Waning Light

by Whitehooves

Rating: everyone
Tags: Princess Luna, Original Character, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Tragedy, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 6445

What happens when you push an Element too far? A burning question it may be.

In a pleasant corner of the world, the fledgling empire of Equestria exists. In their lore the name 'Elements' is given to a lot of things in their lore, but what of the original elements, and what would happen if an angry force of nature would return to reap an vengeful debt?

Maria Lulo and her cousin live together in the green corner of south-west Equestria. Having faced a great many hardships in her short life, but still Maria lives with a headstrong attitude. As she begins to make friends and find a stable home again, she is faced with it all slipping from beneath her again as the gauntlet is laid down in front of her. What does fate have in store for her? And what can history tell her about her future?

Published 2013-06-17 22:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-07-13 08:58:45 UTC

Prologue

Waning Light

by MrE Whitehooves

Prologue

Time.

Time is a strange concept.

It ebbs and flows like the tides of an ocean. It changes simply by how it is viewed and is contained only in the eyes of fools — those that try to measure their existence by their achievements within it.

It sculpts a great many things and destroys them just as quickly. Nothing has convinced Time to work with them for the better, and nothing has developed either a successful defense or weapon against Time.

However, every culture respects Time. They understand that it is something that brings power, brings pride. Most of all, it brings knowledge. No matter which civilization within Time you visit, there has always been a thirst for knowledge. It has been a way to understand the known world around them and to explore and explain that which is not bound by that known universe. Despite their thirst for knowledge, many do not have the patience to savour it; the Zebra believe that patience is a virtue that will grant them light when it is needed, whereas Griffons would much rather seize the time granted to them to hunt it with fervor.

In reality, Time is not as old as many believe. Having risen from the chaos that played out of nothing, it was the first driving force that harmonised the universe and brought about the forces that shaped the world, giving birth to the great and diverse forms that inhabit the surface of it.

The great spirits of Earth, Water, Fire and Air have maintained balance between each other and the life that they bore. Equal in power, none could claim to be the dominating force over their siblings, and so they are content to live with each other.

While Time toiled away, the great spirits grew fonder of their children of the world, some becoming stoic guardians for all life, shouldering the burden of providing a platform for it all to grow upon, while others played with those who had become one with their spirit, enjoying the closeness that they shared.

All the elemental spirits were relied upon by all forms of life, some more heavily than others, but Fire played a key role in the birth of life. The spark of energy that Fire relied upon to keep alive, he shared with all living things. This bred a problem of its own, as, without Fire, the creatures could not have the warmth to survive. However, Fire was a fickle being himself. He was greedy and perpetually hungry, devouring everything that he could. So, in an attempt to control him, they starved him, feeding him just enough to sustain him.

This struggle played out for a great time, and, while life evolved and developed new methods to wage their fight against the fire that ate them, Fire became complacent. He saw the development of these fickle beings but saw no need to defend himself beyond what he had, and that was his downfall.

Opening my eyes to the blackened corner of oblivion that was my own, a shiver shows me what I ultimately miss. The everyday mundane that we take for granted once removed, for this lone corner of existence is one not frequented by The Consumer too often. His fickle dance above the candle that glows within these walls is for what?

… To provide a companion to my loneliness?

… To see if I’m still waiting, waiting forever for his return?

… To try and understand such an alien concept as waiting?

… To humour me?

… Compassion?

Whether I will ever truly understand the brief glimpses he grants me, I will always be waiting for him. Sometimes waiting is all we can do. It’s not our choice. The tale of Nightmare Moon, her Millenium of Solitude. Shackled here, I wonder what it would have been like for her so close to her home. Did she thrash for centuries? Frustrated at how cruel home taunted her yet still unable to return. Did she ever regret, repenting for all she bore upon her fledgling empire sat beside her sister? Did she share a companion, like I am graced with? For, no matter what happened during her solitude, she waited. I can assure you, it was never her choice to begin with.

Frustrating, at its greatest, is wasting your potential. To hide from yourself is a sin in itself, but in situations that are outside of control, sometimes wasting it has to be tolerated with bared teeth. However, what if your potential was enough to tip the balance in your favour and damage, irreparably, an existence that relied on you? There are those that have lived just to prevent this, binding those that rival them before the scales tip and slide away from them.

