Neither of them said a single word for more than a minute after Twilight said those last words, busy as they were with what was in front of them. It was almost automatic that the two would find themselves in a new analysis in the face of the possible implications of their recent discovery. Or what it really meant to them now.
It was a few feet from the river's edge, but it was well enough embedded in the earth that Twilight wondered what kind of creature could have left such a footprint. And more importantly, that she questioned herself about its possible (enormous) size.
The four claw marks were not quite aligned, only three of them were printed at the front end. The fourth was a single claw impression formed from the back end, opposite to the others. And that really was something quite surprising, and weird.
After a slight clearing of his throat clearing, Spike spoke again.
"Even if it's not entirely clear, I can still tell that's a bit of a big footprint. Don't you think?" he said as he scratched his head with one of his claws, and turned his gaze for the first time since she had arrived.
"I think so, Spike..." Twilight nodded to his comment as she jogged around the recent find, then touched her chin with a hoof and ended up lowering it to touch an area of the earth around her. "And as far as I can tell, it seems that this has been in this place for a long time, or perhaps it is of a recent date, but I doubt that very much. Look here." She then pointed to a specific part at the front end of the footprint, near the edge of one of the claw marks. "The terrain in this place makes it difficult to determine when it was made, but the passage of time could not completely erase it, precisely because of its characteristics."
"Aren't there supposed to be more footprints, too?" asked the dragon, crossing his arms and raising an inquisitive eyebrow. "Why is there only one?"
Twilight put a hoof on her chin, another as she glanced around. There was a hint of concentration in her eyes, which caused a small wrinkled frown to appear on her face; then she ended up cracking a small smile as her eyes drifted beyond the river. Now she just needed to confirm what was on her mind.
Twilight opened the clasp of her cloak and got rid of it, leaving it with Spike, who only gave her a look of understanding at what she planned to do. She spread her wings and soared over the narrow river, her eyes narrowing just a bit to detect what she was looking for more accurately.
Although she knew that the stream of water flowing down the river was a major source of erosion, she could still notice the slight mark in the same shape as the footprint of the bank, lightly impregnated in the earthy bottom.
That made Twilight actually surprised by that fact, as she analyzed various options of possible answers in her mind. She knew it was pretty unlikely that something like that would happen... Unless those marks had been made a long time ago, even before that river came up.
After checking this she took a brief look at the other bank, where the dense forest with those great trees growing almost together, was still in the distance. Twilight went down one more time and landed next to Spike.
"It seem to be still after the river, on the other bank; but time, vegetation, or perhaps both, made it disappear," she answered Spike's question as she adjusted her cloak again. "I must confess that I am a bit surprised that this one has managed to preserve itself so well.
"Now we need to find out who or what did this thing," Spike finally said, before he could hear anything.
They both turned their heads at the same time towards the trees just as the noise of the moving bushes alerted them to Sombra's arrival. Even from that distance, Twilight and Spike could see very well the frown on his face as he walked towards them. She wondered what had bothered him now.
"Just when I thought you couldn't be more reckless, you came," he growled as he assumed his serious countenance again.
Twilight knew full well that he was addressing her, and rolled her eyes slightly when she understood what he meant. What she didn't understand was why it had bothered him.
"I'm sorry, okay?" she replied with a snort. "I won't leave again without a guide, but Spike needed me and I couldn't help but rush to him," she shrugged, but finally looked away a bit more. "Anyway, I apologize for leaving you behind."
Sombra didn't answer and just continued to stare at her with that expression, which made Twilight squirm a bit uncomfortably in place. In the end, he only gave her a slight nod as he reached them.
"Now I want to know what the hell is going on," he spoke again, his face reflecting a bit of that questioning expression that, in spite of everything, Twilight could see underneath all that seriousness. "It'll be dark soon, so the most reasonable thing to do would be to start walking again as soon as possible."
She shrugged, as she turned to the object at hoof.
"Well, you have the option to check it out for yourself," she pointed with a hoof at that large footprint-shaped hole.
