//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Choices // by Twilove //------------------------------// The walk to the library wasn’t quiet. Twilight kept asking me things. Where I came from and things like that, I told her I didn’t remember. We were almost by the library as she asked me something I haven’t thought about myself yet. “What does your cutie mark represent?” Oops. I had a cutie mark? I looked at my flank. There it was. On the side of my dark purple coat. It was a cross, formed with a paint brush and a pen. I think it represented my love for drawing and writing, so I told her that. “It represents my talent for drawing and writing.” I told her. But I wondered. How do ponies draw or write with no fingers, that’s when she asked me another question I hadn’t thought of myself. “Do you use your magic for that?” Magic? I had no idea what kind of pony I was until now. I looked up and could see just a hint of the tip of a horn. Touching it with my hoof I couldn’t resist grinning. I was a unicorn! How had I not realized that before!? Then I looked back at Twilight, she looked at me confused. Probably because of my behavior. “Oh, yes. I do use my magic for that. You know, levitating the pencils to draw or write.” I said quickly, not wanting her to get suspicious. She smiled and nodded. “My talent is magic itself. I can use almost any spell you give me.” She told me. I nodded to her, smiling too. When we got to the library she was quick in giving me a tour through it. Showing me books, the sleeping area and other things. “And you can sleep here.” She told me, pointing to a bed in front of her own. I smiled at her. “Thanks for letting me stay here.” I said. Twilight turned back to me. “Don’t worry about it. Nurse Redheart told me that they wouldn’t have enough room to keep you in the hospital, so I suggested that I could take you in and she agreed.” She smiled to me while she said that. It was really nice having someone, or somepony, smile at you like that. So I smiled back. This was going to be great. After a few days I came to know the main six very well. I still haven’t heard or seen anything of those three villains, so until then, I can let it rest. Today I helped out Twilight with the sorting of her books. She had thrown them all upside down again, so I decided to help her out. I didn’t want to let her know I had trouble with using my unicorn magic, because I never used it before, so I tried learning it myself. Which turned out quite well if I say so myself. I had learned to levitate objects just by thinking of wanting to grab it. It was also weird walking on hooves, but I learned that quite quickly too. “Could you hand me that book, please?” Twilight asked from across the room. I nodded and looked at the book she pointed at, with her hoof of course. I used my magic to levitate it and it floated over too Twilight who took it with her own magic and put it on a shelf. I was curious, so I tried looking in some books that stood out a bit. I also found the book from episode one. It was quite interesting reading it, but Twilight had caught me slacking off. With a laugh of both of us I put the book on a shelf and continued sorting. At the end of the day we were both exhausted. I never knew this library had so much books. “The Canterlot archives have even more books and scrolls.” She had said. We went to sleep early, because she had much other work to do tomorrow. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to get much sleep. Angela~ My eyes shot open. It was dark and I was still covered up in Twilight’s spare bed. I sighed, it was just a dream. Probably… A dark aura filled the air and suddenly I was in a forest. I knew this forest, but this time it was a bit lighter here. A small breeze blew my hair in my face, so I grabbed some plucks and put them back behind my ear. Wait… I was human again! Was I back? But this was a dream. A laugh filled the air, followed by my name again. “Angela, we’ve come to take our return.” I heard them, but I didn’t see them. I looked around the whole forest, running through it, on bare feet again. At least my ankle has healed. I didn’t want to trip again, so I lowered my pace. This was just a dream. Nothing to be afraid of. “Boo.” Shocked I turned around and saw a pair of evil red eyes. One pupil bigger than the other. “Discord, let me handle this.” Nightmare Moon stepped forward. Oh, how I had hoped this day would never come. But still, this wasn’t even a day. It was night and I was asleep. A nightmare. Again. “What will you give us for our generous gift?” “You don’t ask a a gift in return!” I answered. Nightmare Moon just grinned. How had I gotten into this? The evil mare laughed and lifted a hoof, sliding it over my head a bit before taking it back and putting it on the ground. “We didn’t even get a ‘thank you’.” She said, fake pouting. I groaned. “But what if I didn’t even want this!?” Nightmare Moon only laughed more at this. “Oh dear. We know you want this. We all know.” The others came out from the darkness that surrounded us. They were grinning like maniacs. “We want you to consider a return for us. Even if it’s not much. Maybe some of that… unicorn power?” Nightmare Moon continued. I grimaced. She was talking about Twilight. She wanted Twilight, I just knew it. So I answered them quickly. This time not hesitating. “No.” The three villains pouted. “Aw, that’s no fair, Angel.” Discord said, an amused tone in his voice. I didn’t answer. I didn’t say anything. The three villains looked at each other. I noticed Chrysalis nodding. “We’ll come back.” Nightmare Moon said after a while. “You’ll see.” She flapped her wings, making the dark air surround me and cover my sight. I looked around, but saw nothing else than darkness. Sighing, I closed my eyes. This was going to be a hard choice. I woke up from hooves poking in my side. “Angel? Angel, wake up!” I opened my eyes and saw Twilight hovering above me. I looked around. I was back again and I was a pony again too. I sighed and stood