DAWN
i just killed off what was left of the optimist in me
She may have learned how to wear her crown diligently, but the cold, queenly aura that surrounds the young woman is nothing more than a façade, and she has to fight hard to keep her golden face expressionless as he gives a half-smile to her. She wants to break down and scream at him, but she has so many responsibilities now, so many that are outside the realm of breaking her peaceful demeanor. She cannot – will not – let herself break, and though her face is a mask, her eyes begin to burn with a slow fury as he starts to explain himself.
He tries to brush his nose against hers but she doesn’t return the sentiment – he doesn’t deserve her gentle touch, not now. The words trickle from his mouth and he takes a step closer, but once again she makes no move, either towards him or away from him. It is only when he says his last piece – I still love you – that her frozen body melts, and she steps away from him with an incredulous snort.
“You still love me?” she snaps, ears flat against her head as she steps further backwards. Her tail lashes angrily and if she were her mother, smoke would be curling from her nostrils; instead, hooves shift half into bear claws, and she tears up the ground under her feet as she distances herself from her would-be lover. “Do you know what you’ve done to me?”
She has been losing control so much lately – Tephra before this, and now here, and a small piece of herself hates herself for it. Even still, she cannot stop the venom that laces her words as she snaps at Clayton again and again, her teeth shifting to fangs and the fur along her mouth flashing white as the bear threatens to explode from her skin. “You’ve never even met your children – a son and a daughter, not that you would know. You’ve been gone for over a year! And you come to me with your half-assed apologies and a ‘I still love you’?!”
Taking a deep breath, she turns away from the horned stallion, trying to regain her composure. “You should probably go, Clayton.”
@[Clayton] oof she mad