Chapter One: And Now, You shall be absolved.
The first thing that I could recall when I finally came round was the blinding white light that danced before my eyes, the almost constant murmur of conversation that I couldn't make sense of, and the vague sensation that I was moving, even though I was stationary. At least, I thought I was stationary. Nothing made sense, and an incredible pounding sensation was tearing itself through my head. Then I realized something, as the light began to form spectacular star shaped patterns across my eyes. Something that seemed to scare me more than anything, something that caused pain as I concentrated on it.
I could hardly remember anything, and when I tried, the pounding in my head began to start a furious assault against me, and it felt like I was going to pass out. However, as the dancing light before my eyes gave way to somewhat agreeable colours of rich oak and glinting silver, and that distant conversation grew into semi-legible words, I was seemingly allowed a few flashes of memory for my trouble. But, the only things I was given, was a name:
Terne Outre….
And a partial name; Fliege….
As these two names swam themselves around my head, I suddenly found myself face to face with the pony that was doing the talking that I could barely hear. She was beautiful, with her pelt being a fine lavender colour, and her complimenting mane was purple with a lighter purple and pink streak going throughout it. I couldn't see her cutie mark, and I had no way of guessing what it was. Her horn was glowing with some some form of magic, and her enrapturing wings were spread open behind her…
Wait, wings and a horn? A...A Alicorn? Where am I? I feel like I should know this place, but nothing comes to my mind. I feel like I should know her...
She smiles at me, a smile full of warmth and care, and I finally made out what she was saying:
"...I know you may not be listening to me or you may not even be able to hear me, Terne. But this is for the best, I swear on Celestia's life! So, are you ready? Ready to start anew? Ready to repay blood for blood?"
So many questions filled my blank mind as my head nodded dumbly in agreement. Her horn is glowing with some ethereal magic, and I suddenly discover that I was hunched over a silver bowl, intricately decorated, filled with a liquid that was dark red in colour. I didn't know what it was, but as soon as I looked at the heaving liquid, my mouth began to fill with a flavour - one of copper. I couldn't help but retch, and I spat what ever was in my mouth on to the wooden floor. It was red too. I was coughing up blood...and a warm trickle that began to form from below my eyes, made me begin to believe that I was bleeding...but how? Why?
I could see myself in the small mirror that was hanging above the bowl. I was an earth pony, light grey in colour. My mane was messy, a dark, cruel blue in colour. Three vertical scars ran themselves down from my left eyes, which were ringed with black circles. A torn and ripped black tie hung uselessly around my neck. A gash stretched itself across my forehead, and two small streams of blood made their way down my face. I was a mess...I read what was engraved onto the wood below the mirror, and I began to cough up more blood. What it said confused me…
Now, shall thy find peace in thy new life? Cleansed of thy sins, then to peace shall thee be.
Suddenly, I realised that the bowl before me was filled with my own blood.
I began to feel weak, and my newly reclaimed vision was beginning to falter as I pushed myself away from the bowl. I fell back, and found myself in a sitting position before the Alicorn before me. Slowly, I began to feel my front hooves raise themselves to my eyes, and pull themselves away when they felt that my sickly blood stain them. I could only look at them in abstract horror, as if I was dreaming, as I began to shake slightly. My head began to hurt more and more with each passing second, but the Alicorn started speaking again.
"Hmmm...Your body...You appear to be bleeding quite a bit, Mr. Outre. But I swear, of your sins I absolve you. But I can only do so much. Are you sure you'll accept what shall happen from this point onward?"
So I'm Terne Outre? Then who's Fliege? Who is this Alicorn? Why do I feel like I'm moving? Who is Celestia? What does she mean 'start anew'? These questions spun around my head even quicker, and I felt myself weakly stand up, and I coughed up more blood onto the wooden floor beneath my hooves. My head nodded again, and the pain that wracked my mind and my memories seemed to lessen itself, until it came back with full force...So many questions...none of them seemingly answered...
But a final, more important question had wormed its way amongst its peers, and was screaming out as the Alicorn approached me, an iron wrench raised by her magic, a sympathetic look in her eyes as her smile continued to stay in the same caring position. It was a question that I needed to find out desperately.
"Who am I?" I whispered, surprised, as if I had heard my voice for the first time in my forgotten life. I whispered it, just as the wrench came crashing down against my head, and I was rendered blissfully unconscious. I could barely hear the shuffling of hooves nearby, and the clunk next to my head as the wrench fell from the Alicorn's magical grip
That question still spun around my head as I felt my body lurching as it was dragged, and it was that question that seemed to burn in me as I lost myself to the dark embrace that one enters when they are rendered unconscious with a wrench. I heard her whisper, just as I fell into the abyss;
"Terne Outre. The Beast of Equestria."
And, with that, I slipped to the abyss of unconsciousness.
Who am I? Who is Terne Outre? And what have I gotten myself into?