Her mother did not always make her way into Platinum's dreams; when she did, they were almost always terror-filled. Those were the dreams for which language had no name despite the potent fear that went into each one. Every time Princess Platinum was struck with such horrid visions, she would find herself startled awake and unable to move an inch, lest she disturb the mares of the bed chamber assigned to sleep in the two pull-out trundles on either side of her extravagant bed. The bed was older than her and had been used by every princess of the Unicorn Tribe before her, and she always wondered if those past princesses liked to stay up in the aftermath of their bad dreams to watch the rise and fall of their maids' chests or to see how the flouncing piles of their nightgowns clung to their form. Princess Platinum knew she couldn't tell anypony, but she always found it soothing to try and forget a bad dream by imagining the form of her maids under their clothes — the same elaborate dresses that she wore — and how the sight of a stallion was ever supposed to be sweeter. She could never touch them, though she longed to. In the darkest reaches of her heart, she wondered if perhaps her station would grant her the weight needed to impose over one of her chambermaids if she decided to touch them. Blackmail was in her blood. She'd met wives who got husbands in similar ways.
Platinum would always have to lie stiff and heavy as the stone floor with the fear her racing thoughts generated — both the receding dreams and the knowledge that she was surrounded by mares she could not touch. The way the darkness cast itself on the skirts of her bed or great things in her room like her vanity only made the atmosphere so much more sinister. Platinum's bedroom had no windows, but whenever she was jolted awake she knew that she would see the ghost there, sitting somewhere with a pale light all her own. The nearest windows were in other chambers connected to hers, each had bars over the window put there long before she was born. She'd once slipped a bracelet she hadn't really liked between the cold metal and tried to listen for the sound of it hitting the ground below the mountain where the castle and its city were built upon. She never did. That had been such a rare opportunity too — the windows were almost firmly shuttered, all because of the ever-worsening cold.
But tonight, there was no cold in Platinum's dreams. She found herself in a naked forest, like the one along the wilds between her tribe's settlements and the Magicspire valley, where Starswirl the Bearded lived. The foot of the mountain that the unicorn's capital city of stone was built on had a meager old forest that was used to being stripped of its resources by needy unicorns as it tried to take root in the horrid and inhospitable lands they had called home for generations. Gnarled trees grew into one another and even tried to root themselves into the rockier bits of the soil where the base of the mountain began. And in her dream, it was all ablaze. The light of the fire was bigger than anything that Princess Platinum had ever seen roaring in the fireplaces that were the only source of heat in the castle besides the furs, finery, and meager relief of the unicorns' collective magic. The fire's glow was even bigger than the burnings she had witnessed — and Princess Platinum had witnessed more than her fair share at her age, just as her parents had before her. It was customary for all of the royals to attend and see the tree they ordered pulled — often from this very forest — stopped of its branches and made ready for rope, with a freshly piled bed of logs, twigs, and anything that would light ready to burn below.
That same fatal structure was now at the center of the flaming forest, and though it was ablaze Platinum saw it did not disintegrate, only warp and wane in the terrible fire. Her mark was still new and the mirror glowed so brightly in the firelight. Her hooves did not burn as she darted around in an attempt to evade debris that would not fall. Smoke made the air horribly pungent and yet she was not coughing despite how it wafted through the air in heavy clouds. Ash rubbed at her hooves and sparks flecked at her coat, but little else happened besides the sharp pinches of warmth making her flinch and canter faster on her way.
She did not know where she was going. The smoke obscured her vision a good few feet in front of her, but she still saw the great shadow of where ponies were to be burned. Thieves, adulterers, murderers, traitors, degenerates, and more found themselves meeting firey ends that way. They even burned rapists, if the King and his Court investigated them and found that they were the type of unacceptable rapist where arranging a marriage wasn't an option. It was all such a strange thing, as Princess Platinum knew multiple unicorns among the gentry who ended up with their spouse in a more forceful than the usual arrangement of marriage via the families. She would probably need more than two sets of hooves to count them all.
