“Shut up!” I say to the alicorn standing to the right of my throne…
She stares at me wide-eyed, “Um, but I didn’t say anything Your Majesty?”
I narrow my eyes while keeping my gaze on her, “You don’t have to…”
She’s silent for a moment before finally asking, “Are you okay, Your Highness?”
I blink before widening my eyes, “Oh, golly gee uh, I think so, why?”
She frowns, “You’re sure? I mean, you’ve been acting off all day, ever since I woke you from sleep this morning.” she nods. “I know you told me not to do that, but I also know you’ve been acting weird for the past two days now, even for you, so I think I need to make sure you’re okay?”
My gaze softens, “Y-you care about me? The horrible filly who took over Equestria?”
“But of course, Your Majesty!”
“A-and I care about you… “
“Well, yes!” Her gaze lowers. “What are you getting at, Empress?”
My gaze hardens! “I can’t!”
Her eyes widen, “What?”
My eyes close, “I must be hard! I must be cruel!”
“Empress Cozy?”
I open my eyes quickly and leap towards the other alicorn with my forehooves in front of me, ready to attack! “AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!”
I knock her over and we both crash to the floor on the other side of my throne and I adjust to force my hooves into her throat while staring down into the enlarged violet eyes of the now gasping adult pony with a wide, enraged view, “I can’t love you! I’m the bad guy! You’re my enemy!”
After a few seconds of forcing my hooves into her jugular and watching her sputter for air underneath me, I suddenly lose the force in my hooves and I soften them and lower my head as I breath heavily in and out of my mouth… I close my eyes and feel liquid begin to come out of the right side, “I’m the bad guy! I’m the evil filly!”
I open my eyes again and feel the moisture dripping down my face and I see my violet assistant currently gasping for breath with my hooves at her throat!
I release her, “I uh, I…” I close my eyes and lower my face as I feel the warm liquid continuing to stream from my face. “I…”
“Y-your Majesty?” She manages to gasp out inquisitively before coughing slightly and sputtering to the side…
I get off her and turn to trot a few paces away from her at my back… CLIP, CLOP, CLIP, go my hooves before I shout, “GO! GET OUT OF HERE! GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM! I’LL CALL YOU LATER!” and then, I close my eyes and lower my face towards the floor… I honestly and truly don’t know what I’m feeling anymore… I do know my face is moist…
I stood there in silence, with my eyes closed as I heard clopping… To be honest, I wasn’t really paying attention to it and I didn’t realize that it was getting closer before I felt two forehooves coming over my body to embrace me in a tight warm hug…
I felt more liquid coming out of my eyes as my mouth quivered and I whispered to her, “Why are you hugging me?”
“You need comfort!” She whispers back...
I’m silent for another moment before eventually saying, “What’s wrong with me?”
She whispers back, “You’re still a pony, and like any other pony, you’re connected to Equestria…”
<*****>
“AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!” The brown earth stallion suddenly at my right screamed as his straw hat bounced on his head and eyes widened!
I turn to face Bill, “Calm down! It’s just me!”
He adjusts the straw bill of his hat with his right forehoof and lowers it to look at me with focus in his blue eyes, “Well uh, one good turn deserves ‘nother? Guess you’re in your rights to startle me, Annabelle!”
I sigh, “Look Bill, I uh,” I shake my head. “I didn’t mean to startle you and uh, I,” I then said words I haven’t uttered sincerely in years… “I’m sorry, okay?”
He smiles, “Oh, twern’t yer fault young ‘un! You just came in at tha wrong spot!”
I frown, “You don’t seem at all freaked out by the fact that I’m a filly and an alicorn and that I can just teleport anywhere I’ve been? I mean, isn’t that rare?”
He chuckles, “Believe it or not, I’ve seen weirder! Uh, “his eyes widen. “you want some coffee? I jus’ brewed it!”
My eyes widen and mouth tightens when I remembered that one fateful day and why I should drink coffee slowly… I calmly say back to him, “Uh, two sugars and one cream, please!” and then smile broadly at him…
<*****>
So, Bill smiles at me from the other side of the worn wooden table in what I’m guessing is his kitchen… He stares down at me with a peculiar kindness in his azure gaze as he says softly, “I’m guessin’ this ain’t just a social call?”
I frown up at him as the black cup of coffee steams on the table in front of me, currently filled to the brim with blond liquid, and say, “Well uh, technically, no!” I blink when I suddenly realize that’s something I should probably do? “I can make social calls later though! Um, “before smiling broadly up at him… “if you like?”
