“Wakey, wakey,” Epic’s voice echoed through the room.
“Wake up, we have to show you the surprise before we leave,” Toffee’s voice resounded.
Jewel stirred and opened her eyes to a dim lit room, she was in a cage of sorts, her head was throbbing with a migraine the likes she’d never had before and she felt a bandage across her head.
She looked around through lidded eyes and smelled the air. Damp, musty, cool. A cellar? There was a light from behind the two madponies, but not too bright as to block who they were, and a small lamp dangling from the ceiling in front of their cells, just bright enough to light half their cells in a dim, flickering, illumination.
Toffee clacked her hoof on the floor once to get Jewel’s attention. “It’s the old farm cellar that was converted to be a punishment room when I was a filly,” Toffee started, “it wasn’t made for me, that’d be too cliche.” she said tossing her shortened mane.
“Father read a book about separating ponies from their families to teach them to behave; so he used this old cellar; at first it was for mommy. Then mommies. Then he put in my brothers. Soon, he and mommy’s Gem put in bars,” she said tapping the steel rods, “to keep us separate in here.
“I spent too much time down here with my mothers, sisters, and brothers… and alone,” she said softly leaning closer to Jewel, “wake him,” she said in a deeper, more commanding voice.
“Now,” Epic ordered. Jewel winced and looked at Epic’s face. Green fur covered his body, but the look in his eyes made him seem darker, almost as though the cloak had nearly absorbed him, turning him into a bark brown. She looked ever to see Stub still asleep in a cell next to hers. “Wake him up, honey. Quickly, time’s running out.”
With a quick motion Jewel got to her four hooves before yelping. “Celestia damnit,” she cursed, “my head.” She was wincing with every heartbeat as her head throbbed for the few paces she needed to get to the bars and reach to poke him with the tip of her hoof.
He grumbled before he finally, groggily, sat up until he saw his father standing next to Toffee. His rage flared before he could take in his surroundings.
“You bucking nag! Let us out and let him go or I’ll break you legs and defecate on you,” Stub shouted before grunting and holding his head as a sharp pain ran through it.
“My, what harsh words. You don’t have that much rage in you, not even I do. That level of anger isn’t becoming such a bright colt such as you, you should focus more on helping your dear, sweet, mother.
While Toffee was talking Jewel had began to list side to side, her vision focused on the light above them. She felt nauseous. Very nauseous. She leaned over and began throwing up, her head throbbing to the point she cried between retches.
“M-mother, are you okay? I can’t see too well,” Stub said looking to the two shadowed figures out of his reach, “please, can’t you help her? Please, dad. She’s sick.”
“No, son. You’re sick,” Epic said flatly. “I finally see and understand the world. I found myself thanks to Toffee, and I know that the world is sick to its core.”
Jewel wanted to retort but she couldn’t stop crying from the stinging pain in her stomach and her throbbing head, her vision swam and she felt her legs trembling, threatening to give way and let her fall into the growing pile on the floor.
“Oh, Epic. She’s so cute. She’s purging the poison from her spirit, just like the other one did,” Toffee said resting her head on Epic’s neck.
“Get off -urg- my stalli-urk-...”
“I’ll always be your stallion, Jewel of my life,” Epic said turning to the side, “but I have a new lease on life. You see,” he said lifting the cloth to show his flank.
After Stub gasped there was near silence in the room, save for Jewel’s heavy shuddering and breathing, both cages ponies were staring, dumbfounded at what they saw.
Toffee trotted to the other side and faced the opposite direction, their rears close as she lifted her tunic and showed her flank.
“Y-y-you… monster,” Stub whispered in shock.
“You see, my son,” Epic said covering his flank again with a wince, “I was a blank flank and she hated her mark. So we traded. Sure,” Epic said looking to his wife who was nearly lost in pain and shock from what she had seen, “it hurt at first. But once she’d sewed hers onto me I felt it.
“I felt my destiny come to light, finally. Ever since I passed through that veil and lost my mark I was lost, but, with Toffee by my side, I can fulfill my destiny.
“With a little training from Toffee here, I was able to learn to end an impure life in the most honorable way possible to the one that needs it,” he gestured to the far wall. A silhouetted lump was there that he trotted to.
“D-dad, what’re you talking about? Please, let us out. Mom’s sick, Toffee is crazy, don’t let her use you. Don’t leave us like this.”
With a heave he tugged something; a stomach turning sucking sound, followed by a dull pop, resounded through the room. He trotted closer to them and spat something to the floor, just inside Stub’s cell.
