Fairlight - To the Edge of Midnight

by Bluespectre

Chapter Nine - Briar

CHAPTER NINE

BRIAR

Click. Hiss. Clack. Growl. Sniff.

One of these days I’d have to ask somepony to teach me thestral. Unfortunately I wasn’t sure I had the teeth for it; those choppers made mine look about as sharp as a sea sponge. Still, most of them could speak equestrian anyway from what I’d been able to ascertain during my interactions with them, something I believe was a hang over from the war. Star Beard had been able to communicate with me normally without mentally flagellating my brain cells, but the others like Thorn still had that weird way of talking telepathically. All thoughts aside however, I had to work out where I was and what I was going to do next. Carefully I opened my eyes to a scene that immediately gave me chills. Although I was grateful for being able to focus without experiencing the drug-like visions I’d experienced back in the wood, I almost wished I was back there. I didn’t scare easily, but being surrounded by bones, lots and lots of bones, was not at all what I’d expected. Considering the ominous surroundings I was actually surprised to discover that I hadn’t been tied down.

My ears twitched at the sound of stone grating against stone. It was a familiar sound, and one that was usually the harbinger of good home made food. Well, normally it was. The black cloaked thestral using the mortar and pestle to grind her ingredients didn’t appear to be particularly inclined towards culinary concoctions. I watched her silently, taking in the room I was in. I was on a bed, quite a comfortable one too I might add, padded with some kind of straw-like material that must have been grown hereabouts and stuffed into a cloth cover to form a mattress. The pillow was a little firmer than I was used to, but all in all it was well made and did the job just nicely. I tried not to think too hard about the furs that had been furnished for blankets; it was something I’d encountered already in the Withers on my last trip there. The walls of the room were, surprisingly, not made of the crystalline tree’s as I’d half expected. Instead it was rock, carved into a dome shape with remarkably smooth walls and ceiling. It was probably granite, or some other kind of locally sourced natural material. Black, naturally. Several lamps hung from chains suspended from hooks on the walls and gave off a pleasant yellow light. The way they illuminated the racks of bleached bones was truly inspired. Welcome to my parlour said the spider to the fly...

“You are awake.”

That was remarkably observant! Instinctively I tried to drag myself into a sitting position and winced as a sharp pain shot up my leg.

“I advise you not to move,” the mare said, continuing to grind her ingredients. “Your leg is still healing.”

I leaned back in the bed, trying in vain to ignore my body’s innumerable aches and pains. Every movement, no matter how small, hurt like hell. Gods, I felt like I’d been put through a clothes mangle – then beaten with a sack of bricks for good measure. Looking down at the bandages and poultices that had been applied to my sorry carcase I looked half mummified. Apparently I had been injured a lot more than I’d originally thought, and if it hadn’t have been for the ministrations of the mystery mare I may have ended up on a one way trip to reincarnation-ville. I closed my eyes and took a hesitant breath. My sides ached, but thank the gods I could breath relatively easily.

“Thank you,” I said with a genuine sigh of relief. “May I ask where I am?”

“You are in my home, equestrian.” The mare’s orange eye’s blazed the same colour as the fire pit in the centre of the room while the grinding continued. “And now you can answer my question.” She paused to look me in the eye. “Why are you here?”

“I’m visiting friends,” I replied non-committally.

“Ah, of course. A pony with thestral friends.” The mare’s hissing chuckle made my mane itch. What was she expecting me to say? That I was a curious tourist? “And who are these ‘friends’?” she asked.

“I’m trying to find a mare by the name of Glimmer,” I replied truthfully. I checked my injured leg. I couldn’t see anything through the bandages of course, but I could certainly feel it aching, throbbing in time with my heart. I wasn’t sure if it was a broken or not, but this sure as hell wasn’t the kind of land anypony wanted to be immobilised in. I would just have to put my faith in the odd thestral. I cleared my throat, “My name’s-”

“Fairlight. Yes,” the mare interrupted. I blinked in surprise, watching her nod in satisfaction at the mixture in the mortar. “You spoke in the fever dream,” she explained. “My name is Briar, and you were brought here by warriors undertaking the rite of ‘first claw’. A rite,” she clarified, “which you interrupted by slaying their prey.”

“Their prey? You mean the manticore?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “That thing tried to kill me! And...” Suddenly I realised what had been niggling at the back of my mind since waking up. “Shade! Briar, did they find a foal?” I asked urgently, “A young thestral. She was with me in the wood, and-”

“Ack!”

“And she’s here...” I closed my eyes and leaned back, letting out a loud sigh of relief. Shade scrabbled at the side of the bed, quickly managing to pull herself up to walk rather painfully over my chest. Curling up like some contented house cat, she snuggled into my back with a gentle sigh. Fortunately for me she managed to find the one place that wasn’t covered in bandages.

“Shade?” Briar nodded slowly to herself, “A good name. I approve.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. The mare had that unmistakable air of age about her that reminded me of my aunt, despite looking for all intents and purposes like a thestral around Shadow’s age. Not that that was saying much, even Thorn and Star Beard hadn’t looked that different from the other thestrals around them. Well, perhaps their coats were a bit more wrinkly and their manes bearing streaks of grey hair, but who knew how long these guys lived for? Thorn was at least a thousand years old and Star Beard older still by my reckoning. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’d ever asked Star Swirl about his peculiar student, but I could always sate my curiosity at a later date. Other more pressing matters were demanding my attention now, such as finding Glimmer and getting home to… oh gods… the mess! I groaned under my breath; an act that the mare, Briar, picked up on straight away.

“You are in a hurry to leave,” she observed, walking towards me. “It is good to finish a journey, equestrian. Even one whose ending you cannot foresee.”

“I’m sorry?” I went to sit up again only to receive a tap on the nose as the thestral mare began to unwrap one of my bandages.

She carefully inspected the wound, sniffing at it closely to check for any signs of infection. “Your injuries will take time to heal,” she explained, nodding to herself, “manticores seldom leave their prey alive, nor recognisable.”

I didn’t doubt that for a moment. The manticore reminded me of one of natures blenders, leaving their targets as unrecognisable mush. Or dung, dependant upon how hungry they were at the time. “And your warriors hunt them as part of this rite?” I asked.

Briar nodded. “They do. All warriors must prove themselves against one of the beasts that inhabit this realm.”

Suddenly a thought popped into my head. “This is the thestral afterlife, isn’t it?” I asked. “We’re not in the Wither World?”

“You don’t know where you are?” the mare asked, blinking in surprise at my question.

“Well, yes, of course I do,” I babbled. “It’s just that I’d imagined the thestral heaven to be more… that is, a little less dangerous?”

Briar chuckled as she carefully began wiping the poultice from my wound. “Thestral’s do not see life in the same way as equestrians. To us, the afterlife is a place where our warriors can truly prove themselves, where they can find their place beside their ancestors in the great halls of the tribes.”

“By hunting?” I asked.

She shrugged, “Amongst other things.”

I’ll say one thing for Briar, she had a light touch for such a frightening looking creature. Shadow was the same in that regard, but wonderfully feminine too. In fact in many respects she appeared to be quite far removed from the what you could think of as the more typical members of her species. Take Glimmer for example. She was far more what I would say was your typical thestral: brave, utterly fearless, and with a taste for adventure and conflict that would have had your everyday equestrian running for the hills without looking back. Now that I thought about it there was little to differentiate between the sexes in some regards. Personally speaking being around thestrals resonated with that part of me that craved adventure, demanding I take risks that I normally would have balked at, and it was also the part that had nearly had me killed on more than one occasion. I never admitted its existence to Meadow of course, but I would have put money on her knowing about it all too well. You don’t live with somepony for years and not pick up on some of their more ‘non-mainstream’ traits. Meadow had hers too of course, and had her own sense of adventure deep down inside that quiet exterior of hers. Having Sparrow had dulled it to a certain extent, but I bet it could still be heard at the back of her mind now and again. That mare had more layers than one of her cakes.

“How came you by this foal?” Briar asked suddenly.

“Oh, she...” I paused. I didn’t want to lie, but I didn’t know a damned thing about her either. “She’s an orphan,” I said. “I’m taking her to my friend Glimmer so she can be brought up amongst her own people.”

“I see...” Briar smiled distantly. “So you brought her to the world of the dead to give her a new life?”

“No! I...” I sighed, “Look, what else could I do? I can’t take her to the Withers. I’m dead, so travelling there is out of the question.”

“And yet you have a living, breathing thestral foal.” Briar finished smearing the poultice over my wound and began covering it with clean bandages. “Manticore venom sends the victim to sleep so they may feed,” she explained. “Eventually you would have awoken, if you had survived the blood loss and shock. It is impressive you were able to defeat such a beast with so small a knife.” Briar smiled that thin smile or hers I’d noticed from when I’d first woken up. I had a feeling she knew far more than she was letting on, but I’d play along with her. She didn’t seem a bad old stick, even if she struck me as a bit of a recluse. Part of me expected to find hordes of cats hidden under ever piece of furniture, but maybe I was being a little melodramatic about the whole situation. “You are a warrior for your people?” she asked.

“No,” I answered. “I was a watchstallion. An officer who enforced the law.”

“Do you have manticores in Equestria that break these laws?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. I was sure she was responding to me with her own brand of sarcasm, which I found strangely compelling. “Only on Sunday’s,” I quipped, “and twice before meals.”

