//------------------------------//
// Sequences 
// Story: Pact: Nullification : Lost 
// by SerriTovoka 
//------------------------------//






No. This isn't happening.


I stumbled back, staring at the double-barred cross before me. 

"No! Fuck you! Not this time. Not again. No more....no more...." 

I felt my heart lift out of my chest, the happiness fade into nothing, and the thoughts of sustainable peace fall apart. 

No. Fuck this. Fuck this. 


Fuck this. 


I'm not letting this win. I'm not going to worry about this. I'm not bringing it up. I'm ignoring it. 


I'm done.

I gnashed my teeth in anger and kicked out at the fate-formed omen, dismantling it. 

The ax flipped over into the snow, and the two logs fell askew around it. 


How's that for a sign?

With a huff and a quick turn, I was off to the front door of the cabin. 




[...]



I turned the knob to the door, kicking the snow off of my shoes as I moved to enter. 

"Ryan..." , I heard her soft voice say. 

I opened the door further and looked over to the fireplace, only to see that it was unattended. 

"Ryan...please come here..."

I crossed the threshold and gently closed the door behind myself. 

"Where are you?", I asked, trying to gauge the direction of the imminent reply. 

"In the kitchen..."

Her voice sounded shorted. She was welling up. She was...crying?

I left the entry and walked further into the cabin, trying to look for a tile floor or some kind of light to identify the kitchen. 

"Rose?"

I heard a choked sob, and then a sniffle. 

I rounded a corner by her stairwell and saw her, sat at a table with a glass of wine, crying. 

"Hey...", she sorrowfully whispered. 

I hastily made my way into the kitchen, sitting in an unoccupied chair across the table from her. 

"What's wrong?"

She looked up at me, her eyes glassy and pink from crying. How long had I been outside? 

"I looked into the fire...I couldn't help but...,she choked back a word and cleared her throat, "I couldn't help but remember that night. The night when the guards came to my house. When they came to Ponyville. I was just stoking the fire, and....and..."

"What do you mean?"

She looked down to the table, her eyes distant as her face scrunched into a look of distraught hopelessness. She coughed up a whimper and began to sob uncontrollably. 

"They took me outside...they....th-they took me from my living room and drug me outside. They already had everypony else out there. They...they had everypony that wanted to stop them from taking our rights...everypony that joined me. Then..." 

Another pause. 

She inhaled deeply and sucked back some tears. 

"...then they asked if I was the one that did it. If I was the one organizing the plan to move on Canterlot."

I looked across the table at the pony. My eyes transfixed on hers. 

"What happened?"

She looked from the table, to me; a confused and hurt expression spreading across her face.

"Seafoam and Lyra stepped out of the crowd...and said 'Yes. That's her'. They sold me out. They were the two mares that I trusted most. The ones that had helped me build the protest. They just...sold me out. The guards hit me, kicked me, beat the shit out of me in front of everypony and then hauled me off. I got to watch my house set on fire...and then Lyra's...and then Seafoam's."

It hit me. 

This was almost exactly what had happened to me. This wasn't just my story, this was a re-occurring story. This was OUR story now. 

"Rose, I know what you went through..."

"How...?"

I sighed, running my hand through my hair. 

Roseluck sniffled, pushing her glass of wine to me. 

"Tell me."