The Glimmering Gardener

by ArgonMatrix

Bonus: "L-Block" Deleted Scene

Author's Note:

A deleted scene from my Quarterfinals story—Luster Lock vs. Lilligold. It features the mysterious villain behind the entire predicament. Cut from the official story due to word limit constraints and modifications made to the original plot.

Far away, in the dark confines of a chamber that smelled like sweat and gunpowder, a unicorn lounged comfortably. A metal, green-eyed golem stood before him—smaller than the stone ones, but magnitudes smarter. Its torso rippled with magic, showing a real-time image of a blue unicorn trapped behind bars. She slept, her face twisted in nightmare.

“That’s enough of Trixie,” the unicorn breathed. He chuckled like a demented asylum-dweller. “Too much of a good thing will spoil it, you know. Switch to isolation. Let me see how the… ugh, pegasus is faring.”

In a twinkle of its eyes, the golem changed the image to reveal a dark, abysmal cell. A grey pegasus crouched low near the gutter. But instead of sleeping or crying or fuming or doing anything predictable, she was mumbling. Her lips would move, she would wait, and her lips would move again.

The unicorn ground his teeth together. “What is she doing?”

“Isolation subjects are prone to incoherent ramblings, master,” the golem said in its bassy, mechanical voice.

“I didn’t ask for your opinion!” the unicorn bellowed. “And no, they don’t do that after less than an hour in solitary. Switch to the next cell over!”

Another blink, and the magic feed revealed a pink unicorn, also crouched near the gutter. She too was mumbling, though tears stained her face.

The unicorn clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Oh, little Lilligold. Breaking the rules after being good for so long. You upset me so. You and your long, lovely, fluted horn.” He felt drool seeping through his teeth.

“Shall we separate them, master?”

“No. Leave them be. However, two punishments are clearly in order. We’ll set them up tomorrow morning.” He drew his face close to the image, ogling Lilligold’s every move. “And you can be sure I’ll enjoy punishing you, little rosebud.”

Comments

[PresentPerfect]

But who is he? :O