A huff of smoke drifted from the mare’s nostrils. “You drink tea?”

I nodded, “I do.”

Briar got up and walked over to the firepit, lifting up the lid on the small black kettle. Carefully, she lifted it from the hook and poured the boiling water into a teapot made from the same crystal-like material I’d use to whack the manticore with. It was certainly put to better use as a receptacle for hot beverages. Soon the delicious aroma of tea began to waft over my muzzle and I realised just how thirsty I actually was. Briar set the cup on the table beside the bed as I used my magic to lift it up to my dry lips. Carefully I took a sip, letting out a heartfelt sigh as the earthy brew caressed my taste buds, slipping down my throat and warming my insides. From the corner of my eye I could see Briar watching me. Her gaze never left me for even a second, those strange red eyes watching every movement I made.

“Good?” she asked.

I nodded. “Very.” I glanced back at Shade who was fast asleep, the excitement of our narrow escape from the manticore no doubt having taken its toll on her. “I imagine you don’t get many ponies visiting your world,” I said putting the cup down.

Briar shook her head, “No. Many years ago our people had more contact with yours, but that was long before the great war. Most ponies don’t care to visit now. I suspect few realise we even exist.”

“I’d have to agree with you there,” I replied honestly. “The war with Nightmare Moon and the Legion wasn’t exactly the kind of topic discussed outside of higher academic circles. Mostly it was centered around the conflict between Celestia and her sister, if it was ever mentioned at all.”

For a while we simply sat, sipping our tea. Briar adjusted her cloak, but other than that seemed quite content to just enjoy her drink. Finally she spoke, “You do not find our appearance troubling?”

I shook my head, “Far from it. I’ve been to the Wither World and made many friends there amongst the tribes.”

“Then you have done more than most of your people,” the curious mare replied. “For a race forgotten by most equestrians, you have made friends with us and travel with a thestral foal. You will perhaps forgive the curiosity of an old mare?”

I closed my eyes and smiled, “Of course, Briar. You pulled my fat out of the fire, both mine and Shade’s. For that, you have my eternal thanks.”

“Ah, an expression I have not heard for a very long time!” The mare’s laugh brought a smile to my own face. Talking to her reminded me of Shadow in some ways, causing my heart to ache at the memories it evoked. “Which tribes did you meet?”

“The Beyond,” I replied. “The Purple Sands and the Broken Cliff too.”

Briar nodded slowly, staring into her tea as though she were able to see through the rising steam into the truth of my words. I knew she was unsure about whether to trust me, and to be honest I was unsure of her motivations as well. We had barely met, and not in best of circumstances either. I decided to bring the topic of conversation round to one that had me genuinely puzzled and may help break through the awkwardness of the situation.

“Briar,” I began. “In my travels across the Wither World I never encountered any foals. One of my friends told me that the thestral race is dying out due to low birth rates and being in a constant state of war with neighbouring tribes. Is this truly the case?”

The mare snugged her cloak around herself, tucking it in under her haunches. “It is. Unlike now, mares never used to be warriors when I was alive; that was a role left to the males. We were kept at home, protected as something precious to our people. Our chieftains knew that to lose females in battle was to lose potential children for the future prosperity of the tribe.” She smiled bitterly, “But, as the goddess wills it, times change. With fewer children being born, the old leaving for the darklands and stallions dying in battle, soon the tribes began to see their females differently than they once had. And gradually, they too were used to swell the ranks of the warriors.”

“Which only exacerbated the problem,” I added. I glanced down at Shade, watching her sleeping so peacefully. It was hard to imagine that one day she could be wielding an axe in battle with the kind of monster we had encountered in the wood. Or even her own kind.

Briar sighed and took a sip of her tea. “Nowadays fewer and fewer of us come to the darklands. And those that do are often far beyond foaling age. From the stories they tell I fear that we are reaching the point where our kind will exist only as a memory, and even that shall eventually be forgotten in time. Perhaps… even by the goddess herself.”

“Luna hasn’t forgotten you,” I said reassuringly. “She fought with the tribes against the changelings to protect Equestria.”

Briar chuckled, “Yes, I heard this.” She shrugged it off with a thin smile. “But Luna is not the goddess she once was, as I believe you are aware, yes?”

“Nightmare Moon,” I said quietly.

The ancient mare nodded.

“But there is still hope for your people though,” I said trying to lighten the atmosphere. “Shade is evidence of that.”

“Yes…” Briar smiled sadly. “An all too rare light in the darkness.” She lowered her muzzle and looked up at me, “She was not born of our world, was she?”

“I...” I paused, reaching up to scratch my mane and thought better of it. There were bandages there too like the rest of my body. “I don’t really know.”

“Oh, I think you do.” The mare chuckled under her breath and took another sip of her tea before fixing me with her orange eyes. “Glimmer is not her mother. I should know, as I would be aware of any births in the darklands.”

I froze, locking eyes with her. “Who are you?” I asked. “Really?”

Briar raised an eyebrow, “You wish me to answer your questions, and yet you have not been truthful with me.”

“I haven’t lied to you, Briar,” I replied.

“No… No, you haven’t. But you haven’t been fully honest with me either.” She shook her head, her black mane catching the lamplight like oil on water. “You have perhaps heard the term, ‘lying by omission’?”

She had me there, and I had the impression the old girl had more than a few of the proverbial cards up her sleeve too. “You already know who I am,” I said, watching her closely.

“Of course!” Briar laughed, slapping her hind leg before nodding animatedly. “I would have had to have been blind and deaf not to have known.” She grinned, her lips emphasising those sharp teeth of hers. “A pony appears in our realm with a thestral foal, kills a manticore and acts as though meeting me is the most normal thing in the world?” Briar shook her head, “You may as well have been lighting signals fires and beating drums where you arrived here. I think we all know who you are, Lord Fairlight of the Four Winds.”

I huffed and looked away. “I was. Now I’m just a dead pony, and no amount of kicking is going to get my corpse moving again, Briar.”

“You don’t long to be back with your tribe?” Briar asked in surprise.

I shook my head, “I am with my tribe,” I said. “My wife and daughter.”

“But not the others.” Briar watched me carefully, observing my every motion like I was some damned lab animal. It was starting to irritate me, but I took a breath and tried to reach down for that sense of calm that never seemed to bloody well be there when I needed it.

“They’ll be with us one day,” I said simply. “What I was has gone, Briar. I never asked to become the ‘Lord of the Four Winds’, but then I wasn’t exactly given any choice in the matter. And that, I’m sorry to say, is all there is to it.”

Briar said nothing. She didn’t move. She just sat and watched me. Time passed, my cup emptied, and only the crackling of the fire was left to make any sound in the silence of that strange home. I had the feeling I’d offended my host, but right at that moment I simply didn’t care. I wanted to be healed and away with Shade from this place so I could go back to what passed as a normal afterlife. One of these days I’d like to experience something called ‘peace of mind’. Personally though, I doubted such a thing existed at all.

“I am the seer for the tribes in the darklands,” Briar announced suddenly, dispelling the heavy atmosphere. “You asked me who I am, and so I tell you this now, truthfully.”

Ah. So, she was like a wise mare then? I closed my eyes and nodded. If she was going to show her hoof, then it would be wrong of me not to reciprocate in kind. “I took work recently within the herd to find lost souls and bring them home,” I explained. “On my last mission I was sent to recover the soul of a foal who’d died in the mountains. Her name was Tehma, a young child of one of the northern equestrian tribes.” I closed my eyes, willing away the images of the frozen corpse lying half buried in the snow. “I didn’t expect the mother to arrive and find her body, especially while we were still there.” I paused, trying to recall the tragic series of events that had lead up to the creation of the small creature lying beside me. “In her grief she took her own life, and she… ‘changed’.” I shook my head, “I can’t describe it very well as I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life, but her spirit seemed to morph before my very eyes, and she became… Shade.”

The seer closed her eyes and nodded. Had she known this all along and was just waiting for me to tell her the truth?

“She is of us, but not of us,” Briar said quietly. “She is… incomplete.”

My ears suddenly pricked up. “I’ve heard that before. Not about Shade, but about another thestral.” Oh goddesses… Shadow. “Star Beard told me that thestrals could come from ponies,” I continued, “but I thought I’d misunderstood something he’d said. How is this possible, Briar? What does it mean? What does any of it mean?”

Briar raised her hoof. “I think,” she said pleasantly, “another cup of tea is needed.”

********************

In the semi-darkness of the domed hut the two of us talked for hours, pleasantly whiling away the time like a couple of old friends who’d known each other for years rather than two strangers who had only met a scant few hours earlier. To my surprise I felt quite comfortable talking about my life back in Equestria to the black coated mare. For her part, Briar was an excellent listener. She told me about her life in the Wither World and how she had taken over the role of seer in the darklands when the last one had taken ‘the awakening’ - the thestral equivalent of opting for reincarnation. The problem with that line of thinking however was that there were rarely any foals to be reincarnated into. What this meant for her people neither she nor I could say. Perhaps it meant simply oblivion, the total absence of the self. Whatever it meant it was a terrifying prospect, and yet one that this enigmatic race simply accepted as the divine and immutable will of the goddess. I’m not certain Luna would have agreed on that point. In any case it seemed that the mysterious Briar was the unofficial focal point for all the tribes of the darklands, acting as a neutral body for those wishing to speak about a wide range of matters from personal relationships to inter-tribal mediation. From what she had told me there was very little difference between the thestral world of the living and that of the dead. They fought each other as they had for aeons, slaying their foes only to be ‘reborn’ once more, ready to fight, feast, and drink with their brothers and sisters before doing it all over again in some unfathomable cycle of violence that I simply couldn’t make mane nor tail of. Only the gods could understand these creatures, because the more I heard the less sense any of it made. Did I truly know so little of this race? Of Shadow? I was beginning to realise, far too late as usual, just how little I really did know.

