//------------------------------// // Deep Within Everfree // Story: No Mere Human // by L3thAlPwnE //------------------------------// Rumbling and screeching roused Luna from her slumber. Turning toward the window that overlooked the city of Canterlot, she removed her sleep mask. A flash of blinding light greeted the princess much to her shock, forcing her to close her eyes and shield her face with a lace pillow. A light so intense, so pervasive that Luna felt the heat as it touched her fur through the curtains of her bed. The low and vexatious screeching ascended into a crescendo. Soon the noise stirred into a wild roar, the screech succeeded into the groan of metal. Any idea of the disturbance being a prank from her sister was replaced with shock when Luna teleported herself to the balcony overlooking Canterlot. Looking above toward her moon, she gazed upon the source that caused every light in Canterlot to flicker about. A white hot streak stretching across the sky. Its sheen blocked out the stars as it passed them. Luna had to squint with a hoof protecting her eyes from the object's blinding light to follow the white comet. A duo of Pegasi NightWatch Guards burst into the bedroom with concerned looks. The white coated stallions, clad in grey armor rushed to the side of their ruler. "Your majesty! Are you safe?" asked one worriedly. "What do you make of this, your highness?" asked the other. “Whatever it is, we need to make sure it isn’t dangerous,” replied Luna. Luna lowered her hoof as the mysterious flare passed over the grand capital. She pondered her best course of action before she addressed one of her subordinates. "You there, wake my sister and inform her of the situation, sunrise approaches so it is best we confer with her," commanded Luna. The guard saluted her and dashed off. "And you, are you fast?" she asked the remaining NightWatch guard. "Yes, your majesty!" "Good. Bring another NightWatch Guard with you, and track whatever that light was, Report back to me. Make sure your choice in wingman is just as nimble." The guard bowed, turning to leave the princess's room. Luna fired up the starry aura of her horn, calling on a spell that sent her to the center of the city where ponies old and young were stirred from their sleep. Seeing the princess they gathered around her, understandably grumpy. The people demanded an explanation. "What as that? Did Celestia raise the sun early?" "Are we under attack?" "Is it Aliens?! It was TOTALLY Aliens!" The crowd turned to face the pony that uttered such nonsense. She was a green filly with a white mane, a cutiemark of a UFO displayed proudly on her flank. The poor child’s innocent smile faded as the adults laughed at her. Luna smiled warmly and approached the girl to comfort the filly with a friendly pat on the head. Luna addressed her troubled people. "I have sent scouts to investigate as we speak, but as by the Law of Sunrise, I cannot take major action during the day without permission from Princess Celestia. Once my sister has given me permission, then I can launch a formal investigation beyond what I've done so far. Until then, please calm down and carry on with your morning tasks." Mumbling, the ponies of Canterlot took heed of their princess, opening their stores and running their morning errands while some chose to go back to bed. The last to leave was the filly, disheartened by the lack of support for her theory. "Dangit! It's never aliens!" whined the green filly, kicking the cobblestone beneath her. Luna's smile faded as a look of concern and intrigue replaced it. As Princess of the Night, she had full royal authority when the sun sets. She also wielded a gift that granted her the power to enter the dreams of all who slept under her night sky, so long as they were within Equestrian borders of course. Yet what troubled the princess before she was awakened from a night of her royal duties? A faint glimpse of a dream. In the dream, Luna saw a world without a sun, ashes at her hooves and the heavy burden of isolation and fear. What took away Luna's grin was not that the dream did not belong to an Equestrian. But that it reminded her of the thousand years spent on a barren moon with not a single soul to comfort her. She felt a kindred spirit within the flare. Deep in EverFree, a blackened plume of smoke rose past the treetops. Glowing heat and cinders danced freely, lighting dimly the crater and the foliage that jutted from the scorched earth in an orange light. Entire scores of trees and flora were cleared by the skidding impact. It left a barren trail to the darkened crater where the ominous lights leaked. Not just the light from the sweltering heat and charred trees, but another light. An unnatural, artificial light made from the depths of a large machine crusted in dirt as the construct whirled in the hollow ground. The sound, as if wheels of steel turned in concealment. The stirring frightened off droves of glowing eyes and stirred awake small critters hours shy of their proper waking hour. As dawn approached and the heat quelled under the winds of an approaching rainstorm. A hiss emerged from the pit as Celestia's sun rose. The sound began life slowly, controlled, but loud. As time went on the noise died out, as if losing steam. A clunk of metal and humming emanated from the pit. From the hole, voices echoed from off the hollowed earth as if being trapped in a hallway. "Weevah. . . where ahre we?" echoed the voice of what sounded like a young girl. "This isn't London. . ." "Soil suggests forest biome." said a second, metallic vocalization. A hand reached up from the pit, pulling its owner behind it. A figure stood seven feet tall, clad in a brown, hooded parka . It turned its head observing the surroundings. "Suggestion. Create suitable enclosure," the figure stated calmly to the equally dressed but smaller creature clutching its back like a cherub. "Can I ave' a nap first? I'm rathah tired." the small being asks politely. "Yes. I will construct amenities. You rest." The tall creature settled the smaller one from its back to the soil. It hopped back into the crater with a clang. Weaver pulled itself back from the depths producing a duffle bag, pink and adorned with a white cat head topped by a bow but no mouth. The figure unzipped the bag, handing a blanket and pillow from within it to the small child. "Thank you, Weevah," the tired girl mumbled. Weaver nodded. It rose up to begin construction of their camp. "Weevah, can you watch ovah me?" asked the cloaked child as she tugged on the shroud of her guardian. "Tori. I must create a suitable environment for you to. . ." The child removed her hood revealing underneath a green eyed girl, her face dotted with brown freckles. Her burgundy hair held up in a messy ponytail that sat perched on the side of her head. She stared at the calm-voiced being with puppy dog eyes and genuine fear of the new, foreboding environment. "Please. . . I'm afraid to sleep on me own." The figure knelt down facing the child, gently caressing the side of her cheek in affection. "Your hands arhe cold!" Tori giggled before she climbed into the figure's lap She nestling between its arms. "Can you shine your eyes for me?" Tori asked hopefully. The figure complied. From under hood of its cloak flickered teal came three glowing eyes that soothed the child countless times before. "Night Weevah" she whispered to the figure. "It is morning,” Weaver replied with an unchanged tone from under the hood. It got no reply, the young girl slept soundly within the protective arms of her caretaker. “Tori. Rest. I will wait. Be happy. We have a sun again." the cloaked figure told the child as she slept. It rocked her in its arms as she drifted deeper and deeper into sleep. It awaited for her to rise so she could see the beauty of nature that she was deprived of long ago.