A Quiet Place
The unicorn paced through the empty throne room. Nothing had been in there since that fateful day all those years ago. The princess of the sun had fallen that day. Much more recently, the princess of the moon was met with that same fate, a thousand years in exile, and that happened to her.
“Listen to yourself!” the unicorn screamed, her voice echoing through the vacant halls of the Canterlot Castle. “You’re starting to sound like you care about those worthless fools.”
The unicorn made her way to a shattered stained glass window. The window had once depicted the royal sisters as they imprisoned the draconequus, Discord, in stone. She looked out into the storm that had been going nonstop for the past week and a half. Lightning collided with the side of the mountain that Canterlot was built onto, causing a spectacle of flying boulders and flashing lights.
“Haze, what’s the point? A display of power? To who, there’s nopony left to scare into submission. A game perhaps? Tired of the mundane? Was that never changing sky beginning to get on your nerves after all of these years? It’s your fault; they were your orders to kill everypony. Everypony includes the pegasi that control the weather.” the mare muttered to herself as she stared into the darkness.
The mare turned her back to the outside and stared at the throne. Dust had coated the royal seat again and again. There was enough dust built up so that it was hard to discern what the color of the cushion at the bottom was. The mare, of course, knew. It was scarlet.
A photographic memory was both a blessing and a curse. The mare could remember every spell that she’d ever learned, everypony she’d ever met, and every face she’d ever seen. The curse is that she can remember everypony. Her family was long since lost to her, yet their faces still burned in her mind. She’d even tried spells to make her forget her pain, but it always came back.
Ever since the day that she accidently killed her family, King Sombra was the only pony to show her any kindness. Perhaps though, kindness isn’t the correct term. Maybe he simply saw her potential and took her in as an apprentice for his own purposes. He never seemed to care how she felt, only how her studies taught her. Sometimes, all she wanted to do was cry. She did that a lot when he first took her in, her family’s death being fairly recent. She quickly learned that crying in his presence was unacceptable. He would lock her away, no food, no water, no light, until she mastered a high level spell.
She hadn’t cried since she was a little filly. She had however, found nearly limitless time to think about the world. She found it rather repulsive. The chaos of free will, constantly leading ponies into dangerous situations, was unbearable in her mind. She was more than willing to rectify such a horrendous abomination. If free will didn’t exist, then there would be nopony trying to resist Haze’s rule. It was clear that he was the most powerful. Those same ponies had once worshiped a princess as though she were a god, so why not do the same for him?
Haze and Sombra were her only family now. And that little dragon that she’d hatched. He was more of a nuisance than anything else for the first few years. Luckily for him, he grew up quickly. She’d once read that dragons were easily imprinted by their surroundings. Blade was only exposed to darkness and negativity, making him large for a dragon his age. She’d seen him tear apart griffons before. It was honestly enjoyable to watch, the griffons thought that they could stop Haze from entering their land, and Blade just ripped them apart and ate what was left.
She had quite the family, something that she wasn’t ashamed to admit. The Overlord, the King, the Princess, and the Steward. Together they ran, not a nation, but a world. The domain was rather bland after the orders of mass murder were issued, but Haze wanted a near omnicide, so, he got a near omnicide. A few stragglers were left here and there, but aside from that, ponies were wiped out. In fact, most things were wiped out. Blade was supposed to be the last dragon, and thus far, there had been no evidence to the contrary.
“What’s the point of it all though?” the mare asked herself, speaking out loud again. “With their free will, they would have eventually wiped themselves out on their own. Why did I have to waste my time burning their cities and slaughtering their heroes?” A moment of silence passed, “Why did they have to die?”
The mare blasted the throne with her magic, incinerating it. Tears streamed down her face, making her gray coat even darker under her eyes. “You were supposed to be their protector!” she shouted. “Why didn’t you protect me? My parents? My brother?” The mare’s vision began to blur as the tears built up. “Why did you let me win? I know that you could have stopped me! You should have killed me when you had the chance!”
“You’d never kill a filly though, would you? That’s why you only drained my power.” the mare cried back after waiting in silence for a response. “If you had just killed me… I never would have gotten the strength to end your life. I thought that you were supposed to be immortal.”
Still, nothing but silence surrounded the mare. She fell to the floor in tears, sobbing quietly to herself. Her life had been nothing but one tragedy after another, and it all started with that one test. She could not help but wonder, what her life would have been like if she’d made it into Celestia’s School. Maybe it would have been different, at least up until the end of the world part about a month after her entrance exam.
“Vim, I’ve been looking for you.” said a familiar rough voice.
Vim turned around to see a dragon standing behind her, Blade. “If you mention this to Haze of Sombra…” she started her threat.
“I couldn’t if they lived or died. I only care about you, you are my master and everything that I do is in your best interest. I can give you some more time to yourself if you need it.” the dragon offered before turning to face the window. “That was quite the storm that Haze cooked up, I’m just glad that you weren’t in it.”
Vim looked over to the shattered window and saw that the storm had stopped and the clouds were beginning to part. “No. I just needed a quiet place to think. I’m fine now.”
She was used to lying. She did need the quiet place, but she was anything but fine. At the moment, all that she wanted to do was curl up and die. If only it was that simple for her.
“You’re always looking for a new quiet place, aren’t you?” Blade laughed, trying to lighten the mood. He plopped on the ground next to his master.
“That’s because someone always finds me. Next time, I’ll just use my Keyblade to seal the room. Unless it’s Sombra who finds me, then I should be able to rest without interruption.” Vim laughed, wiping away her tears.
“Sorry that I ‘interrupt’ your rest.” Blade mocked sarcastically. “Next time I’ll just let you lay around until you die.”
“We both know that you would never do that.” Vim replied, climbing to her hooves.
Blade quickly followed suit and shrugged, “So, it was a good comeback at least. I’ll just wait for you outside. Come see me when you’re ready.”
Vim nodded and watched as her dragon left her alone. He really was the only one that cared. Care, such a strange word. It could be negative or positive, one could care about another’s health, or one could care to see another die. It was an emotion that was feeling more distant as time passed. She could barely bring herself to care anymore, at least about current things. Her feelings toward the past remained the same, something that nothing could ever change. But slowly, she found herself liking Blade less, and hating Sombra less. Perhaps it was just a side effect of the dark magic; she had been using a remarkable amount of it around that time.
“It doesn’t really matter, I guess. I just needed a quiet place to think.”