>>30095350“Look around you Haybert,” the mare told him, “at the half-life you’ve created. Life with a countdown. An obvious timer, coupled with constant agonizing pain, and only one way to alleviate it, which also extends your painful life and then passes on the curse. Are you proud? Indefinite life IF… you’re willing to kill for it.”
Haybert plodded along next to her, tugged insistently by her magic any time his tired body lagged behind. “I wasn’t trying to make them monsters. I only wanted to bring back loved ones. How many times do I have to say it?”
A hoof struck the back of his head, knocking him to the ground. Once his vision stopped spinning he saw bits of flesh strewn about, along with small chunks of bone. He quickly pulled himself back to standing, wiping a hoof across his cheek to remove something wet that was stuck there. As soon as he was standing again, the mare was in his face, eyes blazing with anger.
“If you had a choice between constant pain and waiting to die, or the promise of the pain going away immediately, and extending your life, which would you choose?” the mare asked.
“I would choose to wait to die. Why extend the misery?” Haybert said.
The mare looked at him with a flat, disgusted look. Then her horn blazed and suddenly Haybert was in agonizing, excruciating pain from head to hoof. It burned along his limbs, up his spine and into his head, filling it with bright, firey agony. He barely registered that he was screaming in pain, and almost didn’t hear the mare talking to him.
“What do you want now?” she yelled.
“Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop it!” he cried in pain.
Instantly, it stopped.
He lifted his head, panting. His limbs were quivering, and he stumbled as she once more yanked him to his hooves without letting him rest. She looked at him with that same flat, disgusted look, then turned and marched down the street, dragging him past the carnage.
