//------------------------------// // The Story of My Life // Story: Lunatics // by GottaLovePinkiePie //------------------------------// “It all started rather early, before you were born, of course. My brother and I were quite close once upon a time, you know. You probably don’t remember the fights… But that doesn’t matter for now. Later. Later…” Ace slipped off his trail, he gazed expressionlessly at the jar on the table. Tricky stared flatly at him, tears streaming out of her frozen eyes. Blaze sat still in his chair, slowly blinking at the others whilst reaching for another bottle of wine. Ace shook off his memories and sighed. “Now, as I said, we were close before, but then we met a mare.” Something changed in his eyes, Tricky could see the small light of a recollection. Somehow, she envied him. “Queer thing, but oh, she was a marvelous specimen, truly stunning. Both in wits and looks. I was instantaneously bewitched by this… This goddess. She was everything one could ever ask for. She was blunt in a way, but I always found it quite charming. Maxie, that was her name. Poor poor Maxie… She died you see. Of what they never really found out. I’d put my money on a broken heart and disappointment.” He drained his glass of whisky in one single sip. He sniffed at the empty glass and then threw it across the room in a fit of anger. Neither Tricky nor Blaze flinched at this. Ace grunted and bit his lips in murderous frustration. “Sadly, I wasn’t the only one to cherish miss Maxie. My older brother always had a knack for stealing my belongings.” “Belongings?” Tricky echoed. “He had no right! The bastard!” Ace slammed his hoof into the armrest of his chair. A lock of hair dangled before his eyes, swinging in rhythm with his heaving chest. Blaze stared at him, his anger rising together with the alcohol. Ace blinked, a sole bead of sweat gleamed in the dim light on his brow. “Why, excuse me, I seem to have gotten a little excited…” “I’m not entirely sure I understand, your older brother, isn’t that…?” Tricky puckered her eyebrows, eyes and nuzzle still shining red from crying. “Ace of Clovers. So very sanctimonious, that one. Always ready to butter up whomever came in his way. They all drowned in his false vows of happiness and riches.” Ace sighed. “Anyway. Eventually, even Maxie fell under his spell. She said that he was harmless. I wasn’t, but that’s for later...Then, overnight she left everyone she had held dear behind. Even me. Together, she and my brother ran off into the sunset, blinded by "love". Left everything behind, even all their money! Thought they could live off their affection for each other, I suppose. You know-” Ace shifted in his chair so that he faced Tricky and Blaze. “I could have kept her safe, and contented! Whatever made her fall in love with that fool is a mystery to me. If it even was love. My brother wasn’t the caring type.” Tricky started breathing heavily. She almost thought she knew where Ace was going. Blaze though, now oozing with drunkenness, slurred out the first words since he’d seen the jar. “Neither ahrre youu, Ace.” “To you, it’s Scar Ace. I will not be hearing more from you anymore, slave.” Blaze stumbled back into his chair. “Well, ya’ know, Scar Ace,” Blaze articulated the title in a mocking superior voice. “YOU ahre ze one who murdered mah amily… Family. So, ah can’t blame ehrr for fleeing fhrrromm youh!” Blaze stared at Ace, as if he’d won some fierce argument. “Oh shush! That was entirely your father’s fault.” Blaze’s expression turned murderous in a second, but Ace ignored him and turned back to Tricky. “As I was saying... A few years later, who shows up on my doorstep, but Clovers?! But…” Ace leaned forward in his chair and observed Tricky up close. “Maxie was nowhere to be seen. She’d died on some side street, Clovers told me about it. Heartbreaking.” Scar Ace drained a second glass of whisky. “Still, he wasn’t alone.” Tricky unwillingly quickened her breath. “You were with him. A tiny little thing, huge eyes though. Clovers may have been blind, but I saw it at once. Hah! If only he’d known.” Tricky’s breath now came in ragged gasps. “What are you talking about? You saw what?” “Why you, of course! Don’t you see?” Ace stared expectantly at her. Tricky’s face however, was adorned by a completely clueless expression. Ace sighed, and continued. ”Tell me, what color was your father?” “What color?” “Yes, his coat, mane, eyes… What