Horrus glided across the hard stone floor of the Everfree Hive. His blindfold covered eyes scanned the room he had been given, inspecting everything from the number of cracks in the walls to the way the blanket seemed lazily tossed onto the bed. His eyes traced along the edge of the bed, where a faint glimmer caught his attention.
He followed alongside the bed until he came face-to-face with his own reflection that the pony-sized mirror showed. His expression remained indifferent as his clone copied his movements. He sat down and spread his wings, taking in how strange he looked for the first time. Slowly, his hoof rose up until it rested behind his head. He pulled on the cloth, undoing it only enough for it to fall and hang from his neck like a noose.
He kept his eyes shut tight. He wanted to open them. To actually look upon himself, in his new body, with real eyes.
What am I afraid of? He thought. I made the decision to take these eyes. I cut them out myself, only to cut out my own in order to make room. So why can’t I bring myself to look?
His eyes lightly twitched, opening just a sliver.
Open, damnit!
Finally, the lids opened wide. He watched as the colors danced around, rippling and waving around his pupil. The rainbows certainly complimented his white coat more than he thought it would.
Wait, my coat isn’t…
The black Alicorn nearly jumped out of his skin as he realized that it wasn’t his reflection in the mirror. Looking right back at him was a mare with a light brown mane. She sat just as Horrus did, only with a calmer face. Horrus, however, lost his surprise only for it to be replaced by anger.
“You!”
The mare smiled lightly. “Hello Horrus.” She spoke softly, like a mother speaking to a child.
“You…" He said again through clenched teeth. "I killed you!”
“Don’t act so surprised.” She said with a gentle shake of her head, “Let’s be honest… I’m a part of you. You’ll never completely destroy me.”
Horrus raised his hoof, ready to shatter the mirror with a single strike. “I can sure as hell try!”
“What do you hope to accomplish?”
Horrus’ hoof stopped mere inches from the reflective surface. He immediately hated himself for holding back. He hated himself even more for responding. “What?”
A quick smile flickered across her face as she saw his hoof slowly return to the ground. “What do you want from all this? Allying yourself with these brutal creatures, these… Changelings. I just want to know why.”
Horrus growled and looked down and to the side. “Don’t act like you’re my mother. You’ve never questioned my motives before.”
“And you haven’t truly looked in a mirror in years. How else could I?”
Was that really all it took? Horrus thought. It was true though. His image wasn’t exactly something he cared for beyond intimidation. As well, a little part of him always felt wrong when he thought about looking at himself with the eyes he stole.
“Why does it matter if I decide to choose a side? My reasons are my own.”
“Do you believe that if you win, you’ll finally get the respect you deserve?”
“I don’t need respect!”
“Don’t lie to me.” Her brow ruffled, not out of anger at his outburst, but in disappointment in his decision in words. “I’ve known you almost your whole life Horrus. I spent day after day, hours upon hours teaching you, honing you into a force of tremendous power both physically and mentally. Do not think for even a second that I can’t see past your words. You may be able to deceive that poor boy by nearly reenacting the most horrific event in his life, but you will have to try much harder in order to make me believe that what you say is true.”
Horrus closed his eyes, not wanting to look at the mare in the mirror any longer. He wanted her to just go away. He kept them squeezed shut, hoping that she would just leave. “I hate you.” He said, finally.
“I know.” She replied, some sadness in her voice, her features relaxing once more. “And I forgive you for it. I should have seen the signs that you were growing restless with me, but instead I put it off just as young ambition. Perhaps if I had just seen the signs…”
“Shut up.”
She flinched at his harsh sounding words. “Stop acting like everything is always your fault. Is it so difficult to believe that the student of the great magister Destruction made his own decisions? That he has a will of his own? Is it so incomprehensible that I wish to go against those who saw me as nothing more than a child?” He stomped his hoof down, “I was not born with the great natural strength like the others were! That lumbering behemoth, that arrogant bastard, that emotionally unstable boy; all gifted with the strength of a hundred men. I worked every day of my life to be in the position that I am in today only to be told that I can go no further. That I was stuck on the ladder of power, never to reach the final peg. Do you understand how that feels?”
His fury was painful to her ears but she stood her ground. She listened to every word he had to say, making sure that nothing went unheard. “No.” she replied. “I do not.”
“Of course you don’t.” Horrus moved to pull the cloth back over his eyes, ready to simply end such a needless conversation.
“Only because power was not what I sought after.”
He stopped, “Power is all that exists.”
“And I cannot argue with that. Power is what defines who we are and what we are capable of. It shows where we stand in our world. I began my life just as you did, always striving for more. To be the very best I could be. But alas, my strength was nothing in comparison to the others. And as thus I used my power to develop newer ways of demonstrating that power which all but I had been blessed with. Every day I created a new form of unleashing power... every day I created new ways to kill. And like the beasts we all are, I was rewarded for my work. All I had to do was draw funny little symbols with my fingers and I was given a new position, a new name. I was labeled as Destruction for what I had done and praised as if I was some kind of warlord.