“What does it mean when you say thestrals born of ponies are ‘incomplete’?” I asked.

A sad smile ghosted across her face as she stood and walked over to a shelf full of earthenware jars. “I believe it is time for you to understand.” Her voice was distant, gentle, like the waves lapping against the shoreline. “It has been a long time since I told our story to anyone other than our own people, and even they have forgotten much of what all of us once knew.” She rose up on her hind legs, taking down a dark brown jar before settling herself beside the fire. “Come, join me.”

Briar waved a hoof, indicating a cushion beside her. I dreaded the prospect of moving, but more so of disturbing the still sleeping foal who had been snuggled into my back. Fortunately my fears were unwarranted as the tiny creature merely shifted over to the warm spot I, rather painfully, vacated. I was careful of my foreleg nonetheless, but being able to move, to drag myself from that warm sanctuary, was actually a relief. I felt more confident now that I was able to stand, even if it was only to move a few feet before gingerly lowering my posterior onto the cushion. Sitting this close to Briar was strange too. Although at first I’d been taken by how similar she was to Shadow, now that I could see her up close the differences were becoming more apparent. Unlike my beloved thestral mare, Briar had a deep green tint to her coat that you could only see in glimpses. Her eyes had an orange hint to them too, rather than the rich red of Shadow’s, and her muzzle was slightly shorter. No doubt to one another they would be able to tell the differences between individuals as naturally as ponies could tell one multicoloured fellow from another. Good gods, had it been that long since I’d been in the Wither World? Had I forgotten so much? My memory had certainly improved greatly of late, but there were still… ‘holes’. Parts of who I was, what I had been, my friends, my loved ones, were still noticeably absent. Some memories resolutely dodged my attempts at recalling them, but many others had, piece by tiny piece, been fitting back into place without my realising it. I wasn’t sure whether that was a blessing or a curse. There were aspects of the old Fairlight that I didn’t care to recall, and yet they were still a part of the whole. Parts, that made me who I am.

I was startled from my thoughts by a large whuff of smoke from the fire.

“It is time for you to open your eyes,” Briar said quietly. “By breathing the smoke we recall our past, recalling the lives of our tribes, the lives of our brothers and sisters who have gone into the shining lands. It is a key, a key to our histories and memories. It is who we are. It is what we are.”

I inhaled, taking the smoke into my lungs and trying my best not to choke. It wasn’t as thick and cloying as I expected, but rather… surprisingly pleasant. A light, spicy, fresh fragrance swirled around my muzzle, caressing both my body and my soul. I felt oddly happy too. All my troubles, all my fears, even my pains and aches simply ceased to matter. I could feel my body gradually starting to relax, letting go of all the darkness and suffering I had endured, and simply accepting it all as the will of the gods. Everything that was, everything that is and will be, all came together here in this place. Nothing was hidden here. Nothing was forbidden. I was who I was. I had simply forgotten. Even the song was warming and gentle, flowing over me as Briar sang in a language I didn’t recognise but could somehow understand on a level I had never known existed. It had been born within me, as it had been with all ponies. With all living creatures. We had merely forgotten it. Now… it was time to remember.

We are the first. We bring life to emptiness. We bring light to the darkness. We are the first.

Voices, distant and ever present, spoke as whispers from the emptiness. There was only blackness. The total absence of everything, even light.

We are the first.

I was blinded. A sense of weightlessness, not of falling, but of the utter nothingness of the void, surround me. And then, with a silent pulse of unimaginable power, a pinprick of light bursts from the dark.

We are home.

Colours. So many colours! They explode into being, filling the void with incalculable points of intense silver light. Poured from the vessel of the gods; constellations, swirling galaxies, worlds full of the most wondrous possibilities burst forth from the void. The creators watch in silence as these tiny oases of beauty blossom in the infinity of the universe. But on this tapestry of divine elegance there is one planet, one alone where the gods focus their attention. It is here that the all-father, the god of gods, mightiest and most terrible of the divines, has elected to have as his own. And it is this world, this fledgling ball of green land, blue oceans, grey mountains and rolling hills, that he wrought the creation of his mind and heart.

We are the first.

The all-father, from his own body and his own blood, crafts the first of the people with his breath. With his love he gifts them with the spark of life, and with his mind, the power of thought and self determination.

We are his children.

For aeons the world is theirs until one of the gods, Uilean, the jealous one, the trickster of the gods and brother of the all-father, sees the love his brother has for his creation. Jealousy darkens Uilean’s soul. His selfish desire for his brother’s love drives him to send a seed of corruption into the hearts of the people, tainting them with the sin of Uilean himself: jealousy. The all-father watches as his beloved creations turn upon one another, taking the lives of their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, locked forever in a state of perpetual warfare. Filled with divine fury, the all-father confronts his traitorous brother and they war amongst the stars of heaven until, with a final mighty blow, Uilean is cast down, down to below the very world his brother had created. Here the all-father locked Uilean away for all eternity to serve as the master of Tartarus, the keeper of a prison of his own making, and one that he can never escape. But for the people, there is no joy in the defeat of the cruel Uilean. The poison has already run deep, staining their very souls so that even the all-father cannot stop its spread without destroying that which he wrought with his own love.

His heart broken, the all-father weeps for his children, his tears forming a river of stars in the heavens. It is here, called by his suffering, the god-mother comes upon a boat of light, sailing the river to the one who would be her husband. She grieves with him for the suffering of his creation and gifts to him the ones born of the river of his pain. Together they create a new life, a gentle, kind life for the world below that has been torn apart by the brutality of war. But love cannot survive alongside the stain of jealousy for else it too would become corrupted by Uilean’s seed. And so, driven by grief and the love of his wife, the all-father creates a new world, a world within a world, where the people could live apart from the children of the god-mother to form their own destiny, away from the light of the gods.

Exile.

The all-father and god-mother shared in the joy their new children had brought to the land of light and life, revelling in their song and joy. But the all-father never forgot the people, nor how he had been betrayed by his brother. And so he and the god-mother bore unto the firmament two daughters: the goddess of the day, and the goddess of the night. One to rule the world of light, the world of the children of the god-mother, the other to rule the world of night, the world of the exiled children of the all-father.

We are the balance.

Time flows through the hourglass of life and death for both worlds, and the children of the god-mother, safe beneath her radiance, forgot the tales of their kin. But the children of the all-father did not forget. They wait still. Waiting for the day Uilean finally breaks free of his prison to wage war against his brother and bring about the end of the world with his legions of the damned.

The images fade on the world of sand. A world as dark as the night sky. The night sky of the goddess of the moon. The goddess of the thestrals.

Briar watched me from beside the fireplace, a long thin stemmed pipe poking out from the corner of her mouth adding its own smoke to that of the fire. It was different now, and as the visions and voices faded, a sense of normality descended upon me as gently as snowfall. I’d heard tell of such ‘spirit journeys’ before, but not with thestrals. They were, from what I’d heard, a kind of drug induced hallucination supposedly used to open you up to being able to see the truth of things on a spiritual level. Yaks were the ones most notable for using such things, griffins and llamas too for that matter. But what I’d seen… was this just a story? A fantasy of an exiled people? Gods, it was so real!

“It was real.” Briar waved a hoof at something beside my hind leg. It was a pipe, the twin of the one the strange mare was already smoking. “Take it,” she said encouraging me to pick up the already packed pipe. “The smoke will help clear your mind of the visions.” Sensing my hesitation she pushed a familiar wrapped parcel towards me. “Food. You must eat. The visions draw on your life energy and create hunger within.”

I nodded and opened the package of… Sea Scour’s snacks? I looked up at the mare in surprise.

“Our warriors recovered your belongings,” Briar explained, “and I have repaired your packs.” She gestured towards something hanging over the back of a chair. When had she done that?! Good goddesses, she’d tended my wounds, repaired my packs, and took it all in her stride as though it were the sort of thing she did every day!

I took one of the snacks a popped it into my mouth, crunching through the pastry into the spiced meat within. It was delicious, as was the tea that accompanied it. “Why are you doing all this for me, Briar?” I asked. “You’ve put yourself out for a complete stranger, and an equestrian one at that.”

“Expecting me to ask for something in return?” Briar asked curiously. “Would you not do the same for me if the roles were reversed?”

I shrugged, “I would.” Smiling, I lit my pipe and drew in the smoke. Woody, earthy notes and a hint of fruit danced around my mouth. I’d had this before - long, long ago.

“I suspect many of your people would not,” Briar replied.

“I wouldn’t be so sure, Briar,” I said, blowing out a thin plume of smoke. “Ponies are a friendly lot by and large. They would just need time to get to know you, that’s all.”