Grinding my teeth, sparks glitter across my face as vindictive thoughts echo the halls of my mind. Every lifeform yearning for wisdom and power, yet what do these beings pertain to under Time’s watchful marching?! I calm myself before the runes sparking around me can utter another warning. I breathe a deep sigh and lean against the wall behind me.

The brief return of my companion grants me a small smile. With the swift motion of my hooves I draw him in closer to me. Sliding over the cold, weathered stone, the flame awkwardly glides, unsure of what to make of the surface; for what use is something that cannot provide it with life to such a fickle creature. If it cannot burn, what is the point of its existence? I gaze into the flame as it wildly flails about the confines of the candle. With morbid curiosity I raise my hoof and wave it through the animal. Almost fearful to start with, the crimson body retreats as I move into it, but the more it tastes me the more it lovingly slides around my body. Waving my hoof again, I move it back. This time the flame bites me, jerking from its jaws my substance and turning my hoof over, watching the embers sizzle within my coat where it burnt.

Fire is not one to step back, it never has been. A descendant of the chaos of time, it was once an intimate friend of the Draconequus race. Their lord Discord envied his carefree attitude, and with it saw its potential for change. This did not sit well with the Judges that regulated life. For his kind was one that was difficult to control within Time. The elements that followed Discord were melded by force to the will of each of the Judges and bound him in stone; for their combined power was not enough to destroy him, instead only to lock him away for millennia.

So what if Fire was made to wait? Like Nightmare Moon and Discord, what if it was trapped? Something so alien to the beast, would it even comprehend waiting? That, personally, is something that intrigues me. A strange thing, perhaps. For fire is a phenomenon, is it not? And therefore something that cannot be imprisoned.

Then again, so is Chaos.

I suppose good things come to those that wait, but what existence do we attain in doing so? Imagine, for example, my little friend that lives so fitfully, dancing with what little fuel has bled in his time away. What would he be if he was patient, held back, preserving his fuel? He could last much longer, but what life would that be? It would be a feeble thing, barely alive. Which is why I loathe that saying, for those that utter it imply that actions yield you nothing. We, like the flame, must dance, consume, change, but we judge the flame with eyes of placidity? Is its wild, rash hunger such a terror?

I personally do not see it so, but do I matter? If a judge loathes fire, in hatred they condemn the flame. For in reality, no race loves fire. They endure it for what it is, using it for light and warmth, feebly attempting to control it, making a slave of something that in its nature should be free, rather than fear it and rightly so. They lived around the flame instead of with it. Confining it, limiting it, only feeding its immeasurable hunger to barely sustain it.

In doing so, they inadvertently fueled my interest, by forcing it to wait. Fearing, in their eyes, the destruction they see it bestows; rather than it dancing with the ancient essence that is within substance. Fire does what is within its nature, it lives. If they tried to understand him rather than enslave him, they might have seen.

Yet, how foolish that wish. Fire could not wish to be understood by judgement. There are only two places where it can flourish. One only exacerbates the belief of its evil, using Fire to torture and punish those who are deemed unfit and dangerous, deep in the pits of Tartarus.

The other... Glancing at my hooves, I pull them close. After an infinity of nothing I lower them to my sides, forgetting that other place.

As if hearing my cries, the candle springs to life again. Raising an eyebrow, I inspect that dancing visitor. He’s early. Could he not wait to hear me? Leaning in, I inspect the flame.

‘What is it? Why did you come now?’

The flame dances.

‘Is something wrong? Did something change?’

The flame sparks.

‘Is... is it time?’

The flame smiles, then dies.

Rolling onto my back I exhale with something I thought I had forgotten how to do. It was something that I had not done in a long, long time. A sound that confuses, upsets the runes surrounding me. Their powerful enchantments ripple at something so alien they don’t know how to react.

I laugh.

For as I have waited, accompanied by my thoughts and the flame, I have changed. Every time that flame greets me, it is greeted by a new face; and in turn, the flame changes. It grows, fractionally brighter, fractionally livelier. Each growth restores it to what it had once been, for fire had once been truly great.

Allow me to take you back, if you will; to before Nightmare Moon fought for the sky, to a time before the entrapment of Discord, and a time of mystery.

To a time when fire was fighting at its full strength.