He followed her direction and began to approach slowly, in a detour from the back end of that thing. Slowly, he ran a hoof over the edge of the earth as he frowned in an expression Twilight couldn't identify. She wondered for a moment what the meaning of his attitude was, before she spoke to him again.
"It's obviously the engraved footprint of some kind of creature," she clarified as the stallion continued his walk along the edge, then pointed a hoof at the dragon. "Which my companion found here unexpectedly."
"That I had actually come for some water and in the end that trip ended up resulting in this discovery," Spike interjected as he closed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders broadly with a sigh. "And it was just me who did it."
Twilight nodded and cleared her throat slightly. She had to finish informing him of the rest of the situation.
"Even if we don't know what kind of creature it might be, we did realize that these marks were actually left here a long time ago."
"And yet they were made for something almost beyond my comprehension," Sombra replied in a low tone, without taking his eyes off his current target. "A creature that possesses four claws..."
It didn't take long for Twilight's ears to move in his direction as she caught the unusual surprising tone reflected in his voice, even if at that moment his face showed practically nothing to denote that fact, as if it were something normal. The truth is that he was even more serious than usual.
"Sombra?" Twilight turned to get a better look at him, giving him a look that reflected the question at hoof. "Why do you look so... surprised by that fact?"
Sombra hardly paid attention to his question, concentrating entirely on what was in front of him as he muttered to himself.
"Never, in all the long years that I have been in existence, did I imagine that on some other occasion I would see one of these again," he said as he moved a bit further away, and then dropped into a sitting position. "This is incredible, who knew that one day that being passed through here? Luckily it was a long time ago."
"I see this is really important," Twilight said as she moved to stay close to him. Again she wondered, "What kind of creature is it now?"
"Besides being a very big one," Spike commented as he positioned himself next to the alicorn.
Sombra looked away from it to the mare and the dragon, then noticed that they were both waiting for a possible answer from him. He narrowed his eyes slightly before a low growl escaped his throat.
"You must know what it is, for after all it is also in Equestria, here it simply possesses... certain differences," he replied as he got up from the spot to approach both of them. Twilight took a step back with a suspicious expression when she noticed the look of suspicious mockery that was faintly visible on his face. "The easiest clue I can give you is the extra heads it has."
That was all he said and boy did the information have an impact on them. To say that Twilight and Spike's jaw almost dropped in surprise was saying very bit really, or at least until they were able to recover from their initial stupor. They both slowly stepped back and lowered their gazes, while their brains processed the new and recent information provided.
It didn't take her a second to find the being that matched those characteristics, and her eyes widened even wider as she realized it. Twilight gave Spike a brief glance and he returned it to her, realizing that they had both come to the same conclusion. After swallowing very slowly, Twilight let out the words she had inside her. After all, that information had yet to be confirmed.
"Do you mean... that footprint was left long ago by a hydra?" she questioned in a seemingly calm tone, in an attempt to make her voice try to reflect a tranquility she didn't feel anyway. "Is there, then, the clear insinuation that there was one living in the depths of the woods some distant day? Which wouldn't mean that it can still be found in this place!?"
Twilight couldn't stop her voice from rising several octaves at the dangerous significance of the new find, but she quickly came to herself and tried to calm herself, breathing deeply and closing her eyes on the spot. It was good to know that at least it worked.
"I almost can't believe there are more Equestria creatures here," Spike muttered as he patted her on the back.
Instead, Sombra raised only a slight eyebrow, briefly questioning what he had just seen and heard. Not that he cared too much to want to find out, either, but it was still intriguing.
"I see it was almost unnecessary to answer your question."
Twilight stopped what she was doing and immediately opened her eyes to give him a look in which she didn't try hard to hide the sheer annoyance he had caused her to begin to feel, yet she refrained from saying anything she might regret. The alicorn snorted loudly and let a new thought pass.
"Like I can still forget when one almost swallowed me and my friends."
"You see I don't," she replied after getting up from the spot. "Now, could you please explain to us what else this means?"
"It doesn't really mean anything else other than the fact that we're here," he replied, shrugging his shoulders and carefully running his hoof over the uneven ground again. "Maybe one of those will have passed through here someday, but that doesn't mean it's still in this territory.
