The End
An echo of a water drop bounced off the stone walls. It danced around the metal bars and glass windows that made up this place. When it comes down to it, that was all this place was built out of. That, and darkness. The darkness was a big part of it too. It felt alive after being locked up in here, like a constant whisper that drove you further to insanity.
But I guess to be in this place you’d have to start out fairly insane. At least, that’s what I would have thought a long time ago. It’s been only a few days in this confining place. In that time I’ve gone over my past many, many, many times. It’s like a story that you can’t forget, or a book you can’t put down. It didn’t help that a suit of broken and bent golden armor was chained to the wall around me, as well as multiple weapons. All relics of the past. Sometimes a memory comes like a flash and I pull against the chains that bind me to the wall.
Then the guards show up. They are under orders to stop any attempt of escape, any kind of movement. They are brutal, uncaring, and I think they enjoy what they do. Sometimes, they bring food into my cell, but I don’t eat it anyways. The chains are all the nutrition I need, giving me fuel for my rage and a reason to hate. I wasn’t always like this, but that was a long time ago too.
I was in the middle of my sleep, a nightmare actually, when I awoke suddenly to a sharp noise. It was the sound of my cell opening. I slowly raised my head to look at the ruler of this country. An alicorn whose eyes burned with fire and whose mane desired to wrap around my throat. Her eye twitched when I locked my gaze with hers.
“Tell me princess,” I said with a throat as dry as sand. “do you think I’m evil, that I’m-“ I had to cough as I attempted to get any kind of moisture into my mouth. “That I’m crazy?” I finished.
“Yes, yes I do,” The princess said in a calm voice, although she tensed when she realized I was smiling.
“Maybe, yeah maybe I am,” I said, feeling weak from the simple act of smiling.
“The guards say you won’t eat, won’t drink, are you trying to… to die?” Celestia asked.
I continued staring into her eyes like maybe there was some compassion left in them, but I could only find a drop of it. “Would it be that easy? For you to let me?” I asked.
Celestia looked away from my gaze, as if the drop of compassion would have its say. “No, that would not be enough repentance,” She explained, before turning to a guard. “Make sure his food goes down, one way or another,” She said with a firm tone.
Her eyes once again locked on mine, but I spoke first.
“A fate worse than death,” I said, before closing my eyes.
“Befitting, I suppose,” She said, before turning and leaving the cell. When I was done speaking, she knew there would be no reason to stay.
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I wasn’t sure how long after that, but I had started to regain some strength. I chose to drink a little and eat a few bites of the leaves that were offered, but that was it. Still, I felt the strength from that alone. My throat was no longer sandpaper, but it was still feeling sore.
“Hey,” I heard in the darkness surrounding me. It was a melancholy tone, and it was oh so familiar.
“Twilight…” I whispered, not having to look up to know she was here. Her voice had echoed so much that it was deafening.
“I’m here for the promise you made me,” She said a little softer.
I clenched my jaw and tried to forget the past. “Forget the promise, it doesn’t matter, not anymore,” I said.
“You made a pinkie promise. No matter what happened, I can’t leave you like this without giving you the chance to fulfill your promise,” Twilight explained.
“Go get me the cupcake then, princess,” I mocked, hearing my own defeated tone in the echoes around me. I sounded so… sad. How the days have passed.
“I just, I want to know… why?” Twilight asked, unsure how to act in front of me. I could understand.
“I could tell you, but it would probably take longer than I have left,” I said, my voice lowering in tone as my words sank in.
I kept my eyes away from Twilight, allowing the darkness to take me away from this moment. But they stayed away from me, just like the others. She seemed to be thinking. I could almost feel the gears in her head turning. She made a sound similar to a gasp before she spoke again.
“I’ll be right back,” Twilight said. I could hear her steps as she ran away from my cell. Running away, something I wish I could do. I heard her steps echo against the walls for minutes, potentially hours, before I heard new, fresh steps.
“The princess agreed to let you tell your side of the story to me and my friends, as long as you continue eating and drinking,” Twilight said, just now realizing why I looked so frail and broken. It was because I am frail and broken.
“But I never agreed,” I said.
“You promised,” Twilight said, her enthusiasm now dissipating entirely.
“How much is it going to take…” I started, feeling lightheaded from being awake for so long. “for you to understand that I’m not who you think I am,” I said.
“Then tell us, tell us who you really are. If not for any of us, do it for yourself. Rub it in, that you’ve been tricking us all this time, what do you have to lose?” Twilight said, anger having bubbled out of her voice.
“I have everything to lose, everything I have left,” I said softly, but in these halls it spoke volumes.
Twilight reeled back from the statement, but her voice was steady. “If this is all you have left, is it worth keeping anymore?” She asked, before turning and walking away from the cell.
My chains were meant to keep me from moving too much, from being able to do anything short of twitch. They weren’t needed as my body relaxed and my breathing weakened. I was a broken man alright. Before Twilight had gone too far, I raised my voice enough to be heard, yet it was barely above a whisper.
“You win,” I said, closing my eyes and hoping that the world ended in the next few seconds.
Twilight stopped for a second before continuing on, faster than before.
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It felt like seconds before the guards came in, accompanied by Celestia and Luna.
“Are the changelings invading again?” I asked, all cheer from my voice absent.
Celestia scoffed. “I’m warning you, if you try anything, anything at all, I will-,”
“Have me chained to a wall? Sentenced to death by boredom? Is there anything you can do that is worse than this? Oh, I’m sure you would have done that to me in the first place,” I said, all play in my voice lost to the vultures.
“That you still breathe is mercy of itself,” Luna said, anger the only prominent tone in her voice.
“That you call it mercy shows you’ve learned nothing of your time on the moon,” I reply, almost like a slap to her face.
Luna in fact did slap me, pretty hard in my fragile state. My head was slammed into the wall by the small amount of force. I felt blood making its way down my forehead. It felt like bliss. Salvation at its prime.
“Luna, that’s enough. My policy is clear on how we deal with criminals,” Celestia responded. Luna complied but in her eyes I could see she was not done yet.
The guards they’d brought used their spears to pry the stone bricks out of the wall that were attached to the chains I wore. I touched the ground with my bare toes, feeling their icy grip like a friend’s hand on your shoulder. Simply feeling the weight on my feet made me feel tired. I struggled to walk with the guards, and they had to walk on either side of me so I wouldn’t fall.
I was taken up the stone pathway that brought me here and up the steps that led to a wooden door. It opened, revealing a large stone room decorated high with banners and stained glass windows. The light was blinding, in more ways than one. I had to close my eyes for the few seconds it took for us to get to the designated room.
When I opened them, I was satisfied that there was no windows, and the light wasn’t nearly as blinding as before. In front of me, however, were the six mares and Spike, and I could feel that Luna and Celestia were behind me as well. The guards let me sit on one of the chairs that were set around a table, where the other occupants looked at me in the eyes, each with their own words that wanted to be said, and each harboring some resentment, in some form.
“If you don’t mind, we’ll be enjoying lunch while you tell us all your lies,” Celestia said, the cold tone hidden like hay in a needle stack.
“I insist, when you lose your lunch it will be that much more enjoyable,” I say, noticing the chefs bring out plates of food for everyone except me. I couldn’t help but glance to Fluttershy and notice that she didn’t seem to mind.
“It is your tongue that has truly been lost to madness,” Luna said, still looking like she wanted to give me another jab.
“Then I guess I’ll start. Whether you believe me or not is your choice. You can think I’m crazy, insane, but that is what my story is about. The true definition… of sanity.”