Her frame is moving forward slowly as I await the answer from my sleuth. An amiable “no” slides through the air, and so I allow my bodice to begin a slow turn to my right. It was time to go help the foals and it seemed as though Circuta agreed with that idea, or at least my order.

It could have only been ten degrees of a turn, though, when my mind starts to race. A bubble has appeared, covering my maw and stealing the oxygen from my lungs. In an instant my ears are pinned against my cranium and blending in with my now-dripping mane. Yellow orbs shoot towards the dark mare, wide and confused. What the hell does she think she is doing?! I want to scream, but there is no oxygen to fill my lungs and I can already feel my heart pumping faster – mind beginning its path to blacking out. We are family. Family does not attack each other! My sweet, sweet Circuta what has possessed you?

My frame droops, legs spreading out and sliding across the wet ground, causing my frame to lower a few inches. Eyes are shut as I struggle for air, not realizing that the sloppy sound of hooves means she is coming at me with her horn prepared to strike. And then, as quickly as the oxygen had disappeared, I can feel it surging into my lungs again. My limbs gain the strength and I start to rise just in time to feel her horn impale my crest, mere inches from my poll. A loud cry escapes my ravaged lungs before I gasp for the air I had just relinquished again. And, with my body back to my full – though short – height, as well as her crown being jerked upward, she takes out a chunk of my long mane while leaving a deep gash in the muscle.

But, that is not all. Her maw reaches out for my left ear, now easily in her reach. I don’t pull away. No, instead I give her the ability to sink her teeth in. I can feel her teeth dig into the tip of my left ear and it takes all of me not to screech. My hair is sliding off of her scythe, across my nose, and down to the ground as I strike like a viper at her own jugular. I do not hesitate in the action – for if one is kicked they kick back in self-defense. The souls are ready, begging for action – to rip her soul from its vessel. But I just… I cannot subject her to that torture yet. Your family. She is your family, mein kleine. What is changing this? Innerste is crying and my own thoughts echo these. After all, why? Why, after all I had done for her?

Hooves slide along the ground, footing terrible to grab as I try and shuffle my way backwards. Eyes are wide, left ear bleeding while the tip just barely hangs on by a loose piece of flesh. Pain is radiating through my bodice, each muscle tightening and my heart pumping harder, faster, stronger in repulsion of what was happening. “Why?! Circuta. What deamon has stolen your mind?” I’m so lost. This shouldn’t be happening.

My lungs are crying in agony. I’m gasping for air. You have no family. You never did. You never will. Unheil laughs and that tiny part of me that still has the ability to feel – so deep in my subconscious – is beginning to break. I don’t want to hurt her, even if she is taunting me. I know what I could do. I had been trained for death. I had been trained to kill - without feeling, without a care. But those had been ones I hadn’t taken in. Those hadn’t been ones who had done wrong (at least to me). That had been before I’d tried to change so that I could help those who were treated so poorly. “This isn’t you! You want information, not blood!” At least that was the Circuta I knew…

We were one in the same. I could see that now. It didn’t matter that we weren’t from the same blood. No. Our minds worked in the same way. We were ready to kill, to maim, to savagely murder after gaining the information we so desired.

But she isn’t you. You are not her. You have us, Liebling reminds me.

Somehow, I believed that voice. But only because, I would never accept that they were figments of my imagination. If I was alone I didn’t know who I was. So I kept shifting my weight left and right, preparing to evade these attacks.

I will fight if I have to. But, please, don’t make me. She’s part of my family.