Silence hung over the throne room, my victorious smirk hiding a sinking fear inside that had my heart beating a mile a minute. Snowdrop stood beside me, her ears swiveling rapidly between me and the royal duo while her gaze stayed locked on a space just above my left shoulder. I held the phone before me with its screen illuminating the space between me and the twin thrones, hoping against hope that the royal sisters wouldn’t simply take it from me and toss me into the dungeon anyway.
Finally, the elder sister, who I still hadn’t leaned the name of, closed her mouth and her gaze hardened into a blank mask, “You state that you are a being from Earth, is that correct?”
My arm started to shake from the strain of keeping it extended in front of me, and the smirk fell from my lips as they curled into a frown, “Yes? That is the name of the planet I am from.”
The larger mare’s horn lit up with a brilliant gold light, forcing me to shield my eyes with an arm as my phone clattered to the marble floor. I saw Snowdrop shiver out of the corner of my eye, even though she was unaffected by the Princess’s horn’s harsh glare. I braced for what could only have been some kind of attack, only to freeze as my entire body locked up in place. My eyes frantically darted from side to side as a glow to match the mare’s horn covered my entire body, gripping me in a tight embrace that I was helpless to break free of.
My heart rate skyrocketed, and my breath froze in my chest while the glare from the royal’s horn grew only brighter. Moments stretched into eons as her eyes were overtaken by the same light as her horn, the pressure on my body growing with each second as a tingling sensation began to surface from the skin around my head. The tingling got worse and the pressure on my skull matched the intensity second by second, tears falling from my eyes as pain overtook the tingling. Memories came unbidden to my mind as the pressure got worse, my heart thundering in my chest and breathing coming almost to a complete stop. My mind was laid bare before the onslaught, my earliest memories, my greatest joys and most heinous mistakes. All were presented before the mare atop her golden throne like a goddess of retribution.
Finally, just as I swore I was going to be blinded by the glare of her power or die of asphyxiation, it all stopped. My breath gasped back into my chest as I fell to the floor, holding my shirt tightly over my heart with a clenched fist as I tried to get my abject terror under control. My eyes were locked onto the tiles in front of me as I supported my shaking body with my other arm, my knees unable to support me as I sat on my shoes and prayed that it was over.
For several minutes not a soul dared to move within the throne room, although I was too hyped up on adrenaline to notice much besides the profound silence that hung over the space like a miasma. My eyes slowly rose from the floor in front of me to gaze up at the two mares before me again, the elder’s stupefied expression catching my attention while Princess Luna’s perplexed gaze snapped back and forth between her coruler and me.
“Sister?” Luna asked carefully as she tapped the larger mare on one shoulder with her hoof, “Celestia, what did you see?”
My mental facilities came back a bit at a time as Celestia, I now knew my attacker’s name, turned to face her sister. Her mouth moved a few times before she seemed to find the words she was looking for, her voice cracking as she managed to whisper out her reply.
“He is telling the truth.”
Silence hung over the room after her words, Luna’s disbelieving eyes snapping to me for an instant before returning to Celestia, “Thou canst seriously believe this creature’s lies? What manner of trick did you see in his mind, sister?”
“He doesn’t have magic.” Celestia’s voice was a bit stronger this time. Her gaze returned to me as an unfamiliar expression overcame her face, “He had no resistance to my reading, completely unable to break free of my magic grip or stop my invasion of his mind.”
My eyes widened in horror as I realized what she had done, “Y-You read my mind?!” I recognized the expression on Celestia’s face now. She was feeling guilt for the terror she had just put me through. “You bitch! What right do you have to invade my memories like that?!” Raw fury raced through my veins as the realization of what she had done fully hit me. “Y-You had no right! No cause or reason for doing that!”
I forced myself to my feet, my shaking limbs be damned as I glared white-hoy fury directly into the white mare’s widening magenta orbs, “Forget this! I came here looking for help after I got taken from my home and stumbled around in the woods for three days! I was starving and my first contact with another living thing was a bunch of magical talking ponies. I thought I could get assistance, maybe a point in the right direction, but NO!”
I was doing what I could to control my fury as my fists clenched tight enough for blood to drip onto the marble tiles, my teeth were pressed together so hard I swore I cracked one in my righteous rage, “Screw you! I hope you can’t sleep at night knowing your actions drove away a helpless being looking for aid. I’d rather starve in the wilds than to deal with this crap.” I turned around and began storming out of the throne room, my feet impacting the floor with enough force to send reverberating pain shooting up my legs and spine, “Have a rotten day, and goodbye!”
I made it about two steps before a voice called out from behind me, “Wait!”
I turned around just as a blue and white feathered missile impacted my chest, throwing me to the floor as a sextet of limbs curled around me. I raised an arm to strike my assailant, but paused just before my fist could come down on the pony’s head, seeing for the first time who it was that had tackled me.
Burying her muzzle in my shirt and holding onto me like her life depended on it, was Snowdrop. Tears streamed from her clenched eyes as she blubbered into my chest. Her forelegs were bunching my shirt in a death grip while her wings and hind legs wrapped around me in a weak but firm embrace. I lowered my arm as she lifted her head to look at me, her eyes bloodshot with tears and her nose running badly as she forced her words out in a clearer voice.
“P-Please.” The pain in her tone nearly gave me a heart attack as fresh tears ran down her face, “please don’t go. I know it wasn’t right for Princess Celestia to invade you mind. I know she feels sorry for doing it! You don’t have to starve, and you certainly don’t have to be alone after going through what you have!”
I opened my mouth to retort, my earlier ire flaring up again at the audacity of the mare pinning me to the floor. She had no idea what it was I had been through! How could she possibly understand the pain and terror I had felt being at the complete mercy of a stranger?!
I raised my fist once more to strike her, my anger running wild. For a moment I thought I heard the royal sisters cry out something, but I was so engrossed in my fury that it all faded to the background. My hand began a rapid decent towards the stupid pony’s left eye, with every intent of slugging the arrogant mare for even thinking she could understand my pain.
Almost as if she could sense the impending attack, Snowdrop closed her eyes and whispered one final sentence as my hand neared her face, “I know what it’s like to be alone too.”
Reality asserted itself on me in an instant, my hand freezing a mere inch from the mare’s face. The cold certainty in her statement, the blatant and heartfelt truth in those words and the pain that they had carried. I knew right away that she wasn’t just pulling my leg, and I lowered my arm to the floor just as several other bodies crashed into mine.
Snowdrop was yanked off of me by a soft blue aura while several ponies in gold armor pinned me to the ground, their hooves digging into my sides and limbs as I struggled to free myself. Rage at her betrayal and indignant with myself for falling for her lies poured through my veins, my anger escaping my lips in a wordless roar as a golden horseshoe came down towards my head. My world exploded into bright white flashes as darkness consumed my vision, the last thing I saw was the little backstabber holding onto Princess Luna’s chest while the larger mare looked on with a blank expression.
“I hate ponies.” Those were the last words to escape my lips in a heated whisper as I felt my body slump to the marble tiles, the world around me fading to black as my mind lost connection with reality.