Onyx's Origins

by Onyx_Eclissius

Chapter 5

“Today’s the day!”, Sapphire shouted, startling me and making me fall out of my bed.

“Come on Sparks, don’t do that to me!”, I told Sapphire quite sternly as I got up.

“Do what? Be excited?”, She asked.

“No. Don’t startle me like that, I was sleeping”, I said.

“Well sorry”, she said sarcastically, slightly dropping her voice and drooping her face “this day is the one we’ve been waiting for!”

“Wrong again, this is the day you have been waiting for. I just can’t wait ‘till this day is over”, I said.

“Oh, Onyx, don’t be like that…”, Sapphire said.

“Let’s just get going already, I’m not too excited for today”, I said with a slight scowl.
We started off to school thirty minutes earlier than usual, after all I didn’t like how the test couldn’t be postponed until tomorrow.

“What’s the reason why you don’t like today? It’s going to be the best, you’ll test what we’ve trained and blow those metaphorical socks off Miss Ariel!”, Sapphire spouted in attempt to cheer me up.

“Somepony’s going to be there that I loathe”, I said scornfully.

“Oooooooh, is this somepony special to you?”, Sapphire prodded.

“What? No no no, loathe, not love. Exact opposite of love. Vast hatred and abhoration, you know, loathe”, I corrected.

“Who do you hate?”, Sapphire face-hoofed after she heard what she said, “Right, Celestia, sorry for goofing”

“Let’s not talk until we arrive, okay? Good”, I said.
We continued to the school and approached the roof, when I heard Ariel’s voice, I assumed we were late….again. We gathered in the group with the rest of the pegasi, luckily we weren’t late.

“Today is your flight exam; everything you have prepared for is on the line. If you pass, you will hopefully become a conductive part in our community. If you fail, you will have to take the exam next year. There are many ways to fail this exam. If you do not finish in the allotted time, you will fail. If you do not collect all 14 flags, you will fail. If you fall below the cloud layer, you will fail. If you cheat, you will fail. If you are not a Pegasus, you…” Ariel scanned the crowd, “…have no reason to be here! That means you, Rayne.” Miss Ariel asserted.
The class looked back at the iridescent purple unicorn, giggling at how Ariel named him specifically.

“Oh, but Miss Ariel”, Rayne said adjusting his glasses with a slight smirk, “I’m just here to watch your class. I want to see who’s going to fail this year.”
“Very well then, no funny stuff. That means no magic”, She said.
“Cross my heart, hope to fly”, he mocked.
Miss Ariel squinted in repugnance.

“Well, along with today being your exams, we also have a very special guest joining us today. Presenting, Princess Celestia!”, Miss Ariel announced.

“I knew she would be here, why not. Just make my day worse”, I whispered to myself.

“Getting right to it, first up”, Miss Ariel paused, “Sapphire Sparks!”
Sapphire readied at the starting line. With her chest puffed, front legs bent, and her wings broadened, she waited for the signal.

“GO!”, Miss Ariel shouted.
She shot off like lightning, zipping around the course like a blue streak across the sky. Sapphire approached the finish line fast. She slowed to a stop, inches past the red line.

“Two minutes thirty-six seconds! Great job, Sparky!”, Miss Ariel teased smiling, ”Next up” Ariel paused, “Onyx Ecli...Onyx!”, I felt my heart drop to my stomach; I was watching Celestia’s face the whole time. The second my name was called, the smile on her face swiftly disappeared. I gained hope with her dismay. I readied myself the same way Sapphire showed me, the same way she did. The anticipation was gnawing on me.

“GO!”
I pushed my hooves off the ground and shot off the roof at top speed.

“Here comes the first flag”, I reminded myself.
Zooming by I grabbed the first flag. Then the second; the third; the fifth; the eighth!
Finally, the last flag is in my sights. I pulled my wings closer to my body as I reached a hoof out for the flag. I gained speed with each passing second. “Almost there!”, I whispered in my malcontent feeling of the flag still sitting there. “Got it!”, I yelled to myself as I snatched it up. I turned fast to speed for the finish line. Again, reaching forward with my single hoof and wings tight against my body, I accelerated towards, and past, the finish line. I stopped to look first at Celestia’s face, her jaw was slightly dropped. I then looked at Sapphire; her jaw was, too, dropped. Last I approached Miss Ariel. She had a look on her face like she saw a sonic rainboom or something.

“What? Did I forget something?”, I asked.

“One minute and forty-one seconds!”, Miss Ariel shouted, “That’s a new record! Congratulations Onyx! I never expected you to even make it off the starting line!”
I stood rigid and proud of my accomplishment. Among the awestruck crowd I heard a familiar voice.

“I must retire to my quarters, now”, Celestia whispered to the guard wearing a, somewhat, golden plate armor.

“Sapphire, we must go”, I said cautiously.

“Uh…yeah, sure….”, She agreed in confusion.
We removed ourselves from the roof and promptly trotted back to the orphanage. Looking back occasionally to make sure nopony were to follow us. We arrived at the orphanage in the afternoon. I rushed off to my room and Sapphire followed.

“What was that all about?”, Sapphire questioned.

“What was what all about?”, I asked her.

“The crazy flying skills and running away and Celestia leaving?”, She asked.

“I wanted to pass…by the way, I did cheat a little”

“Cheated, how?”

“Featherweight spell”

“Not fair”

“And it won’t wear off either. I made sure of that”

“Okay, but what about leaving so abruptly like that...and Celestia…”

“I wanted to leave before Celestia stopped me. Speaking of which, we need to leave here too, as a safety precaution: I know where we can go, too”, I said.

“Wait what? Why do we need to leave all of the sudden? What’s going on here”, she asked.
“Trust me; we need to leave before she gets here”, I said.

“Okay, you have my complete trust. Where are we going and what do we need to do?”, Sapphire asked.

“We are going to my home; the old castle that Mother and Celestia lived in, before Celestia became power hungry. We’ll need a plan though, an escape plan”, I said.

“Escape plan? It’s not like we’re notorious criminals in a state-of-the-art prison you know…although, I have an idea on how to get away undetected”, She said.

“Undetected? I was thinking more along the lines of we run out of the orphanage and set everything on fire as we run outside, to the Everfree Forest”, I proposed.

“That seems a little dangerous though, don’t you think?”, Sapphire questioned, “Somepony might get hurt!”

“I don’t care if anypony gets hurt!”, I spouted angrily.

“Let’s try something less…risky. Oooooh, idea! How about we combine our plans! I got the perfect idea. First, when everypony is heading off to bed, you go to the kitchen and start a small fire that’s easy to control, but that still grabs everypony’s attention. Next, I’ll make sure Dawn goes to attend the fire and try to put it out. That’s when we can slip out of the front door undetected and book it to the Everfree Forest!”, Sapphire proclaimed.

“Hmmm…I guess that could work. We’ll do it tonight”, I agreed.

“Tonight!? That’s a little soon, don’t you think? We would only have a few hours to get ready…”,Sapphire stated.

“Yes, I know. All I need is my books, so I’m set. What do you need to take? You don’t really own anything anyway, so...”, I replied.

“Nothing, I just thought that we would stay a little longer”, Sapphire said as her coat turned a melancholy purple.
We sat in my room for hours, waiting. I read during my time and Sapphire sat next to me trying to understand what I was reading. Later on, Dawn called up to us to come down for supper. We strode downstairs and ate quietly. After we were done, we went back upstairs for our final hour in this wretched abyss. The time came to put this plan into action.