Twilight breathed only a bit more relief after he mentioned that, and somehow managed to gradually diminish the worry inside her. Spike stepped back slightly to give her a bit more space, and she gave him a grateful smile for that. In the end, her gaze returned to the mark on the earth beside her.
"You also mentioned that the hydras here have other differences from those of Equestria," Twilight emphasized in a clear reference to the unicorn's previous comment, as she gave him a slight glance from her position. "What are those?"
"Besides the four claws on each leg, the most important difference lies in the four heads, though it is not even that much distinction as such," Sombra replied without turning, but soon his tone took on a deeper hue, almost muttering under his breath. "The magic here managed to affect it in some strange way, causing its body to develop a deadly weapon that would give them a chance to survive in its environment..." He turned his head slightly toward them, and both Twilight and Spike had to hold back a shiver at the darkness they could suddenly feel inside his eyes, even though it wasn't directed at them. "Its fangs have a venom that can corrode anything that is unlucky enough to fall into its jaws."
The heavy silence that had hung in the air for a few moments after his explanation was soon broken by a faint whistle from the dragon.
"Luckily it's unlikely we'll meet one of those," he said with a sigh as he adjusted his cloak.
Twilight soon followed suit as she slowly shook her head.
"Birds that resemble cockatrices, hydras. Is there anything else I need to name that is in this place?" she wanted to know as she gestured with her hooves and pursed her lips a bit more. "Manticores, perhaps? Insect bears or perhaps lesser and greater bears? I don't think anything else would surprise me."
Sombra only gave her a brief irritated look, but Twilight ignored him, unwilling to deal with him in those moments while snorting.
"I honestly don't know what to think anymore." She lowered her head, but when her mind lit up with the arrival of another question she raised it again quickly. "Are there dragons too?" she asked with genuine curiosity. "Besides Spike, of course."
"Oh, that would be really interesting," he said with a wave of his claw as he nodded to that option.
The stallion rolled his eyes once more at the attitude of both of them, so he ended up passing by to continue on his way.
"This island is too big for me to possess all the knowledge of what else inhabits it," he answered, glancing over his shoulder at them. "Maybe they will meet and maybe they won't, but there are definitely no dragons."
Spike let out a snort after hearing that, but Twilight let out a slight sigh as they resumed their journey.
The three of them followed their way down the river, hoping that somehow they would be able to find a shelter nearby so that they would not have to spend the night in the open again.
But they quickly realized that it wasn't necessary to go all the way down the river when a marked path opened up just outside the forest. Even though there was nopony around at the time, Twilight and Spike were now quite aware of what that meant.
"If this trail is here, maybe there's a village nearby where we can spend the night," Twilight suggested as she looked both sides of the road. "I wonder now what direction we should take..."
"I really think it wouldn't be bad to spend even one night under a solid roof and not with the stars in the background above your head," said the dragon after crossing his arms.
"Maybe we should continue to follow the path downstream," Twilight suggested, emphasizing with the hoof the fact that it was still very parallel to the newly found trail. "It's very likely that there is a town that is close to it. Truth is something that makes sense."
Spike gave a quick nod to her words, Sombra on the other hoof, just continued with his gaze fixed beyond the path, as if he was observing something that only he could notice. She only wondered for a moment what he was thinking.
Both ponies took to the road as they took the direction they had mapped out with their plan, Spike had to adjust his hood properly as a precaution before getting out and catching up with them. At least he had the valid excuse that those nights always started to get colder than it felt in the daytime hours.
In addition to the fact that he had to hide his appearance as much as possible, and although the fire that dwelt inside him was a constant source of warm and pleasant temperatures, he knew that it was always good to have a bit extra warmth.
Now that night was threatening to fall soon, Twilight and Spike began to wonder how bit life was present in the vicinity, especially pony life. The trail was more desolate than usual, compared to the fact that they occasionally met one or more travelers, though not of their same type. Most of them were just ponies who wanted to get home after their day in different locations.
"I'd like to know why these roads are so deserted compared to others we've taken." Spike touched his chin with a claw and looked back at Twilight.
