Son of the Sun

...I'll go out one day, and be the pony who saves the day!

You will, hm?

Yes, princess! After I get done with my studies, of course.

He kept trying to walk as Celestia didn't bother to carry him.

She was explaining to him as if he was in timeout...instead of dealing with severe burns on his front hooves, "You should've thought about that before you decided to speak out against me."

Nick collapsed, flipping onto his back for just the most minute amount of relief it granted. His front hooves had barely sustained his travels into the buildind. Now, he wasn't sure if walking was possible now.

"I'm not carrying you, Kindle", Celestia spat out as she pushed into his side to clear a way for herself into the hallway.

He lay on the ground, hot tears rolling down his little cheeks as he begged for anything to help with the pain.

Celestia stood over him, shaking her head in disapproval.

...

"Get up," Celestia commanded once.

Nick's pure instinctual response was to whimper as he held his cracked, bleeding hooves up as a sign of his injuries. The burning sensation didn't stop, even after he'd been freed of the consequences of his inaction.

Celestia's eyes grew dull from the display before her, rolling them around in an apathetic way.

She yawned, slapped his hooves away, then simply sauntered off without a care towards her charge who screamed at the very light tap against his roasted legs.

"Mom! Pwease! Cewwy! D-dun weave me...", the little colt struggled out as he lay limply on the ground, unable to move.

Sighing, Celestia looked back at him.

He didn't move. He didn't scream.

She only saw blood-red eyes distraught and terrified at the prospect of being abandoned in a hallway.

He's not there yet. He's not mine just yet. Only time. Time won't heal those wounds I inflicted upon him this day.

"Nor would I want them to," Celestia remarked under her breathe as she strode on back to the child.

She sat down near him as he held out his hooves once more, desiring affection than any previous day.

Celestia desired to understand, "Who is your mother?"

Nick exclaimed as he staggered out, "Y-y-yow..."

"Am I your only mother?"

"...Dun know."

"You need to give me a full answer, child."

"N-n-nu?"

Crushing her teeth so hard a scrapping could be heard from the large-and-in-charge ruler of her kingdom, "What do you mean by that?!"

Nick's pure terror and shock at how she peered into him caused his body to defensively use his front hooves as a shield.

No tact. Leaves himself completely at the mercy of whoever. Such a pitiful little one.

Celestia promptly rose from her previous spot, backpedaled a few hooves until she was beside a window, and sat down once more onto tile.

Spreading her hooves into a manner that suggested a hug, she proclaimed in a pacifying tone to him, "If you can make it into my loving hooves, I'll save you from the blaze, dear child of mine."

She lightly lit her horn, pressing the Sun to flare her whole presence in a gold hue.

As Nick rose himself from his spot, he heard terrifying words cast onto him from afar, "But, you may only be welcomed if you use your front hooves. Only."

Nick managed to sit up, only to crash to the tile again upon hearing the torture he'd be forced to toil with.

It...is only a few hooves away.

He gingerly set one hoof an inch from the ground, eyes crossing views between Celestia and the unsuitable flooring.

Choking back the upcoming sweat, tears, and blood, he dipped it onto the marble, shutting his eyes as he roared with wails.

Then, in an instant of courage, he slammed his lef hoof right beside the other, joining its twin in stinging, pulsing union.

Step by step, line by line, he pulled himself towards his savior, the light guiding his path as his eyes flooded in misery and sorrow.

He was soon so close he could touch her, and she smiled at him in accomplishment over his tiny victory.

So he thought.

Because just as he'd almost be able to throw himself into her embrace, her light dissipated.

His hope of safety, his dreams of security, and wanting of parental love were all dashed as she was no longer in his reach.

But, down the opposite hallway, she gazed at him.

Nick twisted his aching, punished body to fall upon his side as he took breathes of air mixed with the stench of blood and an all-too linger of burnt hair. His hair.

In exhaustion, a single seen eye of his own crying self shared a glance at his 'mother'.

She hailed to him, teasingly applauding his performance, "You did such a good job, my little one. Was that so hard? All you had to do was walk, and you did it! Now, come along for dinner. It should be done in half an hour. Hurry up!"

All he could remember hearing as she wandered off was, "Before it gets cold!"

He proceeded to cry to only himself as he lay within the hall, broken and forgotten for the time being.