Raven smiled as she used her magic to lower her hood.
Sunset glared at her with such fire in her eyes as she let me go then gently pushed me behind her. Twilight stayed by my side, as she kept her wing around me, her eyes dead locked on Raven’s.
Raven took a step towards us then sighed.
“Tsk tsk tsk.” She clicked her tongue in disapproval as she shook her head. “Such a disappointment. I expected you to hold out longer than you did.”
I looked around Sunset, locking my eyes on the pony.
“What do you mean, hold out?”
“Why my dear, what I mean is that I assumed you were finally free from the manipulative clutches of Sunset. But now I see that you are still weak.”
Anger burned in me as I tried to step away from Twilight to advance towards Raven.
“I. Am. Not. Weak.” I snarled.
Raven smiled her beautiful smile, entrapping me in those dark green eyes.
“Are you sure of that, sweetness?” She asked.
“Yes.”
I pushed away from Twilight and gave Raven a hard look.
“Stay where you are.” Sunset ordered Raven.
Raven ignored Sunset and stepped closer towards us.
“Solstice, darling. You had improved so much. The magic was almost effortless to you and the softness I saw that once made you weak was finally leaving you.”
I smirked. “So you admit I'm capable?”
“No. I admit I am proud. I have always been proud of you.” She eyed Sunset and Twilight. “But I am disappointed that it is not enough for you. You simply refuse to understand that you will never mean anything to any other pony. You act as if you are worthless.”
I growled in anger and frustration. “I am not worthless.”
“Then prove it,” she said in a silky voice.
“I don't have to prove anything to you.”
“Ah, but we had a deal, darling,” she purred.
“I never made a deal with you!”
Raven stepped forward and gently grabbed me with her magic pulling me away from Sunset and Twilight. Sunset grabbed me as quickly as she could and tried to pull me out of her grip, but something stopped her. A jolt of energy sparked through Sunset’s magic, shocking her fiercely.
I was suddenly in front of Raven and Sunset was on the ground, her hair smoking a little from the burn of the magic.
Twilight ran to Sunset’s side and helped her up as I glared at Raven.
“What in Celestia’s name was that for? Let me go!” I yelled and tried to pull away from her.
Raven smiled. “If you recall, sweet one, when I offered to give you some of my magic you asked if there was a catch, did you not?”
I nodded.
“Did I not tell you the catch was I needed a piece of your soul?” She asked.
Again I nodded.
“When you accepted that, love, I owned you. Now and forever as long as a piece of yourself lives in me, you shall be mine.”
Oh shit. How the crap did I not think about that?
“So you see? You are bound to me.”
I scrambled around in my mind trying to find a way out of this deal. But what about what Twilight had done earlier? Didn't that remove the bond?
“But I removed the piece with my cleansing spell,” Twilight said. “I saw her necklace fall off.”
Raven tore her eyes away from me and looked at Twilight.
“You misunderstand. Her necklace resembled the piece of my soul that was in her.” She moved her cloak away revealing a golden necklace like my own, except it had a metal heart dangling from it. “Now this. This resembles the piece of her in me.”
Well, that's just fantastic! Did you think of that Twilight? I think not!
“I can prove to you that I can survive without you! I don't need you! You've done nothing but influence me into fighting with Sunset and Twilight!”
Raven let her cloak fall then came closer to me. “But it was a fight you needed. If you never saw the truth then you would have lived the rest of your life in a lie.”
“But it's not true!”
“Is it not?” she asked, her eyes pierced into my own.
“Raven!” I yelled.
“Does my love for you not matter anymore?” she asked.
“You don’t love me,” I snarled.
“You do not know what love even is. You have been deprived of it so much you would not know what it was if it slapped you in the face.”
“How dare you,” Twilight growled.
“Complete your final task Solstice,” Raven said with a smile.
“What?”
“I said, complete your final task. This was the whole reason I allowed you to come here. I knew what they had been planning all along.”
How?
“You are not the only one who can wander in dreams, Solstice.” She said with a smug look on her face. “I wanted to see if you could have completed it yourself, but now I see that I may have to assist you.”
I wanted to yell back at her to refuse to have any part in this, but something in me stirred not allowing me to speak. I struggled against it. Hoping to force the words out of my mouth, but nothing came.
Raven used her magic to make me stand beside her as she kept that irritating smug look on her face.
“You see my dear? You cannot fight this. You have an urge to obey me. You now must do this,” she whispered in my ear.
I tried to turn my head to glare at her, but something forced me to keep my head straight.
“Now. Listen to me,” she purred softly.
I fought against her harder as I saw Sunset slowly get up.
