Pain shuddered through my back like an electric shock. It pooled deep in my gut before surging toward the surface and upwards still until it seared through my flesh like a mighty thunderbolt. A weak, trembling cry forced itself from my lips against my desperate attempts to keep it contained like a dog on its chain. It snarled and snapped against my spine until teeth, so razor sharp, broke the sensitive skin along my shoulders. I tried to fight the buckling of my legs and the breaking of my resolve but a black smoke, so thick that I was nearly blinded by it, poured outward around me until I was eclipsed by my emotions and the pain and the memories and the brokenness. It spilled from me like sin being purged in confession, even if words could not find their way to my lips. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry… My thoughts reeled endlessly around the sentiment until it was the only thing left, the only thing I could feel any longer.

A weight, yet unfamiliar to me, began to bear down upon my back like the swift hands of the Gods. I tried to stand tall, tried to regain myself as I’d tried to do so many times before but the putrid scent of the fog and the murky feel of its fingers forced me into submission. Down, upon my knees, I fell. My haunches locked, hoping to keep me adrift but the force persisted until they were strained and shaking beneath me, until I could hold on no longer. Each muscle pleaded for forgiveness as they gave way, bringing my body to the earth with a resonating crash. They’d given up. I’d given up. The pain took over until I had to close my eyes to it for fear that the tears would flow freely and drown me in my own sorrows.


The grief and the agony went on for what felt like hours. Each new wave ripped through me until the day had passed into night, though I couldn’t open my eyes to witness it for myself. A sickness befell me sometime late in the eve. I was certain that my throat had grown parched and swollen to keep my stomach from heaving itself onto the icy ground beneath my face, but it never came. Daggers of sharp, searing misery tore through my shoulder blades and the ice at my back did little to numb the throb of defeat that infected the wound. I tried to distract myself from the torture but the only thing that I could picture was Tamira and her cruel smile… Tamira? Was it- No. Myriad… The harlot who whispered velvet words so sweetly into my virgin ears; her soft lips brushing against my affections until I was meant to implode.

And implode I did.

A scream found its way once more past my cracked lips. Spittle and dirt muddied my face and hid all of my former glory behind a wall of shame so barbed and callous that I would never be able to reach it again. Yet, the pain and the torment continued. It had taken everything from me, taken all that I knew and spiked it with the most dizzying drug we often called life. I spun and rolled from reality into a world so surreal that I if I were more foolish I would have believed myself dead...

Then I thought of Essetia.

But her memory did little to dull the ripping of skin. Her memory did little to hide to cracking of bone. Her memory did little to silence my screams as they were ripped from me, torn straight from my spine and thrown away to the brittle wind. My wings- they were finally taken from me.

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When I awoke, there was no pain, no agony… just grogginess. Drowsily I rose to my feet and with great effort I was able to steady myself enough to recognize the silhouettes of the tree line in the Edge. Slowly, I glanced around with tired eyes that were meant to tell my story but could not. They did not see what my mind had created, did not see the flesh and the blood, did not see the smoke as it clouded my judgment… Instead, they saw the coming of nightfall as it draped down around me like a comforting cloak. They saw the dim horizon as it fell away slowly with the sun. I trembled slightly trying to recall what had happened or if it were real… but alas, nothing solidified any of what I’d gone through. I shook with a new anger and strength that had been restrained behind barriers made of insecurity for far too long. I shook swiftly in order to rid myself of the nightmare and its lingering hold on my heart only to hear an off-beat thud- thud.

When I jerked around to see if I had in fact been right about the smoke and the pain and the torture… I saw what appeared to be two frail, chipped wingspans, still too small for a stallion of my size. I gasped, my breath stolen from my lungs and unable to breathe. A single thought managed to pass through my empty mind, one that took me by surprise. Evangeline.

“Evangeline… Eva… Eva!” My cries carried to the heavens in hopes that she would hear, that she would see, that she would find me. Though doubt and confusion sullied my sense of well-being, I knew one thing for certain- I needed that mare like anything on this earth needed life. I would have her, hold her, instill her in my heart. She would be mine.


She she was the only thing I still knew existed in my life anymore.