Author's Note

A new short for you all, a little dark but I had the idea and had to write it.

As always I tried to find all thr mistakes but if there are any just let me know. Enjoy the reading everypony.

Run away Sins

The floor was cold and ruff; the sharp stones dug into her sides as she did her best to move around, wanting nothing more than to break the ropes that bound her hooves together. Tears welled in her eyes as she bit back a painful sob, trying to force her magic past the dampening ring on her horn; shock ran through her body, she bit her tongue hard letting the scream of pain die in her throat. It was best not to make any sound as the last time she had a hoof came down to silence her. It was a brutal hit that greeted her instead of the warm embrace of her mothers hug she was so used to.

It had been such a typical day a few scant hours ago; she and her mother, Twilight, had been in the shopping district of Canterlot City. The two of them had managed to escape the place for a mother-daughter day when, of course, Twilight had got caught by some group of guards and was forced to perform her princessly duties. That had left Nyx and the two accompanying guards to walk the stalls alone and wait for Twilight to sneak away and come back.

Nyx, since the incident, rarely went out without Twilight at her side, she was still not used to the sacred and angered looks that ponies would greet her with when they realized who she was, what she was. So It was with light slow steps that Nyx set off, looking at each booth with a careful eye on what was being sold, seeing if there would be anything that her mother would like to look at when she returned.

Many of the shopkeepers returned a small smile to the filly that walked by the stalls; some nary looked her way while others, if not for the guards, she thought, would have loved to tear her to pieces if given a chance. Nyx did her best not to attract any attention from the many ponies beside her. It had been a few years since she had been Nightmare Moon, but even then, she still had the occasional pony try something foolish hence the guards.

She thought she wouldn't have to worry about anything happening today, of course, not with her mother here to protect her. At least that was the hope, but with Twilight now gone, that just left the two lone guards ponies, and no matter how loyal or steadfast they were the duties, numbers made all the difference in the world. It happened faster than anyone could react; a magic bolt flew from the crowd and struck the guard on her left; blood and bone sprayed the air covering Nyx and the other guard who moved in her defense.

She watched in horror as the unicorn guards pony raised a shield spell around them; Nyx knew that she should help and would have done something, but her young shocked body couldn't keep up with what was happening. She could only stare at the dead guard's body that lay at her hooves. An instant later, a group was on them; four masked ponies parsed the crowd, pushing their way to the front and within attacking range. They stalked around the shield, banging away and leaving small cracks as they went, like wolves before prey.

Nyx hid behind the guard, her young mind unwilling to accept the reality before her, sure there had been attacks before, but nothing like this; no pony had died. She wanted to cry for Twilight, but her lips seemed to be sealed by some unknown force; the bravery that had once been the cause of her cutie mark was gone without the power she needed to help; for all purposes, she was defenseless in the face of a real threat. The guard began to sweat bullets as the shield cracked, leaving tiny holes where the blunt weapons beat away.

With an ear-shattering crack and scream, the shield failed, and the pack moved in, beating down the unicorn guard with practiced proficiency; the last thing Nyx remembered seeing was the metal end of a club in her face. The pain lasted a short moment before she woke up bound and gagged, lying on a cold tone floor surrounded by her captors. She tried to escape, but she only ended up with a sharp hit to one of her legs, an impact that she was sure broke it.

She cried once, but that was only met with another hit, so here she was, trying to do her best to worm herself away from them, slowly but surely making progress as they agreed on how they would kill her. Nyx's mind froze at that as her body tried to move faster, the need for survival the only thing powering her as she inched away. Silent tears streamed down her face as she thought ponies still wanted her dead. She was scared to even think about the concept of death; what filly would dwell such thoughts, even more so when one was an alicorn.

Her ears perked at the sound of yelling coming from the room across from the one that they put her in; she strained to try her best to pick up on the conversation; from what she could pick up, they were walking about the two guards they had to kill to get to her.

“NO PONY WAS SUPPOSED TO DIE,” one yelled with a high-pitched female voice; it came with a slamming hoof on stone.

A male voice answered back, guilt dripping from his words. “I know; I didn't expect the stupid princess to leave a guard with the little devil spawn” She heard the sound of a shuffle as steps came closer. “But remember why we are doing this, remmber them.”

They came into the room. Nyx watched as four ponies surrounded her, walking around her like wolves. One of the other males in the group gave a sadistic smile as he kneeled over the now openly crying filly “Oh, I remember, alright, the only question is, does the nightmare remember what she did to us” The horn on his head came to life. With magic, a red aura gives new life to the dilapidated room around them.