What was stranger was how Princess Platinum dreamed herself. Not only was the ghost nowhere in sight, but she made herself a mare in her dream. Her tail was long and flowing, dusted with ash each time she paused her flight towards the burning stake. Her mane was a braided wreath about her face, worn like a crown, with nary a strand escaping despite the dreadful, flaming chaos that she was surrounded by. The white hue looked perfect in the firelight the moment she was able to catch sight of it, and Princess Platinum's heart swooned with the severe beauty of the sight. Without her usual gowns, lace collars, or regalia, she could glimpse her svelte figure quite well. She could only hope that she would grow to be half as fine of a mare that her dreaming mind made her.
And then she saw her.
Not the ghost, but somepony Princess Platinum never should have seen again. King Tantalum had taken Princess Platinum to a burning not even a month ago of a double-charged mare. The unicorn had been unmarried in old age — her twentieth winter — and made every excuse as to why this was. She was able to hide in one of the other unicorn cities of stone somewhat farther down the mountain, always working odd jobs and trying to hide the fact that she lived alone without family or husband. It was this abominable loneliness that she insisted on that eventually caused her to fall under suspicion from her community, arrested, and extensively investigated. The way the mare sorted so much so neatly and peculiarly in her home, avoided eye contact, existed without friends, and was overly interested in meaningless things based on craft supplies found in her home were strong indications that she might be a witch. When she was magically tested after enhanced interrogation by King Tantalum's guards, it was found that her magic level was above average despite there being no background to explain it, and she was charged with witchcraft as those like her with excessive peculiarities had to be.
What wasn't initially known about her was that she was a tribas. It was a word that King Tantalum was in no hurry to explain to his daughter, describing it only as a term that was handed down since before the Known Valley was settled, and that despite its unknown language, it referred to a most heinous crime. Mares who were disordered and denied stallions wives, refused to be mothers to foals, ruined inheritance, and killed bloodlines by denying them heirs. And they did all this through equally disordered and perverse actions that corrupted other mares. Despite her apparent maturity, King Tantalum saw no need to elaborate on what these 'perverse actions' were when little Platinum tried to ask. He only went on to tell her how there would be another burning soon because somepony had turned in a mare that was said to be with the witch who was to be burned — though Princess Platinum was unsure of what it was to say that two mares were 'with' one another. There were only three types of unicorn described that way — those in simple proximity, married couples, and unicorns in love who needed their unions split.
She was nine years old, and had been confused by the screams of the witch-mare as they tied her to the stake that day. Was it supposed to be glorious that she watched with her father, his court, and his soldiers? She did not detect the glory in the act, nor did she applause and cheer as loudly as the other unicorns when the burning commenced. She did just enough to be normal, and so the ghost would leave her alone. Plus, Platinum wasn't sure what else would make sense to do when a pony burned. She listened to the mare's screams and the shouts of unicorns below who added more fuel to the fire and whose talk was laced with enough sexual remarks that Princess Platinum had swayed with understanding and epiphany. It was not uncommon for somepony of her age to hear sexual conversation, especially when she was deemed to be near-ready for marriage. But from the jeers of the crowd, the little princess extracted something — she hadn't even known that two mares could do what a stallion and a mare were supposed to do. Why would something like that even be possible?
Her dream self had no way to answer these questions. Instead, Princess Platinum found herself staring at the instrument of death before her. The ropes appeared to be cut, and the frame wasn't afire as it should be. Its prisoner was absent.
