The Fractured - Farcture-verse

I awoke on a bed. I knew it had to be a bed because it was so much more comfortable than anything I had slept on since arriving in this world.

A light sheet clung to my body, doing its best to pin me to the bed. I didn’t care. I was still so tired and my legs ached from walking. And my right eye still throbbed. And my back— You get the picture. Pretty well every part of my body hurt in some way.

I shifted beneath the sheet, doing my best to try and sit up.

I heard an excited gasp and someone began to speak. “Hello. My name is—”

I didn’t hear what was said next. It wasn’t a voice I knew so I quickly pulled up as much sheet as possible to keep my missing limbs from being noticed.

There, standing just beyond the foot of my bed, was a purple pony. A mare. She had a deep purple mane with pinkish highlights and… was a Unicorn, by the horn parting her fringe. Wait. She had wings. Feathered ones tucked against her sides unlike my leathery one. So, this was what an Alicorn looked like from the outside.

I narrowed my gaze on her. “Are you a doctor?”

Her smile faltered. “Well, no.”

She caught herself and quickly made to endear herself to me. “But, I was requested to attend by your presiding doctor.”

Her smile grew even further as she stepped up to the very foot of my bed. “It isn’t every day we have a new Alicorn simply turn up in a hospital bed.”

I blinked. It was far too early and my body ached too much to be dealing with some pony trying to be so chipper as this purple one. I groaned and turned my head to the side. I could see Pyrus standing in front of a door in the corner; his rear left leg still raised gingerly to keep it from touching anything.

“Go away,” I murmured.

“Pardon?” the purple one asked.

I turned my head to face the purple Alicorn, secretly glad my hair was still covering my damaged eye.

“Look,” I said as kindly as I could muster. “It’s been a long couple of days. We’re all tired and have injuries so just let the three of us—”

And the purple one decided to interject. She seemed far too happy for me to deal with right now and was clearly not interested in anything other than what she wanted, no matter how pleasantly she was told to piss off. “Three? I’m sorry, are you counting your odd-looking bird?”

She squinted her gaze as she examined Sickle who was sitting on the nearby window ledge. “Which looks sort of like a phoenix.”

“Huh,” I grunted, looking at Sickle. “So that’s what she is? Could’ve fooled me with her icy touch.”

The door in front of Pyrus gave a click and began to open, much to the mute giant’s apparent glee.

“Icy?” the purple one began. “I thought phoenixes…”

Her voice trailed off as I caught a glimpse of Aria stepping out of what must have been a bathroom. Aria sighed to herself then turned her head and froze. Her pupils shrank as she drank in the sight of the purple Alicorn in the room.

My gaze shot back and forth between the two. The purple interloper appeared just as startled as Aria by the other’s presence. There was little chance to verbally probe the possible history between them before the purple one turned her head a little but not enough to take her eyes off Aria. She called over her shoulder to the open room door. “Girls!”

Wait. Purple Alicorn? That had been described to me before. My mind blanked as other ponies, all mares, began to saunter in. An orange-coated blonde wearing a Stetson. A white unicorn with an overly groomed purple mane and tail. Two pegasi, one butter yellow with strawberry blonde mane and tail so long they must have hampered her flying, and a cyan one with the most interesting mane and tail I had yet seen. It was an actual rainbow. Finally, a pink on pink pony bounced in. She appeared the bubbliest of the bunch, grinning joyously from ear to ear.

The pink one let out a huge gasp at the sight of me, Aria and Pyrus, while one of the others, I didn’t catch which, the pink one was so distracting, asked, “What ya hollerin’ for, Twi?”

The purple Alicorn’s horn became wrapped in a deep pink glow as she spoke and thrust a hoof toward Aria. “It’s one of the Sirens who attacked the school! Stop her!”

Gritting her teeth at being confronted, Aria took a step back. With no more hesitation, the purple Alicorn charged forward, her head down as she readied the glow of her horn. The purple Alicorn. Aria. My thoughts clicked into place and I tossed the bedsheet aside.

Pyurs hobbled as he turned to face the commotion. When he saw what was happening, he moved to shield Aria. He gritted his teeth and his fiery mane, tail and fetlocks erupted in a vicious blue fury. The purple one kept up her charge and released her magic, striking the ground in front of Pyrus as she tried to make him back away.

Aria, backed into a wall now, shook her head in fear and tried to brace herself for the coming attack. She was cornered.

Considering my difficulties in being three-legged, I threw myself from the bed, my horn sparking to life even before I hit the ground. That impact was bone jarring. I felt it ripple through every joint in my body. I ground my teeth together to force the pain aside and flicked my head to face the charging purple one. She was far closer than I expected causing me to gasp with surprise.

