The Marked Ones

by Final Draft

Birds

"From the beginning," she'd said. Well, how much did she truly want to know? I could summarize the events leading up to my cutie mark appearing in around two minutes if I really wanted to. But if that was all the information Twilight was after, she'd have no reason to stay and talk with me further. I didn't want that.

However, I think Twilight saw me as a fascinating specimen to be examined, or a puzzle to be solved. Even if I told her how I got my cutie mark, she would want more. She was like me—she wanted to learn. So I would start with as far back as I could remember…I would start with my parents.

She dabbed her quill in the inkwell and smiled at me encouragingly. "Whenever you're ready," she said.

"I…I…I—"

I took a deep breath and looked away from her. I couldn't think and look at her at the same time, it was just too hard. I'd just pretend to address my untouched meal—it couldn't judge me. "I was born in a small town outside Manehatten…I don't really remember the name. There were lots of trees, though."

The quill scribbled for a moment, and stopped shortly after I did. I looked away from the wilted lettuce still occupying my plate, to out of my cell at Twilight. Was she bored? Was she becoming impatient with me already? Her eyes met with mine and my lower lip started quivering.

"You're doing fine," she assured me. "You don't have to tell me everything if you don't want to. I just need to know what your talent is, and if we can apply it to something good."

"No," I said, managing to maintain eye contact with her. "You have to know everything. You…You want to know everything."

Was it fear that I saw in her eyes? If it was, it was gone in an instant. "It would help if I knew more, yes," she replied.

Could I ever tell her why I was marked? No, I would only tell her about my cutie mark—no lying-—just omitting certain details. I mean, did she need to know about Windy Loo? There were probably still a few guards that knew the story. I bet it kept them up at night, too, knowing what I did. Me? I slept just fine.

So, I took another breath and looked back at my plate. "My parents; they were…bad ponies. (I couldn't blame everything on my upbringing, but maybe Twilight would.) My father's special talent was drinking—that I knew. I don't know what my mother's was. I remember stallions used to come over, and she would hug and kiss them in weird ways. Sometimes I'd watch, but the stallions didn't like that."

Twilight let out a soft, "Oh, Celestia," and looked up at me. There was something she realized that I didn't, but I continued talking to the lettuce leaves.

"If my father came home, I usually hid somewhere. My mother never cared what I did or where I was, but my father didn't like seeing me. Which is odd, because sometimes he looked for me."

There was nowhere to really hide in the building I called home. It was a single floor, two room shack built next to a swamp. Mosquitoes and other insects liked to call it home too, inhabiting all the dark spaces I could hide in. After a while, I learned to put up with the crawly ones and even the bitey ones if it kept me from my father. A few spider bites was nothing compared to what he would do.

"If he found me, I had to listen to him while he yelled. Usually he was yelling while he tried to find me, but I'd cover my ears."

"You're nothing! Do you understand me?" he'd shout. "Look at me when I talk to you!" I had to look into his eyes or he would hit me until I did. He wanted me to see how much he hated me, but I never knew why.

"One night, he was really angry," I said, feeling my heart beating a little bit faster. "He came home while my mother was being hugged by two stallions. I had been covering my ears before he got home, but I could still hear him when he first walked in. There was shouting, and stuff breaking, and then after a long time, there was silence."

The quill hovering on the other side of my cage hadn't moved in quite some time. When I looked up, I half expected Twilight to be gone, but she was still there. She was looking at me with an expression I didn't recognize. It certainly wasn't one I'd ever worn before. Pity? I think that's the one. To her, I was pitiful.

"I-I'm sorry if this isn't important," I apologized.

"It is important," she assured me. I'd gone back to looking at the plate next to me, hoping to hear the quill start scratching against the paper again. "Please, I'm listening, go on," Twilight said quietly. I heard the quill dip twice into the inkwell, followed by silence as she waited for me to continue.

"I came out of my hiding place to look for my parents."

I won't say I had a favorite hiding place, but the place my father never seemed to find me was a hole in the wall behind our stove. I'd never seen either of my parents use the stove, so I knew I was safe there. Sometimes I'd sleep there, sometimes I'd stay there for days.

"My parents were in the other room, and my father was on top of my mother. I'd only ever seen them hug once, but this was different. This time, both of them were really quiet. When my father saw me, he flew off of my mother and started yelling at me. I could see my mother behind him, lying on the floor. She had dark rings around her eyes and hoof marks on her throat. While my father yelled at me, she coughed and cried."

Had I stayed in my hiding spot, he probably would have killed her. I don't know what I would have done then—maybe I would have gotten my cutie mark a different way. Instead of a bird, it would have been my mother on my flanks.

The quill still had not written anything. I knew Twilight was listening, but I don't think she was liking what she heard. She probably regretted ever talking to me, or letting me talk, for that matter. I was determined not to look at her until I was done.

"My father grabbed me and took me outside," I continued. "It was dark, and I couldn't see anything. I tripped, and my father yelled at me. He picked me up then pushed me down. When I didn't get back up, he picked me up again and flew really high."

