Won't Drown

by The Red Parade

Queen of Cowards

Meadowbrook was cold as she trotted down the path. The path to Ponehenge was rocky and worn, covered in branches and rocks. The wind and rain attacked them as they forged on, holding a tight formation.

As they walked, Meadowbrook wished for nothing more than Somnambula at her side, but Starswirl had placed her on the opposite end of their formation, hovering above the group and scanning for danger alongside Flash.

She had always accepted the explanation that this was a tactical decision, but Meadowbrook couldn’t help but wonder now if there was some other sleight to this move. Something created by Starswirl to drive a wedge between them, perhaps.

Or she was overthinking it.

Meadowbrook chanced a glance above her, but Somnambula was busy searching the sky for threats. Flash Magnus eventually caught her gaze and offered a smile, but it did nothing to smooth out her nerves.

Starswirl led on, eyes trained forwards. The others followed, hooves crunching in the earth and bodies unflinching in the rain. Meadowbrook sighed softly.

“Is something the matter, Meadowbrook?”

She gasped as Starswirl spoke. “N-no,” she stammered, her soft voice almost lost to the rain completely.

“You seem out of sorts,” Starswirl noted, as if he were making an observation.

Meadowbrook cleared her throat. “I suppose I am just shocked by this act of betrayal.”

“Aye,” Rockhoof chimed in. “I imagine we all are. Who could think it fit to stab our backs like this?”

“Who indeed,” Starswirl said as Meadowbrook trembled again. “Meadowbrook, if there is something in the air between us, I’d prefer we clear it out now.”

Somnambula glanced down from above.

“There is nothing,” Meadowbrook heard herself say. “Nothing at all.”

Starswirl grunted in response. “Very well. If you are certain.”

“I am.”

“Then we will return to this conversation,” Starswirl declared as the group entered a clearing. Large slabs of stones loomed around them, like massive headstones in a barren graveyard. The landscape of Ponehenge seemed to welcome them with open arms.

But their eyes were drawn to the center pedestal, where a cloaked figure was busy muttering to themselves from a book.

Starswirl stepped forwards and the figure’s ear twitched. They whirled about to look, and their hood slipped back off their head.

The Pillars gasped. “Stygian?”

The clouds above grew a little bit darker.

---

“Meadowbrook!”

Meadowbrook flinched, jerking her hoof away and knocking over her tea. It took a second to recognize what she had done. “Oh my goodness! Somnambula, I am so sorry!”

Somnambula hissed, rubbing the back of her hoof that had been scalded by the liquid. “It is fine,” she protested. “I have been through worse.”

“Let me get a towel,” Meadowbrook muttered sheepishly, scrambling to clean up the mess she had made.

“Meadowbrook,” Somanmbula said, louder. “Please. It can wait. Please, sit.”

Meadowbrook hesitated but obeyed, easing back into her stool.

“Please, you are troubled,” Somnambula said, shaking off the last of the pain.

“Of course I am!” Meadowbrook cried, glancing out the window at the grim downpour. “Stygian has betrayed us! How could I possibly be okay?”

“It is more.” Somnambula leveled her gaze. “Meadowbrook, your face is beautiful, but I can tell that it is worn. You seem haggard, haunted by your stress.”

“I suppose I am,” Meadowbrook sighed, rubbing circles into her forehead.

“Meadow, my love, you need to carry such a burden. None of us saw Stygian’s betrayal coming, not even Starswirl. We all are at fault, not just you,” Somnambula declared, her voice laced with concern.

Meadowbrook didn’t reply, instead biting her lip and rubbing her foreleg.

“But that is not all that ails you, is it?” Somnambula asked.

“No,” answered the mage. “I’m afraid it is not.”

Somnambule lowered her head, letting the beating rain fill the silence. “You must speak with him,” she declared.

“I can’t!” Meadowbrook shot up, knocking over her now empty cup again. “I can’t!”

“But you must!” replied Somnambula, her own voice rising. “Surely you can not hope to run from your problems forever!’