“Hah!” Briar slapped her hind leg and barked out a laugh, “Such an optimist!” She pointed her pipe at me and shook her head, smiling. “You surprise me, Fairlight. You treat our people as you would your own. Maybe the visions were unnecessary for a mind as open as yours.”

Perhaps she right. I don’t recall being that surprised by Shadow when I’d first seen her. Certainly nothing like the reaction she’d had from ponies as grizzled and cynical as the chief. Gods! I could still see the look on his face when he saw Shadow trotting into the Wyvern’s Tail for the first time!

“Those visions,” I asked, “they were of the origins of your people. The origins of thestrals, right?” Briar nodded. “So, if the gods locked your people away in another world,” I mused, “it still doesn’t explain how our little Shade here popped up in Equestria.”

Briar shook her head and leaned back against the wall. “No.” She took a long breath, her voice sounding a lot less jovial than it had a moment ago. “That is a part of the story that many amongst our people do not know. Not because it is untrue, but because it is true. Not many like to hear truthes that they do not wish to believe.”

Which made sense, I suppose. “This has happened before?” I asked.

“Many times, although our people would not openly admit it.” Briar cocked her head on one side. “Your mate, Shadow? She has not told you of how she came to be?”

“It’s… complicated,” I replied. And then I gave myself a shake, mentally bucking myself hard. Skirting around the issue had been a foolish, even cowardly decision of mine, and it had remained an open topic that I had never had the damned balls to resolve. I guess I’d never thought it especially important, especially as Shadow had never talked to me about it, and so I had just let it go. Now… now I wanted to know. Honesty was usually the best policy after all. “I was told she was incomplete,” I explained. “She was always very quiet and I put it down to her simply being shy or not the type to talk much. I didn’t exactly know much about thestrals anyway, but she always seemed a bit distant, introspective perhaps. Honestly, with everything else that’s happened I just never had the time to ask, and now... it’s too late.” I hung my head for a moment and felt a wave of sadness flow through me. “Briar, can you tell me?”

Briar nodded. “If Shadow is, as you say, ‘incomplete’, then it is likely she is one of ‘the gifts’.”

“The gifts?” I asked. “I haven’t heard that before.”

“Neither have many of our own people,” Briar admitted. “At least, not by that name. We are a dying race, Fairlight. I believe you know that already.” I nodded in reply as she continued. “Low birth rates, constant warring with neighbouring tribes...” Briar sighed, “It is only a matter of time before the only thestrals left are here in the Darklands, and the Withers becomes the home for little more than monsters, spirits, and dragons.”

I dare say there are those who would classify thestrals as ‘monsters’. Still, these ‘gifts’ had my interest piqued and I settled back with another pastry, passing one to Briar who took it with a smile. She was quite endearing really. I wonder if thestrals here were all like her: wise in the ways of the world and with an aura of calm maturity that reminded me of Star Beard and Thorn, though I doubted it somehow. Briar took down a jar and passed it to me. I knew what it was straight away by the strong, sweet scent that emanated from it even before I opened it. I closed my eyes and felt a shudder of anticipation run through me from the tip of my nose to the dock of my tail.

Spirit berries.

“Eat,” Briar said, “but no more than six. Any more and your spirit may not be able to return home.”

My expression must have been priceless. “I couldn’t go back to the herd?” I stared down into the jar. “Bloody hell, I knew these things were bad for you if you had too many, but… damn!”

Briar chuckled as she drew on her pipe, “It would only be temporary,” she said with a smile. “Spirit berries strengthen life force in the living, but also the spirit in the afterlife. You are no mere pony, Lord Fairlight, and to have too many of the berries may have effects one can only begin to speculate about. Either way, the gateway to your eternal herd would reject you if it found, shall we say, anomalies?”

I stared into the jar, giving the berries a new found level of wary respect. “I think I’ll just have the six then.” I fished out half a dozen and placed them on the plate beside the snacks.

“These pastry parcels are delectable,” Briar stated, helping herself to another. “You do not have any ill effects from eating meat?”

I shook my head, “Not at all.” I shrugged my shoulders, tucking into one of the berries. “I think it has something to do with being a wendigo. I probably know less about them than I do about your people, Briar.”

“Have you not spoken with any?” Briar’s voice carried a hint of surprise. I didn’t blame her either. Even to me it sounded odd.

“I haven’t made the effort,” I confessed. “With the loss of my wendigo powers I just became, well, the old me I suppose - a pony just like any other. I’ve asked about other wendigo but they had either ‘moved on’, accepted being a regular pony, or…” I sat up suddenly as I remembered something I’d been told. “They came here.”

Briar smiled, “Oh, they did, and many still live here with our people to this very day.” She lifted her hoof, “But more of that later. First, I must finish my tale as I have digressed. I fear my lack of company leads my mind to wander away from its proper course from time to time.” Chuckling, Briar tossed her mane and shifted herself into a more comfortable position. “The gifts,” she explained. “According to legend they are created when a life comes to an end in grief and sorrow. You saw this, yes?” I nodded. Briar took a pull on her pipe, the smoke wreathing her muzzle adding a disturbing haze to her glowing eyes. “Some believe the all-father still loves his creation, the people, and did not want to see them vanish from creation. And so, hiding this from the god-mother, he used his power to snatch a soul from the grasp of Uilean, the keeper of the underworld, and used his brother’s curse to help create a new life. A new child of the people. These, we call the gifts. For if the story is true, then it truly is a blessing from the all-father.”

“He has to hide this from his wife?!” I asked in amazement.

Briar dismissed it with a wave of her hoof. “Do you not hide things from your wife, Fairlight?”

She had me there. I sighed and nodded, “I do, but usually small things like the odd sneaky pipe or a brandy.” I munched down another berry. “You said ‘some believe’, so what do others think?”

“That they are the children of Uilean,” Briar said casually. “That they are not true thestrals but a physical manifestation of the curse that the all-father’s brother placed upon us that had us banished here at the beginning of time.”

“That doesn’t bode well for the gifts,” I suggested.

“It doesn’t.” Briar shook her head sadly. “When they are found, they are usually killed. Some however, believe that they truly are a gift from the all-father and raise them as their own. They are a rarity now in the Wither World. If you had left young Shade she would have found her way there eventually. Her blood will call to her to make the journey.” She paused, “Why did you take her with you?”

“How could I not?” I replied. “She’s just a child, and-” Something thumped into me making me nearly choke on the spirit berry. “Bloody hell! Shade?”

“Ack!”

I let out a sigh of relief and let her curl up in my lap, treat and all. Briar’s eyes drifted to the foal, her expression one of longing and a sadness that cried out to me. “Do you want to hold her?” I asked.

Briar hesitated, her eyes widening in surprise at my offer. Did she believe the tale about them being cursed? But then, closing her eyes, she bobbed her head, “Please.”

“Come on sleepy,” I smiled, lifting Shade in my magic. She yawned and opened her eyes, looking about her as she floated into Briar’s open forelegs. The little foal peered up at the thestral mare and burped. For a moment my heart leaped into my throat as the memory of lightning surged through my mind. I needn’t have worried.

“She has wind,” Briar noted with a look of surprise. “What have you been feeding her?”

Oh hell! I decided to own up, “Well, the treats we’ve been eating of course.” Briar looked at the snacks and nodded, returning her gaze to Shade as I continued, “And a cheese omelette.”

“Omelette?”

“Well, it’s eggs really,” I explained. “Whisked up and poured into a frying pan. When the underside is cooked you chuck in some cheese, flip the other half over, and bobs your uncle. One cheese omelette.”

Briar rolled her eyes, which was quite a sight to see in a thestral. “Eggs will give her wind,” she said with a huff that would have put one of Meadow’s ‘looks’ to shame. “It can be painful for her and needs to be brought up.” Carefully, the black mare rose to her hooves and motioned for me to do the same. “Come, this is not something to do inside.”

“You can say that again!” I gently folded my magic around Shade and plopped her onto Briar’s back. At first both mare and foal looked surprised, but I managed to catch the faint smile in Briar’s eyes - a smile that warmed my heart. I followed the two of them outside the hut and into the open air. “My goddess...”

All around me were trees; hundreds, thousands maybe. It was a forest of crystal that shone so brightly and with such beauty that I felt tears stinging the corners of my eyes. For all its emptiness and starkly bleak landscape, the realm of the thestrals was truly a place of wonder. Dangerous wonder, true, but wonder nonetheless. Briar walked past me and sat down on her haunches. Carefully, she took Shade in her forelegs, placing her gently over her shoulder and began to rub her back as a song, so alien yet so full of love, rose into the eternal night. I’d heard songs sung in the hall of the Broken Cliff tribe. They’d been bawdy, loud, and full of the power of the thestral warriors. But this, this was a song of a mother for her child, the meaning if not the words conveying a surprising level of gentleness I hadn’t thought these creatures capable of. I felt ashamed to have thought such things. Now, standing here with these two, I felt the love I had for Shadow smoulder and burst into a blazing hot fire within me. Most of all I felt the connection the thestrals had with their world, and the loss of their home from so long ago.

Lightning flashed, bursting across the forest and into the night sky, joining the song with its magic. A roaring burp would normally have spoiled such a touching moment, if not for the childish giggle of happiness from the tiny life held in Briar’s forelegs. I smiled. She was with her people now, and this was where she truly belonged. Even if it did break my heart...

