At once his childish tendencies rushed to the surface. All at once he was enveloped in the dark void he had seen before, and the dreaded dream eating mare was knocking at the door. He had no option. She was already inside. He was young, small again. He trembled in anticipative fear. The gremlin that had walked his mind before was near.
Her teeth were sharp now and her tongue forked. There was not even a semblance of the virtuous mare that once stood in the starlight slippers. That mare was gone and wasn’t to be found. She approached the tearing foal that shivered in horror. He had nowhere to run. This was her playpen, and he was powerless.
She removed her slipper and tapped at Salem’s horn. She grinned widely and circled the infant.
“First day difficulties, they were dealt with I assume? How perfect is your kingdom now, imbecile? This is what you wanted is it not? Tell me, what did you think of my little prank? It was just a friendly jape, a jab in the ribs. I meant no malice by it.”
Salem looked up to the jagged form of Luna’s white teeth and he shied away. He back up towards the wall but he could never reach it.
“That was mean.”
“Aww, did I hurt your little baby feelings? I’m so sorry.”
The sarcasm in the cynical mare’s voice was boastful and obvious.
“They didn’t do anything to you! You’re a meanie and I don’t want to speak to you. Go away! I’ll get my mom and then you’ll be sorry!”
Luna veered to the side and shielded her eyes with her blade-like wing. Everything about her was becoming venomous and monstrous. As time went on, her form manifested as putrid and malignant, like an unwanted growth.
“Oh please don’t call mommy! Mom! Mommy Sombra, where are you Sapphire? Ah, just as I predicted, she’s ignoring us. She was selfish. She was worthless. Don’t take it from me, sweetums. Hear it from the horse’s mouth!”
The portrait of his magnificent mother aided Luna’s trickery as she stole its likeness once more. Only, this time she didn’t look peaceful or kindly. No, she seemed distracted, and her hoofs shook with fury. Her mane was a mess and she had a book firmly held in her teeth.
It was a book about ancient spirits. Upon its cover was a marquee of calligraphic print, probably the work of a steady hoof and a phoenix quill. A finer feather could not be found. It was said back in those darker times that with the use of a phoenix borne pen, the user could not make a mistake. It had images of dark beasts also. They were shadowy figures, with horns and snaggleteeth.
The imposter dropped the book in front of young Salem. It fell open on a particular page, one marked with the dampness of tears and the ravages of grief. Hooves had tried to rip the page. It could not be removed.
There, under the caption the young colt was yet to be able to read, was an example of the corrupted stallion. It was fiction to begin with, the stuff of horror stories and camp fire tales. The demon had eyes glowing green and purple streaks exploding from those very eyes.
Salem identified himself in the picture, it was him. He snapped out of his childlike state and lifted the book with his magic. Luna continued her rouse and grasped her slender horn with one hoof while the other wielded a cleaver.
Salem looked up to the repulsive creature and then dropped the book, closing the page and hopefully losing it in the process.
“Is this me? Was she right to fear me?”
Luna took a mighty swing at her horn. The blade embedded inside the tissue of the horn and it Luna made several attempts to free it with force. She tried to saw through it but the material was strong, very strong.
“You think yourself a god, Sombra? The mare mage from the council, you decided her fate for her. Was that your say, child? She was a wise mare, your mother, for she tried to forestall your malevolence by drowning you. You don’t remember, do you? She tried. She failed. You wouldn’t die.”
“I will not listen to your lies.”
“Block my voice out all you want, I control reality in here. You appear to have lost control, King.”
“Get out! Stop this!”
“You had one day to protect your subjects and be the leader they need, and you let them all down. We should have given you what you wanted in the first place. You have done more ill to this place in a day than we could do in centuries. You’ve lost their love, Salem, and now you will lose this bet.”
“This is no bet!”
“You profess just and ordered reign but your own wife doesn’t believe in you. She made promises to the people and you never showed up at moonlake did you? She was bribing the dragons to play nice. She was taking a friends and family discount and taking the property of the crown. Were you even aware? Did your stallions not inform you? Tsk-tsk, Salem, this is very sloppy.”
She finished the sentence with throaty groan as she freed the cleaver from her horn. She struck the thing again and again it became entrapped in the fibres tougher than diamond.
“You make many promises. Do you actually keep any of them? I’m sure you’re desperate to meet your daughter’s love interest. I know his name and I know his history and his future. There is nothing I cannot unearth.”
The blade scraped free once more. This time she drove the knife point first into the gauge and it followed through to the other side. The noises she made afterwards were something like laughter only it was muted and broken. It was as if more than one voice was speaking and they weren’t the best rehearsed.
“I’ve been very busy. I had a little lookie in little Amber’s head, didn’t find much to be perfectly frank. Then I went and had a look in Sierra’s mind. She is a horny young thing. I have seen some things in my line of work but the fetishisms and desires that wonder through this mare’s mind tested even me.”
Salem began regressing back to his younger self. He fell on his tummy and yelped but there was no soul to help. He shrieked as Luna thrust the knife handle skywards and the horn detached from her head. There was so much blood.
“You eat like a fat king while your subjects starve? You are no saint, Salem.”
She began as she collected the bloody shell husk from the floor. She held it facing her chest and contently closed her eyes. Little Salem could only crawl towards the imposter as the life drained from her face. He would never reach her.
She held the implement further away from her body and let her arms hand loose, as if she wasn’t going to go through with it.
“He’s evil!”
She screamed a banshee scream.
“He is blackest night and he bites me during feeds! Like a witch he won’t drown, he won’t stop breathing. His breathing, his breathing, it won’t stop, his breathing, it won’t stop!”
Luna fell to her knees and fastened her hooves around the horn, straightening her arms as she did. She closed her eyes and prayed.
“Tell me what to do, Oh Empresses. He is not my child. This is a doppelganger, a shape shifter! His birth is an affront to you both! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
The horn pierced Luna’s chest and she fell dead, blood spewing from every part of her. The blood spread. It filled the void, and then it kept on spreading. Soon the floor was congealing and scabbing over and young Salem was feeling smaller and smaller by the second.
Salem looked at his miniature hooves. They were doused in blood, her blood. He didn’t understand the difference. This was his weakness. This was how she would cut him down. Luna, now herself again, opened her mouth and said.
“Their blood is on your hands…”