Chapter Nineteen...
It was Skye's fifteenth birthday, and I only just got downstairs in time to stop Skye opening every single present as fast as possible.
"Breakfast first." I said, holding my daughter with my forelegs. It took a lot of effort but I finally managed to drag her into the kitchen. I stood in front of the door and pointed at the cupboard with the cereal in. Skye gave in and went to get herself some breakfast. I went with her, and we sat down at the kitchen table with our respective bowls of cereal.
"Dad, why can't I open my presents yet?" Skye asked, trying to look as innocent as possible. I finished my mouthful of cereal and answered.
"Mom wanted to watch you open them." I answered simply enough. I could see it in Skye's eye that something was about to happen, and it would probably involve a very annoyed Luna. "Don't try to wake her up with magic Skye, we don't want a repeat incident of the last time that happened." I warned, not wanting to experience another one of Luna's tickling bouts. Skye suddenly dropped the magic she was charging and looked around as if her mother was waiting in the shadows. About five minutes later, there was a thud from upstairs. Shuffling noises followed until Luna managed to drag herself into the kitchen. She grunted in acknowledgement as Skye bid her good morning. Luna finally reached the coffee machine and hit the button. She stared at it, as if she could speed it up through sheer willpower. As soon as the machine finished she downed the entire mug of coffee.
"Whoever invented coffee needs a medal." Luna said, suddenly looking a lot more alive. "Okay, present time Skye!" She said, hugging her daughter. We all walked into the room and Skye dive bombed the pile of presents. She pulled out the biggest one she could lift. She ripped it open to find a set of DJ decks, Mixers and a powerful computer. She was stunned.
"Where did you get these?" She squealed.
"I asked Vinyl." I responded.
"You... you know DJ-PON3?!" She almost screamed. "Oh my gosh, why didn't you tell me?" Luna levitated a smaller box over to Skye. She snatched it out of the air and used her talons to cut through the paper. A collection of high-end music programs lit her eyes up. "How did you know?" She said, still stunned.
"I keep finding my headphones in your room and my laptop has some new music programs on that I didn't install myself." I said, smiling.
"Oh..." Skye grabbed another box and clawed it open. Inside was a custom-made pair of headphones. Pure white with three stripes running across them. They housed a 7.1 surround sound system and a custom-made sound card. She looked at them, stunned.
"Only the best for a princess!" Luna said, using Skye's official title to break her out of her headset-induced trance. Skye then proceeded to decimate the rest of the presents. She reached the bottom of the pile, and behind her sat a tower of stuff. A custom-tailored dress from Rarity, the entire Daring Do series from Twilight, a Wonderbolts poster from Rainbow, an assortment of little carvings from Fluttershy and her animals, and a Stetson hat from Applejack. We had confiscated Pinkie's present as one party cannon was bad enough. Skye wasn't too beat up about it as she had been on the receiving end of the cannon on several occasions. There was a knocking on the front door. I went over to open it, and outside stood Celestia. I let her in, motioning for her to be quiet so she could surprise her niece. Just as I went to close the door one of the guards spoke quietly.
"You want us to take that cannon out of the garden?" He said.
"You don't know how much I want you to." I sighed, relieved that the monstrous invention wouldn't cause any more trouble. I heard a high-pitched squawk from inside, and went back into the living room to find Skye flying about five feet off the ground, looking annoyed. She landed and Celestia passed her the present that was resting on her back.
"Thanks aunt Tia." Skye said, still weary of any more pranks that the white alicorn was going to pull. She slowly opened the box, obviously expecting it to be booby-trapped. It wasn't, thankfully, and Skye carefully lifted out a tiara that almost matched the two alicorns' tiaras, except it was a blazing red metal. An enormous sapphire glinted in its centre, and Skye whistled sharply when it caught the light. "Thanks, but why do I need a tiara?" She said.
"You're a princess, duh!" Celestia said, imitating the speech of the current generation.
"What the... I thought it was just a nickname Mom had for me!" Skye said, everything suddenly clicking into place. She now knew why her parents could buy her all these presents. "You're joking, right?" She said, still reeling in shock. Celestia shook her head, and Skye fainted. My reactions kicked in and I grabbed her just before she hit the floor.
"Well, you've outdone yourself this time Tia." I said as I carried the unconscious form of my daughter to the settee. I laid her down gently, and sat next to her, gently stroking her feathers. She slowly stirred and snuggled closer to me.
"Is everything going to change daddy?" She asked, fearing that because I wasn't true royalty it would split the family.
"No, it's not sweetie, everything's gonna be fine." I said, reassuring my worried daughter. "Everything's gonna be just fine."
Once Skye was feeling better, we decided to go flying to get the rest of the emotions out of our systems. We had been happily flying for about half an hour when there was a deafening screech. We looked up to see squadron of griffons closing in on our position.
"Halt!" Screamed Celestia, but they just kept on coming. "Shit, mountain griffons. Move!" She continued. The rebels banked towards us as we dived to avoid them. "Stop now, by command of the royal alicorn sisters!" She commanded, but they kept coming.
"Give us the abomination and we'll let you live!" The leader said as they pulled up in front of us. He pointed at Skye.
"Never!" I screamed, letting all of my pent-up rage flow through me, allowing me to manipulate life forces from extreme distances. I used the leader's life against him, forcing his throat to collapse in on itself. As I crushed the life out of him, I didn't notice a second griffon swoop towards me. It fixed its beak around my ribcage and squeezed as hard as it could. I started to drain the life out of him to repair myself, but the damage was done as my ribs shattered, destroying my lungs. I plummeted towards the ground and landed with a sickening crunch. I saw the griffon fly back up, but before he could celebrate his victory, he was struck by a ball of lightning. His lifeless corpse rocketed into another griffon, slamming into him and causing him to plummet towards the ground. Luna was transforming again, and as she became Nightmare Moon, Celestia also started to transform. She looked a lot like Nightmare Moon, but her armour seemed to be made of plates of magma and her mane had become as black as obsidian. Skye had flown down and landed next to me.
"Dad! Dad! Please don't die!" She said as she poured her power into me. I felt my body reconstitute itself, but the strain had been too much. My vision faded into blackness, and Skye screamed as I died in her arms.
(Skye's perspective) "No! No no no!" I screamed as my Dad died. I looked up to the griffons that had killed him. I didn't stop to think, I just charged at them. I felt their lives as I approached them. Weak. Pitiful. Not worthy of Equestria. I killed the first one with a swipe of my talons. The second erupted into flames as I blasted him away from Mom. I destroyed them, leaving nothing but ash. I flew back down once they had all been disposed of. As I sat next to Dad's lifeless body, a surge of emotions hit me. It was too much for me, and I let the blackness envelop me.
I awoke in my bed, at home. Maybe it was all a dream? Maybe Dad was still alive? I saw Mom and Aunt Tia curled up next to my bed, tear stains covering their cheeks. I realised that the griffons really had killed him, and it was all my fault. I had caused this. I hated myself, and went into the bathroom as my stomach decided to empty itself.