Every time I almost die, I feel so alive. Why would I ever want to be more careful?

The blue girl coughed and hacked, the look of disgust crossing her sculpted face growing by the second as more of them entered the clearing. She spat, black oozing from her face in thick globs. "Look at them gather," her father's voice hissed, "With no fear or respect for your crown. It's dispicable." She wobbled, eyes blinking slowly, head aching. She snorted, and still more black came.

The smaller pegasus retreated into the trees, her body held with worry. "She is the smart one," the cobalt mare garbled, voice thick with the black. Boldly the painted buck turned towards her. She lifted her bladed head, glazed eyes watching him intently. Suddenly, a sharp heat struck her chest. She gasped, feeling the tar bubble and churn in her lungs. A stabbing pain then struck her mind as her father's voice screamed. "He has magic! This fucking abomination has magic! He aims to kill you, girl, do something!"

But she couldn't. She stood, frozen, eyes wide as her body burned and ached, the black going molten. Her breath was stolen from her, her lungs foaming with the infiltration. The virus fought against his magic, swelled in her veins, fever like needles in her muscles. She began to wretch, ears flat against her head. This was it. This was death. Painful and sharp and awful. Her whole body trembled, unable to breath or think or move. Like a writhing animal her mind blurred and twisted as her father fought for control. Her knees buckled and she collapsed, head spinning, her body covered in a frothy sweat. Her father's voice was gone, and her mind was empty. Then, breaking the silence like a single drop of rain on the stillness of a lake, light rippled through her mind. A soft voice took the place of her father's. It was soft and gentle and tender and kind, everything that her father and this virus wasn't.

"You're free. Rise, be healed, know that your enemy is a friend. This pegasus is your brother and your savior. I am so proud of you, my starry girl. I love you."

A deep clean breath expanded sore and tender lungs. The voice of her mother waa gone, but it's tenderness softened the hate her father's had been planting. Silver eyes fluttered open, vision clear, blinking away the harshness of the light. Like a newborn filly the blue mare rose, legs shaking and trembling. She was clear of the black. She was healthy.

Casting eyes to the painted pegasus, she immediately dropped her vision back to the grassy earth. She was embarrassed. Her words were a distant memory, and she wasn't sure what was real and what was just a nightmare. She stood tall, catching a blue gaze with her sterling. "Thank you, friend, I am sorry for my words. The disease...."  She trailed off. Excuses were worthless and without meaning. "I am forever in your debt. Call upon me if you ever need a favor, though I cannot offer much. Nothing can repay what you have done."

With that, she pivoted on black cloves and retreated into the darkness of the treeline, shame for her behavior settling into the hole the black had left behind.


"Talk?"
OOC: Sorry for the wait!