Air was loved by all. She allowed pegasi to fly with her, and danced with them in constant joviality. Water was similar. Though much quieter, she bound her efforts to supporting her children, and in return they asked no more of her.

Earth was a much more majestic creature, for he not only bore upon him the burden of all those who had made him their home, but also his siblings and all those that lived with them. For, although he was often taken for granted and sometimes forgotten, he was praised and celebrated for the life he granted.

The love for the elements was what gave them the strength to continue enjoying themselves. Yet for Fire, the fear and worry he instilled in life was never loved and never knew of love, so lived through the feeble morsels that were offered to him with greedy eyes, leaving the moment there was nothing left for him.

However, on one fateful day when smoldering in a fire pit, a young mare stumbled into the field he resided in. Expecting a usual reaction, Fire turned his eyes from her; for, though he lived in the moment, even he got tired of their hatred. Rather than the young female scurrying away, she came to sit by him; her eyes alight with an interest he had never seen in a mortal before.

As Time strode on, the two grew closer. Unlike the rest of the world that only fed him a fuel finite in its resources, offering him only enough to sustain him, the mare grew to love him and he fed on the infinite warmth she radiated. The closer they got, the further he withdrew from the outside world.

The days and weeks passed by, and with each passing the world grew a little bit colder. No matter how much dry wood and kindling piled high, no spark of hoof, rock or horn could bring about a blaze to warm a mortal soul. This was a problem for the balance as, despite how much Fire was loathed, there was a place within it for the Great Consumer. In one of the few rare moments, the placid equines that balanced the universe stepped off their thrones and marched across the world in search of the Element.

For a fortnight they searched, with no success. Until one night in a dusty inn the pair had entered to wet their palettes, they overheard a young lumberjack breathe streams of envy between his two friends of a stone cabin in the woods where he had seen the blazing soul of the Element dancing with a lone mare.

So out they marched, seeking to redeem the balance they always managed.

After weighing up the options, they took the simplest path to realign, eliminating the threat that had destabilised all. The judges assumed that Fire would return, no longer being bound to one individual. A foolish and rash decision it would turn out.

For rather than calmly resume his meager existence, the beast exploded in a rage fueled by the vacuum of his loss. In his dance with the mortal, he had learned of what he had never known or experienced, he had learned to love...

...And those who waited had take that away from him.

They had created the very monster they had always feared.

The fires that ravaged the land scorched everything in the Element's path. Blazing forest fires tore through swathes of the continent, burnt down villages, towns, even whole cities; no stone left untouched in his search for the Royal pair.

His brothers and sisters were the first to react. Air knew she would do nothing but make things worse if she confronted her brother alone, but together with Water, they drew together a blizzard that would have frozen entire empires. To no avail though, for under a single glare from the raging sibling, they were blown away.

Following closely behind, his brother Earth marched to his brother, swayed by his great emotional turmoil, for rock and soil remained untouched by Fire’s touch. Yet even Earth could not withstand the ferocity of the Great Consumer’s blaze, retreating for fear of the loss of the life he carried with him.

Eventually Fire threatened to bring about the extinction of the planet. Only when they saw Fire's boiling blood did the sisters finally confront him.

As soon as they appeared to him did the ball of pure energy unleash himself fully. Leaping at their throats, Fire drew with him the energy from the entire cosmos. Stars dimmed as he allowed fully his rage, and grief, and anger to unleash themselves upon the Royal sisters....

... And they reacted back.

Severing the Elemental in two, they locking in a form similar to themselves his learned emotions, binding the love and pain and jealousy into pony form. His spirit incarnate, the true energy that he was, they bound. Formed from the damaged spirit of Earth, they drew all that was dead from him and locked Fire within it, casting it from the surface of the planet beyond the reach of all but themselves. They would use his spirit to warm the planet from afar.

Finally to save the other elements, they did the same. All had been damaged by Fire’s rampage and wouldn’t survive if left in the condition they were in. So taking from each of them the emotions, again they bound them in pony form, eternal in rebirth. Before binding their spirits, each was asked how they would like to live; Air asked to be reborn as Athas on the wings of eagles and soar with her children again, Water wished to once again provide life for her family as Vurgen with flippers of a chattering porpoise. Earth took his time to decide how he wished to be reincarnated, finally wishing to take the name of an ancient race that had viewed him with great respect and honour as Gaia the Great Bearing Turtle.