A nicker in a tone that Princess Platinum had never heard caused her to turn her head and leap away, back towards the flaming woods. She found the source of the sound in the smoke: a mare burned beyond what anypony alive could bear, one eye socket a flame-consumed hollow, and bones aplenty visible under the blackened flesh of what was once a pretty mare. Yes. She was definitely pretty, with one pale purple eye and a coat and mane the deep blue-gray of a river cleaned by the purification magic all unicorns had. Even though her horn was charred and her body was broken and ravaged, all Platinum could see the gaps where her memory filled in how delicate and pretty the witch-mare had been. She thought of how this mare had been when she was still whole, as she was dragged kicking and screaming to where she was to be tied.
It was the witch-mare who started it. She galloped over and pressed Princess Platinum against a tree, her whole body language hungry for something that Platinum couldn't name. Platinum could only gasp as her back thudded and she was pressed up the tree in a way not unlike the mare had been when she was tied and set afire. The roar of fire seemed even louder in the woods as Platinum let the dead-mare lean forward and kiss her. The kiss was a gesture between mares and stallions as the first seal of their marriage at a wedding, that was knowledge as common as snowstorms in winter. The kiss was simple, a brief peck that some couples used to show that they had actually developed romantic feelings in their marriage. That was all it was supposed to be, and yet none of what Platinum was experiencing. The witch-mare was kissing her like she would not be able to breathe again, like she was hungry for something only Platinum could offer. Their lips met with a hardness that Platinum could only previously understand in the context of cruelty. Their mouths were open, the witch-mare desperately giving Platinum kiss after kiss without ever fully pulling her lips away.
Then there was a tongue, one impossibly not stolen by the wrath of the fire that had consumed the witch. When Princess Platinum felt the impossibly preserved tongue find hers, something broke. It was like her mind was not but a potion pouring our her ears and leaving her impossibly warm and bright. Every movement she returned was clumsy and starved but craving control. Her own tongue dictated the motions of the witch-mare's after wrestling her into the necessary submission. This was enough and somehow not so — but Princess Platinum knew in her bones that somehow nothing beyond this could exist. The docile sound the witch-mare made, the back and forth pressing of their lips, the way that Platinum was drooling with sudden agitation into the other mare's mouth—
Should there be a revelation in this? She was already doing something that was beyond what her culture said of kissing and she was doing it with a mare who was not her husband because husbands were stallions and wives had husbands. Could it still be considered a kiss if there were two mares? Was she doing something beyond definition? Platinum's mind was drowning in the new sensations that this dream thrust upon her and did not let thoughts float in except in thin whisps. But when she let herself think, she had to wonder if there was anything in language that could describe this at all, or how she was now the one forcefully pressing against the dead witch. Why did she want to keep kissing this mare? Why was it always something about mares in her thoughts?
Platinum was breathing heavily and her heart was racing more than it ever had after running. She watched as a thin trail of saliva linked her to the witch-mare's muzzle and how the witch whined. She was entranced by those little, mind-blowing details, certainly, but she hated them too. They clearly meant a pause. They meant that Princess Platinum hadn't gotten enough of whatever this was, and so she thrust her beautiful mare-face forward and locked her mouth over the witch's with an indignant whinny as the other mare squeaked and whined when Platinum found her tongue again.
She was doing it with a mare who was not her husband...
The thought made her stand as still as a statue as her heart rattled in her chest. Immediately after it bubbled up in her mind, Princess Platinum stopped responding to the burned witch-mare.
"No..." she croaked, as the desecrated mare drew back, fixing one confused eye on her.
Were these 'perverse acts'?
That thought cut in with a powerful, upsetting explosion like the sudden smell of the first singe of flesh at a burning.
"No... No..." Platinum moaned, her eyes wild and her breathing in rapid gasps. "I can't do this. Ponies aren't supposed to do this. This is debaucherous, evil conduct. Oh, my crown, it is exactly what my father warned me about! And I was too foolish a mare to see!"
Platinum's wailing was not lost on the mute witch-mare, who made an effort to lumber over.
"No," hissed Platinum suddenly. "This is all your fault. You seductive, wretched brute, I shall show you what is meant to happen to ponies like you!"
