Chapter 9: Houston
We made our way to Celestia, and the closer we got, the more nervous I became. Something wasn’t right. I just felt like I shouldn’t be doing this. Almost like I’m in danger. To my horror, the princess noticed my cold sweat. “Emma, what’s wrong?” Luna, looking concerned, asked. I wasn’t sure how to answer so I looked up to her and shrugged.
Still walking down the halls, I began to stumble. Why was I like this? “Princess, has any other pony been like this to observe their past?” She shook her head, leaving me to wonder why I’m any different. At this point, my horn had almost fully grown back, which I probably why Luna has me in her sight. I can’t say I blame her for watching my every move. “Anyway, why can’t we visit the Vault first? I want to see it”, I blurted out.
“Emma, what is going on? You’re sweating really bad and seem to resist from seeing your own past. Were you a bad pony?” She interrogates me and gives me a very serious look. She is not playing around. I wasn’t sure how to answer, but it just felt wrong.
“Princess, I think there’s something wrong with me.”
She stopped moving. I looked up at her weakly. The back down to the floor beneath me.
“Well of course there is, little one. There’s a monster possessing you all the time! I plan on keeping it away from you for as long as I can.” She smiles, and continues to walk to Celestia’s chambers. There it was. The door that would make a world of a difference. Luna knocked on the door two times. Not even ten seconds later, the door opens and lets out a white alicorn, bright as the sun with shimmering fur and mane. She looks down and smiles at me. I simply wave and sheepishly smile back.
“Greetings Luna. What seems to be the issue?” Celestia asks.
“We’d like to look into Emma’s past to find out more about her.”
The sentence makes my heart beat faster. Why was this happening to me?
“Of course, dear sister. Follow me.”
I felt sick. I don’t know what’s going on, but it isn’t good. We stop in the middle of the hallway. Celestia turns to us and asks, “Are you ready?” Luna nodded, and I was just in a perpetual state of fear. I was stiff as a lamp post. However, I found the muscles to move my head up and down, and regretted it as Celestia began the spell.
Before I made it back to consciousness, the princesses already started their walk down the starry path with images of when I was younger. I opened my eyes and sprinted to catch up with them. Sadness was visible in both alicorns’ eyes. Images of abuse flashed past them, constant pain and sadness throughout the slideshow of moments. Each one showed Abby and I, usually fighting. The farther back the memories went, the more often they saw me praying. To Celestia.
She began to cry, but tried her best to conceal the pain she felt for me. Why did I bring this upon the two princesses? Maybe this is why I was nervous. I didn’t want them to see how my life went downhill so quickly. But the younger I became in the short clips of my childhood, the nicer Abby was. In fact, I’m pretty sure I saw Abby reading me a bed-time story, instead of me reading her one. It all seemed so much nicer than she is to me now. At this point down the path, I was almost 4. When my aunt disappeared.
This is what I longed to see. My aunt who loved me and cared for me. But just then, she princesses halted. Their eyes only showed shock. I looked up to see what they were so frightened by. It was my aunt, but she didn’t look anything like me. She was being dragged away by cloaked ponies. I was left on the couch, watching, crying as they stabbed her over and over again with spears.
We moved to the next memory. A much better view of my dead aunt. She had dark red eyes with a long, dark blue mane. She wore a cloak, and never left the cottage. But what she was doing was even more shocking. She was performing a spell on me, like one that takes away a pony’s magic. Celestia and Luna must have known her, but I’m guessing they didn’t like her. “Luna, is that… her?” Celestia gaped. Her younger sister looked to her in worry.
“I…I’m afraid it is.”
At this point, I was eager for answers. “Princesses, what’s going on?”
They ignored me and continued down the path.
“Celestia?” She still didn’t answer, walking farther away each step. “Luna?” I called to the other princess, but she was doing the same thing. Like before, I looked up at the wall, and saw my aunt with a group of ponies, in a cave. They all wore hoods with some sort of emblem on them. One was holding what looked like me, as a very young filly, not even 2 years old. Possibly less than 1 year.
Another memory. A very bloody memory. I was in a dark room, with my aunt fully cloaked, snapping what looked to be a nurse’s back. “Oh my-” Celestia and Luna turned to each other in fear, the looked back to me. “It can’t be…” Luna stared at me with the most horror filled eyes I have ever seen in my life. We all sprinted to see the farther back memories. I gasped loudly, as tears began to fill my eyes. My parents, looking down at me, smiling. “She’s beautiful”, my mother said, in a soothing voice softer than a warm silk blanket.
I began to cry uncontrollably, and melted to the ground in depression and confusion. Why was this happening to me? Why is my aunt dead? Why was she trying to take my magic? What is going on?