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16 Hours by Escapade

By grapenut
Created: 2022-07-18 22:51:50
Updated: 2022-07-18 23:02:34
Expiry: Never
sim

  1. 1.
    16 Hours by Escapade
  2. 2.
     
  3. 3.
    https://desuarchive.org/mlp/thread/29262537/#q29263245
  4. 4.
    https://poneb.in/u/Mendicant
  5. 5.
     
  6. 6.
    ---
  7. 7.
     
  8. 8.
    >”They’re only fillies Nightmare…”
  9. 9.
    >...
  10. 10.
    >It has been some time since you summoned your sister to your chambers.
  11. 11.
    >The cup of coffee sitting before you has long since grown cold.
  12. 12.
    >”They don’t deserve this…”
  13. 13.
    >You look across the room toward Celestia, who is seated near a half eaten tray of cookies.
  14. 14.
    >This… was a mistake.
  15. 15.
    >You should have sent her away hours ago.
  16. 16.
    >Yet here you are, alone with /her./
  17. 17.
    >Your dearest sister.
  18. 18.
    >…
  19. 19.
    >Time feels as if it has stopped moving entirely.
  20. 20.
    >It’s early in the morn; perhaps four past midnight.
  21. 21.
    >These are the long hours.
  22. 22.
    >The hours in which both lovers and laborers find rest.
  23. 23.
    >The hours in which the haunted find doubt — find emptiness.
  24. 24.
    >…
  25. 25.
    “They are most wicked mares sister; attempting to slay an sovereign…”
  26. 26.
    >The words fall from your mouth haphazardly.
  27. 27.
    >Your mind is not in your words, but somewhere far away.
  28. 28.
    >”I know Nightmare, but they were young… confused…”
  29. 29.
    >You can feel the trepidation in her voice.
  30. 30.
    >She fears you — your wraith.
  31. 31.
    >Were this a normal night you would dispel her pleas with ruthless abandon.
  32. 32.
    >A mere glare, or change in you arcane aura would be enough to silence her foalish words.
  33. 33.
    >But on this morn, you cannot bring yourself to do so.
  34. 34.
    >You… can’t bring yourself to do much anything.
  35. 35.
     
  36. 36.
    >You look back out of the window, and down upon the royal gardens.
  37. 37.
    >You feel an uneasiness; a restlessness.
  38. 38.
    >Insomnia perhaps.
  39. 39.
    >Your eyes guide you to look upon the snow covered canvas before you.
  40. 40.
    >Nothing is moving.
  41. 41.
    >“I understand that I misguided them Nightmare, but that’s /my/ fault; not theirs!”
  42. 42.
    >You continue to stare at the snow.
  43. 43.
    >It is an… interesting form.
  44. 44.
    >It’s simple; merely water in another state, lacking it’s normal warmth.
  45. 45.
    >Yet it does not /feel/ cold.
  46. 46.
    >Any foal can tell you that their hoof suffers far more greatly in cold water than snow.
  47. 47.
    >Snow is… gentle.
  48. 48.
    >It need not draw thy ear as rain to make it’s presents known.
  49. 49.
    >Snowfall is, to the contrary, a most calming phenomenon.
  50. 50.
    >“Twilight was my student. I thought she could… I thought she could be something special - something great…”
  51. 51.
    >A blind pony who lost their sight once explained snow’s effect on the senses.
  52. 52.
    >That a snow is to the sense of sound what a darkness is to the sense of sight.
  53. 53.
    >It steals sound from the very air itself.
  54. 54.
    >”But I was wrong Nightmare, I was wrong and now she’s paying the price!”
  55. 55.
    >Your eyes lose focus - the snow covered gardens fade from your vision.
  56. 56.
    >...
  57. 57.
    >Winter is a… familiar time of year.
  58. 58.
    >Calm, cold, and dark.
  59. 59.
    >It doesn't need grand attention offered to it’s warmer siblings.
  60. 60.
    >Instead it finds pride and purpose in it’s modest gifts.
  61. 61.
    >A calm walk — a pleasing vista.
  62. 62.
    >Many a family would retreat to their homes, and find company in their own kin.
  63. 63.
    >“She’s never seen had friends until the day before you arrived! She hasn’t had the opportunity to live a normal life!”
  64. 64.
    >And yet somehow, this season is different for you.
  65. 65.
    >You’re... haunted by it.
  66. 66.
    >The white plains… the darkness…
  67. 67.
    >The silence…
  68. 68.
     
