You’re gasping for air as you try to stand up, struggling thru the pain and the fading rush of adrenaline wearing off and exhaustion taking over. Your arms hurt and your right fist feels like its on fire, Everything just hurts right now. Your legs can barely keep you upward with out falling over but you use sheer will power to keep from falling over as you raise your torso up straight from hunched over position. You can feel your Chest burn from the multiple spots where you were hit and consider one or two ribs are broken. “A small price to pay for what this bastard did to-“ you stop that thought from continuing as you don’t want to think about it right now. You limp over to the wall we’re a cheap thrift store painting was hanging, now fallen and broken on the floor. As you lean against the wall, towering over the pony you beat into submission, you tilt your head back against the wall to rest it try and control your breathing to calm yourself. God damn you feel like you ran a marathon through Hell and back again. You look down to the pony and just stare for a while. He looks far worse than you do but still, he certainly didn’t go down easy. His mane was covered in what could be correctly guessed as a mixture of blood and sweat from the both of you. He right eye completely swollen shut and his nose slightly bent at an odd shape.

“Your lucky you know. If she wasn’t here right now I’d.....well we both know how it would have ended.” That thought both pleases you and disgusts you at the same time but you didn’t care all that much. You were to tired for it to matter at the time. You move your gaze down to stare at his chest, it moves as he is taking in air. You sigh with relief but it only lasts a second and start to turn away from him, shifting your weight around so you can lean against the window that was behind you. As you stare outside your mind begins to fill with thoughts about this scenario. They all play out the same way though. How you could have said things differently. Some other way you could have handled things better. None of it mattered though at this moment, and that hurt the most out of everything that has happened so far. You turn your head to look at the stallion on the ground, your eyes still full of rage you have for this tiny creature. Still our cold. You scoff and turn away.

“The stallion is unconscious and I’m fine with it. All things considered since I put you in that state.” You think to yourself as you run a hand through your hair. You wince at the pain as you pull it down to look at it. Black and blue as well as bleeding. You sigh with irritation more than anything else really as you inspect your hand.

“Hands probably broken....another small price to pay for this mess.” You think to yourself as you grip the bottom of your shirt and tear as best you can a small length of cloth to crudely bandage your wound. You don’t care about the shirt, it’s pretty messed up anyways. After wrapping your hand up you stumble just a few inches down the wall onto the window and look down to the outside street of Manehatten. The lanterns that light the streets help you find your pal in the sea of lights and other pony’s. A stallion who’s pale blue coat and dark blue mane you could spot anywhere and your glad you called him to meet you here when you did.

“SOARIN!’ you yell down to him thru a strained voice. Your throat dry and sore from lack of water. You put your weight om the window to give you support as he looks up to you and tilts his head confused. You motion him with your bandaged hand for him to come up to the room. “Bring some rope up here Soarin, something’s happened.” You say to him as you make your way off the window but keep it open for him to enter.

Now comes the hardest part of the night. Something you’ve put off for the longest you could have due to more shame than being hard-hearted. You slowly lift your head up and try your damnedest not to break down and cry. You look to the bed and see Octavia shivering in her bed, holding onto the blankets with her hooves like a newborn foal. Her hair is in a sate that leaves her signature Pompadour completely ruined, left in its place is a mess of tangled knots and dried tears. Her grey coat being all raised on end from being scared out of her wits and wet due to sweat made her look almost feral to you. Her eyes red and bloodshot from her crying and her right eye somewhat swollen.

You never thought anything could break you. Not due to you being a stone cold person but being that things rarely phased you anymore. But this? This did it, hell it made you feel so sick that your surprised you didn’t just cry like a baby yourself and lose it completely. But you stay strong, you can’t falter now. Your eyes stay fixed on Octavia as she sits on the bed. She doesn’t look at you but ahead in a thousand yard stare, completely shut down from what she almost experienced. “Octavia? C-can you hear me?” You say in a small voice and she looks at you but not really at you. Like someone lost in thought her eyes move toward you but after a few seconds back to where they were. The sight of her like this almost sends you into a furry of rage but now is not the time for that, you need to be composed for her right now. As softly and as carefully as you can you make your way to her on the bed, being mindful of her state right now. You cross the bed and sit beside her. She still hasn’t moved to look at you much less say anything.

“Octavia?” You say to her in a soft voice. Still no response from her. Tears start to well up in your eyes and you try to push them back. “God what have I done to you” you think to your self as you turn you body to face hers. Slowly you move your hand to her mane to try and gently caress her head to try to get her attention. She flinches at your touch and looks at you with wild glossy eyes which causes you to jolt back think she is being attacked again.

“NO STAY AWAY!” she screams as she is taken back from the touch of your hand. Violently throwing her hooves at you in an attempt to stop her attacker who currently is sleeping on the floor. You doge one of her hooves in time but the other hits you clean in the left eye. It surges with pain and you give a slight Yelp but pay it no further mind than that. Normally you would stop to grab your eye but you need to stop Octavia before she hurts herself. You manage to finally grab both her legs and after pining them to your chest you move a free hand to her face and hold her there to look at you.

“Octavia! OCTAVIA! Stop its me, its Anonymous!” You say to her in a strong but soft tone. She struggles a bit more and opens her eyes and slowly stops moving when she recognizes your face. Her whole body stops moving and looks at you, Eyes now more focused than before as she comes back to her senses. It’s the first time she’s really seeing you here tonight.

“Its me, Its me Tavi, I’m here now . Its Safe.” you say to her with a soft voice as you gently pet her mane in a calming manner, trying you best to keep her calm. You hand slowly moving her hair out of the way to see her eyes more clearly.Still very red from crying but those purple iris still took your breath away. Her eyes still focused on you, as if your not really here right now and that if she looks away you’ll disappear. Her body is still slightly shacking from shock and adrenaline as she started to regain her composure. Still You kept Your hand moving up and down her head to calm her down as best you could.