This time, Twilight did write something down. "Macabre, was your father a pegasus?" she asked when the quill stopped. I was too busy relishing in the fact she'd said my name again to understand her question. "Macabre?" she repeated when I did not answer.

One more time.

"Macabre?"

Her hoof reached through the bars and gently prodded me. The urge to grab it was so unbearable, but I had to resist. I turned and looked at the perfectly manicured hoof just as it retracted back out of my cell. "I'm sorry," I apologized.

"It's okay," she replied softly. "I asked if your father was a pegasus. It just seems odd an earth pony would be born to a pegasus."

"Earth pony?" I asked. "No, I'm a unicorn." I didn't realize how long my mane had gotten, and I lifted the lank, black strands to show her the base of my horn. In the poor lighting of the cell, she couldn’t see what I was showing her, so she craned her neck closer to the bars. I did the same, until our noses were almost touching.

Oh, she smelled so wonderful!

"I see," she said. She lowered her head to her book and made several more notes before looking back up. "And was your mother a unicorn?"

"She was an earth pony," I replied, straining to remember.

Twilight paused, looking at her book rather than me as she spoke. "Macabre…I don't think…" Whatever she was going to say, she kept to herself. I don't know what she thought, or what she didn't think, but she asked for me to continue.

"I…I don't like heights. My father knew that. Once, when I was really young, a balloon got caught in a tree near my house. I wanted that balloon, and my father saw how much I wanted it. He picked me up and brought me to get it, but when I looked down, I started crying."

The only nice thing my father ever tried to do for me, and I ruined it.

"He got mad and left me in that tree all day," I continued, my voice starting to break. I closed my eyes and started shaking. The cell disappeared and I was back up in that tree, hanging onto a shaking branch. If I had eaten anything, I probably would have thrown up in front of Twilight.

"Your parents are terrible!" Twilight shouted, forgetting where she was. The other Marked Ones stirred in their cells, some of which walked to the bars to look out. Their eyes stared through the darkness at my Twilight, and I felt my stomach churn. How dare they look at her?

She didn't notice, because she was too busy looking at me. I was the special one, it was me she cared about. But now I could no longer delay telling her about my talent. "After my father flew me into the sky, he dropped me. And he caught me…then flew higher…and dropped me again."

Twilight's eyes were wide with horror and her mouth was slightly agape when I finally opened my eyes to look at her. It almost looked like she was going to start crying, simply from hearing my story.

"Then came the time he didn't catch me," I said, looking away again. "I remember hitting the water and not coming up for a very long time. Everything went black, and when I woke up, I wasn't anywhere near my house. I crawled out of the swamp and looked around. I was alone, wet, scared, and hungry. The worst part was being hungry."

I was used to living off so little food, it shouldn't have even bothered me to be hungry. But I think after swallowing so much of the swamp water (and throwing it up), I needed something in my stomach.

"I found a berry bush with these big, white berries on it, and I picked as many as I could. Just as I went to eat one, I saw it."

"What did you see?" Twilight asked after I paused. I was too busy visualizing in my head, remembering exactly what it looked like.

"It was a bird," I answered, "curled up under the bush. I stared at it, wondering why it hadn't flown away. I was so interested in it, I forgot about how hungry I was. I tossed a few of my berries at it, and when it still didn't move, I grabbed a stick."

Twilight must have already seen where I was going, and the quill worked rapidly as I spoke. I wonder if she saw the smile that had started to spread across my lips while I recalled all the details of my find. Probably not.

"I'd never seen something dead before. I had often wondered what it would be like to be dead, and in a way, I was jealous of the bird. No more worries, no more pain—just peace. But I was curious as to how the bird died, so I tore it open."

I made it sound like it was such an easy task, but it was one of the hardest things I'd ever done—along with the most enjoyable. I knew unicorns could cast magic, but I hadn't figured out how. My parents never wanted me to learn (probably because they feared what I would do to them if I had).

"I spent hours playing with that bird. I took it apart."

Every feather I removed got easier as I learned to control my magic. When I had gotten to a point where I could see its bare flesh, I concentrated on removing that. It tore away like sheets of paper until I got to the layer of muscle beneath. The fibers of the muscle stretched and snapped apart to form a hole into its chest.

"There was so much inside, and I didn't know what any of it was…but I wanted to know, so I took it all out."

I'd reached the point where Twilight had become uncomfortable. She squirmed a bit, but I was enjoying my memories too much to stop. There weren't many things I could look back on and smile, but that day in the woods was number one.

"There was this little sack inside the bird, connected by a bunch of little tubes. It was big and bulgy and didn't look right, so I cut it open. (I know I said I wasn't going to look at Twilight until I was finished, but I had to so she understood.) Do you know what was inside?"

She shook her head, but I knew she was curious. She was so much like me—I knew we were meant for each other. "What was inside?" she asked when I didn't continue immediately.

"Some of those white berries I was going to eat," I replied slowly. "They were poison."

The look of understanding I had been trying to get from her spread across her face. "You would have died," she said with wide eyes. I nodded and closed my eyes. "So is that how you got your cutie mark? Dissecting the bird?"

"Dissecting?" I asked, not recognizing the word. Teacher had never used it, or if she had, I had missed it.