"Maybe this section isn't very habited," she said, making the same gesture as Spike. "After all, we're practically surrounded by forest, even if it's not too big. Isn't it, Sombra?"
The unicorn turned his head slightly in her direction at the mention of his name, the frown on his face soon puckered again. Pressed for his opinion, he replied only with a slight nod as he returned his gaze to the path in front of them.
Twilight also wrinkled the expression on her face a bit when she couldn't help but notice the fact that he had been quieter than usual since they had hit the road, seemingly completely focused on whatever he was thinking.
Twilight could only concretize thoughts of slight suspicion about it, also from the fact that it wasn't the first time she'd noticed that. Not that she knew that stallion too well to get a better idea, though.
"Looks like that's why, Spike," Twilight replied when she turned her attention back to him.
Spike nodded to her reason as he adjusted one end of his cloak better, Twilight returned her gaze to the road.
It wasn't long into their journey that the silhouette of something tall began to stand out in the distance. Twilight and Spike narrowed their eyes a bit, noticing the figure of some kind of wooden wagon rattling slowly along the way as it was led by somepony they couldn't see.
They both quickly took the lead because of this, though Spike remained behind Twilight at all times. It didn't take long for them to notice an earth mare with gray fur and blue mane pulling at her transport, covered in a worn-out cloak to face the cold, just like them.
The mare was a bit startled when she heard the sound of hooves approaching her, but she soon calmed down somewhat when she turned her head and saw that they were only travelers on the road.
"Excuse me, we didn't mean to scare you," Twilight clarified when she saw the way the mare had tensed up. "We'd just like to ask a question."
The mare visibly relaxed after that, as she cracked a gentle little smile.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you can ask me anything you want."
Twilight gave a mental sigh as she realized that they had at least managed to find a pony willing to help them.
"Thank you," she said, and then asked, "Is there a village nearby where we can spend the night?"
The mare's face wore a thoughtful expression as she lowered her gaze, but it didn't take long for her to raise it when a feeling of compassion for them settled within her. She knew very well how dangerous the nights could be if you didn't find a place to take refuge.
"My village isn't far away, I suppose you can spend the night there," the pony suggested after giving them a friendly smile, though she then gave a look that denoted an implicit warning. "But you'd better be careful, they don't like outsiders very much."
"We'll be very careful," Twilight confirmed as she gave a brief glance at Spike and Sombra, who was standing behind them. "I'm sure..."
She interrupted her words when one of the wagon's wheels hit an obstacle in the road and caused the mare to stop when she felt the slight wobble that her transport suffered. She quickly pulled it out of there.
But that slight accident had caused one of the ropes holding the boxes in place to loosen more than it already was. The difference in level it caused between all the other wheels ended up doing the inevitable.
Twilight moved quickly as soon as several of the boxes made a feint of falling, and that was what would have happened if she hadn't activated her magic in time.
The mare who had been carrying the wagon saw it all first with a look of fear of the possible disaster, which then turned into one of genuine surprise as the pink aura enveloped each object in a floating field and gradually returned it to its original position. In the end, she made a stronger knot this time.
After Twilight had completely put it back in place, she turned her head again as the voice of the mare beside her announced herself in a tone of gratitude.
"Oh dear, I want to thank you, I don't know how I would have managed if I lost all those boxes," the pony said as she gave Twilight a surprised look. "I'm really surprised that you were able to move all that on your own, and without being so exhausted."
"It's really not too much effort for me," Twilight explained with a smile, but then raised an eyebrow slightly as she asked a question, perhaps in an attempt to confirm what she had already suspected as she pointed to the boxes with her hoof. "But is it really strange that I can do that?"
"Given the fact that sometimes it takes several more unicorns to be able to climb them, I could say yes," replied the mare, after resuming her journey. "I think you're a unique pony, I haven't seen many unicorns who can do the same thing you did on their own."
"Maybe it's for something else," Twilight said with a slight shrug.
After that, she followed the mare by her side with Spike. Sombra simply preferred to stay behind them.
The journey to their current destination wasn't as long as Twilight first thought, though that may have been due to the fact that she was spending her time on something else. Specifically, to get conversation with the mare named Sapphire next to her.
