I only found the story a few days ago and am aready in love with it, I honestly can't see why it isnt already on the top 10 list but keep up the good work
"Does it bleed?" I asked, peering at it curiously.
Top line, 10/10
...What the hell was Winter doing with a pickle in his saddlebags?!
Also, fffffuuuuuuuuuuuck. That was hardcore witchy retribution right there. Good to see she has learned enough magic to be dangerous, it's a big contrast from the fight with the auroch.
That was absolutely brilliant. The way our beloved little witch dealt with the murderer was almost poetic justice. Little Snows reactions were believable and interesting.
This hit the feels in on several levels. It's easy to see just how shocked Tharma is after what happened to Winter. The young foal looking for his father not understanding what has happened. Knowledge that Snow lost someone so young and that his younger brother/sister will never even meet their father.
You have shown the beginning of their struggle in a believable way. I don't even have the vocabulary to praise this. I just hope that the coming chapters continue to build what you have started here.
I sensed the approach of dozens of ponies, all moving much more carefully now, but none moving to attack, yet. Good. It was better to have an audience for this part.
"You just ate a 'bleeding heart fig'," I told him. "Something I found a long time ago, traded for more gold than you'll ever hold. It cost me... well," I grinned, "it cost somebody an arm and a leg, just to obtain."
He clutched at his throat.
"Don't be afraid of it," I said. "It won't hurt you. Really, it only does one thing." I leaned in, just a bit, and spoke up so that the growing crowd of would-be witch burners caught every word. "It will make you tell the absolute truth. Now, why did you kill my lover?"
Digger shook his head, but his eyes were already going filmy. Whatever he may have wanted, his mouth opened of its own accord.
"That freak was talking like he knew better! Better than I did! I was telling it like it is, those lazy fucking unicorns, those stupid fucking pigeons, and he was both, and he told me to stop! I kicked him, and I was going to keep kicking him but these weak dirtsacks stopped me!" He shouted louder than ever, but there were tears in his eyes, now- there wouldn't be any hiding behind 'circumstances' for him.
The group around us had stopped approaching. I looked, briefly, at them. They looked angry, or sickened, or dazed. A very few looked approving of his words- I'd watch for them.
"He walked away alive. Did you want him to die? Did you mean to kill him?" I asked, bringing my attention back to Digger.
He was all but sobbing. "Yes, I'm happy he died." I didn't have to ask how he felt about having to face the consequences of his actions.
"He couldn't fly," I said quietly. "Not very much like those 'pigeons' you mentioned, he couldn't lift more than an apple with his magic, not with the world's greatest wizard helping him. He had a son." I patted my side. "He had another foal on the way. He read me poetry every night. Do you care?" I asked. "Would knowing have made you not do what you did?"
"He was a freak," said Digger, shuddering.
"Okay." I stood back up and hooked him up alongside myself with a Ghostly Hand. He thrashed, but I ignored that.
Amber Etching was back, looking rumpled but determined. "Witch, you can not do this."
"Can't I?" I wondered, and double checked my surroundings. But no, there weren't any gods in my way, and I didn't especially feel tired, despite the long, restless night. "Oh," I said, "You meant to say that 'I shouldn't do this' or that 'you wouldn't allow me to'. But both of those are not correct." A thought occurred to me. "Don't worry, I don't plan on killing him. His life will be entirely out of my hooves."
She didn't look reassured in the least, so I added, "Really, he'll be very much alive after I'm done!"
She still didn't move. Honestly, I'd woken up so completely, absolutely calm that morning that I was caught surprised by how easily I switched gears. Dust rose and my wings seemed to grow out twenty feet in either direction. I lit the dust on fire because I felt like it, and my illusory wings flared and sent heat out in a circle. I scented burning paper on the air.
"I don't give a flying, feathered fuck about what you think I cannot do! He murdered Winter, and the greatest mercy I'll offer is to give winter a chance to murder him, you simpering, ignorant, bigoted children!" I reared up and sent a billow of hot, dry air over the crowd. "I am tired of this! Any creature that wants to leave this corpse of a land will do so in peace, or they won't leave at all! Kill yourselves and each other once you step off the land bridge, and not a moment before." I glared. "Or take the easy way out, and try to stop me now."
I twitched my wings, and burning feathers fell away to either side.
Nobody dared try to stop me.
I walked back down the road, past the crews, and past Amaranth, until I was passing through the growing mass of migrants. It probably made for an odd sight. Me, seemingly oblivious to the pony alternately walking, kicking, or letting himself be dragged along in an effort to fight my hold, who trailed right behind me.
It probably helped that Digger's screamed, still-truthful rant never stopped, not once, as I walked against the flow of traffic.
The ponies who we passed knew he was a killer. Two out of three looked at this as an obvious kind of justice. The remainder didn't step in to help him as Digger described, over and over again, killing my husband in all but name.
I stopped at some point. Just far enough, I thought, and dropped Digger out in front of me. The spell I'd been scripting, mulling over in my head for the past hour suddenly solidified. It would work. I could tell- it felt right.