Octavia starts to Looks confused at how your there in front of her and starts to slowly look around the room, obviously looking for the stallion. She looks to you with those big purple eyes again, you never get tired of looking at them. Her eyes slowly going from puffy and red to their more natural appearance, save for her right eye that was looking slightly purple in color but it didn’t look too swollen.

“An-Anonymous?” she says to you in a soft tone clearly strained with cries for help. “H-how?” She stammers, voice shaking as she starts coming to. “Wh-why are you here right now? Wheres the-?” her voice stops before she even finishes the question. Her face said it all, the memories came flooding back to her in a full rush to her mind. She then looks to you with a horrified expression as the tears start to form on the bottom of her eyes. Her body starts to shake and shiver as her emotions start to come over her and she presses her head against your chest. Pain from before makes you wince slightly but you don’t let her go from your embrace.

“An-n-n-nonymous I-I-I was s-so scared.” She tries to say as she starts crying and shaking harder than she did before. She clings to your shirt as she starts to cry in fear of she had to go through. You let her cry for what seemed like an eternity as you sat there holding the pony. You don’t protest it. You have no right to. You pull your arms in to hold her tighter to your chest even while your ribs protested in pain you held her. Using your bandaged hand your run your fingers through her hair and slowly start to move it back up and down her head. You just sit there and hold her, like she was made of glass and that any movement or shift in your position would shatter her. Your tears finally start to flow down your cheeks and your vision started to blur. You just sit there and try look to the window, looking out into the city skyline and stars. As You sit there holding her you could feel your very soul begin to shatter. Nothing evil in this world could compare to what tonight had done to you two. And only one thought echoed in your mind that stung like a dagger in your soul.

“You have only yourself to blame for this, monster.” And it’s true. You don’t even want to deny it. You let that thought echo in your Psyche and take hold on you while you sit and let this tiny little pony cry her heart out while you just sit there. Defeated both in mind and body.

You gently move you hand through her mane, trying you best to calm her down. Soarin finally makes his way to the room and is shocked by what he sees. On the floor is a stallion who is unconscious and looks to you holding a grey mare crying. You look to him and then to Octavia. You turn to see his gaze. You look into his eyes but move your head back down and away from Him, ashamed. You shift you body to allow her to be cradled in your right arm even tho it hurts like all hell. She’s crying so hard she can barely breathe, gasping for breath and sniveling as she soaks your chest and arm in tears. She doesnt even notice Soarin in the room.

“Soarin.” You softly say to him, still not looking at him as your focus is on Octavia. “I need you to secure him and then get the police if they haven’t been contacted by anyone yet.” You pray that to Octavia still doesn’t notice him so she doesn’t get even more scared than she is. Luckily She doesn’t even pay any mind to him, completely oblivious that he’s even there in the room.

“But- but what about you?” Soarin asks as he makes his way to the stallion and starts to tie his legs up to make sure he wont cause problems if he wakes.

“Don’t worry about me man. I’ve got something I need to focus on here.” You say as you continue to look at Octavia who is slowly starting to calm down and is passing out due to exhaustion. Fresh tears still flowing from her eyes as she starts to sleep away in your arms. You gently pull the covers up to her to keep her warm. “It’s- it’s my fault this happened to her.” You say to Soarin as he finishes up his task. You move your left eye up to him and watch him work. His work was all finished. The would-be attacker all tied and even gagged to muffle and noises he would make. Soarin then moves the unconscious stallion to the bathroom connected to the bedroom with only one way in and out. He then locks the door as an added measure. He looks to you with a somber expression.

“Anon...that’s not...you can’t just...” Soarin tries to say something to prove you other wise but can’t find a way to do so. Either because he cant find the words or deep down...he knows your right and doesn’t want to hurt you even more than you are now. He looks to you and you to him. His face furrowed down into a face mixed with all kinds of emotions but if you had to pick one, sadness comes to mind more than others.

“You better get going Soarin. The faster the cops are here the better she and myself will feel.” You say to him with a small forced smile, knowing you feel anything far from heroic from the actions that you just accomplished a few minutes ago.

Soarin nods his head in agreement and flys out the window and into the black sky. You watch as your friend slowly turns from a Pegasus to a small dot that contrasts with the night sky slowly fading away. You turn your head to Octavia and look at her and the state she’s in. Her tears have finally stopped flowing and she’s started breathing normally. “Thank Celestia she finally stopped” You think to yourself. You continue to look at her. This small thing, this beautiful small thing was your world. A few weeks ago you would give anything for her, be it the sun or stars you’d give it all. Now....now you don’t even know any more. Not after that night. That damn, horrible night were both your worlds collapsed in a short 24 hours. You continue to look at her as you slowly move both your body and her to the headboard of the bed and move the comforter around her to keep her warm. Her eyes still running with tears but calm all the same. You move your thumb across her eye to remove them. And slow put your hand around her head to caress her head and mane. She smiles softly at your tough and nuzzles more into you. It gets a small smile from you but it doesn’t last. Your mind still runs with how the past few weeks have gone and your gaze finally moves from her to the window.

You sit in there in silence. The love of your life, scarred beyond anything. You, exhausted and broken from this endeavor. Your mind drifts into memory as you recall the past few weeks, Seeing it all unfold again in your mind. The only other thought to come into your mind as you remember the last few weeks is something you thought when you first came into the room. “How could I have let this happen?”

Author's Note

Been a while since I’ve written anything fan fiction wise. It’s probably not gonna be my best work so comments and what not are appreciated