Horse of the Year

Darkness Chapter Three: Proving Good Will

“She is a liar, at least to herself” said Golden Amethyst as she drank the milk given to her by her request.

“Is the president safe with her?” asked the man and Golden laughed.

“Safe? Nopony is safe on this world, but he is perhaps the safest on this Luna-forsaken planet with her around” Golden was honest now that she had a moment to collect her wits. “Thank you for letting me stay with you” she added with gratitude before she swirled her drink, looking sullen. “When her gaze is on you, one of three things happen, you are protected, you flee, or you die. She chose to protect him, it takes a lot to make her change her decision”

“But she got hurt in the process”

“Pain is nothing new to her, she is a fighter, a soldier, a mother…” said Golden wistfully as she got to the mother part, something she would never have; even if she got together with her love.

“Are you alright?” asked the woman and Golden smiled sadly and shook her head. She got off the chair at the table and placed the glass down.

“I will be”

Golden Amethyst bit her lip as the couple asked again why she was hiding from someone she seemed to admire and after a bit she let out a choking laugh.

“I don’t admire her, who can admire a mare that lies to herself, and fights for a government that sees those like her locked up, or killed. I am scared that she will find me and force me to find a way back home and return with her instead of letting me live my life here in peace.” said the mare as she walked to the back window of the house and looked out it, putting her hooves on the counter in front of the sink, when their daughter first saw her, she had squealed, now the little girl was outside playing with dolls, waving when she saw the pony looking out the window. “I have a vested interest in your family, my… destiny, let’s call it, is tied to your family’s” said the mare as she watched the girl play outside a smile on her face.

“What do you mean?” asked the man and Golden turned to him lowering herself to the ground.

“I…” she started before a sad smile crossed her face, “What do you know of magic, Mr. Hooley?” she asked lightly changing the subject. The woman tensed…

“Tim…” she said quietly and Golden’s gaze flickered over to the woman…

“I know that those that practice magic, are sinners, in the eyes of God.” said Tim and Golden Amethyst chuckled before picking up the a glass from the drying rack with her magic and levitating it around.

“Does that make me, something that in your culture is a pure being, a sinner, Mr. Hooley?” she asked and Tim clenched his jaw as he tried to think of an answer. “The unicorn that saved your president, and myself, are magical, what we use is called magic, it is as natural to us as walking. All ponies in Equestria have some form of magic, Earth Ponies having stronger ties to the earth have an easier time raising farms, or finding gems, or other precious materials. Pegasi have stronger ties to the sky, and control the weather, the princesses raise the sun and moon, or have strong ties to other forces within our world, Princess Cadence has strong ties to the power of love, where as Princess Twilight is the Princess of Friendship.” said Golden as she made her way to the doorway of the kitchen. “Magic, by itself is of no danger to anyone, this world has magic, and it is natural, you cannot tell me that something that is so natural is vile to some deity.” said the mare as she continued onto the living room. When she got there she collapsed and started to whisper to herself. “Why did he say something like that?… Why? If it weren’t for magic their president would be dead… Yes, But why?… Alright, but what am I supposed to do? I am not putting their foal in danger… Obviously… I don’t know! If I knew that I wouldn’t be asking you, love. We need to figure out how to get your grandfather to trust me, and magic. That way I can be around when your mother finds your father and I can gently nudge her in the right direction…” Golden snorted as she looked around and focused her magic in an aura around her and slowly everywhere around her became clearer as she practiced seeing with her magic. “I would never hurt a foal, anyone that spends a moment with me knows this” she murmured as she walked over with her eyes closed stumbling every few steps as she was not used to seeing in all directions…

• ~ -

“Because he was raised Catholic, and most Catholics see magic as a bad thing… If it weren’t for you, he would still have died… Because if neither of you were there, he wouldn’t have been saved, but you need to convince my grandfather that magic is a good thing, maybe saving my mother… Of course not! That would risk me not being born!… Then what do you suppose we do then?… We’ll have to think on it, be careful, telling my grandfather you are magical was a dangerous move, he might kick you out unless you can convince him you are not going to hurt my mom…” the human sighed, “You know that, I know that, but my grandfather doesn’t, just be careful…”

• ~ -

That night there was a sound of broken glass, and Golden jumped out of the bed she had been given and with a flare of magic used her magic to see the whole house and she saw a human climbing in through the kitchen window and she snarled.