"For once in my life I felt… needed. I felt like I had a purpose, Horrus, and over time I became arrogant. That is, until the day I finally approached the battlefield. The memory of the land and homes being scarred, of corpses of both beast and man smoldering from the intense heat of the blasts that I had developed. It was then that I gave up my high-backed chair, that I gave up creating new ways for people to murder one another. Instead I put my time into a new subject… one that not even the Angels had delved into too far. Can you guess what it was?”
“… I do not require a lecture on your life story.”
“Healing. I put all of my time and resources into repairing the damage that I had done. To reattach limbs, to mend the very bones that make up our bodies, to stop all of the death and devastation. No longer did I want to be known as the Horseman of Destruction, to be known as the monster behind every murder.”
“Be silent, Destruction!” Horrus had had enough. His eyes had strayed from the Alicorn that watched him from the other side of the mirror as she spoke but now his eyes were locked with hers. The colors that flowed in her eyes had slowed, becoming almost stagnant. Tears stained her white coat leaving darkened trails that led down her cheeks.
“My name is Anna… not Destruction!”
Horrus was taken back by her sudden outburst. “Anna Trandafir. For two hundred and thirty-nine years, I was simply Anna Trandafir. For three thousand, four hundred and eighty-two years I was known as the very essence of Destruction. I spread the knowledge of power and killed more people than you have even seen with my own creations! After realizing what I had done, I renounced my position. The first ever to do so! My resignation was not taken happily, however, but I suppose there is some pride that I can have knowing that I survived long enough to be the first Horseman – albeit a former one – to die of natural causes a thousand and twelve years later.
"I gave up everything I had in order to stop the bloodshed only to be resurrected in the one who would so openly betray his own people as to try and kill the closest thing he had to a family because of a race-war that didn’t even involve you! I taught you the power to heal in hopes that the very opposite might happen! And how was I even repaid for such an act? You tried to murder me. You silenced me from your own mind, cutting out my eyes so that you could replace your own, thinking, what, I wonder? That you might finally surpass all those around you, climbing the ladder of power as if it were some elevator, until you finally reached the top? And then what? What happens when you finally achieve your goal of power, hmm? Do you truly think yourself any different than those fools that have somehow managed to hold power since the beginning of eternity?”
Horrus did not answer. His eyes remained glued to the floor. All was silent between the two until Horrus let out a drawn out sigh. Before long his eyes returned to hers, “Are you done talking now?”
Destruction – or rather, Anna – opened her mouth, about to lash out at him once more, but she stopped herself. She shook her head gently, “What will it take for you to understand there is more to our lives than gaining power over others?”
“More than you can offer, evidently enough.” He replied dryly. “And as for those so-called ‘friends’, they have no reason to care for me, just as I have no reason to care for them. It is not unnoticeable the way that the majority of friendships are rather short lived because of a many numbers of reasons. Two or more individuals remain in this ‘bond of friendship’ for an extended period of time if and only if there is something to be gained from the relationship. Nothing happens without reason, and as such no one will ever so something that is in no way beneficial to them. Humans – be they Demon or Angel or anything else – are all naturally selfish. I am, of course, no exception. I assist these parasites because doing so will give me power over them all. This war cannot be won without my support; not so long as the other Horsemen remain with the Equines.
"Where there is power, there is purpose. And there is nothing more that I desire other than to have purpose in this life. I am one of the renowned Four Horsemen. There are only three others that have more power in their words other than me, and yet I only hold this position because of both my heritage and my rare ability to actually think properly for more than five seconds at a time. A trait rather rare, apparently. Even here, amongst these parasites, I am needed for my mind because these nitwits know nothing more than guerrilla tactics and what somehow passes as attempts at espionage. I have no idea how this species has even survived this long into their lifespans using their feeble attempts at deception! But, this has led to one of those benefits that come from a mutual relationship: I am needed. These creatures will fail, undoubtedly, without my support. Back in Hellion I held power simply because it was convenient. During a time of war, I was able to think logically, quickly, and effectively.”
“And once this war is over? Once these parasites, these… Changelings, have taken control of the planet? What then?”
Horrus closed his eyes and pulled the black cloth over them. Without so much as another glance at the mirror he turned and made his way toward the exit, where the final invasion army awaited his return. “And then I will lay waste to all who oppose me. I will take control of everything and everyone, and then… and then I will always be needed.”
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Horrus's eyes snapped open. He was clutching his sword tightly against his chest. In the distance he could he crashes and explosions. Looking up into the sky he could tell that nightfall should be coming along sometime within the next few hours. His eyes turned to where War lay, still unconscious. He was still breathing, which was good. He didn't want to have wasted all that time and energy closing his wounds and stopping the bleeding from his new lack of an arm.
He noticed War's eyelids begin to flutter and slowly open. Taking a deep breath, he spoke up to catch the attention of the man he had killed not far from here just eight long years ago. "It's about time you woke up."