It was almost dusk when the road before them finally opened to a new village partially hidden by the forest that surrounded it, but their destination was not to be found within. The gray mare led them to her little home, located at some distance from the others.
Most likely, from the fact that night would soon fall, none of the three saw too many ponies in the vicinity.
Twilight let Spike rest inside the house just because the other mare had allowed it. Sombra ended up going somewhere else. Twilight wondered for a moment what his goal was this time, but it wasn't entirely her business wherever he went as long as he didn't decide to do anything possible harmful anyway.
She continued to help her new hostess with the things she brought in her small means of transportation. And while they were slowly stirring up everything in the wagon, they also went on with their conversation.
"It's really a good thing we were able to find it," Twilight said as she took a look around. "We thought that with so many trees it would be difficult to find a pony location, but in the end the river was a great help."
"Well, maybe it's because there's more to this place than meets the eye." The earth pony sighed slightly. "And yet I'm the only one who can somehow see beyond what's being told."
"Maybe it's because of what you have to do, having the option to see places other than this one," Twilight hinted in reference to what she had told her, the life she had to lead away from her original place. "But I wonder, why does he say that?"
The mare beside her looked away as she cocked her head, as she went on with her work.
"Maybe I never really had a choice," she said after shrugging her shoulders. "But in spite of everything, I can still see that you are a peculiar pony, who likes to acquire knowledge," the mare insinuated (quite rightly) as she looked at her carefully.
Twilight could only crack a nervous smile at that. They both continued to lower the items from the wagon, then left them on the ground next to the pony's hearth, though Twilight managed to finish more quickly thanks to her magic advantage.
"I hope you don't think I'm bothering you or something," Twilight clarified as she finished arranging the boxes. "If you don't want to answer me, it doesn't matter."
The mare gave her a slight glance while emitting a small laugh, then slowly shook her head.
"Don't worry about that, I was like that too... when I was a little younger," replied the mare, her gentle gaze soon turned to one in which a trace of melancholy was visible. "But there has always been no other pony in the village besides me who was interested in knowing the things beyond what is told in the stories to frighten the foals at night, or to put them to sleep, as the case may be."
"Legends?" Twilight focused better after hearing those words.
"Oh, yes of course," she nodded and an unusual glow appeared in her eyes as Twilight began to pay attention to her. "Surely the village you and your traveling companions come from believes in these, the truth is that many do."
Although the mare had affirmed her comment with a calm smile, Twilight couldn't help but express the slight nerves that were running through her at that moment in one of her own that she ended up sketching. Then she put a hoof over the back of her neck and looked away.
"Let's say what, where we come from... we're a bit more open-minded. And we didn't really live in a village."
The earth mare showed a confused expression for a moment, but when she understood what she meant, she opened her eyes a bit wider from the slight surprise she was at learning this new information.
"Don't you know it then?" She knew what she was asking, but she still had to make sure it was the truth.
"Not really," Twilight shrugged. The mare beside her wrinkled the expression on her face a bit more.
"Maybe it's the fact that sometimes we've never been able to see anything beyond our place of origin," The pony began, once more. Twilight frowned slightly, imagining what she meant. "But the truth is that many are also afraid of what they might find."
"And afraid to go through the woods?" Twilight added.
"It's not just that," she replied. "Not only are the roads dangerous, sometimes we prefer to avoid other villages as well. But because we can't avoid exchanging between different places anyway, we try to maintain a good relationship as best we can."
"Is there anything to stop them?" Despite the fact that she didn't like to lie and even less so to a pony who had been so nice to them despite not knowing them, Twilight forced herself to rectify her comment so as not to create unwanted suspicion. "The truth is, we've never seen anything beyond our home, and I don't really know what you mean."
After she said that, the mare smiled again sympathetically. She could see more things because she used to travel, but she knew that some of those who stayed all their lives in their hometowns, it was difficult for them to get more information, unless somepony took them away.
"I can tell you that the interactions between us... sometimes they're not as good as they are. Sometimes arguments break out between the different races, which forces those who are in charge in some way in each place to try to calm them down. After all, we can't allow something like this to happen often, given the fact that each needs the other."