“Listen to me.” Her voice sounded as sweet as honey as she spoke.
I tried to fight, but my hooves grew heavy as her voice sunk in. It was just so beautiful, so perfect. I stopped fighting and stood there, transfixed by her voice.
“Good girl.” She purred, sending shivers down my spine.
Twilight looked as if she wanted to do something, but Sunset grabbed her with her magic and shook her head.
“Here is what you need to do,” Raven whispered.
I tilted my head, waiting for her order. I couldn't fight the urge to listen to her voice. It was just so lovely.
Raven stared right at Sunset in that moment and smiled. “Kill her.”
Twilight and Sunset’s eyes widened in horror as I locked my eyes on her. Magic built up in me as I slowly walked towards her.
Twilight stood in front of Sunset defensively, but Sunset pushed her away and stared me dead in the eye.
I stepped closer to her and stood right in front of her, my magic ready to fire at her. But she didn't move. She wasn't prepared to defend herself either, she just stood there with her eyes locked on my own.
“It's okay, baby,” She whispered.
“Kill her,” Raven ordered.
“I trust you.”
“Kill her!”
“Solstice.”
I felt myself slowly get pulled out of this foggy magic I was in, but Raven’s voice still lingered.
“Now!”
“I love you,” Sunset whispered and closed her eyes.
I fought with every ounce of strength I had to break out of the trance I was in and turned to face Raven. My magic flew in the air hitting Raven sending her flying across the room.
She landed on her hooves against the wall and she jumped off landing on the ground perfectly.
Twilight ran to my aid and helped me shoot a beam at Raven.
Raven produced a shield and blocked both of our lasers and stared into my eyes again.
“Solstice. Enough,” she said.
Twilight put a protective spell around me and shot at Raven again, this time with a shield damaging spell.
Raven’s shield shattered to pieces leaving her vulnerable. Sunset took advantage of the situation and shot at her.
Raven used her magic to produce fire from her horn creating a long whip of flames from it. She whipped it around in a circle once then she threw it at Sunset. She blocked the first few balls of flames, but one she missed and it hit her on her leg.
She grunted in pain, but quickly recovered as Twilight sent a freezing spell at Raven. Raven blocked the magic and charged at Twilight, hitting her with a laser, cutting into her on the leg. She stumbled and fell on the ground dazed and hurt by the spell.
I ran in front of Twilight and blocked Raven’s laser from hitting Twilight again. She smirked and grabbed me with her magic, smashing me against the wall.
I groaned softly as I tried to get up, but Raven pushed me down and put her hoof on my leg.
“I'll teach you for disobeying me.” Her voice rang like a thousand bells as she slowly used her magic to bend my leg.
I had no idea what she was about to do until I felt something that I knew a pony should never feel as she slowly used her magic to bend back my leg unnaturally backwards at the knee. Suddenly a sharp snap and a rather loud crunch made me scream in absolute shock as the pain overwhelmed my senses.
I hesitantly looked down and saw that she had broken my leg to the point the tip of bone was sticking out of my skin visible for all to see.
She smiled as she pressed her hoof slowly against my broken leg. I screamed as the bone shifted in me making crackling noises as it moved.
“Let her go!” Sunset screamed and ran towards us.
Raven looked over her shoulder and shot a bolt of lightning at Sunset.
“No!” I yelled as she fell to the floor, convulsing from the electricity.
Raven grabbed a knife she had hidden in her cloak and pressed it against my neck.
I breathed hard as I glared at her. If only looks could freaking kill!
“You could have been the one, Solstice. If only you had just listened to me.” Her voice still sounded sweet as she spoke. It sickened me.
She pressed the knife harder against my neck, slowly cutting it. I whimpered softly as I tried to move my leg. It was almost unbearable as I tried to make my leg bend a little. The pain shot through me and even though my brain wanted my leg to move it refused to which made me feel very uncomfortable.
Raven looked down at my leg and put her hoof in the ever growing pool of blood that was forming around me. She examined the blood then slowly wiped it on her face, leaving a crimson mark across her muzzle .
“Sweet little Solstice,” she hummed. “There is something I feel I should mention.”
She lowered her face so close to mine I could smell her sweet breath.
“If you were to die right now I would absorb every single bit of your soul,” she hissed softly.
I screamed as she used her magic to dig into my leg, slowly pulling the separated bones together.
“It's tempting to take it. All your magic, your spiritedness.” Raven’s eyes gleamed with a sense of greed it seemed. I kept my eyes locked on hers, determined to not back down without a fight.
Raven snapped my bone back together, mending it with her magic. I screamed bloody murder as I felt the bone become one again. The muscle shifted allowing the bone to sit where it was intended and the splinters of bone glued themselves back where they belonged.