With the spirits released once more upon the land, and Fire out of harms way, Celestia and Luna returned to their perches on high. Presiding over the great equilibrium they maintained.

Spitting into the air, it would seem my companion does not much like the ending. The candle no longer crackling but booming my name, Thomil, over and over. For see Celestia, eternity is a great length of time, and my lofty prison you trapped me in has given me a rare opportunity to think.

“I like seeing the world turn and everything that you do I watch with great interest. For you were never evil, just trying to maintain your precious balance. Therefore, by leaving two lovers together, you allow them to draw power from each other, growing forever more powerful.” I bellow at these four walls, grinning as I see cracks web across the obsidian cage. “So I send you this warning...”

Laughing maniacally to myself as the thoughts ran erratically through my mind.

“...I’m coming”

<><><><><><><><

Authors Notes:

I hope you’ve enjoyed this as much as I have. This is my first time writing so it’s been a steep learning curve. I’ve had a few rewrites but I think its come out alright in the end.

A big thanks to all my prereaders(/inadvertent editors) who put up with my incessant nagging to tell me what they thought and gave me the courage to write this.

Feefers Lovecraft

JSummerfield93

Nanmin/ |Radix|

SlightlyBossy... I mean SlightlyEccentric [My bad Ruth ;)]

Rik/Gaiascope gets a massive mention as this prologue is entirely inspired by him and has affected the plot line in a big way, so thank you for allowing me to use some of your genius as inspiration.

A massive shout out to Tom Ashford who guided me out of the maze that was my initial idea. L9obl, who gave me a few... stern words to make the coming storm less... prattling. And finally to my most dearest editor... Deebeedoll, who braved the tenses sea and put a gun to my head if I ever got it wrong.

Finally a big thanks to anyone that reads this, it’s you that make this all worthwhile and any response from you that can help improve this even more is always appreciated.

Deep regards and forever grateful,

White Out

PS. I am adding a disclaimer here while I am still working on further chapters, though it may not seem like the story relates greatly to the synopsis... it shall develop. Please just bare with me.

Sticks and Stones

Waning Light

by MrE Whitehooves

Chapter 1

//Sticks and Stones//

Maria kicked up clouds of dust as she skidded beneath a crate, ricketty and worn, as beams of light streamed through the holes in the old box. She narrowly avoided being kicked, the bristly hairs tickling her ear as she slid beneath the lumbering stallion.

As splinters rained about the hooves of the ginger coated courier, he let forth a hail of wild language. However the colourful language only fell upon the ears of those around him, for the crazed ball had already rounded the corner and disappeared like wisps of fog on a sunny morning. Street traders wizzed either side of her as the filly galloped down narrow, twisting streets. Nothing was going to stop her today.

A joyous smile permeated her face. Her mane, like lilac light of the evening sun streaming through stained glass, flowed around the outline of her face. It framed her glowing golden eyes as she careened between the busy hub-ub of the town in the hills. It was a rare occasion where her parents had given her the freedom to explore and play on her own, and she wasn’t going to waste it. Not on the sights of the city, she had places to be. Though spending time with friends, playing down side alleys, taunting older fillies and colts, or just enjoying the sun that shone strong and warm this time of year would have been wonderful; she had one destination in mind. One she had memorised over the few times she had travelled it. Committed it to memory.

Her cousin was someone that always had a smile on, warm as the summer sun. Whereas everypony treated her like a filly, below them, her cousin didn’t. He understood. Standing in front of his door, she examined the mottled wood for the upteenth time.The worn paint was peeling and bleached slightly, allowing the knots and whirls within the grain to show through.

Tapping on the front door, her hooves rang hollow against the solid, looming giant. Despite being tall for her age, she was still dwarfed by the door. Receiving not a whisper from within the structure, she tilted her head closer. Normally he responded instantly to her ‘special’ knock. With more force she knocked again, striking the door several times, only causing it to shake and ring. It had never done thing before. It was wood, and this only happened to metal doors.