He smiles and for the first time, I notice he’s missing a couple of teeth on the top row of his mouth and giggles before saying, “I’d like that little filly! So uh, what brings you out here, anyway? This is about yer friend, right?”
My eyes widen, “How did you guess?”
“Call it a hunch!” He says calmly before using his forehooves to take a drink of his white coffee mug… I didn’t see him add anything to his coffee, so I guess he likes it black? He finally sets it back down. “So, what’s the problem this time?”
I stare at him and carefully decided how I wanted to word this… “Well, I kinda maybe tried to strangle her?”
His eyes widen, “That’s a pretty big problem!”
“And then she hugged me!”
“That’s even weirder!”
My own gaze enlarges, “Oh, golly! Don’t you think I know that? I uh…” I suddenly take a sip of the warm bitter liquid… I’ll admit that while it’s strong, it does make me feel better oddly enough…
He sighs before looking off to the side, “Well, look! I don’t think what happened is gonna tell us as much as what was said, here! So, “he adjusts his gaze to me. “what exactly did she say?”
I gulped, “Th-that I needed comfort! That I’m not a bad filly!”
“And you agreed?”
“Well, not exactly?”
He frowns… “Just who are you, anyway Annabelle? Where did you come from?”
I sigh and gaze up at him before saying, “I’m the current ruler of Equestria and I’m starting to like my assistant as a friend and this scares me, because of who she is…”
His eyes widen, “Didn’t realize I was serving royalty today!”
I frown, “Think nothing of it! I’m more interested in what you have to say about my friend?”
He eyes me carefully, “Well, that depends! Just who is this assistant of yours, anyway?”
I stare back at him, “My old arch nemesis! The one who tried to stop me from taking over Equestria!”
“Now, why would you make such a pony your assistant, anyway?”
I blink when I suddenly remembered that that crystal called to me about two weeks before that experimental trip into Tartarus, “I don’t know, okay? I uh, I just felt that… “
He frowns, “Felt that what, young ‘un?
I stare directly at him and answer with all sincerity in my voice, “I thought that maybe she didn’t have to be locked up? I guess I kinda felt sorry for her?”
He nods, “I see… Well, I haven’t been to town in eight months, but don’t this beat all?”
“I guess so?”
He adjusts his view down to me, “So anyway, the thing is, she was yer enemy earlier, right?”
I nod back, “That is correct!”
He smiles, “Right! But tell me somethin’, do ya see her as an enemy now?”
I eyeball this peculiar swamp dwelling redneck carefully, “Uh, not really, no?”
His view lowers, “So y’think maybe somethin’ changed?”
I suddenly thought about that crystal again… I thought about what it had done to me… I grimace angrily! “Well, obviously!”
He nods, “So tha question you now gotta answer is, is this really what ya want? Do you want to be a good filly?”
My face normalizes, “I don’t know?”
“What do ya mean, ya don’t know?”
I blink, “Well uh, I guess I never really thought about it?”
He smiles and breathes out his nostrils, “You think maybe you oughtta start thinkin’ about it?”
My eyes widen, “Probably?”
He’s silent before finally saying, “You don’t have a lot of friends, do ya?”
I gaze at him carefully, “Well, I got enough!”
He nods, “Well, let me tell you somethin’… You gotta come to an understandin’, y’hear? It’s about yer relationship with this other pony and how it works!”
“How it works?”
He nods, “That’s right! Yer gonna have ways and ins and outs and things in any friendship! It’s really about knowing what that is!”
I frown, “So the big question I need to answer is, who is this other pony to me?”
He nods, “That’s right!”
I gaze at him, “I don’t know!”
His eyes widen, “Well, don’t ya think you should be figurin’ that out?”
<*****>
I knock on the tall unassuming wooden door… I gaze at the knob on the left and think that it sure has been a long time since I locked that thing!
The door opens up to reveal a much taller more violet alicorn with a metal ring on her horn and two distinct off-color streaks in her mane, “Empress Cozy! How are you?”
I gaze carefully at this other, much larger alicorn, “Twilight Sparkle! We need to talk!”
Her eyes widen, “Oh? Okay, Empress Cozy! We can talk! What would you like to talk about?”
I look at her carefully in silence and ponder on exactly how to say this, before finally asking her, “Twilight, just who am I, to you?”
(To be continued…)