Meadowbrook frowned, heading for her window. The rain impaled itself against the glass, shattering into millions and millions of pieces. “I just… now isn’t the time,” she muttered. “Not with everything that has happened with Stygian. Unity is what the Pillars need.”

“Even if it is false?” protested Somnambula.

Meadowbrook held up a hoof warily. “Please, Somnambula. I just… I need time.”

Somnambula sighed, tapping her hooves together. “...very well. If it is truly what you think. But know that I am not a very patient mare, Meadowbrook. I do not like letting my problems fester.”

“I know,” Meadow replied, still staring out the window. “I know.”

Against her better judgement, she unlatched her window and pulled it open. She felt the rain fall against her coat as the wind guided it into her room. Meadowbrook closed her eyes and vaguely heard the sound of a stool against wood.

She imagined the rain flooding into her room, going all the way up to her forelegs and showing no signs of stopping.

But Meadowbrook wouldn’t drown.

She opened her eyes and turned to speak to Somnambula only to find that she was gone.

---

The knocks on the door boomed down the hall, echoing loudly.

“Enter,” called Starswirl, as unemotional as always.

Meadowbrook flinched but obeyed, gently pushing the massive oak door open and trotting inside.

Starswirl had his back turned to her. He was staring up at the glass pane window, which pictured the Pillars standing in unity and spoke wonders of their great deeds.

“You needed to see me?” asked Meadowbrook.

“Have a seat,” Starswirl replied without turning around.

Meadowbrook obeyed, anxiously awaiting whatever Starswirl would say next.

He turned around, eyes focused on a parchment before him. “This shouldn’t take long,” Starswirl said. “I only want to run a few things by you, and to make sure we are both operating from the same field of understanding.”

“Of… of course,” Meadowbrook replied, clearing her throat. “Why, what is this all about?”

“Do you understand why the rules I have set in place for this group exist?” Starswirl asked, dropping his parchment and finally sitting down.

Meadowbrook almost recoiled in shock. Waves crashed through the room, circling around her hooves and rising ever faster. But she held her breath and swallowed her fear. “I… I’m not certain I understand,” she whispered.

Starswirl scoffed. “Each rule I designed was for the best of our land, and of our future,” he declared. “And each rule I brought before you all, and you all agreed to follow them. Do you need refreshing on these rules, Meadowbrook?”

“I believe I know them quite well.” Her voice was trembling. She wondered if Starswirl knew.

“Do you?” Starswirl stood up very slowly, leveling a glare at Meadowbrook. “Including the one that forbids us to wed?”

Meadowbrook’s heart was threatening to break free of her chest. Her breathing quickened, and when she opened her mouth to speak it felt as if water surged into her lungs. “I am aware,” she answered.

“Are you? And you know that it is to prevent attachment, because at any given moment we may have to sacrifice ourselves for the land that we love?” Starswirl’s voice shrank deeper into a growl as he circled around the table, pausing behind Meadowbrook’s seat. “And, of course, to protect ourselves from scrutiny, of those who may accuse others of wedding into power? Do you truly know this, Meadowbrook?”

“What are you suggesting?”

Starswirl leaned in, his face looming over Meadowbrook’s. His eyes stabbed through her heart and pierced into her soul, icy and unforgiving. “Of the two of you,” Starswirl said, “Somnambula is the better liar.”

Meadowbrook couldn’t breathe. The water was everywhere, filling the entire room to the brim. She opened her mouth to scream but water rushed in and nothing came out. It filled her lungs and the room began to spin.

She couldn’t answer, but Starswirl wasn’t looking for one. He pulled away, adjusting his cape with a grunt. “You will break this audacious relationship at once,” he declared, moving away. “And we shall never speak of this again.”

She had to say no. She had to stand up to him, to prove that their love was stronger than him. She had to give them a fighting chance.

But Meadowbrook couldn’t speak.