She shrank back, ears drooping again her skull, eyes darting about trying to conceive of what was happening. The further she retreated the louder the door rang, slowly making the building that encased it vibrate. Cracks shot across the facade of the structure. Fearing for her life, she ran, screaming as loud as she could. Fissures chased her up the street, causing the ground to buckle, and in places even overtook her.

Having to leap between boulders just to keep moving forward, she leapt into the air aiming for a rock jutting out of the ground. As she came down upon it, it gave way.

Sitting bolt upright, Maria drew a deep breath as her eyes were drawn to the darkness that lay around her. The loud echo of her dreams still rung in her ears, but quieter now. Looking about she noticed the alarm clock rattling away beside her cot. Finally the deep clouds of sleep parted from her consciousness as she went to silence the noise.

Raising herself from the covers, Maria clambered from her cot; the muffled sounds of a waking town greeting her. Cans rattled, steel roofs creaked as they warmed in the sun, and voices wafted on the breeze; the street traders revealing their wares to the thinned, early crowds.

On the landing a sublime smell brushed her nostrils and drew her downstairs. In the kitchen sat her cousin, Dusty Strides, a soft auburn pegasus with hair a speckled yellow mop draped over his deep set features. His hair had been receding at his temples for a while, always joking that it was Maria’s kiss every morning that was causing it. His deep azure eyes welcoming her as they always had, since the first day she had come to live with him.

Laying on the simple table in front of him was a fresh, warm loaf of bread. Two fresh slices sat on a plate, a marble glaze of butter melting into them. Rather than engage his bleary housemate, Maria’s cousin simply slid the plate across the table to rest next to an empty chair.

Without a thought for decorum, Maria wolfed into the meal down before proceeding to lick the plate clean. She let not a crumb be wasted.

Having allowed the animal to finish, the placid pegasus rose from his chair and carried the plate to the sink, if you could call it that. In reality it was a small bowl carved from a knotted wooden log.

As the plate was dropped into the basin, Maria piped up. “When are you actually planning on getting a job? I know there’s not a great deal of work, but you never know what you might find out there.” It was easy for her to criticize him, her having a job and all. The house was theirs now, her parents had ensured that for them. Even so, there was food bills and other expenses, it all added up.

The azure pools disappeared behind a scowl as Dusty kicked at the ground. She saw just how deeply the remark had cut him. From a grumble, Dusty’s voice rose to cut through the silence. “I’ve been trying, you know that. I’ve been down on the docks trying to help with the lifting, but you know what the competition is like. Six or seven competing for every job; it’s hard every time.” Clearly the struggle had been a real drain on him. He really hadn’t had real work, all the while he was relying on Maria to support both of them. If nothing else it was a blow to both his pride and self-esteem.

Scuffing his hooves as he turned away from her, Dusty shuffled to the cupboards lining the small kitchen. Opening the one under the sink, he retreated into it. The whole of his upper body disappeared into the darkness. Were it not for the stormy mood in the room, Maria would most likely laughed at her cousin at that moment. “I know cousin, I’m sorry. It’s just I’m away all day and I don’t know-” Maria started but was cut off as her cousin returned from his darkened abode, a grin pasted on his face as a box was laid under his wing. “Wha...What’s that?” The box was filled with a veritable array of treats from who knew where.

Eyes flickering with joy, he giggled like a little filly. “I wanted to keep it a secret a little while, get you something nice to celebrate it. Enjoy” The white tips of his primary feathers let the box rest on the table next to her hoof. Maria gave him a quizzical look, so he continued. “I was helping down at The White Star piers and just got chatting to this lad the others were avoiding. Understandable really, was a right pain in the flank. Thought he was so much better than me, but when he realised that I didn’t work for White Star he relaxed a bit. He helped me coil ropes from the ferry, went to the bar for a while, chatted and he offered to help me a bit more. ‘Coarse it turns out his old man only White Star doesn’t it. Was talking to lil’ Brown Dwarf the whole time! Heads off for a bit to talk to his old man and only goes and gets me a full time job. It’s neither special nor well paid, but it’s a job.. and I get paid!” The pride on his face was plain for Maria to see.

All she was able to do was stammer forth incoherent ramblings, completely taken aback by the gesture.

“It’s alright Peach. Things have been hard recently but it’ll get easier from now on.”

Maria’s face had darkened slightly, “How many times must I tell you. Do. Not. Call me that.” The pale pony flinching at each word.

