"... He will be sorely missed by those who loved him and worked beside him..."
It was a somber affair in the Crystal Empire. For the first time in decades, the skies above the radiant palace grounds sat heavy with dark, grey clouds. Princess Cadence wept freely among her citizens, swathed in weighty blacks.
They had done the best they could with him, but the makeup lay caked on thick and pasty, and his wrinkles were still showing strongly. His jaw still jutted razor-sharp and bony from his thin, greying neck, and his mane, combed delicately away from his whorled, scarred horn, looked brittle and waxy in the dim light.
Twilight's wing rested against her side in quiet support, and although Cadence could feel he anguish rolling off of her in waves, she never flinched, never let a tear fall, never took her eyes off her brother's stately corpse.
"... So with great sorrow and regret, we commend his body to the Earth," the speaker finished. The pallbearer a stepped forward with hammer and nails, and with a sudden, jarring whump, the casket shut for the last time.
Something broke in Cadence's chest, and her stomach fell in a free-fall panic. The ground was too much; the sadness around her rose up in a wave and threatened to overtake her. Misery bore her up into the sky as she flew, panicked and hollow and strange. And in a moment she could feel it all- the cold hearts of those below her, the mistrust and the anger and the sadness, the overwhelming sadness.
It lay there for the taiking, rich and heady on the air. And she breathed deep of it, drank her fill of it. And Cadence took a deep, gasping breath and became. Snow fell around her as she winged in an arc. Her subjects screamed and ran and panicked below her, and she cried with the wind. She wailed and whinnied and revelled in her storm, as the misery and distrust around her grew and grew.
Hollow: Ooh, woah, hmm.. Had to read this one a few times to get a feel for it. I find myself wondering why there's so much mistrust and anger involved that she's sensing (or maybe just thinking she's sensing?) and.. Oh. Oh DUDE. Did she just become a wendigo?
o.o That's heavy. Wow. I only caught that just now. At first I was thinking 'changeling after all?'
Nice twist, for sure!
Together... Alone: Oh, thank goodness, something lighter! Points for effort, Sweetie Belle! Sometimes those non-master-unicorn-race ponies just need a few hints. And food spattered all over. And maybe one of those magical handcuff plot devices that will trap them together for wacky hijinks and shenanigans until they realize they're meant for one another.
(Insert obligatory mental image here of Sweetie Belle holding an Apple Bloom and Scootaloo doll together and going "Now, kiss!")
As always, I love seeing your stuff!
no no no n0 no no D: omg no
2937233 I have too much fun exploring the idea of Cadence losing Shining. For all we know, he could be the first pony she's loved enough for marriage. And so when he's gone, and when all her power revolves around the love she feels missing from her life, interesting things could happen. Plus, I felt like Wendigoes needed yet another creation story because there's really not enough on them, in my opinion.