The rest of the day, or what passed for day here, passed by with Briar and I sitting beneath the alien sky as Shade played nearby. Strange birds flitted between the trees, peculiar transparent things that looked like tiny ghosts zooming this way and that so fast it was hard to keep up with them. “What are those?” I asked, watching Shade leaping around trying to catch them. I was reminded of Shadow bringing one of the things to me in Withers and trying to get me to eat the horrible looking creature. How I hadn’t thrown up was anyponies guess; the bloody thing had still been flapping too. “I’ve seen them before in the Withers.”

“White Spectrals,” Briar said lifting a hoof towards them. “They live in the trees, feeding on the smaller spirits that slip in between the worlds.”

“Are they edible?” I asked.

Briar chuckled, “Oh, yes. Why, would you like to try one?”

“NO!” I sat up a little too quickly and felt one of my injuries send a warning jolt of pain through my back. “No… thank you.”

The old mare leaned back against the tree and smiled distantly. “There are many other forms of life in the Wither World that are mirrored here,” she explained. “Some are farmed for food, clothing, and for testing the mettle of the warriors.”

“Like the manticore,” I replied.

Briar nodded. She poured us a cup of tea and passed me a strange looking pastry. Not one of Sea Scour’s I noted, but just as tasty. I thought it would be best not to ask exactly what was in it. I had eaten thestral cuisine before, and I can attest to the fact that sometimes ignorance, truly was bliss. I guess the ‘rules’ of the thestral realm were very different from the ones that governed the eternal herd. And now that I thought about it, the griffins hunted their food too. What about the heaven for manticores and these spectral birds, didn’t they get a look in? Gods, it could make your brain ache just trying to think about it. Time for a change of conversation I think…

“What can you tell me about the wendigo here, Briar?”

“The wendigo...” Briar’s voice trailed off as she took a pull on her pipe. “There were many of them once. They hoped to be able to make a home here as they had in the mortal realm, deep in the gods hoof mountains where the ice dragons fly.” She sighed and shook her head sadly, “Some returned and went back to the herd, whereas others... we never saw again.”

“I guess they weren’t able to change back to their wendigo forms then?” I asked.

Briar shook her head, “No. The magic of these realms cleanses souls of taints, including that of the wendigo. I expect you already know this, yes?”

I nodded. “I do, but I expect the wendigo didn’t. And by the time they found out it was too late.”

“It was always too late,” Briar added. “Their pilgrimage to the mountains was fruitless, and those who weren’t eaten by dragons, froze to death, or went mad with sorrow, went back to the eternal herd to spend their eternity as any other pony.”

“Damn...” I leaned back and closed my eyes. “I wasn’t born a wendigo, but even I feel some sense of loss. For them, it must have been hell.”

“Many believed this was their hell,” Briar nodded. “Wendigo live very long lives compared to other equestrians. For those, the mountains were their last hope.” She sipped her tea thoughtfully, “A sad tale for so proud a people.”

“Yeah...”

Truthfully I couldn’t even begin to fathom how they must have felt, especially after realising that the afterlife wasn’t the heaven they had expected it to be. Sure, I had some pangs of regret about losing my ability to fly and the incredible magical power that came with it. The pull of those memories often cried out their longing for that lost side of me, but I could deal with that for the most part. Now if I had been born a wendigo and lived a long life as one of the four winds tribe, then my current pangs of regret would have been a drop in the ocean compared to that overwhelming sense of utter despair. Taken in context I could understand how being denied that part of you would have driven you to desperate acts. Or worse.

“I’d have thought the gods would have allowed them to retain their powers here,” I said half to myself. “This seems… cruel.”

“Cruel?” Briar barked out a laugh, “The gods do not care about what we think of as right and wrong, my equestrian friend. We are as ants to them, and although they may not hold wendigo in contempt, they would not create a whole new world for what many believe are self inflicted difficulties.” She shifted her position and put another piece of wood on the fire. “Wendigo are ponies who bonded with the spirits of the netherworld of their own accord. When they die they return to what they were originally: ponies. How they ‘feel’ about it holds no interest for their creators.”

Briar was right. I didn’t want to believe it, but what she said made sense. I stared down into the burning logs on the fire as though staring into the flaming heart of a reality that was too harsh, too alien, to fully comprehend. Part of me had believed that there was a place here for the wendigo when they passed over to the afterlife, that even though I had wanted to stay with my wife and child, the part of me that was the wendigo still had somewhere I could… belong. I was torn. I was a soul of two worlds: that of the equestrian, the pony I had been born as, and that of the spirit of the mountains - a wendigo, flying free and singing the song of winter in the northern ranges. Suddenly I felt a chill shiver through my heart. I was alone. I was hopelessly, irredeemably lost, in a world where I didn’t belong. It was in that moment, here in this hut with a thestral mare and the little foal, that I realised just how cruel a fate my adopted brethren faced in the eternity of the afterlife. I felt a tear sting the corner of my eye and trickle down my cheek. A faint tinkling sound made my ears twitch. Opening them I saw Briar staring at the floor beneath me.

The old thestral looked up at me, her face an inscrutable mask of age old wisdom. “Perhaps you are more a wendigo than you realise, Lord Fairlight of the Four Winds.”

I glanced down at where she had been looking and caught the glint of something sparkling in the firelight. Carefully, I lifted it with my magic and let it hang there in the air between us.

“The tears of a wendigo,” Briar breathed. “A light in the darkness. A lamp to guide the lost to their home.”

I snorted out a laugh and immediately felt ashamed despite my surprise at finding the solidified tear. I hadn’t mean to scoff at my kindly host; she had done nothing but show me kindness since her warriors had found me and brought Shade and I to her. She had even shared with me some of her peoples history without asking anything from me in return. I hung my head and apologised.

“Forgive me, Briar. I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful or facetious, it’s just that I’ve heard so much about my being this ‘child of Fate’ or some such rubbish, that I have to wonder whether the whole world has gone completely potty and taken me with it, or if I’m the only one left who’s sane.” I shook my head. “I’m just a guy who was plunged into something that I wouldn’t have wished upon my worst enemy, and ended up as a… well, this.” I shrugged, “I’m not fit to guide anypony home. I can barely find my own.”

The fire crackled in the pit as the thestral mare placed another log onto it, pushing it into position with a long iron poker. I watched the sparks drift upwards into the dark ceiling as Briar spoke. “Only you can find your path, Fairlight. Thestrals do not have cutie marks to help them find theirs, but each of us still strives to find their place in the world. Either this one or the mortal one, it makes no difference. Perhaps you simply never found yours, or...” Her eyes locked onto mine, her brows narrowing as she focussed on me. “Perhaps you are already on your path and simply do not realise it.”

“So how in Equestria would I know if I was on my path or not then?” I asked a little irritably.

Briar chuckled and took a pull on her pipe, “Ah, now that is the question is it not? Many spend their whole lives trying to find their path, whereas some may believe they have found it when Fate has decreed otherwise.”

I nickered, my hind legs starting to feel cramped. Unfortunately with a small child pressed into me, moving was beginning to look like a luxury that would have to wait. “In other words, it doesn’t matter what the hell we do because we have no idea whether we are on our path or not,” I said, rubbing my leg, “because it’s all predetermined by Fate, right?”

The corners of Briar’s mouth curled up as she smiled broadly, her teeth glinting eerily in the glow from the fire. “Exactly.” She pointed her pipe at me, “But that does not mean that we should stop trying.”

“But trying to do what?” I asked her. “I just want to do what’s right and have a quiet life. Fate can sod off as far as I’m concerned.” I took a draw on my pipe and watched the smoke trickling up towards the ceiling where it mingled with the smoke from the fire.

Briar chuckled and readjusted her tail, tutting at a knot she’d found. “For a pony who wants a quiet life, my lord, you certainly have an adventurous time trying to achieve it.”

“Hah! You got that right!” I reached down and gently tickled Shade’s ears. They were long, thin and pointed like every thestrals. I’d thought they were spikes at first, rather like a dragon’s horns, but they were surprisingly sensitive. A soft stroking of them had a pleasant calming effect for both Shade and myself. She purred like a house cat and snuggled into me for warmth.

“Are you certain of your current course, Fairlight?”

I raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“The child,” Briar said, nodding towards Shade. “She treats you like you were her parent.”

“But she’s a thestral,” I replied. “What do I know of thestral foals? I nearly blew up the house with a bloody omelette for Luna’s sake!”

Briar gave a quiet laugh and leaned forward to tap out the last of the tobacco from her pipe. “I believe an Equestrian saying is appropriate here: ‘You never know until you try.’”

I huffed and reached down to pick up the tiny creature, shifting my leg to try and relieve the pins and needles as I did so. Carefully, I placed Shade in my lap and leaned back against the bed. “Briar?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

A smile spread across the old thestral mare’s face as she bobbed her head, “You are welcome, Fairlight.” She suddenly clopped her hooves together and rose to her hooves. “Now, back on the bed with you. I need to check your wounds.”

“But you’ve only just checked them!” I protested.

“And you have been moving, so they need checking again.” Briar lifted Shade up and placed her on a large cushion beside the bed where she promptly fell asleep again. “As my guest,” she continued, “I would ask you politely, however as you are also my patient, I expect you to do as you are told.” She bobbed her head towards the bed and gave me a look that had me quickly scuttling back onto the straw filled sanctuary. “Now then, roll onto your left side and we shall start there.”