“ I know, I’m sorry I just slip up sometimes and-”. The stallion sighed as his thoughts trailed off.

“Celestia be damned I miss them. I haven’t visited them in a while, will you go with me soon?”

“Of course,” started the mottled pegasus. Nudging the box towards the pale his cousin, “but now you really should be heading off to work.”

Glancing to the clock above the wall Maria’s face dropped slightly, she turned as she grabbed the small box of treats. As she made for the door she gave her cousin a quick embrace, dropping the box into her saddlebag before throwing over her back and shouting her goodbyes to her cousin, whistling gently to himself in the kitchen.

The sun caught the steel rooves that littered between more modest rural houses of Rio De Neigherro as Maria walked out, the more impressive glass structures near the coast beckoning to anyone of the wealth there. The cast of from the rich and famous living up the coast to the North in Las Pegasus trying to escape the bustling city of dreams.

The breeze blowing off the sea brought with it the smell of the breakfasts of the town, enticing Maria down into the town. Turning away from the town, she trotted with the breeze towards the hills, enjoying the warmth as the sun washed its rays over her back as she moved quickly to have time for her pre-work ritual.

High in the hills above Neigherro, the statue of Helios the fire ∂aemon rested. A simian monolith dating back beyond memory, a symbol of fire from the pre-Equestian era. Shouldering the glowing ball of the heavens every equinox to signal the changing of the seasons.

The beacon in the hills Maria headed for every morning before work, to a place very few knew of and even less went.

Leaving behind the noises of the town, as she ascended into the hills a new sound grew. A distant rumbling building to a great rolling thunder as the tan mare rounded a corner, and before her a verdant meadow unfolded. Thick clouds of spray erupted from a waterfall that cascaded into the stream flowing through it.

This was a place Maria had come to love, relax in, and even gather her lunch most days. Had she she not been given any. However, nothing drew her here as much as the waterfall. It allowed her to clean herself up, cool off, or just get lost in her own thoughts.

Like many things shown to her as she grew up, her sandy saviour had shared it with her. A secret shared amongst loved ones, or those lucky enough to have stumbled upon it.

In Maria’s eyes it was a good luck charm, having been one of the reason she’d secured her job that had fed them many winters. Coming every day to maintain the clean appearance she regarded as important.

Removing her saddlebags, she stepped under the tepid deluge, allowing the weight of the falling water to knock the knots and aches of the week from her muscles.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the dark recesses of the undergrowth, a streak of red shifted in the bracken. The black portals to the fiery colt’s soul danced over the form of the young mare as she bathed in the glittering water, hating every moment she held his gaze. Guilt filling him every time he watched her without her knowledge, not even within the first dozen times it had happened now.

Truth was he’d been attracted to her from the start, the first time he had strolled back up the little path his father had shown him when he was a tiny colt. Plucking up the courage after so many years, he had seen her there picking flowers the day he returned. The prospect of a new job had been enough, if not all for nought, as she had rooted him to the spot in the shadows of the trees.

After all those years of misspent youth and hardship, the tan mare joined everything good that the falls meant to him.

Whenever he was feeling down, he would return to the falls praying she would be there. So often she was not, so he would sit in the meadow and sleep.

Coming out of his reverie, he turned from the scene he enjoyed so much. Beneath the jade canopy, the bolt of red returned down the path he’d ascended.

Content with having cleaned himself a few days prior, the colt was not concerned with repeating the motions, not while she was there. He couldn’t talk to her, he never had. How would he be able to bathe with her still there.

As the mottled light gave way to brilliant sunshine, the forest opened onto the humble dwellings in the foothills. They were small and simple, wooden with thatched roofs similar to his childhood home he thought.

Each street brought with it a new set of smells, some far better than others. The rumble of his stomach rang the same thought of just how hungry he was as he passed various stalls and shops, until he paused outside a bakery.

Meekly, he walked up to the shop front. The chestnut eyes of the unicorn roved upon the potential client. “Good day sir, what takes your fancy?”, seeds of doubt in her eyes before she’d even spoken.

“What's tasty this morning?”, was all he could draw forth. Memories of previous events replayed in his mind. Very few were pretty.

