The End

I ran out of the church, I ran down the streets, I ran past guards and families. I ran because I didn't want to go back to Cloudsdale. Tears welled in my eyes at the thought of going back. I hated it there! I hate anywhere up in that Discord forsaken sky! I never wanted to go back, and no one could make me. Just the thought of going back made me start to cry, I tried to blink the tears away, but that just made more come. I stopped in the middle of the street and cried.

I don't know how long I sat there, eyes closed and crying, but when I opened my eyes, I saw a tower, it was boarded up and looked like it hadn't been touched in years. I reached my hoof up to dry my eyes when a sound caught my ears. Hooves. Big Hooves. Galloping towards me. I started panicking. I became painfully aware of my own heavy breathing.I wanted to run, but I saw how hopeless it was. No matter where I went, the priest would follow, he probably knew the city better than me.

"Psst! Over here!" A voice, one of a filly, came to my ears. I looked around, but couldn't find the source. "No, over here." The voice's increased volume made it easier to pinpoint. It was coming from the spaces in between the boards on the door of the tower.

I slowly got up and started to trot over to the source of the voice. As I got closer, I could see a pair of red eyes staring out at me. "H-Hello..?" My own voice was shaky and cautious. I was always told to never talk to strangers, or disembodied voices for that matter, but this voice was young, a lot like mine.

A head poked out of the boards. It was a unicorn filly, maybe my age. She had a white coat, brilliant red eyes and a mane that consisted of two shades of blue: One dark, the other almost neon. "C'mon! Get in here!" Her ruby eyes darted around suspiciously.

Feeling more secure around a filly my age, I carefully squeezed between the boards. Once I was in, the other filly thumped my head with her hoof.

"Ow! What was that for?" My own hoof reached up to rub the sore spot, and possible knot, that was forming on my head.

"You almost let somepony see you!" She frowned and looked a more than a little mad. "What if somepony found out I was here? They would send me back to my parents. I can't go back! Nu-uh. All that stuffy stuff isn't my style. To frilly fancy prance." I blinked and tried to decode what the pearl white unicorn was talking about, then I understood.

"You're a runaway, too?" I leaned forward, curious of this fellow runaway. She simply nodded.

"Yep, couldn't stand all of the dresses and bows and the yuck." The filly visibly shivered at some unpleasant memories. "Anyway, now that you're in here, we better get you up top." She turned and started walking into the all consuming darkness that surrounded us. "C'mon."

"Umm....I can't see..it's too dark." Even though she was facing away from me, I could feel her roll her eyes. She grunted and within a few seconds, a light emanated from her horn. "That's better."

I looked around. The inside of the tower looked no worse for wear. It was noticeably bare, probably from when they stopped using it. The first floor consisted of the door, and a window, both boarded up. The rest of the room was occupied by a spiral staircase that stretched up into the darkness of the tower's height.

The unicorn started going up the stairs. I instinctively spread my wings and hovered a few inches above them. Us pegasi don't like to use stairs. We have wings for that.

So, up we went. it took a couple of minutes to reach the top of the staircase, at that point, my wings had gotten tired and I resorted to walking. I wasn't a strong flier, but I could still hover and do some basic stuff. "Grr, dumb door.." My attention was brought to the unicorn filly again, both from the darkness that now surrounded us and her voice.A blue glow was encompassing both her horn and the latch on the door. She was trying to manipulate the latch, but failing. "Almost..." The latch moved upwards, all it needed was to go over and the door would be unlocked. Unfortunately, the glow disappeared and the filly was now sweating, obviously exhausted.

"Here, i can do it." I spread my sore wings and hovered up to the latch, I expertly smacked it with my hoof, which caused it to go up and over, unlocking the door. I landed again and smiled at the filly.

"Show off.." Was all I got before she nudged the door open and trudged in.

I followed her in. The room was well lit by a few well placed candles, the windows all had a dark heavy fabric covering them. Most likely to keep the candlelight from showing tot he outside world. On the floor in the far corner was a mat with a pillow and a thin blanket on it. That's the first place the little white filly went to.

I was more nervous than I cared to admit, with good reasoning too. I was in a strange place, with a strange pony. "So..what's your name..?" I asked this hesitantly. This filly seemed easy to anger.

"Vinyl." She said as she curled up on her mat and closed her eyes.

"Vinyl...?"

"Just Vinyl."

"Oh...Okay.." It was an odd name, you don't see a lot of ponies with just one name. Only the really fancy, rich ones did that. "I'm Skyward Glory."

One of Vinyl's red eyes popped open and looked at me. "Another one of you cult fillies?" I've been called that before by some other ponies in Cloudsdale. It was never a good thing, like they hated me and my family just because we were pious. "You always have such long names.." She closed her eye again.

"You can call me Glory, everypony does." I got no response from Vinyl. She was either already asleep, or ignoring me. Either way, I went to the opposite side of the room from her, took off my saddlebags and laid down.

The Year Of Our Princess 1536 AD, The 25th Day of Spring

I woke up to the pleasant smell of fresh baked bread wafting through the small room on the tower I was in. It was trying to draw my mind from the slumber induced haze, and it was succeeding. I sat up and yawned. I took stock of my things. My journal, quill, ink, brush,were all still in my saddlebag. That other filly hadn't stole anything, good.

Then I realized that Vinyl was not lying on her mat, nor was she in the room. My worries were quashed as soon as they began, for Vinyl came in through the door, a loaf of bread on her back, and she was talking to somepony behind her.

"Yeah, so I just saw her out in the street crying, I had to do something. So I let her sleep here." They were talking about me. I already didn't like this.

But it got worse, the pony behind Vinyl was the daughter of that priest from last night. Octavia.I immediately stood up and took an aggressive stance. The little brown filly saw me and narrowed her eyes.

As if on cue, we both spoke at once. "You."

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