********************

Days rolled by in the care of the curious Briar. As my wounds healed I was able to watch the mare interacting with Shade; how they played, how she spoke and sang to her, and how she washed and groomed her. It was strangely absorbing, as well as a fascinating window into a world I knew so little about. Sadly I suspected it was also a world that few of their own kind had seen for a very, very long time. Briar’s words kept coming back to me. Shade was a ‘gift’, the same as Shadow. She was a child born of my world, Equestria, but destined for a life of her own in the Withers. Did the all-father, the god of gods, truly grant these gifts so that the thestral race could continue, or was there some other reason? I suppose it didn’t really matter anyway, the fact remained that they were resented, if not downright feared, by her own people. And, to my shame, my own. I had been told of them once by Star Beard, but he had clearly been reluctant to expand any further and had immediately changed the subject. At the time I hadn’t given it much thought, but now, seeing Briar and Shade chasing each other outside through the trees, laughing and tickling each other as they played, I began to feel ashamed at what my own people were doing. Zip Line had wanted her killed. The herd had wanted her killed. But why? If she was a gift from the god of gods, why would this be allowed? How, and what the hell gave us the right, to take a life in such an arbitrary way? I rolled off the bed and huffed angrily. Something inside me, something far down in the depths of my soul, seethed quietly.

Carefully I shrugged off the bed covers and relaid them before putting on my travelling clothes. I left my panniers hanging from a peg on the wall, neatly repaired and still bearing the scent of Sea Scour’s parcel. The contents had long gone, but the memory of eating with Briar and watching Shade greedily devouring her own in a shower of pastry was a precious time I would treasure forever. To my own people, Briar, the dark coated mare with the orange glowing eyes and lethally sharp teeth, was a being from their darkest nightmares. To me, she was a mare like any other. She was a seer, but also a mother, a sleek and mysterious being who cared for those like Shade and myself without asking for anything in return. And if there was one thing I hated, it was leaving without paying my debts.

The cloudless sky overhead was the same as it had been when I’d first arrived here: dark, endless, and yet subtly different at night. The night sky was full of stars like it had been at home, with the moon looking down from its bed of eternity. The sounds of the forest at night were different too, and filled with the sounds of creatures that I could neither see nor recognise. Briar had described some of them to me. There were the white spectrals, the near transparent birds that flew through the trees hunting insects known as pixils, a tiny two legged thing with wings that reminded me of breezies. She me told of the great lake creatures commonly known as ‘lake demons’ which provided food, leather, fats, oils, and other resources that thestrals both here and in the Withers used in their daily lives. There were other creatures I recognised from my old life in Equestria, such as the manticores, chimera, basilisks, and of course, dragons. Dragons were something of an enigma to me, but I was surprised to find I actually knew more about them than Briar, who milked me for every scrap of knowledge I had of them.

Briar was a fascinating mare, wise in the ways of her people and their gods. Their ‘true’ god was the goddess of the moon. Ostensibly this was Princess Luna, but the thestrals saw her other self, or ‘phase’ as Briar called it, to be the true goddess Nightmare Moon. I could see why, and I could also remember watching Luna leading the thestrals into battle in the Changeling lands in that guise too. Could she simply change at will? Had she absorbed that power, that immensely powerful spirit, bonding with it the way I had with the spirit from the Wither World? It was a question I had no answer to, but one which fascinated me nonetheless.

I dropped the wood carrier onto my back and tightened the girth strap with the application of a little magic. Not far away, dancing and leaping through the trees, Briar chased the squeaking and whooping Shade whose wings flapped like scraps of black leather in a comical attempt at flight. In typical thestral fashion, Briar hadn’t used hers once that I had seen, but that hadn’t meant she didn’t care for them. I’d seen her preening them every night, and I found this meticulous routine of hers oddly fascinating. I’d seen Tingles cleaning hers of course, and Shadow too, but I’d never really just sat and watched. Briar had caught me doing just that, but merely smiled and continued, leaving me blushing furiously. Best of all was that I saw Shade emulating her, or at least trying to. Even now that memory makes me smile. I shrugged the carrier into place and set off. For everything Briar had done for us the least I could do was help by collecting fire wood.

The forest was unlike anything in Equestria that I had ever seen. The crystal trees glowed with an inner light that was as eerie as it was beautiful, their colours reflecting different hues as I walked past them. They were used for building material by the tribes, and some even as weapons such as the lethally curved axes the warriors used. But as firewood, they were useless. Growing nearby was what I sought: black thorny patches of twisted branches as thick as my foreleg, and some even larger still. They were wicked looking things, and seemed strangely well paired with the landscape, perhaps even the thestrals themselves. As they grew, parts broke away and fell to the forest floor where they dried out. These pieces proved to be excellent for providing both heating and cooking fuel for the home. I used my magic to lift several good sized pieces, shaking the sand from them and dropped them into the carrier’s basket. Briar had shown me how she would steep the bark of this vicious looking plant to help make some of the myriad of concoctions and salves that she kept around her hut in case of need. Apparently thestrals from all the tribes would visit her from time to time for advice, to buy her medications, or even just to chat and have a cuppa. I guess some things really were universal, regardless of your race or culture.

I collected another piece of the thorny black wood, careful not to catch myself on the sharp spikes. These could grow to enormous sizes, as I had seen when I’d visited the Broken Cliff tribe where Shadow’s sister lived with her husband. I wondered how they were doing now? Gods, I could remember drinking Balta with the warriors in the great hall: the singing, dancing, and tests of strength that were all rolled up with a roar of laughter and music that made me long for those simpler days. Everything seemed so much more complicated now somehow, even though I were staying here with Briar. Perhaps joining the guard had been a mistake after all. There was no way round the fact that I was going to have to go back and explain my absence when I finally returned to the herd, and I doubted that would end well for me no matter what excuse I gave. Still, I did what I had to do, what needed to be done. Shade was at home here, and as much as it would hurt to say goodbye, I knew this was what she needed. Then it would simply be a case of going home, grovelling to Meadow, apologising to Zip Line, and then back to work. Yeah… simple. Not.

Oh! There was a large pile of wood that would do the job just nicely... I reached down and began to place the pieces into the basket one at a time. I wasn’t the best at manipulating more than one object at a time like other unicorns. Sadly it was a skill that I had never really developed, and to my embarrassment, hadn’t been all that bothered about either. Still, it did the job well enough, and I was able to pick up the last piece without catching my muzzle on the axe blade that was… hovering... inches from my nose...

“Celestian...” The words rolled over me, sending my hackles up and a shiver sizzling down my spine.

I swallowed, not daring to move. I was unarmed and in alien territory with a foal to protect as well as Briar. Damn it all! “Easy big guy,” I said quietly, “I’m not your enemy.”

He didn’t seem convinced. “Why are you here, Celestian?” the thestral warrior snorted, “Speak quickly before I gut you.”

“I’ve come to see my friend, Glimmer of the tribe of the Beyond.” I swivelled my eyes to try and better see the thestral, but all I was able to make out was the blade, the haft, and a warrior standing on his hind legs. I’d seen them in battle, and I knew how close I was to a very wet and messy end right at that moment.

“Glimmer?” The thestral snorted and I caught the whiff of smoke and brimstone. “I do not know of whom you speak. Are you a spy?”

I opened my mouth to reply but the distinct crunch of wood distracted me. Somepony else was here. “Lance? Who are you talking to? Who- Fairlight?”

“Hello, Glimmer,” I smiled. “I’d get up, but big and tall here seems to have me at something of a disadvantage.”

“Damn it, Lance, put your weapon away.” The mare gave the male a shove, but she may as well have been pushing a mountain.

“He is a Celestian,” the male snarled. “We kill Celestians. Even those who have already died.”

“Kinda last millennia there buddy,” I quipped, watching the axe blade catching the light along its edge. “Can’t say I was around then, but if you ask your friend here I’m sure she’ll confirm that I’m anything but a spy.”

Suddenly I was shoved to one side, but not by ‘Lance’. Glimmer’s rear loomed in my vision, together with a wildly swishing tail. I can’t say I didn’t admire the view particularly, but the circumstances certainly left quite a lot to be desired.

“Get away from him you fool!” Glimmer hissed. Smoke trickled from her nostrils, her muscles flexing as she drew her axe. “Lord Fairlight is a friend of my tribe, and if you attack him, you attack us all.”

“What foolishness is this?!” Lance snorted. “He is a Celestian and a curse upon our people, like all his kind.” The stallion backed away, still facing me, but his stance telegraphed his intentions loud and clear. “See how he cowers behind a mare! No tribe has such weak creatures as allies. May as well slit your own throats as rely on them to come to your aid in battle.”

Something inside me stirred. My dignity, my anger, call it what you will, but it felt… good. Slowly I stood up, my heart rate increasing and my muscles twitching as I locked eyes with my adversary. “Give me a weapon and I’ll show you who is a coward, you piece of shit.”

The stallion’s neigh shook the leaves on the trees, “Then come, Celestian! Let us cross blades and I will send you back to the pit where you belong.”