The witch's mix of skeletal and burned hooves made a skittering noise on the ground. Half an ear was laid back in a timid, docile display of nervousness. However, her one good eye never left the Princess. The look in it was not fully one of fear. There was something else in that eye too, and it remained there when Princess Platinum finished dragging the dead mare back to the stake again.
Platinum had watched this mare burn once before.
She watched as the mare thrashed and kicked with half of the spirit she had in life — which was still more than enough for one mare to manage — as Princess Platinum light her horn and grasped the ropes again. They weren't as broken as they looked, and would serve their purpose once more just fine. If anything, it looked as though the evil witch-mare had wriggled out from the ropes, not that they had been burned or slashed.
"Enough from you!" Platinum screamed. She fired up her horn so much that the light on it shook and her head ached something fierce. She grabbed hold of the witch with her magic, not realizing her telekinesis was applied so sloppily that the charred parts of the mare were being crushed in a grip not meant for an animate creature. "I will not be brought down by the crimes of commoners. I will not be debased by the illnesses that I am meant to overcome. There shall be none who interfere with my life, let alone my future marriage. Time to find out what happens to ponies like you," the princess said, twisting her last words into a snarl.
The other mare's fight was stolen from her once again with the works of ropes and magic. She writhed against the coarse, unforgiving ropes until Platinum tied them so tightly that the witch-mare appeared as though she couldn't breathe anymore. The ropes were digging into ribs and overcooked flesh, breaking off the brittle parts. Finally, Platinum stood triumphant. She sneered at the other mare, which was an easy expression for her. Though her breathing was coming in sharp, angry heaves she did her best to look composed as she trotted off to collect flaming branches.
"I am to have a future that will shine brighter than your death, you monster." Platinum's magic waved about brightly burning branches that were popping with sparks. "AS QUEEN, I WILL SHOW THE WORLD WHAT HAPPENS TO PONIES LIKE YOU!"
After her screech, she flung the branches and watched the logs light. She stayed a safe distance away but did not leave the clearing as they burned and the rest of the fire in the woods converged to where the witch was burned once and for all. Platinum heard herself laughing but did not feel herself doing it. As trees crashed to fuel the witch's firey true death, there was something to be heard above the ruckus. Something nagging and feeble in a voice that wasn't Princess Platinum's. Under everything was a faint echo:
"...ponies like you."
"...like you."
"...you."
There was something cold and deadly about that which made Platinum's expression of conquest falter momentarily. She didn't think she had heard right, and if she had, she didn't want to have heard right. In response, she took a few slow steps away from the sky-climbing fire and the way the hot air from it blasted her like an open furnace. Why had that echoed the way it did? Who spoke those words? Throughout everything, the witch hadn't said a single thing, so who—
...
Princess Platinum awoke as herself. As a filly whose long white mane was drenched in sweat, whose sleeping gown suddenly felt so oppressive with how strangely hot she felt, and whose cutie mark was newer than any young mare's. The snoring of her chambermaids droned loud than the way her heart was stuck in her throat in a way it never had been before. A fluffy, fragile feeling flooded with shame hung precariously in her chest where it threatened to break into more pieces than she could count — and that break might be more than she knew how to conceal. She thought if she lied in waiting for the candles to burn to stumps and counted her breaths that could erase everything she had dreamed about. In her mind, she thought she could still see the fire and hear that whisper. Worse than that, she could still taste the not-kisses she was never supposed to have. All the struggles and sensations of the dream hung over her in the dark like a veil only she knew clung to her.
A whole lake of feelings was roaring into young Platinum's heart, and she did not want to touch the deepest layers of them. So many of them were hateful, and she tried to take solace in their venom as they splashed about her little body. She told herself that was all there was: a deep, powerful drought of multi-layered hatred.
The next room over had barred, shuttered windows, and despite the distance between rooms, little Princess Platinum heard the snowstorm outside rattle them and wail louder.