My magic ignited. The purple one suddenly tried to slam on her brakes, but she was too late. She crashed snooter first into a previously non-existent wall of blue light. The other ponies, having not joined their friend’s charge, let out shocked gasps. Some moved to help while others glared ineffectually at me through the shield I had conjured in alarm.

Once she was back on her hooves and she had assured her friends she was unharmed, the purple Alicorn faced my companions again, only to find me, standing crouched forward with my good side facing her, glaring darkly at her.

“What are you doing?” she demanded. “She’s a Siren.”

“I know,” I bit back. Speaking was already becoming difficult and I was also squinting with my weak eye. My eyelid twitched with the strain as I kept the blue shield up between my companions and the other ponies. The only member of our group not within my shield was Sickle who was more interested in sitting on the windowsill preening herself.

“She bends ponies to her whims and makes them fight each other against their friends,” the purple one continued. It was a warning I wasn’t interested in heeding.

I let out a ragged breath before speaking. “She has no crystal and no magic. She told me so herself.”

“She’s just trying to trick you,” the purple one declared. “Just think of what she can do with an Alicorn under her control!”

I stomped my back-left leg. It was the only one I could use for emphasis without toppling over. “She told me how her crystal was broken, making you a threat to my friend, so back off!”

The purple one flinched at that. She took a moment to study my shield as it kept us cocooned along with the bathroom. Well, at least we would be able to relieve ourselves if this drew into a prolonged confrontation. Not that time was really a help to us.

At least it didn’t take much on my part to keep the shield up. I could actually feel the ring around the base of my horn performing its task of pulling the magical essence from within me. The fact it was being used to create a shield instead of powering an airship didn’t seem to matter, so long as I was being drained. The draining itself was beginning to wear on me though.

The standoff lasted for what felt like hours, though I doubt it was anywhere near that long. The doctors and nurses stayed away for the duration while the Alicorn and her friends remained between us and the only door out of the room.

What I had hoped to at least turn into a stalemate was quickly, at least in my mind, becoming a losing battle. I was letting out deep breaths while my left eyelid drooped. The shield was using more and more of my magical essence. If nothing happened soon, my magic would fail like with the dragon attack, I would pass out and the purple Alicorn would lunge for Aria again.

It was only a matter of time.

Thankfully, something happened which not even our opponents seemed to expect; other than the purple Alicorn.

Considering everything I had been through and encountered since arriving in this strange world, the fact that what I experienced next could be declared the strangest was saying something. For through the door stepped the tallest, most regal-looking pony I had yet seen. Her coat was alabaster, while her mane and tail, a faded rainbow in colour, wafted gently on an invisible breeze.

She smiled as she approached the purple Alicorn who bowed to her and said, “Princess Celestia! I’m so glad you’re here.”

The tall Alicorn, Celestia, bowed her head faintly to the purple one and said, “Of course, my beloved student. However, your letter was vague. What exactly is the ma—”

Celestia’s words caught in her throat and her eyes widened a fraction when she noticed me and my companions. It took her a few moments to regain her composure. “Now, this is very unexpected.”

“What is, dear sister?” asked a much more commanding regal voice as another Alicorn entered the room. This one, though taller than most other ponies, was not quite as tall as Celestia. Her coat was the deepest blue, while her mane was a match for the night sky itself with its dark background and starry field which, like that of Celestia, moved on its very own breeze.

“Princess Luna,” gasped the orange pony wearing the stetson.

Sickle, hearing the voice of the new arrival, Luna, leapt from her perch to fly gracefully about her head.

“Oh,” Luna gasped, her voice a mix of surprise and joy with a hint of regret. “So wonderful to see thee, Sickle. It hath been such a very long time.”

Sickle landed on the foot of the bed and cawed happily up at Luna. Luna smiled at the phoenix before turning to the others.

“Now,” Luna declared. I was sure she was just speaking normally, but her inflections were so much louder than anyone else. “Twilight Sparkle, to what is the urgency of thine—”

When Luna looked towards us, her words suddenly failed her. Her mouth kept moving but nothing came out. She stared at my little clutch of ponies, her mouth agape, and she stepped forward.

I kept the ring directed into forming the shield around us as the regal blue Alicorn approached. When she reached the shield, I glared up at her with my weak left eye; at least I could make her out with that one. In return, Luna stared at me, actually lowering her head to my level. She didn’t seem interested in Aria or Pyrus. Just me. She appeared to be studying me, yet a glint of a tear grew in the corner of her eye.

Maybe it was a good thing I had my uninjured side to the crowd and the fringe of my mane covered my right eye.

When she finally regained her voice, she whispered a single word, “Selene?”