color were they?” Ace impatiently tapped his hooves on the table. “Um… dark green coat… and mane… I don’t know about the eyes-” “Brown. They were brown.” Ace nodded at Tricky. “So, now do you see?” Tricky felt the tears rising in her eyes. “Wha-What?” her voice became pitched, Ace chuckled. “Let me give you a hint, dear. Maxie’s coat was creamy-white, mane the most dazzling color of acajou, her eyes… Her eyes were like jewels, or stars in the night! Such radiant blue eyes, I have only seen one other mare with eyes like her’s.” Tricky started shaking in her chair. Cold sweat ran from her front. “Maxie was your mother, Tricky.” “I already knew that! I remember the day it happened, I remember the day she died.” Tricky’s shallow voice echoed in the room, the grimm recollection of this day made a tear fall. “Yes, but think of Clovers, his colors!” “GREEN, green! He was green!” Tricky spoke in a panic-stricken shriek. “But you aren’t. Your coat and eyes, they are from your mother, but your mane… It’s red like the devil!” Ace sneered at her, as if he’d uncovered some old secret from it’s grave. “What’s your point?” “You’re not your father’s daughter, Tricky!” “You’re not making any sense!” she was starting to weep, her face contorted in a grimace of sadness and her voice turned into a small whimper. “You’re mad!” “That is what all those unwilling to see say, Tricky! Come on, don’t be a fool!” Ace rose out of his chair to hover over Tricky like a stormcloud. “No, no, no, NO! It can’t be…” “Say it, Tricky. Say it!” Ace’s sadistic smile hovered over the weeping mare like a stormcloud. “It’s not true!” “Oh don’t be foolish, you know it is. Just say it, I want to hear it.” “NO!” Tricky’s despairing wail echoed in the room. Ace’s mad expression stretched from ear to ear, a flash of anger made his mind foggy. “ACCEPT THE TRUTH, FOR WITHOUT IT WE ARE MERE BRUTES! MONSTERS!” Tricky stammered something unhearable, Ace furiously panted where he stood, casting a long shadow over the weeping mare. “ACCEPT THE TRUTH, TRICKY!!!” “I AM NOT YOur daughter…” Tricky’s voice died out as her fuddled mind grasped what she was saying. Ace’s furious grimace changed into a smile of triumph. Tricky, defeated, let her gaze drop to the floor. A single tear fell into her lap and was followed by a flood of others. Scar Ace straightened himself, the mad glint in his eyes wasn’t gone yet, no! Infact it absorbed everything around it, rendering Ace even more terrifying than ever. “Don’t you see?” he asked his sobbing daughter. “Don’t you see how wonderful that is? My daughter! My sole descendant. My daughter…” Apparently oblivious to the resentful glares that were piercing him, Ace smiled wickedly. “We must celebrate! I believe I have some old wine stocked up here somewhere, let’s see… Ah, here!” Ace bent down to retrieve the bottle, but suddenly a silver plate smashed into the cabinet, barely missing his head. He swirled around, the anger shooting out of his eyes like fireworks. He looked at Blaze who had staggered up from his chair. He was holding another plate in his magical grip. “Murderer.” Blaze spoke the words in such clarity one could have thought he was infact sober. The plate swished through the air with a blinding speed. Ace only had time to throw himself to the side before it buried itself deep in the wood of the cabinet. “HOW DARE YOU?!” Scar Ace roared, but as another bowl came hurling through the air, he dove under the table for cover. Blaze laughed deliriously as he bent down, plenty of plates ready for attack, to look under the table. He was met by a beam of magic. It hit him right in the chest, the force threw him backwards and he flew into the wall behind him. His vision blurred, he gasped for breath but his head spun like a carousel. “You’re lucky I still need you.” Ace’s fuzzy shadow hissed. He turned back to the table, anger boiling in his ears and eyes flashing red. There was a twitch round the corners of his mouth as if merely keeping that smile taped on his face was causing him a great lot of pain. The pupils in his eyes were constricted and almost looked griffon-like. His hair was coming out of the sleek coiffure, he looked as if he’d been hit by lighting. His normally hard-hearted demeanor had changed into a downright diabolical craze. Slurred words came spewing out into space like a volcano releasing all its pent up emotions into darkness. He shook his head back