//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Fractured (Standard) // Story: Eternal Night // by Lucaro //------------------------------// Sirius couldn’t do it. He couldn’t. The scalpel trembled in his hoof. He had cut her once, but he couldn’t muster the willpower to do it again. Dark Sirius was watching quietly. “It’s been two hours,” he whispered. “Will you give this mare the treatment, or not?” “I..I can’t,” he gasped, tears in his eyes. “This isn’t what I wanted…this is sadistic.” The strange mare in the observation room came back on the intercom. “Sirius, remember that your mother is a criminal. Her punishment is death, and you are merely the executioner.” Dark Sirius nodded. “Justice demands that she die. Let it be done.” Mother was watching him in terror, all attempts at resistance gone. It was as if she had accepted her fate. What the shadow pegasus was saying made sense. She did deserve this for all the harm she had done to him. Sirius swallowed, and lowered the scalpel onto her belly. It broke her skin, and dark red blood welled up. The sight of it made him want to retch, but he didn’t take the scalpel back. “If you’re uncomfortable,” Dark Sirius boomed in his masculine voice. “Go for the jugular vein. It’ll be a quick and painless death. A lenient death compared to what I would do to her.” Sirius took his advice. Torture was out of the question, or was it? He scratched the edge of her throat, and she moaned. He hesitated. The mare came back on the intercom, and she sounded frustrated. “One of you will not leave this dream alive! Kill her!” Sirius closed his eyes and put all his weight into the scalpel. There was a squelching sound that turned his stomach. He opened his eyes, and saw the scalpel’s razor edge embedded in the fabric of the operating table. Another mare’s hoof was holding his from across the table. She had prevented him from dealing the fatal blow. Sirius grew irrationally bitter, and looked up in defiance at the other mare. It was Female Sirius. She was recovering from her surgery, and was still in her hospital gown. “Don’t do this, Sirius. You’re a good stallion with a bright heart. This isn’t you.” Sirius stared into her blue eyes, enchanted. She was beautiful. She smiled sadly at him, but he heard Dark Sirius hiss in anger. “Don’t listen to her!” he shouted, and broke She-Sirius’ spell on him. The shadow pegasus towered over him. “Your Mother has abused you your entire life! She would rather kill you than admit she loved you!” She-Sirius protested, her voice feminine and smooth. “Your Mother is not a bad mare! She has had a rough life, full of trauma and pain, and has succumbed to the wiles of drugs and alcohol. Deep down, she didn’t really want to kill you, she just wanted the drugs! The drugs have warped her mind, so she doesn’t think of the consequences of her actions. Your Mother has a serious medical condition that has impaired her judgment, give her a break!” It was then Sirius saw it. Dark Sirius and She-Sirius were different aspects of his own mind. Dark Sirius was his logic, his rationale. She-Sirius was his emotions, his compassion. His heart was broken, but it was still there. She-Sirius’ ability to speak on the behalf of his emotions proved that. Dark Sirius spat at her, snorting. “So what if she’s a drug addict? So what if she’s an alcoholic? That’s no excuse to abuse your own son! That’s no excuse to cut him off from your love and treat him like an outcast!” Sirius felt a flare of anger. The shadow pegasus grabbed his hoof and slid it across Mother’s belly. A large gash surfaced and streaks of red flooded out. Sirius smiled in satisfaction. “Sweet retribution,” Dark Sirius and he said at the same time. She-Sirius screamed, begging for him to stop. “Sirius! You are better than this!” She leaned over the table and touched his head. The image of Mother and him embracing was forced into his mind. Sirius grunted, resisting her influence. “Give her another chance! She was wrong to hurt you, but two wrongs don’t make a right!” Sirius blinked, understanding. “She has a broken heart. You must use the Love Potion to heal it, and you will see how she will let you in! That fantasy can still be a reality!” Sirius felt like his eyes had been opened. He now saw the specter’s clawed hand gripping his hoof. He became aware of how it was trying to force his hoof down, wanting Sirius to gut his own mother. He was horrified, and saw the shade behind him. She-Sirius yelled at him. “Don’t look at it!” He immediately faced her, shocked and scared. “That entity is a manifestation of your hate! It has warped your reasoning, and it will consume you if you’re not careful!” Sirius groaned, and it felt as if a heavy weight had been put on his back. He realized that the hate entity was leaning on Sirius, forcing him down. “Help me,” he groaned. “Look at me, Sirius.” She-Sirius took his hoof, kissing it. “You alone can make this go away. No one else. Let go of your hate, for it is the true infection eating your heart. Not your