The eyelids of the mare half-lidded as she slid the tray onto the counter. “Depends what you like?”, the look causing the temperature in the face of the colt to shoot right up. He has always been able to hide this well thanks to his thick coat of neon red fur, however he didn’t hide the surprised look that had blossomed on his face. Laughing, the temptress turned from the counter. “Don’t flatter yourself, handsome. You’re not the sort of pony I’m into.” Capping the statement of with a look over her shoulder, a wry smile plastered on her lips.

The look went unnoticed on its intended victim. The only remnant of him the scarlet glow surrounding two loaves floating away, the clattering of hooves drowned out by the holler of “THIIIIIEF!”

Heads span in various states of confusion and contempt, several giving chase as a muffled apology echoed back up the street.

Darting into an alley, the yellow mane flailed in the wind as the colt fled. The chase was always the worst, he thought. Actually that wasn’t true, the part after was what he dreaded most. It could always go so many different ways.

Further down the alleyway, a pile of rubbish bags blocked the path ahead. Rather than be caught he darted left towards the wall. Kicking into the air, he sent himself sailing straight towards the piles of trash.

To their surprise, the ruby streak bounced back off the wall away from the rubbish as he drew level with it. With a double stride and a kick, the colt flew up the opposite wall, having gained height that very few outside of the pegasus race could have matched. The two earth ponies certainly couldn’t, despite being at least a decade older while still in their prime. The ending was already determined the moment they drew close to the young buck. They plowed straight into the smoldering heaps of garbage. Landing heavily on the other side, the cinnamon troublemaker granted a few seconds of his success to enjoying one of the stolen treats. However the other one would have to be dealt with later as other tempted heroes joined chase after being given time to get their thoughts together.

While those who were earthbound aided in the rescue of the decidedly dirtier initial pursuers, those who could easily bypass the obstruction came swiftly with daggers in their eyes. The intended target was well on the way to moving through a fair portion of the ramshackled district.

Drawing ragged breaths, the ball of crimson fury was drawing on the edge of his limit as desperation began to set in. He needed a way out and swiftly. Though he had removed earth ponies and unicorn alike from the equation, that still meant that pegasi were a now much larger part of the equation. To shake them he needed to come up with something fast. Having lived by mouth and hoof for most of his mature life, he knew a lot of the layout of the district like an internal city of his own creation. To lose them he would have to break eye contact, and to do that he would need to take to the rooftops briefly.

As he kicked up the pace to near overload, he took to a broken wall. The crumbling rock splintered slightly as it took the weight of the unicorn indignantly. The wall exploded into a cloud of fine dust as the force of the thieving unicorn driving skywards caused it to give way.

The dust billowed at his hooves as he slammed down on the solid concrete roof, a reprieve from the potential metal roofs that were so dangerous to put pressure on. Desire drove the drained colt onwards, darting towards a ledge that ran along a building adjacent to the one he resided on. His rapid movements were matched by the pegasi as the chase moved from the weaving streets to the terraced roofs of the favela. The escape was hampered by limited length that each leap could extend. The small back streets and alleys aided in his continued evasion, but the routes he could take were limited.

For his plan to work, he had to draw the last ounces of strength from his body. He drove upwards, the roof being near a nose too far. He almost fell short, but the cackle of a fervent mare-do-well kicked his mind into action and drew him up to the next short path. His eyes bulged as he reached the edge, nearly falling into the abyss beyond.

The glint in the eye of one keen mare told him they knew he was trapped, and she was right. As he turned to meet their glare, he bit into the second loaf. It was a final buck you to them, and he drew all the energy he could from the tiny amount of nourishment.

Each streak of beating wings slowed down as the hunt drew near conclusion, the final outcome already a certain.

In a sweeping arc, the bread roll was launched into the air, released from its telekinetic bonds. In doing so, the crimson ball pitched backwards, light pouring from his eyes as the strength that had filled him during the chase drained from his body into his horn. He pitched backwards over the parapet into the void beyond, with a flash of scarlet inferno surrounding around a sphere of purest dark, and the colt was gone. Nothing but the licks of flame that crackled in the air and the bun that bounced off the dome of one crestfallen stallion remained.

Author's Note

I'm sorry this has taken so long to do, I just forget to write stuff up as I write it on paper.
Thank you to everyone that supported me, especially Dee and Eve.