Faded Spirit
I stood beside the door holding a pamphlet in my hooves given to me by my mother all those years ago. Its tattered pages, still legible, filled my mind with the fun we had at my first Nightmare Night. I was walking around with my older brother, Burning Wraith, and my mother who was holding my small foul hoof. I was a cloud and Burning Wraith was a lightning bolt. He was a bit of a bully then. He kept going up to ponies yelling then pushing them over like the force of a lightning bolt. I never understood his humor. Mother was worried I would get cold so she knitted me a scarf before we left. It was a blackish grey and blue scarf. When she handed me that scarf, she told me with a smile on her face "I knitted it with love and if you're ever scared or alone, I will always be with you."
"It's time Faded Spirit" Said a pony in a white coat. I walked myself into my mother's bedroom telling her "I will make things okay. I promise." What was wrong was a dark force has been trying to claim her mind and body. My brother and I hold a unique and powerful ability to communicate will spirits of passed ponies and ones like the one in our mother. My brother has a much harsher way of using it though. He would force the spirit out and eradicate it from existence. I on the other hoof prefer to talk and bring peace to the spirit. This is where my brother and I are torn. I would like to appease the spirit in our mother, but my brother wants to force it out and destroy it. What he refuses to understand is that his way could kill our mother. He doesn't want that spirit to exist.
"Let me do it Faded! That spirit doesn't deserve to exist!" yelled Burning Wraith. "Do you not want our mother to exist either you fool?!" I yelled in retaliation. He looked me in the eyes with tears of anger falling from his. "Be gone Faded! You don't deserve to even be here. You have never been able to make the hard choices! This is what must be done!" After the last letter left his lips he proceeded to hoof me in the head knocking me out cold.
I awoke a few hours to see my brother laughing as he ripping the spirit from our mother's body. He surprisingly got his cutie mark. It was two or three flaming tears. All I could manage to say in my state of disorientation was "mommy." I then passed back out. I awoke for good in the hospital on a bed. I was curious to know why so I called for the nearest doctor or nurse. The same one who was there came in with a look of horror and despair covering his face. From that look, I knew just what happened. "She's gone, isn't she?" He just gave me a nod. That nod signaled for my tears to fall. To let me know that my brother, my flesh and blood had murdered our mother all so he could do it his way. I clenched the pamphlet and scarf as close as possible while I cried alone for hours saying "Mommy. Mommy, please don't go. Mommy!" As I cried for those soul wrenching hours, a feeling occurred that caused me to look at my flank. I looked and saw three tears covering my flank. It was a cutie mark! "Why?! Why would something like this cause my mark to appear!?" I sat in that bed baffled and heartbroken till I fell asleep.
I woke up in the morning with small colorful birds chirping outside the window. I didn't know why, but I felt like I needed to head back to our home. I flew as fast as I could without bothering to check what injuries I had. As fast as I had taken off, I landed flung the door open to see my brother laughing. I yelled at him demandingly to tell me why. He looked to me with steel patch covering his right eye. I fell down in disgust. He looked at me and chuckled. "What? Did my patch scare you? It was necessary. After I had taken care of the spirit in mother, I found out he had taken my eye. Sad mother had to go, but the spirit had to be eradicated. This patch is made of pure steel. It covers my lost eye and spirits are more scared then you are to go near it. There almost as scared as you looked when I knocked your idiotic self out." Out of all the horror I had to process, I flew away in fear when he approached me as if for a hug. "What? To scared to hug your own blood? You pitiful whelp!"
It's true. I was terrified to even go near that house again. The place where my brother did, I don't even want to say it. I was still attempting to process the past few events. My mother had past, my brother threw away his heart, and all I have left is this pamphlet and scarf. I flew with tear, after tear, after tear, falling from my eyes. I found a small cottage out in the everfree woods that I thought could offer me shelter.
I knew it wasn't right to barge in so I knocked. No pony answered so I waited. A few hours later and striped pony approached the cottage. She saw me sitting there in a pit of despair. "You have lost two ponies close didn't you? Why don't you stay for a few?" I followed her into the small cottage. I looked around and saw tons of bottles scattered around the shelves filled with various things I have not seen. "I am Zecora. I own this place. If you would like, you may stay here as your space. Would you like to tell me your story and name? I will be open to hear all the same." I explained to her my name and the previous events of my days. "In quite a bind you are. I hope to help you in the far." I had a bit of trouble understanding what she meant, but I could tell she was as compassionate and honest with me. I stayed there for weeks on end working with her learning what my mark meant. Every day from those horrid events I held the pamphlet given to me from my mother and the same scarf she knitted me with one tear dripping from my face.