‘No pony is going to hurt this family’ she thought as she carefully walked out the door of her room and she nearly ran into Tim who was focused on finding out what the noise was.

“Did you break something?” he asked the mare and Golden shook her head frowning.

“There is someone in the house, in the kitchen” she said and he gave her a nod.

“Go back to bed I’ll deal with it” Golden wanted to argue, but assumed that would make things worse she slunk back into the guest room and channeled her magic. The image, while clearer than normal sight up close, was no where near the level of clarity that Shadow Eyes had with her sight, but even so, she watched as the two men struggle until there was a bang and she jumped as she saw Tim fall over and the man who broke in start to grab more stuff. With a snarl she teleported into the kitchen and with a flick of her horn the man was slammed against the wall and she went wide eyed as she suddenly saw the man had a gun. “So you came with the intent to kill to keep your spoils, creatures like you are rotten to the core, die!” she said as she ripped the gun out of the human’s hand and turned it on him and fired once in the chest before throwing the gun out the window. She quickly made her way over to Tim and bit her lip, theoretically she would be able to heal this, on a pony, but… “Okay, I’ll try, for you…” she channeled magic through her horn and extracted the bullet, as well as slowly knitted flesh and bone together, careful not to weave the separate organs together, or to the bones. She as soon as she was done, Tim gasped in pain as she sent a jolt through him.

• ~ -

“Heal him, please love…”

• ~ -

“I-is this heaven?” he asked looking at the ceiling and she chuckled.

“No, and your wife would have been very sad if you had died”

“You saved me, why? What do you want?” he asked leery after learning of her magic and worried she was going to force him to serve her like some evil witch.

“My fate is tied to this family, I can’t have you die, otherwise where would I go?” asked Golden Amethyst as she helped him sit up the and he caught sight of the would be robber.

“What did you do to him?”

“I killed him, I had to protect all of you, and if he was willing to kill you, who’s to say he wouldn’t have tried to kill your whole family!” as she said this, the wife walked in and screamed seeing the dead body.

“Lilian! Lilian, calm down, everything will be alright, thanks to Golden Amethyst… Quiet down woman! Do you want to wake Cristal!?” he shouted at the end and Lilian shut up at that and gave a choking sob.

“I heard the gunshots, I was so scared…” said Lilian as Tim hugged her trying to comfort her.

“Ms. Amethyst, how did you kill him? Because I need to explain something to the police, and if you really don’t want to be found, I need to think of something fast” said Tim and Golden looked at him thinking and she explained that she shot the man with his own gun. “Where is the gun now? I need to at least have my fingerprints on the gun so that they assume I killed him in self defense” Golden pointed out the window and he walked out letting go of Lilian and picked up the gun bringing it in before dropping the clip on the floor of the kitchen making Lilian flinch and he emptied the chamber before pointing the gun at the ground and pulled the trigger. There was a click but he had done what he intended to do and dropped the empty gun on the floor. “You need to find someplace to hide, I need to call the police and tell them of the break-in so that they won’t arrest me for murder, or find you while we are unawares” he said and Golden nodded before making her way to the guest room and gathering some blankets. Returning with the items in her magic she turned to Tim.

“Mr. Hooley, where should I hide? Unless you know of a place I don’t know what to do” she asked and Tim thought about it for a minute.

“Come with me, I have an idea, Lilian call the police tell them we had a break in and we killed the thief, and tell them that I went to check on the shop to make sure it wasn’t broken into as well” following Tim to the car she climbed in and he started driving down to the store he owned and locked her in the store, it was a general store with little bit of this and that all around it. “Just stay here until I come to get you in a little while, it might be a day at most before I can get you, but there is some food in the back of the store, and there is running water in the bathroom, you may have to sleep in the back room though”

“Don’t worry about me, will everything be alright?”

“Don’t worry, just be careful, stay away from the front of the store during the day, I don’t want the cops called here and have our ruse unraveled because we weren’t careful.”