//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: I Torched A Centaur // Story: Out Of The Woods // by Melody_Dreams //------------------------------// Ever since Dash and I were little, we had been forced to work in the manor. It wasn't that we wanted too or needed money, but because we had no choice. When we were little, we had tried to refuse slavery and get away, but the more we resisted, the more painful the master would become. I have had countless nightmares of the times he had thrown us across the room and broken a few of my ribs and Rainbow's wing. The more we struggled, the more menacing he would become. The hits, the slaps and the kicks were endless, but we had still never given up. That is till one day all of the master's games came to an end and when we were dragged to the torture chamber, sharp blades were lined up nearly like in a surgery. I guess since I was older, I would go first. That day was the most bloody and painful day that I had ever witnessed. He ran knives along my arms and back, so deep that if you look closely you'll still see a scar. He held me up with magic as he whipped my abdomen till the marks bled. The worst however, was what he did to my wings. Pegasi are hypersensitive when it comes to thier wings, so any slight discomfort can cause a problem. So when he plucked all of my feathers out I was biting my lip till it bled. Soon the screams escaped though, as he magicaly grabbed my wings and crushed them into disfigured, floppy appendages on my back. I realized then, through my tears that he was about to do the same thing to my sister, so I stopped him and finally gave in. Rainbow was furious that I would break like I had and didn't talk to me for days afterwards, claiming she had disowned me. But after a while she had come to except it and move on. My wings haven't been the same ever since. Sure, after extensive care from Rainbow and the aid from medical books in the Library helped, but they could only do so much. I can't really fly much like when I was younger. Everytime I make a sudden movement, pain flares from my wings and forces me to use as little movement as possible. So in truth, my flying is more of a glide or hover since the incident. After the whole ordeal Rainbow Dash and I settled in and got to work, with the occasional escape attempt from Rainbow. However, something happened afterwards that only I know about. All those years, I had been hiding something from my sister in fear of what she might do out of blind rage. The master still tortures me. Every week I am called in for book reassessment, at least that's what Rainbow thinks. For years that monster beat and broke me, even till this day. But the worst week was my birthday. Yes the torture was every week, but on my birthday.... I shiver at the thought. His hits became ten times stronger, his whipping faster and his laugh more disturbed every year. Through it all I had silently kept this secret by covering my bruised coat with dandelion powder and all the cuts with excuses. When I came back with a broken leg I had to say that one of the library shelves fell on me. Though I may not seem like it these days, I used to be quite a loud and outspoken as a filly and would always speak my mind. After all the beatings I received from speaking however, I eventually became quite during my weekly torture. After that I guess the habit seeped into my private life and I've never been the same since. Even though the master would sometimes beat Rainbow, it was nothing compared to what I had come to endure. So when we knocked on the door to the Masters room to wake him, I felt my dread intensify. Rainbow shouted through the large door, " My Lord, breakfast is ready." She had learned over the years that waking him up rudely ended in nothing but pain. Despite it all though, we don't know who he is or what he looks like. I know it's next to impossible, but the master was able to hide his face from us ever since we can remember. No matter what we did there would always be a shadow covering his entire being, not letting so much as a glimpse of the creature to the outside world. So when we heard a shout, we froze," Come in you two." Looking at each other we slowly opened the door to the dark room. A thought came to mind and I whispered," Do you think he knows about the room we found?" Rainbow only shrugged as she tried to find a source of light in the darkness. Soon finding a torch, she pulled out the matches from her apron. The flame of the torch brought an ominous flickering light to the dark chamber, making my shivers intensify. Something wasn't right. We hadn't been in the masters chambers very often growing up. He had forbade us from entering and threatened us with punishment if we disobeyed. Once, in one of her futile, and often ludicrous, plans to escape, Dash had snuck into our masters chambers. She couldn't find much before being caught, the master having eyes like a hawk. After that Dash's plans of escape became less frequent. Walking through the large room to him now was more frightening than ever, for this had never happened before. Seeing the mass of shadows in the middle of his polished wooden floors, we stopped a few feet away and bowed before setting the torch down and focusing on our master like a child in a classroom. A moment of silence passed before our master spoke in his chilling deap raspy voice, " Why hello my dears, I bet you are wondering why I called you here." His sentence held an edge of malicious glee as he strode forward and ran his hoof through my hair. I sat still, petrified to the point where not even a squeak could escape from my lips. The shadow passed by like a lonesome wind and weaved between me and Rainbow. " Well, truth be told, I'm here to thank you my pretty, without your translation I would have never known what that old geezer said when he wrote that prophecy." He said gliding around like a shark and it's prey. He spoke again stopping at his original spot," I bet you're wondering why exactly you could, believe me, I never thought that the legend was true about your family. " My eyes went wide, and a sentence slipped from my lips, " Our family?" Even though I couldn't see it he had a vicious smile on, " Ah yes, I must say, taking you two in the dark of night is amusing. I remember looking at your mother from a far and relishing the sweet sorrowful cries." My sister and I gasped. The master had told us that all our family was dead and that we needed to be grateful that he kept us alive. He had lied to us for years to make sure that we thought nothing would be waiting for us outside of this mansion. Anger flared within me at this, but before I could get a word