//------------------------------//
// Fate 
// Story: The Marked Ones 
// by Final Draft 
//------------------------------//

	Orange paced around me, whipping his tail in my face with every pass. I could barely breathe, and I tried to assess the damage done to me. My ribs were definitely cracked, and I was positive I had some internal bleeding. I'd never tried performing my magic on myself, but I figured it wouldn't be so hard to fix things.

As soon as my horn began to glow, Orange took notice and bucked me as hard as he could. I slid across the freshly cleaned floor and right into a cabinet full of medical supplies. All I could do was hold my hooves over my head as it crashed down on me, spilling its contents everywhere.

Cotton balls and syringes scattered across the floor and Orange scoffed. "Were you going to try to turn me inside out?" he asked.

Oh, how I wanted to. Even if he was hurting Twilight, I couldn't hurt him or I'd go back into my cell. And he knew that. He knew there wasn't anything I could do to him without consequence. It would be his word against mine, and even Twilight couldn't protect me if it came to that.

"I thought you were rehabilitated!" he shouted, laughing to himself. "See, I've known from the beginning you weren't quite right. I'm just not sure why Twi didn't see it. I think it's because she had feelings for you. It's a good thing she has me now, isn't it?"

His words clawed at my brain like an army of ear mites. All I could do was lay completely still beneath the cabinet and listen. I could hear his hooves slowly approaching me (He was probably wondering why I was so quiet.), and a thought occurred to me. Somewhere within the mess scattered around me, I knew there was a vial of sedative.

If I can just find it and a syringe—ah! Here we go!

"Do you know how much digging I had to do to find out about you?" Orange asked with a tone of arrogance. "None of the other guards would tell me. They said it was none of my business."

That's because it isn't, I thought angrily.

He was standing right over the cabinet now, probably smiling down at me like he'd squashed a bug. "So I went looking all through the records, because I knew there had to be some log of you marked freaks." He paused for a moment, and just before I was going to lunge, he walked away from the cabinet.

The bastard isn't done monologuing?! It was almost more than I could take; listening to that…that…that brat! He was acting like a child who'd won a game and wouldn't stop bragging about it. While he'd been talking, I'd managed to fill a syringe with a high potency tranquilizer capable of subduing a manticore. I held it ready in my hoof, just waiting for him to come back to me. He was having fun, getting to play as a big, important stallion who exposed the bad guy. I knew he couldn't resist kicking me at least once more.

"I'm gonna cut you a deal, Mac," he said, shortening my name like he did with Twilight's. "I'm going to forget about this shiner you gave me, but you better be far away from Canterlot by morning."

"And you won't tell Twilight about Windy Loo?" I asked. I tried to make it sound like I was weak, so he would have no problem approaching me again. I mean, I was weak from my injuries, but I was also armed and angry.

Orange laughed, and just as I'd expected, he began making his way back toward the cabinet. "Do you think I went through all this trouble to keep this to myself? Besides, you need a motivator to never come back looking for her."

His hooves stopped just next to me, and I held my breath.

"So, do we have a deal?" he asked, lowering his head to look at me.

He gave me the perfect opening and I lunged, sinking the needle of the syringe into his neck and pushing down the plunger. He screamed as the liquid entered his blood stream and he thrashed at me wildly. His wings flared and the contents of the manila folder spilled out onto the floor.

The syringe was completely empty when it left his neck, and the effects began almost immediately. He landed a few blows on me as I crawled out from beneath the cabinet, but I could see his muscles starting to relax. He went to swing at me as I stood up, and he missed, causing him to fall to the floor. His wings flapped uselessly as the last of his strength left him.

It was just like watching a bird struggle to get airborne after I'd severed its optic nerve. The difference here was that Orange could see, and I flipped him over so he could look at me. His eyes were swimming as he tried to fight the chemicals coursing through his veins.

I smiled down at him, just thinking about all the things I'd wanted to do to him. "You're not going to hurt Twilight any more," I whispered into his ear. "She's mine. All mine."

Orange lifted his hoof to swing at me, but it fell limply back to his side. His eyes went wide, and his breathing slowed. He was conscious, oh yes, but he wasn't going to feel a thing. At least not until that tranquilizer wore off.

"Now, this," I lifted his wings up with my magic, "is for laughing at me when I got ten plus ten wrong!" 