“You are dismissed,” Starswirl said.
As Meadowbrook shakily stood to her hooves, she begged her body to move, she prayed for her mouth to speak.

“Starswirl!”

Flash Magnus charged through the doors, eyes wide and panicked. “It’s Stygian! He’s returned!”

Starswirl brushed past Meadowbrook, leaving her alone in a room full of water.

Meadowbrook knew that she had to fight. That she had to breathe.

But she was drowning.

---

“Meadowbrook?”

Meadow glanced up, wiping her brow. “Somnambula,” she greeted with a tired grin.

Somnambula sighed, entering the room. Her eyes drifted over to the nearby cot. “Is our friend…?”

“Rockhoof is fine,” Meadowbrook answered, rubbing her eyes. “He is just resting.”

Somnambula nodded, going over to her side. “And what of you?”

“I am fine,” Meadowbrook replied. She flinched as Somnambula’s hoof graced her cheek.

Somnambula immediately recoiled her hoof, locking her eyes on the cut across Meadowbrook’s cheek. She sighed, wings and ears drooping. “I am… sorry I wasn’t able to keep him from you.”

“Oh, don’t fret about that,” Meadowbrook replied. “None of us could have seen this coming.”

The two fell silent, the quiet accentuated by Rockhoof’s gentle snoring.

“Before this whole affair… Starswirl wanted to meet with you,” Somnambula said quietly.

Meadowbrook licked her lips, feeling the water leak back into her heart. “... he did. He knows.”

“And did you stand up to him?” Somnambula asked. “Like I have for you?”

She didn’t reply, feeling the crushing weight returning to her lungs. When she looked up, at the water’s surface, all she could see were Starswirl’s eyes glaring back, holding her down.

“I see,” Somnambula grunted.

“Yes,” Meadowbrook muttered. “You see now. I am a filthy, no-good coward.”

“I have fought with you every step of the way. I have stood up to those who I respect because I know that we are greater than them. I have stood by your side for all this time. I have loved you. Do you not love me?” asked Somnambula.

“I do!” cried Meadowbrook.

“Then why will you not fight for it?” Somnambula shot back.

Meadowbrook whirled around, tears in her eyes. “Because I am afraid!”

“What can you possibly be afraid of? Is my own love not enough for you to face the world?” cried Somnambula, rising from her seat.

Meadowbrook didn’t reply. They stood facing each other, chests breathing heavy and tears dripping from their eyes, asking a million questions that neither saw fit to answer.

It was then that Meadowbrook realized that the room was quiet now, and that a particular sound was missing. She glanced at the cot behind her and saw Rockhoof’s eyes dart away. The stallion pulled the blanket up higher and shifted on his side.

Somnambula’s eyes widened, and she scuffed a hoof against the floor awkwardly.

Meadowbrook let out a pathetic cough and wiped her eyes clean, returning to her desk of notes and potions. She sighed, letting out an airy breath with her words. “I’m sorry.”

“Are you?”

Before Meadowbrook could understand Somnambula’s words, the door behind them creaked open. “Starswirl needs us,” Mistmane called. “He has a plan for Stygian.”

“We’ll be right there,” Meadowbrook muttered.

Somnambula turned to leave the room, ruffling her wings. Meadowbrook wanted to call out to her, to embrace her lover once more, and to nestle herself into her chest. But her words failed, and her body betrayed her by refusing to move.

She vaguely heard Rockhoof getting off the cot and almost felt him putting a hoof on her shoulder. His voice echoed around her, lost in the caverns of her mind, and the world became darker around her.

Meadowbrook was drowning, and she was running out of air.

Comments

[Nailah]

And the plot thickens. I am trying to find more ways to say how great the characterization and overall style of yours is vastly fascinating and just makes the reader truly think about the words put forth. The symbolism continues, and as such, so does our story. Let us see how it ends...

[applezombi]

I think one thing that works really well is the way that the romance isn't without conflict. Happily ever after is only interesting if it comes at the very end of a story,