Unwanted Knowledge (For Eluuna)

The mare, still wearing her cloak, which covers all of her sans her hooves and head, writes with her mouth, That is a very nice name. It is a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Intrude.

She steps back from the book, allowing Intrude to read it without getting too close to her, keeping her distance.

 

She looks shocked, and stares at Intrude for a second before very hesitantly writing yes.

How does she know that...?

 

The mare looks unsure.

I'm not sure you want to get mixed up in this...I'm hiding for a reason, after all...

 

She paces, then checks to make sure the door is closed and locked behind them. After doing so, she sets to her pencil and paper.

I don't really know where to start, so I suppose I ought to start at why I'm being chased. Hunted, really.

I have a talent. It's not a gift. It's more of a curse than anything else. The best way to describe it is that I can see the most important parts of your life, laid out in front of me. It's not like fortune telling, either...every thing I have seen in other ponies' futures have come true. And I can see the past just as well. All I have to do is come into contact with you, and it happens. I see some pivotal event from your life.

Of course, this may sound like something I should be thankful for. But it is a curse. First off, I experience worse pain than I have ever experienced, even at the hands of Them when they had me captive long ago, when I see these things. Second, it is always a great catastrophe. Very rarely do I see anything good or happy...it is more often murders and abuse than weddings and births. And third...I do not wish to know such things about other ponies. I find out things about them that I feel that I should tell them...but I also should not. Because who wants to hear that their death will happen when they are accidentally crushed by a train, in about six weeks and two days? Who would even believe me if I told them? Nopony. Yet after I know, I feel responsible for trying to prevent it. Except I can't...because the things I see always happen. Always.

Scire looks very distraught, and stops writing, leaning her face on her hooves and taking a deep, slightly shaky breath. She seems to have forgotten the original question.

 

Scire takes another deep breath, and then picks up her pencil in her mouth again.

I went to see some special doctors...to see if they could help me. But they said they had never seen this before, they said they needed to run tests on me to determine how they could best help me.

However...I was young. They began to do things that were illegal, and I didn't even know it. Eventually they started harming me, and I asked to leave, but they refused to allow me to go. I was a prisoner. Things got worse and worse...until I finally managed to escape...

The guard of my cell knew about my talent. He had no sympathy for me, none of them did. But all I had to do to escape was endure a few minutes of extreme torture. I touched him, and saw...I told him he would die in four days. It is not what I actually saw, but I knew this guard well. The next day, he didn't show up for guard duty. Undoubtedly he was off trying to escape from his death, or perhaps live it up in the short time he thought he had left. Whatever the case, I found ways to get guards to leave over and over in the next few days, and eventually they stopped guarding my room. I then managed to evade the guards by crawling down four stories to the ground out tbe window, using all the materials I could find, such as my clothes, sheets, pillowcases...

I ran. They chased me, I know they did. They still are. Sometimes I see one of them walking down my street, asking around, no doubt about me. I can tell by the clothes they wear. I always move out before night falls, because I know that is when they will try to recapture me. This town...it's small. The ponies here are kind. I haven't seen any of Them around in years...but I still cannot let my guard down.

She sets the pencil down and sighs lightly. She looks more sad and weary than distraught now.

 

Scire collapses at Intrude's touch, soundlessly, a look of shock and pain on her face. Her eyes turn completely white for a few seconds, while she convulses on the floor.

Then just as suddenly as it began, she stops, and slowly slumps and lays limply on the floor. Her eyes return to their usual violet color, and she is breathing hard and shaking slightly, looking first at her guest in fear and horror, then looking away, at the ceiling. She seems very troubled, though from the supposed pain or the supposed vision, one would not be able to tell.

 

Intrude cannot read what Scire saw, as the vision was not a thought, but a...vision. However, she picks up copious amounts of sadness and grief. She also hears She didn't mean it...she didn't mean it...

Scire stands up painfully slowly, accepting her guest's helpful gesture. She begins to catch her breath.

 

Scire nods, still not really having many coherent thoughts. Her mind is mostly a jumble of negative emotions and she sits down.

I have to leave, she thinks, amongst the maelstrom of feelings. I have to try to stop this from happening...

 

Scire shakes her head, holding it with one hoof. She points to Intrude, and then touches herself where Intrude touched her.

After a few seconds, she blinks, and looks oddly at Intrude.

Wait a minute...I can't talk...I thought that...can she...?

 

No, not that I know of... she thinks.

Then she pauses.

​Could you hear that?