The muscles and tendons connecting his wings to his back ripped as I wrenched them off of him. His body twitched a little and tears collected in the corners of his eyes. Blood spattered the walls, and the now-useless appendages fell to the floor.

"That's just the beginning!" I shouted. My horn glowed even brighter as I tore Orange open like the seam of a cheap dress. It was just like Windy Loo all over again, except I was much, much more skilled than when I was as a colt.

As mad as I was at this stallion, I found myself laughing. I just couldn’t stop. It felt so good to use my talent how I wanted to—how I'd always wanted to! There wasn't any feeling better in the world as I tore that stupid guard apart. The only thing that could compare would be Twilight's undivided love.

And that was something I wanted more than revenge. There was only so much of Orange that I could tear apart before it wasn't fun anymore. Even though I hadn't reached that point, I decided to call it quits so I could tell Twilight the good news.

Orange had watched me the whole while I had worked. He saw me remove his stomach, his liver, his kidneys, his bladder, but he didn't get to see the magic going on inside of him. It took a great deal of focus to keep him alive without those things, and he could never appreciate any of it.

The tranquilizer was wearing off and his muscles began convulsing as his brain finally received the distress signals his pain receptors had been sending. He was feeling everything now, and I decided to give him a good show before he died. Using my magic, I stretched his heart out of his chest and up to his eyes, so he could see it beating rapidly. His eyes panned from his own heart to my face as he gasped in horror.

Without any warning, I tightened my magic on his heart, causing the muscle to explode in our faces. Blood dripped from his mane and his face as he continued gasping like a fish out of water. Finally, his eyes rolled back into his head and he slumped to the floor.

Nothing would stop Twilight and I from being together, and I could hardly wait to see her. I knew she'd be visiting, but that would be another hour, and that was far longer than I could wait. Perhaps I can kill time and clean up this mess, I thought, looking around at my handiwork.

Blood had pooled in the center of the room where the drain was, and I realized that stuffing all the animals down the night before must have clogged it. I don't have time before Twilight gets here. I started to panic, but a thought occurred to me. I’ll just go meet her at the castle! It's not a big deal. Doctor Plasters is off tomorrow and I can clean this up then.

The contents of my file were still scattered around the room, but I was in too much of a hurry to pick them up. I burst out of the clinic, nearly toppling over an elderly unicorn mare. She took one look at me and screamed before running off. I must have looked like I just committed a murder or something.

With the adrenaline finally wearing off, I remembered how badly I'd been injured by Orange. I limped through the streets of Canterlot, trailing a mixture of his blood and mine. I was dizzy, and disoriented, and my head was throbbing by the time I made it to the Canterlot Castle steps. Two guards stood in front of the main gate and they raised their weapons as I approached. One was a unicorn, and one was a pegasus, but I didn't recognize either.

"Twiliiiiiight!" I moaned, nearly falling into a puddle.

"'Stop right there!" the unicorn shouted. He held me back with the head of a spear, pointing it right at my throat.

"Please," I begged, "I need to see Twilight!"

My lab coat had come off during my fight with Orange, leaving my flanks completely exposed. The guards looked at my scars and then to each other nervously. "Inform the captain that we have a Marked One at the gate," the unicorn ordered the other guard.

Just as the pegasus turned to go, Twilight Sparkle herself walked up the path. She was levitating a purple umbrella over her head, but she let it fall when she saw me standing in the rain. "Macabre?" she shouted, galloping past the guards.

I wanted to meet her for an embrace, but she stopped just short of me. The look of horror on her face told me just how bad I looked. I glanced down at a puddle to view my own reflection, but a steady stream of blood coming off of me obscured it.

"W-what happened to you?" she asked, keeping a careful distance. She wanted to hold me—I could see it in her eyes. I was hurt and needed her, but she didn't know what to do.

"It was Ffffff…It was Fffffflllll—" I hated his name and didn't want to say it. Fortunately, Twilight saved me the trouble.

"Flash? He did this to you?" she asked in bewilderment. I nodded and she continued shaking her head. "No! He wouldn't!" Her eyes darted left and right as her giant brain began drawing logical conclusions. She knew that I wasn't lying, and that I had never lied to her before. "Why did he do it?" she asked at last. "And where is he?"