Nyx struggled to breathe as she felt magic wrap around her throat and lift her off the ground; she gasped loudly as she did her best to struggle against the magic choking her and the gag in her mouth. She stayed floating momentarily as her lung burned with the lack of air, her bound hooves dangling uselessly as she tried to resist. What was but a short time to the others was a long hell to Nyx, only getting enough short breaths to stave off passing out; it wasn't until the world was nearly black that the magic let go.

Nyx fell to the floor with a meaty thud. Had she had the air, she would have screamed as her body landed on her broken leg; she did her best to suck in gulps of air. Her body fought with all its might to keep the young alicorn alive. While she was recovering, the face of her assaulter came eye to eye with hers, a hoof under her muzzle forcing her to look at him. “I hope you remember how that felt, it was only a fraction of what they did” he let her head fall as he pushed it away, a sneer on his face as he turned away, his voice still loud enough for Nyx to hear it. “I'm done; get what you want and kill her.”

The two ponies on her side started on her, beating her with their hooves and clubs they brought with them smiles cracking under the masks they wore showing a little of their faces. Nyx lay curled in a ball as they wailed at her. The entire time tears and cries streamed from her; one of her only thoughts was why they would do something like this. What did she do to deserve this? Minutes passed into an hour as they continued to beat her; at this point, she was sure that she had more than a few broken bones; everything on her body hurt; it seemed to both burn and go numb at the same time; she had stopped crying, only giving small grunts as continued.

It was with surprise they stopped; Nyx had come to the belief that they would beat her to death; she had long ago given up hope of making it out alive. So when the two ponies walked away, she could only wonder what their next plan was. Her answer came swiftly as she was once more ruffly picked up with magic; her horse voice shrilled as she felt broken bones digging into her flesh. She closed her eyes, trying to keep even the smallest amount of consciousness as the pain threatened to send her into a blackout.

Magic forced her eyes open to stare at the blade of a dagger held in the mouth of the unicorn pony that had been the first to speak earlier; she stared at the vengeful look in his eyes as he neared her with the knife; she squirmed with an energy Nyx didn't know she had as the fear of death run its course through her body broken bones shifting and digging into her as she cream spat out the gag in her muzzle.

Nyx felt the knife blade against her neck as she rasped out a single question, the sadness and dear bleeding into her voice “w…why.”

The pressure that the knife had on her neck faded as the unicorn pulled it away, floating it out of his mouth with his magic as he returned to eye level with her, his magic, making sure that she felt every injury that she had. He sneered as anger filled his face. “Why,” He asked with a mocking, angered tone. He let her drop on the floor, grinding his hoof into her bruised side as he continued to speak, “Do you not even remember your sins, Nightmare” He kicked her and brought out a scream. He levitated the knife to the slide where his hoof was planted.

He angled the knife to slide between her ribs, sliding it in slowly as she spoke with poison in his voice, “You took away the princess, and with them, the protection they gave to us border towns, all the monsters their power kept where given a meal ticket when you came into power".He slid the knife in further, giving it a twist as he did so, smiling as Nyx cried out in pain.

The stallion hadn't even realized that he was crying as he continued to talk, “The monster came with the night and attacked our village; the guard could do little in the pitch black of the night” he looked up his eye staring at nothing as his mind flashed back “The monster came and killed the town, they didn't even eat the bodies they just slayed ponies and moved on. Monsters attacked because they could” tears flowed down the stallions face as his voice caught in his throat. “I… I tried so hard… there were so many of them… so matter how many I fought back, there was some other to take its place” The Stallion was close to sobbing now as his voice filled with hate. “They took them from me” he looked down at the Nightmare below him, so close to death that he could taste his revenge. “YOU TOOK THEM FROM ME.”

It all happened at once; neither Nyx nor the stallion had time to react; the room above them seemed to implode as the knife in Nyx’s slide plunged into her down to the hilt, creating a burning pain the whole way. Nyx’s scream was drowned out by the screaming pile of dust that was once the stallion standing over her. As Nyx lay dying, she felt the soft touch of her mother's hooves.

She would have smiled if she had the energy, but as Nyx was now, she had not even the energy to hear what the mare who had raised her was saying; it had almost sounded as if she was begging. Nyx’s mind slipped; weren't they just at the shop? Why did she sound so far away so broken? As the world blacked around the dying filly, her last thoughts would be on the mother who hooves she laid in, staining the lavender coat with the runaway sins of revenge against the world, against a family, against her.