Mother, not Persei, not anyone.” She-Sirius drew near, and he could feel her warm breath against his muzzle. “Let it go, my beloved. Forgive her, and you will find the weight removed.” Sirius groaned, feeling like his spine would snap. He was distracted by her lips brushing against his, and he felt the warmth of healing inside. “Let the past make you better, not bitter.” She whispered. “Hate has no place in the heart of a noble stallion such as you.” Sirius looked over at Dark Sirius, who regarded him sadly. “She has made her case, and so have I. Make your choice.” The shadow pegasus gesture at the female version of himself. “Mercy?” Dark Sirius puffed out his chest and stood tall. “Or justice?” Sirius could feel the heavy weight of the hate entity shrouding him, but he knew if he embraced it, it could raise him up. It could drive him to become more powerful. But if he did, he would lose some part of himself. While hate was strengthened, its counteracting force, love, would be diminished. Will it truly consume me? He knew that every terrible villain stood right here at a junction like this. Every drug addict started out with his first dose. Every mass murderer began with the first victim. Every suicide committed started with the first depressed thought. Would killing Mother lead him down a path he couldn’t turn back from? Evil has an addictive quality to it. It would pull him in, and each subsequent evil action would increase his tolerance for it, and soon it would become easy. He wouldn’t think twice of it. Exactly like a drug addict, his doses would steadily increase, until the fateful day where he was so far gone that he overdosed. Wickedness worked the same way. It felt good until you crashed. Until you realized that you are truly alone, and everyone has fled from you. By then, your life is ruined, and it’ll be too late. Sirius put down the scalpel gently. He had made up his mind. She-Sirius smiled, knowing who the victor was. Sirius was happy, and it really did feel like a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He leaned over the operating table and kissed his mother’s cheek, and whispered in her ear. “I forgive you.” Mother stared at him, mute. There was a shrill scream over the intercom, and sirens started going off. They all looked around as metal doors came down over the airtight doors, sealing the exits, the biohazard symbol glaring at them. Dark Sirius howled. “The emergency quarantine protocols! We have to get out of here!” Dark Sirius ripped Mother’s operating table from the mount and carried it on his back. “Let’s go!” Sirius and the embodiment of his rationale charged the doors. Sirius banged on the metal doors to no avail. “It’s no use!” they both cried at the same time. Female Sirius was cowering in the corner of the room, trembling, too frightened to move. The glass of the observation room shattered, and all the medical equipment began to short circuit and catch on fire. The mysterious mare jumped down from the observation room, and slammed down onto the ground, sending broken white linoleum tiles flying in the air. “You will not leave here until that mare is dead!” she screamed. “Bite me!” Sirius called. Black iron shackles forged from the plumbing below, ripped through the floor and ensnared Sirius and held him aloft. He was screaming, the world spinning around upside down as the magical shackles swung him around. “Hold on, Sirius!” Dark Sirius called, and took wing. He deftly dodged the chains, and flew towards him. Their hooves touched, and a beam of red energy knocked his shadow-self out of the sky. Dark Sirius crashed into the wall and tumbled to the ground. The chains were upon him then, and pinned him to the floor. Sirius tried to struggle in his chains, but he knew that he was trapped. He saw Mother’s operating table thrown to the side, and Sirius cringed as it shattered against the wall. Mother lay there in the debris of the table, unmoving. The observer mare cast off her hood, and Sirius stared in shock. The ruby eyes, the bright pelt, it was Ember. “Initiate Sirius, I see that you still resist. Your manifestation of hate was offering you an unlimited supply of power, but you turned it down because you feared that you would lose yourself.” Sirius remained suspended, his wings pinned to his body. Dark Sirius was covered in chains, being crushed. There was a cry of pain, but it was from neither of them. Ember looked at She-Sirius, who was picking out jagged pieces of glass from her wings. She had Mother in her forelegs, and was trying to carry her up into the observation room. But she was too injured, and crashed against the wall every time. Like an injured sparrow, she couldn’t truly take flight. The blood spatters on the walls suggested that she had tried ascending dozens of times. Ember looked at the two injured mares, and grinned maliciously. She looked back at Sirius. “To join the Night Terrors, a pony must submit himself to whatever changes his instructor wishes to administer.” Ember turned to the two trembling