“Stand down, Lance.” Glimmer’s axe slid from her back with practised ease into her forehooves, the haft held solidly in a defensive stance. “Rein in your anger and use what little brain you have left. Think stallion! Lord Fairlight is a wendigo. He is an ally!”

“The wendigo ran from the field, mare,” Lance hissed. “They serve none but themselves and they have no more power in them now than the slab toothed cowards they truly are.” He lowered himself into a classic fighting stance, sliding his hind legs round to gain a better grip on the sandy forest floor. “He has challenged me, and under the rite of blades I accept.”

“Don’t be a damned fool!”

“Step aside, Glimmer,” Lance rumbled. “If you do not, then I shall cut you down as well.”

“Oh, big stallion now aren’t we, pal?” My hooves dug into the sand allowing me to distribute my weight. “You know, ‘Lance’,” I grinned, “Equestrians don’t kill their own because their dicks aren’t big enough. How’s yours? Only a little pecker are we?”

“Gods take you, Celestian. I’ll split you in half!”

I treated the guy to one of my trademark sneers, “That’s not what your wife said.”

“Damn you!”

Whoops, that did it! A bellow of rage announced the incoming charge and accompanying axe swing. To some the oncoming mass of black leathery teeth and hatred would have had them running screaming for the hills. For me, I had seen this kind of bravado and testosterone more times than I cared to recall. Perhaps I was simply beyond caring for my own safety, but I’d quickly found out the hard way that naked aggression and rage would more often than not shift the initiative to your opponent. I’d weighed this guy up quickly. He was fit, strong, and running on pure rage. Personally I was out of practice and a touch slower than I used to be, but I had experience and speed enough in me to dodge and fire off a buck that connected with the guys head with a satisfying crack. His forward momentum carried him forward and he went down in a shower of sand and spittle.

Glimmer walked over to the unconscious form and gave him a prod. “Nice.” She turned to me and shook her head, “You never change, do you.”

“Nope.” I picked up my spilled basket. “Damn it all, I’ll have to pick the whole bloody lot up again now.” I jerked my head towards the fallen thestral. “Friend of yours?”

“One of the younger members of our tribe,” she sighed. “He is desperate to achieve stallionhood through the rite of first claw.”

“I’ve heard of that. A rite of passage, right?”

Glimmer nodded, “As old as the hills.” She gave the stallion a kick. “I was acting as witness to this fool’s deeds. Now look at him. He has failed twice already and you do not get a third chance.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“He hunted a chimera and failed,” Glimmer explained wearily. “His second hunt ended when he drew a blade against an ally. As he has failed the rite, as dictated by our laws he will become a farmer rather than a warrior.”

“And if he’d manage to kill me he’d be a warrior?” I shrugged the basket into a more comfortable position on my back. “Guess I messed his plans up then.”

Glimmer snorted loudly, “Fools do not live long as warriors. You have helped him live a long life.” She leaned forward and smirked, “Sweet flanks.”

I shook my head, smiling at my friend’s cheeky wink. “Looks like I’m not the only one who hasn’t changed.”

“And why should I?” Glimmer asked with an expression of feigned shock. “Here you are in my world, casually collecting wood in the forest and displaying your rump for all to see. For shame, Lord Fairlight!”

“Oh, stop it!” I laughed. “Anyway, why don’t you come back to Briar’s hut and-”

“Briar?” Glimmer’s smile faded from her eyes like morning dew beneath the blazing sun. “The seer?” She reached towards me and grabbed me in a surprisingly tight grip, “You aren’t staying there are you? Tell me you aren’t staying with her!”

“Glimmer, bloody hell! Ease off will you!” I shook myself loose, noting her huff of annoyance. “Briar saved my life. Her warriors found me in the woods after a manticore had used me as a chew toy and dropped me off at her home.”

“As a sacrifice!” Glimmer’s eyes stared into mine, “They don’t bring equestrians to the seer for a chat, you idiot!”

“Oh for the goddess’s sake…” I sighed and jerked my head in the direction of the hut. “She took me in, tended my wounds, and cared for both of us. And I can honestly say there has been a distinct lack of sacrificing going on.”

“Fairlight, look, I can’t explain here. We’ll have to-” Glimmer froze, her eyes staring past me to something crunching across the forest floor, and coming closer by the second.

“Ah, here you are. I wondered where you wandered off to.” Briar tossed a piece of wood into my basket and looked down at the prostrate form of Lance. “It seems you have recovered better than I had hoped, Fairlight.” A small muzzle poked out from under the bundle of cloth on her back and sniffed the air, making Glimmer nicker in surprise. Briar carried on as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “Let us go back to my home and have a look at your wounds. Fooling around like this may have pulled some of the stitching, and if there is one thing I do not like it is repeating myself. In words or deeds.” Briar glanced up at Glimmer and jerked her head towards Lance. “And bring that with you. I don’t like things lying around in my woods. They attract beasts.”

“He’s not dead,” I announced, catching her up.

“If we leave him here he soon will be,” Briar replied without looking back, “and I prefer my sacrifices fresh.”

“Eh?!” My heart leaped into my throat and I side stepped, staring back at Glimmer who was busy heaving the fallen warrior onto her back. “Just a minute now Br-”

“Be quiet and help her,” Briar huffed, “or have your manners deserted you as much as your powers, lord of the wendigo?”

I stood there struck dumb. Briar was hardly one I would describe as having a gentle character, but what she said hit me right where I hadn’t expected it to: my pride. She was right though, I had lost my powers and I was now just a regular old unicorn, even if I was the lord of the four winds, at least in name. Even so, I wasn’t going to stand there and act like a rabbit in the road watching a carriage bearing down on it. Pride, even if it truly did come before the fall, meant something to me. I grit my teeth and helped lifted the still insensible Lance between us. Without another word, our party lurched back to the domed hut in the crystal forest.

From the outside, Briar’s home appeared to be surprisingly large, and not unlike some enormous birds nest that had been tipped upside down. Despite the interior being constructed of a dark rock-like material giving one the impression of being inside a neatly carved cave, the outside was covered in crystal branches, much the same as any of the Beyond tribe’s homes. The haphazard appearance was deceptively strong and clearly proof against the elements. Not that they really had elements here of course, but I hadn’t felt any air flow in her home other than when the door was open. The smoke from the fire still found its way out through the ceiling regardless, and I’d found the hut comfortably light and airy even without windows. Now that was something I didn’t like. Admittedly the windows in my cottage were small, but the building’s orientation was such that it caught the sun’s rays all day long, adding warmth and light to the interior. To have it perpetually lit by lamps such as the homes of the thestrals were, was something I wouldn’t like at all. To a thestral however, it was absolutely perfect.

We carried Lance inside the hut and placed him on the bed where I’d spent my time convalescing under Briar’s care. I could have passed comment about the irony of the situation, but I was more concerned about Shade than coming up with any witticisms right then. The little one was quite at home on Briar’s back, but the way Glimmer was staring at her made my skin tingle. It was difficult to say exactly why. She didn’t look angry, interested, or even disinterested so far as I could tell. No, there was something else there, some sort of hidden emotion in that carefully maintained blank expression that made me feel distinctly uncomfortable. It was as though she were… ‘examining’ her. Meanwhile Briar checked over our injured stallion friend and shook her head, muttering to herself under her breath occasionally. I watched her work with a quiet fascination. There didn’t seem to be any magic at play here, but even so my horn itched faintly, reminding me that there was some form of power being wielded, even if I couldn’t see it directly.

I heard Glimmer move closer, her voice little more than a whisper. “Fairlight?”

“Hmm?”

“What are you doing here?”

I pulled my attention away from Briar and turned to face Glimmer. She was just the same as I remembered her, even without the armour. “I was coming to see you, that’s all. Can’t a fellow call round to see his friend?”

“You came here to see me...” Glimmer closed her eyes and sighed. “You could have written to let me know first, you know. Equestrians aren’t exactly welcome here, Fairlight. It’s a dangerous world for the unwary.”

“I’ve been to the Wither World, Glimmer,” I replied quietly. “How much worse can this realm be?”

“It’s not worse,” the mare replied, “just… different.” She suddenly leaned towards my ear, nearly upsetting the kettle in the process. “Listen here you, I know you’re not here just to see me. There’s something else isn’t there? Something I’m probably not going to like. Am I right?”

A wry smile spread across my face. Rather foolishly I hadn’t really thought all that much about what to say to Glimmer when I finally got to see her. Being so caught up in all the excitement I’d neglected that one, very pertinent, fact. After all, what if she didn’t want the foal? What if thestrals didn’t want to adopt one of these ‘gifts’ from the gods? Briar had already told me that thestrals viewed such children as being ‘different’ from the rest. I mean, look at Shadow for example; there was a mare that was constantly being referred to as ‘incomplete’ all the bloody time, and there was nothing wrong with her! Why the hell did they-

“Fairlight?”

I halted in my mental tracks and closed my eyes. The smell of woodsmoke wreathed my muzzle, the sound of water coming to a boil tickling my ears. All of it was so homely and gentle I wish I could have stayed there in that exact moment, surrounded by a world of peaceful tranquillity. Some hope! I took a deep breath, “Glimmer, I need to ask for your help with something.”

“My help?” Glimmer asked curiously. “With what? What have you got yourself into this time?”

Carefully I reached behind us and scooped up the small, bony, leathery object that chattered and clicked sleepily as I brought her up to sit in my lap. “This is Shade,” I said gently, stroking her mane. “She’s a thestral foal.”

