Plight of the Pegasi

I had hidden in my room till night faded; the end of the gloom. A knocking sends a tremor to the tip of my spine and it runs back and forth till I head for the door. I draw one cold breath as I apply pressure to the handle. The door swings away and I am struck by sister’s gaze. She only mouths words to me. I can vaguely make out a few vowels.

“Was I not meant to throw them out there?” I ask, rhetoric rasping in my voice.

“Your little hissy fit killed ponies” She scolds.

“No… You’re making that up” I tell myself more than her.

“Why, must all ponies stay inside?”

“Of course not, it was the dead of night” I rebuke her allegations.

“Seems appropriate”

“I didn’t… I would never hurt anypony my sister”

“You’re an embarrassment; you always will be”

“But my si…”

“Do not refer to me as you sister ever again! The very sight of you just reminded me of last night’s dinner”

“I… Please, it was an accident” I plead.

“Yes you accidentally killed a young family on their way back from the infirmary. Well done”

“I…”

“Letting you stay was a mistake. You were a mistake”

She ignites her horn, brighter than ever. I had seen this once before. Back when I was nightmare moon, when I was evil, I remember that light. I feel an enthralling presence pulling me off of the ground. I try to fight it, but there’s not hope for me now. I am lost. I transport myself through the ether, I cannot travel far by these means but I have escaped the spell. I blink back into existence to the side of my sister. I balance on my front hooves and launch a kick into her jaw.

“Argh! You Bitch!” She screams.

I leap from the open window, over the lonely balcony and free-fall towards the ground. I pick up speed in infinitum as I plummet, my sister does not lose sight of me however. She is too on wing, heading down the heaven reaching tower. She charges her horn up and launches some form of solar beam; it only just misses my tail. The girth of the beam grows at it concords towards the ground. It leaves a molten crater in the crazy paving pavilion on which our home sits. I strafe to evade a further two volleys of the highly charged primordial spell before I let my wings spring out and fly as close to the ground as I dare. Down here the moon’s guiding light has no say; I cast an illumination spell to help me through the street made maze. I see my sister is the more adept flyer as she gains ground on me. We are close to one of the many market squares of the Kingdom; I give everything I have to gain a tiny advantage. I snatch a tethered applecart from the recesses of the square and send it back to my eager sister. I turn sharply as I hear splintering wood and smell smouldering concrete slabs behind me. I didn’t think it would stop her. I soar through the grove at a blistering pace. I check behind and see no shadow hanging over me. As my gaze reverts to the front I am blinded by the iridescent aura of my sister. She has teleported ahead of me, clever girl. I shoot past her but know I am not out of the woods. A hot cage of energy burrs into my pelt and soon grounds me in the pleasant palace green.

“Please sister” I beg. “Don’t send me back there”

She says nothing, only her actions speak for her. She reels the cage back to her. I have to ignore the pain; I throw another spark up my horn and teleport from the cage. I am however not the greatest at the art of magic. I try to walk after ‘escaping’ but cannot for I am snagged on the cage. In my haste to be free of the bars I have phased my leg into the burning gold of my sister’s trap. I feverishly pull my lacerated limb away before risking another teleport and freeing myself completely. The glow in the darkness is extinguished as the spell is ceased. I turn and prepare to flee again; I am then shunted in the face by a pair of shined golden hoof shoes.

“I polished them myself, had to get the blood off first” She intimidates.

I spit the blood from my muzzle and square up to her. She is no longer there. I hear a voice of perhaps an echo so I turn and buck without looking. I am subjected to another clout to the cheek bone as I fall for the cheap trick. My vision blurs at the force of the kick. I spin on a spot to ensure she can’t sneak up on me. I recognize the tell-tale sign of her retuning to kick and myself teleport to get out of the way. I flash back and deliver a final kick to the bridge of her snout before she takes control. She blinks in and out, reappearing at the breadth of my shoulder and grabbing me by my horn. I struggle her lose but she will not budge, I consider transiting away but she had a counter-spell for that. She lets fly small sparks of magic which dash my concentration so I cannot escape. She is much stronger than me, she is older. I jar my neck one way the next to shake her but she will not yield. I feel a dull pain coming from my horn and increase my efforts. I throw my back up into her solar plexus and toss my head back in an attempt to injure her. My horn slices through her cheek. She backs off and pets her cheek, pools of blood filling beneath her. I fire up a protection spell as she blasts a solar beam at me. The protection spell creates a reflective mirror which bends the course of laser into the sky. My eyes follow the path of the light as it penetrates the heavens. I am brought painfully back to earth when a hoof catches my throat and I am brought to my knees. I feel her hooves around my neck again, one attaches to my horn and begins to lever it off. I try to fight but I am too weak. I am too tired. I lunge my head forward before the pelt on my forelock is torn open and the horn snaps away with a stomach-churning crack. I cry out, no pony will hear me. She lights her horn up and takes us both away.

Hooves hit the grass, we are in a cemetery. She walks ahead of me to three freshly dug graves.

“Oh poor little Timmy, Poor little Ophelia and poor, poor little Francis” She says.

“How are they already buried?”

“They tend to bury new-borns a soon as they can”

“That’s why they were late back from…”

“Yes my, sister. They’d only been alive but thirty minutes”

I hang my head in shame; blood still spilling from my ruptured horn.

“But what would they say? If they could have said something what do you think their last words would have been?”

“I cannot know that”

My pearlescent sister’s eyes burn with a dark purple glow. She sends a translucent stream of energy down to the three graves. The floor gives to a resurrected trio of once cold lifeless corpses. They are held there, as if strings bow from the heavens to give them the illusion of life. Their skulls are caved in. The pure weight of the solid gold hoof shoes would have been enough to kill the hardiest of stallions. But they are oh so small, they hadn’t a chance to escape, they were bound in linen and a towel for the cold winter breathes down their necks. What pony am I to assume innocence when the repercussions lay puppets on the strings of my sister’s hooves?

“Why would you do this to us?” A frail filly foal asks.

“We never did anything wrong” Came another sigh from virgin lips.

“What went wrong Nightmare Moon?” The third riles.

“That is not! That is not who I am anymore” I protest.

“What changed? You still act selfishly”

“I do not. I am humble, I am caring…”

“You are of simple needs. You are lazy and you are selfish”

“Stop this, my SISTER! We swore never to use the ocre magicus”

“But they have so much to say sister. Can’t you hear them?” she says, hiding a giggle.

“I can hear you talk for them. This was unlucky, not malice”

“Was it a freak accident? You threw you responsibilities out of the window! Just like you did before, just like you always will”

“It would have never happened if you weren’t treating me like a child all the time. We are the same age!”

She illuminates her horn with particles of light, I am encompassed under her spell once more and this time I have no way to escape. The glowing rungs of entrapment coil around my appendages before coating me entirely and sailing me off to space.

“I warned you, you undermined me! Now sleep off your ruinous thoughts on the cold lonely prison of the moon!”

I am launched towards the satellite. I travel at such a rate that everything becomes a blur. Soon I am a star, shooting through space. I see my friend the moon expanding and thanks to the one on the ground I am powerless. I collide with the powdery surface of moon and am captured in the vice-like embrace of its loving arms. I am pulled into the vestiges, the inner depths of the giant and can feel the life fading from my soul. I scream but nothing comes out. I am one with the moon, I am her again. I can feel everything that is me fusing with the body as we drift together through the vast empty void.