My answer came in the form of a raspy cough, and I collapsed into the mud. I heard Twilight shout something to one of the guards, and then I felt her warm touch on my neck. There was a loud pop, and the cold puddle beneath me disappeared. It was replaced by a warm, soft rug, and I opened my eyes.

I was in a room not unlike the library I'd studied in; there were books everywhere, but mostly in piles rather than on shelves. There was a bed and not much else aside from the books. Twilight stood over me, looking down with big, concerned eyes. "I love you," I whispered, but she shushed me.

She levitated a box of medical supplies out from beneath the bed and a roll of gauze fell out. "Just be still," she whispered to me. She dabbed at my face with a cotton ball drenched in rubbing alcohol, causing me to wince.

"You can just let me do it," I said, attempting to use my magic to close the gash on my head rather than just cover it up. Before Twilight could stop me, I managed only to widen the gash, sending a cascade of blood down my forehead. Turns out, using my magic on myself was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.

"Stop! Just stop!" Twilight shouted, trying to staunch the blood flow. Finally, I let her work on me, deciding just to enjoy her gentle touch. Her eyes were focused, but I could tell there was still a lot going on in her mind. "Did Flash go to the clinic, or did you go to him?" she asked quietly after a long silence.

"He came to me," I replied.

"Do you know why?"

"…Yes."

"It's my fault," she said with guilt. "I told him about your…'little crush' on me."

She finished wrapping my head and she looked at my chest. There were hoof indents from where Orange had bucked and kicked me. My stomach was distended, giving me the appearance of a pregnant mare. It told a story of internal bleeding; a story that Twilight couldn't read as well as I could. "He tried to kill me," I said.

Her eyes jerked away from my bruises to look at my face. "Did you fight back?" she asked, afraid of my answer.

A smile spread across my face. I'd been waiting for her to ask that question so I could tell her the good news. "I killed him," I said happily. "He's dead, Twilight. We can be together now."

All the color in Twilight's face drained and she stared at me with her mouth slightly agape. "You—you killed him?" she asked. She started backing up from me, but I didn't understand why. It was what she wanted! I did it for her!

"I did," I confirmed. "I had to! He was going to kill me, and then he was going to tell you about—!" I bit my tongue and turned away from Twilight.

"Tell me about what?" She was crying now. "What did you do, Macabre?!" I kept my hooves over my mouth and she ran up and pushed me. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"He was going to tell you about Windy Loo!" I shouted. I was starting to cry as well, and Twilight pounded her hooves against my chest, trying to inflict as much harm on me as she could.

"Who is Windy Loo?" she asked, her tone going from sorrow to anger.

It was the question I'd never wanted her to ask. I covered my mouth and shook my head, determined to keep the answer inside. She placed her hooves on my shoulders and began shaking me furiously, asking, 'Who is Windy Loo? Who is Windy Loo?!' over and over again.

"Stop! Please! Twilight!" I begged.

"You're just like the rest! Now Flash is dead and it's because I thought you were different!"

I—I can put him back together—jump start his heart. Oh, it'll take days, but I can do it! I'll do anything for Twilight!

I broke away from Twilight and burst out the door behind me. Where ever she'd brought me was far higher than I'd ever been. A marble walkway extended out into the darkness, and I could see nothing on either side of me. My legs started shaking and my vision began to blur.

In the distance, three figures appeared, slowly approaching me. They were guards, led by Captain Shining Armor. While he stood to confront me, the other two ran past me. Twilight had followed me onto the walkway and had broken down into tears just outside the door. The rain poured down around us as the guards tried to figure out what was going on.

"HE KILLED HIM!" Twilight shouted through her sobs. "HE KILLED FLASH SENTRY!"

But he killed me right back.

I collapsed before Shining Armor could even take a step towards me. The hemorrhaging in my stomach was finally too much for my body to handle, and my systems began shutting down. As I lay there, staring up into the rainy night sky, I contemplated trying my magic once more. But, even I knew I was already living on borrowed time.

Twilight and the three guards cautiously approached and looked down at me. I couldn't make out their faces, but I knew which one was Twilight; she was the closest.

"Mother of Celestia, what happened to him?" I heard Shining's voice ask.

"Flash…Flash attacked him," Twilight answered, but her voice sounded so far away. "It's no excuse for what he did. Come on, get up…"

"I don't think he's breathing, Twily."

"Macabre?!"




Please...just say my name one more time.


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