up. “Sorry Twilight. Just had a bad dream.” I said. The day went on normally, though Twilight sensed that I was tired. We were just checking some things in town. We went to stores to ask if they still had enough stocks and helped with other things. Twilight had told me about a special day that was coming up, though I was too busy thinking about my dream that I missed most of it. “Are you alright, Angel?” Twilight asked as we exited the Quill and Sofa store. “You seem kinda off today.” “Oh, it’s nothing. A bit tired I guess.” I said, trying to sound normal, but failing. “You’re too tired, Angel. You should get some sleep. Otherwise you’ll be too tired for the visit of the Princesses.” “Princesses?” I hadn’t heard anything about that. I think… “Yeah. I’ve told you that this morning. The princesses are coming to Ponyville for their yearly visit.” “Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. I wasn’t really listening this morning.” Twilight huffed but shoved it off as we walked further. “Just go back to the library and get some sleep.” She said a bit worriedly. I sighed and nodded taking of, back to the library. Back at the library it was quiet. Spike wasn’t there today, because he had to help Twilight too. I walked up to my bed and laid down, hesitating for a moment before closing my eyes and drifting to sleep. My eyes opened from a bright light that shone in my eyes. Though when I saw it, I closed my eyes again. Groaning I tried turning my head, but found myself not able to do so. Panicking a bit, I tried moving my entire body, but I was frozen on the spot. I couldn’t move a muscle. I had also turned back into a human again, I felt my fingers, but couldn’t move them. The light faded suddenly and a shadow had replaced it. When I opened my eyes, I saw only darkness. Wanting to ask who was there, I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I was unable to move or talk. Only my eyes could shift from side to side, so I did just that until a voice interrupted my scanning. “My, my, my. You look a lot like me, don’t you?” I had no idea who it was, but it was a man, I could hear that. I wanted to ask him what he was talking about, but I was still unable to do so. The man continued. “Your mother was such a lovely lady back then.” Then I realized it. This was him. I wanted to scream, I wanted to run, I wanted to punch him in the face. Suddenly, I was able to talk again. “You rapist!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. He was my father. He had ruined my mother’s life by making me. He only laughed at my remark though. “I understand your pity towards your mother, but understand me.” He stepped a bit closer. “She was asking for it.” I gritted my teeth. I still couldn’t see him, but I knew he was smirking. I could just hear it in his voice. How could this horrible man be my father? I felt my arms tingle and I could move them again, so I did. With one swing of my arm I hit him square in the face. “You bastard! You’re a horrible man!” I yelled while being able to stand up. Tears flowed from my eyes, but when I looked at the man, I saw only black smoke which evaporated into a form. The form of Nightmare Moon. The mare laughed and grinned at me, a smirk across her feature. “Oh, what a pity. There goes my spell… You have a lot of hidden strength, you know.” She said. “Ah well, we’ll have to do with this.” She walked closer to me, but I backed away until my back hit something. Turning around with a gasp I met the God of Chaos. “Discord, will you hold her still for a moment?” Nightmare Moon asked him. Discord smirked and placed his two irregular arms at my shoulders, freezing me in my movement. I could only talk now. “Give us a return, Angela.” Nightmare Moon demanded. She was more determined now. “Or we’ll have to throw you away.” She said with a hint of pity in her voice. “Go ahead! I’ll never give you anything!” I yelled, my face stained from tears. Nightmare Moon grinned. Another dark figure stepped closer and Queen Chrysalis came in sight. “You know.” She said, tipping her holed hoof on her chin for a moment. “We can use her, can’t we?” She asked the other creatures. Nightmare Moon grinned wider. “What do you have in mind, Queen?” She asked. The changeling queen grinned too. “Let’s just see what she will do..” She stepped closer to me and lifted my head with her hoof. Her breath smelled horrible when she continued. It smelled like dead animals in a swamp. “..When we take away her will.” She laughed manically before taking a few steps back. Darkness surrounded me and I felt that Discord had released me. I felt a sudden sting in my chest and with one last glance towards the three grinning creatures, I closed my eyes and drifted away. My mind went blank and silence surrounded me once again. I didn’t wake up, I was being controlled, I felt it. When my eyes opened though, I saw that I was floating in a violet purple sphere. I only saw colors, nothing more. Looking around I tried reaching for the end of the sphere, only to be pushed back by a sudden gust of wind. A laugh erupted from outside the area and I looked up. There, I saw me. At least, someone who looked like the pony-me. She was a dark purple color with a light blue mane. On her flank was my cutie mark. I couldn’t believe this. She was smiling at Twilight. I tried shouting out to the unicorn, but she couldn’t hear me. She thought that that pony was me. “Twilight!” I yelled. But she couldn’t hear. I only heard another laugh. “No! You bastard! Get out of my head!” I floated around in the sphere until I came to a stop and fell down. I sat on my knees. “How could this happen?” I said to myself. “Leave her alone…” I couldn’t do anything. The three villains had taken my form and acted like me. They were going to manipulate Twilight and make her and the others release them or maybe even worse. I could still hear laughing as I closed my eyes and thought. I couldn’t even choose this time. Tears flowed from my eyes as I looked up again. I had to do something. But what?