mares in the corner of the room, and Sirius struggled in his chains. “Leave them alone!” he shouted. “Don’t you dare touch my mother!” “I’m doing this for your own good!” she responded. “You will be removed of this parasite, so I will be free to craft you into a form Nightmare Moon can use!” She-Sirius and Mother were huddled together in the corner, hooves wrapped around each other, eyes lit with terror as Ember approached them. Sirius watched in horror, and begged her to stop. “Please! She’s my mother! Please….” Ember flashed him a wolfish grin. “Oh, I’m not going to touch your mother.” What? Sirius thought. Ember flicked her hooves, and a long serrated blade slid out from the sheath strapped to her hoof. With a single motion, Ember drove the blade into She-Sirius’ chest. Sirius, Mother, and Dark Sirius stared in terror as Ember raised the impaled mare into the air. Blood dripped from her muzzle, and she twitched a few times before going still. Ember slung She-Sirius’ corpse off her blade, and she hit the wall with a sick thud. It struck Sirius like a searing knife then. The chains released him, and he writhed in agony on the floor. Dark Sirius and he were screaming in unison. “No! No! NO!” Sirius mind felt like it had been torn apart. A vital part of his being had been destroyed. He lay on the ground, and he felt all semblance of emotion drain away from him. All the conflicted feelings: his budding sense of belonging, all the love he had ever known, his happiness, his grief, everything was bleeding out of him. Dark Sirius was howling in agony, clutching his head, and wrapping his head in his wings. There was a moment of complete disembodiment, an echoing empty feeling that sapped Sirius’ very desire to live. Sirius felt a sharp stab of pain, and something snapped. His forebrain had been dealt a devastating blow, and his hindbrain moved to fill the gap. Animal urges, sick and feral rose up within him. Is this what going insane feels like? He writhed, arching his back up, spreading his wings out. He snarled and snapped, everything that made a pony a pony was now gone. A cold calm swept over him, sedating him. He grew still and slowly stood up. His heart was empty, his mind indifferent. He trotted to the center of the room. The scent of blood filled his nostrils. What’s happened to me? A thought came to him, but it felt so distant that it was barely audible. Ember was watching him in satisfaction, and he wanted to do such terrible things to her that it filled every fiber of his being. She must have noticed, because her smug grin changed into one of fear. Sirius trotted towards her, and changed his mind. He would learn her weaknesses, and make her suffer until she begged him to take her life. He would not take this assault on his psyche without some retaliation. Sirius grinned at her, and Ember seemed to be relieved. “It’s been a pleasure,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I will repay you for this tenfold one day.” Ember blinked. She wasn’t sure if this was a threat or not, but she dismissed it. “You have so much potential as a Night Terror. I’ve never seen a pony convince himself not to take the life of a hated enemy.” He would let Ember live for now, but he had another pony to deal with right now. Sirius looked at Mother still cowering in the corner. He trotted towards her, and on his way there, his hoof hit something. A power drill made for boring through bone lay on the ground. He picked it up, and pulled the trigger. The bit began to spin around rapidly, making a whirring sound. Sirius looked at Mother then, and she began to weep. Sirius approached her, and she was trying to drag herself away from him. Her fore-hooves trembled, the drugs still impairing her movements. Sirius slammed his hoof down on her back, pinning her to the ground. He pressed down on the drill’s trigger, and Mother screamed. The sounds of her struggle were delightful. He began to lower the drill, and he realized that he was grinning. Sirius wasn’t doing this because he hated her, or for vengeance, not even for Ember’s test. He was doing it because he enjoyed it. He drove the drill into the back of her head. There was the sound of flesh ripping as the drill bore through her flesh. She screamed in agony, and writhed. He forced the drill deeper, and he could hear the reassuring crunch when he penetrated her brain stem. The part of her brain that regulated her life functions was destroyed, and Mother began to go into cardiac arrest. Sirius removed the drill and kicked her onto her back. He watched her struggle for breath, but it was futile. Her movements became less dramatic, until she stopped moving entirely. There was a strangled moan, and she fell silent forever. Sirius dropped the bloody drill. The deed was done. He expected to feel something: remorse, pity, regret, but he felt nothing. Just clarity, and a spark of triumph. Mother’s dead eyes stared at him, and somewhere, She-Sirius was watching him as well. Ember began to applaud him, and Sirius smiled viciously.