"Maybe that's why I noticed that other ponies we met on our trip just ignore us."
"Apparently these ponies still have deep-seated prejudices inside them, but that doesn't really surprise me much"
"I know it's not ideal, but sometimes they'd rather do that," The mare replied with a sigh. "But even if I have my reservations, too, I'd be willing to give a helmet to anypony who needed it, after all that's how my parents brought me up." She shrugged before continuing with her task. "But there are also other reasons that motivate us to try to maintain a better relationship with each other."
"Because of the consequences that would come otherwise?" Twilight asked out of curiosity. The mare nodded.
"Everypony knows what would happen if it was affected. It may be that it will lead to a bigger conflict, and you know what confrontations bring." She lowered her head, though the alicorn still noticed the strange expression she had shown for a moment. "Plus other things it's best not to think about."
Twilight gave an inquisitive look as she raised an eyebrow. The earth pony looked up again, this time her voice taking on a different hue.
"They say that if the peace remains as stable as possible, we will avoid being punished."
"Punished? By whom?"
"Nopony knows, and nopony has really seen them," She shrugged as she picked up a random branch from the ground and began to draw any kind of meaningless strokes on the ground, distracted. "The only thing the accounts of that say is what they are: creatures of ghostly, icy essence, waiting for its chance to bring the cold winter to the ponies."
The mare gave her a brief glance before continuing.
"But that's not the only danger." Twilight looked in her direction again with an implicit question on her face, though it didn't need to be put into words. "It's always good to stay sheltered when the shadows of night fall, I can assure you that nopony would like otherwise."
Suddenly, she stopped what she was doing after she finished her work. She rose from her seat and turned her head one last time to her.
"If you wish, you can spend it here," she said in a quick sign to her home, while a slightly worried look on her face. "You're not likely to have much luck looking in the rest of the village."
She headed inward after those words, as she left the alicorn alone with her thoughts. Twilight frowned a bit and walked over to the spot where the mare had been sitting.
It may have been just out of curiosity, but that feeling was replaced with a thoughtful expression as she carefully touched the dark earth around the mark. The mark of wavy strokes of some kind of form without volume.
***
While everypony else had already let the fatigue of their journey wash over them, Twilight was still trying to settle into a good position to make the attempt to sleep another sleepless night.
It was a real pity that this place seemed to block any kind of contact with the outside world, even through the dreamscape. Inevitably, it prevented her from accessing a certain princess of the night.
Because of everything her hostess had told her, Twilight knew that this was going to be a difficult night to reconcile. Again and again her mind returned to the thoughts of all these strange tales.
She had quickly deduced the fact that the mare implied that by 'creatures of icy essence' she had been referring to the legends itselves about certain ghostly horses, also when she meant that they were only stalking them. Twilight well knew that according to the legends of her homeland they used to appear when chaos, mistrust, and disharmony spread among the three races. That was why she had understood when the mare explained to her why most ponies preferred to try to find themselves on good terms.
What Twilight later couldn't explain was the fact that even if bad situations happened between them, those creatures would still have the ability to spawn in that place to feed off all that possible chaos. She didn't really know how the strange power around the island influenced that.
She also couldn't explain the fact that they knew the legends about such creatures when they weren't supposed to. Is it possible that the habitants of that place were descendants of equestrian ponies that existed more than a thousand years ago?
For now, she sensed that was the most likely option, even if she didn't yet know how they got there.
Twilight didn't hold back a last yawn as she made the new attempt to find her ideal sleeping position. With one last review of her thoughts, she finally decided to leave it all for the next morning.
But as Twilight tried to fall asleep, something else was waking up.
Deep in a damp lair, one eye opened, and others soon followed, trying to get used to the darkness inside the cavern. Soon, that wich slept found itself awake from its slumber, attracted by the characteristic scent of a particular magical aura.
All it knew at that moment was that it needed to get it.
Its instinct drove what it wanted to do, and its instinct didn't fail it, after all it was the only thing it could follow. However, as at other times, something in dark whispers dictated once again what it should do.
And it had no idea what it was.