Stub looked at it and yelped, scrambling back and screaming through closed lips at the blue unicorn horn that was laying, with sinue and brain still attached, just inside his cell.
“It took me three of these diseased ones to learn the right way. All I have to do, is take away their magic and they realize the truth,” Epic said staring at the horn, partial congealed blood still attached to the base.
“And I learned on mother’s Gem,” Toffee squeed, beginning to prance in place with excitement, “first I practiced on a few dogs and cats, but they we’re the same. They weren’t cursed with the mark of impurity on their bodies,” she said pointing to the horn on the floor.
“She showed me on this mare, a yellow unicorn,” Epic said winking to Stub, who winced as he pressed into the corner away from the horn on the floor.
“Y-you’re going to pay, Toffee,” Jewel said as she moved away from the puddle on the floor and laid down, giving her legs a rest.
“I’m sorry, dearest, but I have to cure you,” Epic said as a sick grin crossed his face as he spoke calmly, “we’ve already started the purification process, we must simply pluck it from it’s roots, then, my dear wife, you’ll be pure.”
The fear the crossed her face was unspeakable. Her body began to tremble as Toffee approached her cell.
“Stay away from her! If you touch a hair on her mane I’ll kill you! I’ll KILL YOU BOTH!” Stub screamed as he leapt toward the bars and rammed them with all his strength. They moved slightly but not enough.
“Oh, daddy did his research and made the bars wiggle so they absorb hits better. I doubt even a royal pegasi guard could get out. Now,” Toffee hummed as a wicked smile crossed her, “to finish purifying the wicked.”
A moment later, Epic pulled a lever and the bars moved up two inches out of the floor, enough for the bars to swing freely.
“The worst part is sealing the cage without magic. But, as the chosen tribe, we’ve found a way for almost everything.
“Dad! Don’t let her do anything, please, she’s sick!”
“I’m sorry, but you’re both too sick to be let out and contaminate the world,” Epic said, “it starts with magic abuse,” he said turning back toward Toffee and walking past her.
“Then it goes to dependency and abuse of the aether. Then before you know it, your whole life is about magic. Earth ponies like us are the true tribe who will inherit the world while the wicked,” he picked something in his mouth and turned to approach the cells.
“Will be punished, raked across the ground and made in the image of the true tribe; to create one race, under one deity, for all times.”
“Do it, your freedom is right there, Epic,” Toffee encouraged pointing to the white mare that was scooting back, fear crossing her face and tears streaming down her face. She was shaking her head, slightly.
“P-p-please, don’t hurt Stub…”
“She knows what’ll happen, look at her, there’s no talking her way out of this and she knows it,” Epic told Toffee matter of factly, “she won’t say anything defensive and she knows escape is futile. She’ll cooperate, because she knows what you’ll do to our son. Right, love?”
With a whimper, Jewel nodded in acknowledged.
Epic walked through the waving bars and placed a hoof to his wife’s face. “Jewel, you’ve always been by my side. You’ve always been there to watch me and keep me safe through my insanity. And no matter how many times my mind wiped itself; I always fell in love with you again.”
He pursed his lips and began to lean in to kiss her head. She sobbed heavily, expecting a kiss goodbye, maybe before he snapped her neck or stabbed her.
She felt her husband grab her other cheek and pulled her head down, followed by a vicious pain that nearly sent her into unconsciousness. The sound of her son screaming turned into a quiet hum as she felt her body hit the floor and suddenly; she felt empty, but happy.
As a tear left her eye she smiled, “Mng-Y, thehdak, gun.”
“Yes, Jewel, your headache is gone. Good job, now you’re pure. You’re one of the true, chosen, tribe. You’ll live a long, happy, pure life now.”
With a kiss above her eye, Epic left the cell and placed her rooted horn into his cloak pocket. Patting it twice as he turned to leave, climbing a run of old, rickety wooden stairs.
Toffee quickly entered the cell and pulled a small medical kit from her saddle bags, hidden under her tunic and quickly applied a sterile gauze pad to the open hole in Jewel’s head to slow any further blood loss and cover her exposed brain matter.
Then, she turned and wore a warm smile as she looked at the terrified earth pony in the eyes before following Epic up the stairs, who was waiting for her patiently.
“Son, you’ll be free by lunch tomorrow and soon, you’ll know the joy of being the true race...”
“In a new world,” Epic and Toffee said in unison as the door shut.
The last thing they heard was the sound of Stub beginning to vomit as they turned and, sides pressed together, walked away.