The Withering Rose

Disintegration

It was Friday morning, I had to present my flower to the class today and it was almost completely dead... but that wouldn't be the worst thing to happen that day.

The journey to school that morning had been mostly uninteresting, nothing special happened, I had hidden the wilting flower in my saddle bag, I guess I was embarrassed about Vivi seeing how badly I had taken care of the rose.
We arrived at school, spent a little time outside and before I knew it, it was time for the first class to start.

Everypony walked into class, sat down at their desks and prepared for the presentation, I remember a few of the items that my classmates had brought to present that day; favourite books, family heirlooms and even a couple of them had brought flowers too.

I dreaded taking my flower out of the bag but I had to do it eventually... I reached in, found the rose and placed it onto my desk.
On the way to school it had completely died and crumbled to dust.

I felt bad that I had failed the assignment but at the time I believed that at least the worst thing that could happen would be a disappointed lecture from the teacher on taking better care of my belongings.

Vivianis had told me all about what she was bringing to school for the presentation; her pet mouse.
It made sense, a pet is something you need to take care of consistently, they're something you can feel connected to emotionally and it was even small enough to be suitable for a short presentation.

The first few presentations went well enough although I don't remember the details of most of them. The one that I would no doubt remember for the rest of my life was Vivi's presentation.
She began by introducing the mouse and talking all about how much hard work can go into caring for a pet.
The presentation was to end with Vivianis walking around the classroom to let everypony pet the mouse, it should've been a happy moment for the class.

Eventually she reached my desk and held the adorable little thing out for me to pet, I carefully moved my hoof forwards and touched the mouse's back.
The moment I began petting, the mouse seemed to flinch.
I pet the mouse once, it was fine.
I pet the mouse a second time and its white fur darkened slightly.
The third time I pet the mouse, it began turning grey and quickly collapsed onto its side.

Vivi suddenly moved the mouse away from me, clearly frightened for its safety, but it was already too late for the poor creature.
She watched in horror as the mouse's life drained from it, it's fur turned dark grey and after only a few seconds its skin began to crack.

It was exactly what had happened to the rose, only faster this time.
The mouse squeaked and suddenly disintegrated completely, leaving behind a pile of dust and blood, covering her hooves in the remains of what was once a living creature.

I'll never forget how she looked at me, I'd never see her happy again.
I panicked and sprinted out of the classroom, there was something wrong with me and I had no idea what to do.
Home. I needed to get home and find mother.

I rushed frantically through the streets, I was barely looking where I was going and my mind was in absolute chaos.
The rest of the town had noticed that something was wrong and many had decided to follow after me to figure out what was going on.
I saw my house just ahead of me, my mother was in the front garden, watering some flowers when she noticed me running towards her.

My mother stopped everything she was doing and reached out towards me, I ran into her hooves, wanting nothing more than to be safe with her, I wrapped my hooves around my mother, shut my eyes tightly and cried desperately. I felt her place a hoof around me and hold me gently, the next thing I felt was my mother's skin slowly crack and crumble.

One moment I was holding my mother, the next I was holding nothing but ashes and dust. Her blood covered me and as I noticed something was wrong I opened my eyes to find that she was gone.

The town had gathered around us, watching in silence as a small blood-covered filly stared at her mother's disintegrated corpse in complete horror and confusion.

Nopony knew what to do, how could they?
I couldn't believe what was happening, I just sat there and hoped that none of this was real, that she was okay.

At some point my father had joined the crowd surrounding our home. He was the first to step towards me but he had no love to give and no intention of trying to help me.
The cold-hearted monster that had hated me from the day I was born stared at the horrifying scene that had captured the attention of the entire town and screamed at the crying filly in front of him.

He called me cursed.
He said I was a monster.
He said I was evil.
He declared that I should never have been born.

I turned to my father, sadness replaced by pure anger.
I stood up and lunged at him, grabbing him and holding on with all the strength I could muster.
He screamed and crumbled.
He died before I even had the chance to think about what I was doing.

I let go once there was no body left to hold on to.
I felt a powerful energy fill me as I was lifted into the air and my eyes began to glow blindingly white.
The power diminished and I fell to the ground, unconscious.

Killing my father had given me my cutie mark and had started the death of Equestria itself.
Nothing would be the same after that day.