out Rainbow shouted in fury, " You told us they were dead!" The master hummed in pretend thought, " I did, didn't I? Oops my mistake. Oh well, it doesn't matter now. After all, in a couple of days my plan of revenge will finally come to pass. All I have to do is get rid of the pesky flies. " he said. " What do you mean?" I shouted, hoping to find answers. " You insolent foal! Don't you understand, with you in the way I can never truly take the throne of Equestrian! I must kill you and your sister once and for all!" He bellowed rushing at us with a wicked smile. As he leapt the magic concealing him vanished into thin air and I gasped at what I saw. Instead of seeing a pony, I saw an old wrinkled creature with a pony-like lower body and and a strange upperbody with two limbs that resemble the claws of a griffin, but softer and without the sharpened edge. On his head grew two small horns and a long white beard. His face and hands gleemed a faded red as the rest of his body was an ashy black, with his eyes a sickening yellow. He came barging at us and pulled out a knife covered in something green. He lunged at me but all I could do was stand there in fear. However, right as he came to me Rainbow pushed me out of the way. Unfortunately, even if she's fast, she wasn't fast enough. Turning around I saw her get stabbed in the hind leg by his knife, throwing her back into the wall with his strength. Feeling angered at the disturbance, he went to my sister and pulled her out from the ruble ready to strike again. Finally gaining some strength I did the first thing that came to mind.... I threw the torch. Now if I hadn't been so terrified, I probably would have felt proud at the fact that I had made a perfect hit. Unfortunately, my adrenaline didn't give me time to brag as I grabbed Rainbow and ran as fast as my hooves could carry me. Sliding into the hallway I turned sharply and ran in any direction I could to get away. Even though I shouldn't have my fear controlled me and I took a glance behind me. I immediately regretted it and started using my wings to propel me faster. Behind me ragged a flaming beast with a burnt eye and a cribbled arm. And it scared me to the point of flying. While running I knew I wouldn't last forever and the monster was catching up to us. It didn't help that I was carrying an unconscious mare on my back too. Looking for anything to help us, anything at all I finally spotted the miracle I was looking for. Through the window, for a split second I saw the barriers that surround the house disappear and reapear. Seeing this I galloped at full speed down the stairs and towards the exit, praying that we'd make it. We were so close that I could reach the large doors with my hoof, but right before I could, I felt an appendage wrap around my hind leg and pull me back, making me drop Rainbow Dash. Some of the flames still lingered on the creature, still burning him. Nearly all of his skin and coat had been burnt into raw flesh, including his face. Torn and bubbling blisters lined nearly everything and the smell of burnt flesh made me sick. Bringing me to his eye level I saw that I had thrown the torch directly into his eye, blinding him completely on his left side. Seeing his disfigured grin my primal instinct kicked in. I sucker punched him in the left eye. The creature gave a terrible blood curdling screach and let me fall to the ground. Seeing this as my only chance, I grabbed Rainbow and rushed to the door, opening them with a bang. I rushed outside and to the edge of the garden. I looked to the barrier and saw it flickering more than it had before. Seeing this I assumed that the damage I did to him was making him falter at the spell he casted around the house. Looking behind me and seeing that thing coming towards us I took a deep breath as I ran to the barrier. With all my hope and courage put together, I closed my eyes and galloped strait towards the barrier. Expecting to get slammed into a invisible wall, I was happy to find that my assumption was correct and we had managed to breach the barrier. Even if I knew that we had made it out I continued running in fear that he still followed us. I don't know what direction I went in and honestly I don't know how long I went that way cause all I remember is a blurr of treas and bushes. Finally after who-knows how long, I stopped to take a breath. Looking around I slumped to the ground in relief when I saw we had lost him. After calming down I turned my attention to my sister. She looked really bad. She had dried blood that caked her mane, her coat was filled with cuts and bruises and the large gash on her leg looked infected with black veins starting to form on the edges. Finally all of the bravery and adrenaline seemed to fade and my old meek self returned. Soon I felt a warm liquid drip down my face and the flood gates opened. "It's all my fault! If I hadn't been so scared, if I had just moved! But I couldn't even get out of the way! What kind of big sister am I when you are always the one to save me! I'm so sorry Rainbow..." Soon I couldn't control it and I started sobbing into her messy coat. I was surprised when I felt a hoof pat my head. Looking up with bloodshot eyes, I was shocked to see the my sister's magenta eyes and a kind smile. " Rainbow Dash?" hoping I wasn't dreaming and that she really was conscious. She smiled and said, " Don't think you can get rid of me that easily Flutters." A sliver of hope rang through the darkness as I hugged her tightly. " Agh! Not.. So.. Tight!" she said struggling for breath. Quickly letting go I woredly looked at her. "You need medical care." I said looking over her again. She snorted at me, " What do you mean, I am perfectly fine." she said, getting up with a lot of effort and noticeable wincing. Sighing I helped her up. She always was stubborn, even when it came to her own health. " Rainbow, You have been poisoned with a knife, thrown into a wall and have blood loss. You are not 'perfectly fine'! " I said in the most stern way possible. Growling she mumbled back defeated," Fine, but how are we even going to get supplies, not to mention that getting there is a problem too." I sighed when I realized she was right. We had no medicine, no bandages, no ointments. Why is it that once we manage to fix one problem another pops up? I then looked around the clearing we were in and finally understood our situation. We were out of the mansion. Seeing this I stood tall and told Rainbow what I've been wanting to say for over a decade," Let's go find civilization just like we said we would. We're finally free." Rainbow seems to get what I mean and shares the same grin I do. We finally escaped.