and forth, muscles tight like stone. There was no controlling his fury, his disturbed behavior stirred all the basic instincts in Tricky. It was like flipping a light switch, hit the wrong button and suddenly you had loads of unwanted electricity roasting your spine. Blaze cautiously observed Ace, the alcohol planted new ingenious ideas into his head, the next even more ridiculous than the first. Hesitantly, he rose to his hooves. Tricky cast him a quick look, but as Ace started growling like a dog she ignored her drunk friend. Blaze snook up to the table behind Ace’s back. Ace kept on repeating the same words over and over again, Tricky feared her own sanity by just listening to him. A small voice in her head screamed at her, desperately trying to get her to run, fly, just get away. Fearfully she rambled out a question that had been on her mind throughout the whole dinner, maybe in a try to buy some time. “But what about the shadows?” Ace swirled around, drool spewing from his mouth. “WHAT SHADOWS?!” Tricky stood up from her chair to avoid the saliva. “The ones in my dreams, the one’s that chased me in the forest?” Ace seemed to think for a moment, but soon a light of recollection lit up his face. “Oh the Lunatics?” His voice had changed back into it’s normal sickly sweet hiss. “Um, yeah sure, the Lunatics.” Tricky’s eyebrows shot up towards her temples, only for one to fall back down. Ace waved away the name in disgust. “Horrible creatures. But rather useful for… getting rid of ponies.” “That’s what you did with me, right?” Tricky’s eyes shot at the door behind Ace and upwards, to the glass dome that cast a golden light over the room. Just over it, she saw herds of Royal Guards swarming like insects. We must be close to the castle… Can’t get out from there. “Well if only you hadn’t been so damn upset over your father’s demise that you threatened this whole organisation, I wouldn’t have had to kill you. But,” he declared in a heighty voice, “examples must be made.” “But what about all the rest? Was that you as well?” she asked, eyes fixed on the glass dome. “Dear, you’ll have to be more specific. I do lots of horrible things every day.” Ace said proudly, not noticing Tricky’s excitement. “Umm, well there’s the talking tree… And the dedecus? That awful scar on Bla-” “Oh the scar?” Ace chuckled at this. “It’s just a little reminder that that rat is after all, my slave.” Tricky heard Blaze grunt behind her. “A-and the tree? That wasn’t just my imagination?” her voice cracked at the last word, even in her current situation she felt a wave of shame wash over her. Ace didn’t seem to notice, or care. He simply pointed to his horn. “I’m a unicorn Tricky. I have lots of useful assets all over Equestria.” Tricky’s heart fell at his words. All over Equestria? No place to hide from him… “Well that’s convenient, can find anypony… Anywhere?” At this Ace turned to her with a suspicious look on his face. “Dear is there something you want to know?” Tricky was thinking quickly, her heart beat faster and faster in her ribcage. Think think think! I’ve got to get out of here. NOW! “Well, I don’t really understand… the Lunatics. WHAT are they, exactly?” “Foals mostly.” Tricky blinked at his words. “Foals?” “Yes, ponies that died without a cutiemark. That means foals. Horrifying, but incredibly useful.” Ace turned to his baffled daughter. “If one offers them another pony’s destiny, they will gladly obey you. When they are done, they are born again as ponies. Happy to go on living normal lives with their stolen destinies.” Tricky considered this for a while. “But what about the ponies they steal from? What happens to them?” “Oh they die.” he turned to her. “You didn’t though. Bizarre, but advantageous. They did take your destiny though.” Tricky glanced at her bare flank, a sting of sorrow ripped through her heart. Ace watched her nonchalantly. “Just as well… I was tired at constantly losing to you in poker.” She glared at him, eyes tearing. “How can you say that?!” her voice broke again, but humiliation was nothing in the shadow of her growing anger. “I’m a sore loser, I’ll admit as much.” “Oh you-HMPF” “Please articulate, dear it’s so annoying. It’s very important to your image. No one will take you seriously if you mumble… Tricky?” Ace turned around to face Tricky, a hint of concern in his voice. But instead of facing a furious daughter, he was met by two pairs of hateful eyes.