//------------------------------// // Letter // Story: An Affliction of the Heart // by Anonymous Pegasus //------------------------------// Kuno was happily chewing on her third flavour of cotton candy, the stick inserted in one of the holes in her hoof to hold it in place. She took short, neat bites of the fluffy blue candy, delighting in the strange fizzling sensation the popping bubbles produced on her tongue. Warden was sitting at the table, reading a grower’s magazine. “How awesome would it be to own a vineyard?” Warden asked in an offhoof way, staring down at a picture of a vineyard, with ripe purple grapes hanging heavy on the vines. “A vineyard?” Kuno asked, chewing vigorously on her cotton candy with a happy smile. Warden nodded in response. “Aye, a vineyard. It’s always been a sort of... pipe dream for me.” “Pipe dream?” the changeling asked, tilting her head. “Why would it be a pipe dream?” “Well, I’d need space, first,” Warden pointed out. “I own enough land right here. But it’s all forested, and I’d only be able to grow regular old grapes here. Even if I cleared all the trees. And there’s just not that much demand to regular grapes around here...” “So grow exotic grapes,” Kuno said with a shrug. “I’d have to move somewhere else. Somewhere with a higher climate. Or even somewhere much, much colder,” Warden said with a wry smile. “I always wanted to move up to the frozen north, and grow crystal ice berries.” “Crystal ice berries?” Kuno asked, blinking once. “An exotic species of grape that was pretty popular back before the Crystal Empire disappeared. When the empire upped and left, though, there was no more ponies to work the fields and the grapes all died off. Nopony’s grown crystal ice berries for hundreds of years,” Warden said knowledgeably. “So... where would you find some to grow?” the changeling asked, peering up at him with a tilted head. “Swarm purchased a crate of seeds for me, back before she... yeah. She knew I was interested in exotic vines, and you don’t get much more exotic than a vine that only grows in extreme cold and went extinct a thousand years ago,” Warden pointed out with a wry smile. “I’d be the only pony around with a vineyard of them. I’d be the only producer of the wine. In five years, I’d be filthy rich.” “Being filthy rich sounds fun,” Kuno said with an earnest nod. “Why haven’t you done this yet? Just flown off and gotten yourself started up in the north?” Warden shrugged. “Always been stuff keeping me here, I guess.” “Like what?” Kuno challenged. “Suicidal depression?” Warden offered, raising a brow. Kuno’s ears splayed back, and she nodded gently. “I guess that’s as good a reason as any... But now? What’s stopping you?” “Daggertail, for a start. I’d need to murder him. And then I’d need to purchase the land to grow the vines, and then take the crate of seeds out of cold storage and haul them up north over the roads because it’d take a dragon to carry it in the air. Or a team of four flyers tethered to it, I guess.” Warden hummed faintly, rubbing at his chin. “Mainly the Daggertail thing and the lack of land thing though.” “That sucks,” Kuno said with a wrinkled nose. “Why did Swarm get the seeds when she knew you couldn’t grow them here?” Warden smiled faintly at that. “She was an optimist. She figured we’d save up and get some land up there.” “So why aren’t you saving up to get land?” Kuno asked, blinking in confusion. “Because of Daggertail. His Aurora crop is one of his biggest sources of income. I doubt he’d just let me go,” Warden said with pursed lips. “And if you murdered him, someone would take his place?” Kuno asked with a deep frown. Warden nodded, “That’s the long and short of it.” “So you just need to convince Daggertail to leave you alone... and then you’ll be free?” Kuno queried. Warden gave a nod. “Just. That’s the operative word.” “Have you tried asking him?” Kuno queried, perking an ear. Warden laughed. “Asked him? He’s not one to respond well to questions like that.” “Let me ask him. Gimme the name of one of his underlings,” Kuno stated, placing her half-eaten cotton candy back in a plastic wrapping. “I... don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Warden said with a shake of his head, biting his bottom lip. “I just wanna give him a letter to take to Daggertail. That’s all I’m gonna do. Send him a message,” Kuno appeased with an innocent smile. “Not gonna murder him, or hurt him, lace the envelope with explosives, poison, or anything crazy like that?” Warden asked suspiciously. “I promise I’m just gonna send him a message asking him to leave you alone,” Kuno said with an earnest nod. Warden pursed his lips, frowning deeply. “I... I guess it wouldn’t hurt. His second-in-charge is a really mean unicorn named Sunshine. Don’t let his name fool you, he’s stupid, mean, and doesn’t have a nice bone in his body.” Kuno nodded, smiling and then bouncing over to the table, pulling up a piece of paper and a quill. “Dear Daggertail...” Daggertail lived in a large manor at the edge of Canterlot, with a perfectly cut lawn, a long white walkway to the front door wide enough for a carriage, flanked by hedges and ornate hedge sculptures. The white rocks crunched underhoof as Sunshine made his way up towards the front door of the manor, a letter being levitated in front of him. Imagine his surprise when a strange pegasus had just shown up in front of him in the street with a message for Daggertail. He was a good second in command, though, and he followed the young pegasus to get the envelope. After all, what was the harm in a young pegasus? They were weak and wimpy, anyhow. The front door opened easily, and the unicorn stepped through confidently, nodding to the guard inside the door. The earth pony was wearing proper metal armor, like the Royal Guard, but this armor was bronzed, distinctly different from that of the regular guard. Sunshine just walked past them, before he blinked and rubbed his head