Digger shrieked and rolled, trying to get away as letters made of cloud stuff sunk into his fur, visible to the open air for bare moments as it took hold.
"Digger? Desnee Digger, put your eyes on me. I'm going to tell you exactly what's going to be happening to you, from now on." He wasn't listening, so I shook him violently with the Ghostly Hand. "There. Now, that bleeding heart fig was... well, I fed you the whole one. You won't be able to stop yourself from explaining yourself to everybody you meet. That's not your punishment, but it certainly won't hurt."
I stepped in close, until he had no choice but to look me in the eyes. "At first, you'll be pulled south. You can walk, or the magic will drag you until the skin falls off, up until you get back to the lands of Paradise Estate, central. You'll be by the shore, then. Feel lucky I didn't make you take a more direct route, through the mountain range."
The spell took hold and began dragging him away. I cantered gently, keeping up. "Next, you'll be free to go anywhere... except backwards. Every step you take toward the center of... Paradise... is one you can't take back. You can circle, or stop, or just keep on marching, but sooner or later you'll find yourself in the dead center of the subcontinent. Then... you'll stay there. I hope you eat well before you reach that point, because that's where you'll stay."
He was angling forward where the road had curved, and he had to fight to keep himself from pressing off the boulders scattered to the side, freeing himself onto an open path before being crushed. Still, I followed him.
"Winter is coming, Desnee Digger. The land is already dead, and the ice will come. It will bury you- the howling ghosts will have their new domain, and they will find you, so pray you freeze to death and are safely buried by the frost before they come!"
I stopped, and watched him be dragged inexorably onward. "Walk, Digger! Walk the long road and don't stop! You took Winter, and now winter is coming for you!"
I shook. I shook, and fell, and sobbed there. I'd pulled the most satisfaction that was left to be had, and it didn't amount to hardly anything.
“He was found guilty!” Dash said, punching one hoof into the other. “No way he got off.”
Twilight nodded. “However, his sentence has not yet been dealt.”
Luna’s eyes darted to Twilight, narrowing. “And why not? That monster must pay for what he’s done!”
Celestia nodded. “I have decided his sentence, however, it is you, Luna, who shall carry it out. It is your right, as it is your foal he harmed.”
Luna blinked, looking at her sister, then nodded. She nuzzled Stellar one more time, before getting up and heading out. “He will be sentenced before the moon rises.”
---------- “Alchemist,” her voice made his whole body freeze up. “I have been given the power to sentence you for your despicable crimes against my daughter. If you have any words, speak them now, for they shall be the last you ever speak on this plane.”
Alchemist's face went paler than would be thought possible and he gulped. “Au-Auntie Luna—”
“You are no nephew of mine,” she cut him off, her voice chilling the room even more. “Your final words. Speak them now.”
“P-please, Au— P-Princess Luna, she is not your foal. She is fooling you into believing it! You must stop her before she—”
“A poor choice of words.”
Her horn glowed with her aura and her eyes turned pure white. A mighty wind began blowing through the cell, even though there were no windows looking to the outside.
Alchemist’s scream was never heard by the guards as he and Princess Luna vanished from the cell.
Alchemist first noticed that he was lying on grass. He opened his eyes and looked around, confused.
He was lying on the ground in some forest. He couldn’t tell which though. It wasn’t the Everfree, yet it felt familiar to it.
“How do you like your new home?”
Alchemist shot up and whirled around. Luna was standing there, her wings outstretched, her eyes emotionless.
“Wh-where... Where are we?” Alchemist asked, looking around. “Wh-what is this place?”
Luna looked up at the trees, her eyes going distant for a moment.
After several moments, Alchemist grew impatient. “Well? Aren’t you going to tell me where we are?”
“I am trying to find words simple enough for a creature like you to understand,” Luna said, not moving her eyes from where they’d been looking.
Alchemist scowled. “Did you just call me stupid?!”
Luna shook her head. “To call you unintelligent would be an insult to those that are unintelligent.”
His scowl darkened. “Just tell me where we are? Is this real, or I am merely asleep and this is the dream realm you walk?”
“Oh, it is real. This is the... I guess you could call it the page upon which Equestria is printed. The primeval conception of the land itself. But it is not Equestria.
Alchemist’s scowl turned into a frown of confusion. “And you have brought me here to what, make me understand why I am wrong, when I know what I did was right?"
Luna looked to him at last, her face still blank of emotion. “You shall remain here, to think about what you have done and live with that knowledge.”
Alchemist scoffed, then sneered. “What’s next? You going to send me to bed without supper? It will be a long time before that is likely to happen, by which time I will be long dead. So your punishment is nothing.”
Luna looked like she almost was suppressing a smirk. “You do not understand, Alchemist. I am binding you to this forest, forever. You will never be able to go beyond its borders, nor will your life pass.”
Alchemist’s smirk slipped a little. “Wh-what?”
Luna’s horn and eyes glowed and Alchemist winced as he felt like he was floating into the air, though he could feel his hooves still firmly on the grassy ground. He felt like he was suddenly being spread across the forest. For a moment, he could see the entire forest and the lands just beyond its borders.
