a deadly game, of cat and mouse

by K_and_REDACTED

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Sad, Shining Armor, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 1279

twilight is on the run. her brother is hunting her down.and the chase becomes a deadly game of cat a

(oneshot)
After a very serious mental breakdown, Twilight became an outlaw. so she ran. she ran until her legs gave out. Then she hid. Then she ran again. She’s been running for five years. Her brother has been only a few steps behind her. And only one thing is undecided about this deadly game, that never seems to end, who is the cat and who is the mouse?

Published 2012-09-18 13:54:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-18 13:54:01 UTC

a little sibbling rivalry

“I still remember that day, as if it were only a few days ago as opposed to five years ago. Why did I do it? I still don’t know. But I don’t regret it...
“She was so arrogant on that day. So smug. So god damn beautiful.
“Beauty... what defines it? What made her so much better than I?
“I still don’t know. All I know is that it felt so wonderful. Her screams of terror and of pain felt almost euphoric to me as I laughed at her misery. As the flames charred her coat and burned her skin. I merely chuckled as she looked at me, so expectant that I was going to help, so sure I cared about her.
“Maybe I did once.
“I think the day I started to loathe her, was about a month after the accident,”
She paused for a moment, and touched the long diagonal scar that ran from her rite eyebrow, down to the left side of her neck.
“The day she wanted to talk to me about my mental state, which was ‘unstable’ and ‘possibly suicidal’ in her eyes. My mental state was completely fine until she said those two words. Those two short words, which were like a blasphemy to the religion that was my life, like a backhoof across the face from a childhood idol. It all fell apart when she said those two words, ‘I understand’.
“I wanted to shout, scream, flip something over then throw it at her. I wanted to yell ‘understand? understand! you wouldn't understand what it feels like! You don’t know how this makes me feel! You’ve been so perfect your whole life, what makes you think you have the faintest idea what this feels like!’ but I didn’t. I didn’t shout, or scream, all the furniture stayed rite side up exactly where it was. I simply bottled it all up. Then I released it with a long ragged sigh, followed by a small sob, then another, then another. Then I simply let it all out in a small fit of tears. Pushing her away each time she tried to comfort me. It was then, while I was picking up the pieces of my shattered mind, that I had decided to teach her something. How it felt to be like this. To have ponies shudder as they leave the room, and talk in whispered voices, when they think you can’t hear them, of how horrid your appearance is. I would make sure she learned how it felt. Even if she was the Princess.”
It was here that Twilight ended the journal entry. She closed the book and stuffed it into her extremely worn out bag. She found a certain feeling of relief when she wrote her internal monologue down on a piece of paper. Like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders. However, she had been so involved in righting, that she had not noticed his voice.
“Twilight?” he called “I know you’re in here”
“Playtime already? You have gained quite the skill for tracking me down.” She called, making sure to throw her voice and create just enough echo that her location would remain hidden, though her voice was not.
“Indeed,” he replied turning a corner, instinctively diving forward as he felt the tripwire snap beneath his hooves, just barely avoiding the large blade that swung down from its perch on the catwalk above. This old factory was quite obvious, and a bit cliché, but it was a perfect stopping point all the same. She could see his every move from the catwalk.
“And you’ve a great skill of slipping away from me at the last moment.” He said, making a left, then turning around, not trusting the look of the floor. He walked the maze of crates and old machinery whose purpose was long forgotten, for a few minutes, Twilight shadowing him the whole way.
“You are quite rite, one moment you're sure I'm standing rite behind you,” she said, standing directly above him on the catwalk.
“And the next I turn around to find I'm in another one of your traps.” he finished, quickly stepping out of the way of a large tower of crates that came crashing down. “And one moment I'm clueless,” he said standing still for a moment, “and the next I know exactly where you are." he said, looking straight up at her through the dirty, yet still mostly clear, plastic floor of the catwalk.
“Now comes the fun part.” Twilight thought, as she dashed across the catwalk, her pursuer already on the stairs that led up to the catwalk.
He was only a few yards behind her. Her escape route was preplanned. She grabbed her bag and slung it on her back, then she dashed a few feet more before leaping over the railing, onto the top of an old machine, then onto the crate tops, then down into the maze of crates itself.
She mentally repeated the path as she ran it.
“left right left, right, right, left, right once more, then out the door” she thought, she paused a moment before she left,
“Better luck next time brother!” she shouted, to a very frustrated Shining Armor who had lost is prey once again.
And Twilight was off, running again. She had become a very fast runner in the five years since the day she became Equestrias’ most wanted pony. After a half hour, she was a good 18 miles from the factory. After that she slowed to a walk, and gained an extra 2 miles there. She found a nice little hiding spot in the Everfree forest, as she often did.
“Now,” she thought, “we wait, it should take him a few days to find me.” Quietly she slid the bag off her back, pulled out the notebook, and opened it to the newest blank page.
“Perhaps this is my brother’s fault… he is the one who did this… it was him who had thrown the knife… it was not my own doings…
“Fate has an odd way of showing itself... with almost humorous irony at some times or cold sorrow at others. It was in irony that my brother is pursuer. The reason any of this happened, was because of him. And yet, he is the only pony on the royal guard to ever make it out of my traps alive.
“Perhaps it’s my fault. Perhaps it’s Celestias fault. Perhaps it’s Armors fault. I don’t know. I don’t care. I did what I did because… I had to. Because if I didn’t teach her what it truly meant to understand, nopony would. And that, perhaps, would be the worst crime of all.”
Fate is quite ironic indeed, for this entry was the very last page in her notebook…

Canterlot royal guard
Criminal apprehension report
Suspect 22-CC: Twilight Sparkle
Suspect Twilight Sparkle committed attempt at murder of Princess Celestia, additional crimes include; resisting arrest, the killing of 23 members of royal guard, and thievery. Suspect was convicted on January 12th 2019, five years, two weeks, three days after committing said crime. Suspect was captured in the Everfree forest and taken into custody by one Shining Armor, captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard. Suspect was found guilty and sentenced to death (by lethal injection). Injection was administered by Dr. Aiden Kitt [the first] on January 19th. Suspect had a bag containing the following items on her person at time of arrest: knives, illegal explosives (see doc. 125), rope, water, and a note book (see doc. 127). Items were inspected then placed into storage, or destroyed.
End report.