage bubbled within her, but she found that she wasn’t angry about what he had done to her—no, she was pissed off about what he was doing to her ponies. It burned in her mind like a wildfire, consuming her and her thoughts.

“I came back,” Violetta said as she stood up. She felt her new wings flare out from her sides. “And I’m here on bitch business! I have a message for you from your former teacher!” Even as she said the words, she saw his fear become terror. His ears drooped and his tail sagged. His spine sank down in the middle and he began to back away from her.

“What?” her captor asked in a voice that was a fearful whine.

“Get rekt!” Not knowing what else to do, Violetta launched herself at her captor, determined to try out her new strength. “She wanted me to tell you that, Fucker!” She collided with her hated foe and it was like two monster trucks experimenting with full on violent coitus. The impact shoved him into a crystalline machine and it shattered into thousands of tiny, glittering bits.. Violetta hardly felt a thing. This new body was the tits.

But her captor had something she didn’t have. Magic. His horn glowed with a brilliant flash of light and Violetta found herself launched at the stone wall at speeds she was certain approached the sound barrier. She smashed into the stone face first and her whole body crumpled like an accordion. Cracks spiderwebbed outwards from the spot where she, the unstoppable force, had slammed into the immovable object.

She bounced away from the stone wall and felt explosive pain in her mouth. “ASS!” she shouted, and then she spit out a wad of blood. A lone tooth bounced across the stone floor. Violetta poked around with her tongue and found that one of her front upper teeth was missing. Turning her head, she turned to look at her captor with murder blazing in her eyes.

It was at that moment that Violetta had an idea. She had a brilliant idea. The horse-god had shown her what to do. Bracing her front legs, she kicked the wall with as much force as she could muster with her hind legs. The stone rattled and more cracks appeared.

“Stop!” her tormentor shouted in alarm.

“Aw, no way, I’m about to let some sunshine in!” Violetta wound herself up and bucked again, this time using all of her rage, all of her fury, and all of the newfound feeling of love she felt welling up inside of her. There was an explosive sound when her hooves impacted. “Motherfucker!” she swore as the stone crumbled away. Some of it fell down and landed upon her back, smashing into her spine. She shrugged it off and she felt the most wonderful sensation.

Sunlight. Sweet sunlight poured in through the hole in the wall. Violetta kicked again, making the hole bigger, and her hated foe let out a shriek of rage and fear as he ignited. A huge section of the wall fell away, revealing blue sky, white fluffy clouds, and the burning fury of the sun.

Howling in pain, Violetta’s tormentor tried to flee from the room, but Violetta was on him in an instant. She launched herself at him, her wings flapping, and her forelegs outstretched. She grabbed him around the middle and tried to crush his ribs. He kicked, he bucked, and he had a shocking amount of strength of his own.

They tumbled over the floor and Violetta was delighted to discover that the flames engulfing her foe did not burn her. His hair was burning away and his flesh bubbled and blistered. His screams became gurgles and hisses of pain. She flopped him around, she kicked and punched, she even headbutted him a few times, all while pulling him towards the opening she had kicked in the wall.

Flailing around, she miscalculated her own strength and instead of slamming him into the jagged stones around the opening, she tossed both her captor and herself through the shattered opening. Now fully exposed to the sun, he burned with sickly green flames as they both fell.

It was at that moment that Violetta realised that she had wings, but had no idea how to fly. She had just fallen out of a tower and it was quite a drop to the rocks below. She made peace with the fact that she was about to die for the second time this day. She would meet the horse-god on better terms, make some much needed apologies, and maybe, this time, if she was lucky, she wouldn’t get kicked out of horsey heaven.

She could see the tower, in the distance she could see the ocean, she could see a vast plain of brown and green grass, and she saw the ground rushing up to meet her. She smiled. Everything was fine. She held her flame-engulfed kidnapper out in front of her, glad that he was going to kiss the rocks below first. She was going to see this job through. There was no fear, only a sense of peace, and Violetta knew that she was making everything right. She smiled, revealing a gap-toothed grin, and closed her eyes just before she smashed into the rocks with her captor.

“Ow.” Violetta let out a groan. “Bitch ass motherfucker!” Everything hurt. She opened her eyes and somehow, she managed to sit up. Her face was swelling and she could tell that she had the mother of all fat lips, top and bottom. Her head ached. Her ass ached. One of her wings hurt something awful. But as she sat up and looked around, she started laughing.

The remains of her captor were all around her, burning. He had popped like a watermelon on impact. Laughing, choking, blood bubbling out from her lips, Violetta swatted his head away from her, she didn’t want it anywhere near her. It rolled away, still burning, the flesh bubbling and blistering as clumps of mane fell out, snagged on the stones.

“Oh damn, that’s just nasty,” she said to herself. Her head was spinning and at the moment, it felt an awful lot like dying again. Something in her chest hurt real bad, it made it almost impossible to breathe, but she couldn’t stop laughing. She looked up and squinted at the hole up above her. She had to have fallen at least a good ten stories or more, it was hard to tell.

“Ass,” she said again although this time it was more of a whine. “My buttbone hurts!”

Hissing, she moved her body just a little bit more, and then began to check herself for injuries. “I know I’m heading for the bottom… but I’m riding you all the way…” she sang to herself in a strained voice, trying to bring herself some comfort. It was some old song that was on the classics station that she liked and it seemed appropriate at the moment. She laughed, because it seemed like a better idea than crying, and then she noticed her ass.

She had been branded. What the fuck had the horse-god done to her? Straining, struggling, she craned her sore neck around as she tried to get a better look. There was a big purple chili pepper surrounded by blue flames on her hip. Upon closer inspection, she saw a constellation of stars inside of the pepper. Her stupid wings kept getting in the way and she didn’t know what to do with them. One was hurt pretty bad and it was already swelling.

Turning her head, Violetta saw some doors. Big doors. She looked up at the sun in the sky above her and squinted. She had work to do… she had ponies to save… and she had doors to kick open. She couldn’t just keep sitting here complaining about how much her ass hurt. But, her ass really did hurt. A lot. And so did everything else for that matter. Coughing, she spat out more blood, which she couldn’t tell if it was coming from her mouth or from deep down in her insides.

After a few more minutes of sitting, she tried to get up, but froze. “ASS!” she hissed. She took an angry swipe at a blob of melted, waxy remains, pretty much all that was left of her captor. Everything in her body ached in a savage way. But she didn’t have time for herself right now, she had to find out what sort of condition her ponies were in. She had to find out if Sunset was okay. She had to know if her zebra friend was alright.

“Get rekt,” she muttered as she took off for the doors, “so says the god on high.”

Author's Note

- And thus, a new religion was born that day...