Faster than I could comprehend a white form suddenly stood next to me, her hoof deeply buried into my barrel and catapulting me towards a stone pillar. The pillar broke on contact with me, as did my bones. A testament to the weakness that I have to overcome before I could fully work for the Princess again. If I manage to survive the Sun Witch at least.
As the dust settled I could see the shocked faces of all who were present in the room. I tried to move, but was only able to cough up blood. The coppery taste laying heavy on my tongue. I never thought that I would fail so miserably. Not only the one-hit-K.O. that I just had to endure at the hooves of the Sun Witch, also the fact that I couldn’t protect the Princess. She was frozen in fear and unable to move.
And just like that a pair of rather pudgy white legs concealed my view, as a shadow loomed threatingly over me.
I looked into the magenta burning eyes of the Sun Witch. Her eyes glaring down at me with an intense heat, as if she wanted to incinerate me on the spot. I defied her tactic to intimidate me and glared back at her a thousand fold.
“So we see again, Mutt,” was her rather uncivilized retort. Not that I expected any less.
I simply chuckled, putting her definitely more on edge, judging from the cracking floor beneath her hooves.
“Say, what is so funny?” she asked with hatred in her voice.
I gave her a satisfied smile.
“It seems like even after a thousand years your manners are just as bad as your restraint for cake.”
Much to my satisfaction her face instantly turned a deep shade of red. If from deep embarrassment or anger was anybody’s guess. I would say it was a mix of the two.
“SILENCE CREATURE!” Celestia roared as she kicked me once again, her hoof making contact with my ribcage painfully which gave way to more cracks.
I slid over the floor for a bit, before coming to a halt. She definitely kept her temper.
I coughed up a bit of blood and my eyes closed from the pain. I could already feel another shadow looming over me and prepared for the worst.
However, to my utter surprise I could feel a pair of hands wrap itself gently around my form. So gently in fact, that I knew that klutz Celestia couldn’t be it, seeing as she was never one to refine her own skills. As I slowly opened my eyes I could see the yellow pegasus. For some incomprehensible reason these cyan orbs of hers were filled with worry. Oh wait, she is an animal caretaker. I remember. So she sees me as some poor defenseless animal? That is actually quite amusing. I might even laugh if a rib wasn’t puncturing my lung.
The worried look on her face promptly changed, only to be replaced by a burning fury as she gently set me back down, making sure not to cause me any pain.
“WHAT. THE. HAY!” she screamed loudly as she turned around to face the Sun Witch, who was only staring at my prone form coldly, murder intent clear in her eyes. However that outburst seemed to take her and all the others in the room in surprise.
She suddenly stormed off and got into the face of the Sun Witch, surprising me.
To accentuate it: This wimp with absolutely no backbone was just glaring down one of the most powerful beings in Equestria in a staring contest. A staring contest she seemed to win, I might add, as our little pseudo-princess had problems to take the full heat of her angry glaring eyes and LOOKED AWAY uncomfortably.
“How could you?!” the mare simply trudged on as she hovered in her face, giving her the same height as Celestia. “How could you treat a poor and defenseless animal like that?!”
The combination of the words poor and defenseless in correlation with me seemed to have left a sour taste in the Sun Witches mouth, seeing as she gathered the rest of her lackluster backbone and courage to face the buttery mare.
“He is evil!” was the Witches oh so eloquent response. But Butterbone would have none of it.
“I know that he is! But he has already received his punishment and everyone deserves a second chance!”
Oh ho? Interesting point. Of course I wouldn’t agree with her, seeing that I don’t think there is anything wrong with usurping the false princess to place the true ruler upon Equestria’s throne.
“Not. Him!” meanwhile the Witch of course tried to force her will on others like always, while stomping her hoof, cracking the floor in the vain hope of intimidating the one being who was standing between us and with that keeping me alive.
Much to the Witches dismay it didn’t work, making her growl. Even I could tell that her missing restraint was slowly cracking and that she would blow a gasket any second now.
At least she would have, wasn’t it for a new participant in the conversation.
“NO! Don’t hurt him!” everyone turned around to look at a nervous little filly, tears welling in her eyes, “Here!” she said holding the crown I stole out with her hand, “I will even give the crown back! But please don’t do anything to him! He is the only friend that I have left!”
“Princess,” I croaked out between violent coughs.
This made my loyalty and deep bond of respect for her only flare anew. It was exactly why I was serving her. But it seemed that I was doing a rather lousy job at that, as I was now more of a liability than anything. I wanted to help her, but I could already feel my fading consciousness. It seemed like my HP dropped to zero, and with that I was embraced in the comforting embrace of darkness as everything blacked out again.
~END~