I bit my lip until it bled. It hurt like absolute hell as she finished healing my leg. Sweat rolled down my face as the pain became more intense. Raven looked at me, seeing the amount of pain I was in. But instead of sympathy I saw amusement plastered on her face.
“But I must resist this temptation. I love you far too much to just let you die like this,” she cooed in the awful sweet voice as she ran her bloody hoof through my mane.
Suddenly a blast of combined magic hit Raven, pinning her against the wall. Twilight was still on the ground, but had mustered the strength to lift her head and part of her upper body to fight Raven. Sunset had a decent gash on her chest and her forehead was dripping blood on the side of her face, but she stood strong next to Twilight.
Raven saw the two ponies and laughed. “Ha! You think you can rid her of me? It doesn't matter even if you can take her soul out of me. I will always be around. I will always be there for my Solstice.” Her mane covered half of her face showing only the streak of my blood dripping down her face and her glowing emerald eye.
Sunset walked towards me then stood over me protectively and glared at Raven, fire in her eyes.
“Solstice is mine.” She growled and blasted her with a laser.
Raven slide down the wall, but quickly recovered and shot at me.
Sunset shielded us both from her magic as Raven floated into the air.
“No! I have fought for you for too long Solstice! I am not going to let you throw away all those years I have been there for you instead of Sunset! As far as I'm concerned I. Am. Your. Mother!”
Sunset and I heard Twilight gasp. We looked over our shoulders at her and saw that she was standing up now, leaning against a pillar to help stabilize herself.
Her eyes were full of understanding and horror as she met our gaze.
“It all makes sense now.” Twilight breathed. “Legends told of blandishments that did this. She must have taken a mother’s soul. A mother that may have lost a child or wasn't able to have any. When she took that soul she then gained that pony’s desire. Now her ultimate goal is to gain the perfect child.”
Raven chuckled.
“There is no such thing as perfection, Princess. But there is such thing as power.”
She used her mist form to convert one of her legs into the mist. She then lowered herself and put a bit of her magic under my chin, lifting my head up to look at her.
“I'll be honest with you, Solstice. My original desire was to simply gain dominance over all spirits and live for eternity, but then I met that mare whose soul I consumed as she died. Her anger, her sorrow made me feel different. I wished to have the one thing a spirit can never have. A child.”
Sunset pushed Raven away from me with her magic. Raven simply kept her eyes on me as she continued.
“You were everything I desired in a daughter, but this annoying Princess had to get in the way.” She glared at Twilight. “I pushed her away quickly before she got too close to you. Piled problem after problem on her royal plate until she was so overwhelmed she did not have time for you.”
Then Raven looked at Sunset. “When I was so sure I had you for myself this wretch had to interfere.” She spat.
I tried to get up, but my leg still hurt a lot even though Raven had healed it. I couldn't let her insult Sunset like this! Sunset saw what I was trying to do and she quickly helped me to my hooves. I gave Raven a hard look as I slowly stepped towards her.
“Raven” I growled.
Raven’s eyes softened as I came closer to her, my leg was throbbing and I felt the cut on my throat dripping more blood on the floor. I ignored them though as I held my head high.
“Raven. I'm sorry that you can't have children. I really am. But please don't take me from Sunset.”
Raven seemed surprised. “Solstice.”
“Please Raven,” I begged. “Don't do this.”
She closed her eyes realizing that I wouldn't listen to her, no matter what she told me. Then she opened them, a new darkness in her eyes I have never seen before.
“You don't understand, darling. I must do this.” She grabbed me in her magic and pulled me closer to her.
“Raven,” I whimpered in fear.
“Shhh. Hush, sweetness.” Bells rang in the air as she spoke. “This won't hurt a bit. I promise.”
I looked into those dark green eyes one last time as I grabbed something in my magic.
“But this will.” I said and ripped the necklace off her neck. “Now Twilight!”
Twilight shot Raven with the cleansing spell then opened a portal that led to a place I could not recognize and threw Raven into it. She screamed as she fell into the portal and felt the piece of my soul being ripped out of her. I felt the piece return to me as her emerald eyes met mine.
“One day, my love. One day.” Her voice rang in my head as she disappeared into the portal which Twilight quickly sealed shut.
I breathed a heavy sigh as the moment of adrenaline left me. The pain that sang thought my body grew overwhelming as I hobbled over and almost fell to the floor. Thankfully Sunset caught my in her magic and held me close to her. I gazed into her cyan eyes and smiled a bit. Then pain took over and sent me into unconsciousness.