The diamond-studded mare hadn’t returned back to Pangea upon her defeat - no, she had stuck around to watch the other battles of the Alliance, making mental notes of the others’ fighting styles and resting quietly while they fought to the bone. Her battle was over with, so she had spent up most of her energy healing herself, and found herself exhausted as she finally gathered the strength up to return home. It was going to be a long journey, but she didn’t mind.
She leaves before the winner is crowned, having grown bored with the fighting - it all blurs into the same after a while, with the diving and darting and throwing their individual magicks around, and she is tired. There is some uneasy feeling in her chest as she begins the trek home, but she can’t figure out why. Is it anxiety clawing its way up her throat, or something darker? Her pace quickens until her hooves are flying over the ground, her inexplicable nerves getting the best of her.
It takes her a moment to finally realize that she is back in Pangea, and when she does, she feels her heart plummet to her hooves. She has not been back here since she had first requested to go to the Alliance, and there is a dark quiet that has settled over the once-lively kingdom. Where are her nestmates? Her father, her not-Mother? She knew naught of the war with Nerine and Loess - or the outcome of said battles. She feels as though she has stepped from a place frozen in time, and perhaps she just has. Perhaps the magic of the Plains had shielded her from the rest of the world, just for a bit.
She goes to where the nest of her childhood had been, but it is only ruins. Carefully, she extracts the skull of first-Mother from the debris and spears it on a single diamond that juts from her shoulder. This one thing is precious to her above all else, after all.
She continues into Pangea, drawn to a faraway flame. As she draws nearer her breath catches in her throat and she stumbles to a halt, blinking hard past the tears that have gathered in her eyes. The sculpture along the cliffside is magnificent - it has captured Father’s likeness perfectly, but why? Where is Ghaul? Almost desperately she lets loose a trumpeting whinny, spinning around just as near-complete darkness falls over the kingdom.
Suddenly, that anxiety in her chest becomes more - so much more. She screams as the monster claws its way out of her throat, desperately forming armor to keep it from cracking through her skin. Enraged, the beast fights against her and she can feel it burning the back of her throat and she tries to drown it in flames, to no avail.
Blood and saliva come pooling from her lips as the monster rips through her lips, shredding her from the inside out. She screams as it falls gracelessly to the ground, splattering dark crimson blood across its formless body as it screeches back at her before retreating into the surrounding darkness.
It is then that shock overwhelms her and she collapses to the ground, Cress’s skull thumping dully a few paces away as all of her strength flees her and her diamonds crumble to ash. She wants to find the strength to heal herself but she is in shock, too terrified by her recent discoveries to do anything other than bleed in the dirt below her father’s monument.
@[The Monsters] mess with her healing?
(basically time is fake and frenzy has been living in a time bubble)
She leaves before the winner is crowned, having grown bored with the fighting - it all blurs into the same after a while, with the diving and darting and throwing their individual magicks around, and she is tired. There is some uneasy feeling in her chest as she begins the trek home, but she can’t figure out why. Is it anxiety clawing its way up her throat, or something darker? Her pace quickens until her hooves are flying over the ground, her inexplicable nerves getting the best of her.
It takes her a moment to finally realize that she is back in Pangea, and when she does, she feels her heart plummet to her hooves. She has not been back here since she had first requested to go to the Alliance, and there is a dark quiet that has settled over the once-lively kingdom. Where are her nestmates? Her father, her not-Mother? She knew naught of the war with Nerine and Loess - or the outcome of said battles. She feels as though she has stepped from a place frozen in time, and perhaps she just has. Perhaps the magic of the Plains had shielded her from the rest of the world, just for a bit.
She goes to where the nest of her childhood had been, but it is only ruins. Carefully, she extracts the skull of first-Mother from the debris and spears it on a single diamond that juts from her shoulder. This one thing is precious to her above all else, after all.
She continues into Pangea, drawn to a faraway flame. As she draws nearer her breath catches in her throat and she stumbles to a halt, blinking hard past the tears that have gathered in her eyes. The sculpture along the cliffside is magnificent - it has captured Father’s likeness perfectly, but why? Where is Ghaul? Almost desperately she lets loose a trumpeting whinny, spinning around just as near-complete darkness falls over the kingdom.
Suddenly, that anxiety in her chest becomes more - so much more. She screams as the monster claws its way out of her throat, desperately forming armor to keep it from cracking through her skin. Enraged, the beast fights against her and she can feel it burning the back of her throat and she tries to drown it in flames, to no avail.
Blood and saliva come pooling from her lips as the monster rips through her lips, shredding her from the inside out. She screams as it falls gracelessly to the ground, splattering dark crimson blood across its formless body as it screeches back at her before retreating into the surrounding darkness.
It is then that shock overwhelms her and she collapses to the ground, Cress’s skull thumping dully a few paces away as all of her strength flees her and her diamonds crumble to ash. She wants to find the strength to heal herself but she is in shock, too terrified by her recent discoveries to do anything other than bleed in the dirt below her father’s monument.
@[The Monsters] mess with her healing?
(basically time is fake and frenzy has been living in a time bubble)