“I can see that,” Glimmer rumbled throatily.

“What gave it away?” I grinned, trying to lighten the atmosphere. “The teeth? The wings? The smell of adorable cuteness?” Glimmer’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the tiny bundle in my lap. I noticed her lips quivering, her muscles twitching. “She’s gorgeous!” I said giving Shade’s tummy a tickle. She squeaked adorably, rolling onto her back and kicking with her slender legs. Glimmer however, said nothing. “Do you want to hold her?” I asked.

“NO!” The black coated mare bristled like a scalded cat, her eyes flaring brightly in the strange light of the hut.

What the hell was wrong with her? I tried again, “Glimmer, she doesn’t bite for goodness sake.”

“I don’t care!” Glimmer hissed threateningly. “Keep it away from me!”

“If the girl does not want to hold the child, do not force her,” Briar said as she worked on Lance, her keen hearing doubtless picking up on everything we were saying.

“Oh, for the goddess’s sake,” I grumbled. My friend’s peculiar reaction was starting to annoy me, but at least Shade didn’t seem to mind. She picked herself up and, after giving me a nuzzle, hopped down onto the floor to face Glimmer. The difference in size was ridiculous, it was like a mouse facing down a cat, but Shade didn’t care. She snorted and blew a whuff of smoke from her nose and ruffled her wings.

“Ack!”

“Demon child...” Glimmer hissed, her lips moving to expose her teeth. “There is no place for your kind here.”

“For Luna’s sake she’s a bloody kid, Glimmer!” I snapped. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“She is one of the dark one’s spawn, you ignorant fool!” Glimmer shot to her hooves. “They are the very incarnation of the evil that has plagued our people since the first days. Give her to me and I will take her outside and do what you should have done, Fairlight.”

“Like hell you are!” Cold rage warred with confusion in my soul, but soaring high above it all was my age old companion, anger. From deep inside my soul, a frozen, bitter fury at the world screamed out at the injustice of it all and how somepony I trusted, somepony I called a friend, wanted to take such a gentle life and snuff it out as if it meant nothing at all. Nothing! I already was on my hooves, my voice low and menacing, “You make a move towards her and I’ll...”

“You’ll what?” Glimmer’s glare shifted from Shade to meet my eyes. “Do you think you can challenge me? Do you have the fire within you to stop me?”

“I will if I have to,” I replied levelly. “I won’t have another child killed before me, Glimmer. I lost my wife and daughter to murderers, and I will be damned if I let another be-”

“Be SILENT!” Both Glimmer and I flinched as Briar’s words boomed around the room shaking dust from the ceiling and walls. “I am trying to treat a patient and you are acting like rutting drakes! Take your bitterness outside, both of you, and do not return until I call you. If I decide to call such fools into my home at all.” I moved to collect Shade but Briar’s burning gaze froze me in my tracks. “Leave her here. Shade has an excuse for her behaviour. As adults, you, do not.”

My anger was doused as effectively as having a bucket of ice water dumped over it. Glimmer too I suspected. Thoroughly chastised the two of us stepped out into the fresh air and cool breeze of the forest where I dropped to my haunches and leaned my back against a tree. Glimmer sat nearby, not with her back to me as I’d half expected, but instead facing me. Her expression was one of utter resignation and I echoed those sentiments completely. We’d both acted foolishly, and Briar was right to throw us out. Neither of us had shown any consideration for either Lance or Shade, despite Briar warning me to not push the issue with Glimmer. She had explained to me about the attitude many of her people harboured towards the ‘gifts’ but I’d ploughed ahead regardless, heedless of her teachings. Now, I had hurt a friend, and worse, had nearly come to blows with her. I hung my head in shame.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.

“For what?” Glimmer snorted. “For trying to make me accept the child?”

“No.” I shook my head. “For being wilfully ignorant. For not being understanding or showing you any consideration whatsoever,” I replied. “Briar told me about these so called ‘gift’ foals, and yet all I could think about was… offloading her onto you.”

“Onto me?” Glimmer stared at me in disbelief. “Good gods, Fairlight, you wanted me to adopt that… that foal?”

“I didn’t know what else to do with her,” I confessed pathetically. “We found her in the mortal world and they wanted me to kill her, Glimmer. For Luna’s sake, how can anypony kill a child?”

“Who wanted you to kill her?” Glimmer was sat upright now, giving me her full attention. “I think you had better start at the beginning, Fairlight, because I haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about.”

And so, once more, I found myself explaining the story of how Shade had come to me and how we had arrived in the thestral realm. Throughout it all Glimmer stayed silent, taking it all in until I came to the end of my tale. She leaned back and stared up at the sky.

“I can’t take her in,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

“But why not?” I asked, genuinely perplexed. “She’s such an adorable little thing, and foals are a rarity in your tribe as it is. I thought your people would have been overjoyed to have her.”

Glimmer sighed, “Even if I did want to keep her, foals are born in the Wither World, not here. Gift or no, she cannot stay here.”

“Why not?” I asked.

Movement behind me made us both look round. It was Briar, with Shade trotting along beside her like a well trained puppy. “Because she is alive, Fairlight.” Briar fussed with her mane before facing me, her orange eyes glinting. “The living cannot survive here. If she stays, sooner or later Shade will become one of the dead like the rest of us. She needs to go to the Withers, but as she is one of the gifts, even if you were to take her there the tribes may well complete the task your people asked you to do.”

My ears pricked up. “Take her to the Withers?” I stared down at Shade and into those two deep red fires that gazed back at me full of hope and childish wonder. “Could I do that?”

Briar smiled bitterly, taking a place between us. “I do not know. There may be a way, but what that way could be is shrouded in the mists of the aether. If you had left her in the mortal realm she would have found her own way to the Wither World. By bringing her back to herd with you, you have interrupted that cycle and she has bonded herself to you.”

I reached down and Shade trotted into my outstretched hooves for a cuddle. Damn it all, there had to be something I could do! I couldn’t just let her die, and what was worse was that I had been instrumental in creating this situation myself. If I had left her in the mortal realm as Briar said, she would have eventually found her way to the Withers on her own. I had, no matter how unwittingly, put this tiny life in peril. I closed my eyes and felt that horrible pit of realisation swallow me up. I couldn’t just let her die! I… Hang on... The portal room! If there was some way I could get in there, grab the co-ordinates for the Beyond tribe’s village, then I could get her home! Damn it, it had to be worth a shot, even if Glimmer was doubtful.

“Glimmer, you know that Lady Shadow was one of the gifts, don’t you?” I asked.

Glimmer’s eyes never left Shade, watching her as if she were about to leap at her at any moment.

“Glimmer?”

The black mare snorted and faced me, but never quite took her full attention away from Shade. “Lady Shadow is one of the… ‘gifts’, as you call them.”

“What would you call them?” I asked asininely. “Demons?”

Glimmer snorted irritably, “You don’t understand, you’re not one of the people.”

“Don’t I?” I tried to keep my voice calm, but it was a real struggle. “You helped me to save one of the people from being married off to a real monster. A thestral, I might add, who happened to also be one of these very same ‘demons’ you seem to be so concerned about. What difference is there? Am I missing something here?”

“Lady Shadow is one of the duchess’s daughters,” Glimmer said levelly.

“So she wasn’t a natural child of the duke and duchess.” I nodded my understanding, “But Glimmer, don’t you find it a little hypocritical to call Shade here a demon when Shadow came to your people in the same manner?”

Glimmer said nothing.

Briar came to the rescue, “The ruling families of the tribes command utter obedience, Fairlight. What they say is law, and if they decided to adopt this ‘Lady Shadow’, then the tribe would be compelled to accept her as one of their own.”

“And if not she’d be killed, right?” I could feel that small ball of anger flaring within me once more.

“It is our way,” Briar answered.

“Then I’m sorry to say your ‘way’ is a load of bollocks, Briar!” My fur bristled with my rising sense of injustice of it all. “I’m sorry ladies, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to stand aside while a foal is condemned to death just for the crime of existence.”

“And what do you plan on doing about it then, Lord Fairlight?” Briar asked calmly.

“I’ll tell you what I’m going to do,” I replied. “I’m going to take her home to the Beyond. One way or another, I’ll make them accept her.”

Briar shook her head slowly. “So simple,” she sighed. “But perhaps for you, it truly is.”

“What are talking about?” I asked irritably.

The old thestral chuckled under her breath, shifting her cloak aside as she rose to her hooves. “Come with me. It is time to see whether the mists will reveal their secrets.”

“The mists?” I asked.

Briar smiled. “Come, and you shall see.”

Comments

[RoboRed]

“Oh, she...” I paused. I didn’t want to lie, but I didn’t know a damned thing about her either. “She’s an orphan,” I said. “I’m taking her to my friend Glimmer so she can be brought up amongst her own people.”

“I see...” Glimmer smiled distantly. “So you brought her to the world of the dead to give her a new life?”

You accidentally typed "Glimmer" here when it should be Briar talking.

[Bluespectre]

9461534
Whoops. Thanks, I'll get it sorted now.

[Kiwaiti]

These could grow to enormous sizes, as I had seen when I’d visited the Broken Cliff tribe where Shadow’s sister lived with her husband.

Purple Sands