Then, the feeling was gone and he felt the same as before... and yet, there was also something different. Something he couldn’t place his hoof on.
Luna looked to him now, not with scorn or distaste or any of the emotions she had before. Now, all he saw was pity.
“I honestly hope you never understand the extent of what you’ve done, Alchemist,” she said, turning away. “For your own sanity, I honestly hope you do not. For, the moment you do, your soul shall be haunted by your actions for all time.”
“I-I don’t understand,” Alchemist said, taking a step forward. “What have you done to me? Why could I see the whole forest for a single moment?”
“Go to the edge and you will understand,” she said, flapping her wings, her horn glowing. “Though I honestly do not wish it upon you, given enough time, you will one day fully grasp the scope of the tragedy you instigated.”
With that she flapped her wings and flew into the skies, vanishing moments later in a flash of blue light.
First you hurt me with the separation from Oak and Heather. Now this. God's this story should have a tragedy/sad tag, but honestly if it did i would have avoided it. Now though i am just sad.
The way you pluck my heartstrings.......oh god this was so sad. And yet I couldn’t stop smiling when she dragged the earth pony murderer out of the camp. (I forgot his name. He’s gunna die anyways, so that’s ok.)
Current thought: new foal is Celestia. Midnight will be Luna's sire. Solar Wind was mortal/died and lost to history, with Celestia not wanting to dredge up his memory.
"What do you think, buddy? Wanna take a turn?" asked Winter. Solar peered down from the footboard, perched because his newest little habit was to seek out high places. Like a cat.
That brings to mind a bit from The Great Alicorn Hunt.
"I gotta ask: what is it with unicorns and mountains? Canterlot, the castle of the two ssters up on that bluff... Even Princess Platinum had a castle up on a mountaintop way back when."
"Oh, that's just Rincewind Arcology Syndrome."
"Beg pardon?"
"She's right. It's a sort of nesting instinct that affects unicorns, particularly those who specialize in arcane research, like myself. Or... Unicorn like I used to be. Anyway, we have this sort of overpowering instinct to find a location to do all our magic in, fortify it and build vertically; the higher the better."
"Like wizard towers."
"And castles on mountain tops."
"Castles with lots of towers, I might note."
"And trees with libraries in them? Or book forts?"
"Or observatories at the tops of towers. All unicorns are susceptible to the urge, to some degree. If you look at Carousel Boutique, Rarity's bedroom is right at the top, in that little cupola tower thingy. They say Starswirrl the Bearded had it so bad he couldn't sleep away from home unless he built a pillow fort on a stack of barrels."
I only found the story a few days ago and am aready in love with it, I honestly can't see why it isnt already on the top 10 list but keep up the good work
efangelist.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/brace-yourself-winter-is-coming.jpg
...This story isn't too confusing, is it?
I have to say that was sad event to happen. At lees she has her children to keep her company, to fill her life with joy.
Keep up the good job you are doing on this story. I do hope to see a new chapter ASAP.
Dragonfox
Top line, 10/10
...What the hell was Winter doing with a pickle in his saddlebags?!
Also, fffffuuuuuuuuuuuck. That was hardcore witchy retribution right there. Good to see she has learned enough magic to be dangerous, it's a big contrast from the fight with the auroch.
That was absolutely brilliant. The way our beloved little witch dealt with the murderer was almost poetic justice. Little Snows reactions were believable and interesting.
This hit the feels in on several levels. It's easy to see just how shocked Tharma is after what happened to Winter. The young foal looking for his father not understanding what has happened. Knowledge that Snow lost someone so young and that his younger brother/sister will never even meet their father.
You have shown the beginning of their struggle in a believable way. I don't even have the vocabulary to praise this. I just hope that the coming chapters continue to build what you have started here.
Hm, that's quite an interesting story you've spun here. I will be looking forward to seeing more
reminds me of part of something i read once
Very, very appropriate. He does not deserve mercy.
Me to Digger s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/44/ce/51/44ce51fa58c47bb9dee8eb42b2816ea5.jpg
six
discreetly
affected
drama [no llama]
And that's why you don't angry a witch.
First you hurt me with the separation from Oak and Heather. Now this. God's this story should have a tragedy/sad tag, but honestly if it did i would have avoided it. Now though i am just sad.
Poor Winter, but oh, that form of Witchy Justice.
I hope to know what he told her, soon
The way you pluck my heartstrings.......oh god this was so sad. And yet I couldn’t stop smiling when she dragged the earth pony murderer out of the camp. (I forgot his name. He’s gunna die anyways, so that’s ok.)
Haven't gone forward yet, but I'm calling it. New foal is Luna, and Solar gets a magical sex-change to become Celestia. Like Mother like son/daughter.
Current thought: new foal is Celestia. Midnight will be Luna's sire. Solar Wind was mortal/died and lost to history, with Celestia not wanting to dredge up his memory.
9276583
Solid theory...
That brings to mind a bit from The Great Alicorn Hunt.
As someone with a pet a squirrel I raised after his mother abandoned him, I can tell you that they are actually rather smart.