with a hoof. “I uh... forget the way to the bosses room again. Was it left or right?” The guard sighed and waved a hoof to the right. “Thank ye kindly,” Sunshine said, stalking off confidently in that direction. Daggertail was an older unicorn, though not yet going grey. Gold jewellery adorned his pale white body: a gold diamond ring around his horn, a single gold earring in the tip of his right ear, and a gold monocle on a fine chain over his left eye. The unicorn was reading a magazine while smoking a pipe and sipping at a glass of brandy with two ice cubes in it. He was sitting at a polished mahogany desk with his hindhooves crossed and resting on it, lazily lounging without a care in the world. A picture of Nightmare Moon was hung on one wall, and was filled with holes, with a set of three thin daggers designed for throwing embedded in its surface. “Letter for you, boss!” Sunshine said as he stepped through the doorway, holding up the envelope. “How many times must I tell you to knock before you enter? Go back and knock,” Daggertail said calmly, waving a hoof in a shooing motion. Sunshine’s ears lowered, and he backed out of the room with an apology, before closing the door and gently knocking on it. “Come in!” Daggertail called. Sunshine pushed the door open again, and then stepped inside, moving up to the desk and depositing the letter upon it. “Letter for you, boss.” “You’re going to make me read it?” Daggertail asked flatly. Sunshine blinked once, and then fumbled for the envelope, ripping it open and tugging out the neatly folded piece of paper, staring down at it. “I know you can read, Sunshine. Now read it,” Daggertail demanded, waving his hoof. “Dear Daggertail, “You don’t know me. My name is Kuno. I have recently come to the country after much hardship in my home country. It has come to my attention that you are extorting my new friend Warden, forcing him to grow crops for you. “I kindly require that you engage with Warden in a true business relationship or cease requiring his services altogether, as it really isn’t very fair for-” Daggertail cut sunshine off, snorting once and rolling his eyes. “Who gave this to you?” “Just some pegasus in the street,” Sunshine pointed out. “She was real nice but I’ve never seen her before.” “Have you checked up on Warden recently?” Daggertail asked. “I checked on him just before I left to come here actually,” Sunshine admitted, nodding once. “And?” Daggertail queried, raising a brow. “He and Kuno had a message for you,” Sunshine said lamely, waving the piece of paper. “But the pegasus, Kuno. She wanted to deliver a message personally.” “A personal message? She’ll come here to the manor?” Daggertail asked, seeming amused. “I must say, it would save time. Do you have any idea what the message is?” Sunshine nodded, closing his eyes and furrowing his brows, thinking hard. “Oh, right!” Sunshine said after a moment, his eyes opening. Daggertail recoiled as he caught sight of Sunshine’s eyes, now a deep, ghostly, uniform blue colour. Sunshine leaped over the mahogany desk fluidly, sliding his rump out and slamming both hindlegs into Daggertail’s chest, shoving him to the ground while Sunshine himself leapt atop the prone form, smashing a hoof into his chest and knocking the wind out of him. A quick touch of horns together drained Daggertail’s magical abilities, removing any chance of retaliation. Kuno grinned down at the winded unicorn, letting her changes drop as she leaned in close, her fangs pressing along the unicorn’s cheek until she reached his ear. She bit down hard, drawing blood and making the unicorn arch and cry out in pain. “Have I got your attention, Daggertail?” Kuno asked sweetly. Daggertail nodded vigorously, wheezing and trying to catch his breath. “I’m not going to kill you...” Kuno whispered, smiling eerily at the unicorn, breathing the words into his ear. “Back in my home land... my name means ‘agony’. I’m not quite sure why my mother chose to name me this, but I realised quite early on that my name is very telling.” Leaning over further, Kuno hooked her teeth through the unicorn’s earring, and then jerked her head back hard. A soft giggle left the changeling as she held her hoof over Daggertail’s mouth to muffle his sudden scream, his earring, now slicked with blood, gripped between her front teeth. She leaned in close again, gripping the unicorn’s chin in her hoof and squeezing unnecessarily hard. “Any pony you know. Everypony you ever see in the street...” She leaned in closer, laving her tongue seductively over the hole in his ear, “Any pony you ever bloody see. If you cross Warden again, then you’ll be watching every single one of these ponies. I won’t kill them, oh no no no,” Kuno said with an innocent giggle, biting gently at the base of his ear. Daggertail whimpered, a hoof raising to try and hold at his bleeding ear, staring fearfully up at the changeling. Kuno giggle softly, and then breathed into his ear, “Any single one of them... Just remember. I could be anypony. Your mother. Your child. Your best friend. Your second in command. I can be any of them. And if you cross Warden... I’ll be coming for you.” With a low, evil laugh, the changeling rose off the unicorn, and then punched him hard in the stomach again, winding him further, making him wheeze breathlessly, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Kuno stepped over to the picture of Nightmare Moon, tugging one of the daggers from it. Quietly, she picked up the letter, the ring, and the dagger, and then slammed the dagger down into the mahogany desk, before reverting back to Sunshine’s form and walking calmly back out of the room. By the time Daggertail recovered enough to pull himself to his hooves, the changeling was long gone. The dagger was embedded in his desk, pinning the letter to it, with his earring hanging from the blade of the dagger. On the piece of paper was a single word in large bold letters. REMEMBER