  69. 69.
    >You begin to talk.
  70. 70.
    “Does thou know what the moon is like dearest sister?”
  71. 71.
    >Your voice is void of emotion.
  72. 72.
    >You’re little more than thinking aloud.
  73. 73.
    “It’s a quiet place.”
  74. 74.
    “We remember when our hooves first felt the surface…”
  75. 75.
    "Thin pale powder — just like snow…”
  76. 76.
    >The fur on your neck stands.
  77. 77.
    ”Our lungs burned...”
  78. 78.
    ”For days — weeks — years we struggled to simply breathe.”
  79. 79.
    ”Death was not a mercy we were to be given."
  80. 80.
    ”Torture was our punishment."
  81. 81.
    >…
  82. 82.
    “There’s no sound on the moon."
  83. 83.
    “We screamed — Cried out for help — for mercy — for murder.”
  84. 84.
    “No one heard us…”
  85. 85.
    >Your focus pivots.
  86. 86.
    “Those fillies were nothing more than pawns in your game sister; crafted to strike us down upon our return.”
  87. 87.
    “Thou has no right to beg for mercy for thy hired assassins.”
  88. 88.
    “We were your sister — your blood — yet thou threw us aside for thy petty pride and pleasure...
  89. 89.
    “Thou knew the law — knew thy place and thy station….”
  90. 90.
    >You pause, gathering your nerves, and taking a deep breath to calm yourself.
  91. 91.
    “We... care not for thy weapons of war or thy pleas for pardon.”
  92. 92.
    “We hath been betrayed dearest sister… betrayed by thy own blood…”
  93. 93.
    >...
  94. 94.
    >You close your eyes.
  95. 95.
    "We cannot forgive such transgressions..."
  96. 96.
    >...
  97. 97.
    >There is a heavy silence in the air.
  98. 98.
     
  99. 99.
    >You... don't care what she may say in reply.
  100. 100.
    >But then, to your horror...
  101. 101.
    >...
  102. 102.
    >”Empress?”
  103. 103.
     
  104. 104.
    >…
  105. 105.
    >Everything stops.
  106. 106.
    >Your eyes refocus, and you turn toward the voice without a moment’s delay.
  107. 107.
    >You quickly look across the room.
  108. 108.
    >The cookies are gone.
  109. 109.
    >/Celestia/ is gone.
  110. 110.
    >You look down to your side, beneath your window seat.
  111. 111.
    >It is Octavia; your most loyal earthen maid.
  112. 112.
    >A book rest in her hooves, though you care not what it contains.
  113. 113.
    >She gently looks up at you before closing the tome, and standing.
  114. 114.
    >Your throat is tight.
  115. 115.
    >She need not speak for you to understand why she is here.
  116. 116.
    >It… it happened again.
  117. 117.
    >Your voice is weak.
  118. 118.
    ”Little one… did you... hear-"
  119. 119.
    >She stops your sentence with a simple nod.
  120. 120.
    >Your mind struggles for words, your tongue paralyzed with fear.
  121. 121.
    "How… long was I….?”
  122. 122.
    >You fail to vocalize the rest of your foalish question.
  123. 123.
    >Mercifully, Octavia spares you humiliation, and answers, already knowing what you intended to ask.
  124. 124.
    >She gently raises her hoof, placing it tenderly atop your own.
  125. 125.
    “Sixteen hours Empress — You’ve been here for sixteen hours…”

Submission is Mandatory archive

by grapenut