"It's what you did," Twilight explained. "You took something that was dead apart to better understand it—it's scientific and shows you are very intelligent!"

Oh, my ego at that moment! A compliment from a mare—not just any mare—a mare named Princess Twilight Sparkle! I felt my heart beating faster and all the blood rushing to my cheeks. But I hadn't told Twilight the truth. She had just guessed wrong.

"It's not how I got my cutie mark, though," I confessed.

"Oh," Twilight said. All the warm, fuzzy feelings and confidence that Twilight's compliment had given me quickly disappeared when I heard the disappointment in her voice. I would have loved to lie to her, to have let her believe tearing apart dead animals was my talent. Not that I was ashamed, of course.

"I…" I struggled to continue. "I…left the bird to find some food. That's when I heard some birds singing. There were lots, eating red berries off of a different bush. After taking—dissecting—the first bird," I corrected myself, "I wanted to do it to an alive one to see how it was different."

So much was different—the heat, the smell, the little twitches and contractions. The best part was the little chirping noises they made. Their little, distressed calls for help made me smile while I did it.

"I spent an hour just trying to catch one," I said. "Birds are fast."

"Macabre," Twilight said. I didn't look at her, but I did stop talking. I assumed she couldn't handle what I was going to tell her next—about the dozen or so birds it took until I managed to keep one alive while I took it apart—about how it was that bird that earned me my cutie mark—about how even after figuring out how to do it, I continued. "What you did was completely normal," she said.

It was a good thing she didn't save that comment for any later, or she may have never said it. "If it was normal, why am I in here?" I asked, even though I knew full well why I was in there.

It was because I didn't stop with birds.

She took a long while to reply. "Well, it's normal in a controlled environment, but to the average pony, you were doing something taboo," she said at last. "How soon after that did you get marked?"

"A few months. It was right around the time I went into pre-school." Amazingly, that was the truth, but I would have to exaggerate the next part. "Show-and-tell," I added. She didn't even ask me to go into specifics—her mind led her to her own conclusion of how that day transpired. Replace the bird with Windy Loo, and I'm sure she wasn't too far off.

I heard the turning of a page, followed by several minutes of scribbling. The pages turned three times before the quill finally rested. I wanted to read what Twilight had written, but I couldn't read. Teacher's methods only taught me how to speak and spell.

When Twilight finished writing, she corked the inkwell and sighed. "This should have never happened," she said, looking at me with disappointment. The disappointment was not directed at me, but I couldn't tell that. I thought she regretted ever coming to speak to me.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, but she shook her head.

"I told you, you did nothing wrong," Twilight whispered back. (I don't know why we were whispering, but it seemed more intimate to only be heard by each other.) "I'm going to get you out of here," she said with confidence.

"How?" I asked. Twilight smiled and put her hoof on mine.

"I'll find a way."

Author's Note:

I may have a few issues with this chapter, specifically with italics and dialog. Let me know what you think, or how it could be improved.

Comments

[IAMCHEEZY]

This is dark... yet sweet. This is disturbing... yet exhilirating. The emotions make me feel like this WOULD happen in the actual Equestria. I await your next work in earnest. One thing however... make sure Celestia pays. PAYS.

[Rotorix]

This story's gonna be fun. Lots and lots of fun.

[onlyinprivate]

4787015

The door at the top of the stairs only opened four times a day; three times for meals, and once for Teacher to come give the younger ones their lessons.

The door at the top of the stairs only opened five times a day; three times for meals, and twice for Teacher to come give the younger ones their lessons.

The awkward sentences were actually the two after that first one.

Also, holy sht the next chapter is out. Guess I can't go to bed yet...

[onlyinprivate]

Son of a bitch. I wrote a long and long review for this and closed the tab. I'm gonna start writing my comments in a text editor rather than the browser window. Sorry, I'll re-review it (hehe) tomorrow. I did enjoy the chapter though. I think somewhere I had written "Fkn fantastic" but I've lost my enthusiasm, it's late you see.

[Winter_Solstice]

Being compassionate is usually a good thing, with few exceptions. This is one of them. Oh, Twilight...what are you doing...?

[ThatClosetBrony]

Twilight, you poor poor thing...why has nobody taken advantage of you to rule the kingdom again?

[Deathpony]

He didn't do a thing wrong

[Final Draft]

4792740
Next chapter we find out about a pegasus filly named Windy Loo and just what Macabre did to her.

[Lag Incarnate]

Wow, he could have DIED.

[Full-time_Introvert]

Twlight Oh Twlight. What have you gotten yourself into?

[pinklover12]

Wow! This is a great story, and I can't wait to see where it goes next!
Just one question: Why so many down votes?

[Final Draft]

4811836
I originally had a Flash Sentry tag because he will be playing an important part in the next couple chapters. People saw the tag and it rustled their jimmies. Also, people have a bad habit of down voting anything with the dark tag.

[Full-time_Introvert]

That's the problem with people nowadays they just down vote without reading it.

[Hypastpist]

"monsters aren't born, they're made"

[EbonHaste]

"I'm going to get you out of here," she said with confidence.

OH GOD NO!